october

Can you believe that tomorrow is the first day of October?  I don't know where September went.  Anyway, I thought I would pull out my Halloween decorations and here is what I did yesterday.  I put some candy corn garland in the kitchen, a "boo" sign in the bathroom, a teddy bear all dressed up  in his costume and some red mums on the mantle in the living room. (Here are some more decorations in my dining room from last year). Now if only the weather would cooperate and start acting like fall.  Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

that's a wrap

We have a penguin joke with one of our friends.  Since he loves martini's we thought this penguin cocktail shaker would be a perfect gift for him.  I attached a bottle of vanilla vodka and a recipe for a chocolate penguin. 

hot dog

Every September there is a big country fair in the next town over from ours.  We brought the children on Friday and they had a blast.  On Saturday night we were invited to an adult party at a friend's house.  They happen to live right across the street from the fair. They had white twinkle light's hanging in the trees, pumpkins and hay bales decorating the yard, and a bar set up outside.  We sat on their front lawn and listened to the band playing at the fair and didn't have to deal with the crowds.  It was a great evening!  I decided to bring dessert and thought it would be fun to go with a "fair food" theme.  I made some cupcakes and topped them with some mini hot dogs.  Hope you weekend was as fun and as sweet as ours!

that's a wrap

Last weekend my daughter attended a really fun Zumba birthday party.  Our gifts for the "rock star" were some candy rocks, an American girl book with lots of different star activities and a graphic t-shirt (with a guitar on it) from mini boden. 

creative storage

I know I have mentioned our need for being creative with storage before.  That led to creating a place to organize all of my daughter's hair bows.  This post describes how I made it.  Then I found these two polka dot hooks on sale at our local Pottery Barn Kids store.  I already had the art work, which is just some fabric stapled to an art canvas.  We hung all of the items on a blank wall in my daughter's bedroom.  Every night we put my daughters outfit for school the next day on the hooks and her shoes below on the floor.  Now she has her very own clothes valet!  I love they way it all looks together and how my daughter can independently get ready for school every day.

that's a wrap

One of the nice things that happened after we brought our third baby home was that many of our thoughtful friends made us dinner.  I honestly didn't have to cook for the first few weeks and even though I love to cook it was so nice not to have to with a newborn in the house.  A friend of mine just had her fourth baby!  Another friend and I decided to work together to make a special dinner for them. My friend made the main course, and I did the salad and dessert.  We made it a "back to school" theme since we delivered it the night before the first day of school.  I made an applesauce cake for dessert. We tucked some new ABC books in the basket for the baby and I filled a lunchbox with some gummy hamburgers for the older siblings.  If you know someone having a baby think about making them a meal or even just part of a meal.  I know they will appreciate it as much as I did!

lunch box love notes

Lot's of mom's like to tuck little notes into their children's lunch boxes, including myself!  Recently, I picked up these cute magnets for a few dollars at Marshall's.  I have been using them in my daughter's metal lunch box to leave her special messages.  Tomorrow she has library so I wrote "get books"!  She loves to see what the new message is and is getting some practice with letter recognition, sounds, and reading all at the same time.  Win, win.

that's a wrap

 It has been a busy week in our house.  My daughter started Kindergarten on Tuesday and my son goes to pre-school tomorrow!   I saw this idea and thought it was the perfect thing to send in with my son on his first day.  I filled a lunch box with a hearty fern (I asked at the garden center for a suggestion of a good classroom plant).  I used a pencil as the garden marker with a sticker that says "bloom where you're planted".  I hope all of our readers have had an exciting and fun first few days/weeks of school too. 

countdown to kindergarten

 

My daughter starts Kindergarten next week.  To help get her ready I thought it would be fun to have a "countdown to kindergarten".  Every day we are doing something to get ready for school with an activity, craft or small gift.  We started with a big surprise.  When the kids woke up we told them that we were taking them on an adventure to the Boston Children's Museum.   They have an exhibit there that is called "Countdown to Kindergarten".  It is set up like a real classroom and the kids enjoyed all of the fun "school like" activities.  If you are any where near Boston I highly recommend making the trip. 

Some of the other things we did for the countdown were: made a gift for my daughters teacher, baked kissing hand cookies, gave her some snack cups and took her to the grocery store to pick out some favorite snacks, read library books about going back to school and visited her new school to play on the playground.  We also gave her a tiny backpack and some  petite Fancy Nancy books so she could role play about the first day with her dolls. 

Helpful ideas to help your child prepare for school are:
~ read books about going to school
~ visit school before it begins- play on the playground, walk around the classroom, introduce yourself to the teacher 
~ have a celebratory back to school dinner
~ have your child make something special, draw a picture or make a card to give to their new teacher on the first day of school
~ take your child to pick out a new backpack, lunchbox or snacks
All of these little things will make your child feel more confident and comfortable to head off to school on the first day

that's a wrap

Sorry about the lack of posts - we were out of power for three days due to Hurricane Irene! 
This was a gift for a five year old girl who loves art.  We gave her an over sized coloring book, this book, a new box of crayons and a paint can filled with miniature art supplies.  I love how the wrapping paper picks up the colors on the crayon box and the combination of b&w stripes and polka dots pulls the whole thing together.
Our schools have been delayed until next week, but we have been counting down the days until kindergarten with some fun activities.  I will try to post about them soon.
I'm hoping all of our readers are safe and with power.