Mod Podge Mania & Monthly Craft Challenge: Halloween

Update: I am linking this post up to The DIY Fall Festival and also to Violet Posy's Halloween Party. Click the buttons below to check them out!





I've been working on a few Halloween crafts and I'm so excited to be linking up to both Mod Podge Mania at This Is The Year and to the Monthly Craft Challenge at Blue Eyed Blessings.

Here's what I've been up to:



The BOO letters were inspired by Xazmin's last Mod Podge Mania post here.

I bought the letters at Hobby Lobby last week. They were on sale for $1.50 each. I also purchased Halloween colored scrapbook paper. I traced around the letters, then attached the paper to the letters with Mod Podge.



I want to thank Xazmin for bringing me out of my comfort zone. I am not one to "distress" things. I love the look, but I am such a symmetrical person, that I don't think I can do it right or good enough to not make me insane. Well, I tried it on these letters. I used some watered down black paint around the edges and on top of the paper. I am very happy with how it turned out!

I then added the tulle bows like Xazmin did. That was a cute touch that I would have never thought about.

For the Montly Craft Challenge, I made this ragamuffin wreath.



I found a styrofoam circle at a thrift store for only 29 cents. I had the black gingham fabric and a lot of ribbon already. I purchased a few ric-racs and the candy corn ribbon for this project.

Since the foam wreath was bright white, I quickly painted over it with some black paint, just so it wouldn't show through as much. I then began tying and tying and more tying.

I worked on the BOO letters, wreath and pendant swag thing in about 4 hours Friday night. For the pendant swag, I just took some of the black gingham fabric and tore it into squares. I folded them into triangles and then tied each piece together. Oh yeah, I also had the star from last Chirstmas that I never did anything with. It was kind of a rusty clay color, so I washed it with black and then a bit of orange and hung it by a safety pin! LOL!



Another quick fix were the candy jars. Those were from Christmas (I filled them with gumdrops and candy canes). I decided to put candy corn and candy pumpkins in them for Halloween. I then hot glued the glass jars on top of glass candle sticks I already had. I love them like that!



The candy apples I made last year. I got the idea from here. I like the granny smith caramel apples, so I bought fake green apples and then squirted tons of hot glue on them until it dripped down the sides. After they were dry, I painted them a caramel color and then put a clear coat of spray on them. The sticks were from our real candy apples that we had eaten the week before. I just washed them up and saved them!

Check out more Fall/Halloween crafts here:

And Mod Podge ideas here:

I would love to see your Halloween or Fall decor! Please leave a link in the comments if you have a post about them!

Abby's New Song

Abby learned this song at Church last weekend. In case you can't hear her, she is singing:

He is God
He is God
The one true God
The one true God
There's no doubt
There's no doubt
Gonna shout it out
Gonna SHOUT IT OUT!

He is King
He is King
The one true King
The one true King
There's no doubt
There's no doubt
Gonna shout it out
Gonna SHOUT IT OUT!

How cute is that?! I just love that Abby is enjoying her Sunday school while we are enjoying the services.

I ♥ Faces Week 38: Blue

This is my cousin's little boy Jacob. He is such a cutie and I love his blue eyes!

For more blue pictures, check out www.iheartfaces.com.

Coming Soon: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Sing Zang Zoom

The Ringling Brothers and Barum & Bailey's Zing Zang Zoom will be in St. Louis in just a few weeks!

I know my sister will come here and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I've ever been to a circus. Dave, Abby and I can't wait to see the show!

It will be at Scottrade Center in St. Louis, MO on:

Thursday October 15: 7:00pm
Friday October 16: 10:30am, 7:00pm
Saturday October 17: 1:00pm, 5:00pm
Sunday October 18: 1:00pm, 5:00pm

Thanks to Mom Central, I have a coupon code for you:

You can purchase four tickets for $44 Monday-Friday, and $4 off tickets for all weekend performances, by entering the code: MOM in the "MC promotion" box when purchasing tickets at www.ticketmaster.com.

There is a minimum purchase of 4 tickets required, but additional tickets can be purchased for $11 each. Service charges & handling fees will apply.

We will be there on Friday the 16th and I hope to see you there!

I ♥ Faces Fix It Friday: Week 30

Before

After

I couldn't even see his face before. What a cutie! I used Picnik to crop, straighten, adjust the exposure, contrast and more.

For more Fix It Friday posts, head to www.iheartfaces.com.

Hooked On Friday: Abby's Art

This week I am hooked on Abby's art. She's been drawing a lot and it's so fun to see what she'll make next.

Here's a few from Wednesday:

Picture on the left, according to Abby: A Circus. There are people on a tightrope at the top. The clown in the middle has a pie in his hands. Then there is a clown on a unicycle (Abby called it a scooter) and a clown on an elephant in the bottom left. The bottom of the picture is the crowd.

Right side picture: A cat chasing a mouse on a sunny day. The mouse has a piece of cheese.

These are the seasons: Winter, Spring (butterflies on flowers), Summer (ducks in a pond with a playground in the back) and Fall (fall colored leaves on trees). How funny that she put, "by Abby" on the picture.

Next up are a few holidays:

Valentine's Day (it's so cute that she always includes Matthew in our family pictures. I think she learned how to spell and write his name before she worked on Mom and Dad! LOL!) and Easter (a bunny with Easter eggs on the left and carrots on the right)



The 4th of July. I am pulling her and Matthew in a wagon. There is a flag and fireworks in the background.

It is so fun to see her drawings. It's funny that the people don't have bodies yet. I've told her that people have bodies, but she says this is how she draws them! LOL!

She made all of these on Wednesday morning. She just gets something in her head and draws and draws!

What are you Hooked On this week?

Head to Hooked On Houses to participate.

Homeschooling: Week 6

I'll be honest, I don't have much to report on our homeschooling. We are all exhausted from our vacation. Abby did so well on our trip, but now she is pretty cranky and whiny. We had a big problem last night about her not cleaning up her toys. After one too many warnings, I finally picked them up off the floor and took them to the basement! She sure wasn't happy about that.

I'm hoping tomorrow she snap out of her funk and we can have a more peaceful day!

We haven't done any sit down and work type of things, but I have noticed that Abby has been reading many more words than just a few weeks ago! Sometimes we'll be out and she'll read a sign or recognize a word and ask what the rest says. I honestly don't think I would have noticed if we haven't had this time off from official schooling.

She's also been doing really well with telling time by the hour and addition and subtraction.

Just today we were in the car and she was asking what something plus something was. We went back and forth with problems and she has realized now that any number plus 0 is the original number. And that any number minus zero is that same number.

She has mastered 1 plus/minus all numbers up to 10 (using her hands) and even many 2 plus/minus numbers up to 10.

Abby has also started saying "equals". However, she's not using it properly. She'll say, "what is 10 equals 1?" I've also noticed that she is drawing = signs on her pictures. How funny!

She's been drawing a lot and I will share some of her work tomorrow. Her sense of detail is so awesome. Dave and I just love her drawings. I'm hoping to make a book out of them or something special.

(flickr image)

Yesterday, we went to Sam's and they have the biggest pumpkins I've ever seen for only $8.88! I wonder if they are that big everywhere? I can't wait for us to go to the pumpkin patch soon. We always go to one that is really nice, but expensive. We let the kids pick out a little $1 pumpkin and then we head to Sam's for one of theirs! LOL! The pumpkins we saw today would easily be $50 at the pumpkin patch.

Today is gymnastics class and I've laid out a few worksheets in the workboxes for her to work on.



I also bought My First Message and I would like to read it to Abby and do a lesson at least once a week.

On Friday, Abby gets her flu shot. I'm not really looking forward to that. She freaks out about shots, which I don't blame her. I might have to bribe her with Taco Bell! LOL! However, I know she'll be crabby for the rest of the day.

Thanks to Thrifty Craft Mama's suggestion on using Crayola Window Crayons, we can now resume our HWOT laminated cards. I will put these in a workbox on Friday, along with a few worksheets about time, money and a game.

How is your homeschool or regular school going? I'm hoping to get back to normal on our workboxes next week.

Wordful Wednesday: Branson Vacation Days 4 & 5

This post is being linked up to Wordful Wednesday, hosted by 7 Clown Circus.

Click for Day 1 and Days 2 & 3.

Day 4 of our Branson vacation was Sunday. The weather was supposed to be humid and a bit warm, but somehow we lucked out and it was absolutely perfect! It was also my Mom's birthday!

After Abby bought the princess set at the Disney Store the day before, she became obsessed with getting the Belle set also. At breakfast Sunday morning, Dave and I decided it would be best to just wait for the store to open and buy it for her, before going to Silver Dollar City. Thank goodness we did that, I was getting tired of hearing about that Belle set! LOL!

After we ran in and out of the Disney store for the $10 set that saved the day, we headed to Silver Dollar City. My parents and sister were a bit behind us, so Dave rode the Wildfire a few times. Abby and I watched from the observation deck and I got a few pictures.



Dave then tried out the Powder Keg (turn off volume to watch the video link), which I decided not to try! By then the rest of my family had arrived and we headed to the Geyser Gulch section of the park. The kids enjoy the balls and spent a long time there.

It sprinkled for about 5 minutes and then cleared up completely. We headed over to try out the High-Low Silos. This was a new ride for us. Abby loved it, but Matthew didn't like going up too high. Abby rode the ride again with her Uncle Bill.



We then headed over to ride Fire In The Hole. This is my sister Heather and my favorite ride. To our surprise, the kids wanted to ride it. We warned them about it being dark and being a roller coaster that had 3 drops. We waited in line for at least 20 minutes and the kids still wanted to ride it. Abby did pretty good. She said she liked it, but wasn't going to go on it ever again. However, I turned back to check on Matthew and he was as white as a ghost! It scared the crud out of him! Poor guy. He doesn't really like the dark, but he really wanted to ride it, so we decided to let him try it.

Matthew started returning to his self after we had lunch at the same place as Friday and watched the Cowgirl Chicks perform again.

The kids headed back to the Great Exposition and rode more kiddie rides. The sun came out for a bit and Andrew took a little nap.



Heather, Bill and I rode the teacups and Bill had it going really fast. We were all so dizzy after that. What a bunch of old folks we are now! LOL!

The whole day, Matthew kept talking about a wooden gun he wanted at the Woodcarver's store. Now, Heather and I aren't the gun type of people, but the kid has been wanting one for years! LOL! This one was not offensive looking and Matthew has no idea is can be used to shoot rubber bands.



I was laughing so hard when he showed me his "serious soldier" look. This picture cracks me up!

Heather, Dave and I rode Thunderation 3 times in a row, once backwards and then it was time to leave. The park was closing!

We stopped at a place that had bumper boats before heading to dinner at Mazzio's.



Monday was check out day. We had breakfast and loaded up the cars. Last year, my Mom bought Abby a Build A Bear and Matthew a Build A Car. However, this year Matthew opted for a trip to Target to pick out a new Lego Power Miner set instead. My Mom, Dad and sister Holly met them at Target while Dave, Abby and I headed to Branson Landing.



Abby was so excited to see that Build A Bear had the "Fourth of July" puppy. My Mom and Dad let her pick out an outfit and shoes for him. My sister Holly also made a dog. Of course, none of us realized it was the dog that Kennedy gave the community leader when he got into office. Upon finding this out, we did wonder if she could return it! LOL! Luckily, Holly has no idea what dog he has so this didn't bother her at all. He is a cute little guy.





After Build A Bear, we headed home and stopped halfway in Rolla for some Dairy Queen. We stayed too long and got caught in a huge rainstorm. Dave finally got ahead of it, but for awhile we couldn't see anything! Why do all of the trucks fly by going 80 in the left lane? Urgh!

We finally made it home at 6:20 p.m. and Abby happily trashed the house playing with all of her toys.

What a great vacation we had and I'm already thinking about next year. I hope we can go again. I'd really like to see Silver Dollar City's Christmas Festival. If I had the money, I'd go there again when it starts in November. Maybe next year!

For more Wordful Wednesday posts, head to 7 Clown Circus.

Branson Vacation Days 2 & 3

We are back from vacation. I'm on my 3rd load of laundry and I already enjoyed taking a shower at MY house. Isn't it always so nice to come home to your own bathroom and bed?!

On Friday morning, we enjoyed the free breakfast at the hotel and then headed to Silver Dollar City.

The weather was perfect! Abby immediately had to have picture taken with every scarecrow display in the entrance. Here's 1 of the 20 I took. I'm not joking! LOL!



Our first stop was the Grand Exposition. It features 10 family rides. This is the best area for the kids. We rode the Royal Tea Party, Elephant March, Wings Of Wonder and the Racing Regatta. Heather and I rode the Racing Regatta a couple of times together too! LOL! Matthew enjoyed the Happy Frog ride, but Abby wouldn't get on it this year. 2 years ago it was her favorite and last year she rode it once and freaked out and wouldn't go on any rides except the teacups. I guess she remembered not liking it last year. Too funny!





We then stopped for lunch in the Red Gold Heritage Hall and watched the Cowgirl Chicks perform. Actually, we just wanted a place indoors to sit and eat, but the show was kind of fun too. The kids got to pet the horses after the show. We couldn't resist piling the kids into the stroller for a picture. Andrew thought he was so special.



Abby and Matthew both wanted to dip candles, so we made our way to Carrie's Candles. This was always a highlight of my trip as well when I was a kid, so it's fun to see them enjoy it just as much.



Dave and I then took turns riding Thunderation (click for a video, but turn the sound off, it's annoying). We also rode the Wildfire (another youtube video with annoying sound) together. Dave had to sit in the front row! EEEK! My hands were white from gripping the the bars so tightly!

We had a great first day at Silver Dollar City! We then headed to our favorite Branson restaurant: Montana Mike's. Most people eat steak there, but I love their nachos! Abby loves the Mac N Cheese kids meal.

Whew, what a busy day that was! We all slept really well, except my sister Heather, because she was up with the baby. Andrew is so good during the day, but isn't a very good sleeper at night!

Saturday was a very rainy day, so after breakfast we went to a Disney Outlet store and they had a great sale. Abby found a set with all of the princess figurines for only $10. Can't beat that! Ever since Disney On Ice, she's really been into the princesses.

We headed back to the hotel and I did laundry while Dave, Abby, Bill and Matthew went swimming for 2 hours! Next up was Branson Landing. The forecast said the rain was ending, but nope they were wrong. We got drenched making our way to dinner. We then visited the Bass Pro Shop and headed back for an early bedtime. Even I went to bed at 8:30. I don't think I've ever done that before!

Days 4 & 5 will be posted later.

For Day 1, click here.

I like to post lots of details for those who may want to visit Branson. It really is a fun and family friendly place to hang out. It's also a very inexpensive vacation for us, since we are only a little over 4 hours from there.

Branson Vacation: Day 1

We left for Branson on Thursday morning. It was a perfect driving day!

Thank goodness Dave bought a portable DVD player at the last minute. It came in really handy. We brought along some Backyardigans, Hello Kitty and My Little Pony DVDs and Abby never complained.


Abby enjoying a DVD

When we got to Springfield, MO we stopped at Schlotsky's for a late lunch. We don't have them in St. Louis anymore, so we make sure to stop there every year. It's so yummy!

Andrew, is he not the cutest?!

Our next stop was Fantastic Caverns. None of us had been here before and we all really enjoyed it! It is the only ride through cave in the U.S. and is one of only 4 in the whole world!


Matthew found a Davy Crockett hat at Fantastic Caverns. How funny!

Our cave tour guy was very nice and knowledgeable. The history of the cave is really neat! It's so amazing to think that some of the formations have been there for millions of years!







Here's a little souvenir picture that my Mom bought for Abby. It's all of us on the cave tour.



Oh and a funny story about the family in the front part of the tram. Their little girl was born a day after my nephew Andrew, on Thanksgiving. However both babies were really due on New Year's Eve. What a coincidence!

After Fantastic Caverns we headed to Branson and checked into our hotel. The kids went swimming for a bit and then it was time for bed! What a fun day!

Check back next week for highlights from the rest of our trip!

Oh and if you are ever near Springfield, MO we highly recommend Fantastic Caverns.

Hooked On Friday: My Perfect Camera Bag

Awhile back I posted a Works For Me Wednesday post asking for ideas about taking my camera to the beach and about camera bags.

I decided to purchase the Tamrac bag below:

I used $35 worth of Amazon gift cards that I've earned on Swagbucks, so it didn't cost me much at all.

I tried it out at Grant's Farm last week and I love it! I used the bag as both my purse and camera case. Here's what it looks like on:The inside zip pocket is the perfect size to hold Abby's Epi-pen and Benedryl tablets. (she is allergic to tree nuts)


The camera fits right in the middle, with the lens pointed down. There are two small pockets on each side.

The outside pocket fits a bag of wipes, my cellphone, and a small wallet.


I'm hooked on the Tamrac Velocity 6 bag! It's going to get a lot of use on vacation!

Check out Hooked On Houses for more Hooked On Friday posts.

Homeschooling Week 5

I can't believe it's Thursday already! Where did this week go?

This week has been more of an unschooling week. We've been out of the house almost all week running errands and getting ready for our vacation.

Abby did do a few worksheets like beginning sounds and counting pennies.

She also spent a lot of time this week drawing and coloring pictures. This is my favorite:


The red stuffed toy is our cat Ditto's favorite toy. He plays fetch with it. Abby wants to bring it on vacation with us for some reason. I told her she couldn't or he'd miss his favorite toy.

She decided she'd better make a picture for him to remember his toy while we are gone. The pink person is her, purple is me, blue is Dave. The brown cat at the bottom is Abycat and the black cat at the top is Ditto.

Love it!

Ok, so since we didn't do much with the workboxes this week, I have a great link for workboxes to share:

Sunflower Schoolhouse's Workbox Blog Roll

Check it out to see a huge list of blogs who use the workbox system.

Wordless Wednesday

I believe I was in the laundry room when this happened. Abby was about 2 1/2 at the time. Apparently those babies had a serious rash!

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, head to:

Go Graham Go
Jolly Mom
5 Minutes For Mom

Grant's Farm Field Trip

Last Friday we visited Grant's Farm with my sister and my nephew.



Abby really wanted to feed the goats, but as soon as I bought the bottle of milk, she chickened out and I fed them. Matthew had a great time feeding the goats. He was laughing so hard about it.

Abby was pretty happy to see the new addition to Grant's Farm...a carousel!

I think Matthew's favorite part of Grant's Farm was running through the misters! LOL! It was kind of hot in the sun, so the kids and Heather ran through it a few times. Abby and I shared a yummy blue raspberry sno-cone!

My sister had prepared a little printable for Abby and Matthew's notebooks. On the way home she interviewed them and recorded their answers:

1. What was your favorite animal at Grant's Farm?
Matthew: Goats
Abby: Chickens

2. What kind of food does this animal eat?
Matthew: milk
Abby: Corn

3. Would this animal make a good pet and why?
Matthew- No, he could chew on the cable of the TV. It would be eating your clothes and he would eat Andrew's bottles. Abby kept chiming in about how the goat would poop all over the house! LOL!

Abby- Yes, you can play with them and feed them corn. Abby said the chicken wouldn't poop all over the house and Matthew matter of factly said: "Every goat, person and astronaut has to go to the bathroom, so I'd say chickens would too." He is so funny!

We had a nice field trip. Thankfully my Mom babysat my nephew Andrew and the 4 of us got to ride together. Not only did that save an additional $11 for parking, but we got to listen to all of the kid's silly conversations all the way there and back.

Our next outing is our 3rd Annual Branson Family Vacation! We're heading to AAA today to pick up the Silver Dollar City tickets!

I'd love to hear what field trips you've been on recently.

We are hoping to get to a fire station in October for National Fire Prevention Month.

I ♥ Faces Week 36: Contemplative

I ♥ Faces Definition: thoughtful observation; full or deep consideration; dreamily or wistfully thoughtful: a pensive mood; expressing or revealing thoughtfulness; quiet modes of apparent or real thought; can be marked by some sadness, but doesn't have to be.



This is my nephew Matthew deep in thought while playing at the Magic House. They had a huge construction area with hats, vests, PVC pipes, and more!

For more contemplative faces, head to www.iheartfaces.com.

Hooked On Friday: Gymnastics

Abby and my nephew Matthew have been taking a gymnastics class for a few weeks now and they are loving it! My sister and I love to sit and watch them do their little tricks. It's so funny.

So, this week we are all hooked on gymnastics!





Sorry the pictures aren't very good. We were sitting behind glass windows to watch, so I couldn't use a flash or it would bounce back. You can still see how excited they were.

For more Hooked On Friday posts, head to Hooked On Houses.