Christmas Cards Galore

Here is a great idea for all the Christmas cards you get.

I know Stephanie O. mentioned this at our steering meeting. 

Here is a free printable cover if you wanted to make this book. 

If you need an idea for hanging your cards during the holiday season, I hang ours on our banister with clothespins. 

(I couldn't find a closer picture...sorry)

If you have an old crib bed spring, you could try this.

A Few Christmas Events This Weekend

Sorry the blog has been slow this Fall. 

I wanted to share with you a few things I read about in The Tribune yesterday.

Humble Area's First Baptist Church

Saturday, Dec. 1, at 2 or 4 pm

Live Nativity, "A Christmas Story", carols, and family photo booth.

Tickets are free but required

Call 281-446-8168

Christmas Parade at Huffman Church

Saturday, Dec. 1 at 3 pm

Parade, pictures with Santa, cookies and cocoa. After dark, their Christmas tree lighting will begin. 

1707 Huffman Eastgate Rd.

Breakfast With Santa at 1st United Methodist Church in Humble

Saturday, Dec. 1 from 8-11

Homemade breakfast, crafts, music, and stories

For ticket info, call 281-540-7000

Christmas in the Park

Saturday, Dec. 1 from 10-7.

Kings Crossing Town Center

Tree lighting at 6 pm

Holiday at the Kings Harbor

Saturday, Dec 1 from 4-7

Performance by The Legendary Rhythm bandits

Santa will make an appearance.

Humble 22nd annual Christmas Parade of Lights

Tuesday, Dec. 4 at 6:30

Local businesses and organizations will parade down historic Main Street.

Santa will be at Uptown Park afterwards

Santa's Farm

Kingwood HS FFA

Dec. 7 from 6-9 at the Ag. Facility

For more information, call 281-641-7062

Jingle Bell Run

Sat. Dec. 8th at 8 am at Crosby Fairgrounds

Also a craft fair and carnival with the run.

Bethlehem Market

1st Presbyterian Church of Kingwood

Sunday Dec. 9 from 6-9. 

These are a few ideas for the next week.

Hope you make some great memories this Christmas season!

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Turn your favorite photos into a photo book at Shutterfly.com.

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly photo books are the new way to preserve your memories. Create your own today.

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Create your own personalized photo books at Shutterfly.com.

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Click here to create your own Shutterfly photo book.

Memory Keeping

Today's meeting was all about keeping memories. Many of us have our own way to perserve our memories, but some of us are clueless where to start or need better ideas. So I've listed a few here that might help you out on your journey to PLUNGE into Memory Keeping!

1.) Photo Organization:
This is a major thing when it comes to keeping your memories in place and knowing when they took place. Especially if you want to organize them by date in photo albums or scrapbooks. Ginny shared with us her way of keeping her "favorite" photographs in little albums by the year they were taken and displaying them throughout her home where her kids can easily grab an album and look back at themselves when they were little. If you are like me though you rarely print those photos out, but that doesn't mean you don't need a good organization system going. For me I like to group my pictures by date. Many times when you upload to your computer it automatically puts your pictures in by date order, and you can even set it up to make folders for each date even if your camera card has 10 months worth of pictures on it. I like this feature, and use it alot. Once the pictures are uploaded into their dated folders I then can go in and rename the folder with the event title. I do keep the date file name though so they are still in date order, but the event title helps me identify what the pictures are without having to open each folder everytime I'm looking for a picture. Then I make a big folder for the year and stuff all the other folders in the year folder. I've also done this where I seperated them by the month of the year to depending on how many pictures you take. Then when you are ready to sit down and upload your pictures online to Shutterfly or another photo sharing website you can easily drag and drop them over and have them organized already.
Here is a little shot at how my "My Pictures" folder looks on my computer.

2.) Journaling Day to Day Events:
I will admit I'm really bad at doing this, but I have found so many creative ways to make this an easy task. Today Amy shared with us her idea of keeping a little journal book where she can jot down something the kids did that she might forget later and want to remember to include in a scrapbook or just to look back on at laugh with them about the things they did when they were little. This also works for blackmail when they start dating...lol! Another really cool idea is to take note cards and just date them for each day of the year and keep them in a little file box on your counter or somewhere you can see each day. Then simply write down a sentence on what you did that day. Then each year just date the new year and write another sentence. This example below from Design Sponge shows you how you can do this using fun postcards as dividers, but you can do it however you'd like.


I also found this one on Pinterest today that looks really fun


3.) Momentos, School Artwork and other stuff:
You know you took that family vacation to Disney World and have all these ticket stubs, park maps, literature and more that you collects and want to keep and preserve, but don't know how to do this. Or your child is just starting preschool and you have so much stuff you know you can't keep it all but what you want to keep you don't know how to begin to organize. Well there are lots of ideas on how to perserve these pieces of memoriable history. Missy shared a great idea today on how she keeps her daughter's school work.

From Missy:

IHeart Organizing is one of my favorite blogs! Here is the link to the label printables I talked about today. She lets you know what labels you need. I added the following labels: twos, threes, calendar, early stuff, and photos to the blank labels. If you would like it then just shoot me an email and I will send it to you. I took her cover page idea and made my own which I can send you too. My boxes have lids so I can stack them in my closets. 

Remember to LOVE ziploc bags. I use them to keep party decor, invites, gift list and cards for each party and place them in their crate. I also do this for our big trips to keep tickets, maps, and pictures  together for later. This also helps spark my memory when I finally get around to doing it. 

Here is another example of keeping those School Memories (includes free printouts & more). From Confessions of a Homeschooler's Blog


Memory Binders are another great way to keep those school memories all together. I love the ideas from Reluctant Entertainer's Blog on these


Memory Jars:
Another thing I've seen done from searching Pinterest is keeping a jar of those little notes and things you collect over the year. This can be a fun fortune from a fortune cookie that you hope to come true, movie ticket stubs or other event ticket stubs, or just a little note from a child or your husband you want to treasure.

There are also jars for those jars you can use to display your beach vacation or other vacation:




If you love all these ideas and would love more just check out this blog for 31 days of Memory Keeping  for more great ideas. I hope these I've given you will help you out on your quest to start preserving those memories to hand down from generation to generation. I know there are many more ideas out there so if you see something you like please comment here with the idea or link to the site with the idea for our readers to see.



Early Dismissal Times Have CHANGED!!!!

I just saw this on FB and wanted to share!!!

DISMISSAL TIME FOR ELEMENTARY EARLY RELEASE DAYS HAS CHANGED. For grades K-5, dismissal time will start at 12:00 pm. For am Pre-K, dismissal will be at 10:00 am. For pm Pre-K, dismissal will be at 12:00 pm. Please make note of this change. It will go into effect for our next Early Release Day.

New Year !!!

I hope everyone had a great first meeting!!! It was so fun to see everyone. I am looking forward to taking the PLUNGE together. 

As some of you saw on FB and heard today, I was looking into chore charts. 

I found some great ideas on Pinterest.  

Here are some with their links:

 Write on/off Chart

 Chore Chart with tags

12x12 scrapbook frame

free printable to make your own

I really liked the dry erase concept because I will not keep up with it if I have to print a new page out each week.  And I also liked having a week at a time...less work for me!! Just being honest.

Here is what I came up with for the girls. 

I used a 8x10 frame. (50% off this week at HL). It was cheaper than 12x12 scrapbook frame. 

I made a table for each kiddo in WORD. (I stayed up way to late last night getting it like I liked) 

I cut them out and glued them to the 8 1/2x11 paper that I trimmed to fit the frame. 

I am going to attach the dry erase marker to each frame with a ribbon.

I plan to hang them up in our kitchen with 3M strips. Of course I have not told my man or the kiddos about them yet. We first need to figure out if/how they will get allowance. I got the itch a few days ago   about chores and couldn't let it go. 

Oh, most of my time last night was downloading free fonts and deciding which one I liked..hehe!!!! 

Every family will have different ideas for chores. I have certain expectations that are habits now that the oldest does not see as a chore. So think about your own family and see if any of these ideas spark a fire. 

Meet and Greet

The school year is starting so that means we are starting up again. 

I know I am looking forward to seeing everyone again on a regular basis.

Next Wed is our MOPS Meet and Greet. Please be prepared to pay and fill out paperwork to sign up for the year. 

MOPS Meet and Greet

Aug. 29th 

9:30-11:00

(Please email us for location because I do not want to post it the blog)

Our first meeting will be Sept. 12th at 9:00 am.

Handwriting Practice

I used this website last summer.

ESL Writing Wizard

I printed out handwriting pages for Avery. 

I had some for her first and last name, color words and sight words. 

Enjoy!

Summer Is Coming!!

I really enjoyed seeing some of you this morning at Kids In Action. 

I saw a friend this weekend that shared an amazing website for our young ones. 

Over the Big Moon

This web site has great FREE printables. 

They create packets with all kinds of educational pages. 

Here is a picture of the latest one. 

On her webpage, click on the tab 'free printables'. Click here to go to the page that gives you all the information on what each packet includes.

Some of you know how I love to plan the summer with things to do.

I always print out a calendar for the summer. I use markers to write down all our fun activities. Once this is done, I tape them on the wall so the girls can see what we are doing. 

 Last year I tried something new. We played 'Summer Bingo'. I did not create this idea. My friend, Michelle, got me started. She found it on a last year.

With the help of a few websites and Michelle, I came up with a list of crafts, quiet ideas, active ideas, jobs, and things to do together.  Each week Avery got a new bingo card. Throughout the week, she could do something from the card and put a sticker in the square. For each Bingo she got a ticket. She could turn in her ticket(s) at any time for the listed rewards. It really worked great. I made sure to have squares that were academic too. Here is a site that has a close up picture of hers. I did not make fancy covers for Avery's bingo cards. We just taped the current one on the wall. 

 This link below should take you to another example that you can print out. 

3 Sided wheel

Each picture below will take you to a blog that might spark an idea that you can do with your family this summer. 

If you don't want to go that far, 

I think this is a great idea too. 

(click on the picture for the free download)

I hope I didn't overwhelm you! 

See you Wed!

Town Center Park

I always try and see what the Town Center marque says. 

I kept seeing Family Festival but never saw more..guess I was driving too fast. ;)

So this morning before going to sew at Sheri's house, I drove by and took a picture so I could post the information on here for you guys if anyone was interested. 

So here you go!!!

Family Festival

Town Center

April 21 9-3

281-841-2401

Cheers!

Interchangeable Frame

Let me start off saying I am sorry for slacking on the blog. 

I will do better!!

Okay so now on to the fun stuff!!!!!

As many of you know, I LOVE Pinterest. I fell upon this cute frame the other day. When I went to blog, Today's Fabulous Finds, to get the instructions, I fell in love with lots of ideas she has.  

I had to stay focused on this frame and the how to.

It is super easy. Here is the link for the instructions.

She also talked about them here.

I showed Amy on Monday. So we are both on this one. 

I bought fabric because I didn't like the color burlap at Hobby Lobby. I also bought the eggs today at Hobby Lobby. 

I looked at Dollar Tree but couldn't find the frame but Amy found a great steal at Walmart for $5. They have 3 different colors...so no painting for us. :)

Here is my version for Easter. 

I used smaller nails because that is what I had. 

 I wasn't sure I needed ribbon until it was together. After I finally found some that would go, I just taped it on the back of the frame. Who knows if I find something else I like better so it might change.

I might hit JoAnns tomorrow to see if I can grab some St. Patty's day ones on sale. :)

I already picked out some cute 4th of July ornaments at Hobby Lobby but I will wait for them to go on sale or use a coupon.

So here is the break down:

Frame $5

Fabric $1.66 (enough for two) I bought a 1/3 yd.

Eggs $4.44 (spent more than I wanted but I couldn't wait)

Ribbon $0

Nails $0

Total: $11.11

Not too bad!!!

I am excited to put this up with my interchangeable word frame-HOP!!!

Iron Chef

Amy and I had a great time shopping on Tues for our Iron Chef meeting. 

We gave each table a few basic items to start with. Then after each question, someone from the table had to race to grab a new food. After four questions, the secret ingredient was revealed...CREAM CHEESE. 

The tables had 20 minutes to come up with two different foods. 

Here are the pictures of them presenting the foods to the judges.  

I was shocked by how creative they were. We only had difficulty trying one food. 

 Here are the winners. 

Nice job ladies!!

I hope everyone had as much fun as I did!!!