150 Boutique

The kids worked really hard putting together small gifts that they made themselves to sell at a boutique and then donate the proceeds to the Utah refugees.

$150 Donation!

Crayons

Stress Balls/Bags

Book Marks

Sugar Scrub Soap

We had a lot of fun and saw a lot of their friends come to support them. We had a goal of making $150 to donate to the Utah Refugee Connection, but only made about $100. (The sugar scrub didn't sell and we were really counting on that). We still counted it as a success.

May stuff

The middle of April, we got new chickens.

So we put our old chickens (3 yrs old) on the classifieds for free-

-to make room for 9 new chicks.

In May, we put the chicks out in the coop. They like it a lot better out there. But it is not even close to the joy I feel not having them in my house anymore!

In the chicken picture you may notice cousin Cooper! I was lucky enough to babysit Cooper, Milo and Coleman while Sarah and Dallin took an overnight trip. Saturday turned out to be quite eventful. 

Yes, the chickens went into the coop. 

Also, Sydney had MORP! 

And then, just as Sydney was coming home to get ready for her dinner date and the boys were ready to go to their home, I sliced my finger on a very dirty metal chicken feeder. 

I rushed to the Instacare and got 6 stitches, just in time to throw a messy dinner together and leave for a book signing. Whew!

So the book signing was fun. Mostly just us authors and a few family members who had already purchased books. So there were no sales. But it was fun to be together and read an excerpt from our stories.

I was first and I completely forgot to even introduce myself and went right into reading my story. All the authors after me introduced themselves, talked about the genesis of their story and read a longer excerpt. That was kind of embarrassing but I learned a lot so I guess that's good. (And thank you mom for coming to support me!)

Bryce left this note on my bed. It is soccer season right now and most of his friends are playing on teams. We usually don't start sports or lessons until 2nd grade. But he really wanted to play soccer. He informed me that he plays World Cup every recess and he knows all the rules and all the good plays.

For teacher appreciation week, I totally dropped the ball. I had an idea to make crochet bookmarks just for fun and thought, "Hey! Why don't I make them for the teachers?" They only take 15 minutes to make. So the morning of the last day of teacher appreciation week, we put together these little cards and they turned out awesome. I was pretty proud of myself for the pun. 

Book Mark my word. 

You are the GREATEST!

And then Rachel translated it for the spanish teachers. That makes me so proud!

LDS Storymakers Conference was May 11-13. I really enjoy going to this conference but oh my, I was on the biggest roller coaster. Thursday workshop I felt like the worst writer. Thursday afternoon I had some great ideas and knew how to fix everything. Friday, I decided I was finished writing. Saturday, I was totally motivated. I know I'm not the only one and most likely, every writer or the majority of writers feel this way. 

And every year I wish I had taken pictures. And I didn't. It was so fun to see Amy Wilson from CO again. We had the nicest dinner (with Tanya) on Friday night on Provo's center street. 

But this is the only picture I got. This is Nikki Trionfo, the ring-leader of the social side of Storymakers! 

She also published a book this year, "Shatter." I reviewed it on my Bookworm Wednesday blog. Its a great book and she's a great person. 

We had our end of year piano recital. It turned out great. Short and sweet at 30 minutes. 

Camille and Rachel talked me into doing Performing Arts Camp again this year. Yikes. One week to prepare! And notice the typo?!?!? 9:30am-11:00PM. What?!?!?!

We had some visitors on the front lawn. Ducks! They reside in the canal that runs through the subdivision and raise a family there every year. But they've never ventured this far from home before. 

crazy craft

For our wedding, Sterling and I got 4 LDS Hymn books. They were all personalized, either with our names embossed in gold on the cover, or with personal messages written inside. We never used them and they found a permanent home on our bookshelf. A little bit ago I decided I wanted to do a project involving pages of music. As I pondered the possibilities, my eyes wandered to the 4 hymn books on my shelf and I got a crazy idea.

notice: there are only 3 hymnbooks

It wasn't long before I had ripped the pages from the binding and tore the whole book apart. I painted, I tore and I stapled. It felt a little irreligous and apostate in the beginning but I didn't let it hold me back. I went at it with fervor and revelry. And it was worth it...

 ...because I ended with this beautiful wreath to hang above my piano. I saved the 4 pages that are the hymns my grandmother wrote and will frame those around the wreath. I can't wait to see it all put together.

homemade rug

Millie and I kept ourselves busy yesterday making this t-shirt rug.  We used one of our hoola-hoops and the directions we found here.

 Our cousin Kimber started us off.  She's quite the pro.  After she left, Mill and I kept at it and only had to re-do a couple of parts.  Luckily we caught them early and didn't have to unravel more than one layer.  While we weaved, we watched Rachel's favorite movie, "Horses."  Its a documentary and she LOVES it.  She affectionately calls it "Blackie" in honor of her favorite black horse in the movie.

Back to the rug.  Kimber will be happy to know that the rug went to a neighbor who needed a pick-me-up.  We didn't realize it either until we had been talking for a while and realized the spirit had guided us to her house.  I love how the Spirit will take our simple efforts and transform them into blessings.  We didn't even know we wanted to give the rug away until after it was made.  We used our desire to create, and made a rug.  We listened to quiet promptings, we might not have even recognized as such, and gave the rug away.  God used our offering to bless someone else.  That is what I call "God's Orchestration."  Its always a privilege to be an instrument in His hands.

Rectangled

Lookey what we made the other day. Its a fun Rapunzel braid to clip all our barretts and...clips on. We got the idea here at Family Fun. Such a fun idea. I think I need to make another one for Syd to keep in her room.

Rachel and Camille both keep saying that they want to go see "RECTANGLED." I was laughing so hard when I realized they meant "Tangled." Awesome.

p.s. - now I just need to figure out how to keep the elastics in one place. Any ideas?

Mother's Day

Camille and Rachel made these cards for a mother's day craft. Yes, I helped them make my own cards. They turned out really cute.

Rachel's card

Camille's card

Easter craft: for fun AND for the brain

To start off our easter craft activities for preschool, we made this cute little guy.

Our supplies included: sock, birdseed (or anything you would use to fill a beanbag), funnel, spoon, 2 twisty tie (or elastic), felt for nose (pink) and teeth (white), googly eyes, ribbon, cottonball, scissors, tacky glue.

First: we used the funnel and spoon to fill the sock with birdseed. We filled it just past the heel.

Then we used a twisty tie (or elastic) to tie off the neck. We used the funnel again and filled up enough for the head and tied it off with another twisty tie.

Next, we glued on the eyes, nose and teeth. We also cut the ears, adding appropriate curves to make them actually look like ears. Oh, and don't forget the cottonball tail.

Finally, we tied a ribbon around its neck and

VOILA! a cute little easter bunny friend.

ANOTHER activity we did, with an educational element, was to decorate an easter egg with colored shapes.

Preparation: First, I drew an egg and divided it into parts. (6 for this one). Each section had a number written on it (not in numerical order). I also precut 6 different shapes in different colors (about 10 of each shape.)

Activity: I would point to a number on the egg and say, "Glue this number of squares (or whatever shape) in this section." Then Millie would have to decipher what the number was and find the correct shape. The goal of this activity was to help her learn her numbers by written recognition (she can count easily enough but doesn't recognize the written number) and also to find the correct shape, which she has been struggling with a little (rectangle vs. triangle). Then she cut the egg out, which was another good skill to practice (cutting curves).

Another Rainbow activity

Are we tired of rainbow activities yet? Who reads this stuff anyway?

So I was shopping for paint colors for our basement. (Yes, we are that close to being finished! hip hip hooray). And the kiddos always like grabbing a few colors to bring home for themselves. This particular day, we grabbed quite a few colors and brought them home for a fun craft activity with friends.

Supplies:
white or blue paper
rainbow of paint color samples
cottonballs
glue
scissors (for optional cutting of paint samples)

First we glued on the cottonballs for clouds, then I spread glue in a rainbow arch.

Then the kids glued their pieces of colored paper onto the rainbow. For the older kids, I let them cut the paint samples and spread the glue themselves. It also would have been fun to just use ripped up, scrap pieces of colored paper and make a mosaic rainbow.

Don't forget to sign your artwork. It may be valuable someday.

Dancing Rainbows

So here's another rainbow activity we did in preparation for St. Patrick's Day. We made streamer rainbows to dance and play with.

Supplies:
Various colors of wrapping ribbon
scissors (for mom only)
shower curtain rings

I pre-cut the ribbon into lengths that seemed right. No exact measurements here. Then I placed them in a pile at one end of the room and the kids at the other end of the room. In an effort to be educational as well as fun, I called out a color and the kids then ran to the pile and pulled out the indicated color and ran back to their seats.

After they gathered all their colors, I helped them tie the ribbons onto the shower curtain ring. (Just a double knot). This is the finished product.

Then we turned on some music and danced around the room.

Well, some of us danced. ONE of us preferred to watch and direct the dancing.