Thanksgiving Week

I mentioned yesterday in my Christmas Card post (enter the $50 Shutterfly prize giveaway!) that we have been doing a bunch of fun Thanksgiving related activities.

Here's a quick run through of some of our favorites; hopefully you will find a few ideas for over the Thanksgiving holiday this week!

Last year's "thankful tree" was much smaller scale. We modled after this craft on 1+1+1=1 and added things we were thankful for on each leaf.

This year I knew I wanted it to be much bigger and give both kids a chance to add as many things as they could think of. I used brown construction paper and cut out branches, then taped them to the wall. I just free-handed the tree, trying to make it look like a huge tree with lots of branches, but I traced the leaves. They've done a great job adding to our tree; it has many additional leaves at this point. It has also been a great teaching tool...the easiest thing for my kids to be thankful is all their favorite foods! But they are thinking outside the box a bit more now (and they both wanted to put each other on the tree!).

I was inspired by Housing a Forest to make shape turkeys. These took just a little bit of prep time and were a fun activity for both kids. We used it to work on not only shapes, but colors and sequencing/patterns.

Here's the finished product hanging up!

 Along with the turkeys, we've done several fall pictures, including a tree with the leaves made out of crumpled and wadded tissue paper.

We've also enjoyed using a number of free preschool packs that are Thanksgiving themed! Check out this one by Our Little Monkeys and another by 1+1+1=1. Some favorite activities include putting stickers on the white dots:

Measuring Thanksgiving items:

More stickers with a special visitor:

And lots of color by number fun with an Aunt!

 These puzzles are fantastic too!

 We'll also be making good use of some of the travel activities I posted about last Thanksgiving while we make the rounds with family and friends! Happy Thanksgiving!

A Shutterfly Christmas Card Review (and giveaway!)

We've been having a lot of fun doing Thanksgiving activities recently! I'm planning a recap of those for tomorrow, but I have a Christmas giveaway to get started first today. :) I am so excited to once again be able to talk about Shutterfly Photo Christmas Cards! My family has enjoyed using Shutterfly for Christmas cards for a number of years (last year we used Treat, a Shutterfly company). The selection of cards is much bigger and in my opinion, better, this year.

 I'm a big fan of cards that are a little more traditional in color and styling, but also have plenty of options to personalize. Many of Shutterfly's photo card options allow you to pick the same design in different sizes, colors, and even choose between a folded or flat card. Shutterfly introduced a new size card this year - its HUGE at 6x8 inches! It does not require any additional postage to mail, but it is more expensive than the smaller cards.

The inside (of the folded cards) and the back (of the flat cards) has TONS of options to personalize with additional photos, a large amount of text, or some of each. I am very thankful for the opportunity to have some space to write a bit about our year to keep family and friends that live far away from us updated.

Shutterfly is also one of the easiest to use photo gift sites from which I have ordered. As I scrolled through different cards I used the little heart icon to mark several cards as 'favorites' and they were automatically saved to My Shutterfly. It made it so much faster to be able to look back at the ones I had marked to narrow down the card for our family.

I get personalized offers from Shutterfly via email (free photo books, prints, other photo gifts) frequently, and these make great gifts, since all I have to do is pay shipping. If you haven't signed up for Shutterfly's email list yet, I highly recommend it! You can also check out their current Special Offers for more gift ideas.

I'm keeping our Christmas card a secret for now, but I wanted to share a few of my favorites to give you an idea of some of the new styles that Shutterfly has this year.

Simple, with one photo on the front (and I love this shade of blue):

(Light and Joy)

A bit more whimsical and fun, especially if you have small kids:

(Clothesline Frames)

I like the pattern over top the photo in this one:

(Snowy Window)

as well as this one:

(Ornaments of Peace)

Share your family's top ten memories from the year:

(Our Top 10)

I love the beautiful script on the side of this one, along with the multiple photo spots:

(Flourishes of Joy)

Win It!

Shutterfly has generously provided me with a fantastic giveaway prize: $50 off a $50 purchase (excludes applicable tax and shipping. Offer expires 12/14/12)! For a chance to win, leave a comment on this post telling me how you would use the prize...Christmas cards? A photo calendar? Another photo gift? Make sure that your email is visible in your blogger profile or in your comment so that I can contact you if you are the winner. Comments without an email are not valid entries. This giveaway will run until 9pm Eastern November 26, at which point a winner will be chosen via random.org.

Disclosure: Shutterfly sponsored this post and compensated me, but all opinions are 100% my own. 

Hot Dog Roundup for Memorial Day

Chances are you'll be grilling out with friends or family this weekend as part of your Memorial Day celebration. I've put together a list of our favorite specialty hot dog recipes...it's not just ketchup and mustard around here!

The Avocado and White Sauce Dog, featuring thick slices of avocado and our homemade sauce

The Texas Ranger, featuring grilled onions, bacon, and BBQ sauce

The Salsa Dog, featuring mango peach salsa

BBQ and Peppers, featuring sweet banana peppers and your favorite BBQ sauce

CornDogs, featuring a that carnival treat made at home

Pretzel Dogs, this is probably our favorite right now! homemade pretzel dough wrapped around your favorite dog and baked to perfection.

What's on your menu this Memorial Day? Give one of these dogs a try or let me know your favorite fixins!

Spring gardening

I was a little later starting on my garden this year than I had hoped, but it actually has worked out well! We have a very small raised bed garden that we made a few years ago. I've tried growing a number of different things, and tomatoes have worked the best every year. Which is perfect because both of our children would eat tomatoes all day long if we let them!



We have some nice rows of spinach seedlings appearing now. I really wanted to get these in the ground earlier because they do not do well in the heat. We'll see if the weather continues to be mild!



I also had a few friendly volunteer plants this year. These tomato plants look great! There are several others that have come up on their own all over my raised bed. Today we planted our tomato seedlings from inside, so we should have a garden bed full of tomato plants this year!



This lettuce came up on its own this year and last year. A great surprise! I went out and snipped several lettuce leaves at lunch the other day



and used them for this beautiful salad! Home grown lettuce topped with peppers, mushrooms, avocado, cheese, and cold (formerly roasted) chicken. Delicious!


Are you growing anything this year?

Beautiful, delicious, local strawberries!

I took my children strawberry picking this morning at Filasky's Produce in Middletown. It's a great little local farm and we've enjoyed picking strawberries there for several years.

We were the only ones picking this morning and there were TONS of strawberries, all beautiful and ripe.  I ran into the main building to have my container weighed before we started picking and a photographer from the Delaware News Journal asked if she could photograph us picking our strawberries.

The kids had a blast posing for the camera and picking the biggest strawberries that they could find. Aren't these amazing looking? And they taste even better!

If you are local, be sure to head out to Filasky's this spring. Their hours are great (7-7 every day except Sunday 7-6) and the strawberries are just $2.15/pound. And if you are looking for a u-pick farm in your area, be sure to check PickYourOwn.Org.

Fun for Easter

We had our Easter celebrations with family this past weekend and are looking forward to a quiet Easter with our church family this year. I haven't done a lot leading up to Easter like I had hoped because we have been sick off and on for the last several weeks. Of course, we had a lot of fun mailing our Easter basket pop top can. And Resurrection Eggs are always something I enjoyed doing growing up.

Here are a few simple and easy Easter activities  that I hope to get to this week!

Naturally dyed eggs via The Kitchn

I love these creative ways to get different colored eggs!

Marbled eggs via Kimberly Cun

So awesome! I love the pattern you can get from just cracking the egg before dying it. I think these would look totally great as deviled eggs too.

Homemade marshmallow peeps via This Chick Cooks

Mmmmm I love peeps!

Looking for something fun to do after Easter is passed? Check out this great spring preschool pack from Creative Learning Fun.

Do you have a favorite activity planned for this week?

Crocs and eBay

We've had the craziest March weather...shorts and t-shirts for a solid two weeks! I just got Crocs for both of my kids, again using eBay!

Two years ago I bought adorable Mary Jane Crocs for $6, then sold them on eBay last year for $7. At the same time I bought another pair of Mary Jane Crocs for $8, and I just sold them for $8.50 (all prices include shipping costs).

Here's a look at this year's Crocs.

I paid $8 for my daughter's Crocs this year.

They are a little dirty since she's gotten to wear them so much already, but the tread is basically brand new. The wear shows a bit more since these are a light color too.

Cute!

And I paid $11.50 for these adorable Mickey Crocs for my son.

I knew that it would be a little harder to get some good boys Crocs for cheap, but I am so happy with these, even though I had to pay a bit more. They are brand new with hardly any wear.

And I know that I'll be able to resell them for a good price since they are Mickey ones!

If you are holding on to some Crocs that your kids have outgrown, now is totally the time to list them on eBay. The prices are higher right now than the two previous years I've bought, and I'm speculating that is because of the warm temperatures. Even so, you can get a great pair of gently used Crocs for $15 or less. I wouldn't normally have bought Crocs this early in the season! If you can sell now and wait a month or two to buy, I think the prices will likely go down a little.

I'm a huge fan of buying and selling Crocs on eBay. I've had a lot of success by keeping some simple things in mind.

If you are buying:
1) Look for something specific - there are too many things for sale to just browse
2) Have a firm "top price" before you bid - use the "max bid" tool to prevent over paying
3) Be ready to let "IT" go - there is always another item


If you are selling:
1) Take a good picture - good lighting, clear image
2) Use a strong title and accurite description - if there are flaws, be honest
3) Low starting price - I started all my Crocs at $0.99
4) Have your item ready to ship before you list - you'll already know the shipping cost


Have you found any great eBay deals lately?

Homemade Valentines: Brown paper candy pouches

I was trying to come up with a cute homemade valentine that wouldn't be too labor intensive, and I remembered how much fun I had with the sewn paper candy pouches for Christmas. So with just a few adjustments, I ended up with this:

I used a cookie cutter to trace a heart shape on a Trader Joe's paper bag. After I cut out the hearts, we decorated them with stickers and stamps.

I filled a few with little lollipops, which ended up working way better when I hand-stitched around the edges instead of using my sewing machine.

I filled the rest with pink M&Ms.

Super simple, and minimal time involved. You don't even need a sewing machine! (although I will add that my fingers were a bit sore after stitching a few of these by hand)

Aren't they cute?

Let me know if you make them!

Simple Winter Activities, Part 2

Did you see the first installment of our winter crafts and activities? Here are four more winter-themed crafts that we've enjoyed the last few weeks.

I thought this brown paper bag fireplace from Kaboose was too cute! We've used it as decoration for our TP snow people, they are the perfect size.

I took a plain brown paper bag and used a ruler to draw brink lines on the bag. Then we colored it with a red crayon.

I also cut out the rest of the fireplace out of construction paper. The link to Kaboose has a patter, but I just free handed it. Its not perfect, but it still turned out well.

Our finished product!

I saw this ice activity on Delia Creates and thought it was pure genius! I took several plastic containers I use for leftovers and filled them with water. Then I put in a few different toys, mostly taken from our bath toy collection. A few hours in the freezer turned them into blocks of ice filled with hidden treasures!

I also used some leftover sour cream and yogurt containers to make some different sizes and shapes.

I filled up a tub with warm water and stuck the kids on a towel in the kitchen. They loved playing with the giant ice cubes and seeing the animals appear as the ice melted. I also frozen some ice cube trays with colored water. First we added the yellow ice cubes. You can see the water has turned pretty yellow here! Then we added the blue cubes (lower left corner of the tub) and watched the water change from yellow to green. They absolutely loved it, especially getting to play in the water in the middle of winter.

2 Teaching Mommies has a great Polar Lands Preschool pack available for free download, which we have really enjoyed. One of the fun activities is to take this penguin printable and attach him to a old cereal box. Cut a hole in his beak and then you have a great fine motor skill activity!

During their morning snack, my kids fed him cheerios while they ate some of their own. Then we got down and used poof balls to feed the penguin. They sat together and stuffed him full of poof balls, and then I had them do "races" - a relay across the room to get poof balls then run back to feed the penguin. Its a great way to burn off some energy when you are stuck inside!

This last craft is probably my favorite. I love homemade puffy paint. We use it for tons of different art projects, and it is easily colored too. For this snowman, white was the perfect color though. Our supplies: shaving cream, school glue, three paper plates, two pipe cleaners, and foam sheets.

To make your puffy paint, mix shaving cream and glue in about equal parts. I make it a little heavier on the shaving cream side usually. I cut the paper plates to make the three snowballs for our snowman and we used paint brushes to heap on the shaving cream.

I cut a had, buttons, and the mouth out of our foam paper (but you could use construction paper too). I cut out a triangle for a carrot nose, and the blue scarf also. Since the paint has glue in it, we could just stick the foam into the puffy paint and everything held in place! 

What a great face! The puffy paint gives such great texture and depth.

We taped the plates together and hung him up on our front door!

Do you have any favorite winter activities to share?