Valentine's Mailbox - Lego style!

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I thought I'd share with you a Valentine's mailbox that my son and I made last year. He likes Legos, so this seemed appropriate for him and he really liked it! The kids in his class liked it, too. They seemed most impressed with the fact that it was spray painted. Too funny! Anyway, here it is:

We started with a box and small condiment containers. 

We used the containers with their lids on -- having the lids on made it easier to glue onto the box.

We laid out how we wanted them to look first. Then, glued them onto the box. 

I took the box with containers attached outside and spray painted all of it blue. Blue is my son's favorite color, but of course you can buy and use any color you like. Let it dry and voila!! A pretty cool Valentine's Day mailbox for your child to take to school. We also cut a hole for the Valentine's to go in. My daughter also likes Legos, so if she wants one of these this year, she can pick her color. It'll either be pink or purple for her! 

Hope you like it! 

My son's Lego-inspired Party

This post will be short and sweet. I just wanted to show a couple items I put together for my son's Lego party in November. He turned 8. I realize it's getting harder to find themes as they get older.

Instead of having the party at home, he wanted to have it at a local rec center that had swimming and rock climbing. This was the best place because it was reasonably priced and it gave the kids lots to do! We had our own party room, then let the kids loose to enjoy the amenities. Well, we didn't really let them loose. We had some structure. It was rock climbing first, then swimming and then parents took their kids home. I had a clip board with cell numbers for the parents who dropped off their kids. They also signed waivers for the rock climbing. Everything seemed to be covered and my son had a great time!

I can't believe my son is 8!! The time goes faster every year!

Room Mom Reading Series - Book 2

The second book I read to the class was in October, so I picked a Halloween-type read. I chose to read "Room on the Broom" by Julia Donaldson. It is one of my favorites to read because of the rhyme and it's just really cute!

I just found out they made it into an animation. I missed it, but I was able to check out the trailer and you can too.  Check out the trailer here

Before reading the book, I brought a mystery box full of items that were part of the book (a stuffed orange striped cat, a bow, a frog, mini black cauldron, etc). I would pull them out and introduce them to the children. When they would come up in the book, they would shout out, "there's the bow", for example. I think the mystery box helps engage them a little more.

For this book, I planned a "make your own broom and wand" activity. It was very simple. I cut the shapes with a star-shaped punch for the wand and cut paper triangle shapes for the broom and provided popsicle sticks. I had them cut the bristles for the broom so they could at least get some dexterity practice ; ) The idea came to me the night before I was planned to read. I wanted something simple that could be completed in the allotted amount of time and it needed to be related to the book. These served that purpose and the kids liked them!

I brought in goldfish crackers (I think -- it's been a while and I can't remember the salty item) and I made brooms for the sweet. I got the idea for this on Pinterest. They appeared to be simple enough to make, but putting a pretzel stick into a mini reeses cup proved to be a little more challenging than I thought. The cup wanted to crack. Keeping them in their wrappers helped. 

I hope you liked this one! 

Room Mom Reading Series - Book 1

The real reason I started this blog was to share some of the ideas I have as a room parent. I am lucky enough to be a room parent for both of my kids' classes this year.

As a room mom, my responsibilities include planning the holiday parties. I contact the other volunteers for the class and coordinate the holiday parties. I also take charge of purchasing teacher gifts for various occasions, such as Christmas/Winter and Teacher Appreciation/Last Day of school.

Another activity I've always wanted to do is read to the class. I asked my daughter's first grade teacher if I can read to the class twice a month and she agreed.

I've taken it upon myself to call it the "Room Mom Reading Series." It makes me feel more accountable giving it a title. I also plan an activity and snack to go along with it.

The book I chose for my first reading series was Skippy Jon Jones. I choose books based on my own children's reactions to it. They seemed to really like this one -- especially when I throw in my pathetic, yet entertaining Spanish accent.

Here's a pic of the book I read:

For the activity, I handed out Skippy jon Jones coloring sheets. 

For the fun snack, I decorated a juice box with Skippy jon Jones' face (hee hee) and gave them some graham crackers shaped like doggie bones. The kids loved it! I'm also lucky that we don't have any allergies this year. There is one child, but his mother provides extra treats for him so he does not feel left out. 

For the face, I made a 2-inch circle with an image of Skippy jon and used a 2" circle punch to cut out and then used a triangle paper punch for the ears. 

If you haven't read Skippy jon Jones by Judy Schachner, I highly recommend it! 

My Mom and the signs of a heart attack

I just posted details of my parent's 50th anniversary, but I wanted to make a separate post about this. 

The party never happened. 

An hour after finishing with the set up and one half hour before the party was to start, I received a call from my sister to tell me that my Mom had a heart attack. Like I said in an earlier post that life just kind of takes over and we don't have control over much else. At that moment -- all the hours of preparation, anticipation and excitement of celebrating two of my favorite people's long lasting love for each other -- nothing else mattered except for was my Mom going to be alright? 

Thankfully, she had gotten to the ER in time. She had to have one stent put in and now, four months later, she is great. Actually she was doing great a few weeks after the attack, but I'm just now getting back to my blog. 

I'm putting this info out there to let women and loved ones know her signs. She was at the grocery store and started feeling really hot. Her chest had some discomfort right in the center (more the breastbone area), but what bothered her the most was the aching in her jaws. 

She didn't know that jaw aches were a sign of a heart attack. 

I'm assuming a lot of people don't know this, so I'm putting it out there.

She finished her shopping, loaded the groceries in the car, and drove home but not without getting behind a slow-moving truck. I know, I just cringed thinking of the time that was passing before she got help as she told me the story. She even passed a firestation. She wasn't thinking of a heart attack. She was thinking she just wanted to get home. 

Once she got home, she walked into the house and told my Dad that she was not feeling well. He got the groceries out of the car and put them in the kitchen. She went to lay down, but immediately knew that wasn't going to help. She was home about AN HOUR before they went to the ER. Now, I don't recommend anyone doing this, but like I said, she didn't know she was having a heart attack and she wanted to try to make it to the party. I'm so glad she went to the ER instead. One thing better would have been for her to call a squad. They could have administered necessary drugs on the way, but all in all, it worked out the best way it could. She was lucky. Someone was looking out for her. 

She was very lucky to have gotten there in time. She doesn't smoke, doesn't have high blood pressure and leads a pretty wholesome lifestyle with mostly home-cooked meals her entire life. The fact that she is overall healthy probably allowed her to buy more time to get the help she needed.

Her father had heart disease and died of a heart attack. They say it's probably genetic regardless of lifestyle but being healthy helps with recovery and overall amount of damage that could have been caused. I know I need to pay attention to the signs. 

I hope by sharing this story, it will help others to know the signs. Everyone is different so sharing as many different stories as we can will help spread the word and possibly save someone's life. 

Take care out there and be as healthy as you can be!

Parents' 50th wedding anniversary - barn reds and burlap

Another project that kept me busy this summer was the preparation for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary! I grew up on a farm and that's where they still live. They have chickens now and I thought we could use that as our theme.

I had been looking forward to this celebration for a couple of years prior and got started on the decoration ideas last year.

Here are the pics. Be sure to check out the next post for some important information.

I wanted to make it all about them with pictures of them on the food table and on each mason jar I included a tag with their picture which served as the centerpiece on each table. We had battery-powerd tea lights in them. I found the small wooden easels at the $ Tree and thought they came in handy. 

I love striped straws. I used red and white striped straws as well as brown and white striped straws. 

The candy table - I made red and brown chocolate chickens. 

And red and brown number 50 chocolate suckers. 

I placed them on a styrofoam board that I wrapped with burlap ribbon.

I thought placing the chocolate chickens in small crates lined with raffia added a cute farmy touch! 

A sign-in book was included with an early picture of them next to it. 

We had to have some gold in there somewhere so that's what color we used for the cake plates and napkins. 

Here is the cake! This picture was sent to me from the place where we had the cake made. They took my design and really brought my vision to life! I added a small ceramic vintage chicken and rooster on top that I found on Etsy. I don't have a picture of that though. 

Maybe these pictures will give you an idea for throwing a barn/chicken/burlap theme! : )

4th of July Buckets - Target Dollar Spot

Here's a cute idea for July 4th. Little buckets filled with cute items from Target's Dollar Spot!

4th of July Breakfast -- blue and red sugars sprinkled on mini pancakes topped with white chocolate chips! Yum!! My son loved this! They look like mini fireworks! 

Yellow and Gray Baby Shower Onesie design

I was so excited when a local cupcake shop asked me to come up with a baby shower design for their window display.

I thought of using a onesie as the main design and am so excited at how it came together. This was back in July. I was going to display my work at her shop as well, but when school started I decided I needed more time to be a volunteer and room mom at school. It was a lot of fun to do, though! I'd still like to have a party to do once in a while.

So, here is my design in a window!! Can you believe it? I was so excited!

cupcake tags:

more tags:

all the little pieces (water bottle lables, candy wrapper label, cupcake flags and tags, invitations and small cards for food labeling. I also made a banner:

Another view of the window (see banner at top):

a close up of the candy label:

I was so excited to do this project! I hope you like the designs, too! 

6th Birthday Girl Bug Party

Wow! And Happy New Year!!! I hope 2013 is the best yet for everyone!

It has been a long time since I posted on this blog. Life just kind of took over! I'll rewind and share a few of the projects.

First thing I want to share is my daughter's 6th birthday. She loves bugs and I wanted to make it look girly, so to cut the details short, here are the pics!!'

 Here are the invitations. I bought plastic bugs at the $ Tree and spray painted them pink

Small bug catchers for favors filled with bug party blowers, ladybug tattoos and ladybug chocolates. I designed the labels to add to the front of the bug catchers to thank friends for coming to her party:

Another pic of the favors. I hung strips of crepe paper from the kitchen cabinets for a backdrop:

 Saw this idea on pinterest to use 2 plastic table covers. I liked the look of tying the top layer:

I designed labels for the water bottles: 

I opted for a short cut and ordered cupcakes from our local grocery (Meijer). I added my tags with lollipop sticks: 

I also designed a t-shirt iron-on to pull it all together! 

I hope you enjoyed taking a peek at my daughter's party. I had fun putting it together and she had a great time as well! : ) 

There are more projects to share, so stay tuned...

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