Lanie's Popsicles

L has been into making smoothies and popsicles lately! Which has been nice for me, I don't have to make them. I think they actually turn out better than mine, lol! Here she is making strawberry popsicles. I got my bpa/phthalate free popsicles molds from The Little Seedling. I only have 6 molds (instead of the 8 it comes with), because 2 broke off. (Don't drop them when they are frozen!)


Here is our ingredients. 

L getting the strawberries ready to go.

Putting in the yogurt. 

Pouring milk.

We added in a scoop of coconut oil for some extra healthy fats.

Blending!

Don't those look good!

And enough leftover to drink!

Lanie's Recipe

These are not approximate, we usually just throw stuff in!

2-3 cups whole milk (we get ours fresh from our farmer)

1 cup fresh or frozen organic fruit (oranges, strawberries, mango, blueberries, bananas etc)

whole milk yogurt or kefir (I usually make my own, but didn't have any on hand)

sweetener of choice (we didn't need any, as the yogurt was sweetened, we usually use honey or vanilla stevia drops)

ice if your fruit isn't frozen

Any other extras (peanut butter, spinach leaves, coconut oil, iodine, really anything added in small amounts, you won't be able to taste.)

Blend until smooth! Enjoy!

Garden Time!

We finally got the garden started! Its not much to look at now, but hopefully come summer it will be looking pretty good! We do square foot gardening on our tiny postage stamp. My crafty hubby made our garden on wheels, so we can wheel it around to get the best sun (and no dead grass!). On one end hubby built a structure of netting for climbing plants. I planted cucumbers (2 per square foot), and plan on planting tomatoes (1 per square foot) and sugar snap peas (8 per square foot) on that end. I also planted cabbages (1/sf), lettuce (4/sf) and pepper (1/sf) and plan to get tomatoes, more peppers and my herbs from the farmers market tomorrow. I also have 6 boxes hanging off my porch for herbs, so far we have basil planted and my chives lasted the winter, I plan to get parsley, oregano and mint and not sure what else tomorrow!

I also have 5 container pots to plant, I'm thinking about spinach, onion, bush beans, zucchini, and a melon for those. I also did a little wild flower patch in the ground for L, but it was pretty much like clay, so we'll see how that does. I also put one of my zucchini plants in the ground near that. 

Here is our garden with the seedlings we started inside. I can't wait to get more from the farmers market tomorrow!

You can see the netting structure for the vining plants to crawl up!

Weekend Sewing!

I finally got my girly's Girl Scout fabric outfit done! She is so excited to wear this to the next meeting! 


Ruffle t-shirt tunic. I love the cookie fabric!

Ruffle capris. I love this fabric, its so soft and stretchy! I wish I could get it local, but I had to get it online (as well as the Girl Scout fabric).

Bow to match.

And of course doll outfit and bow to match!

Workbox Wednesday!

I thought I'd give a picture post of our workboxes today! I am loving workboxes and wish I would have discovered them 2 years ago when we first started homeschooling! It makes so much sense to me and our days go much smoother and we get so much more done every day. The kids seem to love them too and I think they feel like they've accomplished a lot during the day.


Here is our setup. I love, love, love my Trofast system from IKEA! We had bought these for the kids toys and now we've bought more for school. It fits great in our small house and the kids can pull the whole drawer out if need be. As you can see some of the numbers are already missing, I guess I'm going to have back up numbers printed out, for when they get lost. We currently have 9 boxes for L, 6 for P and 3 for C. Eventually we will have to get another set of 9 boxes for when P needs more and C needs more, but hopefully we will have more room by then!

Here is the top. I have trays for each child to put their finished work in, (I don't have one for C yet). I have buckets for pencils, scissors, glue, etc that I hope to get up on the wall soon.

Here is the chart where they put their numbers on when they are finished with that box. I also put other things on the charts for them to do that day. I don't have one for C yet, but I don't think he would understand any way yet!

The white boxes are L's boxes (1st grade). First up is cursive:

Next up is reading to C and making play dough. C really loves getting the attention from his big sissy!

Next is Right Start Math.

Next up is our Toucan lapbook for her homeschool zoo class presentation. 

Next up is Grammar. 

File folder math games are next.

Next we have our Earth Day activities (yeah I know I'm late!). But we will finish this up this week!

Next is American Girl Kaya. We are starting an American Girl club soon and are starting with Kaya. L is SO excited about this! I don't have the books from the library yet, so we will just listen to the book on cd until we get the books.

Last is our Literature. We have been loving this Caldecott Medal Winner's workbook, all the books have been great! The boys usually participate in this too.

Next up is P's boxes (4 yrs old). First is a robot worksheet. We have been doing a mini robot lesson this week that the boys have really enjoyed. We also have been reading robot books and will watch a robot movie the end of this week.

Next is writing.

Then we have another robot worksheet.

Next we have reading. (I'm so surprised how much he loves doing reading, he can't wait to be a "reader"!)

Next is Before Five in a Row literature. Usually both boys do this.

Last is some fun finger stamping. All the kids will do this too. 

Next up are C's boxes (2yrs old). First is a robot worksheet.

Next is his learning to write book.

Last is his bolt/nut/washer fun box, to go along with the robots. All the kids like this!

Last I have a May fun box/sensory box that all the kids play with, but only during "school time". I don't let them have it other times and I will switch it out with a new box every month. I've tried to put some May related items, some Spring stuff, some Summer stuff, sorting things, a magnetic dry erase board. Just lots of fun things that they don't see every day! 

Playing with the bolts. C is such a ham lately!

Playing with the play dough L made. We did yellow for the sun, green for the grass and tried to do brown for dirt! 

My puzzle masters!

So that is our school day in a nutshell! We also head to dance class on Wednesday nights and we were doing a weekly library story time on Wednesday mornings, until that ended. We still try to head to the library on Wednesday afternoons now that story time is over. We also read a novel before we start school every day. L is also doing a lapbook to go along with that. Currently we are reading "On the Banks of Plum Creek". Also if the boys don't want to do school, I don't force them, they are so young that we are just trying to have fun right now! Our school days aren't set in stone and some days we decide to scrap it all and go on a field trip or paint all day! We just have lots of fun while learning! :)

Reverse Appliqué!

95% of my sewing is done for my girly! I know the boys love having things made by mama, so I decided to do some reverse appliqué shirts for them. This was my first time reverse appliquéing and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. This is a quick way to do reverse appliqué and it only took me about an hour to do both boys shirts. I got the shirts at Michaels when they were on sale, 2 for $5. Great deal to stock up on shirts to appliqué/alter/anything!

Anyway, here is my shapes cut out and ready to iron on the interfacing. I get the interfacing from Joann's when its on sale for $1/yard. (Don't mind my messy, burnt ironing board cover!)

Here they are with the interfacing trimmed and ironed-on. 

Now here is the first shape pinned to the wrong side of the shirt, ready to be sewn. (This is going on the back of the shirt right by the collar.) 

All sewn and ready to cut away the right side of the shirt.

Cutting away the right side. I cut it pretty close to where I sewed.

All done! Wasn't that fast!

Here is the front of the shirt, ready to be sewed.

All finished! 

Here is C's shirt to match.

And of course for my girly! This was reverse appliquéd with regular appliqué on the Toucan.

This is for her Homeschool Zoo class presentation on Toucans!

And of course a hair clippy to match!

Now to work on the matching doll shirt...