Coffee With Me

Posted By Melissa on January 28, 2012

Roy and I love choosing gifts for our children for Christmas. This past one was no different from the others. This year we chose one main gift for each child, and then they each shopped for each other. In a few cases, we helped direct towards items that would go with our main gift.

Grace ‘N Girls recently released dolls specific to American Heritage Girls. I knew Hannah would love one! She is a Pathfinder this year – her first year with AHG. They also sell just the clothes. After the doll arrived, I just had to open it up and get a picture.

And here is Hannah shortly after opening her new doll, and already dressing her in other clothes!

You can see Matthew in the background, enjoying his new gift: an iPod Shuffle!

Category: AHG Troop 29, Children | No Comments »

Posted By Melissa on October 13, 2011

This post is Day 8 of a 31 Day Journey through my Pinterest Boards. Click here to see more!

This was a super simple project to do, just one I never thought of doing until I saw this Pin on Pinterest.

Such a simple idea. I have a large rubbermaid type container where I used to keep wrapping paper rolls but they were always getting messed up. I do still have bags, ribbon, and labels inside the container, but the wrapping paper (for the last 3 years) has been in this spot next to my bed.

I am even sharing my mess with you! Actually I’m surprised there are not more books stacked there. I cleaned up my nightstand, and put a simple trash can next to it for the rolls I currently have. I did have to move my nightstand over a couple inches for the trash can to fit.

And there you have it! Simple but effective. The rolls won’t fall over anymore, and get smushed by the closet door. The top drawer of my nightstand holds scissors, pens, and tape. My bed has always been a great (sometimes secret) place to wrap gifts and that is why the wrapping paper sits where it does.

You may also notice my quilting mat behind the night stand. I have a craft cupboard in the garage and our first summer here my mat broke all into pieces from the heat! When I finally got a new one, I needed a new (SAFE) place for it, and behind the nightstand is its home.

Where do you store your gift wrapping items?

Category: 31 Days of ....., Home Making | 4 Comments »

Posted By Melissa on October 13, 2011

This post is Day 7 of a 31 Day Journey through my Pinterest Boards. Click here to see more!

You may notice that I am posting day 7 on what is really day 13. Yes, I’m behind. I have a few more projects done but could not find the time to sit down and type up my posts. We went out of town over the weekend to attend my mom’s retirement party! She and my dad put together a great party. We had fun visiting with cousins and old friends also. Then between house, my schoolwork, kid’s schoolwork, and well, blogging comes last. But here I am again.

I saw this picture on Pinterest and immediately put it in my Cool Stuff for Scouts board. They are so cute and I thought they’d be easy to make.

I decided to make them for our AHG Troop’s kick off night and bought all the stuff needed. I waited until that day to make a sample. Do you know that it is actually kind of a pain to PAINT styrofoam balls??? This project is not for children! Okay, maybe it just is not for me. Here was my sample:

I do think they are super cute and I probably will still make more with the girls and use up our supplies. However, I would paint all the balls ahead of time instead…actually I would SPRAY paint them ahead of time! See the lovely underneath of the ball:

Another leader helped with these and she was probably cursing me by the end of the night. There was paint everywhere! We even used skewers and a block of green florist stuff, but they were still a pain to paint.

Let me know if you try them!

Category: 31 Days of ....., Crafts | 1 Comment »

Posted By Melissa on October 6, 2011

This post is Day 6 of a 31 Day Journey through my Pinterest Boards. Click here to see more!

We home school our children and one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of this is teaching them how to read. I pace the lessons to suit the child learning at the time. I want them to love reading, and do not want them to be frustrated with learning to read. Sam and Matt each learned at their own pace. Alex is moving along just fine. Hannah is who in kindergarten will probably be done with all the books this year!

Anyway, Alex is getting ready to move to book 4 in the Explode the Code series and I wanted to give him some references out of the previous book just in case he needed them. I saw this on Pinterest and made the idea my own (after adding it to my School Board).

At first I was going to just copy that one and then realized I should do the letter combinations as they appear in our books. So I did a chart that was specific to Explode the Code Book 3.

I’m going to make one for Hannah too as she works through Books 1 and 2. This is our homeschool bookshelf which is a disaster right now. Each year I set it up a little differently.

And there’s the chart hanging up. It’s behind where Alex sits at the table so he’ll be able to glance at it if he needs a reminder.

Do you see how straight my lines are?? I didn’t know they made these cool poster boards with really faint lines that you can only see in just the right light! Have you used them?

And there you have it! Six days worth of Pinterest projects done! I do have tomorrows done, but nothing after that. I need to get busy! Like I said before, they are simple items, but things I have been wanting to do, and without spending a lot of money. So tomorrow…finger puppets.

Category: 31 Days of ....., Homeschooling | 1 Comment »

Posted By Melissa on October 5, 2011

This post is Day 5 of a 31 Day Journey through my Pinterest Boards. Click here to see more!

Day Five! Today’s Pin is another food item – this time a dessert. I’ve been staring at these for nine weeks in the food board. When I had some friends over on Saturday night, I was looking at my pins to see if there was anything new I wanted to try. Sam said she’d make a dessert (the kids all get to eat too!), and so we narrowed it down to 3 or so. Then we reviewed the recipes and she picked this one.

They were gone very quickly that night and she made more today! And that pan is 1/2 gone. They’re delicious. Basically you’re making a cookie recipe that uses mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips, and placing balls of dough on top of graham crackers. Half way through the cooking, take them out, add a portion of a Hershey’s bar, and put them back in to cook longer. You don’t really need to use the recipe from the site. You can use your favorite cookie dough recipe, just add marshmallows into it.

A batch of cookie dough worked for a huge pan that I have. I don’t even know what size it is. Big. At least 11 x 17. The layers are so yummy. The gooey marshmallows. Definitely a keeper.

Category: 31 Days of ....., Cooking | 1 Comment »