Summer Fun and Learning

Well my kids are officially out of school! Time to start our summer fun. This year I have decided to keep things a little more simple. We will of course have our bucket list but our "school" work will be a little more laid back (see our bucket list here). With me in school this summer my time is limited. So I decided to run with a theme each week, read books based on the theme, an arts/craft project, 2 letters of the alphabet a week to practice our writing, one fun activity and maybe a stick from our bucket if it correlates. Here are my themes for the 12 weeks:

Summer Bucket List

The kids and I sat down and made a list of all the thing we want to do this summer and created our summer bucket list. Last year we made a list and checked off the things. This year, thanks to Pinterest I found a great idea with popsicle sticks from The Home Teacher.


Don't forget about those bus drivers!

I wanted to thank Nathans bus driver Kim. She is so sweet,  and always waves at me when she picks up Nate. On the school improvement days when Nathan has AM Kindergarten instead of PM Kindergarten she always makes sure he gets in the house before she pulls away. It also blew my mind that she gave Nathan goodie bags for all the holidays! I never had a bus driver do that when I was younger. So I made her a card and then found this of course on Pinterest!


There are several great printable on this site. Click here for the bus printable. Here is the card I made her. I love it! It started off with just the bus and then my mojo kicked in.

Happy Memorial Day

We have such a great weekend planned out. Tomorrow we are hanging with some great friends of ours to swim and BBQ so I made some quick buckets for the kids. Each bucket cost about $6.00 I have snaps, temporary tattoos, glow sticks, a ring pop, and a pinwheel all wrapped up in a cute bucket. Here is what I started with:



Teacher Gifts

I wanted to find something for my kids teachers that wasn't the typical thank you gift. My husband and I absolutely loved our son's teachers this year! They were wonderful and we wanted them to know it! I found this idea on Pinterest (who doesn't love that site).

So I copied the idea and modified it a bit to add my personal touch. I got most of the items at Walmart and Meijer. Each gift cost about $13.00!! I printed a little note and had the boys sign their name. Here are the supplies I started with.


I put it together and thought it needed something refreshing. Water maybe??


Nope....didn't like it. The water was too heavy and I could totally see my boys losing the water bottle and then trying to jam it back in and wreaking the whole gift. While in Meijer grocery shopping I saw these cute little cups....perfect! Here is the final outcome.


All three together


I am happy with the outcome and can't wait to give them to the best teachers!

My One Word - Change (update)


In January I picked one word to be my word for the year. I choose CHANGE. There were several things I wanted to change in my life. One thing I wanted to change was my grade point average. In high school I was for the most part an honor student but always felt I could have done better. After almost 7 months in school I am currently holding a 4.0 GPA!!! Another thing I wanted to change was more "me" time. I have sacrificed for years between family, friends, and life style choices. Now don't hate me when I say this, but I decided to change, and become a little more selfish. I was always trying to help others, and always saying yes to others. This year I took a step back, not that I don't want to help others, or say yes to others, but I think I learned to say "how will this affect you and how will this affect your family." If I found that saying yes meant sacrificing time with my family, or something that I wanted to do on my priority list I have learned to say no. I also wanted to change my diet and exercise. I can say I have made some minor changes but I need some bigger changes to happen there. My relationship with my husband has changed. Changed for the good. I think we have learned to appreciate each other more and we have had some of the best talks. My favorite time is sitting with him on the sofa just talking after we get the kids in bed. We have had so many great talks that I have logged in my memory banks! The biggest change is yet to come (I'm so close to telling).......to be continued!





My one word for 2012

CHANGE

That's my word. So many things in my life need to change and I need to change them for me. Sorry if that sounds a little selfish but this year I need to stop putting so many of my efforts into everyone else and take care of me a little better. I have started a pinterest board to remind me of my word thru out the year. You can see it here

Here's to a Happy New Year!