Place Mats

So one of Preston and I's goals for 2010 is to be more intentional about teaching Grace and Fisher about helping out around the house and the importance of everyone doing their part. One of the things that we both thought would be a great "chore" for them was to learn how to set the table and then at the end of dinner we have started letting one of them take all of the plates and put them into the sink. It has been very cute to watch them serve each other and to get excited about helping out. We were having trouble getting them to set the table correctly, so...

I came up with these place mats that are super cute, and help them to know where everything goes. Each one of us has our own so they know where the big plates go and where their cups and stuff go. It still blows my mind that I have kids old enough to start helping out around the house but I am excited to start imparting in them that a heart of service is a great virtue.




All I did to make the mats was cut out all the shape from scrapbooking paper, and then the names I made on my Cricut. I placed to pieces of construction paper and glued everything into place. Then I used my stamps to label everything and added the bible verse at the bottom. After that, I just used contact paper to cover each side...pretty simple and the possibilities are endless!

I am thinking that a really fun project for the kids and I would be to start making some for each season or holiday, or special occasions.

Christmas Cards

Hey Everyone...
As you know the holidays are here and if you have not already gotten your Christmas cards made, I would love to help you out...
Here are some of the ones I have been working on:








If there is anything else you like, I can figure it out...

The Creative Party Place!!

So I found this new website that has really awesome ideas for parties...you should totally check it out. I submitted my lingerie party to be featured on the website and they put it on there...you can look at it here...

So Proud!

I am so happy right now, as a mom who LOVES art and crafts and everything hands on...this makes my heart so happy. I was making dinner and Grace was coloring, which usually entails shapes, lines, scribbles, the usual...BUT today she came up to me in the kitchen and said, "mom, look daddy!" Expecting a collection of scribbles I looked and saw this...the first drawing of Grace's that actually looked like what she said it was!!! And it was a person...with arms and legs and of course a pretty smile! All at the age of 3...so proud. This one is for sure going straight to the fridge!!! You know what they say..."like mother like daughter..."

Amanda's Lingerie Shower!!

I had the honor of co-hosting my sweet friend Amanda's lingerie shower. I had the most fun time making decorations and putting it together with Emily! We played lots of fun games and Amanda got a bunch of fun goodies!

Lots of candles and you can never go wrong with labels!!

A handmade sign to add to the feeling of the night...

This lingerie garland greeted the guests in the foyer!

These were the lingerie cookies that had cute little tags that say "Love" on them...

Bride to be chair

The mantle with garland and brown bags that I decorated with cute lingerie and candles, along with some brown and blue tulle.

We flanked the drink table with balloons...

I am linking up to

We made it!

Well, we finished our first week of school! Can I just be a proud parent for a second, and just say that I love my daughter so much and I am so proud of her! She did such a great job and she loved every second of one on one time with mom! We completed all of the things that I wanted to with her this week and she blew me away! We did worksheets and crafts and bible stoires and laughed a lot. As I was sitting there with her watching her work on a worksheet I started thinking...Wow, not only are we having fun and learning some stuff I am getting to pour in her encouragement and words of affirmation in a way that would not happen if I had put her in preschool! God you are so good! I mean I was so happy that I was the one who was getting to praise her and watch her learn something new...it is really neat and I am very excited to continue working with her and coming up with some fun field trips and activities for us to do!

My one craft of the week for any of you moms looking for something to do on a rainy day...

The Noah's ark snack:
first I read Grace the story of Noah's ark and then we talked about it while I cut a rectangle out of brown construction paper. I folded up all of the sides and taped them so that it created a little box. Then we got two graham crackers and I let her take buttercream icing and ice both crackers. Lay them down inside the "arc" (brown box) and then take animal crackers and place standing up in the icing. Makes a great little picture of the story and a yummy snack...
I will try and take pics next week of what we do...

New Adventure!

Well, I am really excited right now, as of tomorrow Grace and I are going to start doing our own pre-school at home! This all came to fruition because of our jobless status. I was going to enroll her into 2 day preschool here in Columbus, but A. it's expensive and B. we are going to moving soon, so I did not want to start her and then just pull her out.
So here we are...
A couple of months ago I had bought some great teaching tools from Lakeshore Learning Center, which by the way if you like school supplies this place is heaven! I had a blast looking through all of the different curriculum. I found a couple of books that I would highly reccomend:
1. Summer Bridge Activities Pre-K- it has a front and back worksheet for each day that teaches them writing skills and math skills

2. Instant Bible Lessons for toddlers- this book is one of my favs, it has a bible lesson and verse for each week and then about 4 avtivities to do about that lesson

3. Letter of the week Book 1- has like 6 activities for each letter, Great and very creative!

4. Big book of Monthly arts and crafts- it has like 10 crafts for each month that goes with all of the holidays for that month, it is really cool and just fun to have around for a rainy day!

You could for sure do it without all of these but they are some great resources. Lakeshore has a ton of books and lots of fun games and toys!

Anyway, so I went and got a weekly planner and set down tonight and figured out a plan....
we are going to do our memory verse first and then the bible lesson with one activity, our worksheet, have a quick snack and then do our letter of the week activity. After that I bought a really cool Animal book that has a ton of facts and questions so we are going to just go really slow through that. I hope to figure out some cool little field trips to add in there and I am really just going to make it fun and an intentional opportunity for me to pour into Grace and Fisher. I think we are going to try and do 3 times a week from 10-12. I am hoping that Fisher will just kind of go along and play with us and maybe learn a little also.

I honestly can not believe that Grace is getting old enough for me to even be in this place, but I am really excited and am just going to go with it. I would love your prayers and I will keep you guys updated... if you have any questions let me know!