Pinterest Project: Paint in Plastic Bag

So I've been meaning to try this ever since I saw in on Pinterest a few months ago.  I'm sure you've seen the pin.. Paint in a plastic bag taped to a piece of paper on a table. It's supposed to entertain your toddler without the added mess.  So here was our attempt:

I even put it on a coloring page so it would be more fun. (Or maybe that was my mistake?)

Well, after about 30 seconds of finding the paint in the bag fascinating. Baby L did exactly what I thought she would. She started screaming because she couldn't get the paint out! Turns out getting messy and actually finger painting is WAY more fun than playing with no mess.

My advice? - Let your kids have fun, let your kids explore and get messy because the learning experience is so much bigger than the mess they'll make!

Teacher's Gift

                                            Source: Unknown


This one of the cutest teacher gifts I've seen! I'm going to make this for the kids' teachers when we have teacher appreciation week! And here's how I"ll make it:

1. Get a tall, straight vase from the Dollar Store
2. Wrap pencils around it
3. Tie with ribbons
4. Add flowers and water!

Activity of the Day- Playdough and toothpicks

Hi everyone!

Well my camera lens is still messed up, but luckily I have another one to keep documenting my family! Yay! Today BabyL and I did the best activity! Creating sculptures with playdough and toothpicks! She absolutely loved this! And so did I because I was able to clean the kitchen without her pulling on my legs.  Of course it was also great because it helped her work on her fine motor skills in a fun, exciting way.  

I used the cheap toothpicks which are less sharp so she wouldn't hurt her fingers.  We made towers, silly faces, creatures and much more.  When my older kids come home I'm going to see what fun stuff they can come up with too! This was such a simple activity, but it really helped her practice picking small things up as well as having gentle hands. She found out that if she pushed too hard, the toothpicks would break!

What fun things with playdough do you do?

The New Look

The blog got a makeover! Yay! Now it is super cute, fun, and pretty to match the fun stuff I'll be blogging about. Hope you like it!  I'm sure I'll be changing the look with the seasons to keep you and me from getting bored.  Here's a little update with the Johnson gang.

School's been going great for the kids, but crazy for me! I still do not have my desk organized or our school dump zone put together.  I decided I wanted to paint the wall before hanging anything so now its a matter of picking out colors and finding the time to go! Somehow I always make things more difficult, but they usually turn out awesome in the end.  And to top off all the craziness, my awesome camera broke :(. So I have to get that fixed to upload any pics of the fun stuff I've been doing.  So bare with me! I'll be back to blogging soon!

Hope everyone has a great week!
Don't forget to Live 2 Love and Love 2 Live!

Money Saving Tip ~ Cut your sponges in half! Such a simple way to make your money go twice as far! And... half a sponge fits in your hand easier too!

Live 2 Love & Love 2 Live!

School Dump Zone- Before

So here's the wall we are turning into our School Dump Zone. A place for the kids to hang their bookbags, put papers needing signatures, and dump their shoes off.  I also got a dry erase calendar so they have a calendar with just their school activities and schedule.  (Our other calendar has bdays, my stuff, my husband's stuff, and much more on it).  

I'm trying to do this on a minimal budget considering we are a one income family living off love (or a teacher's salary). I found this wire organizer in one of our closets being used to store games. I decided shoe organization was a much better purpose for this and cleaned it out! To my happiness, it fit perfectly! (That space is really small and everything else I'd tried would stick out!)  I am going to paint it, however, because my 3 boys really don't like putting their shoes in a pink bin!

So, this is the start! Can't wait to show you what it ends up looking like!

Back 2 School

It's that time again! School started to today and as much as I was looking forward to it, I've realized that I'm not at all prepared for it! My "School Dump Zone" I so meticulously planned all summer still hasn't been put together, my desk is still a complete mess, and I haven't gone through the kids' clothes and eliminated all the horribly stained items yet! Needless to say, I have a LOT of work to do! Luckily I will only have 1 sweet little toddler home with me so I can get it all done.  I'll post some pics of the wall I am transforming into our school dump zone soon! Hope everyone has a wonderful start of the school year and I can't wait to share all the fun projects I'll be doing  after I get organized!

~Don't forget to Live 2 Love & Love 2 Live!