Christmas is Coming....

So.... I promise y'all that I'm not one of those people that completely skips over Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving! It's one of my favorite holidays. I don't have my tree up already, I don't have a single decoration out yet for Christmas. I do have tons of pumpkins and pilgrims and scarecrows around, though! :)

All that being said, I'm sharing some fun looking Christmas themed activities for the kiddos to do in the coming days and weeks of no school for the holidays!

Here is the link for the activities: Christmas Time is Here You'll remembering doing some of these things from when you were a kid, too! But while you're slaving away in the kitchen preparing dishes for Thanksgiving in a few weeks the kids can entertain themselves while watching the Macy's parade that morning instead of complaining about being bored!

Here are a few of the crafts from this post:

Giant Popsicle snowflakes! 

These look really fun to make with your kids! I honestly can't wait to make these with Joc and hang them up around the house this season!

I made these when I was a kid! 

Super easy Christmas tree ornaments they can make (while you're cooking!) Just lay down some paper for them to work on and give them plenty of pretties to decorate with and then they can make tons of them! Not a bad idea for a handmade present for friends and family members from them either! :)

Cinnamon applesauce heart ornaments! 

I can NOT wait to make these! I bet they smell AMAZING while you're baking them!! These would make great gifts for some family members as well! I'm thinking of making them with Joc one day in mid December and then tying them onto gifts for people! 

Here is the direct link to make these heavenly things: Katy Elliott

There are so many more than just these to go and check out and do with your kids or have them do while you're working on other things!

Enjoy! :D

-Stephanie

Cute and Creepy Holiday Doors

Check out these super cute Halloween door decorations! I can't wait for fall you guys! It's my FAVORITE time of the year! Hot chocolate, beautiful colors, cooler weather, pumpkin everything, sweaters and jackets! Oh, and HOLIDAYS!!! :D

I'm so ready for the holidays to be here. I know, it's still only August, but school's back in session and (here anyway) it's been a bit cooler feeling in the early mornings and such and I'm just ready!

So... to help keep me calm until it's an appropriate time to start decorating I've been planning my decorating. (I totally asked my husband if I could go on and start decorating for the fall... I got a big no, of course.)

Here is a cute idea I found that I'm adding to my list of decorations for this year's Halloween:

 

I just love these guys! And, I mean, how much easier could they be to make... All you need is some streamers of your color choice and construction paper/paper plates, and some good tape!

Here is the website to check out a few more ideas other than these creepy guys: Spooky Doors

Y'all, enjoy the end of the summer months while they're here! I'll try to make the most of them! :P

-Stephanie

It's Coming... SUMMER!

Either summer has already started for you and your busy family or it's on the brink... We have one week left and then we're done for a few months. I'm SO not ready! I've been compiling a list of things to do this summer with our little one. In the process I've found a lot of really great websites to go off of for local events and such!
Maybe you're in the same boat... Looking for things to do. And lets face it, you can't go and do something every single day to keep your kids occupied! (If you can, go you!) Everything costs so much these days. We're planning on going to do something really great, like, once a week. On the other days we may just go to the park or the zoo, we have a membership so it's free to go at this point for us. (By the way, I HIGHLY recommend getting a membership at your local zoo or park. It is an amazing way to go kill time, do something fun, and get out doors! We LOVE our zoo membership, and the price was fantastic!)
Anyway, we also have a brand new splash-pad opening up this summer, which I fully plan on visiting often! 

If you live in the Birmingham, AL area or those around here this is a great website that I check out all the time to find fun things to do around here for me and my love and my little one.
Check it out: Birmingham365 This website is pretty up to date on anything and everything going on in our great city! I urge you, if you don't live near here, to go look for a similar website for your area... This has been a life saver for us here!

Maybe you already know what you and your family will be doing this summer, maybe your calendar is FULL of exciting things to do... Bravo! (I envy you, please give me your list :D)
If you're that mom, or dad, and you have your summer planned but still are missing something here is a list for you! I found this recently, it's a list of websites for kids to use to keep their brains going over the summer. To keep them going and learning. A lot of kids NEED this during the summer! That long gap can really hinder some children with their learning, they forget things and don't continue to learn and then they get back into school in the fall and they're playing a small game of catch up.

 

Here is a more comprehensive list, briefly explaining what your kids can do on each website: (sorry it's a little blurry. :/)

These websites are excellent resources to use during the summer to keep your kiddos interesting in learning and broadening their horizons!

I plan on using these with Joc a couple of times a week. Maybe while I'm cooking dinner or needing to do some cleaning, I'll set her up with one of these websites to keep her occupied until I'm finished with whatever it is that I'm doing! I found this wonderful list over on A Year of My Firsts blog... Lots of other neat things to peruse through over there! :)

I hope I could help you with some of your summer planning, if you needed it! The most important thing is to just spend time with your little ones while you can! They cherish that more than anything while they're young!

-Stephanie

Soap was surprisingly gross!

Who here still washes their kid's mouths out with soap when they say a "bad word"?? I remember it happening to me once as a child... I never said another word I wasn't supposed to say again! Soap, was, and still is, surprisingly GROSS!!!

My little one just turned five last month, pictures of party decor are coming soon! :) 
But ever since then she's been severely testing the waters lately to see what she can get away with now that she's five... She's slowly learning that it's pretty much nothing! About a week after turning the year older she informed me that since she was five now she could say "cuss words". I quickly informed her of her mistaken thought, but since then she has said TWO!!!! TWO dirty, foul, awful, words that no five-year-old should know, much less say! 
The first incident we had a long discussion of why that word wasn't to be said, along with other words that she knows not to say. And today she used another word!!! A different word.... A much, much more foul word!! Ugh... 
I'm beginning to wonder if she's hearing these things at school. We watch out language around her and I have no idea where she would have heard that she could say cuss words now that she's five except school.

I pulled this little excerpt from: When Young Children Use Profanity: How to Handle Cursing and Name Calling written by Timothy Jay, Ph. D.

The ABCs of Cursing
If you have established why the child cursed, you have established the antecedentconditions (i.e., cause). Antecedent is the A in ABC. Behavior is the B in ABC. Address the behavior itself-that is, the word(s) used. Did you hear mild speech (e.g., doo-doo head) or offensive speech (e.g., shit head)? Offensive language should result in more immediate and severe consequences than milder language. Consequences usually means applying behavior modification techniques (discussed later in this article).
 
To eliminate cursing and bad language, treat each cursing episode with the ABCs. Be consistent with all children at all times. Act quickly when cursing occurs and deal directly with the child who used the bad language.

I like this, I think this could be a great start to handling a situation like this. It makes sense and maybe could stop the profane speech quickly. But... Next time there will be soap! (There better not be a next time! :D)

You can check out the rest of the article on children using profanity here: Children and Profanity

-Stephanie 

Be Thankful

I discoverd a link on Pinterest just a few days ago... Did the normal thing, you know, Pin it and decided to read it later on, then keep scrolling. Well, I gave it a look through "later on."

It was a Pin on Thanksgiving mason jar crafts. Some of them were very neat, some of them not so much. I did, however find one that struck me! :)

A "Count your Blessings jar!" This is so awesome! (In my opinion.) I LOVE the Thanksgiving holiday! I don't think people give it enough time or credit anymore... I mean really!! Black Friday sales at Walmart last year kicked off around 8PM where I live.

Nobody gives this amazing holiday any time anymore... It's so sad! My family and I tend to go big for this holiday, too... tons of amazing, traditional, foods and lots of laughter around our table is how my night goes!

(I'm bad here, y'all.... I did go to the BF sale that started at 8. I know, I know. BUT who can resist all those sweet, sweet deals??? Especially with children involved! And the sad thing is, is that I'll likely go again this year at an early time in the evening.)

Anyway, THIS fun idea is something really great that I think could make your holiday so much more special this year. Take a jar, past a sheet of paper on it with instructions, have some card stock cut out for your family to write on, and you're done!

This jar is to be set out somewhere in your holiday atmosphere and have the cards next to it for everyone there to write on them something or some things that they are thankful for! Then you get the joy of reading the allowed at the dinner table over your fabulous feast with your family!

I'm so making this happen! It might even happen every year from now on! :)

Here is the link for where I found it, it also has the decorative printable for the mason jar for you! 

Blessings Jar

I hope that you find this fun holiday craft inspiring and motivates you to make your own for your families this year! We need to pay more attention to what we're thankful for, and to this wondrous holiday, that is upon us!

-Stephanie