Priceless

Pedicure...$25.00

Highlights...$40.00

Shoes...$39.95

Spending 2 nights alone with my hubby in Chicago...

Priceless.

Gettin' My Craft On

Last winter, Cole's school was selling magazines as a fundraiser. I, being mother of the year, bought as many subscriptions as necessary for him to get the limo ride to Wendy's. One of the magazine orders got goofed up somewhere along the way and instead of receiving Family Circle, I started getting Disney Family Fun. Best mistake ever!


It's such a great magazine. It has wonderful kid-friendly project and craft ideas, recipes, time-savers, etc. I have used several activities from the magazine in the few short months I have been getting it.

I knew when I saw the 4th of July eagle shirt idea, we had to do it!

To make the shirt you need:

• Brown, black, white, and yellow fabric paint
• Shirt color of your choice
• Cardboard
• Paint brush

Start by pre-washing and drying the shirt. Then stick the cardboard in the shirt to prevent it from bleeding through.

Grab a little right hand and paint it (palm and fingers, but not the thumb) with the brown paint. Press into the center of the shirt, going sideways to create the left eagle wing.


Do the same with the left hand to create the right eagle wing. You will overlap the palms a bit.


After washing those grubby little hands, paint the ring finger, middle finger, and index finger of one hand with white paint. Stick them below the center of the wings to create the tail feathers.



Have your little helper make a fist with her left hand. Paint it with the white paint. Press it above the center of the palms to make the eagle head. You can smudge the paint a bit to make it look "feathery."


Dab a dot of black paint for the eye. Then brush in a beak with the yellow.



How cute is that?!


The Little Miss loved creating her own shirt...and especially loved me painting her hands. She got to be super messy without getting in trouble! Bonus!

Rainy Day Idea

With the string of hot and stormy weather we have had the past couple of weeks, we had plenty of time to come up with rainy day craft ideas.

I found this idea online somewhere, but after blog-hopping for awhile, I can't find it again! Know that this isn't my original idea, but we sure had fun with it!

You need:

• 4 boxes of blue Jell-o, prepared according to the Jigglers recipe
• Small glass fishbowls (Hobby Lobby had their glassware 50% off so these were only $0.50 each!)
• Swedish fish (or other gummy sea creatures)
• Chocolate rocks (I found them at Wal-Mart)
  

Prepare the Jell-o according to the Jigglers recipe. I would suggest doing this before telling the children that you are making a fun craft as to avoid the "Is it ready yet?" question every 2 minutes for 3 hours. Learn from my mistakes, people.

Cut up the Jigglers to serve as the water.


Add the chocolate rocks to the bottom of the fish bowl.





Then add the "water" and fish to the bowl. And voila...an edible aquarium!




And then comes the best part...



Eating it!

Gift Certificate Winner...and more!

Thanks to all who entered The Silver Maple gift certificate giveaway. I loved reading about all of your jewelry choices. If I had to wear one piece of jewelry, it would be the necklace my husband got me for Christmas a few years ago. I love it.

Before I announce the winner, I have exciting news from The Silver Maple. Jacque, The Silver Maple big cheese, is offering all of you a 20% discount on your entire order! Sweet! Just enter the coupon code "JohnDeereMom" at checkout. But hurry! This offer ends July 4, 2010.

*Sidenote: How cool is it that I have a coupon code named after me?"*

And now to the winner!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

73

Timestamp: 2010-06-26 13:29:16 UTC

Comment number 73 was Jenny from Full of Craft! Congratulations, Jenny! I will forward your email address to Jacque at The Silver Maple for your $30 gift certificate details.

Thanks again to The Silver Maple for a fun giveaway and for my beautiful new necklace!

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! By the way, I have a post on my new review blog about My Heritage's Baby Look-alike Meter. If you have a minute, go check it out. It's super fun!

June 24, 2000

10 years ago today....

* I said "I do."

* The priest kept calling me Amy.

* My name's not Amy.

* Kept tripping over my dress, but luckily my new husband picked it up for me.

* Partied like it was 1999.

* Drank straight from a bottle of champagne.

* Because nothing says class like the bride with a champagne bottle in her hand.

* Got a little frisky in the limo to the hotel.

* Started a wonderful new life with my husband.

*sigh* so thin and young

I love you, babe!

Kindergarten Uprising

Have you heard about the douchebags suing McDonald's for giving out toys with their Happy Meals? The Center for Science in the Public Interest (could that name be less specific?) plans to sue McDonald's for "unfairly and deceptively" marketing to children.

"McDonald's marketing has the effect of conscripting America's children into an unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers, causing them to nag their parents to bring them to McDonald's," CSPI's head douchebag Stephen Gardner, wrote to the heads of the chain in a letter announcing the lawsuit.

What the what?!

I am pretty sure a plastic toy that gets thrown out 2 weeks after the fact is not the downfall of society. Nor is it causing childhood obesity. I am also fairly certain that this


isn't causing our children to become an "army of drones."

What is it doing? Giving moms 2 seconds of peace and quiet in the backseat of the car. That's what.

CSPI, leave our Happy Meal toys alone or you're going to have an uprising of 5 year olds everywhere. And let me tell you, 5 year olds fight dirty.

My new favorite necklace...and a giveaway TIME'S UP!

The Silver Maple is an adorable little custom-made jewelry/flatware online shop. Imagine my delight when Jacque, the mastermind behind The Silver Maple, asked if she could send me a free necklace.

Um, yes!

I stalked Jacque after hearing from her, both on The Silver Maple and on her blog. She wrote this blog entry about her journey of going from big city business woman to jewelry maker on a farm. She has kids, a blog, drinks wine, dislikes Yo Gabba Gabba, and is a runner. It was like we were soul mates...up until that running thing.

A few days later, the mailman fought off hounds and cats to deliver a package. I was so excited to open it, not having any idea what type of necklace would be inside.

I fell in love with the quaint little box and label.


I quickly opened the box to find a small, brown velvet bag.


Beneath the bag was a polishing cloth.


Then I slowly pulled the strings of the bag open to see what was inside.




I am in love.



Look at that necklace. Not only do I love the silver and copper hammered, layered circles, but look... just look at those words.

Wife.

Mother.

Teacher.

So perfect.

It's my newest must-have accessory. That go-to necklace that works with all outfits.

I simply adore it.

The Silver Maple specializes in jewelry including necklaces, bracelets, and earrings using sterling silver and copper. They also have a flatware section of personalized baby spoons and toddler sets.







I think the neatest thing about The Silver Maple is how personalized they make their jewelry. If you don't see something in the shop that suits you, they gladly accept requests for specific pieces. Into horses? They can do that. Want your son's football number on a charm? Done. Need the names of your 27 grandchildren on a necklace? That's be a really big necklace, but I am sure they could make it! They are willing to work with you on your vision of the perfect piece of jewelry.

Now to the giveaway part!

Jacque has been generous enough to offer one lucky reader a $30 gift certificate to any product at The Silver Maple!

To enter to win the gift certificate, just answer this question in the comments:

If you could only wear one piece of jewelry (besides your wedding ring) forever, what would it be?

Additional chances to win: (leave a separate comment for each one)

* Visit The Silver Maple and tell me which piece of jewelry is calling your name
* Like The Silver Maple on Facebook, and come back here to let me know you did
* Go visit my brand new review blog and become a follower
* Tweet this giveaway


Fine print:

* Contest open to U.S. residents only
* Contest ends Friday, June 25 at 8:00 p.m. EDT
* Winner will be selected using Random.org
* Winner will be contacted via email
* Contest sponsored by The Silver Maple

Now go forth and enter!

Down the Toilet

The kids and I spent the afternoon playing in a local children's museum. It's small and very play-oriented. We had a blast.

They have a bubble room with huge bubble wands and even a body-swallowing bubble!




The upstairs has sports-themed toys. They had basketball, balance boards, bikes, and cup stacking.




They also had various nature activities. Planting flowers, a little tree house/cave, a wooden camper made to look like an AirStream, magnetic leaves to match with trees, and bird sounds.



But the best part was the explore-a-house area. You get to climb, crawl, and walk through the innards of a house including the attic, plumbing, and crawl space. Along the way you learn about the various layers of a house, the structure, heating, etc. But the BEST part?

The toilet.



They have a ginormous toilet that you can climb up and down, leading to a lower level of the house. It even has a sensor when you climb through that makes a flushing sound. The kids could not get enough of the toilet.




I have to admit, I thought it was pretty cool too. And who could resist sitting on a huge toilet?

Roots? What roots? I have no idea what you're talking about.

And what fun would a giant toilet be if you couldn't pretend to use it?



I won't mention that he actually unzipped his pants...

Summertime

Summer is...

flip flops in the grass,

thunderstorms,

t-ball,

swimming,

planting a garden,

summer school workbooks,

playing in the mud,

and more time to read.

And that's just in the first 2 weeks!

Ahhhh, I love summer.

Summer Giveaway Winner!

Wow! That was fun. I loved hearing about all of your summer plans...you guys are busy! But the person who will be busy with a few new goodies is...

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:141
Timestamp: 2010-06-12 02:16:20 UTC

#141 is Sweet Caroline who said "Our major focus each summer is getting show cattle ready for County Fair in August. We get up early and stay up late - working with them when it's cool. For me, though, I love nothing better than drinking a pitcher of sweet tea and reading late into the night while it's QUIET!"

Congratulations! I hope you enjoying reading your new book late into the night! :)

Thanks for playing, everyone!

Summer Break Giveaway! TIME'S UP!!

Because I am officially d-o-n-e with this school year, I am having a summertime giveaway! One lucky reader will win this summertime prize package:


The package includes:

*beach towel
*sunscreen
*a new copy of the best book I've read so far this year, The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes
*$10 gift card to Target
*$10 gift card to Starbucks


TO ENTER

To enter to win this giveaway, just answer this question in the comments:

What is one thing you plan to do this summer?

THE RULES

One entry per person
Contest ends Friday, June 11 at 8:00 p.m. EDT
Winner will be selected by Random.org
Contest sponsored by Me, Myself, and I
Good luck!

The End

Tomorrow I will finish my eleventh year of teaching. Where those 11 years went is beyond me!

I am so very glad this year is over. It has been long and challenging. I am looking forward to a fun, relaxing summer with my family and friends.

Some of my plans include:

*shopping and lunches out alone and with friends
*a 2-day getaway with just the hubby to Chicago for our 10 year wedding anniversary

*a little mini-vacation with the kiddos...not sure where yet

*Jungle Jim's, Ikea, Newport Aquarium

*house cleaning

*new mulch on the flower beds

*zoo

*Children's Museum

*swimming

*hanging out with my wonderful kids!

Wish me luck tomorrow. It's sure to be a long, emotional day.

Ooh, and check back here Thursday. I have a fun little summer giveaway I put together to celebrate the start of my summer vacation!