Out of the Mouth of Babes

"Mrs. Sasaki, I can't run today because I have a loose tooth."

I love my job.

Five for Friday - February 21

I am linking up with Kacey for all the fun things that happened this week.

I did some sewing when I was on my break.   I knew I had to make these for the girls as soon as I saw it on Pinterest.  I made two sets of each apron - one for school and one for the grand daughters.

Snow White

Cinderella's Work Apron.  My girls love them, one of the boys was wearing the apron during kitchen time, this week.  He told me that I needed to make some guy aprons - maybe I will get to it this weekend.

I made another flannel board activity.  The little people were matching the crayons to the color words.  We had lots of sounding out and talking going on in the room.  It was a great activity for my TK kiddos.

We are getting ready for Open House in March and doing an animal around the world theme.  We made these huge Pandas when we did Chinese New Year.  They each have their own personalities.  A couple of them at the top are zombie Pandas, according to one of my little ones - we forgot the white part of the eyes.

My antique store search was a success on Saturday.  I found a bunch of stuff, but only bought a few things.

I got so excited when I saw this brooch, it is perfect for the bouquet.  I did go over my spending limit on this one, because I had to have it.  I found other ones, but I needed to start with this one.  I sent my niece a picture from the store and she fell in love with it.  It is about 3 inches tall.  It is going to be hard giving this one up.

I, also, found some old keys for her wedding.  She wanted to use them for the table seating tags.  Of course, we saw the idea on Pinterest.  I think these are going to be a little harder to find.

The antique Valentine cards were still out and on sale.  So, I had to buy all the teacher Valentine cards.  They just make me happy.  I think old Valentine cards are so much cuter than the modern ones.

On Sunday, we went to San Pedro for lunch with one of my sons and his family.

Yum,  hubby is a sweetie because he cracks and takes the meat out of the shell for me. I didn't eat crab when he was gone, because it is such a pain to eat.  I missed him.

Yup, we ate at the Crusty Crab.  I kept looking for Sponge Bob, lol.

We were walking along the boardwalk and spotted this old building.  It looked like it was straight out of the movies.  We were fascinated with it.

Bonus

I have to post a picture of one of the grandkids.

Miss Remie Rose.  She crinkles up her whole face when she smiles, it is the cutest thing.  I love my grandbabes

Have a great weekend.

Sensory Rice

I am kinda of obsessed with making sensory boxes.  My mind has been spinning all weekend with all the different boxes I can make.  These are the reasons:

1.  The little people love them

2. I enjoy making the little people happy.

3. My classroom is quiet when they are playing with them.

4.  Hubby and I get to go hunting for different things to put in the boxes - which always

includes lunch together after.

This is how I dye my rice for my containers.  There are a lot of different ways, but this is what works for me.

Gather all your supplies.

You will need a measuring cup, measuring spoons, a gallon ziploc bag, food color paste, rubbing alcohol, bowl, 2 - 5 lb bags of white rice (cheap is good), paper towels and cookie sheets or baking pans (for drying).

Take the ziploc bag and put it inside a big bowl.   A 5 pound bag has about 10 cups - so I just pull out 2 cups and set aside (I will use this later).  Then, I add the rest of the rice bag, about 8 cups, to the ziploc bag.

**Do not put all 5 pounds of rice in the gallon ziploc bag.  It fits, but you can't mix it.  I tried, lol.  You could use a bigger bag, but I didn't want to go to the store.

To the rice, I add 3 Tablespoons of rubbing alcohol and 30 drops of food coloring liquid paste (this will give it a nice rich color).  You can always add more if you want the rice to be darker. 

Close the bag and smoosh it all around- turn the bag.  

When you get it all mixed together - leave it sit for about 10 minutes, so the color soaks in a little.

Lay paper towels in your drying container and dump the rice in.  I use about 4 to 5 containers for all the rice.  You don't want the rice layer to be to thick.  It will dry faster.  The weather in California has been so nice, so I set mine outside for a couple of hours to dry.  You can dry them overnight inside too.

Repeat, all the steps again for the other 5 pound bag.

My big container fits 2 batches nicely.  It is enough to cover the bottom, but not too much that it escapes from the box, when the babes are playing with it.

To dye the other 4 cups of rice,  I added 1 Tablespoon of rubbing alcohol and 12 drops of color.  I am going to use this smaller batch in a smaller container and make it a color box.  So, I would add all sorts of blue things that I can find around the house, at school or from new purchases.  I want to make it an "I Spy Color Box".

Hubby and I went shopping at the Dollar Tree today for goodies.  I think he had as much fun as I did.  There are about 5 different box ideas in this picture.  Of course, we had lunch after.  I love  3 day weekends.

Five for Friday - February 14

Woo hoo, it is Friday or I mean Saturday - since I was too tired to finish this post last night.  I am linking up with Kacey for the linky party this week.

I survived my first Valentine's Day in TK.  It was a lot of fun.  There are some things I wish I added to the day and need to make a note for next year.  The kids loved it.

I made a Valentine sensory box using the rice that I dyed from Christmas.  I hit Target for all the goodies.  My little people enjoy playing with these boxes, it is encouraging me to make more.

The spoons, erasers, pom poms and metal container were from the Dollar Spot at Target.  The erasers and the heart links were with the Valentine goodies in the back of the store.  I will probably keep this out for another week, so I can get another one made.

I made some felt hearts for the flannel board so the kids could do some patterning and addition/subtraction activities.  This was a big hit with them.  They are about 3 inches tall.

I have such a difficult time taking down the Christmas decorations each year.  It just makes me sad.  Hubby didn't want me to take down the tree in the family room.  He says that it is the perfect amount of light for watching TV at night.

So, I didn't.  I turned it into a Valentine's tree.  I left all the plain red ornaments on the tree.  

Then, I added black and white photos of my grandbabes to the tree.  I, really, like how it turned out and everybody in my family is happy.

 

My little guy fell asleep in the high chair - twice this week, after dinner.  The weather has been great here, so we have been outside playing before dinner.  He just couldn't stay awake.  I love being a Grandma.

My niece is getting married and wants this for her bouquet, so hubby and I are are going to the antique stores today, to see what we can find.  I am excited to spend the day with him, doing what we love.  We haven't been antiquing in over 3 years, since he has been gone.  Wish me luck in finding a few pins for her.

Have a great weekend. I love having a 3 day weekend.

Vacation is Over

Well, today is the last day of my vacation.  I am super sad, although I do miss my babes at school.  It has been a very relaxing vacation with a bunch of weekly trips to Disneyland with hubby and the grand kids.

Chinese New Year is on Friday, so I updated my little Chinese New Year book.  It is a simple - fill in the blanks book and has vocabulary cards and a true/false test.  Another grade for the grade book.  My kiddos really enjoyed it last year.

You can find it on TpT or Teachers Notebook.  Thanks for looking.

Five for Friday

Linking up with Kacey this week.  I am on break for 3 weeks, so this week has been a lot about having fun.

  

I have a FREEBIE small book of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  You can download it here.  I won't be using it this year, so I hope the rest of you can.

My brother received an award from the Mayor of our City for his 30 years of military service.  My brother lives in Colorado and had come down for Christmas.  The Mayor presented him the award at our Church.  She listed all of his tour of dutys, some of them I didn't know he did. He retired in July because of medical or he would probably still be enlisted.  Too many times jumping out of airplanes caused injury to his back. Our Care Pastor is on the left.  

When my brother joined the service, out of high school, our original Pastor gave him the bible that he carried during the Korean War as a Chaplain.  My brother said that he took it with him on every mission and it gave him peace and kept him safe.  There was not a dry eye in the building.

I am super proud of my baby brother.

I spent time with these two sweet bugs this week.  They both have distinct personalities and are so much fun to hang out with.  I can't believe that they are 9 months already.  I'm already planning their year birthday party - Minnie theme, of course.

I went to Disneyland, 3 times this week.  One trip with hubby and two trips without him.  He got that nasty flu that is going around,  I decided to head to Disneyland - so I wouldn't get it.  Plus, I wanted to take pictures of certain things. Find out about it here.

This is Jingles.  She was dedicated to Julie Andrews in 2008 as a Disney Ambassador.

I found out on Sunday that the carousel horses have names.  I wanted to take pictures of the horses that were on the ride and the Cast Members were super sweet to let me take pictures of the horses.

I got some crafting done.

I made these magnets for the fridge from the buttons that I got on Sunday.  Super easy to do.

Walgreens had a coupon for 60% off calendars, so I decided to make a calendar from our trips to Disneyland this last year - especially since my kitchen is getting a Disney make-over.

I, also, cooked most nights this week, shocking.  I had to make sure hubby was fed when I left him for the day.

Well, I am off to Disneyland with a couple of the grand babes today.  The wonderful Cast Member gave me VIP seats to the firework show tonight, so excited.