Something Special

Kaden {my little Kindergartner} goes to school all day. He chooses to take his lunch most of the time. Almost every morning, we pack up his lunch in his Diego lunchbox & off he goes. Kaden has been wanting "Lunchables", but I have a hard time paying for those. Today, we made our own lunchables...with crackers, cut up cheese slices, lunch meat cut into circles.

Preston on the other hand...is in Preschool & comes home for lunch. We bought him a cute little Thomas the Train lunchbox for picnics at the park, but with it being winter...his little lunchbox hasn't got much use for a while. I thought that he might enjoy a special lunch surprise of his own lunchbox lunch.

He loved it. It didn't take extra time. I didn't have to go to the store & get anything extra..I just used what I had, but I think that it made him feel special & that is what is important!

Muffin Tin Monday...ABC & 123

Today's Muffin Tin Monday theme is ABC & 123. We had our Muffin Tin for breakfast on Sunday morning. {Monday is going to be pretty busy for us. It is my birthday. We have to go & get Daddy from the airport. Then throw kiddos school on top of that & there is no time for both kiddos to get Muffin Tin Monday.} Here is what they ate:

Top Row: Letter ABC Pancakes to go along with each item, Applesauce, Banana, Corn Burst Cereal

Bottom Row: Number 123 Pancakes to go along with each item, 1 cup of syrup {for dipping the letter & number pancakes in}, 2 pieces of toast, 3 pieces of egg.

**Edited to Add**

I was asked how I made the letter & number pancakes. Check out THIS link. You just have to make sure to write the letter or number BACKWARDS so that when you flip it...it will be the right way.

The boys really enjoyed this one. I even got some extra thank you(s).

Check out other Muffin Tins over at Muffin Tin Moms!

Shaving Cream Snowman

I have been wanting to do this craft for a while. Preston wasn't feeling well yesterday...so we are trying to take it easy. It has been snowing everyday since Monday & is supposed to continue for the rest of the week. It is a perfect day for a snowman craft.

Here is what you need:

Paper {we used blue cardstock}
White Glue
Shaving Cream
Paint brush
pencil {optional}
Something to decorate the snow man with {felt, paper, raisins, buttons, twigs, etc}

We started by drawing a snowman shape with a pencil. That way they had a guide.



I put some shaving cream on a paper plate & then I just eyeballed the glue. No measurement...SORRY! I gave them each a paintbrush {you could also just use your fingers}. They giggled the whole time that they made it.





Once they were finished "painting"...we got out some little felt scarves, a hat, some buttons, an orange paper carrot, paper "twig" arms, & some google eyes to decorate the snowman. The boys LOVED this part too. It was fun to see how they set up their snowmen.

Martin Luther King Day

Yesterday, my five year old started asking questions about how we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I really didn't know what to say to him. We explained bits of his story, but little man wanted to do something for the day. So, naturally....I hit the internet trying to find a craft that would work. It made me think about how some holidays we celebrate & make a big deal about & others are just a day out of school.

I found a Biography of Martin Luther King Jr. on Kaboose. They also have some other activities too. Activity Village has some coloring pages. We colored this coloring page. During my search...I found a Hand print Unity Wreath. You can find it at Handprint & Footprint Art. So, talk to your little ones & do an activity to help it stick! Happy Martin Luther King Day.

Muffin Tin Monday...No Theme

Today's Muffin Tin Monday didn't have a theme, but we decided to change that up. We decided to do a dinosaur theme so that it would go with these fun cookies. The recipe is at the link. Here they are making their cookies. They loved it & did a great job.





We had:



Dinosaur Chicken Nuggets & Lava {ketchup}
Quicksand {apple sauce}, Fossils {shortbread cookies}, Dino DooDoo {raisins}

**and they ate their ENTIRE meal. It must have been a hit!

Check out other Muffin Tin Meals here!

Love Notes

I have seen these cute little mailboxes popping up all over the blogging world. I love them!!! Last week, for family night {Family Home Evening} we talked about loving our family & different ways that we can show that we love them. The little mailboxes tied in PERFECTLY. I bought mine at Target in the dollar section. Michael's also had some, but they were around $4.00. We decorated them with paper & stickers. At the end of the lesson, we challenged everyone to do AT LEAST one thing of love for the mailboxes. Sometimes you get a treat, other times it is a note, & sometimes it a hand drawn picture. The boys have REALLY gotten into it. Kaden {who loves to write} makes everyone cute little notes. It has been a great focus for our family this week!

Prayer Board

We have great intentions in our house to say our prayers every night, but sometimes..we forget. We talked about making prayer rocks, but rocks are hard to find under a couple of FEET of snow. So, Daddy came up with another great idea for a project to do together as a family that will help us remember each night to say our prayers. We also added a little something extra to help us out in the morning to make our beds. I will explain it in a minute, but here is what we made:



I took the boys to Walmart & we bought some small little wood plaques {$.97 each}. I let the boys pick any color that they wanted to paint their plaque. I don't have a vinyl machine or a cricut..so I just found some coordinating paper & printed out what I wanted. On one side it says "Did you PRAY???" & on the other side it says "Make your bed!".

We painted the edges of the boards & then Mod Podged the paper on {top & bottom}. We sanded them down a bit & then Walla! a prayer board to remind us each night to pray. You will put your prayer board on {or under} your pillow to remind you to pray. Afterwards...you will flip it over & put it on the floor. So, when you get out of bed & step onto your board...it will remind you to make your bed & then you put your board back on your pillow.

Muffin Tin Monday...NO THEME!!!

Hooray!! Today is Muffin Tin Monday...& I actually remembered this week!! What a slacker I have been. But, today was a good day & my mind was ACTUALLY working with me today! Today's MTM we went with a "brinner" theme. We ♥ "brinner" {breakfast for dinner}. Daddy even got involved tonight & set up their muffin tins. Here is what we ate:



Toast, eggs, hashbrowns, & bacon

The boys had multiple helpings & loved every minute. My favorite thing about tonight's dinner was watching Kaden make his dinner into a sandwich...it was so cute!

Happy New Year!!

Welcome 2010! We had a great night last night! The boys stayed up to ring in the New Year! It was a fun night filled with movies, yummy food, & great family! I hope that you all had an amazing time ringing in the new year! The boys loved their shakers & the traditional banging pots & pans. We also took pictures in front of our "2010" banner. I think that the year banner will be a new tradition to take pictures by. Thanks for all of your support & for reading & commenting. I appreciate all of you & am so grateful for my readers! Happy New Year!!!