Olympic Theme Weeks

Here are a few highlights of our past two Theme Weeks for any parents visiting this blog.

Throughout the celebration, we had a bulletin board decorated to show Canada's accomplishments and to highlight some of the events of the day. There was one teacher (W.W.) who faithfully changed it and found new information to add each day. Way to go! We appreciated all that work!

We started our two week long Theme Week Celebration of the Olympics with an Opening Ceremony Chapel. The kids were invited to wear their patriotic colours and Olympic gear. Everyone was pretty excited!

We had a special guest come in, Mrs. Friessen, to talk to us about her experience running with the torch.

She brought her torch and came dressed in her gear. It was great to see and hear about it all! The Opening Ceremony ended with her leading us in an all-school run with the torch. She let each student touch/carry it to see how heavy it was--and to share in the experience!

Each classroom "studied" an event during the two weeks. Each classroom had to decorate their classroom door to represent the sport they studied. Here is mine. . . (our bulletin board beside has all our curling art projects. See last post for some of it.)

In our Closing Ceremony celebration, we all shared "cheers" that we made about the sport we studied. We had classes come to the podium to receive Gold, Silver or Bronze Medals for the reading hours they had done, too. We ended the time with a "tour of the doors."

Our afternoon was a mini-Olympics for the entire school. We were in multi-grade level teams and visited five Olympic events (based on the ideas given from the "Paint the Town Red" website). It was a high-energy afternoon!

So. . .that is it! Theme Week in a nutshell.

Curling Stones Art

We are just near the end of our school's Theme Weeks--Olympics! (What else?)
As part of our Theme Weeks, each class had to pick an Olympic event to follow over the past two weeks. My class of little ones learned about Curling.

Here is an art project we did: decorating curling stones or curling rocks.
I found two different clip arts from Microsoft and put them onto 9x12 paper for the students to choose. They cut two out--so we could stuff them with newspaper and make them look more real (by making them a little 3D!) Before we stuffed them, we talked about incorporating a theme into our artwork. Some kids really got it, others just liked decorating their stones!

Here are a few close up (ones that are a single theme):

This one is "A Garden."

This one is also "Gardens."

This one is "Dots and Stripes."

This one is "Patterns."

Of course, other themes included hockey, motorcycles, dots, Scooby-doo. . .you name it! Overall, it turned out to be a pretty fun project for them!

1 Corinthians 13 for Moms

I know, I know. . .I've been a little absent lately in the blogging world. And it shows because we have no menu plan this week, no school news lately, no projects. . .nothing. And the title of this post is somewhat dated as Valentine's day was a week and a half ago.




But I did want to share this with you:


Here is a link you should check out. I stumbled upon it as I was doing an activity with my students in school before Valentine's day. We had decorated hearts with strips of material and buttons to make it look a little "quilt-ish" (and to fulfil an art descriptor about the use of layering techniques). We glued these hearts to a card. Then I had students write a Valentine's Day card to God because He is the one we should love the most. In previous years when I have done an activity about writing love letters to God, I've read 1 Corinthians 13 from the Bible, but also had a copy of 1 Corinthians 13 for children. I have no idea where I originally got it from--I think a Children's Study Bible, you know, one of those shiny, thicker pages in the middle by the pictures and all? Well, that is what I have used in past years. This year of course, this wasn't handy and I didn't have the time to go searching through binders or files or boxes for it, so I turned to the Internet.


I never found what I was looking for (but the activity went fine anyway--my kiddos came up with some beautiful letters to God!), but I did stumble upon this blog and was impressed with this particular post. Maybe because I am stuck in a week of too much to do (or the past two weeks of too much to do!), or maybe just because I am a mom. . . I thought it might be something worth sharing with you. Hopefully you will be encouraged by this little version of 1 Corinthians 13 as I was.





And here is the regular 1 Corinthians 13. . .just because.

The New Addition

Need I say more?

I gave up ownership rights to this baby of mine. . .




for this new baby . . .

. . .just so we could fit all my babies inside.

Yep, I just reached soccer mom status.

I've been resisting it for so long. . .

but the day has arrived!

Menu Plan Monday

Well, here is my plan. . .early!

First, I have to tell you about last week. . .DON'T try the cheeseburger buns from my last MP post! I do not recommend them! The convenience of the crock pot was the only good thing about them! The "filling" tasted like no-name Hamburger Helper minus any spices the no-name version may have and minus the pasta. It was blah. The kids ate it just fine, but ketchup was still a staple addition (my hubby even added salsa after to change it to more or a taco meat-type deal).
I am trying a *new* CP recipe this week. . .and it is all ready to go as I type. The sauce tastes better right now, and the reviews are decent, so, I'm feeling better about it already. Hopefully I'll have good things to report on it this week!

This week:
Monday-Bacon & Cheese Chicken (CP), potatoes, salad or in wraps
Tuesday-Beef Skewers, noodles, mixed veggies
Wednesday- Vegetable Soup (a CP recipe) and/or Grilled Cheese
Thursday- I'm not around. . .Student-led Conferences will take up my evening. So it is left-overs or Mac 'n Cheese.
Friday(OAMC)- Chicken Enchilada Casserole (in freezer already)
Saturday's Snack- Cheese-Sausage Bites (see below)
Sunday-pancakes and ham or omelets

Here are my pancakes for the kiddos from today. . .Happy Valentine's Day! (They were kinda disappointed when my creativity ran out and it was back to plain ole circles. Oh well!)

Saturday's Snack. . .These "Appies" or snacks are ones my mom makes--usually at our Christmas, or anytime she is hosting a get-together or snackies. The recipe comes originally from North York General Hospital of Willowdale, ON. It's easy to make and pretty yummy!

3 c. biscuit mix
1 lb. sausage meat (ie: pork sausage or you can use Italian, that is pretty good, too. Squeeze it out of its sleeves--the "ew" part of it all!)
1 lb shredded cheese (sharp is recommended, but medium is fine--about 1-2 c. depending on your preference)

*Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Combine with hands. Roll into bite sized balls. Place on cookie sheet. Bake in 400F oven for about 12 minutes or until done. Makes about 6 dozen. Cheese-Sausage Bites freeze well and just need to be reheated in order to eat.

*My kids dip it in ketchup (surprise, surprise!) but they taste good with sweet and sour or plum dipping sauces.

Olympics Theme Weeks

At school we are starting our "theme weeks" --the Olympics! We have a few things planned including an opening ceremony, closing ceremony, Olympics sports afternoon, and each classroom is choosing one sport/event to research and follow during the duration of the 2010 Olympics.

We have a entry-way display case at school full of "inukshuks" created by one of the grade levels. The PAC of our school also came in and created this wonderful bulletin board and display in the entry of our school. I thought it was very creative, so I took some pictures to share with you all! (Some of the photos and ideas came from the VANOC and "Paint the Town Red" websites.)

A big thank you to the PAC members who put this all together! It looks amazing!

The Olympic Torch

Last weekend we went to see the Olympic Torch come through our "town." We didn't really know how big of a deal this would be because our kids are pretty young. But here we are getting ready for it all. . .

And then the torch came! We were a little late in seeing it the first time (we missed some of the "pre-parade" stuff), so we drove around town and found a spot later in the route, to make sure we would see it all.

(We were kinda early for it then, so we had to pass our time eating snacks and taking geeky family pictures!)

So, here is round two of the torch! In the end it was better that we did see it twice so that the kids kinda knew what to expect the second time around! Our kids were pretty excited to see all the RCMP and police and the "dancing truck" (the Coke truck).

Scrumptious Cookies

Mmmmm. . .
That is the only thing going through my head right now.

Mmmmm. . .

Because I made Toasted Coconut and Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies.

They are posted as my "Saturday's Snack" on my MPM for this week. I found the recipe via a colleague's beautiful blog (Bluebird Notes) at the Ungourmet. And they are heavenly.

You should really check out the photos at these two blogs! They will make you want to stir up a batch of your own! Even my hubby, who was apprehensive about the recipe LOVED them! He wasn't too impressed with the bag of cookies to give away!

So I tried a few photos of my own:

Don't you want to try some too?

Project

We've been thinking about what to do with E's room for the last little bit (since he moved down to the guest room). Here is his "before" picture. . .
These are the "after" ones. After consulting a few friends on paint colours, we settled on "Stone Fence" (Behr 720F)-a grey tone that was still kind of blue. I find that I am always choosing a blue that turns out to be too bright on the wall. This was almost a denim/grey colour, and I was actually happy about it. We already had the comforter, so I sewed some new curtains for his room to match. I still need to do some tie-back loops because I made the curtains using some heavier materials and with casing enclosures at the top. That will be done in the next week.

We even went out and got some new knobs and hooks for him to match the rest of the ones on the furniture (ie: the toybox had similar ones) and to get rid of those old 70-ish ones that were in his room.

We still need to find some cork boards for his walls (or something like that) since his walls are pretty bare right now. I was thinking about getting the cork board tiles (that will match the oak wood dresser and toybox, etc in his room) that Walmart sells and making a group of four on one of his walls, but they have been sold out the last few times I've been there. Maybe I'll have to check out Michael's or so. There are still a few "decorating-type" things to do and a few toys to return to his shelves, but the big job of painting is done and he is sleeping in his room again!

Here is the happy E in his "new" room. :)

Menu Plan Monday

Monday. . .supper is done, and now it is blogging time. Here is my plan for the week:

Monday-Hawaiian Pizza
Tuesday- Tuscan Chicken Sandwiches (CP), buns, salad
Wednesday- Ham in a Maple Glaze, Mashed Potatoes, and carrots and/or peas
Thursday (CP)- Cheeseburger buns (this one is a new one to try this week. It just looked pretty good, so we will see if it actually is good!) and a salad
Friday (OAMC)- Left-overs or Noodles and Sausage (still haven't gotten around to making this!), corn
Saturday's Snack-Toasted Coconut and Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Sunday (BFS)-Pancakes and bacon (want to use the rest of the bacon next week). . .I might even make them into heart shapes! (See this link for a special Valentine's pancake treat!)

*For Saturday's Snack. . .haven't tried them yet, but if you go over to the link, they look so-o-o good!!! I'm a fan of coconut and chocolate chips, but the rest of the family isn't so much. So, there could just be more for me! :) Here is another link with a beautiful batch of these cookies! (Beautiful work, Koralee!) Happy Valentine's Day as you peer on over there!

*And I thought I would post about the hubby's b-day dinner. Shall, I admit to you that it was birthday meal #4 for him? What a spoiled guy!
We made the ribs from this post. Here is a lovely photo of them right off the grill:
And here is a lovely photo of the rest of the dinner. I also made Creamy Mashed Potatoes (I add about 1/2 t. of mustard and some salt to the recipe), Committee Salad, and garlic bread.

For more menu plans, visit http://www.orgjunkie.com/! Have a great week!

An "OOPS!"

Just thought I would post about a funny oops that turned out okay. . .

I was out, and my hubby was going to try to give the baby room a fresh coat of paint. We decided, just stick with the same colour as the room, and then it would be less work--only one coat needed to fix the scratches and blemishes, right? The room used to be E's room (hence the blue stuff still in it).

The hubby went looking for the matching paint. He found one that said "E's room" and started painting, without regards to what colour it was.

When I came back with the kids, he wanted to show me something. This was it:

Yep, it was the colour of E's room, but back when his room was what is currently A's room. So. . .

now the hubby had repainted 2 wonderful coats of this darker brownish colour rather than sticking with the lighter one. :) Good thing (for all of us!) I'm not too picky about the hue of this future baby's room!

Next painting project is E's new room. . . we will see what happens with that!

Menu Plan Monday

Welcome to February! (And happy Groundhog's Day tomorrow!)


Here is the MP for this week:

Monday-Waikiki Meatballs, rice, salad
Tuesday-Fajitas (Chicken) Slow-Cooker recipe--not sure if I'll use it, though. I like the veggies grilled-crisp better)
Wednesday (Soup and Sandwich)- Potato Soup, garlic bread
Thursday (CP)-Zesty BBQ Chicken, buns, salad
Friday (OAMC)-Noodle & Sausage Casserole, carrots. . .or left-overs.
Saturday's Snack-not sure yet
Sunday (BFS)- French Toast, Ham


So, not quite so much for links this time around. A few reasons for it. . . I've posted most of them in the past (If not this past week-like the Potato Soup again! (We had gross Pea Soup from a can--never doing that again. The hubby can eat that on his own!)-- then more in the deeper past I am sure). . .and I haven't found a good Noodle and Sausage kind of recipe yet. So if you have any recommendations, I am willing to give it a try! I keep posting that in hopes of finding something that will tempt me to make it, but instead we have left-overs on those days. :)

As well, no motivation for a snack or goodies this week. . .hmmm. . .we'll have to see if I get around to updating that. For now I am dilemma-ing over if I like M&M's better or Cadbury Mini Eggs. So, while testing those two out frequently, I'm not sure if I really need any other snacks!

But now to report on a good meal. . .I made the Salmon that I though I might try in my last MP post this past weekend and it was simply amazing! I know, fish or salmon isn't always a bit hit--and I can't say I LOVE it either. That is why I need to find a really good recipe! This one was!!!

I picked it out simply for the mix of flavours, then checked with my hubby to see what he thought. He agreed that we could try it. So, we did. (We even invited some long lost friends over to give it a try with us--that is how confident I was that it would taste good! Lucky for me it DID! Otherwise I might just have to report some lost friendships!)

Here is a marinating photo along with the rub you put on it. The recipe asks for you to marinate it first, which we did, but then I figured, why not keep marinating it longer? That is what we did.
Here is a sideways (sorry! forgot to fix that first!) picture of it right off the grill. Yep, we had company and I still took a quick picture before it was devoured this time! How geeky am I! But do you see that "eagerly-anticipating" look of two hands on a plate ready to be served in the background? A true action shot!

But in all honestly, I do recommend trying it out. We served it with Harvest Potatoes, rolls and a mexi-mix-type of corn. (Topped off with the best chocolate cake ever for dessert!)

Anyway. . .happy eating this week! Check out more MPM at www.orgjunkie.com!