Make a Memory {EVERYDAY} Day 3

 Our Make a Memory {Everyday} activity today was shadow puppets. I got the idea from The Usborne Big Book of Science Things to Make and Do. 

 I folded rectangles of cardstock in half, then punched a hole and cut out a mouth shape. Then, the kids drew monsters around the faces and we cut them out and taped a straw to the bottom of each. 

 We tried using them for shadow puppets, but the kids had more fun using them as regular puppets behind the kitchen counter. :)

Make a Memory {EVERYDAY} Day 2

 

We made mystery paintings on Day 2 of  Make a Memory {Everyday}. I found this idea on Doehler Days. Ours didn't turn out quite as cute as hers, but my kids thought I was pretty clever. As they were painting, my oldest said, "How are you doing this, Mom?!". I just traced pictures from coloring books with a white crayon. When they painted over the crayon with watercolor paints, the pictures appeared. 

 Fish:

 Yoda:

 

R2-D2

 

Very easy and very fun!

Make a Memory {EVERYDAY} Day 1

 

 

We spend a lot of time at the local libraries and check out A LOT of books. So, for the first day of our Make a Memory {EVERYDAY}, we made book bags. There are a number of small towns in the area where we live and each town has it's own public library. We enjoy going to 3 different libraries and participating in their Summer Reading Programs. However, it can get overwhelming to keep track of books from 3 different libraries. For the main library that we go to, I purchased a folding plastic crate on wheels. We take our cart to the library with us, fill it up with books, and bring it home. Then, we keep all the books in the cart in our living room, making it super easy to gather the books when it's time to go take them back to the library.

 We don't check out as many books at the other two libraries we frequent (and 3 carts would be quite excessive). So, we made a special bag for each of the other two libraries and we keep the books and library card for those particular libraries in the bags. To make the bags, I cut rectangles out of a heavy weight cream fabric. Then, the kids colored pictures on the rectangles with permanent markers (I didn't want to spend the money on fabric markers and figured that permanent markers would work just as well). Then, I made the fabric with their pictures on it into pockets.

 

I found this great red and white polka dot outdoor canvas for an awesome price (1 1/2 yards for $5.03!) at Walmart and thought it would be perfect for book bags. 

I made simple, boxy bags and added the pockets on the outside. We keep our library cards in the pockets, so they're always ready to go when we head to the library.  The kids are very proud to have their artwork displayed on our new book bags!

Make A Memory {EVERYDAY}

I was inspired by Nikki's Summer Diary over at Whimsy Love to make a memory everyday with my kids. She planned something fun to do with her girls every day during Summer break and she does a great job documenting it on her blog. I always have a long list of ideas of things that I want to do with the kids, but I sometimes have a hard time getting them done. So, I decided to plan out enough activities for the Summer and gather all the supplies and instructions into one file folder basket. That way, each day we can just pull out a file folder and everything is ready to go. I'll be posting all of our activities on here. 

 

Here's our basket, all ready to go!

  

And an extra box of supplies that didn't fit in the basket:

Kristine McKay has an awesome free e-book with Summer fun ideas. You can find it here. In addition to our everyday activities, I also made an "I'm Bored" jar with her free printable. My kids don't generally say "I'm Bored" all that often. They seem to think they have to say the "b" word to draw something from the jar. So, I think a name change is in order for ours! :)  Thank you, Kristine, for the awesome idea! We used a hot cocoa mix container and Mod Podged some fabric to the outside.

Stay tuned for all of our "Make a Memory Everyday" projects.

The Schoolhouse is Almost Finished!!

 Hello all! Life has been very busy for us as we've been working to finish the remodel on our old schoolhouse. We're at the point where we were able to move in, but there's still some more work to be done. Soon, I'm hoping to share finished pictures and decor projects. For now, here's some more pictures of the process.

We replaced all of the windows in the house. So, I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of projects with these treasures: 

 Paint in the Master Bedroom:

 Magnetic paint primer in our schoolroom:

Paint in the Kitchen/Living/Dining Room:

Paint in our boys' bedroom:

Under tile heating in the basement:

I'll be sharing a lot more pictures SOON, I promise! :)