Summer Activities: Marshmallow Castles

I am so glad my sweet husband was home this long memorial day weekend and chose to do some fun activities with the kids.  We went shopping on Saturday ( Davids least favorite thing to do) But during our trip we let the kids pick out flowers and flower pots  and then planted them when we got home! Then on Sunday we went to church and then grocery shopping and visited Granddad in the hospital. Then on Monday we spent the day at home and made these great marshmallow castles! 

Everyone got in on the fun! Notice the baby digging in the trash whoops! guess I missed that. :)

Alexis ate more than she built, Oh well at least she had fun. 

David was so meticulous and couldn't just have a castle he had to have a bridge also.

Alexis building her castle. 

Evanny's awesome castle

David attached his bridge and castle to daddy's Super cool in my opinion!

Here is the top view of them connected

We had a great time and the castles where eaten at afternoon snack time!

Summer Activities: Painting outside

You wont believe what I did with my kiddos today!!!  Totally out of character for me (I'm not a fan of messy)


This week we ordered our school curriculum for next year.  When it came it had  big long pieces of paper wadded up in it for packing.  So I kept it for crafts!  So we taped it down to the sidewalk and had a blast here are a few pictures.  

WE taped the paper down and got to painting.

We used hands, feet and old kitchen utensils.

Even Malachi painted! I think he tasted it once. :(   HE has paint on his lips. LOL

I think Alexis enjoyed this more than anyone else!

Our almost completed painting. 

Malachi had a blast and did a great job. By the end he had paint in his hair because David II decided to hand painted his head. :)  That was my fault though I am the one that started painting them first.  LOL

Here we are all done and covered in paint!

It was great Fun go ahead Try it!!

Food Stamps: My Take

I have been seeing lots of posts lately about Food Stamps.  I have seen ones that criticize people for what they buy( not that I think it is right to frivolously use this money), Or even to the point of saying that everyone on Food Stamps is lazy, and just needs to go get a job! I'm sure there are people out there that abuse the food stamp system but not everyone. So here is my story.

When we got married 7 years ago and then have had 4 kids. (making a long story shorter)  One year ago we had to move from where we were living which left my husband jobless, and we were basically homeless.  We lived with or in families property for around 6 months.  David couldn't find a job anywhere.  He applied numerous places and went for many many interviews.  I am a stay at home mom and we home school which is where we believe God wants me to be. David has a job now! Praise God but we still had to make  a tough decision to accept help from the government so our kids could eat ( Yep I said it we receive food stamps).

So the other day after seeing a few Facebook posts about food stamps I was getting a little depressed.  And I was telling David that I should just go get a job so that we didn't have to get help.  He says no way! If you got a job we would have to pay a daycare ti wouldn't be worth it.  I said well I could work evening and you could work Days. He again said NO!!  I don't want our marriage to be destroyed (this schedule may work for some people but it would be suicide for our marriage)  So I decided to e-mail a local Child Care provider just to see What daycare would cost us so here is the break down.
1 year old                                                  $125.00/week
2 year old (potty trained)                              $92.00/week
4 year old                                                     $92.00/week
6 year old(before and after school)                $45.00/week

Grand Total                        $354.00/week       $1,416.00/month


So If  I got a full time job making 10 per hour I would bring home less than 1600.00 per month.  So my entire check would pay daycare and we would still not be able to buy groceries, OR we could get government paid childcare.  Then either way YOU ARE STILL PAYING MY BILL RIGHT?  I only say that because I have seen many people say that.

Now What we get for food stamps is still difficult to budget but it is all we have to buy groceries with. So just like it was coming from my husbands pay check  I clip coupons, find sales, and we NEVER buy junk like pop and candy.  We may occasionally have a bag of chips maybe once a month that our whole family shares.  In order to budget well I plan a months worth of menus and a shopping list that we don't stray from. So all of that to say Not everyone is out to abuse the system.  Some people legitimately need help.


Sorry for the long post but I had to say it!!!

Operation Re-organize: The craft/school cabinet

Before I had kids I was a bit of a perfectionist.  I had a spotless house.  I mean I vacuumed my furniture every week Seriously Who Does that?  Well After having 4 kids in the last 6 years I just do what I can to keep the house somewhat clean.  Usually things just get shoved in random places.  It makes me crazy!!!

My mom took my oldest three kids for about an hour on Saturday and the baby took a nap so I got to work on  an organization nightmare. The Craft/school cabinet.  So here is a before picture. This counter is nicknamed the messy cabinet by my kids. I am working on keeping it cleaner but everything seems to get piled there.  Eventually I will get things organized. ( That's what I keep telling myself anyway)

Before=Disaster! But I didnt have anything to organize with so I had to be resourceful so here is what I did!

Cut the top of an old cereal box and used the bottom part

Covered it in paper and packing tape, classy right?  Not really but it is what I had and it works! I am hoping the tape will make it easy to wipe off when little hands get food on it. IT now holds crayons and pencils.

Yogurt container ( sorry for the blurry picture)

Again paper and tape! this one is messy but it works. :) It is now the home to various pairs of scissors. ( lot of scrap booking scissors here) 

and Finally the finished product!  Notice the emptiness of the left side?  That is our school cabinet which I cleaned out and it is happily waiting for next years books to arrive!

Painting with hands is fun!!

There are so many exciting things floating around pinterest that I decided  I am going to do a fun activity at least once a week with my kids all summer long.  So far we have made hot car crayons and today's activity which was making owls and reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar and then doing a craft to go with the story. so here it is!

First we gathered our supplies
glue
paper
scissors
and my quick hand drawn pattern

Then we cut out all of the shapes we needed

and glued them on a piece of white paper  (the black part of the eye was drawn on with a sharpie)

Then we painted with our hands to make wings!

and washed hands thoroughly ( I hope! I haven't been in there bathroom yet)

Here are there finished owls! They turned out so cute!
I hung them on the wall which made them very proud of their creations. :) 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Craft. ( Davids isn't done yet because he is particular and doing his different so I will add it when he finishes.  I dotn have pictures of the steps because I forgot. :(  But it is pretty east to do. :)

First we made the sun, and ground out of construction paper and glued it down.  Then I painted the girls palm green and their 4 fingers brown and then pressed them onto the paper.  Make sure to repaint with each stamp or it won't look as pretty!  Then I cleaned their hands and painted their palm red and their two middle fingers purple and printed down making the head and antennas.  Fun craft that didn't take to awful long!

If you amke any of these I would really enjoy seeing pictures of your creations!