The last full week of Christmas 2016. How does that even happen? And of course the elves are not going to go back to the NP without lots of fun...
Charley and Malia decided that it would be fun to TP Miss K's Christmas tree on Day 22!
Bowling at the Candy Cane Lanes on Day 23.
(Santa found the pins at Michaels and the bowling lane printable from Learning as I Sew)
Thanks to Social Media, the elves changed their calendar up a bit this week and added this one in...Miss K even added a video to her YouTube Channel. Be sure to follow her.
She has big plans in 2017,
Ha! It took forever for Miss K to find the elves in this hiding place.
The last day of school 2016!!
Magic North Pole Seeds. Here is a closer look at the directions and a printable for next year.
24 hours later, the seeds grew a peppermint swirl lollipop!!
Only two more days until Christmas. What will day 29 and 30 bring?
Do you have an Elf on the Shelf? Won't you please grab the button below, link up, and play along once a week until December 30th-a little longer for those of you traveling and might have a lingering visitor? You can share seven pictures, a few, or just one of your favorite Elf moments/memories of the week. All you have to do is grab the button and put your blog link in the linkup form that I will provide each week. I look forward to seeing all of the Elf games and fun you are having!
Warning: I do post daily on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter. My follow buttons are over on the right side of my blog. If you do want to follow and post, I will use the following hashtags #CrowElf16 #The4CrowsElfLinkup.
Elf on a Shelf with The 4-Crow's 2016 will be posted the following Friday's, hope you join in!
It's summer. WooHoo!!! The one thing my kids hate to do in the summer is anything that remotely looks like school, including READING. As a mom and an avid reader, this breaks my heart. When FlyBy Promotions contacted me about reading and reviewing the latest book in Bible Belle's series, my Moma wheels started turning. How can I make Miss K enjoy reading this summer... To be honest she doesn't like to read, because she is slow, and feels like she doesn't do a great job at it.
I haven't shared on the blog yet, but Miss K now has a YouTube channel- Miss K's Corner. Yes, she is now an aspiring YouTuber. She has 7 videos, with 7 subscribers, and a total of 343 likes total. Believe me, she can rattle those stats off like nobody's business. Anyway, if she can vlog about something she does, a DIY, a shopping haul, or something else, then MAYBE I can get her to read a book and vlog about it.
MISSION SUCCESSFUL. Take a look at this. I'll admit, this was a huge lesson for both of us. My comfort in reading, meets her comfort behind the camera. Her discomfort in reading, met my discomfort of self behind camera. What a lesson the Belles are teaching us both.
"About the series: Bible Belles’ The Adventure of Rooney Cruz is an original children’s series that presents real life heroes like never before. The series highlights five superhero women of the Bible: Hannah, Esther, Abigail, Ruth and Deborah.
THE SOUND OF THE BELLES WILL BE H.E.A.R.D. -EXODUS 28:35
We’re setting out to present women in the Bible in a way that has never been done before. We want girls to connect with them and find out what being truly beautiful is all about. We want girls to remember their names, their stories, and how special they are."
We were sent an e-book/pdf of Esther: The Belle of Patience. I just love how the women of the Bible are being compared to modern day girls. Esther releases in June 2016. One of my blessed readers is going to get their very own copy of this book to add to their library. Will it be you? Just enter on the easy Rafflecopter form below.
"Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post. Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win. Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”
a Rafflecopter giveaway
"MOMA.....I'm so BORED!!!"
"I've already played with the 1.1K toys we have, we are out of paint, and I need more bands."
Sound familiar? Thanks to IDO3D by RedwoodVentures LTD, LLC., who is paying me to play with my daughter (WIN! WIN!), I am not going to hear these phrases as much with upcoming snow days and looooong school vacations.
Lately, it seems a lot of Miss K's creations have been 3D. Some of my favorites are her snowman, penquin, tiger and alligators. If you follow me on IG you have seen a few of these. When IDO3D offered to let me try out their kit with my kids, I said YES! Especially when it boasted to make up to 25 projects. Score!!
This IDO3D kit includes:
(5) 3D drawing pens, colors vary but we received two red (the tube appears slightly orange), two green and one yellow.
(1) 3D Guide Book
(1) spotlight for curing the ink
(1) plastic sheet for drawing
(2) accessory shapes
*NOT included are 3 AAA batteries
Check out my little artist. If it involves experimenting, she is all about it.
Tips for using:
Make sure your IDO3D spotlight has fresh batteries. Uses AAA(Note: The light may appear to be working, when the batteries are in fact weak.)
The spotlight should be held as close to your project as possible (about .5 inches). You can also cure your pieces from the bottom of the plastic tracing sheet by holding your light directly under your artwork. This is helpful for thicker lines and larger areas of ink. The tip of the pen can be adjusted to create thick or thinner lines. (Just like a glue tip)
Trace small sections of your project pieces and then quickly hit it with the light. You do not need it to fully cure; a couple of seconds will prevent the ink from spreading and allow you to achieve finer detail. Repeat this process until you are finished with your project piece.
We have found that alcohol based hand sanitizers help to easily remove any sticky residue left behind by the ink.
You can place your plastic tracing sheet in the sun to cure any unwanted ink. (You can also place your art in a window sill and use to sun to help finish curing your projects.)
You can purchase your very own IDO3D Pen and Ink Up to 25 Projects Print System at this link. Here is her final 1st time project. I think she is in the Christmas mood.
Miss K and I had so much fun bonding and creating. She thought it would even be fun to answer a few questions about her newest craft making tool, and really thought it was cool when she saw IDO3D advertising on the TV! Too bad we had to leave for her brother's basketball game or we probably would have made it a goal to get all 25 projects made in one night!
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post by IDO3D. All content is my honest opinion. I will be compensated monetarily for this post.
In 10 days my girl starts third grade. Her new school box is bought, yes it is pink on top and ready to be filled with new crayons, markers, glue, and scissors. She picked out her second brand new backpack of her school career, a Vera Bradley. My girl loves her some Vera patterns, especially in hues of purples and pinks. It is currently at the embroidery shop awaiting the perfect stitches of the seven letters that make up her name. Her school clothes are bought. Styles ranging from athletic to casual dressy. Her favorite accessories are probably the black slip-on Converse Chuck Taylor's and new undergarments she picked out. My girl may just follow in her Moma's footsteps in that area- I got Chuck's also!
My girl is growing up. Third grade pressures will be here soon enough. She knows. I know. But we are not going to focus on what we know is to come at the end of her third grade year. The single tests that determine whether or not she and her friends continue on to fourth grade with their other friends who pass the tests. Math and reading, how we love you, but you aren't fun anymore. It's not your fault. It's certainly not our teachers or students fault, but rather the lawmakers.
My baby girl is no longer a baby. We choose to focus on what must be done today and will take each day of third grade as it comes. Today, ten days before she becomes an official third grader she put on her ballet leotard for the first time with Nair Baby Soft legs. She fixes her own hair now, and even figured a way to get a pink streak in it this past weekend. Thankfully it wasn't permanent. Thankfully I still get to do all ballet buns.
Her imagination is infinite. Her generosity is great. No life is untouched by the impression she makes. I pray she will always carry the light she has now. Even though I wish I could slow down time, I look forward to seeing my girl grow even more.
Today's informative post is brought to you by none other than Miss K. I found these in her backpack this morning. I love the combination of science, writing, and art. I admire her developing thought process, the paragraph usage and her overall enthusiasm for these three subjects. It still pains me that she doesn't spell every word correctly, but I am reminded by her 2nd grade teacher that at this age she still spells as she sounds out.
Bees by Kaybrie
(spelling errors corrected by Mom)
A Queen bee is the boss. She lays eggs. She lays over 1000 eggs. She is very lazy. I wish she was more like a Queen. The similarities are of course they are both bees. The Queen bee and the worker bee can both fly. And both have the same body parts such as the head, abdomen, and thorax. Now to the worker bee. It is pretty small. They do a lot of work for the Queen bee. And they care for the babies.
Did you learn anything?
I love reading what my children write, and sometimes even share their writings on my blog. After all this is a blog about living, laughing, LEARNING, and loving from our nest. As my second grader prepares to become a third grader, I am seeing more and more writing prompts come home with her. Miss K is my creative one, she would rather be making something than doing what has to be done. Anyone else have a child like that? Or on another note does anyone else have a child that is a mirror image of themselves? She is definitely my mirror.
I can only imagine what she was thinking when her teacher gave the class a Hershey's Kiss and told them to carefully peel off the wrapper. Told them that the Kiss that was being given was going to turn into something....
A Volleyball. It turned into a volleyball because I love volleyball. I am not in it yet but I get about a foot away from my closet and throw the ball and it bounces away from me and so the game is against the closet. My brothers girlfriend plays volleyball and she plays for the Tigers and my brother's school. And the ball always came toward me and my family. I tried to hit the ball but couldn't. I really love volleyball. I love it. I LOOOOOOOVVVVEE itttttttttttt.
Any guesses on which sport Miss K just signed up to play?
P.S. I am really hoping I got every O, V, E and T accounted for in the rewrite of that story. She told me that her teacher said every line had to be filled up. Oh my.
Miss K turned 8 on Saturday. I have an EIGHT year old daughter. Once again we hosted a Birthday Party on a Budget. Total spent on party- $55!
I made the invitation in PicMonkey. Had them printed at Wal-Mart as 4x6 prints and invited 9 friends.
I picked up canvases and acrylic paints from Michaels and ordered paint trays, brushes and aprons from Amazon. I then used masking tape and taped off each girl's first letter of their name. Letters like "R" and "S" are hard y'all!
The girls painted over their taped off initial. They painted their way. Girls are creative that way.
The birthday girl hard at work.
The final masterpieces! So adorable!
For the "birthday cake", I made cake balls. 81 cake balls to be exacts. Only 79 ended up getting decorated, and 45 ended up on the cake plates for the girls to eat. I served Miss K's favorite Cherry Limeade in Mason jars and Cheddar Cheese Bugles.
Each guest got their picture taken with the birthday girl. I really should have thought and had a better background other than the garage door. I will print these pictures out and send as the thank you card.
My sweet little sassy, artsy dancer is EIGHT YEARS OLD! Yes, we butt heads- like mad, but each day it is like looking into a mirror of myself at that age. I often wonder aloud about where she gets her independence, about where she gets her energy, her constant need to be doing something. I find more often than not that her need to do something involves creativity, either through a craft or through dance. I mean really, what 8 year old asks for duct tape and rubber bands for her birthday? She truly is my mini-me. She reciprocates everything I do, yet still embraces her own individuality. She is growing into a beautiful young lady, and I thank God each day that He chose me to be her mother.
P.S. Do you see the chalkboard easel in the first picture? My friend Glenna gave it to us. A huge shout of thank you goes out to her for that party decoration and toy. Also, what I didn't mention in the post was my trip to urgent care the morning of Miss K's party. My boy took over the heavy lifting and clean up of this party. I could never have pulled it off without him. My kids are AWESOME!
Bowl games on in the living room. PS3 on in the boy's room. Good Luck Charlie playing on the Disney Channel. I decide to take this rare opportunity of no refereeing, cooking, cleaning or laundry and empty a bottle of shower gel (it's all I could find) into my garden tub and fill it with the hottest water I can stand. I had just settled in and leaned back with a paperback book when I feel these piercing eyes looking at me. "I just wanted to see if you needed anything Mommy", my five year old daughter said.
I knew the true reason for her visit. Yes, some may say five is too old to jump in the tub with her Mommy, but I know soon she truly will be too big for such an occurrence and that the desire will no longer be there at all. I must cherish these Mommy moments because they soon will be over and I will have the bath alone once more.
