fun with frogs

as a little girl, i can remember catching frogs with the boy next door.
we put them in coffee cans, filled about halfway with dirt and placed the top on tight to keep them from escaping.

...and breathing.

we didn't know to poke holes in the lid.

                                                             froggy wall art

i still love frogs!

so, a couple of weeks ago, we "adopted" 11 tadpoles from some friends who had a pond.
i took our oldest to a local thrift shop and he spent $8 on a tank and lid.
we bought food and some gravel and spent less than $20 total.
what a fun summer project it has been!

the boys keep the tank on the porch and a few times a day, they check on their progress.
it has been really fun to watch them change each day.

this morning, we went out to feed them and found this:

when they get bigger, we plan to set them free in a pond near our house.

{or maybe sooner if they start croaking at night because more than frogs, mom likes her sleep!}

handmade valentine's day

I was inspired by all the ideas on pinterest this year when it came to Valentine's Day, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to come up with something on my own. Something easy and quick, but handmade, of course!

I'm sure someone else has done these before, but here are the valentines our guys are handing out to their friends tomorrow. Fun and super easy!

Pop Rocks with a tag that reads: YOU ROCK! {scrapbook paper, Sharpie, tag maker, ribbon, and candy that was 3/$1 at Dollar Tree}

Little Debbie Star Crunch with a tag (secured with Glue Dots) that reads: OUR FRIENDSHIP IS OUT OF THIS WORLD. {other supplies used were a circle cutter, scrapbook paper, heart stickers, and a Sharpie}

Ring Pops with a tag attached that reads: YOUR FRIENDSHIP IS A REAL TREASURE {Ring Pops are 4/$1 at Dollar Tree, tag maker, scrapbook paper, glitter marker, and ribbon}

and finally, MoonPies with a tag that reads: THERE'S NO ONE IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE LIKE YOU. The little robots I drew freehand (no two are the same- just like us). I bought a box of MoonPies at Harris Teeter for a couple of bucks, used more scrapbook paper, my circle cutter, Sharpie, and attached the tag with Glue Dots}

Hope my ideas inspire someone else...
Happy Love Day!

xo

100th Day of School

I scored major Cool Mom points today when I gave our boys an assignment on our 100th Day of School. I can't take all the credit, though. The idea came from Pinterest and I just tweaked it a little. Gotta love Pinterest!




Each one was given a bowl of 100 Legos and they had to create something using each brick. They were thrilled that part of their schoolwork today was playing with Legos! Homeschool rocks!



Introducing "The Big Gunner" and "The Destructor"



What did your kids do for the 100th Day of School? Did you help them with a project?