RaptorMama

Kate’s been a bit bored lately and I know that it’s only going to get worse as it gets hotter here.  (I figure we have about 3 more weeks of being able to play outside before we start melting.)  This is a problem for 2 reasons.  1, she’s bored.  2, she drives me crazy when she’s bored.  Right then, time for action.  I’ve decided we should do a letter a week as a theme for projects.  Raptor attends a Montessori preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but they organize their units around the continents so I’m not worried about repeats or conflicting letters.  Kate loves projects and I love making them for her, but I get bored too so you can see how a theme is helping all of us.  My plan is to give her some Montessori inspired “trays” on Mondays that she can work with all week and then have a few structured things for us to do each day.  Just to be clear, I plan on following her lead with regards to how much “school” we’re doing each day.  If she wants to play in the mud one week instead of working on the letter Q, that’s just fine with me.

First up, I cut out some apples and seeds with my cricut.  I got the SVG file for the apples here for free and the seeds are a raindrop from the SCAL software.  I laminated them before writing on them so that I could reuse them over and over.  I’m thinking that the seeds will be great for a watermelon unit and the apples would be great for fall.  Also, I just love my laminating machine and will sieze any excuse to use it.  🙂

I’ve done this counting work several times, but Kate loves it every time I make it.  Why don’t I keep out the ones I’ve already made?  Because she gets bored with them.

 

Likewise, I’ve made these letters before, but I think she’ll enjoy them again.

Raptor’s been very interested in watching me work on this cross stitch project so I made her some more lacing cards.  On the left is a basic lacing pattern and on the right is one where she can stitch the seeds to the apple.  I’m currently looking for my yarn needle so that she can feel more like she’s stitching.

 

I think she’ll be the most excited about this.  I found this apple ice cube tray at the Target Dollar Spot and the idea is that she’ll transfer the red puffs into the apples using the tongs.

 

This one is sorting buttons by color into the muffin tray.  If I can find my tweezers, I’ll throw them in here, but if not I think she’ll like it just fine as a simple sorting activity.

Also, I’m sooooo cool that I spent my Saturday evening writing “lessons plans” for the first week.  Raptor still has preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays so those days are lighter.  Here you go!

Letter of the Week “Lesson Plan”

Letter: A
Theme: Apples

Monday
Book: Dr Seuss ABCs
Song: Apple Alphabet Song
Craft: My Apple Book
Worksheet: Pre-Writing Skills; Letter Trace
Snack: Crock pot apple sauce

Tuesday
Craft: A is for Alligator Book

Wednesday:
Song: I like to eat Apples and Bananas
Craft: Stained Glass Apples
Snack: Apple Chips

Thursday
Craft: A is for Apple Color Page

Friday
Book: 10 Apples up on Top
Craft: 10 Apples up on Top
Snack: Apples
Other: Apple seed graphs

Trays:
Number Apples with Seed Counters
Apple Alphabet
Button Sort with Tweezers
Apple Pompoms Transfer with Tongs
Apple Lacing Cards

Extras:
Cut out apples from magazines and collage
Cut out letter As from magazines and collage

You guys know that I have very few original ideas of my own so here’s where I stole them from found inspiration.

Oopsey Daisy’s Mommy School (This packet is incredible.  I only wish she had one for every letter!  We could do A is for Apple for a month and still not run out of things to do from this packet.)

Mr Printables’ Alphabet Coloring Page (I went ahead and printed the whole alphabet.)

Kinder Teacher’s Apple Seed Graph (I forgot to send print this one, but I figure I can draw it out easily enough.)

Next week we’re doing B is for Bumblebee.  Get excited!

I started these hand towels for my grandmother, oh about 10 years ago.  Time to finish, don’t you think?

There was a deceptively small amount of actual cross stitching, but a *ton* of backstitching.  First one is done!  I really hope to have the second one finished by Sunday to give to my grandmother when I see her for breakfast.  ::fingers crossed::

In other news, I think we’ve just about decided to pull Kate out of preschool for June and July.  (We’re pretty much decided on July, but June’s still up in the air.)  What’s that mean for the blog?  I’m going to be blatantly stealing putting together a Letter a Week curriculum for this summer.  I might actually do 2 letters a week so that we can get through the whole alphabet.  Kate already knows her letters (frankly, she’s just about taught herself to read) but she and I both love theme activities and there’s a bit of a dry spell between Easter and Halloween.  lol.  I figure the letters will help give us a focus.  Hmm…  How many weeks are there until October?  Maybe I’ll start now.  🙂  More details next week once I decide on some.

Update: I just counted and if I start on Monday there are exactly 26 weeks between then and the first full week in October.  It’s a sign!  I think we’ll be starting on Monday.  🙂  I suspect that some weeks will have lots of stuff and some weeks will have very little, but I love having a plan.  I’m off to Pinterest.  🙂

 

And I <3 this rainbow chevron paper.  I’ve actually used it all up!  Clearly I need to order some more.  🙂

This page actually went together pretty simply.  I cut the chevron paper down to 11×11 and taped it to the cardstock background.  I trimmed the photos a bit, and then matted the focal point photo in the orange paper.  Then I slid a scrap of purple cardstock underneath.

Title is these glorious glitter foam thickers (These might be a slightly different color.)  I may need to order a case of them.  I used the journaling card out of the library pocket and saved the pocket for later.  A bit of washi tape, a few wood veneer hearts and it’s done!

I repeated those elements at the top.

I left the cardstock off of this one because it felt too “heavy.”

 

 

I have a bit of a canvas obsession.  More to the point, Raptor’s best friend happens to be the son of an amazing photographer and her photos are drool worthy.  I’ve said it before, but you just can’t place a price tag on professional pictures!  We had a session this past December and I had a terrible time deciding on which images to enlarge because they were all amazing.  I finally decided on these 3 and I’m thrilled with the end results.

I ordered these from FramedCanvas and I’m very pleased with the quality.  They took forever to get here, but they were worth the wait.  The center canvas is 20×24 and the 2 outer canvases are 16×20.  I deliberately didn’t crop the photo so that you could get a sense for the size of the canvases.  I have them between 2 large windows in my living room.

And…  it’s the 1st so we should revisit the goals for the month…

March Goals:

1.  Scrapbook June and July.  I’m close to being done with this one.  I have 3 pages left from June and 3 from July.  Does that seem like a lot?  I have 9 completed pages for June and 6 for July so I’m actually close to being done.

2.  Organize/edit/select DSLR photos and phone photos from RaptorDad’s phone for Project Life for October, November, and December.  I have October done, but sadly not November or December.

3.  Organize/edit/select photos for Kate’s scrapbook for October, November, December.  Once again, October is done, but not November or December.

4.  Meal plan for March.  Done!  And I’ve been super happy with it.  I’m using an app called Paprika and it’s made it very easy for me to manage our meal plan.

I didn’t do so hot this month, but I RaptorDad did put in a garden so that should count for something.  🙂

April Goals:

1.  Finish June, July and August in Kate’s scrapbook.  Only 11 layouts so it *should* be doable.

2.  Organize/edit/select DSLR photos and phone photos from RaptorDad’s phone for Project Life for November, December, January, February, and March.  I want to get last year’s book done!

3.  Finish Project Life journaling for March.

4.  Organize/edit/select photos for Kate’s scrapbook for November, December and January.

5.  Start digital Project Life!  I would like to have at least the first 3 weeks of April done.

6.  Buy/ plant enough veggies to fill in garden.  Keep plants alive.

7.  Finish cross stitched hand towels for my grandmother.

8.  Finish felt alphabet.

9.  Incorporate 4 new recipes into the meal plan rotation.

10.  Have a week long blog buffer.

I seem to be going a bit overboard here so I’ll stop with those.  🙂

 

I’ve been in a bit of a scrapping rut this week.  One of my March goals was to finish Kate’s June and July pages, but I just haven’t been feeling them.  I have to admit that I’m generally firmly in the October Afternoon camp, but I needed something super bright and fun for my swimming pictures.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Midway, but I needed some variety.  Enter the new Doodlebug line.  Rainbow colors.  ::swoon::

I may have gone a wee bit overboard.  Who am I kidding.  I totally went overboard, but I plan on getting more of this line anyway.  Archivers didn’t have the washi tape (and I *need* it!) and I’ve already used up all of the rainbow chevron.  In my defense, I made 4 layouts today while Raptor was at preschool.  🙂

I really like this one.  I have multiple pictures of Kate at this particular sprinkler park, so I tried to find a different story to tell.  In the end I journaled about how taking Kate to the sprinkler park had become our new Friday happy hour and I loved it.

I’m totally going to end up buying more of these Thickers too.  They’re the bomb!

Wood veneers.  ::swoon::

I tried really hard to have 3 clusters of embellishments all repeating the same stuff a la Shimelle, my hero.  Each cluster had the strip of paper, the washi tape, and the arrow wood veneer.  The verdict?  I’m pretty happy with this one.

Update?  I have 3 more layouts to do for June and 3 more for July.  Will I get them done by Monday?  Maybe.  I also start my new Project Life on Monday (my birthday is March 31st) and I’ve pretty much decided on the digital Honey kit.  I’m basically technologically an idiot so this should be amusing.  🙂  I’ll keep you guys posted.

 

 

 

 

 

Last year I got a Zoku for my birthday and I thought that it was just about the coolest thing ever.  In fact, I wrote a whole blog post about it here.  And one year later?  It’s still the coolest thing ever!

 

Last year I got all fancy cutting out hearts and adding color.  This time, I kept it simpler and it was still a big hit.

 

I tried to recreate the pictures of both the popsicles and the girls eating them because I think it will make a neat scrapbook layout.  #nerdalert

Reasons why I still love this.

1.  It’s quick and easy.

2.  I can make 3 popsicles from one organic juice box if I add a wee bit of water.  (I frequently have 3 little girls here.)

3.  The little pitcher from the accessories pack makes this super easy.

4.  I love being able to give Raptor and the girls a fun treat that is free of HFCS and dye.

5.  The popsicle maker is very well made.

6.  It’s cute!

In short, you need this!

I don’t have anything finished to show at the moment, but I have a bunch of in-progress projects!

Project Life, of course.  I’m currently working on November, but I have the journaling caught up through mid-March.  My book runs April 1st to April 1st and I’m 99% convinced that I’m taking the digital plunge this year.  It’s cheaper, smaller (I’m getting overrun with albums), and there won’t be a delay in getting photos printed (I send off my prints for everything except October/ December Daily) so I’m hoping I’ll be able to keep up with it.  We’ll see.

Photo Editing.  I was working on that PL Layout for November and I saw in my notes that we had gone to the sand park.  I decided to check on the waterproof camera to see if I had taken any pics and I found a ton of cute pics from this summer!  I love to take our waterproof camera into the pool, but I never think to pull the pictures off of it.  Side note: I <3 this camera.  We thought about getting Kate a toddler camera, but honestly they don’t take very good pictures.  And we already had this one that was supposed to be shock proof.  While I wouldn’t spend this much money on a camera to give my 3 year old, it’s been perfect!

 

Packaging Wipes.  Just trying to pad the old spending money before I go scrapbooking.  If I make it that long.  There are some mid year released calling my name!  ::cough cough:: Crate Paper ::cough cough::  Speaking of, I really wanted to get June and July of 2012 finished up by the end of the month, but I think I’m going to give myself a pass until I can get my hands on the new Crate Paper.  It’s just so perfect for swimming pictures!

 

Felt Alpha Set.  Speaking of spending money, I’m working on a felt alphabet set.  I would really *love* to get it done by Friday, but I’m not sure that it’s physically possible.  ::fingers crossed::

 

Gardening.  So far so good!  We bought a few more plants this weekend, but the guy at the nursery recommended that we wait until after Wednesday to plant them since we’re having a wee bit of a cold snap here.  I’m hoping that our already planted veggies survive!

Alright then, I’m off to stitch some more.  Wish me luck!  🙂

 

 

I’ve decided to kill some more plants this year!  I’ve started a garden and have high hopes this year.  We have terrible soil and little to no drainage (our backyard resembles a swamp the 3 days a year we get rain) so RaptorDad suggested raised beds when I insisted that this was going to be the year that I conquered gardening.  We’re going with something called lasagna gardening which I gather means we’re putting down various layers of stuff.

I went to Lowe’s armed with a rather daunting shopping list, but they were quite nice and loaded everything up for me.  My biggest issue?  Why does it have to cost *more* to buy dirt without added fertilizer?  I didn’t need certified organic potting soil (at 3 times the price) but I couldn’t find any other potting soil without added chemicals.  Luckily, RaptorDad actually has some gardening know how and after a few panicky texts he gave me a list so that we could make our own.  And yes, next time I’ll drive the hour down to the hippy nursery.  I’ve learned my lesson.  😉

Our yard gets zero shade since, in addition to killing small vegetables, I also have a habit of killing trees.  ::sigh::  Our next house will definitely include established trees.  I know that lots of sun is good for plants, but there’s a limit to what they can take when it’s 107* outside.  With this in mind, RaptorDad built me a rectangle out of reclaimed wood (thanks craigslist!) in our side yard so that it would get some shade from the house and the fence.  Fingers crossed!  I removed all of the stickers and tape from some cardboard boxes we had laying around (we order way too many things from Amazon, but we’ve been sucked in by free 2 day shipping) and put them down as the first layer.  We then wet them thoroughly.

The next layer was some dried out grass clipping and our failed compost.  We recently started composting again and I’m really hoping we can keep up with it.  I’d like to add more raised beds every year and dirt is surprisingly expensive!  Not to mention we’re trying to reduce the amount of trash that we produce.

After that came a couple of bags of pea gravel and some play sand.  Apparently this will help with drainage.

 Obligatory adorable picture of Kate.  She is so excited to help with the garden.  She was a little perturbed that we had to wait for actual veggies though.  She’s into instant gratification just like her mom.

Our next layer was top soil, compost, and vermiculite.  We mixed all of those together to get what I assume is essentially potting soil.

 

Then plants!  So far I’ve planted 1 orange tomato, one squash, 1 green bean, and 1 okra.  Everyone says that the things to grow are tomatoes and peppers, but I figured we’d be better off growing things we would actually eat and there’s no way in the world Kate is eating jalapeños.  I’m not sure how that happened since I’m pretty sure that her amniotic fluid was at least 50% salsa, but there you have it.

Incidentally, I’m writing this blog post on Thursday and we planted the garden on Wednesday.  So I’ve already kept the plants alive 1 whole day!  That may not sound like much, but it’s better than last year so I’m putting it in the win column.  Any other suggestions for things to plant?  Or is it better to just put in several of each kind of plant?    I’d like some variety, but I also don’t want to end up with 1 green bean.  Who am I kidding.  I would be *thrilled* to get one green bean, but you get my point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kate’s preschool teachers are amazing.  We totally love them so I like to send in little treats every once in a while.  This was a Pinterst find, of course.  🙂  It even included the printable!

Excuse the blurry picture.  My allergies have laid me low.  I initially intended to cut out the circle like the example and maybe add some more cute paper layers, but honestly I was doing good to get it done at all.  It was well received even in its simpler form.  🙂

I’m a bit behind today, but I have a cool idea that I’ll hopefully finish and get up today.  It all depends on how nap time goes.  🙂  Now that spring break os over things shold get back to normal around here shortly.