Meet Living In Dar

I would like to introduce you to Living in Dar.

Tima lives in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania (but she is Canadian) with her husband and preschool age son.  She is a teacher and blogs about everything.

I would love for you to take a minute or two and pop over there to see what Tima has been up to.  She has quite a list of books that she is reading or wants to read that you might find pretty interesting, too.

I am just fascinated by blogs written by people living in other countries.  It makes me feel like I am traveling.  So if you live in a country other than the U.S., please leave a comment and let me know (especially if you have a blog!).

Shadows of a Boy on a Barn

“Shadows” is the theme for Foto Friday this week.  It makes it really hard when the sky is overcast.  So I dug through some old shots.

 

So head over to Household 6 DIva and check out other Foto Friday link ups.  There are some amazing pictures.

Homemade Lincoln Beard

It’s President’s Day.  Cole has been learning about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln at preschool.  We have been talking about it at home, too. 

Cole recognizes Lincoln on the penny and the $5 bill.  So I thought it would be fun to have do a little dress up. 

We made a Lincoln beard and he loves it!  You just need one sheet of black construction paper, glue stick, one pipe cleaner, scissors, and a hole punch (you can use scissors for this).

Cut the black paper at about 60/40 split.  Use the larger piece to make a crescent shape. 

Have your little one cut strips out of the smaller piece.

Let your child use the glue stick to glue the pieces onto the crescent piece.  Using a glue stick makes it less messy and has faster drying time.  I actually let Cole play with this immediately afterward.

While they are gluing cut the pipe cleaner in half.  Be sure to bend the tips in so the kids don’t get poked by sharp points.

I marked a spot on the beard and let Cole punch the holes.

I threaded the pipe cleaner through the holes and twisted the end to attach it to the beard.  I then curled the stems.

Now you have one cool Lincoln beard.  This beard has been worn a lot this past weekend.  It has also become a cowboy beard, a shepherd’s beard, a pirate beard, and a bad guy beard. 

Meet Mountain Mama

Today I would like to introduce you to a friend of mine that I have been reading about for a while now.  She has recently gone through a HUGE change in her life (one of many).

Mountain Mama has been transplanted into Idaho country, I mean country.  Mountains, rivers, lodge, process your own meat kind of country.  She is an hour from stores, people…well just plain out civilization.

So she is adjusting from being in the city, to living in the country, to living in the rugged mountains.  She has adjusted from buying her food to making most of it.  She has also adjusted from public schools to homeschooling. 

She is doing it all by faith.  With a little help from her loving family, of course. 

So please head over and read about her latest adventures.  I know you will fall in love with her and how down to earth she is. 

Say What?: Hippo Humor

“Stop sitting on the hippo’s face.”

 

As it was coming out of my mouth I was thinking it sounded really weird.  It’s totally legit, though.  Earlier this week I had all 4 kids in a small examination room at the pediatrician’s office so Buddy could get some blood work done.  The kids did really well.

Buddy is new to this pediatrician’s office (he has been our pediatrician from the start) and was fascinated by the examination tables.

They are cool.

Now you understand why I said what I said.  It was one of those things I never thought I would say, or have to say. 

What crazy things have been coming out of your mouth lately?

Sweet Sibling Love

This week’s theme for Foto Friday is “Love”.  What is sweeter than sibling love?

 

I took this picture yesterday of Cole and Charley being sweet together.  It only lasted a minute, but I captured it. 

 

Check out this week’s Foto Friday over at Household 6 Diva.  A lot of very talented people participate and the shots are beautiful.

 

I added this to a collection over at Love That Shot for their theme of “Love”, too. 

Happy Valentines Day

I want to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Boy, conversation hearts have changed a lot.  As I was adding these I noticed some said “EMAIL ME” and “TEXT ME”.  What?!

 

If you are looking for crafts to do today, I have a few to share that we have done at our house.  There are heart stamps, there are Valentine’s glasses, and a mini heart craft.

For those of you thinking about making a neat snack here are Valentine red velvet cake cookies.

Here is a special shout out to those moms that baked/bought and brought anything for your child’s class.  You rock!

Kim

My Edited Lily

So last week’s Foto Friday was SOOC (straight out of the camera).  This week is to flex your Photoshop muscles.  Well I don’t have Photoshop muscles, but I do have Photoshop actions. 

I fiddled around with the cleaning edits and then let some pretty actions do their work.  I had fun playing around with the levels.  I LOVE having Photoshop (thank you hubby)!

Here is the SOOC shot.

Here is my favorite edit.

Here is a soft faded edit that I picture on some stationary.  I don’t know why I like it, but I do.  I wouldn’t do the photo by itself, but as a watermark or a soft background I would.

This has been linked up at Household 6 Diva for Foto Friday.  Head over there and see some beautiful shots.

Red Velvet Valentine's Day Cookies

These cookies will have everyone’s tummy as full as their hearts on Valentine’s Day.  We make the Devil’s Food Cake version of these cookies very regularly.  SO I thought I would give them a shot with a Valentine’s twist.

You will need a Red Velvet Cake Mix, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of oil, 1/4 cup of hot water, 2 tbsp of flour.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all of the above ingredients together in a bowl and stir.  The more kids you have to help, the better (right???).

Bake in the oven for 12 minutes (I do 10 minutes in my oven).  While the cookies are baking cut a sheet of paper into six squares.  Cut out heart designs on them.  Be sure to save the cut outs for reverse imaging.

Immediately after the cookies come out of the oven an adult needs to place the stencils and shapes onto the cookies.  The cookies will be very hot, so be careful.

Put some powdered sugar in a sifter and let the kids take turns shaking the sugar onto the cookies.  Be sure to watch them closely and make sure they do not get too close to the cookies.

Remove the papers and you have heart designed red velvet cake cookies.

Yummy.  Enjoy!

Recycled Heart Craft

I ran across a great tutorial on how to make a heart wreath and it got my brain jogging.  I remembered a snowflake craft that I had seen in a magazine, so I modified it for hearts.

What came out was this cool ornament looking thingy.  Doesn’t that sound enticing?

You will need a toilet paper roll, paint, pipe cleaner, hole punch, paint brush, and scissors.

Have your kids paint the toilet paper roll.  Paint it inside and out.  While the paint is wet you can add glitter, but I wasn’t about to do with these three.

After the paint has dried bend the roll in the shape of a heart.

Cut the roll into strips about 3/4 of an inch wide.  Use the hole punch to make a hole.  I made mine a tad under the halfway mark.

Thread your pipe cleaner through the holes on all of the pieces.

Twist the pipe cleaner together and ta-da, you have one cute decoration and a proud kid.

This is great for Valentine’s Day or any time you want to make some hearts.  Let’s face it, hearts are cute and a great reminder of love.  Everyone needs some in their life. 

Kim

I shared this post over at 4tunate’s Easy Homemade Valentine’s Day Craft Link Up.  If you have a post you want to share, head over there and link up, too.  I am going over there to check out other people’s cool ideas. 

Meet Adventures in Mommydom

I have not done this in a long time (since my blog was shut down last summer), but I would like to start it up again.  This is my chance to share my friends and their fabulous blogs with you.

Meet Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom

She has adventurous identical twin boys and a sweet daughter.  All three of her kids are 5 and under.  She homeschools with a passion that is almost contagious (I said almost for me, feel free to be infected).

Check out her cool segment called Science Sunday.  You all know how much I love science.  I love reading her site every day, but as with so many blogs I read I don’t comment as often as I would like to.  Here is my way of making up for it. 

So please head over there.  I am not responsible if you love her site and are hooked to yet another blog.

Kim

Better than Fist Bumps?

“Quit it now. Head bumps are not cooler than fist bumps.”

 

Yes, for some reason when two boys get together their I.Q.’s drop (no matter how intelligent they were separately).  I don’t think this needs further explanation other than we now have 2 little boys in our house again.

What crazy things have you found yourself saying lately?

Kim

SOOC Shots of My BlissDom Flowers

This week’s theme for Foto Friday is SOOC (straight out of the camera). No cropping, no light adjustment, not editing at all.  Gulp.

I had some beautiful flowers delivered to me at BlissDom (courtesy of ConAgra Foods, THANK YOU!).  So I busted out my macro lens attachments that make me feel cool and like a real photographer.  I snapped these. 

I was so happy with these pictures.  I can’t wait to start tweaking them. 

If, by chance, you are interested in the lens attachments here is the information below. 

Yes, these pictures were taken with attachments that cost less than $15.  I promise these are the exact ones I have.  I highly recommend checking them out.  It’s a great way to get cool images without the hefty price tag.

I put a link to both sizes.  You know, for you Nikon people, too.    If you are unable to see the above boxes for the lens attachments because of reading this post through email subscription or in a reader, I am sorry.  If you want to see the links, you will have to click on the post and read it on my site.  Sorry.

This was linked up over at Household 6 Diva for Foto Friday.

Disclosure: The links to the macro lens sets are Amazon Affiliate links.