Monday, September 26, 2011

Johnny Appleseed Day!

Today is Johnny Appleseed Day! Getting into the spirit of the Fall Season, we took the kids apple picking at our local farm yesterday. The kids had a blast!

It was amazing walking down the rows of apple filled trees, and made us feel closer to our food now that we were seeing it right on the tree. We just decided to make this a tradition. We are looking forward to the baked items we are now going to make with all our fresh apples!

Lauren: "Eating all the different kinds of apples at the orchard"

Matthew: "picking the first apple and my dad getting the really big apples".

Here are a few ways you can celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day:

Stamp an Apple-Picking Bag

From Family Fun

You can make apple prints on T-shirts. On wrapping paper. On tablecloths. On backs and bellies. Heck, you can stamp them just about anywhere (including walls, as my three-year-old has joyfully pointed out). Even the youngest children can make this aptly apple-y sack to use on your next excursion to a pick-your-own orchard.

MATERIALS

Fabric bag (cloth grocery sacks work well)
Newspaper
Fabric paint (green, red and brown)
Paintbrush
Apple

HOW IT'S MADE: Fold over some newspaper and insert it into the fabric bag, laying it flat so that the paint will not seep through. With a brush, use brown paint to fashion a tree trunk and let dry. Then use a horizontally cut apple to make leaves by brushing a thin layer of green fabric paint onto the apple and pressing it around the top of the trunk. Repeat several times (make sure to look for the star in the print). After the green paint dries, cut an apple in half vertically. Pick the side that still has the stem and brush with red fabric paint. Then "hang" juicy apples on the tree.

Make a Paper Bag Apple Tree

Creative Jewish Mom paper bag apple tree

I love this version of the paper bag tree - make
it into an apple tree! Details at Creative Jewish Mom.

Check out our previous posts below -----

http://www.blog.funandfactswithkids.com/2010/09/johnny-appleseed-day-with-kids.html

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Our Indoor Camping Party

Indoor Camping Party

We originally wanted to have our Camping Party outside but we couldn’t escape neither the HEAT WAVES nor the RAIN! We pretty much did everything we wanted to do in the dining room except light a real fire and roast marshmallows for S'mores!

The kids helped us decorate the dining room as if we were outside. We placed a blanket on the table as our tablecloth. For the centerpiece, we used the driftwood sticks and made a teepee shape to act as a cauldron hanger.

Using two grey plastic tablecloths we mimicked a tent on the wall and hung our campsite name that we made using a poster board. We found a stick pc font that we liked and printed out the letters. We also printed a few fish bones, fish and hung them around.

We wanted to try and make believe we had caught fireflies in a mason jar so we added sticks and battery operated tea light candles to them.

The food:

Kristen created these adorable take home S’more & Trail Mix Treat Bags using nothing more than sandwich bags, printer and scrapbook paper.

The day before the party, Matthew made us all a layered Jell-O Snack! They were almost too pretty to eat!

We searched online for an indoor S’more recipe. We found this one and made them for the kids.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Today we remember...

WE REMEMBER. Where we where, what we where doing and who we were with. As a nation we learned alot that day, How to love a little more, Hate a little less and become ONE standing up for our country. Much thanks to our troops as they continue to make our country THE HOME OF THE BRAVE. 9-11 Never Forget

::source::

We found these free printables

FREE SUBWAY ART PRINT – TRIBUTE TO 9/11

FREE subway art print – tribute to 9/11 – 8.5x 11 or make bigger.

This print is sized for an 8 x 10 frame but could easily be enlarged to fit an 11 x 14 or whatever size you needed. Print it out at home or take it to a printer for a larger size.

Just download your FREE 9-11 Subway Art here

3" Pastry Pedestal Rounds

(download .pdf here)

...

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Happy Birthday Matthew!

We are a little late posting this but here it is:

Wendy asked Matthew how he wanted to celebrate his birthday this year. He decided he wanted to spend the time crabbing at his grandparent’s house in Maryland. Of course we honored his request with the help of his wonderful grandparents! Matthew was determined to catch enough crabs for all of us to eat and share for his birthday lunch. Although Matt had a blast crabbing, after hours of trying, he managed to only catch a few so unfortunately the crabs had to be ordered.

For the first time we made this Chesapeake Crab Snack Mix (recipe below and HERE). This was great and everyone liked it. There are a variety of items that you could substitute or add within this recipe to adjust to your liking. This celebration was only family but if you had guests you can make goodie bags with this snack mix to give to your guests to take home.

Matthew’s grandparents took the legal crabs that he caught and taught him the steaming process. These crabs actually went home with him so he could eat them the next day!

Matthew’s Aunt Chris gave him a 3 layered cake as his birthday gift, which was so exciting for him as this was the PERFECT birthday cake for him this year! Kristen envisioned the 3 layered cake as a crab basket filled with cake and crabs spilling from it. We wanted to stay away from fondant, so we found rubber crabs at our local craft store along with the craft basket. Of course when we tried putting the whole thing together the cake was to tall for the basket! We made the best of it and placed it in the basket and propped the crabs up. All in all it was an amazing cake! Matthew was so excited to see his cake and he loved it!

Since this needed to be an outside party we used a part of the deck and decorated the best we could do. Kristen collected fish nets and plastic crabs from the party store. We also printed out a few crabs and seagulls and cut them out to hang in our fish nets. The whole color scheme was created around the crab plates we found at the Christmas Tree Shop! Kristen printed and cut out the Happy Birthday Matthew sign that we used as the back drop.

We used the computer and print to make the sign and placed in a fish net. We also printed out paper crabs to add too :)

Place setting

The cake!!

Matt crabbing

The tablescape!

Silly boys!

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Welcome back to SCHOOL :)

Wow, summer is officially gone and school has started today! Here is our collection of both Back to School ideas and also FREE Back to School PRINTABLE's that we found all over.

Back To School Ideas

apple heart treat

El Hada De Papel

chalkboard cookies

The Sugar Turntable

block print burlap pencil bag

Factory Direct Craft Blog

back to school lunchbox printables

Little.Lovely.

send a banana message

Cute Food For Kids

back to school printables

Eighteen25

felt pencil and notebook pouches

Martha Stewart

back to school self-portrait mural

smART Class

stretchy notebook storage

Family Fun

this back to school printable and more

We Love To Illustrate

Gingham Lunch Note Cards

and just for fun... back to school nail polish!

pencils & manuscript

The Daily Nail

Apple-Shaped Oreo Truffles

Raising Memories shares a simple recipe for
these oreo truffles dipped and shaped
to look like little apples!

Homework Station

Visit Charlotte's Fancy to see how they made this
cool homework station from a tri-fold display board.

notebook labels :: Martha Stewart
lunch labels :: Martha Stewart

Such a great snack idea
and includes a printable label!
edible crayons :: Gourmet Mom On The Go

...and edible pencils too!
edible pencils :: Family Fun
via Edible Crafts

Pancake abc's are the perfect
breakfast for the first day of school!
pancake abc's :: Rookie Moms

Mornings will go much smoother when
clothing is picked out ahead of time. These
free printable tags are at Living Locurto :)
day-of-the-week outfit tags :: Living Locurto

‘Printables (Free Back to School)’ Category

All below are from Catch My Party

FREE Back to School Banner by Amy Mattes Designs

Need to add a little punch to your back to school party? Or how about something to hang up the morning your kids head back to school?

We’re giving away this adorable “back to school” banner from Amy of Amy Mattes Designs.

click here to --> DOWNLOAD THE HIGH RESOLUTION FILE FOR PRINTING

"Back to school" banner

FREE Back to School Book Labels and Lunch Labels from Fresh Chick Design Studio

from Fresh Chick Design Studio

How cute would it be to send your kids off to school with their books and lunches labelled like this?

Download the high resolution files for printing:

click here to download --> BOY BOOK LABELS

click here to download --> GIRL BOOK LABELS

click here to download --> BOY LUNCH LABELS

click here to download --> GIRL LUNCH LABELS

Book labels

Lunch labels

FREE Back to School Printables from Clickable Party

This fun set was designed by Krysten at Clickable Party.

What’s great about this collection is that there is every kind of printable you’d need to throw a fabulous back to school party (party circles, cupcake wrappers, banner, food tags, etc)… But there are also book labels, tissue box labels, and hand sanitizer labels for you to add to little gifts for your teachers. Love this idea!

Plus, the printables are easily customizable using Adobe Acrobat.

click here --> DOWNLOAD THE HIGH RESOLUTION FILE FOR PRINTING

FREE Back to School Printables From Love Party Printables

You have got to see this new collection of free back to school printables designed by my friend Ana at Love Party Printable. They are adorable!

The collection includes everything you’ll need to throw your kids an amazing party: invitations, party rectangles, a “back to school” banner, party labels, tented cards (in two sizes), drink flags, napkin rings, water bottle labels, and favor tags. Told ya…

DOWNLOAD THE HIGH RESOLUTION FILE FOR PRINTING HERE

Party rectangles

"Back to School" banner

Party labels

Tented cards

Drink flags

Napkin rings

Water bottle labels

Favor tags

FREE Back to School Printables from Magnolia Creative Co.

Can you believe how fast the summer has gone?

If you’re in the mood to celebrate, we’ve got these FREE back to school printables for you, designed by Emily from Magnolia Creative Co.

The collection includes: party circles, snack bag toppers, bookplates, lunch notes, and an entire banner alphabet to spell whatever message you’d like.