St Patrick's Day ideas

I love looking forward to all the holidays. It must be in my "Teacher Blood". But St. Patricks Day is one of my favorites. Here are a few pictures looking back over the past few years. Hopefully you can get into the St. Patty's Day spirit too :)

The kids LOVE trying to trap the leprachaun. This was made from an empty oatmeal container. We first placed green tissue paper over the top. Then wrapped in in green paper. I let Ryker decorate it and we also made a little ladder out of popsicle sticks. Then on the top we placed a few gold coins (just enough so it wold break the tissue paper. Our plan is that the leprechaun will climb the ladder to get the gold, but then fall in the container because he ripped though the tissue paper ;)  When we woke up the next day.....that sneaky leprechaun escaped but left Ryker a few "green" treats :) Have fun with it!! I also dye the milk green and we eat Lucky Charms for breakfast.

Have a "Green Party. Their are so many green foods out there........it is a great way to have the kids try new fruits or veggies. You can even buy green tortillas for wraps so we have a cheese crisp as well. Our dessert was rainbow jello.

We mad this for a few of our friends. Rainbow twizzlers, marshmallows and Hersey gold nugget chocolates.

This is probably my favorite. Fruit rainbow!!! Strawberries, orange slices or cantaloupe, pineapple, kiwi and purple grapes. Of course some mallows for clouds.

One year we made a pot of gold with a rainbow over it. you just need terra-cotta pots and paint them black. Then I pre-glued the pipe cleaners together to make a rainbow. Hot glue it to the pot and stuff with golden candies.

Last year we had more friends and went to the park. We had our fruit rainbow and PB&J sandwiches on green bread.  

I had a little game and the kids had to figure out the clue which let them to the pot of gold ;)

The internet is chalk full with ideas....so have a blast and remember, you don't have to do it all! Choose one or 2 of your favorite ideas and go with it. If you plan to much, it will frazzle you and the kids won't care. 

Struggle to Juggle

I have been wanting to start a new blog for awhile now and hopefully share my thoughts and ideas (and hopefully get yours as well) on how we can BALANCE our lives. Being a wife and mother is by far the most demanding job out their and yet I don't think we would change it for the world!! I'm am learning new things each day and really trying to keep my life in balance. I drop a ball or 2 daily and have ups and downs just like everyone else. The key is getting back up and moving forward. I read this article  the other day, that was put out by my church. It is a quick read, but very powerful! I'm excited for this journey and hope you will ride along with me as we help uplift and inspire one another.

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/02/finding-harmony-as-we-struggle-to-juggle?lang=eng

Popsicle Color Words

This is a quick and cheap activity to help teach color words. All  you need is:

*the basic colors of felt

*10 large popsicle sticks

*sharpie marker and colored markers

Cut 2 popsicle looking shape out of each color and you can sew around the sides or just use tacky glue like I did. Don't get me wrong....I LOVE to sew but I can't watch my shows while sewing ;)

Then write each color word on each popsicle stick and on the back of the stick,color a little circle of the color to help them if they can't figure out a color word.

Pretty cute hu? Not I'm craving a real popsicle.

Sight Word Rub

This is such a fun way to familiarize your child with sight words or any words they are trying to learn for that matter. All  you need is:

*several 4x6 pieces of CARDSTOCK paper

*glue

*list of words

Then very carefully write out each word with the glue and let it dry over night.

Once it is dry, have your child place it under some paper, take a crayon and rub away....revealing the sight word. Then of course have your child read it. My son had a great time with this and after he rubbed several words onto his large paper, we went through and read them several times.