Gazing Balls for Mother’s Day

This year for Mother’s Day, I decided to get creative.  I had seen this idea on another website that I love to follow.  She is always crafty and very artsy!  Pink and Green Mama is a great site.  I think I have referenced it before.

She had done these a while back.  I had bookmarked it and decided to make them for mothers day.  Here is the link to her directions - http://pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com/2009/05/home-made-gazing-balls-for-your-garden.html

I didn’t take as many pictures as I usually do, but oh well!  I found the balls at Michaels.  They were under $2 a piece.  Then I bought some acrylic metallic paint in four fun colors!  I also that the 3/8 dowel.  I just cut one if half to make two gazing balls.  Last, I found some silver jewelry wire, I believe in 12 gauge.  It worked great! 

The kids had fun making them for the Grandmas for Mother’s Day.  I liked them so much that we made a couple for our front rock area!  Very easy craft to do!  And it makes a great present!  Even a few people thought I had bought them!  I fooled them!

Thanks Pink and Green Mama for yet another great idea!

Preschool Graduation and Tribute To A Great Teacher!

Oh boy, today was the day!  My baby girl “graduated” from preschool!

I have very mixed emotions about today.  I am excited for school to be over and for us to be able to have a fun summer!  (Just have to wait until Jayden is done next Thursday!)  But, I was not ready for her to be done with school!  She loved going!  She loved her teacher! 

Today, we celebrated at the school.  The kids got to walk into the gym with their graduation hats on and the graduation music playing!  How cute is that!

They each got called up to receive their “diploma” form their teacher and the principal.

Then they sang some cute, energetic songs!  It was fun to watch them all.  Most sing, some don’t want anything to do with it, some are scared, and some are just super excited to belt those words out!

At the end Josie and her friend Malerie presented their teacher with a picture from the park the other day.  Malerie’s mom was in charge of the picture and I was in charge of the frame! It became a bigger project than we both thought, but I’m glad it turned out the way it did!

She opened it up.

Super cool picture of the class!

Then she read the card I gave her. 

Here’s the thing, this is one awesome teacher!  It was very hard to hold back tears today.  She was crying about two minutes into the celebration when she was reading a poem, which then lead to my waterworks starting up!  It was off and on teary from that point until the end! 

There is those times when you cross a path of a great teacher.  A teacher who is there to TEACH the children and to TEACH them to be who they are and nothing else matters.  A teacher who is not afraid to get on her hands and knees to play, or to get dirty, or to give a hug, or to just plain be down at a child’s level! 

This is a teacher who we will always remember and be thankful that she is a teacher.  She helped Josie grow into the student we hope she’ll be as she continues on to Kindergarten. 

There is so much more I could say about this awesome teacher. Thank you for everything you did for my daughter and her friends!  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to come in and volunteer once a week!  Thank you for being the rock to Josie’s foundation!  You are a great teacher and great teachers need to be recognized!

Thanks again, for helping the children color the world!

Noodles!

Last week, I was picking up some groceries and discovered these noodles I had never seen before!  I picked some up to make some cavitelli, but then I decided I needed some extra boxes to do something with in the sensory table! They are called ditalini noodles.  Here is a link to check them out: http://www.barillaus.com/Products/4/ditalini.aspx

I brought them home and got busy dying them with food coloring and vinegar.  They turned out nice and bright.

They dried pretty quick so Josie got busy playing with them.  I put some different strings in with them and she started threading them!  It was a good little activity for her.  Plus, I had put a good hand full of “see through” containers in with the noodles.  She had a good time playing with them.

When my son got home from school, he dug right in and had some fun, too!  It didn’t take him very long to figure out that these noodles could fit in his auger!  So we soon had a farm!  I didn’t get a picture of him, but it was fun to see him use his creativity. 

What I liked about these noodles is that they seem to be keeping the kids’ interest longer than normal.  It have had this activity out for a week now and I think they have played with them everyday!  I like that!  Sometimes I get something out and ready to put in the table and they only play with it for about 20 minutes.  So this is obviously a hit!