Preschool Graduation

Lster graduated from Preschool last week. He has had a BLAST!

At the top of the slide the kids had to say what they wanted to be when they grew up. Lster said a "DAD"! 

Puffed Wheat Squares

Msters school had an immigration day for the 2nd graders. They each were assigned to be an immigrant and spent the day going through Ellis Island. In addition to dressing up and playing pretend all day (what 7 yr old girl wouldn't love to do this for a school day) they had a potluck lunch where they needed to bring a dish from their heritage. After much thought and consideration, I chose to make Puffed Wheat Squares. I had so many ideas from my friends but I had to pick something easy for me and kid friendly and something that I didn't have to serve hot since I couldn't make it to the school that day.

Here's how you make them...

I found puffed wheat at Sunflower Market. This store reminds me of a less wholesome Whole Foods. The bag was on sale for $1 so it really isn't that expensive to make.

1/2 c margarine or butter
1 c corn syrup
1 c white sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
6 (heaping) Tbsp cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
10 c Puffed Wheat

Combine butter, corn syrup, sugars and cocoa in heavy saucepan.  Bring to boil.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Pour over Puffed Wheat.  Mix well and press into greased 9x13 pan.  Makes 24 squares.

They are very similar to a Rice Krispie square. 

Soccer Season

We had a VERY busy soccer season with games 4 days a week between Mster and Lster.

Mster LOVED to play Goalie.

Lster was a little soccer SUPERSTAR! His favorite memory would probably be when he got a "hole in one". He made a goal from the center line when it was his turn to kick. 

And here is our trouper, Kster. Who desperately wanted to play on his own team. It was a rough few months for him. He had just finished his Soccer Buddies team and because of our crazy schedule I couldn't sign him up again. So he just tried to make the best of it and ran around at all the games asking every day when he would have a coach again.

Chore Charts for the Summer

I decided to make chore charts for the kids this summer. I didn't want to take a lot of time to make them and I didn't want them to be too intricate. So here's what I did...

Kster has one too but it didn't make the picture and it has more age appropriate items (Bed, Numbers, Letters)

Their chores are: Piano, Read, Writing, Math, Make Bed and No toys on the floor (in their room)

• Reading is 20 minutes a day
• I made a Math bin for them a long time ago that has lots of math games and all the supplies they need. (dice, money, dry erase crayons, etc)
• For writing, I made a writing jar filled with cut up ideas for them to write about. They glue the idea to the top of their journal and then they fill the page with whatever they want to write about that idea.

Thunderbirds

This is starting to become a GREAT tradition. We found a great spot to watch the Thunderbirds perform at the Airforce Academy's Graduation. This year we parked our cars strategically, set up camp, ate some lunch and watched the show. Luckily, it was Msters last day and they already had early release so pulling her a few hours early was no big deal and she could come too. She didn't seem to mind missing one last recess to come join us. I was too busy holding onto kids during the show to take pics of the airplanes but I did get one of all the kids.

I got a new toy!

A month ago there was a service project that I was invited to where they had lots of different projects. One of the projects was making pillowcase dresses for girls in Africa.  I really wanted to go and learn how to make them but I had a conflict that morning. Luckily a friend of mine had heard of them before and told me she could teach me how to make them. We invited another girl who had gone to the service project and had 10 extra little dresses to finish and got to work. We were able to finish a bunch of the dresses to be sent to Africa and I started working on the one for Mster. So its only a month later and I finally finished the one for Mster on Saturday night. I had to change it up a bit so that the neckline was lower for her.

The other thought I had was that this might be an easy way to make matching dresses for the baby and Mster to have. So, part of the reason it took me so long to finish Msters is I got distracted making a little peasant girl dress for baby girl. Too bad she's not here yet to model it for us.

The problem with all this sewing is that I used my friends machine when we were at her house but when I got home I was stuck using my machine that was having serious issues sewing any type of uniform stitch. My mother decided to buy me an early birthday present and I got a NEW sewing machine. Hurray! I was able to finish up both dresses and make a few cute other things too.

Like this headband...

I originally made it for me but it fit Mster way better. She was thrilled and now wants me to make more in as many colors as possible.