Camp Mom: Week 3: America Week

It's the week of Independence Day so we made our these America. It's a funny week because July 4th falls in the middle of the week, but we did what we could do keep busy (or maybe even too busy)

Make it Monday:
We used a dollar tree foam puzzle to make shirts for July 4th. It was so easy to just stamp on what we wanted them to say .

Tasty Tuesday:
We took tortillas and added some applesauce. Then we stuck on blueberries, strawberries, and bananas to make an American Flag .

Wednesday:
Happy Independence Day! We went and saw fireworks and had fun as a family.

Take a Trip Thursday:
We went to story time and picked up some surprises for reaching the Purple Badge from the summer reading program. We returned our America books and picked out books for next week (Dinosaurs!)

Family Friday:
In our books America: The Making of a Nation, it taught us how to make stars the same way Betsy Ross did when she made the American Flag, so we cut some starts from recycled paper, traced them to cardboard, and made some 3D stars.

Be sure to checkout the full Camp Mom Schedule to see all the fun stuff we've done this summer. Eight more weeks left to go!

Watch our week here:

Camp Mom: Week 2: Puppy Week

It's the second week of summer vacation and we're still moving along with our theme weeks. This week was PUPPY WEEK and ended with quite a special surprise. Here's what we did each day for our Theme Activities:

Make it Monday: 

We used some bandanas, fabric glue, and Velcro to make reversible dog bandanas. We found a few different tutorials on YouTube and winged it, using fabric glue instead of sewing. 

Tasty Tuesday:

This week's Tasty Tuesday was for the dogs. We made dog treats with three simple ingredients and some of our star and dog bone cookie cutters.

We combined 1C flour, 1 egg, 1/4C peanut butter, and enough water to work the dough (about 1\8C). Then we baked for 20m at 350F. (We halved this recipe)

Work Out / Water Wednesday: 

I drew out some paw prints and numbered them and added a water full dog bowl at the end. We took turns tossing water balloons and trying to get them into the dog dish from the farthest paw print we could! We called it Dog Dish Splish Splash.

Take a Trip Thursday:

We went to story time at the library and picked out books for next week's theme (America) 

Family Friday:

We took a drive alllllll the way to Pennsylvania to meet a nice family with an even nicer puppy... Then we brought her home with us!!! Surprise! Meet our new Cavalier King Charles puppy, Miss Mae. 

Throughout the week, we also watched Wishbone (yes!!) and The Secret Life of Pets. We colored some dog coloring book pages and made some really cute doggie bags (that we filled with treats for some of our favorite dog friends) Basically, whenever I hear "I'm bored!," I pull up Pinterest and see what we can do around our theme.

See what we have planned all summer long here.

See what we do next week here. 

Camp Mom: Week 1: Space

It's the first week of summer and we decided to kick things off with a Space Week! Here's what we did each day for our Theme Activities:

Make it Monday: 

We used black construction paper with some purple, blue, and white paint to create Space Galaxies. We added the blue and purple right on our paper and used sponge brushes to dab and swirl it around. Then we watered down our white paint and flicked it with a brush to make stars. 

Tasty Tuesday:

We used star cookie cutters to cut tortillas and make tortilla chips (just spray the pan with olive oil and spray your stars and bake at 350F for 12mins) 

Work Out / Water Wednesday: 

We did Cosmic Kids Space Yoga. Then we made the solar system with chalk and had a water sponge toss we called Solar System Splash! 

Take a Trip Thursday:

We went to story time at the library and picked out books for next week's theme (Dogs) 

Family Friday:

We made planet puppets and put on a puppet show. We just drew them on paper and taped them to sticks we had. We used this song and had our planets dance. 

We also watched The Magic School Bus Rides Again: Season 2 Ep 13: "A field trip to the center of the sun takes a dangerous detour when the school's safety-conscious principal Mr. Ruhle tags along."

See what we have planned all summer long here.

See what we do next week here.

You can also watch our week on YouTube

Camp Mom : Weekly Summer Plan

I swear, I'm not trying to win "mom of the year" or anything over here. I'm just trying to survive the 11 loooong weeks of summer. I decided to look up some theme weeks on Pinterest and found this that I used as a guide and tweaked a bit to include special things we have going on during our summer (like doing Ocean week before a planned trip to a beach, or doing a Dog Theme before we go and pick up our new surprise puppy... Eek!!!)

We basically do some morning work after breakfast. Cam does a word problem in his math journal, Car colors in his picture notebook, and Ay does some line tracing. I basically tried to take the morning work that they are used to doing at school and make them do it at home. We also hung a calendar and I made a big deal of wanting to learn how they do calendar time at school. There was a lot of "No, Mom! We have to say the days of the week." or "We need to count how many days until our surprise day!" and I just let them teach ME how school works ;)

After morning work, we read a book together and then I let them have some free time.

Around 10 we do our MORNING CHORES. Which include brushing teeth, getting dressed, making our beds. We don't usually make kid beds during the school year, but they strangely enjoy this... Then Baby A goes down for a nap and the big kids help me put in a load of laundry. Again... They love this. Who knew. The first week I found my self being a bit annoying and thinking "Hurry this up, it takes 10 seconds!!" but then I realized that we have a loooong day, and taking 30 mins to load the washing machine is actually a win.

Then they get some more free time until it's time for lunch. Lunch is going 100000xs smoother because Cor is still packing "school" lunches and the kids are giddy about getting their lunchbox from the fridge and cleaning up "like we do at school!" I tried to make everything a big production, "I never get to see how YOU have lunch at school, so please teach me!" Since they are so close in age, I also like to ask them to teach or show the next youngest how things will be in the grade they just finished, "Cam! Show Car how you do morning work in Kindergarten because he needs to know for next year!"

Then after lunch we do our THEME activity. It doesn't take long, but it gives us something to do.

I'm also loosely trying to keep a weekly schedule with our theme activities;

Make it Monday
Tasty Tuesday
Work Out / Water Wednesday
Take a Trip Thursday (Library Story Time)
Family Friday
Then a special surprise on Saturday if they have a good weekly report card (more on that later)

Then we do our AFTERNOON CHORE, which includes cleaning up one main room of the house (Bathrooms, Bedrooms, Living Room, Kitchen, Dining Room). Again... Letting my kids spray and clean windows or Swiffer the floor makes them way too excited. They do none of this perfectly, but it's killing time!

Then we watch a movie or show (maybe around our theme) and then free play again until 4pm.

Then we all work together (-ish...) to clean up.

I also made a Clip Up Chart that is just like the one Cam had in his class (and Car will have on his class next year). I know Clip Charts aren't everyone's favorite, and I was questionable when Cam's class had one, but ultimately, it's not my classroom and teacher are Gods on Earth and whatever works for them I fully support. So... Since the kids are used to it, I just kept with it (and have the control to give kids opportunities to do good deeds to end on good colors each day)

Every Monday, we draw put 5 boxes on an index card and label them MTWTF. When Dad gets home, they each color in the color they got for the day. If at the end of the week everyone has a good color, we get to do something special and fun (and you probably already have fun things planned... So just use what you're doing as motivation.) Week 1 we went to the movie theater. They also like to add ideas for special surprises, like go to a restaurant, go get ice cream, or go buy something from the dollar store.

So that's the plan. I'm not at all super prepared or organized beyond having Pinterest on my phone, an idea of a theme, and a stack of construction paper and markers.

Here's a running list of our theme weeks:

Week 1: Space
Week 2: Dogs

We've go this. Let's do this, Summer.

End of the Year: Classmate Gifts

We put together a super sweet (see what I did there...) little send off gifts for the boys' classmates this summer.

A pack of Freezy Pops was less than $3 which was more than enough for each of their classes.

Watch us put them together here



Get the free printable HERE.

We also put together some gifts for Ayla's class that you can check out (and get another free printable!) HERE.

2018 Garden Boxes

We are SO excited to have a yard this year to get our planter boxes going. We had a small planter box at our Virginia house and learned a ton. We're excited to have so much more space now and the knowledge to grow even more!

We already had one existing planter box on our property, so we went ahead and built two more out of cedar. You can check out our build here.


The next step was to plan plan plan. We used this website when we made our first planter box in Virginia, so I knew I wanted to adapt the plans again. I decided to take three off my favorite planter box plans and adapt them out to fit our 4x8 sized planter boxes.

We decided to plan the "Fun for Kids," "Mediterranean," and the "Cooks Choice" garden. We doubled and tripled some plants to fit our larger boxes, but we were happy with the different types of vegetables our boxes would hold. Some plants are even put in two or more boxes because I just didn't want to mess with the system from the gardening website plan. Eeek. Each planter box plan on the site also has a handy dandy planting map and planting guide that you can print. I just went and wrote down the sow dates for each plant and compiled a list of dates of when to plant each. We layered each of our planter boxes with a layer cardboard, then peet moss, cow manure, and topped with soil.

I drew out our 4x8 planter boxes and this is how they ended up being spaced.

So we will end up with the following:
16 corn plants
24 peas
48 carrots
3 melons
10 tomato plants
32 beans
4 celery
4 flowers
1 pumpkin
12 cucumber plants
4 patio zucchini plants
4 eggplant plants
6 sweet pepper plants
2 hot pepper plants
27 onions
scallions
radishes
messculin mix
leaf lettuce
swiss chard
spinach
basil
parsley
cilantro
oregano

Because we are on top of our game this year, we were able to plant a ton from seeds and only need to get a few started plants to round out the garden.

Watch our planting adventures.

Vegan Valentine's Day Menu

We typically do a no-spend February and still, Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. Maybe because we don't do the commercial thing, and instead we really focus on telling each other how much we  love one another.

I always make sure to "heart bomb" the kids' beds with reasons we love them. And every year they love hearing the things that make them so special to us (I mean, who doesn't like to hear nice things about themselves!)

Then we feed the kids an easy and early dinner and put them to bed so we can have a fancy, at home meal. Fancy attire required.

This year, Cor put together the menu.


Appetizer
For an appetizer, we had an amazing miso-marinated portobello carpaccio. If you make nothing else, make this. Just do it.

Here's the recipe.

Salad
When the kids crashed our date, all they wanted was to eat parts of this salad. Yum.

Find it here.

Main Dish
The main dish was a Butternut Squash Farinata. Neither of us knows really what that means, except that it was delicious. It reminded us of stuffing and Thanksgiving and all things warm and yummy.

You can find the recipe, here.

Dessert
This thing was fantastic. It was just perfect.

Here's the details.

Want to watch our Valentine's Day Vlog? Check it out here:

Ay's Butterfly Bowling Birthday

Hold up- Didn't I just post a Birthday Blog Post today? What am I doing here posting another one? If you didn't already know, Ay was born one day before Cam's 3rd birthday - making January a fun month of back to back birthdays. We had two birthday parties in one weekend, but it's worth it to make sure everyone has a super special day.

All Ay wanted this year was a "Butterfly Party" and that was easy enough to accomplish. She went with me to Dollar Tree and found some butterfly plates and a butterfly banner. I picked up a cheap pink tablecloth and we were basically set. I got her cute little party napkins on clearance from Target. The party wasn't happening at home, so I (gladly) minimized the crazy that I typically put into parties.

We had her party at a Duckpin Bowling Alley (if you're lucky enough to know what Duckpin is, then you can sit with us ;) If you don't know - it's mini balls and pins. Now you know, and now you can sit with us ;) ) The alley had a Sunday special and is always cool with  crews just showing up, grabbing lanes, and getting their party on. We ordered 2 pizzas and sodas from the alley and had fun watching kids almost break throw balls down the lane.

Her butterfly cupcakes came from Wal-Mart and each had a butterfly ring inside. We got some butterfly and star glow wants at Dollar Tree for the favors. And I ordered her sweet little party dress from here (affiliate).

By far, her favorite part was having everyone sing to her. She giggled when we all sang her name.
You can watch it all below.

Cam's Super Rad SIXTH Birthday

We typically go big for birthdays, but having a kid in Kindergarten put us on a whole other level! Cam decided he wanted to have a Dance Party with a real disco ball, I was happy to make a party where the main activity was just letting kids dance it out. Some affiliate links are included to help you find what we used.

We made some super cute invites from this free download and I ordered a ton of glow sticks from here. I taped a glow stick to each invite and sent them to school in an empty tissue box (I was super paranoid the kid was going to crack them all open while sitting on the bus, but they all survived.)

We ordered some way RAD friendship bracelets and some cool shades to give out as party favors. We still have a bare wall that we covered in neon steamers and filled up the living room with neon  balloons (and that disco light we gave him as his present earlier in the day.)

My FAVORITE part of the party was this polaroid picture frame I made from the Dollar Tree. It was so simple. You can check out how I made it here. After Cam opened each gift, we took a quick photo with the kid who it was from and then used them later as our Thank You cards.

I got the YAY cupcakes from Wal-Mart. Seriously. Wal-Mart. For less than $12 for 24. We also picked up some $5 pizzas and jugs of lemonade and called it done. I think I picked up a box of rainbow goldfish crackers that never even got opened... But food was not the priority of this party. The priority was dancing!

Cam helped make a playlist and we hooked it up to Alexa (I'm convinced he really just wanted an Alexa party, but having her play music was a big hit.)

So, what's on a 6 Year Old's Playlist? Here's what we had for a good 30 mins of music:

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This was one of the most stressful parties to think about planning (um, hello, we had parents drop off and pick up a bunch of kindergartners! eek!), but it turned out so cute and was such a blast. Watch all the fun below:

DIY $5 Wal-Mart Mirror Makeover

I've had this on my to-do list ever since we've moved into our new house. The sellers didn't have my style at all, but they did have a mirror leaning down the end of the hallway that brightened up the space.

I don't have a million dollars for a fancy leaning mirror, nor would I want a million dollar mirror anywhere in my house at my current life situation (hello, breakable items at kid level... I'm smarter than that.)

I went to Wal-Mart and picked up this mirror for $5.88. I won't lie, it's not the best mirror on the planet- it kind of shifts and bends and gives a slight funhouse mirror vibe- but it reflects light down a hallway and that's all I needed. Sold.

They also have a "high end" $15 mirror if you want to live life like the rich and famous, however I'm not sure if the process of removing the frame would be similar to what we did or not (but I image so...)

So this is what we did.

We used a box cutter to remove the backing from the mirror. The backing is a thick cardstock type paper. Just cut around the edge and it's fairly easy to rip off. It just takes some time. Do not stick your box cutter anywhere other than the edge near the frame. If you scratch the backing of the mirror, it's going to scratch off the reflective surface and put a scratch on the mirror part of the mirror.... I just said mirror a whole lot of times but I'm hoping that made some sort of sense.

Use the box cutter to then cut down and horizontally into the adhesive attaching the frame to the mirror. It's okay to cut into the actual frame of the mirror too. You won't be keeping it (but your 4 year old will probably want it to do some sort of craft with... Heads up.) Pull up the adhesive and your good. Again, this looks way easier with YouTube magic. It takes some time, but it will come off.

Use a screwdriver to twist the corners and pop the staples holding the corners together. Again, this isn't too hard because we don't really care about what we do to the actual frame of the mirror.

Once you have your mirror free from the frame, measure in a set amount all around the edge. The more you measure in, the less mirror you will see. We measured 1cm and used a washable marker and our wood edge to mark some straight lines.

Once we had our lines, we knew just how long we needed to cut our reclaimed fence posts. We just measured the lines and miter cut them.

We used wood glue and our staple gun to hold the frame together. Having the whole thing flipped over, we carefully set our mirror on top of the frame. We went around the edge with a bead of liquid nails. We added more liquid nails onto the frame. We cut out a piece of plywood slightly smaller than our frame and placed that on top of the whole thing. We then went around again with our staple gun and stapled the backing into place. We also ended up using our nail gun (when we ran out of staples). Just be sure to nail or staple as far away from the mirror as possible and with a little pressure as possible. To much pressure or too close to the mirror could both add stress and break your mirror.

Once we had it all stapled/nailed into place, we added some weight to the backboard and let it sit over night. The next morning it was dried and ready to be placed.

I'm pretty excited about it. Even if I'll have to clean it daily and make sure kids don't crash into it, it's still a perfect addition to add some light into our tiny hallway.

Watch the whole build here.

How to Kill Time on a Snow Day

If you got hit by the Bomb Cyclone like we dod, chances are your kids had a few extra days off school. I'm all for snow days, they just went back to school on Tuesday from winter break and then were off Thursday, Friday, and the following Tuesday!

Here's a few things we did to past the time.

1. Legos
2. Play doh
3. Popcorn
4. Movie (or 5?)
6. Outside play/ build a snowman
7. Lunch time picnic
8. Color
9. Board games (I'm really over you, Soggy Doggy...)
10. Cheerio necklaces

Bonus: Find a surprise. I happened to have a few bonus chap sticks. Got a random box of snacks? That works too. Surprises are fun for everyone.

If want to watch one of our snow days, check out our video.