Family Fun (Plants)

  I don't know if spring is only here because the calendar said so or not.  By the way the weather is acting it's definitely not a confirmation.  I heard today on the new Punxsutawney is wanted.

  Apparently people are fed up with the lies!   With a few more days of a threat of snow this weekend I have decided to start pretending spring was here with a little bit of planting.

  If spring won't come to us we will do it our ourselves.

Some of my perennials are coming up so I know winter is almost over.  This pot has some Hostas.

 I will clean it out after the snow is gone.  Until then I will keep the debris for extra warmth.

  We planted a variety of flowers.

So now we will sit and watch them grow! 

Next we will maybe plant some veggies!  I did plant some parsley for the butterflies and found some milkweed I'll need to plant as well.

  Have you started planting flowers?  Do you plant flowers or buy them. I will buy a few plants as I can't grow everything and I like all the colors.

Family Fun (pottery)

  I received a gift certificate last year to PottsnPaints and decided to share it with my kids.  This was the first time I had ever painted anything and of course it was a first for my kids too.

  We looked at all the shelves to decide which item(s) we were going to paint!

We looked in the clearance section.  

They of course have a big holiday assortment. Halloween, Christmas etc.

How about some dishes?

Everyone choose their items.

Then we were introduced to the color options.

It was so neat to see all the colors.  My kids couldn't wait to select their colors.  They had such an organized system.  Everything was numbered and easy to locate.

Our colors were chosen and it was ready to get busy!

My daughter selected an owl to paint.

My son selected a spider web to paint.

After we were done I tried to explain the process to them after wards.

We left them to be glazed and returned a few weeks later to pick them up.

My kids were so happy first off to see their pieces but they really loved them when they saw how shiny the pieces were.

My son made sure to make his as colorful as he could!

My daughter worked very hard on her details!

I think we had a great day together and we have physical pieces to go with the mementos this time around! 

I hope we do this activity again sometime.  We could make gifts for others, ornaments for the tree or anything.

Find time for your family this weekend and do something special!

Monday Motivation (meatless dinner mealplan)

  For the last few weeks I have been sharing breakfast mealplans and this week I'm still sharing a mealplan but, a dinner one this time.

   This week I'm going to make my family all meatless meals.  Some of these recipes I have tried and obviously if they made this list they were tasty and successful the first go around.

  I am not going to label my days because I do have to go to the store and pick up some ingredients so depending on what ingredients I have on hand and when I go to the store will vary this mealplan.

Black bean quesadilla:
https://www.budgetbytes.com/2012/02/hearty-black-bean-quesadillas/

Pizza:
https://savorandsavvy.com/2016/08/15-minute-personal-pesto-pizzas.html

Shrimp:
https://damndelicious.net/2015/01/24/zucchini-shrimp-scampi/

Pasta:
https://savorandsavvy.com/2013/11/spinach-lasagna-rolls-recipe.html

Tacos:
https://wendypolisi.com/quinoa-taco-salad-bowl/

  I would love to hear what your dinner plans are this week or today.  I hope you have a happy, healthy and full week!

Family Fun (free day)

  Family fun can happen anywhere.  It just has to be 1) an activity or event be done with 2) family.

  Even a day out can be all about the family.  I checked out and planned my day for the kids today.  Free is always a nice thing so I definitely utilized that as my entertainment today!

  Today we started out with our favorite once a month activity!

The kids workshop at Homedepot!  The project was a periscope.  I will admit I had to remove a few nails with this project.  Precise nailing was most important today.

  After that we made our way to Target!  Did you know they were celebrating Dr. Suess at some locations?  Lucky for us, our location was one of them.

The kids received some fun activity sheets, sat in some very comfy chairs and heard the story Green Eggs and Ham.

 After this a small walk to celebrate 30 years was our next destination.

Happy Birthday AuntieAnnes! We enjoyed celebrating with you!

I not going to ask what the favorite activity of the day was because all I want to hear is spending time together and that may or may not be the answer.  

Either way everyone got out of the house, created, ate and even got a dose of enrichment, and imagination from the Dr.  I would say it was a good day.  Bring on Sunday because it is the day of rest and relax.

Monday Motivation (Breakfast Mealplan)

  Breakfast is my motivation again this week.

Monday: We had donuts.  Not homemade. The store bought kind.  Of course there were no complaints only fights over how many each of them could eat.

Tuesday: Oatmeal
https://www.marthastewart.com/315903/strawberry-oatmeal-breakfast

Wednesday: Muffins
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/6865/to-die-for-blueberry-muffins/

Thursday: Crepes
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/16383/basic-crepes/

Friday:  Fruit Smoothie and breakfast cookie
https://www.shelikesfood.com/healthy-baked-oatmeal-breakfast-cups-6-ways

  There we have it breakfast is the most important meal of the day!   I will have some happy people this week!

  Have a great week and don't forget to eat your breakfast!  What's your favorite breakfast?

Family Fun (nails)

  I have showed you how staying home can be just as fun as going out when it comes to hanging out with my kids.  This Friday was another day at home.

  Nail party!  Now granted I try very hard to discourage my son from getting his nails done.  He usually gets a smiley.  This week he was an active painter.

Per his request to use yet another of my birthday presents I received; I accepted his offer to paint my toes.

He selected my colors which involved alternating colors on each toe.  

He took his job very seriously and painted each toe with precision.  He showed great patience and dedication. 

I then painted my daughters feet!

She selected purple and gold.  She always likes alternating colors.

Finally I finished my hands! After all the time it takes to paint nails or have them painted requires a lot sitting still so I was on my hand to finish up.

Pink and gold for me!  

One thing I noticed from this activity was the attention to detail.  The television was on but my son didn't pay attention to it. He was doing something he wanted to do and nothing else mattered.

Such a fun evening at home!  How was you evening with your family or kids?

Family Fun (Rock edition)

  Over the summer my kids had a blast finding, hiding and painting rocks in our area.    This is such a great time for the family.  The snow and cold weather has slowed things down but not stopped it.

  Hiding the rocks is a one of the fun parts.  We don't always remember to bring them with us to re-hide so sometimes we just re-hide the ones we find. 

We hide them on the sides of buildings!

Under trees in plain site in a high traffic area!

Along the side of a walking path!

Although hiding inside buildings is not acceptable some places are like the library. 

Rock selection is up to the person. 

 Decide what your going to paint and begin painting.

  Sit back and be proud of your rocks. 

Don't be surprised if you even make something that you can't part with.  

The rocks can be painted or made as elaborate as you like.  Even though you may hide them outside or inside the owner can keep them where ever so anything goes on a rock when it comes to the design of them.

Lastly, you have to hide some!  That's what makes this so fun.  It's all about hiding and finding them!

Rock groups are everywhere and if it's not you can easily start one.  Paint a rock and hide it. Start a Facebook group so found rocks can be announced and you can even share clues of where the rocks were hid on there.  

This is a great and somewhat cheap activity to do with your family. Rainy day, inside or outside activity.  Any age can play to because an artistic ability is not necessary.

I hope you enjoyed reading one of our family fun events! If you hide rocks I would love to hear about your experience.

A Library has Books?

When you get your own library card it's almost mandatory to attend a diy library card holder event.

I have no shame I sent my teen to a bead class....... and she loved it!

All things John Green was a teen event that was all her idea.  She made pins, inspirational coasters and won this signed book!  She couldn't deny she enjoyed her library experience that day either. Watch out teen I think I saw you smile.

We have attended a lot of the preschool and elementary programs.  The library offers something different (usually hands on) every week.

Games are extra fun when your with your family and things are super sized!

Amazement when your balloon fills up by itself. Panic for mom when your not sure if it's going to blow up. Is there a phobia title for this?

The older kids get an experience one another level of learning and fun!  Shel Silverstein was the focal point one day.  The kids listened to a couple books then acted them out with each other for the parents.

Little miss is currently attending the monthly sewing classes.  She has learned basic sewing, adding buttons, and made a bag!

Mommy even gets to jump into a few programs of my own and I don't even have to share!  Crafts are offered regularly. 

I'm also in their book club.  Brooklyn is our next book. 

We even caught the eclipse at our library! This was fun for the whole family! It wasn't even just a show and bring your lawn chairs. It was a party! 

I'm just saying rumor has it a library has books too! Hmm, I didn't see any, guess I'll have to look next time I'm there.

Now I by no means am saying my library is better then yours but, I may be saying go and have fun at your library and see what they have.  Make suggestions to get more community involvement!   If you library does have activities and classes I would love to hear about them!