Dr. Seuss decorations

The past week we have been turning our house into a Dr. Seuss world.  Dr.  Seuss's birthday is March 2nd so I thought it would be fun to decorate our house in a Seuss theme, read lots of his books and do school work based on his books.  

So welcome to our Jungle of Nool!!!  The first thing I did was find two Seuss printable's, printed them and put them into black frames and placed them on our book shelf that hangs over our cozy corner reading nook.  

 

On another book shelf we brought out all our Dr. Seuss books and the Truffula trees that we made last year.  

For the table the kids have a large Seuss puzzle that they made on the table and we put our plastic table cloth over it.

I thought it looked a little bland like this so I bought a bright green table cloth to put under the puzzle.  Puzzles are a great way to decorate the table.  We do one at Christmas as well and use a large plastic table cloth purchased from Fabric Ville to protect it.

Using my Cricut (Basic George) I cut out the alphabet in different colours and sizes to replace my regular banner that hangs over this window. 

Now here is a fun project we spent a whole school morning doing.  I drew out the tops and bottoms of the Truffula trees and traced them in black sharpie.  Then I let Jaelyn (in her pretty paint clothes!)  paint them up.  It didn't matter if she went outside the lines or not cause I was going to cut them out anyways. 

It was such a beautiful sunny day that they dried really quickly so we were able to paint, cut and tape them up to the walls all before lunch time. 

Purple Truffula

Here are two of our beautiful trees surrounding our kitchen table. 

These next two guys are my favorite!!  My husband is so talented he drew these fish for me.  One that is sitting in a "pot" from the cat and the hat. 

And the other is the glad fish from One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish.   I like Micah's idea to put him on top of the "pool" to look like he is jumping out. 

And that spring time banner that hung over the window is now hanging between my kitchen and living room.

Today is party day and here is what our house now looks like!  I will be writing post on how to make the "pool" which will be our photo booth back drop, the photo booth props and the post note game we have been playing. 

We sure have jumped into the Seuss theme around here.  Since we homeschool this is our class room so that is what its decorated like.  Look for more post on the fun games, snacks and books we have been reading.

Mom Journal

Last year I attended a moms small group during the mornings and the leader gave us these beautiful journals to take notes in of the study we were doing.  She also encouraged us to write prayers for our children, what we might be struggling with as moms and scripture to pray over them. I had been thinking about doing this so I was soooo excited to come home and get started.  Frist I used our Christmas card from the year before (2011) and glued it in the front of the book.  Picture help to have a visual of who you are praying for and then I always have a current family photo on hand to show people :P

The very first page of the book I wrote out the scripture that God has spoken over me and my children. Psalms 127:3-5.  This is a verse I say daily especially during those hard days when the kids seem to be anything but a blessing :P

During our times of meeting we had some really great teaching.  One that I wrote out was 10 character traits for parents.   1. Affirming 2. Patient 3. Celebratory 4. Visionary 5. Prayerful 6. Authentic 7. Connected 8. Attentive 9. Comforting 10. Insightful

After writing them down I attached one of my favorite pictures of me with the kids.  The greatest thing about the mom journal is that I carry it with me everywhere I go.  That way when I am waiting for appointments I can open it up, write something in it or pray something that I have written down...like these parenting traits; asking God to help me be this kind of mama. 

Some pages are filled with specific things to pray for the kids well other pages have parenting quotes, encouraging stories, photos of me with the kids, teachings or advice I have received from another mama. Another list I have written out is the Character Qualities that we study in school (homeschool that is).  We choose 2 a month to study and try to be like! 

This year my book is still going strong so I took our Christmas card and glued it onto the page to show my new year!  This year our small group decided to read the book One Thousand Gifts.  It has been such a blessing to read this book so the next half of my book has been dedicated to writing down my blessings every day.  So far 2 months in I am about 150 gifts.  I think if I keep it up I will hit One thousand by the end of the year or summer :P 

Durning the days while I am home the book sits open on the counter so I can record blessings as they happen. Here are a few from my list: 

4.  Jaelyn cuddled into me snoring away

8.  Perfectly falling snow and no place to go

9.  Godly friends to spend late night laughs and sliders with

10. Elderly married couple hands in the air worshipping Jesus together

19. Giant boxes and creative minds

20. Easy clean up of parchment paper

41. Strong arms wrapped around my waist as I cook supper

50. Abrahams jolly smile that lights up any room

65. Pink clouds

87. Oatmeal on a cold winter morning

100.  Walking into a house filled with the aroma of fresh baked cookies.

My mom journal has been a blessing in my life.  I have been able to pour out my heart for my children in it and by carrying it around with me I am intentional about looking through it and praying for each one of my children as well as for me as a stay at home mama.  I know some days are not as easy as other days but this is my calling and remembering that and who I am to Jesus makes a BIG difference in how things run in this home.

Butter Pecan Cake

Today I want to share with you readers one of the yummiest easiest cakes to make.  Its one of those cakes you can whip together in a hurry as long as you have the ingredients on hand.  In my pantry I have a stash of ingredients on hand to make some of easy desserts and treats for those just in case moments. 

On Jan 20th we had one of those just in case moments when our sweet little boy decided to ask Jesus into his heart.  I knew it was a special moment for him and to celebrate we invited some family members over to celebrate with a cake!

To make this cake you will need
1 box of pecan cake mix (and the ingredients needed to make this usually eggs and oil)
1 container of whipping cream
Score pieces

Simply follow the directions on the cake box and baking accordingly.  While the cake is baking whip up some whipping cream.  Once the cake has cooled put your first cake on your serving dish and spread with whipping cream and sprinkle score pieces onto it. Than add your second cake and frost the entire cake with the cream.  Sprinkle the top of the cake with more score pieces.  Pretty simple eh?

Love Day Restaurant

We started off our LOVE day celebrations by baking a batch of these delicious brownies together.  Even though it takes a little extra patience and time when cooking with kids I do love it.  And of course they love "helping" with the clean up. 

I got a new brownie pan for Christmas that makes 12 individual brownies that I tried.  It worked great.  I do have a new love for parchment paper so I did cute out little squares to fit into each hole so the clean would be easier.   You could probably spray it with pam or something like that but I didn't have any.

While Abraham was napping Jaelyn helped me get out the supplies for making up our restaurant sign and the menu.  I love using these plastic dollar store picture frames for this kind of stuff and for my most trusted recipe holder.  

 We started the restaurant tradition last year as we tried to make valentines a special day not just for daddy and mommy but the whole family.  This year the kids where excited about getting dressed up for our romantic supper together.

Eben's job is to set the table and he did a great job making sure our names went were we all sit.  He loves playing Sonic the video game and that is where all our names came from. 

When daddy got home we welcomed him into our restaurant. 

Trying to get a family photo is always a challenge with 3 small ones.  We couldn't get them to all look in the same direction or smile at the same time....but we discovered that cheering for brownies did the trick.  Good thing we took the picture before we ate the delicious warm brownies with melted ice cream, chocolate sauce, score pieces and M&M's.  I guess I was enjoying my dessert too much to take any pictures of those! 

The best part of our night was opening up our love boxes from each other.  I loved seeing Eben so happy to show us what he wrote about us! 

Valentines Monster Boxes

 

Yesterday we had our homeschooling valentines party.  It was an afternoon filled with LOTS of fun.  One of the events we did was create a place to put our valentines.  I love the Monster box idea!!!  Each child was asked to bring in a empty kleenex box.   To create their creation there was pink or blue tissue paper, lots of glue, foam stickers for eyes, googley eyes, glitter and funky scissors for making teeth shapes if they wanted to. 

Every monster was so creativity done!  I loved seeing all the different ways the boys and girls created their valentines box. 

When they were all finished they went around filling up the boxes with the valentines they had brought. 

 Now this little critter has become our kitchen table center piece!!!  I love it.