Smartie Pants

I saw this idea in the Family Fun magazine while I was waiting for Brady at his doctor appt. I gave these out for our get-to-know you activity with the Bishopric. They are 'Smartie Pants' for our game competition:

I printed out 4 pants to a sheet and then took a blank sheet and cut them out, stapled the 2 together, added glitter around the belt and bottoms of the pants:

Then added flowers:

And 2 big rolls of Smarties:

The Bishopric ones are just plain, no glitter or flowers ;)

We asked the Bishopric members and the girls these questions:

- What famous person do people tell you that you remind them of?

- Tell us 2 truths and 1 lie.

- What are 2 things you were not good at when you were a missionary?

- If you could have a room full of anything, what would it be?

- If you could only see black and white plus one other color, what color would you choose?

- What one personality trait do you hope to pass on to your children?

- What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?

- If you offered the world 1 piece of advice, what would it be?

- Tell us an embarrassing moment.

- What is a favorite birthday memory?

- What age would you like to be and why?

- Which bad habit drives you crazy?

- If you HAD to change your name, what would you change it to?

And then a few random ones they didn't know about:

Make your funniest face ever!

What is your favorite song? Now sing it =)

Tell a joke.

What are the names of the 7 dwarfs?

What is something you like about your mom?

What is your favorite scripture story? Now tell it =)

What is your favorite meal? When was the last time you made it for your family?

If it was legal, what animal would you own and keep as a pet?

Then at the end I wheeled out small paper plates filled with whipped cream for the Bishopric members to throw at the girls, one plate for every point they earned. The girls loved it - it was so funny! Then I wheeled out big paper plates with whipped cream on them to throw at the Bishopric. In the midst of all the excitement, no one even noticed that the plates of whipped cream were on bigger plates for the girls to throw - LoL

Here's a photo from a cell phone, so the clarity is not that great - I forgot my camera at home =(

Happy 16th Birthday Keaton

Both Brady & Keaton are 16 until Brady's birthday April 19!

Keaton doesn't want to go to golf today since it's his birthday. And for YM tonight, they were going to do a service project and it got postponed, so they are meeting at the church to play games, but Keaton didn't want to go to YM's at the church. But if they would have done the service project tonight he would have gone! What a great kid =) But I made a huge oreo ice cream cake for the YM, so I asked him if he'd go so as to not waste it! So he agreed, although he did say he would eat a slice a day and assured me it would not get freezer burn - yeah right, I made this cake in a jelly roll pan and it's huge!

Unwrap 22 ice cream sandwiches and place in pan lined with aluminum foil:

Spoon out 1.5 quarts of oreo ice cream softened over tops of ice cream sandwiches:

Spread it around evenly & put in freezer:

Make Ganache - 1 cup heavy cream, 2 cups chocolate chips and 4 tbsp butter - melt, whip and cool:

Then spread ganache over ice cream layer:
Make whipping cream (or buy some): 2 cups heavy cream, 1 tsp vanilla & 1/2 cup powdered sugar:

Whip together until fluffy:

Spread evenly over ganache:

Take 20 oreos and put them in a zip lock bag:

Crush by rolling a glass over the top (uhhh, yeah a rolling pin would be great!):

Sprinkle the oreos over the top of the whipped cream and place in freezer for 4 hours or more:

8 Doves

I thought Doves stayed mostly in twos, although I've seen 4 at a time visiting our feeders. Today, there were 8 doves eating from our feeder - okay, so only 3 could fit (which is amazing because this feeder is designed for SMALL birds!) and they were flicking the seeds all over the deck and providing a great meal for the rest of them. When I grabbed my camera one dove was already in the trees and another dove was on the railing - so this is a photo of only 7 doves:

I took this picture through the window and sure enough when I opened the sliding glass door they got spooked and all flew away =( Between the woodpeckers and the doves, I have to fill up 3 feeders every 4-5 days!

And this guy let me walk right up to it. I'm thinking someone has a little nest in my tree ;) It's in the tree every time I look out the window.

And just bloggin the old plastic bag fetish the cats have:

An hour later:

And Cannella sleeping - ahhhh, pets are just like children, so precious and irresistible when they're sleeping ;)And what are these insects? I went out back and they were flying everywhere - maybe they just hatched? And will all fly away out of my yard? ;)So yeah, a lot of randomness in this post =)

Topiary

I wanted to make a topiary, this is just a practice set since I had these buckets and haven't used them and had these decorative balls that weren't being used either:

They look kind of lame - LoL But they look cuter where I placed them on my bookshelf ;)

But I want to make a different style - I like the look of topiaries and the options are numerous!

Dangling Charms, camp craft

Maybe I will let the 1st-3rd years make charms for their purses/scripture bags/backpacks and the YCL's can make key chains since they're driving (or soon). The 4th years typically don't make crafts because of their big hike requirement.

I scanned my new purse so I could get the color match for my tile pendant on the computer. I put the image on both sides so when it's flipped over, you can still see the cuteness. I covered the sides of the tile with ribbon & I used a bead as a bail and then an eye pin through it.

What are a few good sayings I could use on the tiles - like 1-4 words? And don't say 'Team Jacob' - LoL I'm thinking of having images or sayings for the girls to pick from once at camp.

girl's camp quilt - I need votes for 3

I am making 3 quilt designs for the girls to tie at Girl's Camp and I need to know which patterns look the best together (these are sheet sets). If you'd leave a comment to help me out, that'd be great!

I am going to cut these options up into fairly big pieces and sew back together and then use 1 of the matching pieces of flat sheets for the back.

1 pink hearts, solid brown, brown/white zebra print

2 blue flowers, solid brown

3 pink hearts, solid brown, solid pink 4 blue flowers, solid pink, solid brown 5 blue flowers, solid brown, brown/white zebra print

Maybe there's a pattern I didn't think of too - feel free to suggest one =) We have the girls tie the quilts during craft time/free time and then there's a drawing for them. The fun part is they'll get 2 corresponding pillow cases to match!

Spooning

You can't teach an animal to spoon - but if I knew how cute it was going to look, I would have definitely tried earlier ;)

Even the arm? Come on - seriously precious!

And Ninja loves bags, he stayed in this free Safeway bag I got in the mail for 20 minutes self entertaining himself:

I think it's safe to say . . .

that Brady doesn't abuse prescription drugs ;) It's all over the news lately that this habit is common among teenagers.

Brady was taking a cold/flu pill and it was in capsule form. He has 1 of the capsules and was trying to pull it apart and he finally asked me: how do I open this?. I was like: you just swallow the whole thing. Brady: what is this plastic thing, just for holding the medicine? Me: yes, it dissolves after you swallow it.

It's good that a 16 YO has taken so little meds in his life but still funny that he didn't know this capsule information prior to our conversation. Oh the things you think are obvious as a parent and for sure your kids must have picked up along the way!

Cheating!

So I get this progress report in the mail from Keaton's early morning seminary teacher and it's a great report except at the bottom it has what the student thinks they can improve on. Keaton's response: not cheating. His teacher's comment: what? So of course I have to ask him (and then worry if he cheats at Seminary, does he cheat in school too?) and Keaton says: yeah, they play Bingo and it's very boring so sometimes I cheat to end the game faster. LoL He doesn't want a prize, he just wants the game to end - I guess they play it too often ;)

Then we're discussing it for a 2nd time and Keaton's like 'everyone knows I pretend that I had that word in a certain place, it's more just funny than really cheating'. (Keaton needs to be the comic relief then?) Brady says: but that leads to cheating at school or work. Keaton says: (totally serious like) you know people who actually cheat on tests? Brady says: yeah, some kids do it because their parents expect them to have certain grades. Keaton says: Well, that's dumb. But it'd be pretty tough to cheat at your job.

It was funny because that's so naive, but if that's what he thinks, then let's allow him to think just that =) Where did Keaton find his friends that never even discuss cheating in school? Well, let's hope he attracts more of those kind!

Let's just say 'whew' on the cheating subject ;)

Love is spoken here

I made 2 of these blocks, one for Cari, the Beehive Counselor who I work with - it's her birthday and one for Susan as a 'thank you' because she did makeovers for our Beehives at our last activity:

Here are the cupcakes we're having in class today to celebrate - it's a gumball on top!

Priesthood Handout

The outside was like a folded card, I just took 2 black rectangles and warped them with a pattern in my computer program and did the same for a pocket (which is barely visible), printed them out, then cut down the center and scored and folded the collar part. The tie I did separately and put on with dimensionals so it had a 3-D look:

The inside:The Priesthood: A Great Blessing

I asked the Young Men in our ward the question 'what 1 thing can the Young Women do to help you honor your priesthood'. Their answers (ages 12-17):

Dressing Modestly

Being Happy/Cheerful

Setting the bar/example

Encouraging the YM/not poking fun

Worthily taking the Sacrament

Sharing Refreshments (haha)

Observing the YW doing good things

Not telling them what to do like 'shhh, be quiet'

Not being so loud/silly at church activities

Having clean language/not swearing

Encouraging the YM to keep the commandments

Encouraging the YM to serve a mission

Being reverent during the sacrament

handout found at www.jackshandsjillsheart.com under tab YW manual 3 lesson 13 - once purchased you can print off as many copies as you need, just do not redistribute or share file - thank you.

Easter idea - 8 day walk with Christ

I was forwarded a neat idea for an 8 day walk with Christ - I made my own templates 
(found at www.jackshandsjillsheart.com under the occasion/holiday tab, which includes the box template and the files) and I've seen little paper boxes that hold 6 Easter egg chocolates. So I designed a template on the computer to hold 8 plastic Easter eggs:I sent the images so my plotter could cut them all out, but I had to score them by hand - that was a lot of work ;) But my friend Cari helped me put these together:

BUT make sure your sizes match up before printing them on nice paper. All I did was upload them separately because you can only print out 1 box bottom per paper as well as 1 box lid. I was able to fit 2 box insides on an 8 1/2 x 11 size of paper. Or you could make a stencil/template and just trace them onto paper too - I got 3 box insides for a 12 x 12.

We had to cut up all the scripture references, thoughts and stories and then fold them:
And glue the box together and then the vellum sheet that had instructions:

There are scripture references and thoughts with M&M's in the eggs, the stories we put in envelopes to go with the corresponding day.

I was panicked trying to find small plastic Easter eggs after visiting and not finding them at Target, Walmart, JoAnns, Michaels & World Market (claiming to be Easter Headquarters - haha - they didn't even have regular size plastic eggs! I seriously thought about telling them to take their sign down ;) Hello, I had already cut out my boxes and there had better be some small Easter eggs somewhere!! I finally found them at Fred Meyer and they were even SUPER cute =)

Kittens & Cannella

We got kittens, kept the name Ninja for the black kitten and named the other one Samari. They play with Cannella very well, but Ninja plays the best with her. These are Cannella's rope toys, but I think the kitties were sleeping on them so if they weren't playing with them then neither could the dog ;) They do have a bed . . . and they do like to sleep in Cannella's bed too!

Here is Cannella, all sad because she's not potty trained like the kittens. The kitties have free roam of the house while Cannella is banned to the non-carpeted areas, so Cannella just watches the kittens and whines =( She really has been a ton of fun!
We just can't wait for Cannella to be consistent with her potty places!

Courage Block

I completed a wood block with the graphic I designed:

This is a scrap piece of wood so my image didn't quite fit, so I filled in the spaces by embellishing with ribbon - I really like it!

Use MicroGlaze before mod podging so the ink doesn't smear =)

image found at www.jackshandsjillsheart.com - only need to purchase it once, then print as many as you need.  Do not redistribute or share original work that is purchased from this site - thanks!

Courage - Joshua 1:9

Another Girl's Camp craft idea is to print these out and mod podge on wood blocks with a ribbon (I'll have to make an example - I think it will turn out cute!)

It took a very long time to work the curved words like that . . . there's probably a program out there that makes it easy . . . but I don't have it! So, there will be ONE design for the winding loop words ;) The small looping words are the words to the scripture Joshua 1:9 in case it's fuzzy on the blog.

images found at www.jackshandsjillsheart.com - only need to purchase it once, then print as many as you need.  Do not redistribute or share original work that is purchased from this site - thanks!