Too Blessed To Be Stressed

Dinosaur Sensory Box

2012-01-05T08:27:00.003-05:00

This month's sensory box theme is dinosaurs. With two boys in our house (and one girly girl that also enjoys the boy's toys) I decided to go with dinosaurs. The best part about this box is that I already had everything for it and did not have to buy anything, just decide which of our many dinosaurs to put in the box. It is a great theme and there is so much out there about dinosaurs so it is easy to throw together some quick lessons.

Here is what is in our box:
Rocks purchased from Hobby Lobby
Various dinosaurs
Plastic trees
Plastic rocks
Small metal scoop

Here are some quick links to others who have used dinosaurs in their lessons:

Two Teaching Mommies
Totally Tots
Meet the Dubiens

Fun Food Allergy Friendly Holiday Treats

2011-12-13T16:30:00.006-05:00

So I have been feeling guilty about not making any special holiday treats that my little guy can enjoy with his siblings, so I decided to make a few treats everyone can enjoy. My little guy is allergic to milk, eggs, peanuts and treenuts. Both of my older children grew out of their food allergies this year (with the exception of treenuts) so this year they have been able to enjoy a lot of treats they had never tried before. I have gotten so used to making non-allergy friendly treats and just giving my little guy a treat that is safe for him, but now he is realizing that what he has is different. So this week this is what I made:

Christmas cupcakes- Duncan Hines has several flavors of cake mixes that are milk, egg, peanut and treenut free (check the package) and Pillsbury has several varieties of frosting (please check each can of frosting). In substitute of the egg I used 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce for each egg required. They taste exactly the same, but they tend to seperate from the cupcake liner. We chose to decorate them with red and green sprinkles and Christmas tree picks.

Yummy Edible Playdough- Now I was not even going to make a peanut friendly playdough, but then it occurred to me my little guy would have just as much fun playing, plus did I want to worry about cleaning it up and still worrying about him comng in contact with peanut butter. So I made edible peanut butter playdough with soynut butter instead. It was just as yummy and safe for our house.

Homemade Marshmellows- My favorite treat of the week! I was shocked that I was able to find a marshmellow recipe without eggs, but I found this one on the Food Network. It was fairly easy and they were so good, especially dipped in chocolate. I know that they are not going to last long in our house! Our next batch will have chocolate and red and green sprinkles! These would make a great homemade gift along with homemade cocoa mix!

I am linking to:

Our Christmas Preschool Boxes

2011-12-10T20:17:00.010-05:00

My preschooler is taking the next couple of weeks off from studying her letters (I will be reviewing her letters with her) so I have made her several Christmas activities to use for the rest of the month.

Christmas card kit

Button Christmas Tree (inspired by Counting Coconuts)

Decorating a Christmas tree (my printer is running out of yellow ink!)

"Cookie Dough" Playdough

Christmas Sensory Box

Felt Friends (inspired by Counting Coconuts)

Sorting Christmas Erasers (inspired by Counting Coconuts)

Tweezing and Tonging Bows (inspired by Counting Coconuts)

Gingerbread Man Counting Mats (printed from Along the Way)

Cutting Practice

Christmas Stickers and Paper

Beading red, green and white beads on gold pipe cleaners

Christmas letter recognition using Christmas erasers (printed from 1+1+1=1)

I am also giving her cookie cutters to trace around and color, which is not pictured.

I am linking to:

This Week in School, Letter I and Christmas Theme

2011-12-04T18:27:00.004-05:00

This week we were easing back into school after the Thanksgiving break. Everytime we have a break I find I have a hard time getting motivated. We have a few weeks until Christmas break so I am hoping that we can get a good start before Christmas break!

Preschool
This week we studied the letter I. My daughter did not have quite as many letter associated activities as I would normally have for her. She did Do A Dot for the Letter I and Getting Ready for I from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Bins
She also had many Christmas themed bins this week.

Sorting Christmas erasers

Tonging Christmas bows (from Counting Coconuts)

Matching Shapes to Flashcards and a Christmas peg in the hole game

"Felt Friends" (from Counting Counting Coconuts)

Beading Jingle Bells and a puzzle

Other Christmas Themed Activities

In addition to our Christmas themed bins we also started our Christmas sensory box and our Jesse Advent Tree. Please see the post for the sensory box here and the Advent Tree here.

Next week we will be studying the letter J and adding additional Christmas activities.

I am linking to:

Our Christmas Advent Activities

2011-12-03T09:55:00.006-05:00

This year I decided to do a special advent activity every day with the kids (besides the chocolate) so we could talk about the real meaning of Christmas. I have replaced our normally daily Bible lessons with the How to Celebrate Advent with a Jesse Tree ebook from Feels Like Home. I love the daily lessons since they are very appropriate for young children. Each day you have a verse, a song, a scripture and an ornament that corresponds to the daily theme. In order to use the book you need a tree and ornaments. I printed mine from A Holy Experience and glued them to red and green paper and then laminated them for durablity.

The kids have been enjoying this acitivity and I know that they are learning the true meaning behind Christmas.

Allergy Friendly Advent Calendars

2011-12-02T08:45:00.001-05:00

As a child I have great memories of using an advent calendar to countdown to Christmas. My mom would always buy both myself and my sister a chocolate advent calendar. All three of my children have food allergies so this is the first year I have done a chocolate advent calendar. I checked into food allergy friendly advent calendars last year for my oldest who was at that time still allergic to milk, but found them to be pretty expensive. This year my older son is no longer allergic to milk. So I purchased two advent calendars for my son and daughter, however my little guy T is still allergic to milk, eggs, peanuts and treenuts and is at the age where he realizes that they are getting something he is not. So I came up with a solution so everyone could enjoy an advent calendar. I saved an old advent calendar and carefully seperated the inner candy mold from the outer cardboard section.

I thoroughly cleaned the mold and dried it. Then I melted Enjoy Life Chocolate chips in a plastic bag and snipped the corner and filled each section with chocolate.

I stuck it in the refrigerator for about a half hour and then put it back in the outer section and taped it back together.

Now my little guy will not know that his advent calendar is any different and he can participate with everyone else!

I am linking to:

December Christmas Sensory Box

2011-12-01T20:43:00.006-05:00

Our sensory box for the month of December is Christmas! I decided to use red and green shredded paper for the bottom, since it is safe for my little one and less messy than the last couple of boxes!

What is included in the box:
Plastic red and gold ornaments (The Dollar Store)
Tiny Trees (Hobby Lobby)
Candy Canes- I pulled these off garland (The Dollar Store)
Jingle Bells
Two stuffed snowmen

This has already been a hit, but have already found shredded paper on the floor. I am so excited that both my older kids are old enough to do fun Christmas activities. We have started doing other Christmas themed activities this week and I plan on sharing them every week.

Here is a look at last year's winter sensory box. The bottom of the box was regular rice, cotton balls, pom poms and a little bit of batting (think snow!) I also added several winter friends and buttons.

I am linking to:

November Construction Sensory Box

2011-11-27T18:57:00.003-05:00

I know that November is almost over, but I never got a chance to post this earlier since my camera cord was missing until a couple days ago! Our theme this month was construction. Here are pictures of inside the box and all the contents:

What is included in the box:

The bottom is oatmeal (safe for my toddler- he won't put it in his mouth like the rocks)
Construction vehicles (five in a pack from Wal-Mart)
Large cone from The Dollar Store
Small misc signs and orange cement mixer from The Dollar Store
Medium sized cone and sign from miscellaneous toys

The kids loved this but unfortunately like most sensory boxes the bottom part ended up on the floor (but the oatmeal is very easy to clean-up since it can be vacuumed!

Homeschool Revamp

2011-11-03T09:29:00.005-04:00

After a couple of months into homeschooling I realized I have taken on a undetaking and have decided (out of necessity) to scale it back. I was preparing a new snack every day for our letter theme, a new book, a new craft, an activity for our theme and a Bible activity. It got to be too much since everything that I was doing was ideas I was coming up with or ideas I found on other blogs that I researched for hours. So while I am trying to still do fun activities I am trying not to put so much pressure on myself. I have bought a Bible cirriculum that so far (one lesson into it!) I am very happy with it. It has activities that are already there to go along with the theme. We are using Favorite Bible Heroes by Rainbow Publishers.

I am trying to use fun activities for preschool that go along with the letter theme, but instead of spending hours coming up with them or researching them I have decided to go with the activities from three of my favorite blogs: 1+1+1=1, Confessions of a Homeschooler, and Mama Jenn. They have awesome printables and fun activities. Carissa at 1+1+1=1 also has new kindergarden printables (Angry Birds is already a favorite) and great sight word printables. I would encourage anyone homeschooling young children to check-out these blogs. I am hoping to start-up my weekly re-cap again soon (I am going to have to find my camera first- as it was lost in the move).

Button Sorting Busy Activity

2011-10-26T13:05:00.000-04:00

My three year old daughter absolutely loves this activity! It was so easy to put together and occupies her for a while (aren't those the best type of busy ideas??) I had a bunch of leftover buttons from my hairbow making days and the tray is from her Melissa and Doug bead set. She can sort the buttons by color, size and shape. The tray is really fun to use since it has a lot of sections that are different sizes and keeps the buttons (mostly) contained.

I'm Back

2011-10-24T21:16:00.002-04:00

After a few weeks away I am back! Things have been totally crazy we bought a new house, I made a trip with the kids to see my husand, then we found out we were going to close on the house in less than two weeks so I went back early from my trip to pack-up our house and tie up all the loose ends. Then my mom had surgery and we ended-up taking an unplanned "fall break" because of moving everything and all the craziness. We still need to sell the other house and I still have a bunch of things to settle but hopefully most of the craziness is over.

Farm Sensory Box

2011-10-04T18:32:00.002-04:00

Our sensory box for October is the farm. We will be doing a mini unit on the farm later this month so I decided to make a farm sensory bin to go along with the unit. The bottom of the box is filled with cracked corn (this idea is from Counting Coconuts). I wanted to fill it with corn kernels, since they are less messy but I figured they would be more of a choking hazard for my 20 month old.

The rest of the box contains:
Felt Barn (Target Dollar Spot last year)
John Deere Tractor
Toob Animals- Petting Zoo set (Michaels)
Farm Animals (Target)

The kids are already enjoying it, but it is definately not mess free!

Fun Busy Activities

2011-09-26T15:10:00.000-04:00

My husband was relocated a few months ago and is currently living 8 hours away from us, so we travel to see him about every couple of weeks. Since we spend a lot of time in the car (the trip is 8 hours for my husband to drive, but I have not been able to drive it in less than 9 1/2 hours with the kids- most trips are well over 10 hours). My children are 18 months, 3 1/2 and 5 so they cannot occupy themselves! I hate having them watch hours of movies on the trip so every time we travel I try to put together new busy activities for them (when we are finally moved down with him and do not have to make such frequent trips the activities will be homeschooling busy bags!) Here are our activity bags from our last trip:

All the bags neatly in a large storage bag (they did not look like this after we arrived!)

Two large superheroes from a garage sale

Barrette and hair band matching from My Montessori Journey

Markers, crayons, construction paper and foam stickers

Laminated paper dolls (they have velcro on the back of the clothes and on the front of the dolls), they also have magnets on the back of the dolls to stick to metal cookie sheets.

My little gnome dolls (you can see my post here)
Clip art pictures printed and lamintated with magnets on the back

Homemade lacing cards (you can find the printables here and here)

Pasta lacing on pipe cleaners

Easy reader books for my son

My children really enjoyed these acitivities, but I will admit whenever I bring them a bunch of activities in the car all they want to do is watch television but whenever I only bring a few they want more- I can never win!!

School Week 4, Letter D

2011-09-18T20:30:00.000-04:00

This week my 19 month old played with:

Baby Einstein Neighborhood Animals, a soft fabric book about Bible animals, Fisher Price Noah's Ark and some sensory blocks.

Preschool:

Here are our preschool bins:

Fishing game, Scooping beads (both are from here but the fishing pole is an old toy I repurposed)

Sorting Fall leaves (Dollar Store), Pushin pins into foam

Letter D objects, Double Trouble Shape Match (from here)

She also did some pages from an old preschool book my son did not finish last year.

The letter D:

Do-A- Dot (from Confessions of a Homeschooler)

"Dirt Cups" (AKA pudding, crushed oreos and gummy worms)

We also made daffodils out of muffin liners and pipe cleaners and read the following books:

Go Dog Go (Eastman)

Daisy Head Mayzie (Seuss)

Dragon Pizzeria (Mary Morgan)

Dog Breath (Dav Pilkey)

Dogs Don't Do Ballet (Anna Kemp)

Kindergarten:

This week we finished up our fall theme. We did the following crafts:

Fall Mobile (courtesy of the library)

Leaf Rubbings

Yarn Pumpkins

Fall Trees

We read the following fall books:

Fall Leaves Fall (Zoe Hall)

The Scarecrows Hat (Ken Brown)

The Apple Pie Tree (Zoe Hall)

In Bible we memorized Psalms 37:4: Depart from evil and do good.

We studied Noah's Ark and made a collage (I did not realize how big these animals were!)

We also used Mama Jenn's color wheel when we talked about the rainbow.

I am linking this post here:

Fun Reading Pointer

2011-09-14T21:24:00.005-04:00

My oldest son is just beginning to read. Reading is not one of his favorite subjects and is easily distracted. I had been using flashcards to cover the other words he is not reading but he was still distracted so I saw someone using a popsicle stick with google eyes. I knew the google eyes would not be interesting to him so I took him to Michaels and let him pick his own shape (a pirate ship) and glued it onto a popsicle stick.

So for less than a dollar he has a pointer he loves!

School Week 3, the Letter C

2011-09-11T14:56:00.016-04:00

Preschool

Here are this week's boxes:

Transferring jingle bells (a favorite!), Matching the letter

Clothesline

Fall Leaf Sort (all items from the Dollar Store)

Letter "C" Items, puzzle

These are the crafts we did this week:

Cotton ball "clouds" on the letter "C" (printable from here

We made cupcake crayons (250 degrees for 15 minutes, let set until cool remove the paper and then freeze until set up).

Pom Pom catepillar (my three year old got crazy with the pom-poms!), Do A Dot Caterpillars

We read the following books for the letter C:

Curious George- H.A. Rey

The Very Hungry Caterpillar: Eric Carle

Chicken Soup with Rice- Maurice Sendak (one of my favorite stories from my days in First Grade!)

Caps for Sale- Esphyr Slobokina

Harold and the Purple Crayon- Crockett Johnson

Kindergarten

Bible

Our Bible Lesson this week was Adam and Eve disobeyed God. I did not have any crafts for the children, but we read through the lessons in Ken Hamm's A is for Adam.

At the end of the week we used the magnets from So Simple So Sweet to have the children re-tell the lesson.

Fall

We did two fall activities this week. First we made apples from yarn. They were adorable the directions can be found here.

We also made a fall pumpkin scene. The first day we sprinkled the seeds (spices), the second day our vine grew (ribbon), the third day our green pumpkins emerged (little green pom-poms) and the fourth and final day our pumpkins turned big and orange (pom-poms). The original idea can be found here. We used our gnomes instead of Calico Critters (we don't own any but own Maple Towns from the 80's but I am not ready to give them to my kids yet!)

We read books about apples and pumpkins as well as:

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?- Margaret McNamara and G. Brian Karas

Leaf Man- Lois Ehert

Reading

We did a couple of reinforcing activities:

Pumpkin Poke Cards

Sight Word Cookie Flip

We had a crazy week. We started our week on Sunday (I would never do this, but my husband came home for a couple days and I did not want to have to worry about school while he was here). It was a good week overall and we accomplished pretty much everything we needed to. We were also able to attend a preschool song and storytime at the library (something that we have not done for a couple years, and the kids really enjoyed it!)

I am linking to:

Fun Letter and Number Tiles

2011-09-06T14:50:00.006-04:00

The kids and I made a trip to Michaels yesterday to use my 50% off coupon on a set of Toob farm animals. After searching through every set I discovered they did not have any, but I found a great ancient Egypt set that will be used for an upcoming study on Egypt and a sensory box! On our way out I discovered that some of their dollar items had been reduced 50% and I found this scrapbooking sticker set. It contains four sheets, two of the alphabet, one of numbers and one of punctuation. I realized that maybe they would be great for word building (because I don't have enough letter yet- ha ha!).

I first cut out the sheets (they did not have perforation which made it difficult to tear out)

Then I laminated them, since if I just cut them I knew I would find these stickers stuck to items all over the house!

Then I cut them out!

I love that they included punctuation so they are very versatile and can be used for building sentences and math equations!

School Week Two, Letter B

2011-09-02T11:00:00.003-04:00

This week I created a new bin of toys for T (18 months old). Unfortunately I just took the picture, and I should have taken the picture prior to giving him the bin, not at the end of the week since a few pieces are missing. Here is what is in his bin:
Winnie the Pooh stacking toy (the Pooh bear for the top is MIA- I saw him this morning but when I need him, he is nowhere to be found!)
Small metal bucket with pom-poms to dump
Plastic car
Eric Carl wooden magnet puzzle
Fabric book
Crayola toys (there is at least one and maybe two pieces missing)

Preschool:

Week two was a bit more challenging- I think that the novelty of school wore off for my three year old. We studied the letter B this week. To reinforce the letter we read a book every day. We read Brown Bear (I made the Heads and Tails puzzle from 1+1+1=1), Babar, Babar loses His Crown, The Berenstain Bears Go to the Doctor, and Bess and Bill (a book that is focuses on the letter B).

For our snack time we ate bear cookies (Teddy Grahams), bear candy (gummy bears), blueberries, bananas and made brownies.

To reinforce the letter B our crafts were butterflies made from tissue paper and pipe cleaners, made binoculars, did do-a-dot paint on the letter B (from Confessions of a Homeschooler), glued buttons on the letter B and made brownies.

These are the trays that I created for my princess this week:

Coloring book and Shape Hunt and Sort

Measure it and Counting/Matching (Gummy) Bears

Play-Doh Mat and writing on a dry erase board

My old Quiet Book (made by my Grandma) and Pom-pom Patterns

Letter B items and A-Z Spoon Match-up (she was definately overwhelmed and next time I think I would only do 4-5 at a time)

Stencils and Practicing folding

Kindergarden:

Bible

We continued on with days 4-7 of creation. For day 4 we created the ocean with foam pieces on blue paper, day 5 we made sun masks, day 6 (not shown) we "named" the animals with our huge collection of little animals, day 7 (not shown) we reviewed with our creation magnets from So Simple So Sweet, and then created the Days of Creation mini book.

Math
We are still working in our Singapore math book but I had J do an acitvity with manipulatives (number magnets and mega blocks) I think it was too easy for him so next week I am hoping to come up with harder activities for him.

Food Group Mini Unit
We continued studying healthy eating by making a healthy snack tray for our refrigerator (it currenly has string cheese, yogurt, and carrots and it also had watermelon, strawberries and grapes but the kids demolished those off very quickly!). We watched a DVD about healthy eating made by Scholastic and made a lap book from Learning 4 Fun.

I am linking this post to:

Fall Sensory Box for September!

2011-08-30T14:43:00.004-04:00

Fall is my favorite season so I was really excited to put together our fall themed sensory box. It was pretty simple. The bottom of the box contains pinecones the kids and I collected. I was also going to use the acorns we found but after transporting them home a lot of them lost their caps and instead of gluing them back on I decided to use them for other crafts!

The rest of the box contains:
Plastic Jack-o-Latern pumpkins (The Christmas Tree Shop)
Plastic resin pumpkins (The Christmas Tree Shop)
Scarecrow and Happy Harvest small wooden pieces (The Christmas Tree Shop)
Silk Leaves (Hobby Lobby)
Orange pumpkins and gourds (The Dollar Store)

I am so excited about the fall themed activities that I have planned for our first mini-unit of the month and will be posting them mid-way through September!

First Week of School

2011-08-26T12:45:00.005-04:00

Here is the re-cap of our first week of school:

First I decided to start T, my 18 month old, with boxes of activities every day. His first box was a double stacking toy, a mirror, two books, plastic baby bead toy and plastic Easter eggs with pom poms in them (idea from
Fun & Engaging Activities for Toddlers)

Preschool:

My three year old little princess had four busy activities in her plastic bins every day. My son is learning to read and in order to keep her occupied I gave her activities to complete every day.

Day 1: Coloring and Cutting practice, Fruit Loop "beading" on pipe cleaners, Play Doh on a mat, Practicing her name.

Day 2: Number counting, puzzle, letter A items, spooning flat marbles

Day Three: Scooping colored balls into the matching colored cup, felt cupcake decorating (Unsolicited Advice), measuring flour with measuring spoons (by far this has been the favorite of the week for both of the older children), Leap Frog Magnets

We also learned our letter A this week. Each day we had a new activity for the letter. We glued construction paper apples onto the letter A (I cut our each of them by hand). We also read a book about apples and had an apple as our snack.

The second day we read Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock. We also made fingerprint ants and ants on a log snack.

We made popsicle stick A's and read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Kindergarden:
We are working on the numbers 7 and 8 in math, and are reviewing some of the basic sounds in reading along with some easy readers. J is also reviewing one letter a day in handwriting.
For Bible we started the story of creation. Our memory verse is Gen. 1:1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. I have found the best way that he learns his memory verse is to sing it. Each day we learned about one day of creation. I could not find an activity I really liked for the first day of creation, so I took the kids down to the basement and turned off the lights. We would say "and God said let there be light" and would take turns turning on and off the flashlight. Day Two we created the sky (blue construction paper with cotton ball clouds) and the third day I had them color a picture of what God created on that day.

Our mini unit is healthy eating. For the first day we talked about the food groups and glued pictures of food to the correct part of the food pyramid.
We watched the Reading Rainbow DVD: Gregory the Picky Eater and we sorted play food by food groups.
Overall we had a pretty good week and we were able to do everything we had planned. It did not always go as smoothly as I would have hoped but with three little kids I think we had a successful first week of school!

Busy Bag Swap

2011-08-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

As if I did not have enough to do, I signed up for Unsolicited Advice's K-2nd grade busy bag swap. I am so excited and cannot wait to recieve my box (I only got the email yesterday so I know the box is about a month away!) That being said I am already finished with my assigned activity! I was assigned pinchers and small things. I purchased plastic tongs from The Dollar Store (they come four to a package and were located in the seasonal section in my store), pom poms from The Dollar Store and plastic containers (they come four to a package) from The Dollar Store. I also included some miscellaneous buttons so the children could have a variety of sizes and shapes to use and not just pom poms.

The goal for each bag is to keep it to $1/bag or less (which I did) and that everything fit in a resealable bag. I will send it off to the coordinator of my group and then will receive back 30 different activities for my son. This ends up costing about $60 (since it is about $30 for the 30 activities, $15 to ship the box to the coordinator and I will send $15 to the coordinator to mail my box back).

My husband was not too keen on the cost, but it is well worth it to me because I know to duplicate all 30 activities would be more than $30 , plus my time to put it all together is well worth more than $30. If you are interested she has done other swaps in the past: a toddler swap, Pre-K swap, and a K-2nd swap. She is also planning on a K-2nd reading and math activities swap in the future. Even if you are not interested in the swap she has great busy bag activity ideas that are great for keeping your child busy when homeschooling, traveling or whenever they are bored!

The Official Start of School!!!

2011-08-21T09:30:00.000-04:00

After a failed attempt to start this summer (which was totally my fault, since I lacked a lot of planning and with all the craziness I really need the planning) we are officially starting school on Wednesday, August 24th! J is starting kindergarten and my princess with be starting preschool. I know I am probably totally insane, but I really do not have a cirriculum. I went to a homeschool convention in March searching for preschool cirriculum, handwriting cirriculum, Bible cirriculum and math cirriculum and all I found was math! I did not like any of the cirriculum they were selling so I decided to take on the very big job of making-up my own (which since I do not have an education background- I have a Masters in Business, has been a lot of work) but there are tons of blogs out there, that if you have time you can find oodles of ideas- TIME being the key! So without further ado here are our plans for the school year:

Bible- Every week has a theme here are the themes I have decided to start with:

Creation (spread to a week and a half of lessons- one day of creation per day)

Adam and Eve and the Fall

Noah's Ark

Joseph and his Brothers

Joseph in Egypt

Joshua and the Battle of Jericho

Daniel and the Lions Den

Abraham

The Tower of Babel

Moses- this will continue for a couple weeks

Math- J is currently working on Singapore Math- Kindergarden Early Bird book, my little princess with be learning her numbers up to 10 (maybe up to 20...)

Reading- J is continuing on with Hooked on Phonics (I will be starting my daughter on the preschool version as well) and using readers to reinforce. For preschool we will also be featuring a letter every week with crafts, snacks, books and activities for each letter.

Mini-Units- Every two weeks we will be featuring a new mini-unit. I love the idea of unit studies and this is my way of incorporating that into our school. We will be reading themed books, doing activities, crafts, eating snacks based on that unit, and every month the sensory box will be based on one of the two units. The units that I have so far are:

Nutrition/Food Groups

Construction

Geography: North Carolina

The Farm

Fall

Dinosaurs

Tall Tales (Paul Bunyan, Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed...)

Winter

Spring

Weather (Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Tsunamis, Earthquakes)

Ancient Egypt

I am planning on posting about our first week at the end of the week and will also posting our first mini-unit: Nutrition.

Gnome Project

2011-08-19T08:00:00.003-04:00

Since we still have not sold our home we are still taking the long road trip to visit my husband every few weeks. The first trip I had tons of activities for the car and we had our travel DVD player. The kids barely played with the activities and instead wanted to watch movies. The second trip I brought all our kids DVDs and only a few activities. Of course they asked for their activities and I was not as prepared. So this next trip I have decided to be prepared this time (which means they probably will only play with them for a few minutes. Here is one of our new activities: color gnomes. Right now I have only made eight, but once I am less busy (will that ever happen) I plan on making more. They are super easy and I got my inspiration from Little Red Whimsy and adorable etsy shop, and hers are definately cuter with hair and faces. They are made of unfinished wooden people from Hobby Lobby (the regular price is 2.99 for a bag of 8 people), hot glue and felt.

All I did was cut two small pieces of felt and attach them for clothing and a hat with the hot glue gun.

I was planning on keeping these a suprise but my two sons saw them before they were finished (the one who is 18 months won't remember but I guarantee the 5 year old will ask for them as soon as they are in the car.)

I have linked up this post to Sugar & Spice on Seven Thirty Three, click on the button for more great craft ideas for little (and big) girls!

Fun Learning Garage Sale Finds!

2011-08-15T08:00:00.001-04:00

I am so excited about what I found at a garage sale. I saw on Craigslist that there was a retiring elementary school teacher having a garage sale to clean out all of her teaching supplies. I packed my kids up and headed over. We were there a couple minutes before it was scheduled to start and there were almost ten other people with the same idea as me! I bought all this for $5, which I think was a fabulous deal (since one of the card sets alone was orginally $10!) And none of the pieces were missing on the puzzles or the games or card sets.

This is what I bought:
Two workbooks
Four puzzles
Toy Story Game
Misc Dinosaurs and Animals
Stencils (2 packs)
Foam Letters and Numbers Stickers
Sequencing Game
Three Reading/Words Cards
I Spy Card Game
Phase 10 Kids Dice Game

I was so excited, but once I got home I wished I had bought more from her (she was selling the workbooks for $.25 so I wished I had picked up more!)

Seventh Generation Diapers Winner

2011-08-14T10:04:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to Christina F. the winner of the Seventh Generation Diapers giveaway. Christina tweeted about the giveaway. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Homemade Pickles!

2011-08-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

I love homemade pickles. When I was a little girl I remember eatting my grandmother's homemade pickles. Last year when I started canning I thought I would try my hand at pickles. My kids love pickles and I knew they could not be too hard if my grandmother made them every year (she was not the best cook in the world, but she made yummy pickles!) I was right, they are super easy. All you need for pickles are pickle cucumbers (they sell them in the produce department of many stores, or if you have a farmers market close you can buy super fresh cucumbers- I did this since the farmers market is only 15 minutes away from my husbands house and they had several stands selling cucumbers!) , vinegar, pickle seasoning spice packs, water and sterile jars. I follow the directions on the back of my spice pack, but pickling cucumbers only requires you to cook the vinegar/spice mixture and cut your cucumbers. It was so easy I was able to make thirteen jars in about an hour in my husband's tiny one bedroom apartment. The picture is a jar that we already started to enjoy!

My Great Trip to Walmart and the Gap Outlet

2011-08-08T08:00:00.001-04:00

I am not a blogger that typically writes about money saving shopping trips but I was so excited about a shopping trip this week. My first stop was to the Gap Outlet. I love this store. I am always able to find something great for really cheap. This is a store that is located in a warehouse park and everything is sold as is and there are no returns or refunds (so buyer beware) but if you can take the time an effort you can get some great deals. Here is what I found this trip:
Two t-shirts for me, three tank tops for my daughter, a pair of socks for her and a bathing suit for next year for her. All for $3.50!! I was so excited!

I had to go to Wal-Mart for a few items (not my favorite place to shop, but it is convienent when you need multiple types of items and only want to go to one store). But I was glad I stopped there- I love to hit their $1 and $2 racks and I am always sad I don't pick-up more when I leave. I have not hit this good of clearance there since January and here is what I found:
Two shirts and a pair of jeans for my daughter and a dress-up outfit for my little guy (it is 4T and he is only 18 months but for $2 he will grow into it!)

For my five year old I hit the jackpot! Eleven shirts, three pairs of pants and a pj bottom. My favorite is the lego t-shirt with a pen and two mini-figs for only $1 (I bought two identical shirts- I have lots of boys to buy for so one will probably be a gift!)
My two trips totalled $24, I was very happy since I have not done well lately finding good clothing at garage sales. Clothing for older kids is harder to come by and my target price is about $.50 a piece, but for $1/piece of brand new clothing I am very happy!

Keep your eyes open for Wal-mart clearance racks!

Ice Cream Sensory Box

2011-08-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

With the end of summer I decided it would be fun to do an ice cream sensory box for the month of August, plus I think it will tie in nicely with the food group mini-unit that I have sceduled for the end of the month. I had a lot of fun with this box and I know my kids will too!

What's in the box:

Ice cream bowls from Hobby Lobby

Ice cream scoops from Hobby Lobby

Ice cream bowls and matching spoons from The Dollar Tree

Ice cream mini erasers from Target

Stuffed ice cream cones from my childhood

The bottom of the box is neopolitan ice cream (its really pink, brown and white pom poms) and cherries (little red pom poms).

This sensory box is really making me hungry!!!

Seventh Generation Free and Clear Diapers Review and Giveaway

2011-07-29T11:09:00.007-04:00

I was so happy to be given the chance to try Seventh Generation's re-launched Free and Clear diapers. Since my little guy has a lot of skin sensitivities due to allergies, it is important to me to use diapers with as little perfumes and dye, since he has had reactions to a few brands of diapers. They have re-launched their diaper line with a lighter weight core for less landfill waste, but they still haave the same premium absorbancy. The diapers are also free of chlorine processing, latex and petroleum based lotions. They have also reduced the amount of packaging in order to contribute less to landfill waste.

I enjoyed using the diapers and they worked well for my little guy. They fit my guy well and we did not have any allergic reactions!

Seventh Generation is giving one of my followers a pack of diapers (size 2, 4 or 5)! The giveaway is only open to US residents and will close on Friday, August 12th, 2011 at 11:59 pm. Please leave a comment for each entry or additional entries will not count. Once the winner is notified they will have 48 hours to email me or another winner will be chosen (please leave your email address in your comments).

To enter:
Mandatory entry
You must be a follower of Too Blessed to be Stressed and leave a comment about what you think about the new Free and Clear diapers or what you think about Eco-Friendly baby products.

Additional entries
Like Too Blessed to be Stressed on Facebook
Like Seventh Generation on Facebook
Post on Facebook about this giveaway (please leave the link in your comment)
Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter (please leave the link in your comment)

All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review. The review and giveaway were provided by Seventh Generation through My Blog Spark.

Great Finds at Target and The Dollar Store

2011-07-27T12:36:00.003-04:00

I love the beginning of the school year! School supplies are one of my favorite things to shop for, and now that we are homeschooling I get to buy a lot more school supplies. Here are a couple of inexpensive supplies I have found this week.
The Dollar Store usually has great school supplies this time of year. One of my favorite things to buy there in the fall is their Manuscript Tablets. I try to stock-up on them this time of year since I have two that need to practice handwriting.
I was so excited to find these puzzles at Target in the Dollar Spot. They were on my list to purchase this year for my three year old, but I did not want to pay too much for them. A dollar for each puzzle was a great deal and I am so excited to let her use them.

This is the best time of year to get great deals on school supplies so keep your eyes open!

Homemade Jelly

2011-07-18T08:35:00.000-04:00

Last year I decided to try canning. My mom had canned several different things while I was growing up so I thought maybe I could do it too (plus I had an excellent resource to bother with all my questions!) Last year I started with canning tomatoes, salsa, and pickles. They all turned out great so this year I am canning again, but this year I am adding jelly to my canning journey. A couple days before I left to visit my husband I decided to make the jelly (my parents wonder what is wrong with me to start these projects when I have a lot going on, plus did I mention that in addition to having the house on the market, a rain storm caused a crack in the kitchen ceiling and while I was in the middle of the jelly it was being repaired!)

Now if you are thinking that jelly must be really hard to make, here is a secret- its actually really easy (just time consuming)!! All you need are sterile jelly jars, a large pot of boiling water to heat them so they seal, pectin, fruit and a lot of sugar. I used Ball pectin, which has the recipes for all their jelly. They suggest using butter in the recipes, so they don't build up foam, but you can easily scrape that away and if your children can't have milk (like one of mine) it is still milk-free.

I made three different types of jelly: raspberry, strawberry and sweet cherry. This is the best time of the year to tackle this project with all the fruit being in season, which means ripe and cheap fruit. I had a raincheck for the strawberries at Meijer (they were $1 a pound!), the raspberries were $1 per container at Kroger and the cherries were actually from last year, I had frozen them- they were actually the hardest to do because I had to pit all of them (luckily my mom has a cherry pitter, but it is still messy!) In the end I had 28 jars and plan to make several more. They are great gift and if you price jelly it can be quite expensive (plus this is much better!). Initially the project will cost the investment of the jars, but they can be reused, except for the inner lid (which are pretty cheap).

I will be posting about the pickles I made next week and hope to can more in the coming weeks!

Raspberry, Strawberry and Cherry

Most of the jelly

Winner of the Snikiddy Giveaway!

2011-07-12T09:09:00.002-04:00

Congratulations to dfraley3 for winning the Snikiddy giveaway! The winning comment was....

Shared on FB Debra Fraley

Thanks to everyone that entered!

Fresh Salsa

2011-07-12T08:20:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite parts of summer is all the fresh fruits and veggies! I love going to the farmers market and I am so excited that the new city we will be moving to (hopefully really soon) has an awesome farmers market. Here is my favorite fresh salsa recipe:

Two fresh ripe tomates, diced small
Two ears of corn, cut from the cob (my favorite is Silver Queen)
One half green pepper, diced small
One half large onion, diced small

Combine all ingredients. If you like a little kick you can always add a little jalapeno pepper. We don't add it because our kids love to eat it and the jalapeno would be too spicy.

Snikiddy Giveaway Ends Tonight

2011-07-07T07:11:00.002-04:00

Don't forget to enter the Snikiddy prize pack. The giveaway ends tonight, click here to enter.

Repurposed Milk Cartons

2011-07-05T15:52:00.002-04:00

When we visited my husband a couple of weeks ago we decided to do a fun craft I found in an old Family Fun craft book. We saved and washed two milk cartons and then I cut holes in each. My daughter's is a doll house and my son's is a car garage. We used craft scraps and tacky glue to adhere them. The kids had fun (with a lot of help from mom).

Doll house

Car garage

Fourth of July Sensory Box!

2011-06-28T16:05:00.007-04:00

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)

Snikiddy Review and Giveaway

2011-06-23T07:45:00.000-04:00

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.

Angry Bird Cupcake Picks

2011-06-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

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

Saffery Moore Giveaway Winner!

2011-06-20T09:01:00.001-04:00

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

2011-06-20T09:00:00.000-04:00

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!

Alphabet Bags

2011-06-16T08:00:00.007-04:00

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

June Week 2 School Lessons

2011-06-14T08:16:00.002-04:00

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!

2011-06-14T07:37:00.002-04:00

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.

Homemade Travel Pillow

2011-06-10T11:02:00.003-04:00

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!

2011-06-10T07:27:00.002-04:00

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!

Lil Bundle of Joy Giveaway Ends Tomorrow

2011-06-08T09:57:00.002-04:00

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

My Handmade Angry Birds!!

2011-06-06T07:48:00.006-04:00

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!

Winner of the Hansel and Gretel Shop Giveaway!!

2011-06-05T18:19:00.002-04:00

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!

Saffery Moore Review and Giveaway

2011-06-02T08:15:00.001-04:00

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.

Like Too Blessed to be Stressed 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.

Beach/Ocean Sensory Box

2011-06-01T12:22:00.006-04:00

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

2011-06-01T07:41:00.001-04:00

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!

June Curriculum Week One

2011-05-31T12:06:00.008-04:00

I have decided to start kindergarden and preschool for my son and daughter this week. This is what we are doing this week:

Sensory Box for June (this will be listed later on this week): Beach/Ocean

Bible: The creation story. We are reading the story as well as using a magnet set I purchased from So Simple So Sweet. Memory verse Gen.1:1.

Kindergarden

Reading: He will continue reinforcing his reading skills by reading the Hooked on Phonics readers. We are also trying to memorize the first five sight words.

Math: He has started Singapore Math Earlybird Kindergarden Mathematics. He is currently reviewing writing his numbers.

Science: Our science is very laid back, but J is so interested in science that as long as he is interested I am going to continue with it. This month we are studying tornadoes. We are going to do an "experiment on tornadoes" that I found in Usborne 100 Science Experiments (this is a great book made for preschool and elementary school kids) I have checked out several books from the library about volcanoes:

National Geographic Readers (this is a level 1 reader) Storms by Miriam Busch Goin

Eyewitness Books Hurricane and Tornao by Jack Challoner

Tornadoes by Mari Schuh

Preschool

I never found a whole cirriculum I love for preschool so I am picking different ideas from several cirriculum and ideas I have found.

We are starting with the letter A and we are reinforcing the letter A this week. In addition to reading books focused on the letter A we are also doing other activities about the letter A, since she is a very hands-on learner:

Shaving cream letters (Put some shaving cream in a gallon size freezer bag, make sure it is completely closed! Have the child trace the letter with their fingers- I have done this on the table as well, but it is messy and not fun to clean-up!)

Dot letters- we purchased Do-A-Dot Rainbow art set and the worksheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler. She also has a lot of great letter worksheets.

Play Doh letters- she will be molding the letter A out of Play Doh

Letter bags- This is a great idea I got from my sister. She printed off the letter (both upper and lower case) and then laminated them and filled a freezer bag with items that start with that letter. (This will be the topic of an upcoming post).

I was not compensated by So Simple So Sweet to mention the shop in this post. I previously reviewed the shop, but the set I have mentioned I purchased from her.

Hansel and Gretel Shop Giveaway Ends Tomorrow!

2011-05-31T07:44:00.002-04:00

Don't forget to enter the Hansel and Gretel Shop paperdoll giveaway. It ends tomorrow, click here to enter!

Lil Bundle of Joy Review and Giveaway

2011-05-26T07:00:00.009-04:00

Lil Bundle of Joy is an Etsy shop run by Malissa, a mom of twin three year old girls and a newborn baby boy. She makes and sells adorable owl themed baby toys as well as other baby necessities.

Her plush animals are adorable! She makes her owls in two sizes small and large. The larger owls in a larger size which measures 6" x 6" and they come in a variety of colors and patterns.

Plushie Baby Girl Owl- Flora

Hoppy the Baby Bunny

Malissa also makes fun crinkle toys with ribbons. The owls have ribbon wings and feet.Her owl crinkle toy was also featured on Etsy's blog in their post about children's travel toys.

Friendly Owl Crinkle Toy

Tiny Crinkle Toy- Shark Attack

The shop also carries other baby necessities including burp cloths, blankets, bibs, travel diaper pouches and changing pads.

Perfect Travel Diaper Pouch- Safari Animals

Five Piece Fresh Flower Onesie Bouquet for baby girl

Set of Three Burp Cloths Farm Friends

Ultra Soft Friendly Owl Lovey Blanket- Blue Frost Owls

Fun and Functional Baby Bib Baby Girl

I was sent two products from Lil Bundle of Joy a large owl plushie and a baby owl plushie rattle. I opened up the package and immediately saw how adorable they were! They are so soft and great for little kids. The plushie rattle has a ribbon loop that a baby ring link toy will fit through. This way you can attach the toy to a carseat or a stroller so the baby will not drop it out.

The owl plushie is adorable and would make a perfect lovie for a little one!

My son and I both loved the products Malissa sent us. They are adorable and I would recommend them!

Buy It! You can purchase items from Lil Bundle of Joy on Etsy. Now through you can receive 15% off your purchase with the discount code DOTCOM15.

Win It! Malissa is giving away to one winner a small owl plushie and a crinkle toy of the winner's choice! To win you must be a U.S. resident. Giveaway ends Thursday, June 9th, 2011. Winner will be chosen via the Random Number Generator. Once notified the winner will have 48 hours to email me with their address or a new winner will be chosen.

Mandatory:

You must be a follower of Too Blessed to be Stressed and visit Lil Bundle of Joy and tell me what your favorite item is in your comment. (This is worth one entry total)

Extra Entries: (Please leave a separate comment for each entry or you will not get credit for additional entries)

Like Lil Bundle of Joy on Facebook

Like Too Blessed to be Stressed on Facebook

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

Post about this giveaway on your blog (please leave the link)

Follow Owl Let you Know

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

Garden Update May 2011

2011-05-25T16:30:00.000-04:00

My roses have started to really take off in the last few days. I am so excited because they are gorgeous! Tulips are my favorite flower but the bloming season is so short and roses are great because they have a much longer blooming season. I cut them back before the spring and now one of them has at least twenty five flowers that will be out this week!

My son has also been growing a plant of his own. His lima bean plant is doing terrific!

So Simple So Sweet Discount Code Ending Soon!

2011-05-23T08:08:00.003-04:00

Just a reminder that the 10% off discount code (use sosimple10) for So Simple So Sweet ends Thursday. I have already placed another order for two finger puppet sets and I cannot wait to recieve them!

Congratulations to my Babies!

2011-05-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to my J and my princess for their fabulous accomplishments this weekend. My smart and sweet boy graduated from preschool. He remembered his lines and is now on the road to kindergarden! My beautiful princess performed in her first ballet recital. She was awesome! I am so happy for you and you make your Mommy so proud! I love you both!

Winner of the So Simple So Sweet Giveaway

2011-05-22T15:34:00.002-04:00

Congratulations to the winner of the So Simple So Sweet finger puppet giveaway. The winner is...

#3 Nana Kat who said...
I like Too Blessed to be Stressed on FB

Congratulations and thanks to everyone who entered!!

Happy Anniversary to my Hubby!

2011-05-22T08:40:00.007-04:00

Happy 6th anniversary to my husband. I miss you while you are away! Thank you for these past 7 years of being together and the three wonderful children we have.

I love you!!

Giveaway Winners

2011-05-18T15:47:00.003-04:00

Congratulations to our giveaway winners:

KC Capes winner

pridelandmama said...
my boys would absolutely love the batman cape. I am a follower

Bellas Inspiration winner

Sherrie said...
GFC follower (shay)

I'm not sure what the name of the bedding set but it's pink and blue and features a princess, dress, frog, carriage, and puppies! My granddaughter would love it!

Hansel and Gretel Shop Review and Giveaway

2011-05-18T06:50:00.003-04:00

Hansel and Gretel Shop is an Etsy shop. It is owned by Stephanie. She sells paper dolls, chore charts, dinosaur books and family tree books. She loves creating things and the name of her shop comes from her German heritage.

Her paper dolls are 10 1/2 inches tall and come with ten dresses in different colors and patterns. She sells several different doll and dress styles. The dresses attach to the doll with heavy duty velcro and all pieces are laminated.

Stephanie also makes Family Scrapbook Albums. Each book contains fourteen pages and is ready for you to add your own pictures!

Her Dino books are adorable and contain seven pages and thirteen laminated dinosaurs that attach with strong velcro.

The Chore charts that Stephanie makes include 24 different chores and ten stars to add to the chart when the child completes the chore. They attach with velcro so you can change the chores for the child. The charts come in boy or girl colors.

I was sent two different paper doll sets for my review. I loved these dolls! The are very durable (which is really important for my three year old daughter, who is not gentle with anything!) They are also very easy to use. She was able to take the dresses off and put a new one on by herself, which is really important to me since she is easily frustrated and whines if something is too hard. I think that these sets would make perfect travel toys and a great idea to take to a doctors appointment. We really like our paperdoll sets and would highly recommend them!

Elsie Rose Paper Doll

Myra Paper Doll Set

Buy It! You can purchase items from Hansel and Gretel Shop on Etsy.

Win It! Stephanie is giving away a paperdoll set to one lucky follower! Winner must be a resident of the U.S. Giveaway ends Wednesday, June 1, 2011. Winner will be selected via Random Number Generator. Once the winner is notified they will have 48 hours to email me with their address or another winner will be selected.

Mandatory:

You must be a follower of Too Blessed to be Stressed and visit Hansel and Gretel Shop on Etsy and tell me your favorite item in your comment (this is worth one entry, please leave only one comment)

Extra Entries (each is worth one entry, please leave a seperate comment for each entry):

Like Too Blessed to be Stressed on Facebook

Like Hansel and Gretel Shop on Facebook

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

Post about this giveaway on your blog (please leave the link)

All opinions on this post are my own. I was not compensated for this post. I was sent the stated product for my review.

Fun Cars Activity

2011-05-17T06:50:00.001-04:00

I was at Wal-Mart the other day and happened upon some new Cars marshmellows. I realized that I could use them for an inexpensive kids activity that my kids would love (and would occupy them for a half hour!) The only supplies you need are marshmellows, black and yellow construction paper and glue. The only prep I did was cut small rectangular pieces out of the yellow construction paper and then the kids glued the lines onto the black construction paper for the road.

The marshmellows come in four different shapes: an orange cone, blue Sally, red Lightning McQueen and brown Mater.

This is my daughters road- she ate all her marshmallows (even the ones with glue, don't worry it was non-toxic!)

This is my son's he went crazy with the yellow lines, but was having fun!

Our Craziness and Guest Blogger Opportunities

2011-05-16T07:27:00.001-04:00

Our house is totally crazy! My husband moved away last Sunday for his new job and left me with my two sons (ages 4 1/2 and 15 months) and our daughter (3). Our house is currently up for sale (and I am praying that it sells quick so our life can go back to normal soon!) So in the meantime I am still going to be blogging but may not have as many new posts (my goal is to still have 3-4 new posts a week). I am still planning on running giveaways, but only one new one a week instead of three new giveaways every two weeks. Once the house sells I won't have to worry about keeping the house spotless which is impossible with three kids under 5 and will hopefully hae more time!. In the meantime if you are a blogger and would be interested in writing a guest post on fun kid activities, food allergy friendly topics or recipes, time management strategies, or kid friendly recipes please email me at jandrmom2009 at gmail dot com.

Bellas Inspiration and So Simple So Sweet Giveaways Ending Soon!

2011-05-15T05:21:00.004-04:00

Don't forget to enter the Bellas Inspiration giveaway which ends Tuesday night. Click here to enter to win a doll bedding set!

The So Simple So Sweet giveaway ends Thursday. Click here to enter to win a finger puppet set!

Good Luck!

Sassy Scribblers Review and Giveaway

2011-05-13T15:45:00.018-04:00

**If you previously entered this giveaway, please re-enter. Blogger lost the original post and all comments. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Sassy Scribblers is an Etsy shop run by Jeannie. Jeannie is a mom of two girls, who test out out her products! She sells sidewalk chalk scribblers, crayon scribblers and mini chalkboards. She has over 100 molds so if you do not see it in her store she probably can make it for you! Her sidewalk chalk it great for a fun spring and summer activity and her products also make fabulous party favors!

Her chalk is all washable and comes in several colors and many designs for both boys and girls.

Princess Wand Chalk

Choo Choo Train Chalk

Western Cowboy Chalk

Rock Star Chalk

Her crayons are made with Crayola crayons and she can make any design she carries in chalk in crayons.

Flip Flops Crayons

Ladybugs Crayons

She also sells mini chalkboard sets.

Heart Chalkboard

Robot Spaceman Chalkboard

I was sent three sets of sidewalk chalk scribblers: Under the Sea, Zoo Animals and Puzzle pieces. When I received the chalk I was very impressed, every piece was individually bubble wrapped and packaged to keep the chalk from breaking. My kids saw the package and immediately were so excited. Unfortunately, it was raining and we could not go outside and play!

Part of our masterpiece!

Zoo Animals Set

Puzzles Pieces

Under the Sea

When we finally had good weather I took the kids outside to play with the chalk (I was relieved because I was able to get my stir crazy kids out!) They loved the chalk, and had a great time (and I did too!) I had a hard time getting them to put the chalk away. We all loved Sassy Scribblers chalk and would definitely recommend it!

Buy It! You can purchase items from Sassy Scribblers on Etsy.

Win It! Jeannie is giving away an Under the Sea chalk scribblers set! To enter you must be a U.S. Resident. This giveaway ends on Saturday, May 28, 2011. Winner will be chosen via the Random Number Generator and once they are notified they must respond with their contact information within 48 hours or a new winner will be selected. Please leave a separate comment for each entry. If a separate entry is not left you will not receive credit for additional entries.

Mandatory:

To enter you must be a follower of Too Blessed to be Stressed and visit Sassy Scribblers Etsy site and tell me which item is your favorite (you must do both and this is worth one entry total).

Extra Entries:

Like Sassy Scribblers on Facebook

Like Too Blessed to be Stressed on Facebook

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

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

All opinions in this post are my own. I was not compensated for this post. I received the stated products for review.

Sassy Scribblers post will be back soon!

2011-05-13T14:59:00.004-04:00

Blogger has been having issues the last couple of days and all posts that have been created from Wednesday evening through this morning have disappeared. They are saying that they should be restored soon (if you would like to read their explaination you cna find it here). I have tried to re-post the Sassy Scribblers giveaway, however all they have restored from the original post is a few pictures and about three sentences of text (which is frustrating since it was a couple hours of work!) I apologize for any inconvience and if it is not restored soon I will re-write the post from scratch and re-post.

KC Capes Ending Tonight!

2011-05-10T07:49:00.003-04:00

Don't forget to enter the KC Capes giveaway that ends tonight. To enter click here.

My Homemade I-Spy Bags

2011-05-09T14:46:00.004-04:00

I discovered I-Spy bags almost a year ago. As soon as I saw them I knew my children would love them! I decided to make my three children and my two nephews and niece an I-Spy bag for Christmas. They are wonderful for car rides or doctors appointments to keep a child occupied.

Supplies:
Scraps of material (my bags are 4.5" x 4.5")
Poly Pellets (these can be purchased online or at Michaels)
Clear vinyl (you can purchase this at material stores or Wal-Mart)
Small findings (whatever you find around your house or Hobby Lobby sells a bag of "Grandmas Grab Bag" by Dress It Up in their scrapbooking section)

Cut your material (make sure you fold the material in half so- you will have two 4.5 x 4.5 squares, with one side shared for both squares, so you only have to sew three sides instead of four). Cut out a square piece of material of one of the squares (my window is 3.5" x 2.75"). Cut the vinyl about a quarter inch bigger than each side of the opening. Sew the vinyl into the window. Turn the fabric inside out and sew all the sides together, but leave a small hole so you can turn it to the right side and so you can fill it. Pull the fabric through the hole so it is right side out and then fill your bag with Poly Pellets and the findings (I have 20 findings in each of my bags). Sew the hole together. I am a novice when it comes to sewing (I know enough to be dangerous!). If you don't want to go to the trouble of making your own I-Spy bag, there are a lot of crafters selling them on Etsy!

Congratulations Winners!

2011-05-06T12:40:00.004-04:00

Congratulations to the winners of the Glory Glass Magnets and the Mama's Felt Cafe giveaways.

The winner of the Glory Glass Magnet Alphabet Magnet Set:

Ponia said...
Like Glory Glass Magnets on Facebook

The winner of the Mama's Felt Cafe $20 gift certificate:

Michelle said...
Following via GFC. I like Squishy Squares!

So Simple So Sweet Review and Giveaway

2011-05-05T08:59:00.029-04:00

So Simple So Sweet is an Etsy shop run by Heidi, a mom of two young children. Her shop sells finger puppets and homemade cards. The finger puppets have magnets on the back and attach to a glove to use in telling the story. Her shop sells several types of finger puppets based on Bible stories, fairy tales, songs and other learning themes. The puppets are made of foam and the details are drawn onto the foam. Since the glove and the foam pieces have magnets they are interchangeable so you can use the glove for multiple stories. If you would prefer the pieces to be permanently attached she can attach them without the magnets. She also welcomes custom orders.

The shop carries several different themes of finger puppets. Here are a few of the sets she carries:

Weather Finger Puppets

Princess Fairytale Fingerpuppets

Train Finger Puppets

Little Red Riding Hood Finger Puppets

Daniel in the Lions Den Finger Puppets

She also makes single finger puppets.

Pirate Single Finger Puppet

Heidi also sells adorable cards. Here are a few of the cards in her shop:

Floral Stripe Thank You Card

Teacher Thank You Apple Card
Childrens Ladybug Card

I was sent a Noah's ark themed finger puppet set for review. The set was so detailed. The animal and ark details are drawn on the foam! The glove is so easy to use and comes in three different sizes: large, small and kids size. I took the glove and Noah's ark pieces out and used it with my three year old to tell her the story of Noah's ark.

She really enjoyed me telling the story. She learns much better visually and through hands-on experiences than through stories in books. I think that this is a fabulous tool for teaching preschoolers and children that learn well through hands-on or visual activties. I would definately recommend So Sweet So Simple's finger puppets.

Buy It! You can purchase items from So Sweet So Simple on Etsy. Get 10% off your purchase with sosweet10.

Win It! Heidi is giving away a finger puppet set to one of my followers! This giveaway is open to U.S. followers of my blog. The giveaway will end on Thursday, May 19th at 11:59 pm EST. Winner will be chosen via Random Number Generator. Once the winner is notified they must respond to my email with their mailing address within 48 hours or a new winner will be chosen. Please leave a comment for each entry, or additional entries will not count.

Mandatory Entry (this is worth one entry):
You must be a follower of Too Blessed to be Stressed and visit So Simple So Sweet on Etsy and tell me what tour favorite item is.

Extra Entries (one entry each, please leave a comment for each entry):
Heart So Simple So Sweet on Etsy
Like Too Blessed to be Stressed on Facebook
Post about this giveaway on Facebook (please leave a link in your comment)

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

All opinions included in this post are my own. I was not compensated for this post. I as provided with the stated product for review.

May Space Sensory Box

2011-05-04T07:48:00.001-04:00

Our May sensory box theme is space. I am so glad that my sister had offered to let us borrow her sensory box and luckily I planned to use it in May, since things are so crazy the last thing on my mind was planning a new sensory box. The only items I added to the box are the blue flat marbles. My sister used blue aquarium rocks, but she complained that the blue came off on the kids hands and with having the house on the market the last hing I want to deal with is blue on the carpet since the items I use on the bottom of the box always end up on the floor! :

Here is what is included in our box:

Flat blue Marbles

Space related figurines

Polished stones

Star beads

Foil balls

Jacks

We are also using the following books this month with our space theme:

My Book of Planets by Elise See Tai
There's No Place Like Space: All About our Solar System by Tish Rabe
My First Book of the Planets by Elizabeth Winthrop

Bellas Inspirations Review and Giveaway

2011-05-03T08:30:00.018-04:00

Bellas Inspirations is an Etsy shop run by Nancy. Nancy is a retired school teacher and lives in Georgia with her husband. Her husband made her great niece a set of doll bunk beds one Christmas and she thought that it needed a mattress and bedding set so she brought out her old sewing machine and created her a set. She then continued making bedding sets for others and then someone suggested she start selling on Etsy. She then began selling on Etsy and has had a lot of fun doing it. Her intent is to make a durable product that is affordable.

Her shop sells a lot of fun doll accessories. Her doll bedding sets are adorable. They come with an adorable blanket and coordinating pillows for the doll.

Doll Bedding

Her diapers come in patterns for both girl and boy dolls.

Nancy makes doll sleeping bags so your child can camp-out with their doll.

Doll Sleeping Bag

Doll carriers for carrying a baby doll around.

Doll Carrier

She also makes doll accessories sets:

Doll Blanket, Diaper and Bib

Doll Diaper, Bib and Bottle Holder

I was sent a doll bedding set and doll diaper for review. Immediately I tried the diaper on my daughter's doll. It fit her baby perfectly! I was not sure how it would fit her favorite doll since she is more like a stuffed animal, but it fit her great. I also tried the diaper on a couple of her other babies and it also fit them. The velcro is long enough so it can be adjustable to fit different sized dolls. I also took the bedding set and placed it in her doll's cradle and it works really well! My daughter's cradle is kind of old, but it really dressed it up and looks great. I love Nancy's products. You can tell that they are made with love, are great quality and are very reasonably priced!

Buy It! You can purchase doll accessories from Bellas Inspirations on Etsy.

Win It! Nancy is giving away a doll bedding set. To enter you must leave a comment in this post. It is open to U.S. residents and will close on Tuesday, May 17th at 11:59 pm EST. Winner will be selected via the Random Number Generator. Once the winner is notified, they must email me their mailing information within 48 hours or a new winner will be selected.

Mandatory:
To enter you must be a follower of this blog and visit Bellas Inspirations and tell me what your favorite item is. (this is worth one entry all together for both following and telling me your favorite item)

Extra Entries (please leave a separate comment for each entry):

Heart Bellas Inspirations on Etsy

Like Too Blessed to be Stressed on Facebook

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

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

I was not compensated for this post. All opinions in this post are my own. I was provided with product for review.

My Half Marathon Results

2011-05-02T07:49:00.000-04:00

Well I finished the half marathon! I love to run and the Flying Pig Marathon is a great race to run! They have thousands of participants between several events over two days. They have a lot of entertainment throughout the race and there are a lot of very colorful participants. I saw several people dressed as pigs, two guys dressed as superheroes and my husband said he saw a nude person running (I am not quite sure where he would display his running bib!) Overall it was a lot of fun and I am exhausted! I finished with a time of 1:52:52, which was great for me considering the two plus mile hill up Mt. Adams (if you haven't been to Cincinnati it is loaded with hills and almost impossible to run a great distance without encountering hills!) I finished 1162 out of 10871 overall (both mens and womens half marathon runners), 293 out of 6860 (for the womens division) and 51 out of 1102 for my age bracket. I feel great about how well I finished and would definately recommend this race to anyone who loved to run!

Winner of the PetCakes Giveaway!

2011-05-01T14:10:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to:

#78 Kate and Wes said...

like petcakes on fb!

Thank you to everyone that entered!

Glory Glass Magnets and Mama's Felt Cafe Giveaways

2011-05-01T10:38:00.006-04:00

Don't forget to enter the Glory Glass Magnets giveaway (ends 5/3). You could win an alphabet set like the one you see below. Click here to enter.

The Mama's Felt Cafe $20 gc giveaway ends 5/5. Click here to enter.

Garden Update

2011-04-28T07:56:00.000-04:00

It is time again for an update on my garden for The Homeschool Village's Garden Challenge. If you remember from my last post I had started a ton of plants for my garden. Well plans have changed and since we are moving and I do not know how long I am going to be at this house and I don't know if I will have any time once my hubby moves in a week and a half, I have given all the plants to my mom. All that is left is this planter of jalepanos (I figured that I could probably take care of them and then bring them with me to the new house if need be).

I am planning on getting all of her new plants in the ground within the week. But my front garden is the nicest it has ever looked (probably since I am moving- I finally got all the bulbs in that I have wanted to plant for the last few year, and now I have to leave them! These are my brand new planters I bought to spruce up the house yesterday (I hope that these don't convey with the house because I really like them)

Here is part of the front garden, I have tulips, daylillies, columbines, a bleeding heart and some annuals that I planted a couple weeks ago.

This is my favorite plant, I will be sad to leave it. I thought I killed it last year during the drought we had, but it came back up this year. I am hoping I can get another bleeding heart for my new house next year.

I have not done much in the way of garden activities since the last post. I did a lot of the activities with my two older ones and we have read lots of books about bugs and went to the zoo two weeks ago (our zoo plants tens of thousands of new tulip bulbs every year for zoo blooms). We have taken the kids to the garden section of the local home improvement store (does that count?) To visit The Homeschool Village's Garden Challenge click here. You will see other garden updates as well as activities to do with your kids!

My Favorite Burritos- Allergy Friendly Recipe

2011-04-27T08:00:00.001-04:00

Where I grew-up we had this great fast food burrito restaurant that made the biggest burritos I have ever seen. They had two sizes regular and large (and the large was so big that you pretty much had to share it!), now they carry three sizes: Big Daddy, Regular and Little Brother. This is my take on their burritos.

Ingredients:
Pot Roast (I cook my pot roast all day in the slow cooker)
Rice
Black Beans
Salsa
Spinach (opinional) this needs to be cooked spinach. I cook my spinach in a boiling pot of water and then as soon as it wilts I take it out and shock it.
Monteray Jack cheese or Cheddar cheese (shredded)- omit if you have a dairy allergy
Burrito sized flour torillas

Combine all ingredients on your flour tortilla.

Here is the burrito I ate last night. I did not use the spinach because when I opened the bag I discovered it had gone bad.

KC Capes Review and Giveaway

2011-04-26T08:33:00.003-04:00

KC Capes is an Etsy shop run by Katie, a stay at home mom to a little boy and a wife to a busy med student. She needed to find something to do with her time while her son was sleeping and her husband was studying. She found an old cape her grandmother had made her brother over 25 years ago and realized making capes would be a great idea to keep her busy! Katie is also partnering with another Etsy seller to create original Halloween costumes for preschool aged children. She will make the cape portion of the costumes, while the other seller will make the accessories.

Katie's superhero capes are so original. Most shops on Etsy sell a standard cape that attached at the neck and is only worn on the back. Katie's capes are worn in the back but also include a front panel that bears the logo of the superhero. She sells capes for both boys and girls. Custom orders are also welcome and capes can be designed for your own child superhero! Here are some of the capes that she offers:

Spiderman Cape

Princess Cape

Superman Cape

Cat Woman Cape

Robin Cape

I was sent a Batman cape for my review. When I received it I immediately tried it on my 4 1/2 year old. He absolutely loved it! He is just starting to like superheroes and it was right up his alley. I loved that the cape does not tie around his neck and that it has the emblem on the front, that way he can see it. Katie's capes attach with Velcro, which makes them easier to take on and off and my 4 year old can remove it if he needs to (but he probably won't take it off himself because I cannot get him to take it off!). We love the capes from KC Capes and recommend them!

Buy It! You can purchase capes from KC Capes on Etsy. Katie is also offering my readers a discount code for 10% off your cape purchase with the code 2blessed until June 26, 2011.

Win It! KC Capes is giving away a cape to one of my followers! This giveaway will end on Tuesday, May 10th at 11:59 pm EST. Winner will be chosen via the Random Number Generator and once notified will have 48 hours to respond with their address or another winner will be chosen. Giveaway is open to U.S. Residents. Please leave a comment for each entry.

Mandatory:

You must be a follower of Too Blessed to be Stressed and visit KC Capes and tell me in your comment which cape is your favorite.

Extra Entries:

Like Too Blessed to be Stressed on Facebook

Heart KC Capes on Etsy

Write a blog post about this giveaway (please leave the link)

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

I was not compensated for this post. All opinions on this post are my own. I was provided with a cape for my review.

PetCakes Giveaway ends tomorrow!

2011-04-25T15:06:00.004-04:00

Don't forget to enter the PetCakes giveaway. The giveaway ends tomorrow night so click here to enter!

Mother's Day Giveaway from Tales from the Motherhood

2011-04-25T14:45:00.004-04:00

Tales from the Motherhood is my favorite mom blog, it is run by Wendy Hagen. Wendy is a stay at home mom to three adorable kids and is a former child star. She shares hilarious stories about her life with her kids and stories from her own childhood as a child star. Wendy is holding a huge Mother's Day Giveaway. To enter you must answer four of five questions about your mom and then link your answers (or if you don't run your own blog post them in your comment). I love my mom and she is the greatest woman I know. Here are my answers to Wendy's questions:

1. What is your best childhood memory with your mom?

One of my favorite memories with my mom was a tradition she had with me and my sister every Christmas. We would help her make and decorate Christmas cookies and a full-sized gingerbread house every year. She is the best cook and we always had a great time helping her in the kitchen!

2. Was she consistent with discipline?

Yes, my mom was consistent with her discipline. I felt she disciplined us harder than my dad (I hope you are not reading this dad, but you know that this is the truth) and we always asked her not to punish us but to let dad punish us!

4. Do you remember any special things your mom did for you?

My mom is so thoughtful. I remember when I went away to college she made a box filled with little presents. She told me that everytime I got lonely to open one of the gifts and think of her.

5. Did she teach you anything significant?

My mom taught me a lot. She taught me about God, and why we need a personal relationship with him, she taught me to cook and how to treat others. My mom is the sweetest, friendliest person I know (we joke about how she would become best friends with the person she is sitting next to on an airplane!)

I love you mom- thanks for being the best mom ever!!

If you would like to enter Wendy's giveaway please click here.

Mama's Felt Cafe Review and Giveaway!

2011-04-21T08:04:00.001-04:00

Mama's Felt Cafe is an Etsy shop run by Brittany, a stay at home mom of a very cute little boy! Her shop sells original felt food sets and other felt toys. I love her felt foods they are so cute and very creative. Here are some of the food sets that she sells in her store:

Spinach and Mushroom Quiche with Side Salad

Cocoa Mug and Doughnut

Deluxe Pancake Breakfast

Grilled Cheese Sanwich and Tomato Basil Soup

She also sells other felt toys. The Personalized Shopping Bag is great for playing store (or if your children are like mine carrying their prized possessions around!)

Personalized Felt Grocery Shopping Bag

This adorable memory game is also great for teaching shapes and colors. Felt is great because you do not have to worry about bending or breaking this game.

Felt Memory Card Game for Toddlers

Brittany also runs a blog called Mama's Felt Cafe Blog where she posts lots of tutorials on how to make felt food and other felt toys.

I was sent an adorable Asian-inspired felt food set. The set that she sent me was sesame chicken with veggies (including the adorable pea pods), low mein and a fortune cookie. I love this set and the best part about it is that it is allergy friendly for my kids! Her felt food is great and I don't have to worry about it breaking or the paint getting chipped off like the plastic and wooden toy foods that you can purchase at the toy store. Brittany has also created a tutorial for her peapods on her blog. I also have two great sesame chicken recipe that is very allergy friendly. One is very similar to the felt food set. Click here for the recipe. I have also posted another sesame chicken recipe that does not include all the veggies and is slightly different. Her felt food is great and she has such original food ideas.

Buy It! You can purchase felt toys at Mama's Felt Cafe on Etsy

Win It! Brittany is giving away a $20 gift certificate to her Etsy store! This giveaway closes on Thursday, May 5th at 11:59 pm EST and is open to U.S. residents. Winner will be chosen via the Random Number Generator. The winner will have 48 hours to email me their contact information or a new winner will be chosen. Please leave a seperate comment for each entry.

Mandatory:

You must be a follower of Too Blessed to be Stressed and visit Mama's Felt Cafe and tell me you favorite item. (1 entry)

Additional Entries: (1 entry for each)

Heart Mama's Felt Cafe on Etsy

Like Too Blessed to be Stressed on Facebook

Like Mama's Felt Cafe on Facebook

Follow Mama's Felt Cafe blog

Write a blog post about this giveaway (please include the link)

All opinions on this post are my own. I was not compensated for the posting. I was provided the stated product for review by Mama's Felt Cafe.

Allergy Friendly Sesame Chicken

2011-04-20T12:15:00.004-04:00

I have not made this recipe for a while, but it is a favorite of my husband. It is also really easy, like most of my other recipes. Sorry that there is no picture. With all the moving preparation it has been totally crazy here!

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breat, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter or margarine (Fleishmann's makes a soy margarine that is dairy-free)
1/4 cup sesame seeds

Coat the chicken pieces in melted margarine. Combine flour, salt and sesame seeds. Coat the chicken in the flour-sesame mixture. Heat a pan and put oil in the pan. Cook the chicken in the pan on all sides until cooked through.

Glory Glass Magnets Review and Giveaway

2011-04-19T08:00:00.004-04:00

Glory Glass Magnets is an Etsy shop run by Martje. She makes glass magnets, paperweights, crayon rolls and original art notecards. Many of her products include original art she has created.

Her magnets are not only for the fridge, but they she also carries Alphabet Magnet sets for children. Each set includes the entire alphabet, three larger magnets with words and a great case to hold them which inlcudes additional words for your child to practice spelling.

Alphabet Magnet Set

She also carries adorable magnets. They come as in sets or individual magnets.

It's a Bugs Life magnet set

I also really like her Scripture themed magnets. This set includes three magnets, two with verses and one with a lamb. She has several Scripture themed magnets available.

The Lord is My Shepherd magnet set

Her paperweights would make great teachers gifts. This one is my favorite:

Glass Paperweight for the Teacher

She also sells notecards with her original artwork. They are created with ink, watercolors and pen printed on linen cardstock. She sells both mini card sets and standard sized notecards.

Six Mini Notecards with a Large Magnet

The shop also sells push pins. They are 3/4" and have a atrong thumbtack affixed to the back.

Zoo Animals Thumbtack set

I think that she has many great gift ideas. Two other items she carries are her Message in a Bottle and her Sentiment Stones. The Message in a Bottle is personalized and contains your own message and an image of your choice. The Sentiment Stones are glass "peebles" backed with words of encouragement.

Message in a Bottle

Sentiment Stones

I was sent an Alphabet Magnet set for my review. I was so excited to recieve them since my son is just learning to read and we are currently working with our three year old on her alphabet. The magnets come packaged in a great little box, which is perfect for keeping them all together.

The set comes with one magnet for each letter in the alphabet (plus an extra e, l and p), three larger picture magnets, and the bottom of the box has a picture for each letter in the alphabet and the corresponding word written out. I gave them to my son to play with them along with my husband. He loved them. They worked on words for a while, then when my husband went to do something else he left the box with my son. My son proceeded to put all the letters in alphabetical order. Then he placed them in his box he has been carrying around for the last couple days. His box includes his current favorite things and I think he has decided that they are his! I love these magnets. I think that they are great for teaching the alphabet, reading and spelling. My children love to use hands-on items for learning and I think that these would be perfect for hands-on learners.

Buy It! You can purchase items from Glory Glass Magnets on Martje's Etsy site.

Win It! Glory Glass Magnets is giving away an Alphabet Magnet set to one of my followers! This giveaway will end on Tuesday, May 3rd at 11:59 pm EST and is open to U.S. residents. The winner will be selected via Random Number Generator. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email with their mailing address or another winner will be selected. Please leave a seperate comment for each entry.

Mandatory:

You must be a follower of Too Blessed to be Stressed and visit Glory Glass Magnets and tell me your favorite item from her shop.

Additional Entries:

Heart Glory Glass Magnets on Etsy

Like Too Blessed to be Stressed on Facebook

Like Glory Glass Magnets on Facebook

Write a blog post on your blog about this giveaway (please include the link)

Post on your Facebook page about this giveaway (please include the link)

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

We are Moving!!

2011-04-18T08:08:00.004-04:00

Last week my husband recieved two job offers, one about an hour away and the other is 10 hours away. With a lot of prayer, thought and discussion we have decided he should take the job that is 10 hours away, which means a huge relocation. Our plan is to get the house on the market by next week (gasp) and we have a ton of work ahead of us. We spoke with a realtor last week and she suggested that if we want to sell our house faster we needed to paint almost the entire house (including a two story entry way and two story family room), steam clean all the floors and pack most of our belongings. My husband and I moved five years ago when it was only the two of us and when we had a lot less stuff. It is amazing how much you can accumulate in five years (we probably have more than twice as much stuff since we had three kids since we moved in). So we have been organizing, donating, giving away and throwing away a lot.

We started painting on Wednesday night and we are close to being done! We painted everything except our master, the upstairs hallway and our little guys room. I am hoping to be totally done by Wednesday night and then we can work on packing up the rest of the stuff in the unfinished rooms. I am really nervous about selling the house and hoping that it sells quickly since my husband will be moving in two weeks and I will be with the kids myself. Luckily we have a lot of family that lives close and can give me a break if I need it. If you have any suggestions about moving with children I could really use them!

Giveaways Ending Soon!

2011-04-17T15:11:00.006-04:00

Don't forget to enter the Mary Zoom giveaway. It ends on Tuesday and the giveaway is for a Mommy and Me Wrist Cuff Set. Click here to enter.

The Go Headband giveaway ends on Thursday. The prize is your choice of headband from Go Headband. Click here to enter.

Discount Codes Reminder

2011-04-14T08:23:00.004-04:00

Two of my giveaway sponsors have discount codes that will expire soon:

Cuddles and Love- 15% off (coupon code: blessed) expires 4/15/2011

Apples n Amos- 10% off (coupon code: BLESSED 10) expires 4/30/2011

Food Allergy Status Update

2011-04-12T15:04:00.006-04:00

If you have been following my blog you know that all three of my children have food allergies. Our food allergy journey began about 4 years ago when my oldest child was diagnosed with severe eczema and had an allergic reaction to milk. In the last month and a half we have been in and out of the allergist's office and trying new foods.

My oldest son was diagnosed with food allergies to milk, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts at 13 months. He went to the allergist's office about a month ago for testing and we discovered that his food allergy levels to milk, egg and peanut were very low and milk and egg were in the category of possibly being a false positive and peanut was likely to be negative (he is definitely still allergic to almonds and pecans). So we went an did a food challenge to baked in egg and milk. He had no reaction so we have been slowly trying new foods with him. He has been eating pizza with real cheese (which is so exciting) and it is now his favorite food. He has also been eating chocolate, yogurt and a new favorite popcorn shrimp! We are so happy that these new doors have opened for him.

My daughter also had allergy testing. She was previously diagnosed with egg, peanut and tree nut allergies. Her test came out totally negative to egg and peanuts, but is still allergic to cashews and pistachios. The doctor told us since she her test was so negative she did not even need a food challenge, she could try the foods at home. She came home that day and tried a scrambled egg and had no problem. That night she also tried a Resses Peanut Butter cup (she did not like it) and a few days ago tried peanut M&M's (which she of course loved!)

We are so excited for our kids. We must still be careful with the foods that they are allergic to, but I am happy that have grown out of their other allergies. We are still praying that our little guy will grown out of his multiple food allergies (milk, egg, peanuts and treenuts) but we are very grateful that our two older ones have made so much progress!

Grilled Chicken and Pasta- Allergy Friendly!

2011-04-12T14:53:00.009-04:00

This recipe is free of all the top eight allergens (except wheat, but it could very well be made with rice or corn pasta). We had this for dinner last night and not only was it totally delicious, but so quick and easy!

Ingredients:
Half box of ziti or choice of pasta
Two grilled chicken breast cut into strips
One bag of spinach (or a box of frozen spinach defrosted)
One package of sun dried tomatoes (cut into smaller pieces)
One heaping teaspoon of diced garlic About 1/4 cup of olive oil Salt to taste Optional- Kalamata Olives (I did not use them but I think that they would be delicious in this dish!)

Cook pasta as directed on box. Boil a second pot of water and boil spinach fo about a minute, then remove them from the pot and drain as much water as you can. Pour oil into a pan until it is hot and then add all other ingredients. Mix until they are all integrated and heat until all ingredients are hot.

PetCakes Review and Giveaway

2011-04-12T08:00:00.009-04:00

PetCakes are adorable stuffed animals made by the Well Made Toy Company. Each PetCake stuffed animal sits in a fabric cupake holder and the top of their head has a cute frosting hat topped with a cherry. They are currently both selling both series one and two on their website. Series one consists of four different stuffed cupcake dogs. The toys in series one are Randy Candy, Coco Coconut, Blueberry Buddy and Twinkle Sprinkles.

Series One Blueberry Buddy

Series two stuffed animals are different animals Bamboo Berry (a panda), Honey Cakes (a bear), Nutty Nicky (a squirrel) and Roco Coco (a racoon).

Series Two Bamboo Berry

In addition to the stuffed animals they also have minis, which are small figurines of series one.

Series I Minis

My kids loved them. I knew my daughter would love them, but my 4 1/2 year old son also loved his. He has had them for over two weeks now and he still wants to play with it every day and takes it with him to his grandparents house. I think that they are the cutest stuffed animals that I have ever seen!

Buy It! PetCakes can be purchase online on their site,on Amazon.com or Toysrus.com.

Win It! PetCakes is giving away two series one PetCakes stuffed toys. Giveaway ends Tuesday, April 26th at 11:59 pm EST, to U.S. Followers. Winner will be chosen via the Random Number Generator. Once the winner has been selected they will have 48 hours to contact me with their address or another winner will be selected. Please post a seperate comment for each entry.

Mandatory:

To enter you must be a follower of Too Blessed to be Stressed through
Google Friend Connect (GFC) and visit PetCakes site and leave me a comment telling me which PetCake is your favorite.

Extra Enties (each are worth one entry):

Like PetCakes on Facebook

Like Too Blessed to be Stressed on Facebook

Write a post about this giveaway on your blog (please post the link in your comment)

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

Garden Lesson Ideas for Preschoolers

2011-04-11T12:05:00.007-04:00

This week we are on spring break and since I have all three little ones home with me this week I have prepared a few extra activities to keep them busy. This month we are using our Garden Sensory Box so the activities I have planned this week all relate to the garden.

It actually worked our nicely since we had a wonderful day yesterday and my husband and I were able to mulch the front garden and plant a few annuals and are kids dug in the garden. I have also printed several of the worksheets from Homeschool Creation's Garden Pack. We are also using the following books this month:

The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

Spring is Here by Will Hillenbrand

Up, Down, and Around by Katherine Ayres

Winnie the Pooh How Does Your Garden Grow by Barbara Layman

How Does Your Garden Grow by Pat Patterson

Target Dollar Spot Books:

Strange and Amazing Insects by Kathryn Knight

Butterflies and Moths by Kathryn Knight

Slimy Slugs and Grubby Bugs by Kathryn Knight

We have also borrowed the Reading Rainbow: Bugs DVD from the library and we will be repurposing our yogurt cups and planting chives this week.

Go Headband Review and Giveaway

2011-04-07T08:00:00.012-04:00

Go Headband is a company run by a single mom named Kat. Kat is a long distance runner, she has run five marathons and one ultra marathon. She started running three years ago (and like me) is addicted! She has been through a lot in the last few years and running is her therapy. Kat started Go Headband last year. She runs 15-20 miles on Saturdays and sweats a lot, even in cold weather so she developed her headbands. They are made from a mositure-wicking fabric and there is also a small plastic strip sewed onto the front of the headband to prevent it from slipping. Go Headband works with the American Cancer Society and created "cancer sucks" headbands for the Chicago marathon runners. She also works with other charities including the American Heart Association. She does custom orders for run clubs and soccer teams.

Go Headband carries several types of headbands and running products. The headbands that she carries are bandanas, narrow style, winter headbands and the regular style. The headbands come in various colors and in solid or screen printed. They are also for both men and women. They can also be cleaned by washing them in the washing machine.

13.1 Light Brown Screen Printed Headband

Navy Blue Solid Headband

Blue Narrow Headband Just Finish

Slate Blue Polartec Winter Headband

Bandana Headband Forest Green

Go Headband also carries Hydration Packs. Hydration Packs are handheld and carry a water bottle. They have a padded handle and a small side pocket. The Hydration Packs are machine washable and when they are empty can be used as a sweat rag.

Handheld Hydro Pack- Brown Scrolls

I was sent a regular headband in blue with "Runner Mom" screened printed on the front. I wore it for my last long run on Saturday. I ran eight miles in 35 degree weather. Believe it or not I did sweat even in the cold weather. My head started sweating about two miles into my run. I felt the sweat but it did not bother me because it was caught in the headband and it did not get in my eyes. The headband worked great and it did not slip. I have tried other headbands before, but none have ever worked for me. The cloth headbands that I have used before have always slipped off and the plastic headbands are just not comfortable and give me headbands (plus they do nothing for sweat). I really liked using the headband and would recommend it to other runners or for just working out.

Buy It! You can purchase Go Headband products on their site. Click here to be directed to their website.

Win It! Go Headband has generously offered a headband to one of my followers! This giveaway is open to U.S. followers of this blog. The giveaway will end Thursday, April 21st at 11:59 pm. The winner will be selected via the Random Number Generator. Once the winner has been notified they will have 48 hours to email me with their contact information or another winner will be selected. Please leave a comment for every entry.

Mandatory:

You must be a follower of this blog and visit Go Headband and tell me what headband is your favorite.

Extra Entries:

Like Go Headband on Facebook

Like Too Blessed to be Stressed on Facebook

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

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

I was not compensated for this post. All opinions about the products are my own. Go Headband provided me with a headband for review.

Tips for Running a Race

2011-04-06T08:26:00.000-04:00

Picture from Boston.com

I love to run. I have been running for over ten years and in that time I have missed about a total of six weeks worth of days of running. I ran up until the day before I gave birth to all three of my children (I would have run the day I gave birth, but I was in the hospital). Last October I ran my first half marathon. Once I ran it I was hooked. I cannot wait to run my next half marathon in May. If you are interested in running a race here are some of my tips to training.

Wear appropriate clothing- I hate to be uncomfortable when I run. When I train for either of the half marathons in my area I am either training in in the winter or summer. In the winter I wear mulitple layers on top. For the bottom layer I like to wear a shirt that draws the mositure away from the body, since even in the winter I sweat when I run. I also recommend to wear something on your ears if it is windy. In the summer I also recommend clothing that draws mositure away from the body.

Run where you feel safe- I like to run in a very public open area. It makes me feel safer. I would recommend running with a partner if possible.

Start out small and build-up- when you are training to run a distance that is longer than you normally run start-out running a much shorter distance and build-up every week. Since I train for half marathons I add one mile onto my distance every week. I never run the entire 13.1 miles, since you should be able to run 13.1 miles if you can run 10-11 miles. There is an episode of How I Met Your Mother when one of the characters tells his friends that you don't train for a marathon you just run it. Well he woke-up the morning of the NY Marathon and just ran it. (Not a good idea!) He finished but afterward could not move his body to walk off the subway! My husband ran the half marathon with me in October. He had trained and ran a half marathon in May and was fine after the race. However, he did not train for the half marathon in October. He ran three times prior to the race. He finished more than a half hour after me and when he was finished felt very sick. He realized that not training for a race was not a good idea!

Find something to entertain you- I love to listen to music when I run. I prefer upbeat music because it keeps me going and helps me run up the hills.

Research the race you are running- I would recommend doing a little research on the race you are running. Find out if there are hills that way you can train on hills and they will not give you a problem when you run it. Find out if people tend to pass on the outside or inside. If you don't like to pass people and they pass on the outside stay towards the inside of the group.

Don't do anything new on the day of the race- Make sure you try out anything new prior to the race. I know I have to break in my shoes at least a couple of weeks prior to a race or else I will get a blister in the middle of my run and blisters on your feet while running are super painful.

If you ever wanted to run a race I highly recommend it. I love running and races are so much fun. They are also very addicting!

Cupcake Express Giveaway Ends Soon!

2011-04-06T07:59:00.002-04:00

The Cupcake Express giveaway ends on Saturday so there is still time to enter. To enter this giveaway click here.

Ultimate Blog Party

2011-04-05T09:07:00.004-04:00

I meant to post this on Thursday, but with attending a homeschool convention Thursday through Saturday night it just did not happen. So I am fashinably late for the party! For those of you that don't know the Ultimate Blog Party is being hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom. If you are a blogger to join in the party all you need to do is wrtie a post about the party and about your blog, link to your blog on their site and you will also want to enter to win one of their great prizes.

Here's a little bit about me and my blog...

I am a 32 year old SAHM to three incredible kids, a 4 1/2 year old son, a 3 year old daughter and a 13 month old son. We are just beginning our homeschooling adventure and I have been doing tons of homeschooling research in the past year in order to find the right cirriculum and tools to use with my kids.

All three of my children also suffer from multiple food allergies. The food allergies we have in our home are milk, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts. They also suffer from environmental allergies. My oldest was diganosed four years ago and we have been learning to enjoy life while living with food allergies.

I am also a long distance runner. I love to run half marathons (I think that I am addicted) and work-out (I know you think I am totally nuts, but it is a great way to escape the craziness of life!)

My blog focuses on living with food allergies, homeschooling, fun activities with kids and I also do reviews and giveaways. Welcome to my blog and have a great time at the party!

MaryZoom Review and Giveaway

2011-04-05T08:45:00.002-04:00

MaryZoom is an etsy store run by Mary Ellen that specializes in sustainable accessories for adults, kids and the home. MaryEllen lives in Western Kansas and is inspired by the pioneer women that settled the area.

She carries wrist cuffs for both children and adults. They are made from t-shirt scrapes and can hold money, keys, drivers liscence, or anything small you want to carry with you. They are also great for runners or if you just don't want to take your purse with you.

Adult- Bliss wrist cuff Bliss design

One of her favorite items in her shop is her Pioneer Spirit Quilt Necklace. This necklace is made from salvaged fabric from an authentic Great Plains quilt found in Goodland, KS.

Pioneer Qulit Necklace

She also carries eco-friendly pouches and lanyards, which are great for runners!

Eco Friendly Pouch

Eco-Friendly stationary is made of kraft card stock and a stamped t-shirt stamp. They are blank inside and include matching envelopes.

Eco-Friendly Blank Card Kindness Takes Flight

MaryZoom also carries Eco Supplies including sustainable t-shirt yarn, covered buttons and patches.

Sustainable Eco-Friendly T-Shirt Yarn- Turquoise

DIY Kits inlcuding toddler dress and tote. This item is the toddler dress and includes a pattern and the material to make the dress.

Vintage Fabric and Pattern-DIY Kit for Toddler Dress

The shop carries rose broches made from taffeta and wire ribbon. They can be used to pin on a coat, a blouse, at the waist, on a hat or purse, the uses are endless.

Beautiful Rose Corsage

My opinion of the wrist cuffs is that they are such a great idea. I am a long distance runner and when I run I take my cell phone, my key, and my liscense. I have a running belt with a pocket that I wear around my waist (it is like a fanny pack but much smaller and made especially for running). However, I had a c-section last year with my third child and if you have had a c-section wearing anything around your scar is not the most comfortable thing. That is why when I found MaryZoom's wrist cuffs I was so excited!

Trees of Kindness

I can wear the cuff around my wrist and carry the items I need when I am running and I don't have to worry about anything rubbing against my scar. I also received two kids cuffs from the store. These are perfect for my children to carry around all their little treasures that I want them to keep away from their 13 month old brother!

Kids Sized Wrist Cuff Cutie

Kids Sized Wrist Cuff Dinosaur

Buy It! You can find MaryZoom on esty. The items mentioned in this post are just a sampling of what she offers, she has a lot of different Eco-Friendly products and many come in different colors and patterns.

Win It! MaryZoom has offered a Mommy and Me wrist cuff set for our giveaway. This set is one adult wrist cuff and one child's wrist cuff in her What a Hoot print. This giveaway will end on April 19th at 11:59 pm (EST) and is open to residents of the United States. The winner will be selected via the Random Number Generator and will have 48 hours to email me with their contact information once I email them. Please leave a comment for each entry and your email address in the comment.

Mandatory:

You must be a follower of Too Blessed to be Stressed on Google Friend Connect and visit MaryZoom and tell me what item in her store is your favorite.

Extra Entries:

Heart MaryZoom on etsy

Like Too Blessed to be Stressed on Facebook

Tweet about this giveaway (please include a link in your comment)

Post about this giveaway on your blog (please include a link in your comment)

Post about this giveaway on Facebook (please include a link in your comment)

All opinions on this post are my own. I was not compensated for this review. I was sent a wrist cuff by MaryZoom.

Fun Easter Egg Tutorial

2011-04-05T08:01:00.005-04:00

Mama's Felt Cafe has just released a new felt Easter egg tutorial on her blog. She has instructions on creating two different large Easter eggs out of felt. Click here to be directed to her blog and the instructions. If you are not into creating your own eggs she also sells them on her etsy site.

Tru Kid Giveaway Ends Soon!

2011-04-04T08:28:00.002-04:00

TruKid giveaway ends on Thursday, April 7th. Click here to enter.

Allergy Friendly Easter Basket Ideas

2011-04-04T08:00:00.009-04:00

The first Easter after my oldest son was diagnosed with food allergies I struggled with what to use to fill his Easter basket. Growing up we mostly recieved candy (and a few trinkets in our baskets) and I wanted his Easter basket to be like what we had growing up. I was unaware that there were actually quite a few different types of candies that he could have. Here is a list of candy (and some other fun ideas) that you could use to fill a basket. Please always check labels if your child has food allergies since ingredients, suppliers and manufacturing processes can change.

Candy and Sweets:

Peeps- we love Peeps and who wouldn't they are made a coated with sugar!!

Skittles

Starburst

Gimballs Jelly Beans

Divvies- they sell candy as well as cookies, cupcakes and carmel corn

DumDum Lollipops

Smarties

Other fun ideas:

Baby Ideas- I think babies are the hardest to shop for. Some ideas for babies are sensory blankets, onesies and other soft toys or books. Cuddles and Love sells great sensory blankets and onesies at her etsy shop.

Craft supplies

DVDs- My kids love movies (especially now since we got rid of our satellite tv!).

Eco-Friendly Crayons- Many Etsy shops sell eco-friendly crayons in different shapes and colors. For Christmas I bought my children Lego crayons and they were a huge hit! You could also make your own, ebay sells molds or you purchase molds from various stores.

Felt Play Toys/Food- If you are interesteed in felt food Mama's Felt Cafe is an etsy shop that specializes in adroable felt food. Her blog also contains tutorials so you can make your own felt foods.

Homemade Items- I was actually planning on making my son a set of stuffed Angry Birds for Easter, but I am quickly running out of time so they are going to be a birthday gift (I am hoping to get them done by June) my son loves homemade gifts I think he realizes the time that I have put into homemade gifts.

Stuffed Animals

Sidewalk Chalk

Sign Language DVDs- We like Sign-A-Lot. They are great for preschool and elementary children. My kids love these DVDs (and they don't realize they are learning!)

Wooden Toys- I love wooden toys- they are durable which is important with little ones. I love the shop Apple n Amos she has a great selection.

All opinions in this post are my own. I was not compenstated by any of the companies mentioned in this post, however some of them have sent me a product to review or hosted a giveaway on this site. I do not mention a company unless I like their product. If you are interested in items I have previous reviewed please visit my Reviews/Giveaways tab.

Strawberry Shortcake (free of six of eight top allergens)

2011-04-01T09:00:00.000-04:00

I love strawberry shortcake, especially with fresh in-season strawberries. Our stores ran strawberries for $1.00 a package for a couple weeks so I had to make strawberry shortcake! This recipe is free of milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish).

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp sugar

6 tbsp shortening

Egg substitute equivalent to one egg

3/4 cup soy milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine dry ingredients then cut shortening into mixture with a pastry cutter or two knives. Stir in wet ingredients until everything is combined. Form into buscuits and bake for 20 minutes. Serve with fresh strawberries. The picture for this post has whipped topping, but I have not been able to find a whipped topping without milk.

My Garden Status

2011-03-31T06:00:00.002-04:00

I started seeds indoors a few weeks ago (I won't be planting outside until May since the frost warning for our area is until mid-May). I planted yellow squash, brussel sprouts, broccoli, purple tomatillos, rosemary and basil. The first set of seeds that I started emerged after only a few days and were doing great, for about a week and a half when we had nicer weather and I decided to put them outside and I forgot them overnight and we had a really cold night. Now they are looking really sad:

After I nearly killed all the plants I decided to start over and planted more broccoli, brussel sprouts, and yellow squash. I also added cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and jalapenos. Most of the seeds have come up and are doing great, and I am not going to take them outside until I know that I will not kill them!

My kids will be planting their own seeds in the next couple weeks and have already started enjoying our garden themed sensory box.

This post is part of a four part link-up with the Homeschool Village's Garden Challenge. To visit the link-up click here. You will find other garden link-ups as well as fun activities to do with your kids. I will be posting more fun garden activities to do with kids through the month of April.