Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Fourth of July Sensory Box!

Our July sensory box theme is the Fourth of July! So all the items in the box fit in or red, white and blue theme.


Here is what we have included:


Red, White and Blue stones (Hobby Lobby)


Red, White and Blue star straws (Christmas Tree Store)


American Flags (I can't remember where these came from)


Star Ice Cube Tray (Dollar Store)


Red, White and Blue Pinwheels (Dollar Store)


Uncle Sam and his wife (Christmas Tree Store)

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Snikiddy Review and Giveaway

We were lucky to have the opportunity to try two varieties of snacks from the Snikiddy Company! Snikiddy makes snacks for kids from wholesome and real ingredients. Snikiddy was started by a mother (Janet) and daughter (Mary). They were both very passionate about children's health and wanted to create healthy foods for children.


Snikiddy snacks come in several different varieties including: Barbeque Baked Fries, Sea Salt Baked Fries, Southest Cheddar Bakes Fries, Bold Buffalo Baked Fries, Cheddar Cheese Fries, Classic Ketchup Fries, Original Seasoning Baked Fries, Grilled Cheese Puffs, and Mac n' Cheese Puffs. Their snacks are gluten free, corn syrup free, preservative free, and are low in saturated fats. The Barbeque Baked Fries and Sea Salt Baked Fries are also vegan and peanut and tree nut free, which is exciting for those with food allergies!

We were sent a coupon for two packages of Snikiddy snacks. I found Snikiddy snacks at my local Whole Foods store and picked-up the Original Seasoning Baked Fries and Grilled Cheese Puffs. I wanted to try one of the allergy friendly flavors, but unfortunately my Whole Foods did not carry either of the two vegan flavors. My two kids (that can eat milk) and I tried both flavors. We enjoyed both but the Grilled Cheese Puffs were our favorite. My son and daughter had actually never had a cheese puff before and my son was very leary to try it (as usual!) But once they tried them they loved them! I really enjoyed them as well, plus I was happy that they were healthier than the typical cheese puff! We would definately recommend Snikiddy snacks!




Buy It! You can buy Snikiddy snacks online through their site, Amazon and Peapod and other local grocers listed on their site.

Win It! Snikiddy is giving away a prize pack including three bags of Snikiddy Snacks (which may vary), an art pack and a chip clip! The giveaway is open to U.S. Residents and followers of this blog. The giveaway will close Thursday, July 7th at 11:59 pm. Winner will be selected via the Random Number Generator and once notified will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be selected. Please leave a seperate comment for each entry or you will not receive credit for additional entries.



Mandatory:
You must be a follower of Too Blessed to be Stressed and visit Snikiddy and leave a comment telling me which flavor you would like to try (this is one entry).

Additional Entries:
Like Snikiddy on Facebook.
Like Too Blessed to be Stressed on Facebook.
Blog about this giveaway (please leave the link in your comment).
Post on Facebook on this giveaway (please leave the link in your comment).

All opinions stated in this review are my own. I was not compensated for this review, but was provided with the stated products to review.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Angry Bird Cupcake Picks



My son is crazy about Angry Birds and told me he wanted an Angry Bird Cake. I always decorate my kids cakes myself but with everything going on I did not feel like I had 5-6 hours to devote to cake decorating, plus we had his party at a sprinkler park and I felt like cupcakes would be a better solution. All of the birds are made from scrapbook paper and glue and I attached a lollipop stick to the back of each. I made all the patterns up myself and I think that they turned out really well and of course my son loved them. I will admit that they took a couple of hours to make them, but I was not standing up at the counter doing it, there was not a huge mess afterwards and I was able to do them at my leisure instead of the night before and they were much easier to transport!!




Yellow Bird, White Bird (sorry he is washed out on the paper) and Green Bird


Black Bird, Blue Bird, Piggie and Red Bird

Monday, June 20, 2011

Saffery Moore Giveaway Winner!

The winner of the Saffery Moore $15 gc is:

Shiree Thielbar who said....

I like you! (on facebook) :)

Shiree has 48 hours to contact me with her email address or a new winner will be selected.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

June Week Three

Bible: We will be studying Noah's Ark and will be using our final magnet set from So Simple So Sweet.

Verse of the week: John 14:15 If you love me you will do what I command

Letter of the Week: C

We will be doing our worksheet with the paint dots as well as our alphabet bags.

Since the word cut starts with the letter C I am going to start her with cutting practice.

I am also going to make a color caterpillar and reinforce the colors (which she is pretty solid on, but we will practice cutting them and talk to our little guy about them).

Number: 1

Craft: I am planning on having the kids make a doll house and car garage out of milk containers and fabric, ribbons and other craft items, once they are finished I will be posting pictures!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Alphabet Bags

My sister informed me of this idea for reinforcing the alphabet with young children. It is super easy to do and does not cost much money. All you need is the alphabet letter (I printed out both upper and lower case letters and then laminated them), random things you can find around your house- I did not purchase anything except for foam, and a large zipper bag to store all the items. There were some letters I had a harder time finding items for so I am making items out of foam (for the letter A I made an alligator, anchor and an acorn). My kids love this activity and I think that it a great way to reinforce the letters with hands-on learners. So far I have completed letters A, B and C. Here are my bags:




The letter A:

Angel
Acorn
Ambulance
Airplane
Anchor
Alligator
Ant
Alf





The letter B contains:

Bow
Book
Boxing glove
Book
Button
Bunnies
Bell
Bag
Ballet Shoe
Bears
Bottle
Bib
Bottle


The letter C:

Candy Cane
Chess pieces
Cross
Crown
Cat
Cake
Candy
Clown
Cactus
Coat

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

June Week 2 School Lessons

We made it through week one, but we never finished our letter bags for A. We are still working on it since we spent a couple of days away from home this past week and we really slacked off last week since I had a party to throw for J's 5th birthday. Here are the plans for this week:

Bible Lesson- Adam and Eve, Bible verse: Psalms 34:13 Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.


We will be using our Adam and Eve foam magnet set I purchased from So Simple So Sweet.




We are still continuing with the beach/ocean theme this month and will be reading our books and I found some great printables at 2 Teaching Mommies as well as a girly ocean preschool pack from 1+1+1=1.


Preschool:


Letter B- my daughter loves to use the dot a paint to create her letters. We are also using our letter B themed bag. All the items are stored in a large zip-top bag and are begin with the same letter.




Number 0

Kindergarden:


Continue reading and math

Saffery Moore Giveaway Ends Soon!

Don't forget to enter the Saffery Moore giveaway for a $15 gc to her Etsy shop. This giveaway ends Thursday. Click here to enter.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Homemade Travel Pillow

Since we are planning a long car ride I decided that my children needed travel pillows (I am hoping that they sleep at least a couple hours!) I purchased two travel pillows from an Etsy seller, but decided to try to make one for my five year old because honestly I decided I did not want to spend any more money! It was super easy to make and I made it for a fraction of the price I would have spent to purchase it (the seller I purchased the other to from was charging $9 plus shipping and I made his for probably about a dollar and it only took me about 15-20 minutes! I found the instructions and the tutorial on the blog Make It and Love It. You can find the tutorial here.


Lil Bundle of Joy Winner!

Congratulations to Raven's Rascals for winning the Lil Bundle of Joy giveaway!

Raven's Rascals said...
I like Too Blessed to be Stressed on Facebook.

Thank you to all who entered!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Lil Bundle of Joy Giveaway Ends Tomorrow

Don't forget to enter the Lil Bundle of Joy Giveaway. The giveaway ends tomorrow click here to enter.

Monday, June 6, 2011

My Handmade Angry Birds!!

My son is crazy about Angry Birds so a few months ago I stumbled across Obsessively Stitching. She has a great tutorial and patterns for making Angry Birds. She has a lot of great crafting and sewing ideas, many of which even novice crafters can create. I am not great at sewing by any means but I was even able to create them (I will admit I did have some help on a few from my mom so we could get them done in time!). This was one of his two favorite birthday gifts (the other was a hand painted set of nesting dolls painted by my mom).



The Whole Collection!




Three of the Piggies!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Winner of the Hansel and Gretel Shop Giveaway!!

Congratulations to BloggyMommy who has won the paperdoll set from Hansel and Gretel Shop.

BloggyMommy said...
I like Hansel and Gretel Shop on FB!

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Saffery Moore Review and Giveaway

Saffery Moore is an Etsy shop run by Rachelle. She makes toy wallets that are a great way to keep kids occupied during car trips and errands . She is a stay at home mom to three and she loves to create things herself rather than using a pattern. Rachelle makes items for both boys and girls and also does custom orders.

Her wallets come in different styles and patterns. The train wallet holds four wooden trains and has two tracks to play on.



Train Wallet and Track to Go


The child's tool belt comes in both boy and girl styles and has three pockets for tools and two hammer loops.


Child's Tool Belt


The Littlest Pet Shop and Polly Pocket Wallet and Play Mat has five pockets and the playmat features a pond, river, stone path and flowering trees.



Littlest Pet Shop and Polly Pocket Playmat


The Matchbox Car Wallet and Road to Go features five pockets for cars and a road to play on.



Matchbox Car Wallet and Road to Go


The crayon rolls have eight pockets and can carry up to sixteen crayons. They also fold over so the crayons will not fall out or mark up any other items.



Crayon Roll


The 3 Across Tic Tac Toe is made of felt and features a back pocket for carrying the game pieces.



3 Across Tic Tac Toe



I was sent a Matchbox Car Wallet to review. My son saw it and immediately wanted to play with it! I think that it is great it is very sturdy (which is really important in our family!) and the baseball pattern is adorable.



It folds together and fits perfectly in a purse or diaper bag and the fold over flap keeps the cars from falling out (which is great since I tend to lose a lot of items on the bottom of my purse.



The cars fit great on the mat and this is a great toy for keeping the kids occupied on trips or outings. We love our Matchbox Car Wallet and would definitely recommend it!



Buy It! You can purchase items from Saffery Moore on Etsy.

Win It! Rachelle is giving away a $15 gift certificate to her Etsy shop. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents and followers of this blog. The giveaway will close at Thursday, June 16th at 11:59 pm. Winner will be selected via the Random Number Generator and once notified will have 48 hours to respond to my email or a new winner be selected. Please leave a separate comment for each entry or you will not receive credit for additional entries.


Mandatory:

You must be a follower of Too Blessed to be Stressed and visit Saffery Moore and leave a comment telling me which item is your favorite (this is one entry)

Additional Entries:

Like Saffery Moore on Facebook.


Blog about this giveaway (please leave the link in your comment)

Post on Facebook about this giveaway (please leave the link in your comment)



I was not compensated for this post. All opinions on this post are my own. I was provided with the stated item for review.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Beach/Ocean Sensory Box

We are planning a day trip to the beach this month so I wanted to teach my kids about the ocean and the beach this month. The bottom of the sensory box is filled with white rice (I could have used sand but I really did not want the mess and I could see my children throwing it in each others eyes!)



Here is the rest of the box:






Ocean finger puppets (IKEA)

Ocean animals by Animal Planet (Toys R Us)

Sea shells (The Dollar Store)

Little umbrellas (The Dollar Store)

Plastic Shovel



We will be reading the following books and watching the following movies this month:

Berenstain Bears By the Sea by the Berenstains
Bill Nye the Science Guy Great Big Book of Science: Oceans and Dinosaurs by Bill Nye
I Wonder Why the Sea is Salty by Anita Ganeri
Atlantic Ocean by John Prevost
Discovering my World: From Pup to Shark by Melvin and Gilda Berger
Amazing Sharks/Amazing Dolphins by Sarah L. Thomson
Reading Rainbow: Coral Reefs
Bill Nye the Science Guy: Ocean Life

Sassy Scribblers Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to Jen who is the winner of the Sassy Scribblers giveaway.

Jen said...
I like Sassy Scribblers on Facebook.

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway!