Foam dough fun

One of the great joys of being with little people is being able to go a little crazy and make a huge mess.

Just for fun.

That's right.

It's called "foam dough" and it's pretty cool. You mix cornstarch and baking soda together and it's an instant hit.
We didn't really have enough cornstarch so maybe it didn't turn out quite right, but that didn't stop us!


 First, we covered the table in shaving cream.  

 Next, we added cornstarch. For so much more than simply cooking!  When these kids grow up they are going to wonder why its sold in supermarkets and not in party stores.. :)

We mix our ingredients together.  If we had more cornstarch it would be more like dough and less like something that came out of a fire extinguisher. Oooop!! Next time.

Regardless, it was daycare approved!



We made an awesome mess!! Love it!

Painting without a paintbrush.. Whaaaaat??

Does one really need a paint brush to paint? What other items can we use to paint? Well, let's ask these two.

Looks like the verdict is in. We do not need paint brushes for painting. Other items that can be used for painting include but are not limited to: Cars, trucks, hands, feet, sponges, forks, spoons, your friends hair, shape sorters, and paper clips. There are many fun things that can be used for painting. You just need to use your imagination. Note: I do not suggest painting with your friends hair as they might get upset. 

Meet Beethoven

Meet the newest addition to our family daycare. He is one of the cutest, sweetest little boys around.
We will call him "Beethoven".  He is happiest when is his singing, dancing or playing instruments.  He just loves music! When Beethoven is dancing he dances with his whole body, swinging his arms and jumping up and down. When he sings, he sings joyfully and with volume! When Beethoven plays an instrument, he is very serious:

We are so excited to have this sweet boy in our care and really enjoy letting him explore his inner joy.

All about my kids.. Oh my does time fly

     It has been a long time since the last time I posted. Over a year...WOW!! Where do I begin? Where every mom of 10 or so kids begins. With her children.

      My youngest (we will call him "Batman"), is now 6.  I can not believe my baby is six. I know every mom says this, but he is growing up way too fast.  Anyway, in the last year he went from wanting to become a cop, to a ninja, to what every young boy dreams of being: Batman! When he is not being Batman, you can find him playing video games, playing with his transformers or burning through his math homework at record pace.

      We will call our next child "Sparkle Princess". She is now 8. Sparkle Princess is a creative little girl loves cats, babies and creating art.  My sweet Sparkle Princess has decided that when she grows up, she wants to be a home daycare provider and an art teacher.  Awwwww!  She is a girl after my own heart. :)   NOTE: She did not get the creative gene from me.  Have you seen my stick figures in previous blogs?

Her art

 

My art 

   

    Next, we have "Music Princess". That is exactly what she is: a music princess. My Music Princess loves to sing. She loves to sing all of the time. In her room, in the car, outside, in the shower... I could keep going.  She also loves babies, cooking and what every girl loves: shopping! When she grows up she wants to be a music teacher and a home daycare provider. Again, another sweet girl after my own heart.

        Lastly, we have "Star-Lord". He is 14. WAIT.. WHAT?!?!?!? When did this happen?  Am I even old enough to have a 14 year old child?  Whatever. He likes the normal things all teenage boys like: Girls, football, food, girls, music, food, girls, video game, food, and most importantly, girls. When he grows up he wants to be a video game designer. From what I hear, there is good money in that. :) Maybe he can come up with something that is not a first person shooter. Picture this: Two hard-working, blue-collar Italian brothers chasing after turtles and mushrooms.. Wait!! That's already been done. OK, fine. First person shooter it is then.

      He will also make a great daddy someday. :) His future wife will want to thank me.  I love watching him play with the little people running around here. Too cute! Shhhh! Don't tell him that I posted these.

As for the rest of the kids around here, they are my daycare babies. They are mine too for at least 8-10 hours per day.
Do you remember this one? Perhaps you do, but probably not....

      It's a girl!! Welcome "Princess Sweet Pea". Wait.. She is a little big. Oh! That's right. It has been a while since I last posted. A long while. She is 15 months now.

 Princess Sweet Pea loves animals. She tells the kitty hi all of the time and does a really great puppy impression. She also tells lots of really great stories but most importantly she loves hanging out with her bff, Sparkle Princess.

Next we have "Astro Boy". He is an awesome ball of energy who loves to learn. This boy can add, subtract, and will be reading before we know it. There is nothing that I have given him that he can't handle. He is super cute too.  Look:

Then we have the newest addition to our family daycare. We will call her "Pumpkin Pie". She has the sweetest little cheeks and the cutest little giggle. You should be jealous that I get to snuggle this sweet baby every day. 

Finally, we have our evening crew. For my blog, I will call them "Pink Princess", "Firefly" and "Bumblebee". 

      Pink Princess loves learning new things and making everyone around her happy. She easily adapts to any activity anyone else is doing just to be alongside a friend. She is always concerned about the feelings of others. She is the people-pleaser in the crowd.  She is everyone's friend and is one of the sweetest little girls around.

        "Firefly" is the one who keeps me on my toes. She is funny, cute and a little (okay a lot) crazy. She loves helping with the babies and anything to do with art. Her new favorite toy is the trampoline and she can't seem to get enough of it. I am beginning to think that it is one of man's greatest inventions.  Go ahead... get that energy out, girl!

     Last but not least, we have "Bumblebee". Bumblebee almost always has a smile on his face. He loves riding bikes, playing video games and playing with action figures. He is silly and funny and if making funny faces were an Olympic event he would easily medal. You will almost always find him by his sidekicks, Batman and Astro Boy.

So now that you know the stars of my blog, you now know a little piece of my heart. God has blessed me so greatly with these kids. I love my job. I love these kids. I love their families. God is good!!

The homeschool desk

There are lots of places for homeschoolers to do their school work. One might think a desk is a good place. At least that would be the traditional approach.  We use the floor, the couch, the table, the tree in the front yard or just relaxing on the front porch. We have lots of other fun places where we like to "homeschool" as well.

The park and the beach are great places to homeschool right?               



Physical Education....check!

 

Working on their climbing skills.

Socialization...check!!

 

 Here is a horse shoe crab that one of our friends found on the beach. Too cool! We even picked it up.

Biology...check.  Ecology...check. 

 

MOSI is another fun and educational place to take your children.  

Optics...

 

Nutrition...

Physics...

Robotics...

 

Future doctors? 

Anatomy...

Since we have passes to MOSI, we were able to go to the zoo and the aquarium for free. That's right. I said it. FREE!

MOSI

This is the most adorable porky pine. She was my favorite creature at the zoo. She paid no attention to the fact that there were thirty people standing there watching her eat her fruits and veggies. She just kept on eating. 



Zoology...

 

Here are my other favorite zoo creatures. Oh.. Wait. Those are my mine.

Like a police lineup



The ostrich wanted her picture taken too.  

 

The Aquarium 

 I don't think anything was cooler than the sting rays. Say cheese!

 

 

Ichthyology...

LEGOLAND

So what did we learn at LEGOLAND? My children learned to drive a car. They even gave my five year old a drivers license.



As close as my teenager is getting to driving a car for quite a while!

.

 

 They learned how to.. Well.. Never mind.

 They learned how to shoot their mom. Wait.. That wasn't very nice.

 

  We have such a short time with our children to watch them grow. There is plenty of time for desk work. We need to get out and have fun with them whenever we have the opportunity. We need to laugh with them. We need to make memories. The workbooks will always be there.

 

 

So we got cable .. For a couple of minutes. :)

So we have been anti-cable for about three years now. That's right. You read it. We do not have cable.  Not even bunny ears.

On Tuesday we were on the phone with the cable company having our internet speed increased. I thought maybe we should get cable because there are certain things we do not get on Netflix such as the news and the History channel. I was a little upset when we were not able to watch the Bible series.

The cable guy came that day but he didn't have a cable box. Really?

So we scheduled another appointment for the next day between the hours of 12:00pm and 2:00pm.
12 o'clock came. No cable guy. 1 o'clock came. Still no cable guy. 2 o'clock came. 3 o'clock came. Yep! You guessed it. He never showed up. So I called the cable company. The cable company called dispatch. Then I waited until 4:30pm. He still was not here. So I called again. Finally at 5pm the cable guys made their grand entrance.

They spent an hour trying to figure out why the cable would not turn on. They went in the attic. Everything worked there. They went outside. Everything worked there. They played with our TV. They played with the cable box.


Then they took the plate off the wall. HA! Someone had cut the cord. Apparently we were serious when we gave up cable three years ago.

m

So they had to find the line and add to it. Viola. We had cable. They left and I turned on the TV to discover that there are literally thousands of channels.... and nothing to watch. Really! We watched Little House on the Prairie for a little while (a little nostalgic memento from my youth). But there was nothing else any of us wanted to see. Nothing. At all. Even after you stripped away all of the commercials by using the DVR there was still nothing at all that any of us wanted to watch. Strangely enough we didn't want to turn it off because we were actually paying for it. So we watched for the rest of the evening with a growing since of "what in the world did we just do?"

From the moment we turned on the cable box, we felt like we made a mistake. Why would we spend $53 a month for this? Really? So we can sit here every night flipping channels and saying there is nothing on television, feeling guilty for wasting money if we turn it off. We literally forced ourselves to watch a couple of shows and tried really hard to enjoy them. Finally, my husband did the greatest thing of all. He walked over and unplugged the cable box. The next day I called the cable company.

It went something like this:
Recording: "In a few words please state why you are calling."
Me:  "Cancel cable"
Transferring.. On hold..
Operator: "Good afternoon.... Bla bla bla bla bla."
Me: "We had cable installed yesterday but we changed our minds."
Operator: "Was there anything wrong with our service."
Me: What I wanted to say. "Yes! It's horrible. Why would I spend 53 dollars a month for a service that I already get for 8 dollars a month. I am great at finding other ways of wasting my hard earned money. I do not need your help."  but of course I didn't say that. :)

If there is a show that I really want to watch I can watch it on Hulu or Netflix. And if I absolutely have to I can just buy the series on DVD or blue ray.

So we learned a lesson. We really do not want or need cable. Glad we got that out of our system. :)