The Claw

See those red cups over Isaac's fingers? All 3 cups are connected and it's called "The Claw" and it's the best thing in the world for handwriting. I found these while going though a magazine for Autism. They come in small, medium and large. The smaller size fits Evan Grace and Isaac gets the medium one and Mackenzie, God love her heart, takes the large size. Her handwriting is atrocious and she's the real reason I picked up the claw for all of the kids.

When Kenzie uses it correctly and doesn't rush through her work I can tell a world of difference in her handwriting. I've got Isaac and Evan Grace using one as well to reinforce the correct way to hold their pencil. I love this little thing.

You can order them here for $1.85 each. http://www.nationalautismresources.com/

The Little Girl

The little girl was about 18 months old, give or take a month or two when she was gifted with her very first purse. She filled her days with stuffing her little purse full of all kinds of things and then one by one taking everything out of her purse, only to fill it up and empty it out again. This was a grand idea, one her mom and dad found very amusing.

The little girl grew, and so did her obsession for filling things up and dumping them out. One thing changed though. The little girl started sorting out all the wonderful things she was finding to stuff into her purse and she was collecting any type of bag, pouch, zippered make-up bags that she could find. For hours the little girl would pick and choose things that went together and find the appropriate bag that would hold all her treasures and cram them into it. All this she did before dumping her findings out of their respective bags to start the process all over again. Puzzle pieces in one, Polly pocket toys in another, play food in the big bag, socks in a smaller one.

Her mom and dad started to joke that surely this little sorter would grow up to work on a factory line.

The little girl is a few weeks away from turning 4 now and her sorting and stuffing habit hasn't waxed or waned; though she's moved away from toys and into food.


DOG food that is, and yogurt cups. :) Recently we were house sitting for my aunt and Evan Grace spent a lot of time, A LOT, sorting Polly's Kibbles and Bits. :) And with those dimples and curls bouncing it wasn't long before she had talked Isaac and myself into helping her with the dog food.

Cookie Dough Pie

Ahh, this recipe was a great hit. Though the title/name is very deceiving. There's NO cookie dough in this pie. This would have been great for the summer but the kids and I didn't mind eating it in the Fall. :)

Cookie Dough Pie

1 package of Chips Ahoy cookies
1 large container of Cool Whip
Hershey's Syrup
2 cups of milk

Pour milk into a medium bowl. Quickly dip one cookie at a time into the milk and shake off excess milk so that the cookie isn't dripping milk. Place a layer of milk-dipped cookies in the bottom layer of pie plate or square pan.

Spread a thin layer of cool whip over cookies and repeat the process a few times until desired hit is reached or cookies have all been dipped.

(you can break up cookies to fill in holes if needed though it's not necessary)

The last layer is cool whip, squirt a little Hershey syrup (or in my case I used that Magic Shell stuff instead) on top of cool whip, swirl it around with a toothpick and pop in the freezer for 2 hours at least. Keep it in the freezer.

This was so very delicious. Trust me. So. Very. Delicious!

Bag Tutorial

Ok, here it is; the long awaited bag tutorial. I changed up the straps just a bit but I think from the instructions you can see how it would be easy to do 2 straps instead of one and where to place them. I love this bag, it's ending up going where I go just because it can hold so much stuff.

Once again if you can't read the directions ON the pictures, click on one of them to go to my web album and it'll be much much bigger. :)

Reusable Ziploc Bags

These are only 3 of the 7 I've whipped up over the past few weeks. Evan Grace LOVES purses, pockets and bags to carry things in and to pull things out of before restocking them. Seriously you'd think she was a 2 year old the way she sorts and stocks. :) Most of the bags are hers for chalk and play things. At least I've found something to do with all my scrap fabric. :)

 

Mill Mountain Zoo

Matt came up for the weekend a little bit ago and we decided to take the kids to the zoo about an hour and a half away from here. It's a small zoo and the only zoo I ever visited growing up. It was weird seeing it from an adults eye but I love zoos. So it was great fun.

Just flat out good

Matt and I took the kids to the park a few days ago. Here are some of the great shots I got. Just wanted to share.

Crayon Rolls

I've seen these all over the net and I just knew that my two youngest kids would enjoy them. So I scoured the web for a pattern or tut and set out to making them. I think they came out pretty well. Maybe I'll scale back on the length of tie next time but I like the floppy bows and it's easy for the youngest to untie. :)

The crayon rolls can hold 16 crayons but I found that using 14 helped the roll...well....roll better and look better closed. I'm addicted to sewing these up, it's a quick project and I can usually crank out 2 of these in an hour or two start to finish. I'm thinking of making a fabric like book with a vertical crayon roll on one side and a small sketch pad on the other side. It was fun either way.

A side note, one of my followers asked ages ago if I was going to or if I could make up some kind of step by step on how to sew the reusable grocery bags I made out of pillowcases. I'm working on it right now and hope to have it posted in the next few days. Forgive my extreme tardiness. :) I've used the same bag technique to sew up some reusable Ziploc bags as well.

Owie Bags

I had some great scraps of fabric left over from some sewing I've been doing. I hate to chuck fabric, no matter how small the piece but I was stumped as to what to make with them. Then a light bulb started to flicker and gradually brightened before blinding me with a great idea. With all the scrapes (or frapes as Ev calls them) and hurts we've had around the house lately why not make up a few owie bags. They are cheaper than band aids. :)

So I made a few different sizes, played around with some of the stitches on my new sewing machine, filled the bags with rice, stitched them closed and tossed them in the freezer.

Here's the funny and slightly weird part; I stitched these up on Tuesday and we used ALL 4 of them Thursday for all 3 of the kids. :) Isaac and Mackenzie ended up with back of the head owies and Evan Grace had a knee frape.

No, they don't' stay cold for very long but it's better than a Ziploc full of ice cubes that melts, drips and ends up heaven knows where.

I'll be making more of these as I finish up some projects over the weekend and gather more scraps. Just wanted to share.

Chocolate Triffle

I've never been the owner of a triffle bowl. I've seen them, have even enjoyed the food that was served out of them. But I've never had the experience of owning one or cooking in one or serving in one. Lucky me when my mom came across her Triffle bowl one day. I knew just what to make. I've had a Chocolate Triffle recipe for some time now and it's incredible easy.

• One box of devil's food cake (Isaac thought I shouldn't cook an evil cake)
• 1 box of chocolate instant pudding made but not set up yet.
• 2 containers of Cool Whip
• 6 Crunch bars, (you can use Heath bars or Reese cups too)
  

Bake the cake in a 9x13, allow to cool, cut into squares.
Layer cake squares with half the pudding, one container of cool whip and 3 of the crunch bars chopped up. Repeat the layer and top with remaining crunch bars. Store in the refrigerator.

Yum yum yum. This dessert didn't stay around very long at the house. I'll be making it again soon. :)

Evan Grace enjoyed the cake so much she shared it with one of her babies. Ok, ok, she force fed the baby but what baby would turn down chocolate cake if they knew what it was right?? Right??