Weekly Update 3-6 through 3-20-11

Oh heavens I missed blogging another week...which just means more pictures this week! But I guess if all I ever get behind is two weeks that's not too bad considering my goal is only to blog once a week!

We have had LOTS going on over the past two weeks. Good things! We have had fun with school projects, holiday events and baby shower planning! Luckily it hasn't really been stressful, we have tried to keep things easy so I'm not too overworked...but I kinda pushed it this week. I guess you can read more about that in the baby shower post below!

I am less than 3 weeks now until due date and I'm getting anxious! It's hard because I want her here now, but at the same time I want her to wait at least just one more week so I can get a few more things done! Of course it's completely out of my hands and we'll find out when it happens!

Solar System Home school project

First I had to post this picture. I don't bake, not much anyway. It's not really something I love to do and the only way I do love it, is if I'm creating something CUTE out of those baked goods. For a relief Society activity we were supposed to bring our FAVORITE thing to eat or cook. Well since I didn't really have a favorite since I don't really like cooking/baking I decided I would throw in something I DO like. Paper crafting! I always see the cute cupcake toppers that people make and decided to try my hand at it. Luckily I just happened to have downloaded and kept these little toppers. Perfect!



For school we are studying the Solar System and outerspace. Our first project is the solar system and it's been really fun. Each day we take a Rocket ride to our destination (starting with the sun) and then we learn about that place. Once we are done learning about it we get to create that planet/sun/moon. When we are done creating them then we will hang up the whole thing. And then we'll move onto the stars and constellations!

Our Sun is made of a $ bouncy ball that we decoupaged yellow and orange tissue paper all over.



 

 

Next was Mercury. Since it's so small we just used modeling clay to make circles and then the kids created the craters all over them. It takes a couple of days for the clay to dry so we didn't get to paint it until later.



 

 
We have since painted mercury, finished venus and earth, and started on Mars. It's been really fun to not only learn about all the planets, but come up with creative ways to make them! I can't wait to get them all finished and hanging up together! I knew it might take 3 weeks to complete so we just have to be patient! When it's all done of course we'll take pictures of the finished models, but in the mean time most of the pictures will just be of the process.

Mardi Gras Home School activities

We do not by any means 'celebrate' Mardi Gras, but for school, it's something exciting and different that we can have fun with!

The week before Maliyah's friend had her tonsils out and we invited her to join us for school this day. The kids thought it was the coolest thing to have someone new doing school with us.

I found Gold and Green Hula hoops at the $ store that I got for each child and also some Mardi Gras necklaces.

I printed off some coloring pages and the girls got REALLY Creative with their coloring.

 

 

Since Raegan couldn't eat anything solid it was a little harder coming up with a snack that was purple, green, and yellow...but we got thinking and decided to do colorful smoothies!

The green is Lemonade flavor with green kool-aid packet to add color.
The Yellow was Lemonade with Frozen Bananas
and the Purple is Grape with Frozen Cherries.



I just happened to have straws in each color (thank you Ikea) and for Raegan since she can't use straws I luckily had baby spoons in each color! Not that it was necessary...but oh so fun!

 

Jayden figured out how to get all three going at once!



 

St Patricks Day...Baby Shower!

Wednesday and Thursday were FULL days! Wednesday I had a friend over to make a Diaper cake with me, then Maliyah and Kyson helped me lots getting read for the baby shower. In fact Maliyah stuck with me for 3 hours in the evening, cricut cutting, stamping and gluing to make cup cake toppers and new water bottle wrappers. She is a die hard and LOVES doing this kind of stuff!

So with that being said...Thursday was just as fun for her! We had our friends over in the morning to not only do a little crafting for the baby shower, but to also have some St Patty's Day fun! The kids really were super helpful. It's great how much they can help with when you teach them and let them try! We got LOTS of paper flowers made (just like the ones we made for Raegan the previous week), and then they helped us with a scallop paper garland. (idea found here)

Kids St Patty's Breakfast! Green milk(although it doesn't really look green in the green bowl!) and rainbow cereal.





Maliyah's 'rainbow' hairdo.



Last year I got these cute glasses on sale at Big Lots. The kids call them their spy glasses.







Little goodies for the kids..I was happy to find these little paper boxes in my St Patty's Bucket (that I pulled out the night before!) filled with skittles and Rolo's.



GREEN cupcakes! (I've been making a lot of cupcakes lately!)



Maliyah really was a great help with all this stuff. Other than the cutting the paper from the circut, inking the edges of some paper, and gluing the bows on...Maliyah did the water bottles. She also did all the stamping and gluing for the cup cake toppers. She was so cute the whole night saying things like 'these are so cute mom! Where do you think of this stuff?'
Good thing she doesn't know what a copy cat I really am!

 



 

This was the sign in table at the baby shower. We had everybody write their name and address on an envelope (to help in the thank you card process) but then the envelope became their entry to our drawing for door prizes!



Our largest paper flower and the scallop circle garland as mentioned before.

 

More paper flowers (we really did make a lot!) and our baby clothesline! WE did this for my sister-in-laws baby shower a couple years ago and I LOVED it! So yup...we did it again.

 

The food table. I was happy that I had kept this banner from previous baby showers. and then another paper garland we had made like the circle scallop one was below the table in green.



Bethany made the amazing popcorn (it was a HUGE hit) and the rainbow fruit platter. I had seen the idea just days before online and sent her the picture just because I thought it was cute and she made it! SOOOO Cute.

 

Being St Patricks day we threw in a few shamrocks here and there.

 



OKay...so our activity at the shower, instead of cheesy baby shower games, we making bows and jewelry for Abby....or I should say Abby's baby! Abby just has two boys so being her first girl...she needs this stuff! And since that's my specialty...that's what we did! It was really fun, but my favorite part was watching Maliyah. Immediately she started teaching people what to do to make the jewelry and later how to do the flower bows. She is definitely her mothers daughter! She had a blast all night and loved helping Abby with the presents!

 
So....Baby Shower done, a great success and best of all was seeing Abby happy all night! It was a surprise and we pulled it off! I'm glad she and everybody else had fun. I enjoyed the evening. Even the next morning when I woke up unable to move (probably due to exhaustion) I was glad that we did it!

Davis Carnival Birthday Party

This weekend my friend threw a birthday party for her kids turning 8 and 10. Since they were combining they made it a HUGE event! A carnival and they had everything! Sara is known for her fabulous parties and this was another great one!

She had games set up where the kids could win tickets and then a prize booth to redeem those tickets.

Bean Bag Toss



Carnival Paddle Balls they could color and keep of course.



This game made a LOT of noise!



Jewel art and Tattoos





Food galore!



Jaydens fav game - Plink it!






The Prize Booth



  





The cotton Candy had to be the favorite event of all the kids! The previous week we had been at the school's family fun night and I made the kids wait to get their cotton candy. Too long...they ran out! They were talking about the cotton candy at this party for days! They were so excited. (and I find it funny all these pictures of kids with Cotton Candy are NOT mine! lol)

 

 

Santa!



 

Jayden apparently mad about something. He just plopped on the floor and sulked.



SUPER yummy lollipops! My kids were on a sugar high all night! In fact when Maliyah went to redeem her ridiculous amounts of tickets...pretty much all she got was candy!