April Fool's Day menu

On the Menu: Chicken drumsticks, peas & carrots, mashed potatoes, and a cupcake for dessert!

One of my daycare mommas brought this trick in for us today. I was so amazed all day and how fun these were!

Lovin' Lisa Leonard designs

Okay ladies...another sweet giveaway on the market today for Giveaway Wednesday- another Lisa Leonard designs gift certificate. You can head over to The Undomestic Momma to enter to win a $50 gift certificate. Undomestic Momma is the same fun blog where the Top 2 Tuesday fun is! I'm so happy to have recently added it to my subscriber list!

In my last post I showed you some of my favorites (which I don't know how I could ever choose just one) that I want for myself. This one is called the friendship necklace. I have several besties who I would LOVE to give this to BUT... honestly, I tell you what.... If I was to win, I'm getting something for me so, sorry girls! Go enter for yourself!

Top Two Tuesday

I did the Top 2 Tuesday a few weeks ago and then I forgot about it the next couple times! Darn it- and I missed some good ones too!

The Undomestic Momma is asking us today for 2 random things about ourselves.

hmmm... let's see....

1. I have never had a broken bone! As much as I want a cast so bad when I was in elementary and thought it would be so cool, I never had one. (fortunately!) A bad bad sprain when I was a freshman in HS was the closest I have come.

2. One of the many things I have always dreamed of was owning a small children's book store. (Like Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail). I have an addiction to children's books and could spend all day working with them, helping kids find the right books, and doing programs and activities for kids with books!

On the Bookshelf

Last week I finished The Pact by Jodi Picoult. I am a big fan of Jodi Picoult books, even though they are usually so sad. This book made me feel very sad for the young couple in the story. The pressure they are under from their family and the issue of teen suicide. One of the hardest JP books for me to have read. Did like the book, as much as you can say that about a book that makes your heart hurt.

Next up for our MOPS book club is The Glass Castle. I am looking forward to reading this memoir on our upcoming trip to Florida.

What's on your bookshelf?

Ya'll wanna know what I want to win?

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to win a $75 Lisa Leonard gift certificate. Would you? You can enter to win at a new blog discovery MommySnacks.net

Lisa Leonard has the most beautiful personalized jewelry. I have longed for several pieces for a long, long while now. If my hubby read my blog- maybe he would surprise me with a piece someday- but, he doesn't so that just means I need to win one!

Some of my favorites are:

Family Tree

Heart strings

Sweetheart

Family Crest


If I win, I would need help to pick- they are all so awesome!

Roll Call!!!

Do you ever feel like there is no one out there in your blog world? I basically have two or three people who frequently comment but don't know who else reads my posts. I don't think I have a "focus" here- I write about a variety of things. I have two private blogs (one about our family and one about my daycare) that I write on more often. What do you want to see here? If we are friends or I know you and that you are not a creep, let me know and I can send you the private blog invite.

So- if you read this blog... leave me a comment here on this post to let me know that more than Krystal, Naomi, and Hollie read what I post ;) (Not that I don't love them!)

Selah in concert- Angie Smith speaking = Girls Night Fun!

Last Sunday I had another amazing opportunity to see Selah in concert and hear Angie Smith speak in person. One amazing group and one amazing person- wow! There were 7 of us girls from my MOPS group that went and we all had a great time. They all have an amazing voice and Alan sure can play!

Angie is the most inspirational person for me- her faith is so amazing and I wish I could have even half of it.

This video is from October when Avalon and Selah came to LaVista. Don't forget to mute the music on the blog (if there is any currently) and enjoy the last song of the night with Selah and Avalon together.

Easter Crafty fun

I put together a simple Easter party for our MOPS group today. I forgot my camera at home so I only have pictures of some of the finished projects we did.


Easter card station- we have used this a few times over the years at our Easter parties. Kiddos use their finger tip to make prints with ink or finger paint to be the eggs then decorate the rest of the basket.


Tissue paper carrots with paper grass tops


Marbled paper Easter eggs using the shaving cream technique. This was not one of the prettiest ones, but the only one we made it home with. So many people were impressed with this and thought it was so cool- it is SO simple and easy to do and the results are always beautiful! You can click here to see the ones we made for Valentine's Day. I also found some felt crosses to marker color. These had a magnet on the back already and looked like pretty stained glass.

This picture is not nearly as cute as these carrots are. I love this idea from The Moody Fashionista ( a new blog I just subscribed to- check it out!). Kids get so much candy, it is nice to hand out a half-way healthy snack. I plan on making these for the daycare tots for Easter. Her pictures are better and I tried to find green rick rack at our hobby store, but they didn't have any in green so I had to go with a few green and white ribbons. I love how bright her rick rack is on the top of the carrots.

On the Bookshelf

Tonight is our MOPS book club meeting. We have about 6 who attend regularly. We meet once every other month and the hostess gets to choose the book we read to discuss. Our hostess Krytal choose The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. I liked the book, but didn't love it. It wasn't hard for me to get through or anything, just won't be going on my top faves list- (sorry Krystal!)

After I finished reading The Bean Trees last week I needed another book. I had been discussing several Jodi Picoult books with some friends on Sunday and mentioned that I have The Pact at home but have not read it. My friend Christie said it was good so I started in on that.

This one is difficult for me to read, but not because I am not "liking" it. It is about a alleged teen suicide pact between a young couple. It is just making me sad reading it.

I have always enjoyed Jodi Picoult's books- which ones of hers are your favorites? I have a few others in my pile of books that I haven't read yet.

So far I have read: Picture Perfect, My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes, & Change of Heart.

I am also looking forward to her newest book: House Rules

There was a story on Jodi Picoult in our Sunday paper last week. One thing that surprised me was that she says she answers every email or letter she gets from her fans. Maybe I will have to write her sometime and tell her that I enjoy her books!

Celebrating Spring!

All traces of snow are nearly gone and we celebrated the arrival of spring this weekend with a Robin's nest picture. The kids used watercolor paints for the eggs and then glued pieces of twine into a general nest shape that I drew for an outline for them. The preschoolers wrote Happy Spring on the top! I love how one little girl put her eggs on top of the nest like you are looking into it from the top.

In other news.... I made this beach themed cake for the weekend for a Hawaiian themed beach party

Midwest Weather

Great... 64 tomorrow and snow on Friday. Gotta love the midwest. Luckily, we leave for Disney 2 weeks from today!

ugh. boring ol' blog layout

I just wanted to say that I am tired of the look of my blog lately. I have tried several backgrounds for a few days here or there but don't really feel any of them. Does anyone have any suggestions for any sites I might not have heard of to check for some free ones?

USA freezer paper shirt

Our daycare had another little boy turn 5 last week. Last year all of the kids got a dvd for their birthday from me. I have always been stressed in previous years trying to find similar price items that the kids would like, so it works better for me to just pick a theme for the year and stick with it.

B really loves his freezer paper shirts I have made him so I thought it was a good idea. You can see some of those here, here, or here.

At the boys' preschool, they have been making maps and learning about the continents and states. I had given this boy several ideas for what he might want for a shirt but the kids were talking and came back to me with a United States shirt.

Sorry this picture is sideways.... I am having computer issues again!!!

So that is what we did! I also did the cake to match with a quick USA on it.

Little Leprechauns hard at work

Leprechauns love to count their gold, so why not have a golden snack... We used tiny scoops to fill up our Leprechaun pots. If we used the big scoops, it only took 3 scoops...if we used the tiny ones, it took about 16! What a delicious pot of gold! (Pops Cereal & muffin tin liners)


I did this Fruit Loops rainbow a few years ago and loved the way it turned out. Now the little ones get their turn to make a rainbow!

First, I start each row with the correct color and then they finish coloring in the rainbow.


Once it is all colored, I put glue on one row at a time. They do such a good job sorting out the colors that they need. This year I also added the sparkly black felt for the pot and we used dot markers to make the gold coins. I added gold glitter over the coins to make they extra sparkly!



Shamrock Shakers- Each child can cut/ glue on pieces to form a shamrock. We then added stickers and yellow dot markers for the gold coins. Fill with beans or dried pasta and staple shut. An instant instrument!

The Shamrock Shake:
"Hokey-Pokey" tune

You put your shamrock in
You put your shamrock out
You put your shamrock in and you shake it all about.
You do the shamrock circle and you turn yourself around-
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

You shake your shamrock high
You shake your low
You shake your shamrock fast
and then you shake it ssllooww
You do the shamrock circle and you turn yourself around-
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

You shake your shamrock left,
You shake your shamrock right,
You shake your soft, then sake with all your might
You do the shamrock circle and you turn yourself around-
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Omaha Zoo

We have one of the best zoo's around in Omaha. The Henry Doorly Zoo is hard to beat. We have such a fun time everytime we go. The best days are the cool and dreary days of spring and fall because you pretty much have the place to yourself- along with the animals of course! The kids get such good opportunities to look at everything without "big people" in their way and we can take our time and look closer at whatever they are interested in that day.

The rainforest had several babies for us to see...

Rope bridge in the rainforest- The monkeys were so loud this morning! They are always hoopin' and hollarin' in the mornings!

Love hippos!

B always use to call the peacocks "hehocks". Now he has adjusted that word to calling them peahocks... well, is is 1/2 way there!

Letter of the Week J & K

We have been trying to catch up on our letter series. We recently did J for Jewels and K for keys.

Everyone had a neclace of keys to wear on K day!