Author: Raptor Mama

This week I have fewer trays as I’m planning a bunch of activities involving actual ice.  I can try to have a follow up post with pics of those if there’s interest.  🙂

First up is a sight words activity.  Raptor got these books for her birthday and she loves them.  Handily enough, they have a list of sight words on the first page.  🙂  I wrote them out on the (laminated) snowflakes and then wrote the letters on some of those decorative marbles.  I’m interested to see what she thinks of this one.

1-5 for E.

I’m not sure if this is going to be a hit or not, but Raptor has been loving her addition work lately so we’ll see.  I was thinking I would make it a game for A and Raptor either while E naps or she and I will play as a team.  The idea is to roll the dice and then use the counters to add the numbers.  Another idea is to have E roll just one dice (die?  what is the singular of dice?) and then count out the number.

Other activities I have planned mostly include freezing random things in ice and dumping them in our water table.  I’m thinking glitter, pony beads, food coloring…  Possibilities seem endless.  I might revisit our ice excavations too.  Probably painting with colored ice? Maybe a special field trip to the shaved ice place?  Raptor goes back to preschool this week so we’ll have to see.

I’m also going to be making some changes to the Letter a Week format.  The littles are going to be spending more time in the car as A starts first grade and I’m thinking I’m going to transition some of the work from trays to bags for the car.  In fact, I just scored some awesome fabric from Hobby Lobby and I’m planning on making the bags this week.  I haven’t quite decided if I’ll split the work between trays and bags or just go with all bags.  Thoughts from others who have dealt with the school pick up line?  It’s about an hour round trip with about 40 minutes of that being in line.  Last year I was lucky enough to be able to leave them with RaptorDad (he would take his lunch break while they napped) but his schedule is changing this year so that’s no longer an option.

 

 

 

I can’t believe it, but I’m actually caught up!  I’m working on week 17 and taking pictures for week 18, but I’m caught up!  I’m so much happier with this project when I’m working on it in real time.  I feel like I lose too many of the little details that make me love it when I’m behind.

I didn’t take very many photos this week so I kind of struggled with this layout.  Raptor had her gymnastics showcase so I took a ton of pictures of that.  But the rest of the week?  Not much.  No worries.  I got to use some of the cute filler cards!

I used the “Love This” card on the far right to make the journaling bits with the pictures.  It’s a bit simple and repetitive for my tastes, but it’s done!  🙂

 

Busy week!  Blues on the Green, swimming, and story time at the fish store.  Good times!

I love these letters from The Pier collection, but I sometimes struggle with how to use them.  Unless the background paper is pretty plain they’re very hard to read.  I decided to do a little experimenting.  First I tried painting the back of the letters.  In theory, I think this would look great.  Unfortunately, my green paint was dried up and I’m not known for my patience.  Next I tried some spray ink, but it was taking forever to dry.  The next morning it looked great so I think you’ll see it on a page in the future, just not this one.  lol.  In the end I used a regular ink pad and it gave it just enough color to be readable while still letting the background paper show a bit.  Just make sure that you put the ink on the backside of the tile.

I used several pieces from the ephemera pack in the embellishment clusters along with some washi tape, wood veneers, and some hearts I punched out with the Martha Stewart punch.

 

Here’s the whole page.  Side note: why yes, I am addicted to my underwater camera.  🙂

 

I started making my own chicken broth y’all.  I know, I know.  Even I think I’m crazy.  🙂  It’s just so darn easy and so darn tasty!

First, roast a chicken.  Our current favorite is to put some lemon slices, garlic, rosemary, and a few pats of butter under the skin of the chicken.  Add a bit of salt, some onions, carrots, and potatoes and you have some good eats!  I’ll admit that it tastes better in the oven, but it makes our whole house hot to turn on the oven so we’ve been making it in the crock pot.

After dinner, I pick off the rest of the chicken for us to eat throughout the week and then put the bones and skin back in the crockpot along with another onion, some celery, more garlic and some apple cider vinegar.  Then fill it up with water and turn it on low.  The next afternoon you have chicken stock.  Strain it and use it for all kinds of yumminess throughout the week.  I store it in glass jars (from pasta sauce) in the fridge.  If I don’t think we’ll use it right away, I freeze them in silicon muffin tins (the same ones I use for Raptor’s lunch) and then pop them into a ziplock bag.  It’s super tasty and all my hippy friends say it’s super good for you.  Cooking success!

 

 

I found these free printables from twopeas that were perfect for the 4th of July!  I loved the colors so much that I recolored the rest of the cards to match.  I left the star orange on purpose since it went with the story.

 

 

I realize that I’m a bit biased, but man oh man I am loving this page.  Everything but the twine and the Thickers are from The Pier.  I just can’t get enough of it!  I went a bit wild on this page and added tons of layers.  <3

 

The Thickers were a bit hard to read so I backed them with some paper.  I had a gap between the title and the branding strip that I wasn’t quite sure what to do with.  I ended up taking a chance and journaling directly on the paper which, thankfully, worked out.

Love this page.  I don’t usually put phone photos on my traditional pages, but these were just too cute not to!

I kind of think it needs a little something in the bottom corner, but I can’t figure out what.  Papers are October Afternoon’s Midway.

 

I skipped the title card again this week in favor of another picture.  I’m liking mixing them in like this.  I kept this one pretty simple since I’m still playing catch up.  I’m almost caught up though!

Oh, and mad props to my sister-in-law who made Raptor’s cake.  Not only was it *gorgeous* it was organic and egg/ nut free.  I highly recommend her if you’re looking for a cake in the Austin area.  🙂

 

I’m having so much fun with my papers from The Pier that I’ve resorted to editing and printing current pictures at home!  In fact, I scrapped these the same week that they were taken.  What can I say, I’m just not motivated to scrap Christmas pictures when it’s so hot outside!  🙂

I found some old paper when I was cleaning out my desk (I’m pretty sure it’s Making Memories?) and the colors were perfect so I threw them in the drawer with this collection.  I really like how it changes up the look.  I’ll be honest, I bought a ton of this stuff and I don’t want every page from this summer to look the same.  🙂