Handmade Valetines for KIDS

I stumbled upon a great blog.

Its newer but very well executed and ADORABLE!

Here are some of their adorable valentines day ideas

for your kiddos!

FREE Printable along with this one!

 My favorite! Looks so yummy!!! No good for the diet!

 And I just found this one so unique and creative...yet so simple!

 

To see their Whimsical Valentines Day designs plus much more CLICK HERE to be directed to their blog!

{Finding something new everyday ~Bree and J} Pin It

Thank our Teachers!

With the tragic, recent Connecticut School shooting many parents are wanting to show their appreciation to the wonderful teachers that make it their priority to keep our kiddos safe!

 Here are some great ideas from last years Teacher Appreciation Week and the End of School Year Gifts! Make sure to follow the links below to see the tutorials or where to purchase these great gifts! 

Any of these would be great to say THANK YOU!

Show your teacher how great you think they are! 

Thank Them!

LINK: 15 Great Teacher Appreciation Gifts

LINK: 10 Great End of Year Gifts For Your Teacher

We can never thank our teachers, bus drivers, school administrators, and parent volunteers enough~

Bree and J

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First Day of Kindergarten for Evie

Here's my little ham on her first day of school.
I had left my laptop at my brother's over the Labor Day weekend so I'm behind in my posting.

 

We took like 15 different pictures, these were my top 3.  Sometimes I cannot get my kid to look at the camera and hold still at the same time. :)

This one is the most realistic of her personality!

On the Bus. 
Riding the bus is probably the highlight of her day.

Showing off her pencil box.


So far she is loving kindergarten.  It took a couple of weeks for her to get settled in, you can't tell from the pictures but she is a bit of a wallflower.  She's made a few new friends and likes having hot lunch every other Friday.  Her favorite thing is playing at recess, of course!

 

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Kindergarten Countdown: 6 days

Top 15 Things Every Child Should Know Before Entering Kindergarten

from Enumclaw School District print-out.

 

1. Be able to state first and last name when asked.
2. Be able to write first name with first letter upper case and remaining letters lower case.
3. Use appropriate three-finger grasp when using writing instruments (pencils, crayons, and scissors).
4. Count to at least thirty and tell what number comes before or after a given number to 20.
5. Know all letters in first name.
6. Identify basic geometric shapes (triangle, circle, square, rectangle, oval, rhombus (diamond), and heart.
7. Know basic colors (red, blue, green yellow, orange, black, white, brown, and pink).
8. Identify numbers 1-10 in random order.
9. Make most letter/sound matches.
10. Identify most upper and lower case letters.
11. Use finger to accurately touch count items to 10.
12. Knows concept of print (front and back of books, which page comes first, track words left to right).
13. Be able to rhyme words.
14. Retells simple stories in sequence.
15. When given a word ("man") and a beginning sound ("f"), creates the familiar word ("fan").

 

Another few things your kids should know are your phone number and address!

 



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Kindergarten Countdown: 7 days

With seven days to go, I thought we'd talk a little about lunches.

Via Pinterest

Evie will have lunch at school twice a month.  Our district has early release on Fridays so the half day kindergartens attend every other all day.  I think that's just perfect for us.  It gives Evie the opportunity to go all day and have lunch in the cafetiera.  She's not huge into crowds lol.

Enumclaw School District

 

We are going to try school lunches first.  They have a decent menu full of healthy options including a salad bar.  I grew up on school lunches.  To this day, I will pick a "hot" lunch over a "cold" lunch!  Also I don't want to forget to send her with lunchbox the first few weeks.

 

During the rest of the week, I still have Jack of course, so I'll be feeding two kids.  Last year I started making my own menu to help me be more organized.  Having something preset helps me "decide" what to have and keeps me on budget when grocery shopping.

 

 

I made up my menu in Excel the numbers are the dates.  I take my menu with me when I shop so I can make sure the expiration dates will match up with the dates I plan to use the item.  Most stuff does easy because it's canned but sometimes I also need to plan on lunch for a bunch of kids or stuff to pack if we are going to the park for a playdate or having a playdate at my house.  You'd have a hard time making chicken nuggets without an oven. :)    I use Thursday as an open day too, but really any day is tradeable.  I also change up the sides with fresh in-season fruits.  Sometimes I try new things, special salads or different way of preparing but generally they like these things. 

 

Each kid as their own pickyness, Ally doesn't care for carrots, Evie doesn't care for cheese, and Jack will make himself puke over chicken soup.  If Evie and Ally want a cookie or treat, they must eat their carrots and cheese.  Jack just gets a whole pb and J sandwich (the girls usually do halves) with no soup. You got to pick your battles.  It's not like it's weird soup either, just plain ol' Campbells.  What can you do? lol.  We drink a lot of milk and water all day.

 

What do you do for lunch?

 

Milk bubbles and orange slices,

Jessi and B

 

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Evie's Swing Set: Part 1

Every since the swing set debacle of last week, I've been on the hunt for another!  I finally found one near enough to home to get.  I had it all set up to meet up with Bree after the two kids were picked up but life had other plans and I ended up going with just Evie.  Going alone on a Craigslist pick up is not normal for me and I do advise to taking someone else with you, just in case, but my husband and Bree both knew where I was headed and checked in with me through out the night. 

Picture from Craigslist.

The gal that sold me the set was super nice and even helped me break down the swing set.  We probably could have finished earlier had I been on time and knew what I was doing.  Also I was my chatty self so you know how that goes, lol. We ended up needing the neighbor teen boy to help get the set into the back of my truck, in the dark.  Then I realized that I left the other tie down and tarp at home so I had to get creative with one and the lady found some rope for a little extra security.  I drove slow!

Eek.

The next morning, my husband laughed when he saw the pile in the back of the truck and wished me luck.  I unloaded the stuff and brought it around to the back.  I laid all the big pieces out to get an idea of how I wanted it positioned.  Then I got the bolts out and put them in order.  My husband had suggested that as I took it apart, to label each bolt and bolt hole with a number (1 and 1, 2 and 2, etc) which was so smart because I actually haven't had any trouble getting it together so far.  When we taking it apart, we keep forgetting what number we were on so we skipped ahead to the next 10 set.  I could see from the bolts, as the night went on, we were getting tired or something because we had 1-30 without missing any number but then skipped ahead to 40 to about 45 and then 50 to 53, but in all really did a good job labeling.

41, 41, 41, check!

I put the main platform together without much trouble. It is super heavy so I stopped in case I want it some where else in the back.  I might push it towards the back of the yard near the "garden".  I want to have it easy to mow around until I decide what kind of mulch I want to put around it.  I also had to stop because Evie wasn't feeling very well and complained that she could cuddle herself so I packed it in for the night and cuddled her in our recliner until her daddy got home.  I'm hoping today she feels better and I could maybe run into town to get a couple of bolts for around the bottom of the platform.  They had rusted pretty bad and some broke off inside but that's to be expected in our wet weather!  I will do a price break-down at the end of the series but not planning to do too much of a tutorial because all swing sets can be different.  I am SUPER excited to get it all pretty for you though so stay tuned!

Where we are this morning!

Hang in there!

Jessi and B

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Brooklyn's Pink and Yellow Party

Happy 1st Birthday Brooklyn!!!!

Happy Parties~
Bree and J Pin It

5 Themed Girl Rooms

Nothing is more adorable than a "done up" girls room! Since we already brought you our top 

5 Themed Boys Rooms we decided it was only fair to do a top 5 Themed Girl Rooms! These were hard to come by let me tell you! But I was able to scrounge around and find 5 for you. Seeing as my daughter is only 1 I'm not seasoned as far as what is "IN" for girls rooms but I'm pretty sure not too much has changed. ENJOY!

For more info on the rooms pictured above follow these links:
Ballerina
Barbie (not originator)
Hello Kitty
Butterfly Room Pottery Barn Kids
Could not find link for Princess Room, sorry

Hope your inspired~
Bree and J Pin It

Baby's Back to Cloth Diapers

Finally after moving and a period of bad diaper rash, we are finally back to cloth diapers! 

NOW let me tell you.....I was always the person to look disgusted when someone said they used cloth diapers. "Why would you EVER use cloth diapers" is what I always thought! But after getting a huge pay cut and the possibility of my husbands company going under I was searching for more extreme ways to save money. I'm not sure how came about but all the sudden here I was researching and buying our very own cloth diapers.

I choose Fuzzi Bunz as my choice diaper. Why Fuzzi Bunz?  Because the price was decent for what you got and they recieved rave reviews. I liked that the Fuzzi Bunz One Size was adjustable beyond the snaps in the front of the diaper.

Here are the features a Fuzzi Bunz has...

They make a perfect size diaper which runs between $13-$16, depending on the size. The perfect size is sized like clothes so when your child grows out of them you need to buy the next size up. Fuzzi Bunz also makes a One Size diaper (what we have). These ones run about $17-$18 but fit the child from birth to toddler years. I could use the same one size diaper to fit newborn daughter and later adjust it to fit my almost 5 year old son.

Here is what you get when you order a Fuzzi Bunz Diaper:

One Diaper, 2 Minky Inserts, and replacement elastic kit (not shown)

You get one large insert and one small. 

The reason I love the One Size Fuzzi Bunz is because of how adjustable they are. There have adjustable elastic and button straps on the back side of the diaper to adjust the fit around the belly as well as on each leg. Your diaper will come with a chart that shows you how to adjust to fit age or pound wise.

Adjustable Back

Adjustable leg straps

Another feature of the One Size are multiple snap options. I can choose 4 different leg snap options to ensure the fit around the baby's leg fits just right. There are also many options along the top for adjusting the size around the belly. This design is KEY when needing to adjust to fit either a 5lb newborn or a 45lb 5 year old!

The leg holes are lined very well with baby soft micro fleece for maximum comfort.

How I "stuff" my diapers:

Open up back "pocket" of diaper.

 Fold Insert in half, hot dog style.

 Make sure to have a firm hold and push insert all the way to the front of diaper.

 As you remove your hand try to smooth down wrinkles and creases to flatten out diaper.

And your done!

For my boys I tried a cheaper diaper, with the same idea behind the one size but it is adjustable by using snaps in the front of the diaper. To size it smaller you fold the front of the diaper and snap it together. I wasn't necessarily looking to size it as much as I wanted to try a cheaper version for my older boys. For night time these diapers work just fine but I would highly recommend buying a better quality diaper for 24 hour long time use. These diapers have no brand and were under $6. Found them on eBay.

For night time my boys have a larger bladder and would pee through the 2 inserts that came with them. At night time you want to double up inserts, even with the Fuzzi Bunz, because the diaper is going to be needed during your child's long sleep hours. I even had to buy extra "hemp" liners to add to the mix for the boys. You can buy hemp liners for $2-$4 a piece. I suggest buying more than one at a time...you get a better deal.

Here is my night time line up for the boys. Ages 2 1/2 and almost 5. For Brooklyn I just use one large insert and the small insert that comes with the diaper. She does not need a hemp liner yet.

Pictured below: 2 large liners and 1 hemp liner

I stack them together with the hemp liner at the bottom and then stuff the diaper how I would normally.

#1 question besides how much will it save me, LOL

What do you do when they poop!

You can buy thin flush-able liners that go outside of diaper pocket, sits right against baby's bum. It comes on a roll and looks alittle like a paper towel roll. You can get a roll of 100 for about $5 right now on eBay. The theory is that when they poop you just pick up flush able liners and flush them bye bye with little mess. When you baby is alittle older usually you know about what time they will poo so you don;t have to always add in a liner. LOL. These liners are also used for when you need to use any diaper ointments on baby. The ointment or powder that you'd use for a diaper rash can ruin your diapers absorbency.

 I have and tried using a liner for both easier poop mess and for diaper rash but I don't really like them. For the boys it was no biggy but they are now both potty trained that its unnecessary. For my daughter though I DO NOT like using them. The cloth diaper is made of micro fiber fleece that wicks away moisture in seconds. When you add the liner it tends to get soaked in urine but not keep it away from her bottom. I found most times the liner will give her diaper rash and I worry about her getting a bladder infection as the pee soaked liner will sometimes bunch up into her private area. LOL. SO when she does have diaper rash, which is hardly ever when using cloth diapers, I just use spare disposable diapers with ointment until its gone.

But you still have to deal with the POOP? YES!!

Here is what I do...

Hold soiled diaper by the back snap ends, folded together.

 Add the front ends into the folded mix.

 Grab the pocket flap and add to your hold.

 Then swish and dip into toilet. I will swish around in the toilet, flush the toilet and then repeat dipping and flushing. Yes.. I ring it out and then add it to my dirty diapers pile. THEN WASH YOUR HANDS! LOL! If you do this fairly soon after you change baby, the diaper will clean off very easy! 

Washer area where my dirty diaper basket is.

You don't want to put your diapers into a closed container or soak the Fuzzi Bunz. Placing them in an open container lets the diapers breathe and  "most the time" they do not smell.

You also do need to use different detergent than normal. There are some brands like Tide Free and Clear that are just fine to use with your diapers. I choose to use Charlies Soap, one tub can last me almost triple the load capacity it says the tub has. Thats because I only use it for my diapers. For a list of detergents that are safe for cloth diapers follow this link: Cloth Diaper Detergent Chart. Washing your diapers also shouldn't impact your water bill/comnsumption hardly at all, we choose the low level on the water and wash diapers every 2-3 days.

SO the #1 question besides the poop one???

How much does it really save???

*18 One Size Fuzzi Bunz that last 3 years: $324

Total cost over 3 years for disposable diapers: $2,859

*18 is a good number from newborn up. Its nice to basically have a 3 day supply so your not washing diapers all the time.

I also use disposables when we head out of the house or someone watches the kids. Its just way easier!!

I think I covered everything if you have any other questions feel free to leave a comment below!

Make the choice and switch to cloth diapers~

Bree and J

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