A little incentive...

Today was our first official day of school. We actually started a couple of days ago because the kids were anxious for work and I was looking to get ahead for these two crazy-busy days. Monday my life will return to normal, until then....hectic! My friend and fellow homeschool mom, Kristie, posted an idea on facebook yesterday that inspired me. It is a reward system for book reading. Here is our adapted plan: you read a book, you pick a shape and can write your name and the title of the book on it and we will post it on the wall. When you reach "x" amount of books, we will go to the movies or somewhere else fun that is a rare treat (dare I say a visit to the "Big Rat" Chuck E Cheese?". I figured I would start with a back to school theme for a few weeks. The first shapes I picked are buses and apples. This was super simple, I just set my cricut to cut how ever many will fit on the page and then come back and get it when it's done!

The buses did require some work by cutting two different sheets and some glue, but they are so cute that it was worth the effort!

I have a list of all the other shapes I have on cartridges that I think they would like...before long I will get to cut some... pumpkins, leaves, snowmen, gingerbread men, butterflies, seahorses, dragonflies, hearts, stars, dogs, cats, etc! The possibilities are endless! I'm introducing this incentive to them tomorrow so I'll let you know how it goes! =)

Classroom additions

Here is yet another chalkboard project that I quickly made. I needed something to hold paper clips and binder clips on my table.I saw this small white pot on clearance at Target and thought it would be perfect.I used some scrap pieces of vinyl (or you could use tape) to mark off the area you want to paint.

This is the paint I used, from JoAnns.

Here is the finished product.

I saw this flower idea on a blog post about back to school and got these letters for $1 at Wal Mart.

These are the binders I made for the girls, we are so excited to get started!

Inside I divided them by weekdays and put the work we'll need for that day in that pocket. It warmed my heart when I opened Emma's materials and her first book was "Caps for Sale". Emma's kinder teacher read this to them last year on a day I was volunteering. Emma was excited too because she remembered the book.

For the future...

This is just a post that I want my kids and I to be able to read when they are much older (so I don't have to be held accountable to remember). Last night when I was drying Cami's hair, she asked me to turn off the dyer so she could tell me something. She said ," I wish there were no bad things in this world".Which of course, prompted a "awwwww" from mommy. When I asked her "like what?" she said, "like volcanos, and bumblebees, and throwing up." It was so cute how seriously she said it and I don't want to forget.

The other thing I want to remember is that tomorrow is our very first day of homeschooling. I am SO excited and judging from the fact that I'm sitting in the school room with Cami now, they are too! I am so excited to invest this time in my children. Time that I will never get back. It dawned on me yesterday while getting a few school supplies at Target, that this time last year I was a nervous wreck. Emma wasn't nervous at all to start school, but I was. Right now, I would be having back to school jitters of the unknown- meeting a new teacher, staying at school longer than last year, meeting new kids, having lunch at school and recess on the bigger kids playground. It might sound silly, but I am so glad that these are no longer worries to me. Extra bonus: I didn't have to spend a fortune on new clothes like a lot of other people were doing at Target yesterday! Maybe I'm typing this for myself to come and read when I have low-patience days where the last thing I'll feel like doing is teaching. =)

The pop in

Today we were blessed with a "pop in" visit. (Seinfeld fans will appreciate my terminology) Our friends, The Backlunds, (click the link to see better pics of the finished product!!) dropped by to give the girls Back-to-school Survival Kits! These are SO cute that I have to share on here for my non-Visalia friends that wouldn't have seen it on her blog. I couldn't get my camera fast enough, so I have no pictures of how cute they were packaged. This is a picture of the card attached, each item in color was in the bag.

How cute are these ribbons?!

Here is Emma digging into her bag, they loved them! Thanks for the pop in, Backlunds!

Wilderness explorers

Today we took a last little family outing before school starts this week! We brought along Nana of course, and left at 8:30. We packed a cooler full of food for a picnic lunch and headed to the Sierra Nevadas. I can see the mountain range from my house, we don't venture up as much as we'd like....Here are the girls looking for deer out the window for daddy. Bow hunting season starts next week so he was scouting to see where they were. Animal lovers just forget that you read that.

Here's daddy driving WHILE looking for deer. Can you hear me in the background- "keep your eyes on the road!"?

We went to Brandon's favorite spot, parked the car and headed out on our hike. We were probably the only people with long pants on but one time after walking through the woods with Brandon, I got back in the car and noticed a speck of dirt on my jeans. On a hunch, I pinched it between my two thumbnails...it bled! It was a tick, not dirt! So, sweat we did...whatever we have to do to stay tick free!

Brandon had the girls tracking the deer and bear prints in the sand. We actually saw big paws with claws for bears. Yikes! Don't worry, daddy had a rambo blade on his belt in case we actually encountered a bear.

Cami had her favorite snack along for the walk...doritos!

Here's Emma eating pretzels. She must be the only girl that insists on wearing a skirt on top of the pants I made her wear!

Cami loves ANYTHING that is tiny. For years, Brandon has brought her home tiny acorns from the mountain and she carries them around for months. He took her to the tree where he normally picks acorns up for her.

Here's Emma looking for deer through Brandon's range finder.

Daddy and his scouts...

After the hike, we drove down to Hume Lakes picnic area by the lake and had our lunch. Then we waited about 20 minutes for the snack shop to open up so that we could get ice cream.

Emma with Brandon's John Deere hat..haha.

Cami wouldn't keep a straight face if we paid her!

Peaceful Hume Lake.

Thankfully I had swimsuits in the car so the girls could hop in the lake to cool off before we headed home.

We snapped a couple of pics of Kings Canyon on the way out.

We had a wonderful family day!

A home for art.

Whew! I said today was "project day" and I wasn't kidding! This is the last one! I bought this board at JoAnns. It was originally $5.99 but I used a 40% Michaels coupon. =) I also bought a bag of mini clothespins (not the TINY ones, but the small ones) for $2.49.I painted the board using the antique white paint my hubster used yesterday on my other projects.

Here is the dry board. I also cut out "create" with my cricut and vinyl.

Next I centered the vinyl cutout. I didn't do it wrong, the word is supposed to float like that...it's connected. =)

I hot glued some ribbon on the back to hang it up. I also made some muslin and white tulle flowers with buttons for centers.

I hot glued the clothespins along the bottom edge and voila! Now the girls have a place to hang all of their drawings instead of leaving them all over the house! Nice, easy and cheap addition to the play area!

P.S. Trish- This board was inspired by your "doodles and drawings" board. =)

My 10 cents...

My second chalkboard of the day came from an ornate metal frame that I bought for 10 cents at a yard sale. I've had it for a couple of months, it came with no glass, no backing- so I didn't know WHAT I was gonna do with it, I just knew I liked it! Fast forward to today and my almost-full jar of chalkboard paint leftover from the oval chalkboard. Iused the same method for this one, craft knife to cut thick cardboard, 3 coats of paint.

Turned out really cute! And to think that dime could just be wasting away at the bottom of my purse!