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For ages, I've been wanting to try my hand at making a quilt.  The problem is, I'm not very precise when I sew and I'm not really patient enough to spend weeks or months on a sewing project.   I thought I might never get around to actually making one until  I saw this gorgeous baby rag quilt at Do It Yourself Divas.  I went right out and picked up some coordinating flannel fabrics.  I did mine slightly differently than my inspiration piece and I'm so thrilled with the way it turned out.   When I tell you it's a great beginner project, it truly is.  Because it's simply straight cuts and straight seams, I was able to make it in just one evening.  (Granted, I started it at 9 pm when the kids finally fell asleep and finished at 2 am, but I still consider it a one-night project!) .  Some of my seams aren't perfectly straight, but because it's all ruffled and ragged, you really can't tell. Here's how I did it   (excuse the poor photo qua...

  Welcome to our Summer Themed Collection This themed collection of fantastic ideas to fill your summer days  with fun projects and activities was started in the Summer of 2011.   I'm continuing it this year so you'll have a great resource  to turn to as you plan your summer vacation ! Ah, summer vacation! Two months of no school, relaxed schedules, and a chorus of the inevitable "Mom, I'm bored!"  I hope this themed collection gives you  plenty of inspiration for projects and activities  you can do with your kids. There are ideas for outdoor play, art projects, recipes, games and more! Use this link party to share and be inspired during these summer months.  Link up any ideas you might have  to keep kids having fun this season. A few guidelines: 1.  You can link up as many ideas as you want, as long as they are summer-related.   (NOTE: Your posts don't need to have been written  during the summer as long as the activities...

An important battle of the War of 1812 was fought in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.  It was after this battle, when he saw the U.S. flag still waving,  that Francis Scott Key wrote the poem which eventually became our National Anthem.  To celebrate the bicentennial of the war of 1812, Baltimore is hosting a week-long Star-Spangled Sailabration with lots of fun events in and around the Inner Harbor. My 2nd and 3rd graders recently learned about the War of 1812 and visited the related sites of Fort McHenry, Federal Hill and the Flag House on a field trip last month.  Since yesterday was a gorgeous day and we didn't have anything special planned,  I decided to take them downtown to check out the festivities. Overall, we had an awesome time.  (I say overall because there was still a fair amount of their customary whining in between the fun stuff.)   The festivities in Baltimore continue until Tuesday, so if you're in the area, I recommend stopping by.  I ...

Today was the start of summer vacation for my kids.  To celebrate the last day of school shoes and the beginning of flip flop season, we made these cute Nutter Butter flip flops.  I've seen fancier versions where the cookies are dipped in colored or decorated with various edible embellishments, but we kept it SUPER simple and just used a tube of decorating icing gel and the package of cookies.  Still lots of fun for the kids and the results were pretty yummy! There's really nothing in the way of directions.  Open up the package of Nutter Butter cookies, open up a tube or two of decorators icing (we used sparkly gel ones) , and squeeze on your flip flop straps.  I kept my sample ones really simple, but the kids added a lot more color and decorations to theirs.  (They're no dummies, they know that the more decorations they add, the more icing they get to eat!) Check it out!  Sharing our super simple edible footwear at: Tatertots and Jello

Today is the last day of school for my kids!  We were blessed with some really great teachers this year and I wanted to show our appreciation with an end-of-the-year gift.   As a former school teacher myself, I know that gift cards and hand written notes of thanks are usually appreciated much more than yet another coffee mug or scented body lotion.  For our gift this year, I combined the gift card/thank you note with the photo idea that we used on our Photo Bookmarks and our Lollipop Valentine's Cards .  I really like the way they turned out and I think the teachers will really like receiving them. Check it out... For the "specials" teachers ~ Music, Gym, Library, etc ~ I put all three kids' photos on the front and they each wrote their note of appreciation inside the little booklet. Doesn't it almost look like they're holding up the gift card "sign"? Then for their regular subjects, we made a separate booklet for each teacher they had and I put the...

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Quaker Oats for SocialSpark . All opinions are 100% mine. Now that my kids are getting older, I've noticed two things.  One, they're always hungry and two, we're always on the go.   It's inevitable.  I'll make them breakfast on a school day, they'll eat it all, and then just minutes before the bus is ready to pull up they're asking for more to eat.  Or it's after school, they get home and one kid needs help with homework, another needs a soccer uniform and the third wants to show me their latest creation.  Meanwhile, all three of them are asking for a snack. So, when I was asked to sample these new Quaker Soft Baked Bar s, I was eager to try them out.    With 140 calories, 5 grams of fiber and 6 grams of protein, I could see that they'd be a  wholesome food   and a good choice for a filling snack when we're short on time or on the go.   However, the real test is in the ...

For quite a while now, I've been seeing posts on some of my favorite kid-centered blogs about water beads.  While they looked like fun in sensory tubs in preschools all over the country, I was afraid my kids might be a little too old for them.  I was wrong.  I picked up a couple containers of clear beads at the dollar store and my kids got the biggest kick out of them. Since we've long since outgrown our sand and water table, I just filled a large plastic container with water and dumped in two containers of the water beads.  The kids got the biggest  kick out of the fact that the beads were completely invisible in the water and then magically appeared when you scooped up a handful.  (I'll admit, I thought it was pretty cool too!) As I mentioned, I used these clear water beads that I found in the dollar store.  (They were in the floral section near the vases and floral foam).  However, you can also find the dehydrated beads in tons of different col...