Mom Engineering

Movie Week - Recap

2011-07-08T18:04:00.000-04:00

Here is another recap for you of my Theme Weeks. Mainly because I wanted to take my kids to see Cars 2 in the theater, I made this week Movie Week! So obviously, my husband and I took the kids to see Cars 2, which was a treat in itself since usually I am taking the kids by myself. But we went on the 4th, so Holiday for Hubby!

The next activity was to have a "Drive-In" movie. This idea came from Family Fun as well...probably going to get tired of saying that! There actually is a local Drive-In by me, but I wanted the kids to have it at home. So, I gathered up some boxes, hot glued some paper plates to the sides for wheels, and let the kids decorate their "cars" till their heart's content! Each one came up with their own type of car and seemed to enjoy making them...well my daughter lost interest at one point, so I helped finish hers for her. I actually found a box that already had an end cutout, so the oldest wouldn't get uncomfortable sitting in his box.

We had a Jeep, Mack the Truck from the movie Cars, a fully decorated convertible, and whatever my daughter made.

After everything dried, we took them down in our basement (where our main TV is), put some pillows in the cars for comfort, and took a seat in the cars. I attached a food "tray" to each "car" with binder clips and gave them a cup of popcorn, cup of another food (cheese/crackers, sandwich, pizza rolls), and a juice pouch. We watched the movie Tangled and I made sure to turn up the sound system nice an loud so they felt like they were watching a movie at a theater.

Isn't this just the cutest thing you have ever seen?!

My little punky made it in her car for most of the movie, but she joined me on the couch at the end.

A movie week couldn't be complete without actually making one, right? So while we were at the beach, we made a couple music videos. I put a couple songs on my phone, held it up by the camera, and basically followed the kids around while they did crazy stuff. Not quite as organized as I would have preferred...I wanted them to plan out what they were going to do and then lip sync to the music...but they had fun. The oldest didn't want me to post the videos publicly, so I can't post them here. He had fun doing it, but I don't think he wants any chance of his friends seeing it...at 11 years old, gotta respect that.

Next week will be Nature Week...I have a separate post with the ideas I have for that. Until then, thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

Patriotic Week - Recap

2011-07-08T16:21:00.000-04:00

Ok I am now in the third week of theme weeks and I am finally getting a post up about it! I will see if I can be any better about giving you advanced week info...knowing my luck, they will all probably be recaps like this one! Oh well...I can only do so much.

So the first two weeks were Patriotic Week in honor of the 4th of July. The first week actually had the last day of school in there, so it was kind of a partial week. I think that the kids have been enjoying the theme weeks and I have enjoyed having activities and such to do with them (planned out in advance) so we aren't always doing the same stuff. Now we are still hitting the beach, playgrounds, etc, but we are getting the theme stuff in there too!

The first week, the kids (mine and a neighbors that I watch 2 days a week) made some very cute patriotic decorations. The idea for them came from the Family Fun Website...pretty much everything I do comes from there!! Totally love that site and magazine!

They don't make a ton of noise when the wind blows, but they do jingle a little bit!

Then I had them make Star and Stripes T-shirts. This was a huge hit!

I kind of wish I would have made one for myself, they turned out so good!

The last project we did was to make a Flag Dessert. We made two...one for my family and one for the neighbors. The kids were pretty proud of it. They cut all of the strawberries and everything!

We did some other stuff too, but nothing noteworthy...tried to talk about the US, the flag, etc and got some books from the library. I meant to teach them the Star Spangled Banner, but kind of forgot!

One project, in addition to the theme weeks, that I have the kids doing throughout the whole summer is trying to look around us to find letters. Not letters on a sign...that would be too easy...but letters that are formed by a tree, a lamp post, a handrail, etc. My goal is to find every letter by the end of summer and then print out the letters of there name as a room decoration. We are doing pretty good so far...here is an example of what one looks like:

A recap of the current movie week is coming up! Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

Totally Non-Stamping Related

2011-05-26T21:57:00.000-04:00

So like the title says, this is totally non-stamping related. But one picture I thought was pretty fun and the other I was pretty proud that I got. So the first is this poor fly! My son was about to get on the trampoline and came calling for me asking me what a bee looks like again. I ask why, of course, and he says that there is a bug buzzing on the trampoline and he isn't sure if it is a bee or not. I walk out there expecting to find a bee/fly dying on the surface of the trampoline and instead find a fly that somehow managed to get himself stuck in the trampoline netting. I mean did he fly into in? Did he not see the netting? Or did he try to crawl through the opening and ate a bit too much pollen (or whatever it is that flies eat) that day that he got stuck? So after I grabbed my camera and got a picture of him (which by the way, you can see the little hairs on him...pretty crazy), I helped him get out and he buzzed away happily.

My second photo to share is one that I was really excited about. One, I finally got a decent picture of my son with his missing front tooth and two, I just love the water splashing around him but he is in focus. So yay for me and my camera!

Well that is all for me...just had to share my pics with ya...back to stamping stuff. Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

Our End of the Summer

2010-09-09T16:41:00.000-04:00

So I have been meaning to write this post for awhile. We had such a busy last couple weeks of summer, I thought I would share the highlights. The rest of our summer before was fantastic as well filled with beach visits, camping, family, and friends. But these last few weeks were a great way to end our summer!

To start off our end of summer journey, my son, at the ripe old age of 5, took his First Communion. he had been crying nearly everytime he went up to Communion with my husband (I am always singing with the Praise Band) because he wanted to take it too. When we got a new Pastor at church we thought we could have the Pastor explain that First Communion happens at a defined age (I want to say 3rd grade, but I could be off on that)...instead the Pastor says if he is Baptized and wants to accept the gift of Communion, he is welcome to. Well that one threw us...not the way my church did it as a kid. I think the ELCA Lutheran church may have a different view than the Missouri Synod Lutheran church I grew up in...that or the Pastor has a differnt view. Either way, the Pastor was ok with it. We had my son talk with the Pastor one more time (just to make sure he knew what he was asking for) and we required him to learn the lord's Prayer prior to taking it. SUre enough the little guy learned the prayer in a month. So we got family together and celebrated him taking his First Communion!

Then we headed over to the West side of Michigan to visit a place south of Saint Joseph right on Lake Michigan. My entire family gets together for a trip once a year (beyond the various Holidays throughout the year) and I picked a place called Chalet on the Lake. It was wonderful! Right on beautiful Lake Michigan and a park filled with plenty to do. I gotta tell you...sunsets on Lake Michigan rival anywhere else I have been!

Then when we got back from our trip...I came home to a wonderful package! Since there recently was a big change in teh Paper Makeyp Stamps design team (which is when I was added), we decided to have a Secret Sister swap amongst as many of the team that could participate. This is what I recieved from my Big Sis, Tina Hale! Wasn't she just the sweetest?! Her cards were stunning and I loved the notepad. Then she was generous enough to get me a pad of Basic Grey paper and some beautful ribbon and twine. So sweet! Thank you again Tina!

The final trip of the summer was back to the West side of Michigan again up at Silver Lake. This area has so much to do as well...unfortunately the weather did not make things easy on us, but we tried not to let it stop us! We made it to Michigan's Adventure Amusement Park and had fun through torrential downpours...yeah we were pretty tired of being wet after that day, but we did manage to get about 3 hours at the end of the day without any rain. My husband enjoyed a morning riding his dirt bike on the dunes (only spot in Michigan that allows vehicles on the dunes) while the rest of us braved the major wind that day to see Little Sable Lighthouse. The next day was extremely chilly (especially when we packed more for summer), but we managed some dune jumping and a visit to a nearby petting farm...check out the picture that has a goat, zebra, and a camel all together! They also had a corn maze there in which we let the kids guide us...well not really but we tried to let them think they were guiding us! Then we finishe dthe trip to the Ludington North Breakwater Light in which Adi was allowed to climb to the top...she wasn't allowed to climb Little Sable, so she was super excited to be able to do this lighthouse!

Then we came back and had to get ready for my son's first day of Kindergarten! He was so excited to ride the school bus and had a great first day and week! My daughter was pretty impressed by the bus too because that is all she could talk about too..."Ewijah rode da bus", but she missed him too...always asking where he was. Cutest part was seeing how happy they were to see each other!

So that was my last few weeks of summer. Full of fun! Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering...or travel!

Teacher Gift

2010-06-22T17:15:00.000-04:00

My attempts at being productive have not been working out very well lately! See, the kids are visiting their Oma and Opa (my parents) for a few days so it is suppose to be a productive time for me...alone. Yesterday I did my shopping (except groceries which I still need to do)...new running shoes, lawn bags, and shoes for an upcoming wedding I am in. The last one proved to be the hard one and has made me hate shoe shopping! I was told a black pump/peep toe style shoe...doesn't sound that hard right? Wrong! I literally have gone to every store I could looking for something that 1) fit, 2) didn't make me feel in excuriating pain (seriously how do women wear some of these shoes?!), and 3) weren't too expensive! And you know what else I found out...stores that have multiple locations don't carry the exact same selection! Go figure. So now I have 3 pairs of shoes...1 pair that I like they way they look, but I am not sure I could make it 10 minutes in them (or maybe my toes will just go numb so I won't have to worry about it), 1 pair that are not quite as hurtful as the first pair and not quite as nice looking (and a little cheaper), and 1 last pair that look cool to me and are actually comfortable, but I am nervous they won't look right with the dress. They are more of a fun style...not a classic style. Ugh! SO three pairs later and I still am not sure what I am wearing. Anyway, that took literally ALL day yesterday and today I have been cleaning, but it is going slowly as I am not very motivated. Hoping this cup of coffee gets my butt in gear...hate to waste alone time!

Sorry for my lamenting there. I so needed my girlfriends with me on my shopping trip but they all had their kids with them...never quite sure I should trust what the sales people are telling me! So I made this little Post-It note holder for my son's end of the year teacher gift. We donated towards the class gift, but I always want to give something homemade too. Basically you decorate one of those cheap acrylic frames and put a pad of post-it notes on the outside. I started off with some random pattern paper that I had because it had some yellow in it to go with the yellow post-its...note to self to find where you can get cuter post-its if I ever make these again. So I will freely admit my color scheme is a little wonky, but i went with it. Basically just put a quote from the Teacher's Apple set from PaperTrey Ink and stamped and cut-out some apples. The turquoise apple is actually on the outside of the frame to give it a little interest. Finished off with some black grosgrain ribbon and I had a nice little teacher gift.

Exciting things are afoot, but I am not at liberty to discuss them yet....but soon! Until then (or sooner), thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Teacher's Apple (PaperTrey Ink); Paper - Tempting Turquoise, Ruby Red, Barely Banana (SU!), random pattern paper; Ink - Basic Black, Ruby Red, Tempting Turquoise (SU!); Accessories - black grosgrain ribbon (SU!), acrylic frame, post-it notes, scissors

Hot Chocolate Anyone?

2009-12-20T23:43:00.000-05:00

Wow is this a crazy time of year or what?! I will freely admit that I have not been well organized (starting my Christmas cards in December for example), but man I swear I feel like I am barely staying afloat! I am getting lots done (and I have recorded it), but popping in here to show off has been very low on the priority list. Hoping that things have settled down here now: Christmas cards made and sent, cookies baked, teacher gifts made and given out, presents bought and almost all wrapped, some handmade gifts made and a few more to make. Now I am trying to get ready for hosting Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve...ahhh!

Anyway, the reason I am here is to show you a cool little gift that I made for my son's classmates for Christmas. Now I take absolutely no credit for the recipe or idea. I saw a blog entry from an amazing Mom, Amy, at The Idea Room (btw, if you want a place to get awesome ideas to do with the kids, get organized, etc, you NEED to follow her blog...how she does it I will never know, but I have gotten many awesome ideas from her!) for Hot Chocolate on a Stick. She got the idea from a fellow blogger, Amber, at the Giver's Log. Amber gives great instructions, so I will not repeat them here. I will say that I used Ghirardelli Baking Bars and I had a big difference in consistency turnout between the Semi-Sweet vs. Milk Chocolate. I have no idea why, but just thought I would note that, although it tasted great either way!

I made them and then put them in bags with some ribbon and a note for instructions. I decorated them very simply, mainly because I was short on time, but also because they were going to 4 year olds! But overall I thought they turned out cute...and let me tell you they are good! Just writing about them, makes me want one!! And just to give you the full effect of 22 yummy Hot Chocolate on a Sticks:

Now go make your own!!!

Oh My Goodness and a Road Trip

2009-07-07T22:22:00.000-04:00

So I may use a little space here as a little therapy session...if you would rather not hear me whine, skip down to the next paragraph. Still here...oh thanks! Let me start by saying I love my baby girl so very much...have to remind myself of that sometimes especially on days like these! So she seriously needs to start talking already...she is 13.5 months old now and all we really get are "doggie", maybe "duck", maybe "car", and a lot of mamamamamama (which may or may not relate to me!). The reason I say this is because the poor thing has no way of communicating with me besides screaming! Problem is all of the screams sound the same...LOUD! I have tried and am still trying signing with her, but she does not seem to get it nor has she ever attempted to show me a sign. I got to the point today I yelled at her to stop, which startled her, then she did stop screaming (yeah!), but then started crying (which is close to screaming!). Ahhhh, I just want her to start talking, signing, or something so that we can communicate better with each other! My son was an early talker, so I didn't have this issue with him....I am so struggling right now! Ok enough of my therapy session...on to the subject at hand.

First for my "Oh My Goodness" portion of the title of today's post. I got some very exciting news recently! Spellbinder's (the makers of the Nestabilities) blog had a Blog Frenzy last week to showcase their new Pendants and Borderabilities (all of which are very cool!) and you could enter each day to have a chance to win that days Pendant and matching Borderabilities...and if you entered all of the days, you had a chance to win the Grand Prize of all of the new Pendants and Borderabilities. Well guess what....I WON the GRAND PRIZE! Check out all of the cool stuff I won HERE! It is so exciting to see my name as the winner...I just couldn't (and still can't) believe it!

Now for the Road Trip portion of the post...my family is headed on a trip this weekend to southern Ohio. This will be the longest trip I think we have taken with the kids, so I have been trying to come up with ideas to keep Eli (Adi is too young for all of this) entertained without too many DVD's and such. Allison Fillo was kind enough to send me a link to a Road Trip game that you try and count up the number of each vehicle you see. So I took that idea and made it into a Road Trip BINGO. So as we are driving along, we will play BINGO with the things we see. It sounds like it should be fun...I will let you know how it goes when we get back!

Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

Valentine Gifts

2008-02-08T22:00:00.000-05:00

In addition to the Valentine’s Day cards for the kids at my son’s daycare, I wanted to make some little gifts to give to the girls that care for my son…he loves them so much and they are so wonderful to him! I have seen all over in blogging land, the Target $1 mailboxes that are out for Valentine’s Day. So I headed over and picked up a bunch and also hit Jo-Ann’s to find some Valentine’s Day patterned paper.

The mailboxes are really cute and very easy to cover. I used a 4” x 12” strip of patterned paper to cover the main body of the mailbox and I adhered it using sticky tape. My only tricky part was to punch a hole for the flag…I read before that a ½” circle punch works great for that, but alas I do not have one. So I used a ¼” circle punch and just tried to “make” a ½” circle. Not the prettiest, but I think it worked with out being noticeable. Then just traced the lids of the mailbox onto another sheet of patterned paper and adhered that using Modge Podge…although I think the Tombow Liquid Metal or Multi-purpose Adhesive would work better (but I don’t have any) because the paper could be easily peeled from the lid…just hoping it isn’t handled too much! Then I just decorated the edges of the lids with ribbon again adhered with sticky tape. The little bows were created via inspiration from Nichole Heady’s blog and her instructions here. It makes a nice clean inline bow for a strip of ribbon. I added a little extra decoration with some of the images from the Happy Heart Day stamp set, but I didn’t want to overwhelm the mailbox so I kept it simple.

Then, the best part…I filled it with chocolate and a matching little card. I used the mini note cards from Stampin’ Up! that I realized fit perfectly in the little mailbox. The image in the card is again from the Happy Heart Day set and I paper pieced the heart using the striped paper. Colored the shirt of the mouse and the flower on the heart with Rose red and Chocolate Chip markers. A little Rhinestone sticker (Icons Stickers by Me & My Big Ideas available at Jo-Anns) finished it off! Again kept them simple, but I thought it turned out cute. I hope they like them!

I made a second set with a little bit less girly colors to give to my husband and son. Similar matching card to finish it off...with candy of course!

The Engineering Details
Stamps – Happy Heart Day; Ink – Chocolate Chip, Rose Red Marker, Chocolate Chip Marker; Cardstock – Pink Striped (DCWV From Jo-Anns), Pink Swirl (Sandylion Sticker Designs From Jo-Anns), Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White; Accessories – Scallop circle punch, 1-3/8” circle punch, white ¼” grosgrain ribbon, Target $1 Spot mailbox; Supplies – sticky tape, Modge Podge, scissors

Stamping on the Walls

2008-01-14T22:03:00.001-05:00

So as you know I am expecting a second child in June. My husband and I decided that we would give our son a new room (all boy style) and leave the original gender neutral current room for the baby. It is funny though how my son’s current room, even though before he was born it felt fine for a girl or a boy, has taken on a boy feel to it…guess because he has been in there for almost 3 years now! Anyway, my little man is very into transportation vehicles of any kind and at one time he told me he wanted a blue room…although that changed on the day you asked. So I went about trying to figure what I wanted to do in there and found some great foam stamps at Michael’s. There was a bus, car, pickup truck, train, cement truck, and an airplane. My mom, the sewing goddess, and I set out to pick out material for a quilt that she would make incorporating these great shapes. I then took the colors from the quilt to get the colors for the room. So what do you think??

Oh and the cool “All Boy Blvd” sign on the wall is technically a rub-on (gotta love those rub-ons!) from Uppercase Living. My sister had a party and this is what I got…just fits perfectly in his room! It was super easy to put on the wall…I will admit though I was very nervous!!

Here are some close-ups of the stamping that I did. The stamping went really well. The images came out a little splotchy due to the slight texture on the wall. I wanted a slightly more solid look to the images though, so I had to fill in some patches by hand…the most time consuming part!

And finally, here is a preview of the beautiful quilt my wonderful mother is working on! I am still amazed at how great the vehicles turned out…cant wait to see the finished project!!

Now we just have to move my son’s bed and stuff in there and he has a brand spanking new “All Boy” room!