4th of July Rocket Craft

*This was the best picture I could get. It's hard getting 3 1/2 yr olds to stay still.

This morning Ash had a couple of pals over for a 4th of July craft play date. I had spied these on Pinterest (they are originally from Tip Junkie here is the tutorial on how to make) & thought it would be fun to make our own. We didn't make ours into poppers because quite frankly I didn't want to clean up the pop. The kids love them just as they are & it was a fun way to pass a VERY rainy morning.

Sheet Set Storage Idea

*Photo from Pinterest

I love Pinterest! It's one of my favorite time fillers (or wasters...however you want to look at it.) This idea alone made all of my time worth it! You fold your sheets and store them as a set inside of the pillowcase. Pure genius! I went through my linen closet this weekend and stored all of our sheet sets this way and it's marvelous! You should totally try this!

Summer Fun: Drive Thru Lunches

Gray came up with the idea of "drive thru lunches" last week and it was a huge hit! My house is full of boys this summer because I'm watching two of my girlfriend's little guys. That means four boys ages 2-9 to keep busy and happy.
Here is what we did:
We created two entree options, hot dog or pb&j both with watermelon slices on the side.
The kids decorated their own "to go" bags with stickers. While they decorated their bags I cut rectangles of green construction paper for money. I made 1's, 5's, & 10's. I gave the kids (all but the 2 yr. old, he was more interested in playing with cars) their money and they hopped on their bikes and "drove" around to the front porch to make their orders. While I got their orders ready they rode their bikes around. Once I was outside with their lunches,

they pulled up to the porch,

paid,

and rode off to eat in the yard. So simple but they had a blast! In fact they used their money to buy their afternoon snacks that day. I kept the money & their bags and I plan on doing this again soon.

Summer Countdown...

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...is my last day of school! I'm looking forward to wrapping up all the loose ends in my classroom, getting started on my summer projects, and spending lots of time with my boys doing our own "camp" called, Camp Mommy. I haven't had the time (or energy) with all the end of the year stuff to plan out everything for our first week of "camp", but I will share just as soon as I do!

New Kindle

Friday evening I came home to an Amazon box waiting by my front door. I happened to be chatting with my MIL on my phone and I said, "Ooh! We got an Amazon box!" To which she casually replied, "Oh what did you order?" I got a little sad because I hadn't ordered anything, but I thought maybe Micah did. The box said both of our names which was weird. (We always just put our own name to stake the claim of who gets to open the box mostly...we are like five year olds when something other than a bill comes in the mail. Seriously, it's SO exciting!) I decided to open it with Karen as my witness, incase I wasn't supposed to. Much to my surprise there was a Kindle inside. I gasped and said, "It's a Kindle! There has to be a mistake!"
Thankfully, there was no mistake. The Amazon receipt said, "Just because I love you!" and it was from my MIL! How sweet is that!?! She had just gotten one and knew that I would love it! Talk about timing! She thought it was coming the following day so it was a happy surprise for her that she got to open it with me. Now I can enjoy all of my summer reading on my new gadget! Wahoo!! The word on the street is that Kindle users will soon be able to check library books out to read, too! SO exciting!
Oh I love surprises!