Saturday, May 26, 2012

Sing, Sing a Song Saturday

I started six weeks ago doing what I call Sing, Sing a Song Saturday.  I'm going to post one song on Saturdays that the boys or I like. I'll see how long I can keep it up.

The song may be part of a movie, a kid's video or just a song we like. It may or may not include words. I'll try and include why we like it and/or the history of the song/singer.

I've always been a fan of the singer, song writer and piano player Fiona Apple. She's coming out with a new CD this month! She hasn't released a CD for a very long time. I'm super excited.

This is Mica's favorite video. Of course some videos I won't let him watch. I have to pre-screen them. This one is kid friendly.


Just for fun, below is one of her newest songs. The CD hasn't been released yet.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Transfers

I've been working on these transfer techniques at work. They took very little time to make. It probably took more time to edit them down.

If you want to see them, you can view them on my other blog here

You can take printed photos of your children and transfer them to wood blocks or canvas. I thought about doing a series of these. Like I said they are so easy and fun to do.

Text as Image

There's a new site I found that's pretty fun! It's called You Are Words. All you do is download an image. Then you can type in a story, quote, any text really. Only it has to be at least 400 words. I downloaded my 4 year old. Then I put in words he likes to sing, "We all live in a lellow suverine." Now he sings it the right way. Oh well the old way is more cute! I copied and pasted it several times.

Then you can choose the color, contrast and font. Not too much to choose from, but still fun!

Next it's download time, or you can pasted a link to facebook or twitter. I didn't make it too serious. I would have thought more about what to say, so on and so forth. It's still pretty fun!



If you like fonts, go here to win a t-shirt!

Cake or Fruit Pizza?

I can't decide what to make for Isaak and Evan's joint birthday party! I need to decide!

I did decide this, I'm not using a ton of red and/or black food coloring!

Here's a Fruit Pizza I made for some other event:



If I make a Fruit Pizza, I'll put berries in the shape of Spider-Man's face or logo. Blueberries and black berries for the dark parts. Raspberries, strawberries and June berries for the red areas.
Spider-Man Mask for Kids
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SpiderMan
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But...let's just face it kids want CAKE!

I thought about making a round cake. I'd frost it with white cream cheese frosting or blue cream cheese frosting where you can see the sky. It would be pretty cool if I did a gradient! Then the dark buildings that would be standing up vertically around the base of the cake would be chocolate graham crackers with yellow windows pipped on them. On the top of the cake would be a pipped web with a Spider-Man figure at the top.  Maybe 2 Spider-Men at the top for each birthday boy.

I wish they made Spider-Man Little People. They make all the other Super hero's. I know it's a different company that made Spider-man. Some are DC and some are Marvel, right? Super hero's are super hero's to me.

They make Batman. Mica LOVES Batman. Wouldn't a Spider-Man be cute?!
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I need feedback! What do you think? I'm not saying I'll go with what you say (sorry). I just know I might change my mind after shopping.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

1st Grade Blues

Mica finished the big Kindergarten last Friday. His teacher and everyone at school said, "You are all 1st graders now!" Mica got up on Monday was kind of down. He thought he was going to go to first grade. We're like, "NOPE it's summer time kid!" Sometimes parents and teachers just don't always think of the right things to tell their kids.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Their Hairs are Cut

Daddy gave the boys summer hair cuts last night. The boys most certainly look like brothers with their hairs cut the same way.

*Warning Isaak was a complete grump this morning. Taking pictures made his grumpy side even more grumpy.

I wanted to get photos taken regardless. Forget the grumpys. It was Isaak who wanted his hairs cut.




He Won 2nd Place Science Fair

Mica won 2nd place in the Science Fair. The crazy thing about it is that he never said a word about winning to us. He of course came home from the last day of school with papers and more papers. He had so many papers that they would a small suitcase full. Of course he doesn't want to get rid of ANYTHING.


We were going through his papers, Mica told Daddy way after the fact, "By the way I won 2nd place in the Science Fair." He was competing against the whole school! Well almost. I think Kindergarten and 1st grade are optional. Mica's like, "Ya they didn't give me anything except this sheet of paper."

When I asked him about the Science Fair all he told me about was that there was a little girl there that was scared. Mica was trying to console her. He told her that everything would be ok, and that those people that she didn't know were just judges. He told me that those judges stood by his table for awhile. They made his little friend in class scared because she didn't know them. He mentioned nothing about WINNING 2nd place.


He made a Phonograph with Daddy.



Tuesday, May 22, 2012

WW: Mantid {Linky}

On Mother's Day we went over to my parent's house to give my Mom flowers. The boys stood at a bush for awhile checking out the baby Praying Mantis. There were a few on this bush. They were hard to see because they were so little.



Last year I took the below video clip of the Praying Mantis in action. The boys were  fascinated!

Do you think the Praying Mantis is creepy or cool?

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Mother's Day

Last night I met with my Mom (Grandma Spiehs) and sisters (Aunt Terra and Aunt Angela) to celebrate our Mother's Day with our Mom. We usually meet out somewhere to eat and shop for a bit. We had this outing planed before Mother's Day.

We went to an outside a place called Firebirds. I couldn't remember where it was located in the outdoor mall. I'm so bad with directions. I walked the strip front and back and could not find it. Finally when I knew I was close I asked someone. The sad thing is, is that I've been there before. Like I said, I'm BAD with directions! Oh well. I still got there before everyone else. The food was great! Except everything tasted kind of salty. I think it's just because I don't add very much salt to my food in general.

Then we went shopping around. I went into two kids clothing stores that I've never been in before. I've been to both Janie and Jack and Carters online; just not the actual stores. I didn't realize that Janie and Jack is a sister store to Gymboree and Crazy Eight. I liked everything in it, it was just so high priced. Carters was just ok. There was nothing I saw where I was like, "WOW that's cute!" If you are looking for just t-shirts, they are a great store to hit up though.

Usually I shop at Gymboree, Crazy Eight, Target and Kohls for the boys. They seem to have what I like. If you hit Gymboree at the right time, they have great sales! Most people think of Gymboree as being high priced, but I've gotten $6 jeans for Mica and $8 robot pjs for the boys in there.

It was nice walking around with my Mom shopping around. I only ended up buying one thing, but I wasn't out to buy anything. I found army green cargo pants for Mica at the Gap. Straight off the clearance rack for $11. My younger sister Terra says that Gap is cheaper than Gymboree. She must be hitting different sales then I am.

Many people think that malls are passing away. Do you think this is the case? Do you shop online more than in stores? For me it depends. I NEVER buy shoes online. I've made the mistake of buying shoes for the boys and then they are too small by the time they come to us. I also have to try clothes on myself before getting them. I don't like skinny jeans for Mica. He has such little bird legs. Skinny jeans make him look like a stick character. He just looks silly in them.

To end this post...here's a picture of Mica and Isaak on actual Mother's Day. We were at a movie theater. They saw the guns in the entrance. It doesn't matter if the games were running or not. They were excited to blast anything away. They turn anything and everything into a gun! Even Melissa and Doug Ice Cream Cones. This is a part of boys I've slowly had to try and understand. I grew up with sisters and my Mom had all sisters. We pretty much had a girl world before the many boys in the new generation came along. :) I wouldn't trade them for the world. I just wish I could shop for one little girl. So many cute dresses out there!



Sunday, May 20, 2012

Punishment on a Birthday

It was Isaak's birthday yesterday.

In the morning Isaak unwrapped a few gifts from us. His party isn't for another week yet. Yesterday was pretty low key. Mica immediately wanted to play with all of Isaak's toys. Does anyone reading this have any rules about birthdays and siblings? In my book the kid who has a birthday shouldn't have to share for that day. It's their day. Daddy thinks it should be that way for a whole week. We just saw again today how Mica tried to take over Isaak's toys. 

Isaak got a Spider-Man truck, a little boy/puppy set and a game called Lost Puppies. Walgreens had these little tiny puppies that light up, bark and say, "I love you." Two of those 50 cent puppies were his gift toppers. He was excited. Mica immediately wanted to play with Isaak's Spider-Man car, then he wanted to take the little boy/puppy set out of the box. We said, "Nope!" to both of Mica's wants. Mica's green with envy.

We had a great breakfast. I made Juneberry muffins! Yummy! Off to swimming lessons we went.

We went to Toys R Us where Isaak picked out his gift with Grandma and Grandpa Apel's money. I knew Isaak wanted something called My Pet Butterfly. It's a butterfly in a jar that flies around when you tap on the jar. It was on clearance. Isaak's been eying it since the last time we went there. He also got a remote control car that's for ages 4 and up.

We made a Whole Foods run and came home.

Mica and Isaak helped take things in. I had lot of groceries to bring in the house.

The moment I got upstairs after unloading things downstairs I hear an, "Oh no I can't believe you did that Isaak!" I went in to Mica's room and Isaak's new remote control car was ripped out of the box by Mica. Isaak had taken Mica's scissors that he was using to cut open the packaging and cut the car's antenna off! I maybe should have taken a time out. I was mad! The boys must of known because they both looked ashamed. I was upset with Mica for taking Isaak's new car right out of the box! Especially since we told him, "No!" about that earlier! I was upset with Isaak for cutting something he shouldn't of! I got on Mica's case more. Daddy tried out the car today, and it worked. It buzzed around this house like it didn't need an antenna. Thank you car! If the boys had a concept of what money was I probably would have made them pool their money together and go buy another one. Instead they had to go down for naps yesterday. Then help me clean today.

I have to say that after a nap Mica was nice! He frosted Isaak's cake and added sprinkles on it. Then he helped me with dinner. We played Isaak's new puppy game as a family. Things did get better.

We had cake and Isaak got to unwrap his last present from us. It was a Melissa and Doug Mosaic Tile Set. Then we watched a movie - Isaak's choice.


Today was a cleaning day. The boys helped me vacuum out the couches, we swept, we did the laundry (bedding) and cleaned out the refrigerator. I decided that cleaning out the refrigerator is one of my least favorite jobs. That and cleaning the toilet! Their punishments helped me get stuff done.

Disclaimer

The opinions on this blog are my personal take on products and topics relating to motherhood. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.

I am not compensated to provide opinions on a variety of topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are my own. If I claim to show knowledge of certain topic or product I will only endorse products or services that I feel, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement.

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