Valentine's day cards

 Ethan and Madie love to make their Valentine's for their classes...and of course I have just as much fun.  I have been searching Pinterest. http://pinterest.com/  To look for new ideas that they can create.  I found this one...   http://www.makeandtakes.com/recycled-chunky-crayons  and decided that I have always wanted to do this with my left over crayons...and so Ethan being in 3rd decided to go for it.  Here is what it turned out like.....(in pictures)


Here are the crayons we started with

We peeled of the crayons....may was that a pain

Smashing the crayons....E's Favorite part

We placed them in the heart shaped tin.

And here are the final Heart Crayons....

We did little cards that said......"for Crayon out loud Happy Valentine's Day"  Love E

They are so cute.  I loved watching him get excited as they melted and turned into the shape that they are.  For sure a must do again project.

As for My M she is making fortune cookies for her class....out of felt or form....still a work in progress.  BUT she is doing them so it is fun to watch them come to be.  She is old enough now that Really her creativity stands out.  I can't wait to see how they turn out.  Will post soon.  Here is the link to the pinterest idea I first found...it is of course Martha Stewart.... http://www.marthastewart.com/273591/felt-fortune-cookies?backto=true

Getting down to business

Over the last month I have made lots of different changes or done things that I have been wanting to do.  I have applied different things to my life physically or spiritually.  I have made things or got rid of things that have been taking up space.  Here is one of the things that have been fun to do and have made life around our house a bit more fun or easier. 

OUR Chore Chart.  Our pastor that married Travis and I gave me this idea while we were in our pre-marital classes years ago.  He told me how he worked chores into a positive thing with his kids.  They chose a bunch of activities that need to be done all over the house and divided them so every one could pick an even amount.  SO we did that.  We sat down one day and talked about all the things that needed to be done and how to do them....we picked about 15 things so that would be about 5 things each per week.  Then we picked out of a hat who would choose first.  Once that person chose the 5 things that they wanted then the next person would chose 5 and the last would get the 5 left overs....it has worked out well so Far.  I am excited that the kids are doing the chores that they chose and I am not yelling at them to do things around the house.  Now it is a work in progress so we have eliminated some items and the one the gets to pick first gets the reward of less chores.  It was also interesting to see how the kids really enjoyed doing the chore and were asking others to clean up after themselves to make it easier on them or to not have to feel that they JUST CLEANED it....I thing all this have been a great lesson...let's hope we can keep it going through all the different changes in the year to come.

Here is the start of the board...decided to use the Magnetic board idea that Sheila my Stamping up friend showed me how to make with the calendar thing.  It was easy and done by the time the kids got home.  The Board is a great success to getting the house much cleaner than I could have ever gotten it.