End of School Gift for Teacher

Here is a really cute gift to give teachers at the end of the year.
Take a clay pot and a wood shape (a flower would be cutest but I couldn't find one the right size) and let your child paint them.
Then somehow write "Thank you for helping me grow" on the front of the pot. And your child's name and the year on the wood shape. You could even print it out on the computer and Modge Podge it on.
Then Modge Podge a picture of your child on the wood shape.
Glue a Popsicle stick (I painted it green) onto wood shape so you can stick it down into the pot.
We have filled it two different ways:
We planted a real plant into the pot. Make sure you use a finishing spray on the painted parts so when they water it the paint doesn't run.
We have also done flower pens. We taped over the hole in the bottom of the pot and filled it with beans and then made flower pens by just wrapping a flower onto the pen with floral tape. And then stuck them down into the beans. This was my favorite because it was useful to the teacher as well as cute.

How to Get Crayon Off the Wall

I have to thank my friend Tryna for this one. I know a lot of people use Magic Erasers to get crayon off the wall but they can hurt your paint. I found this out when I was using it on my daughters wall and when I ran my hand over the spot I had cleaned I had pink paint on my hand! Same thing happened when I used it on the green wall in our basement. My friend mentioned using WD40 on the wall to get crayon off. I tried it and it works great and doesn't hurt the paint! The only draw back I found was the smell which was gone after a while. I just sprayed some on a rag and wiped the wall off. It only works on crayon though. If you are a mother I know you will have a chance to try this out very soon. What is up with kids and drawing on the wall?!

Potty Training at Night

I am not an expert on potty training. I think the way you do it depends on your child. With Hazel it clicked with her when I gave up. She is so stubborn so when I stopped pushing her she figured it out on her own. With the twins Evan got it right away but Erick was struggling with it so we gave him a few more months and tried again and then he was ready and did great.
Anyways I have found a great trick to help protect the mattress when you start putting your kids in underwear at night. Puppy pee pads!

I figured it out when I was potty training Hazel and I had some left over from when our dog had puppies. I just put a couple under the sheets so she didn't know they were there. If she had an accident I would have to wash the sheets but the mattress would be safe and I would just throw the pad away and put down a new one. And they are so much cheaper than any of the stuff they have specifically for children's beds.

Learning to write

I have found a great website that has printable letter tracing pages but my favorite part is that they have name pages too! The first thing a child needs to learn to write is their name and this is a great website to help with that. So far they have had all of my kids names, except we couldn't find Erick the way we spell it :(
There are also a lot of other activity pages to print out for preschoolers.
I know you can't wait any longer to check it out so here it is . . .
http://www.printactivities.com/Tracing.html

St. Patricks Day

I think it is important to celebrate the holidays when you have kids. They love any holiday no matter how little it is. For the bigger holidays I try to go all out but for smaller ones like St. Patricks Day I just try to make the day a little more special than any other day.
This year my kids set leprechaun traps with pictures of rainbows they drew as bait.

They almost caught one but it got away. He did leave some chocolate gold coins behind.

And I made cookies with green frosting and sprinkles. Out of 101 cookie cutters they didn't throw in a shamrock one so I had to settle for the circle.


For dinner I made waffles with scrambled eggs with green food coloring. I have been reading Green Eggs and Ham with the twins so they thought that was pretty cool. Haven't figured out how to do green ham :)

What I do for sick kids

All of my kids have been sick over the past 2 weeks. Hazel brought home this cold with a horrible cough. We found out when we took Delilah to the doctor that it was RSV :( luckily everyone now seems to be getting over it with no problems. Anyways I thought I would share my tips on sick kids since that has been what I have been focusing on lately.
I hate that they have taken all of the childrens cold medicine off the shelves. I feel so helpless when my kids have a cold. But I did discover something that helps. Childrens Ibuprofen.

It helps with inflammation and pain so if your child has a cough it can help lessen the coughing because it helps with any inflammation in their throat and it helps with the sore throat that is probably there from all the coughing. Also it helps the stuffy nose because it stops the inflammation in the sinuses. And of course helps with a fever if they have that (it is the only thing that will help Hazel's fevers). Also it lasts longer than other medicines so you are not constantly having to give them more. I am super careful with medicine so I usually just give it to them at night so they can sleep and during the day only if they really need it. I am not a doctor so you might want to talk to your doctor about it and make sure you read the directions on the bottle. Some people can be allergic to it and babies under 6 months should not take it.
I also always put a humidifier in their room at night (and during naps if they still take them) when they are sick.

We have this one and the cow one like it. My kids love them.
It doesn't usually seem to help right away but I think it helps loosen all the mucus so it is easier to get out later.
When they are having a hard time breathing because of the mucus I some times sit with them in the bathroom with the shower on really hot. The steam seems to help. I have also heard you can take them outside if its cold and the cold air can help (I have never really tried it and don't know if or how it works).
Also lots of fluid of course.

I did just hear recently that if they do have a fever you shouldn't give them medicine to get rid of it. The fever is doing a job and you should let it do that job. That is something you might want to research on your own.

Hawaiian Quilt

For Christmas I tried to make my mom a Hawaiian quilt but I didn't get it done in time. I finally finished it and gave it to her yesterday so I thought I would share it with you.

It is just as simple one but it is the first one I have ever made. I made it 42"x42" and I used a website called QuiltsHawaii.com. It has instructions on how to make them along with a few free patterns. It also has some interesting history on the Hawaiian Quilt.