Shopping With Kids? Yes You Can!

I love to shop. I especially love antique stores that are packed to the gills with treasures and curiosities. I also have three smallish children. You can see where this would pose a problem. Yesterday we took the boys to a bunch of the neat stores over in Ventura and I had a fantastic idea: I made them each a checklist of things to find. This time I made it just five easy things - a doll, antique utensils, old books, old signs and costume jewelry. I also had them work as a team against Brooks and Kell (who had the actual list of things I was looking for). They had a great time and it totally kept them from being bored. When they had checked off everything on their lists, I had lollipops ready. But they were SO good that when they spotted a cupcake shop, I agreed to the upgrade :)

Alphabet Summer

I was really hoping to find some way to keep the kids learning this summer without resorting to simple workbooks. And when I read about Alphabet Summer, I knew I had found it! The idea is that you choose a letter a day (or every few days in our case) and plan on some learning activities that complement the letter. I made my boys each a notebook with a basic plan for each day as well as some worksheets to go along with each theme. We're skipping around as we go and working the letters in where they fit with our schedule.
Here's Dash's notebook and the first page...
So far it's going wonderfully! Finley especially enjoys finding new words that go along with each letter so that our days are full :) Here are some pictures from W and R days. And here are some links to other families that have inspired this terrific idea:

Home By Heidi
The Moes Family

What are your kids up to this summer?

DIY Art Project!

One of my favorite blogs is The Lettered Cottage. Layla's designs and remodels are amazing, but I usually read them and wonder if I should hire someone to do something like that around here. Then she published this tutorial. Not only did I love the idea of a piece of art like this, I had the perfect place for it AND I figured Brooks and I could make it happen! So here's what we did...(TLC has WAY more detailed instructions, I'm giving you bare bones here)
First the frame had to be assembled.
Assembling the frame was an all-male event :)
After it was all put together, it was time for staining...
Once the stain dried, I sanded it lightly just to rough it up a bit. Then I sat down with the stamps...
I did the stamping and tried to be as haphazard as someone with OCD is capable of...
And expertly hung by my Woob...
Finished product...
It was so fun to make and I LOVE the result! Don't forget to hop over to TLC for other great decorating ideas :)

I Heart Faces: Boys

This weeks theme on I Heart Faces is Boys. As I have so very many of them, I had my work cut out for me in choosing a picture! In the end, I went with this one. I just love how natural they all are and how they can't really go a straight minute without touching each other in some way. Although at times that is admittedly more a curse than a blessing! Here are my boys :)

Don't forget to visit I Heart Faces to see all of the other amazing entries!

I Heart Faces: Motherhood

This week's I Heart Faces challenge is "Motherhood". I have some beautiful photos that mean motherhood to me, from lovely posed photos of our family to joyful candids of our life together. But this is the photo that speaks motherhood to me the loudest. Minutes before my last son entered the world, concentrated on birthing him into my arms, that face is Motherhood to me...



Don't forget to go check out all of the other entries!