Perspective Landscape - 3rd grade Art

For February's 3rd grade art project I decided to change it up a little. This time I decided to skip the paint and use colored pencils, which just made the project a little quicker because we weren't waiting for any paint to dry. But the kids still all had a lot of fun and seemed to enjoy this perspective landscape.

Teaching kids perspective can be interesting because they get it, but getting them to actually put it onto paper is a little confusing. Why would we want the lines to be close together at the top but nowhere close at the bottom? Some kids struggled just a little to get it, But I think in the end it all came together.

One thing I do when I am preparing these art days is make a picture ahead of time. I like to take a finished picture with me that day because it gets them excited for the project. But then I also use a second piece of paper and walk through it with them step by step. I used the picture above to walk through step by step.

We started with making the line going across the paper from left to right. Then we made the road, drew the mountains, added trees and clouds.

You can see that the kids really make it their own by adding the sun, faces to their clouds, deer. Some even added birds and a river.

Several of the pictures I have done with the kids this year I found on Pinterest, yet they actually came from artprojectsforkids.org

They have a lot of really awesome projects that kids will love to do!

I think the kids all did a great job with their perspective landscape drawings!

If you want to see some of the other projects the kids have worked on, check out Winter's Night, Tree Ornaments, Fall Leaves and Witches Feet.

Dating your Daughter

This post has been compensated by IHelpMoms.com and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

I love having Mama/Daughter time with Summer. She turned 5 a few months ago and still thinks I am the best of the best. I know the days will come when I am not her favorite person, so for now I am going to enjoy every moment of our bestie time together.

I am always looking for new ways to have one on time with the kids. Summer is the easiest because we just happen to like all the same girlie things.



One thing that is great about dating your kids is that they are a pretty cheap date! I mean, it is fun to go out to lunch or go get pedicures and all, but we have lots of fun without spending a bunch of money!

One of Summer's favorite things to do it take selfies. Girlfriend loves to get her picture taken (most of the time!). She loves using the filters on SnapChat - The filters are actually all we use it for! But pretty much any occasion has to be marked with a selfie!



Summer loves to be read to. We are working on learning her sounds and sounding out words so that she is ahead of the game when she heads off to Kindergarten next Fall. Her favorite is Huggy Kissy. Have you read that one before?



Normally painting her nails is enough but one day we ran across fake nails for kids and she thought it was the coolest thing ever! I won't lie, they lasted less than 24 hours and I even found one stuck in her hair the next morning, but she had fun and loved spending the time putting them on!



Matchy matchy! I have made several matching shirts for her and I, and we have matching pajamas. She always asks to wear out matching clothes. But now, thanks to The Dreamland Company we have matching nightgowns!

I love this sleep ware because they are made with LUXE cotton with a touch of stretch and are amazingly soft.  These nightgowns are designed and made by women right here in the USA. And now these adorable kids sizes are available so you and your daughter can match too! 

Right now you can even get a great Deal For Moms! SAVE $5 WHEN YOU -- USE CODE: "ihelpmoms"

Don't miss The Dreamland Company on Facebook and Instagram! @TheDreamLandCompany
They would be great Christmas presents for not only yourself and your daughter, but your mom, grandma or any other lady in your life.

I wish I would have had one after having my kids because it would have been great to change into my own nightgown and be comfortable rather than wearing a hospital gown!



Spending a morning with curlers in her hair while we scrapbooked was fun too. Any type of crafts go over well at my house.



Or even a girls day watching girlie movies is good too!



But really, anytime that I get to just relax with my girl makes for a great date!



What are your favorite ways to date your daughter?

Dinosaur Birthday Party

My little guy isn't so little any more. Yesterday Tyler turned 7 years old. I know that he really is still "little" but such a big kid too!
He is loving first grade and I love to watch him grow. His reading and writing is so great and I love having him read stories to me. And he asked for notes cards and envelopes for his birthday so he can write notes. He is so my child.

For his birthday he asked for a Dinosaur birthday party and as soon as Summer's Mermaid Party was over I got to work on a few things.



I really wanted to keep food more simpler than I have before. We did food for Carivores: Chicken nuggets and pigs in a blanket. Herbivores: veggies and ranch. And Sweetivores: Dino footprint cookies.

We also had Dino eggs which were grapes. Dino bones that were pretzels and Dino teeth that were Bugles. We also had green Din-o-mite punch!



These plates I use are awesome and I use them for every party I have! I just get a can of spray paint and give them a fresh color for whatever our theme is! check out how I made them in this post from Summer's Tea Party.



We had several games that we played. The first was just "Pin the head on the skeleton" and I picked that up from Party City for just a couple of dol1ars. It came with 12 skeleton head stickers, a blindfold and the sheet to put up on that wall. The kids could see out of the bottom of the blindfold if you weren't paying attention. The we had a couple of non cheaters! (Ha!)



We also played another game where we tied a string to a balloon and tied the other end around the kids waist. Then once they were all ready we let them loose and they had to stomp the other kids balloons to pop them without getting their own popped. The last balloon standing wins. I think we only had three kids that cried..... The others seemed to enjoy it!



The last game we played was called Feed the dinosaur. Zachary drew this Dino for me and cut out the mouth then we just put a bucket behind it. We had a bag of plastic golf balls from a game we played over the summer that worked perfectly and the kids seemed to love it. They each took multiple turns!



Then it was time for presents and cupcakes. Tyler got tons of legos, which he loves so he was super excited and couldn't wait to get building!



And next was chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and I used candy corn to make spikes on the back of our Dino!



To make the leaves I just cut them out with my cricut. Such a time saver!



I also made shirts for my family. Getting a 15 year old boy to wear a shirt that says "brothersaurus" isn't easy, but he wanted to stay the night at his friend's so I told him only if he wore the shirt for the party. #noshameinmygame So here we are: mamasaurus, daddysaurus, brothersaurus, sistersaurus and Tylersaurus.



Tyler had such a fun party and I think all the kids had a fun time too! You can see the "binoculars" we made using toilet paper rolls, tape and string. Makes for a pretty inexpensive party and the kids enjoyed the time!

Packing a Smile with Pepperidge Farm Goldfish

 

 

Back to school will be here before we know it but right now we are trying to make the most of our summer time and making all the smile worthy moments that we can.



This school year my kids kids will be in 10th grade, 1st grade and Pre-K and until we have to get back into our school year routine we are enjoying all the lake, river and pool time we can. We've had lots of play dates, runs through the sprinkler, played on the slip n slide and of course tons of BBQ'd food.



One of my favorite summer time activities is watching the kids play in the sprinkler while I lay on a blanket reading a good book. There is just nothing better than listening to your kids giggle as they get hit with the cold water on their run through!

And one of the kid's favorite things to do is any outdoor activity that involves snacking on Pepperidge Farm Goldfish® crackers.  Any of our activities we do have to involve snacks because these kids think they are hungry 24 hours a day.  So Goldfish® are our go-to snack because they love them and I feel good about the kids eating them.



Some things I love about Goldfish® crackers:

• Always Baked with Real Cheese


• No Artificial Flavors or Preservatives


• Colors Sourced from Plants, such as annatto extracted from the reddish seeds of the Achiote Tree


• Baked with Whole Grain Cheddar variety has 12 g of WG per serving


• A snack you can feel good about serving your kids

Once we are back in school I see our afternoons going much the same way full of homework, after school play dates and Goldfish® snacks.

Want to leave a fun little note with your kiddos after school snack? Print these out or feel free to make your own. I know Tyler loves to find these notes, especially as he started learning to read it was so fun to watch him sound them out!



 

What are your favorite ways to make smile worthy moments?

Showing our Appreciation with a DIY Glitter Dipped Mug

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #OneTreeOneBag #CollectiveBias

The school year's end is right around the corner. But before that can wrap up we need to share our appreciation for the school staff. Our school’s Staff Appreciation week is coming up and I wanted to find something fun for Tyler's teacher. For me, there is nothing better than coffee so I basically always include it in some way when I am giving gifts.



Tyler's teacher is really fun and outgoing and I remember her saying once that her family loves to camp. So I immediately thought of a glitter dipped mug and coffee as part of her gift.

I headed to the store to get a few things, but before that I ran to Safeway to grab a bag of Starbucks® Pike Place® Roast. It is my favorite roast and I love to share it!

• One of my favorite things about Starbucks is how giving they are.


• For every bag of Starbucks® 10-12z & 20z Ground or Whole Bean coffee purchased at participating Albertsons Company stores in the U.S. from May 1st through May 28, Starbucks provides one disease-resistant coffee tree to a farmer in Mexico, Guatemala or El Salvador,


• Starbucks® will donate 70¢ to Conservation International for every bag of coffee sold at participating Albertsons Company stores in the U.S. from May 1st through May 28 to foster thriving coffee communities.


• To learn more, visit conservation.org/onetree.

Check out the special Starbucks "One Tree One Bag" commitment display in the coffee aisle!



I have only made glitter dipped cups/mugs a couple of times before, but they are super easy and add a touch of fun to your cup!

1. Take some painters tape and tape around your clean, dry cup. (Make sure it's even!)


2. Use a decoupage glue and a foam brush and paint the glue on the area your glitter will be.


3. Quickly sprinkle on the glitter. I used two paper bowls and held my cup over one bowl and poured the glitter from the second bowl. I turned the cup as I poured to make sure everything was covered.


4. Wait about 15 minutes and sponge another layer of decoupage on the glitter. You don't want to "paint" this layer on but just lightly sponge it. If you need to add another layer of glitter you'll do it now. Wait another 15 minutes and sponge on more decoupage.


5. Wait another 15 minutes and carefully peel off the painter's tape.


6. You want to wait several hours to let the glue completely dry before touching.

After I had let my mug completely dry I added the cute little decal I made for it.



Now our fun mug is all ready for staff appreciation week and ready to be full of a delicious cup of Starbucks® Pike Place® Roast.



I am hoping our teacher is a "Happy Camper" when she gets this fun gift!




What are some of your favorite ways to celebrate the staff at your local school?

American Girl Doll Closet

There was a time when my life only knew boys. I had two sons and we didn't find out what we were having with baby number 3. We were going to be done after 3 no matter if we had a girl or a boy and while I was secretly thinking I was having a girl I told everyone I thought I was having a boy. I think I was trying to convince myself I was having a boy so that when I had another boy, I was mentally prepared.

I wasn't sure if a girl was in my future. But luckily that day I had Summer my life changed for the good. There are so many fun things I get to do with Summer, like painting our nails, doing fun hair styles and playing with dolls.

For Christmas, Reese joined our family. Summer was so excited to get Reese and plays with her every single day. She has lots of clothes for her, but that hasn't stopped me from buying more fabric than I need to make matching outfits for Summer and Reese.



It has also opened up so many opportunities to make fun things like this doll closet.

It couldn't have been easier. I bought one of these crates for $10, a rod for .29 and the plank for $2. And I also just used some paint that I already had from DecoArt and some hot glue!

Because it was a little rough I did use a piece of sand paper to sand down my box a little, but it only took a few minutes.



These were Summer's paint choices! Bubblegum and Purple Cow!



She wanted the inside to be pink, so that is just what we did!



Then the outside was purple! And I used a glossy clear coat to give it a shine!



I cut a couple pieces of the peg off and painted them pink, and one longer piece purple. Then, using the hot glue I put the "rod" in to hang the hangers on, and the smaller pegs I used to prop up the board on the side for a shelf.



I'm thinking of grabbing another piece of wood to put up above the rod because that might be a better place for the shoes to go. What do you think?



Look how happy this girl is to have Reese's closet finished? She was so in love!





I also grabbed this mirror from the dollar store. It has the suction cups on the back, but I just filled them with hot glue and stuck it on!





I have so many more projects that I want to do for Reese and Summer. What would you like to see me make?

Make your own Gummy Worms

Last year for my birthday, my father in law bought me a gummy worm machine.

I don't actually eat gummy candy because it has always bothered my teeth, but my family, however, love gummy worms, bears and fish. Especially my husband. So as soon as I got the machine we made our own gummy worms.



It came with the trays for worms, bears and fish and one giant bear!



We didn't waste any time and got to making our gummy candy! The kids thought it was so fun and were excited to make their own candy.



You just use a box of jello and a box of Gelatine and pour into the little pot. Then occasionally give a stir until the mixture is nice and smooth.





One it is a liquid you can pour into each of the molds.







Then you let them sit so they can firm up. And you've just made your very own gummy worms, bears and fish.

Now if you don't have one of these handy little machines (you can get mine HERE) you can use a sauce pan to cook up your mixture and some fun little molds that you find on amazon, or in the Target dollar spot!



Have you ever made your own gummy worms? How did they turn out?