k is 11!

This year our winter break started relatively late, so k actually had to attend school on her birthday.  We do friend birthday parties every other year, so this year was a small family dinner celebration.  k requested Panda Express takeout, and my mom made Spam musubi and chap chae.  Unfortunately, my mom was not feeling well that day so she was not able to make it.

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n photobombing the mini cupcakes.

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Mini mango mochi with sorbet.

I am excited for k’s new adventures for 2018, including Outdoor Science Camp with her classmates, bridging with her Girl Scout Troop in San Francisco, and possibly two different week-long camps with church friends in the summer.  It is really difficult for me to believe that we will have a middle schooler this year!

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Last Visit to Legoland

Our annual pass to Legoland is coming to an end so we decided to sneak in one last visit.  I told the kids this might be the last time they go until they bring their own kids!

We arrived before it opened, or so we thought.  It seemed like they had already let people in the park.

The lines were minimal, so we rode on the dragon roller coaster two times in a row.

One ride we had not done in a while is Skipper School.  D looks a little nervous handing over the wheel to n!

It is nice to see all of the Christmas decorations.

We watched the Lego Friends Christmas show.  I was pleasantly surprised the cast actually sings (not lip sync).

The snow at the end was a nice surprise, although k does not seem too impressed.

Too bad Legoland does not have sledding anymore!

We also did a quick walk through the aquarium.

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A Perfect Gift for an 11 Year Old Girl: Kawaii Doodle Class (Review)

When I found out that I won a contest where I could pick out five books from Quarto Knows, Kawaii Doodle Class was my easiest choice because I had already put it on my daughter’s Amazon wishlist.  According to the Urban Dictionary, “kawaii” is an adjective in Japanese meaning “pretty; cute; lovely; charming; dear; darling; pet”.  This book, written by Zainab Khan, contains step-by-step directions for drawing a multitude of kawaii characters under the following categories:

  • Adorable Food & Drinks
  • Lovable Nature
  • Cheerful Doodle Monsters
  • Everyday Cute
  • Charming Holiday Decorations

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My daughter made a birthday card for her friend using the cupcake doodle instructions:

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Kawaii, right?

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She also made a Christmas card using the Christmas tree instructions:

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Love the kawaii star on top!

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Once you have mastered the simple kawaii smiley face, the possibilities are endless!

k just turned eleven years old yesterday, and it is not as easy to find presents for this “tween” age.  I would definitely recommend Kawaii Doodle Class for tweens, as well as adults who have an affinity for the kawaii aesthetic (such as myself!).

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Reviving a Lost Art: A Review of Written By Hand, by Erica Tighe

If you spend any amount of time on Instagram or Pinterest, examples of beautiful hand-lettering abound.  Erica Tighe is a talented artist/hand-letterer, and she wrote a newly released book called Written By Hand.  According to the subtitle, the book contains “Techniques & Tips to Make Your Everyday Handwriting More Beautiful”, and I found that it delivers just that.

The book starts with an interesting general overview about handwriting.  In this tech-age, handwriting needs to be practiced and appreciated more than ever!

There are several practice pages where you can write directly in the book.  The pages are nice and thick so your pen will not bleed through.

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The author goes through step-by-step in teaching each letter, both upper and lower case, as well as numerals, for three types of fonts: Sans Serif, Bold Serif, and Script.

I always thought of my handwriting as “pretty good”, but I never really learned how to do calligraphy.  This book has a chapter dedicated to faux calligraphy–no calligraphy pen necessary!  I had read before that it is all about the downstroke line, but practicing with this book made it clearer to me.

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Here is a chalkboard sign I made for my daughter’s upcoming birthday.  I still need to practice more, but I like it!

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Here is another chalkboard sign where I tried to incorporate some of the techniques in the book.

I like how the author encourages the reader to get playful and creative with your handwriting.  The point is not to attempt to exactly replicate someone else’s handwriting, but to develop your own unique style.  Written By Hand is a wonderful tool that is full of inspiring ideas as well as fundamental basics.

 

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Better For You (and Santa): Back to Nature Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I received this product for free from Moms Meet (momsmeet.com), May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer. As a Moms Meet blogger, I agree to use this product and post my honest opinion on my blog. The opinions posted are my own.

As a kid, I always got a kick out of leaving out a plate of cookies and a glass of milk out for Santa.  It is a fun tradition, and one that I am sure Santa enjoys!

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This year, we will be leaving out a plate of Back to Nature Chocolate Chunk Cookies.  The ingredient list is nice and simple: unbleached wheat flour, semisweet chocolate, cane sugar, safflower oil, brown rice syrup, baking soda and sea salt.

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Note that there are no hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup. There are also no “may contain nuts” disclaimers on the box, which this family greatly appreciates!

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These cookies have a hearty and crunchy texture.  I really like the semi-sweet chocolate chunks.  They add just the right amount of sweetness and are a step-up from regular chocolate chips.

Back to Nature Chocolate Chunk Cookies are available to purchase at
almost all major retailers, including Ralphs, Whole Foods Market, and Sprouts Farmers Market. To find a store near you visit: www.backtonaturefoods.com/where-to-buy.  They retail for $3.49-3.99 a box.

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Hopefully there will still be some cookies to leave out for Santa come Christmas Eve!

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Math Made Fun: Math Lab for Kids Book Review

For our December advent countdown, I have been trying to do different and fun activities each day with the kids.  This has not been 100% successful, as sometimes we are too busy or I just did not have enough time to plan.  Thankfully, k and n are pretty understanding.

One of the activities I did have time to plan for came from the newly published book, Math Lab for Kids, by Rebecca Rapoport and J.A. Yoder.  

I was fortunate to win five books from Quarto Knows, and this was of my choices.  The subtitle appealed to me: “Fun, Hand-On Activities For Learning With Shapes, Puzzles, and Games”.  When I showed it to my kids, they were immediately drawn to it.  k is more of my math girl and n is more of my science/engineering boy, but they both were excited to do the activities.

The book is divided into nine chapters:

  1. Geometry: Learn About Shapes
  2. Topology: Mind-Bending Shapes
  3. Color Maps Like a Mathematician
  4. Stitching Curves
  5. Fantastic Fractals
  6. Terrific Tangrams
  7. Toothpick Puzzles
  8. The Game of Nim
  9. Graph Theory

Each chapter has three to eight “labs” or activities associated with it.  For our advent activity, I chose the first chapter, which includes “Prisms and pyramids and Platonic solids, oh my!”

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The hands-on labs include easy to follow directions on how to make various geometric shapes with just toothpicks and gumdrops.  I really appreciated how easy it was for me to gather the materials.  I already had toothpicks at home, so I just had to pick up a bag of gumdrops during my holiday shopping!

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The kids were excited to get to work.

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After n made some of the shapes, he wanted to take a more creative route and created this masterpiece called “A Man Walking His Dogs”.

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This is k looking through her dodecahedron.  That night, she took the book to bed with her because she wanted to look through the rest of the chapters!

The recommended grade levels for this book are 2-5, and I would say that is about right. This book would be good for both kids who are interested in math as well as those who think math is boring, as it presents the subject in a fun way that makes it appealing to everyone.

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Stop Trying to Be the Perfect Mom: Gospel Centered Mom Book Review

Before I had kids, I had an idealistic view of the mother I wanted to be for my yet to be born children.  Fast forward almost eleven years and it seems that my shortcomings as a mom become more and more evident every day!  My patience wears thin when the kids are arguing, the house is a mess and I am not able to check everything off of my to-do list.

Reading this book, Gospel Centered Mom, by Brooke McGlothlin, was a breath of fresh air.  The author is so candid and authentic regarding her own perceived shortcomings as a mom.  Her stories about her boys are relate-able and funny (although I am sure they were not funny at the time!)

This is not a book about parenting techniques that will help you to have better behaved children.  Instead, the book explains how parenting is an opportunity for us to live out the Gospel on an everyday basis.  For example, the first chapter, entitled “Why Enough Always Feels Out of Reach”, explains that the failures of our kids and as parents show us our need to rely on God.  Another chapter, “Release the Stress of Believing Everything is Your Responsibility” spoke directly to me, as I often care more about my own image more than His plan.  I also appreciated the practicality of her list of “Daily Disciplines for the Gospel-Centered Mom”.

Gospel Centered Mom is a book full of Biblically-based truths that are helpful to store in your heart when the inevitable parenting challenges arise.  There are also discussion questions at the end of the book that would help facilitate a group discussion between moms.  I would highly recommend this book to any mom who struggles with trying to be perfect!

FTC disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

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National Geographic Kids, “Hey, Baby!” Review

I received this product for free from Moms Meet (momsmeet.com), May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer. As a Moms Meet blogger, I agree to use this product and post my honest opinion on my blog. The opinions posted are my own

Our son n really loves to learn about animals.  Wild Kratts has been his favorite show for a while now.  When we play Twenty Questions and it is his turn to come up with an answer, we do not even have to ask him whether it is an animal because it inevitably is.  Most of the time, none of us can guess his animal because it is something like the Yeti Crab!

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Hey, Baby! is a new National Geographic Kids book described as “A Collection of Pictures, Poems, and Stories From Nature’s Nursery”.  The book is organized in sections: “Mountains and Plains Babies”, “River and Rain Forest Babies”, “Jungle and Savanna Babies”, “Desert and Cost Babies,” “Forest and Stream Babies”, “Tropics and Peaks Babies”, “Ice and Snow Babies”, and “Ocean and Sea Babies”.

The photographs are high quality, just as we have come to expect from National Geographic publications.  And, what is it about baby animals that make them so adorable?  This book really showcases the magnificence of so many of the animals that populate our planet.  It would be a wonderful resource for any animal lover in your life, child or adult!

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A Perfectly Sharpened Pencil. Every Time. + Giveaway!

When you have two school-aged children at home, it seems that pencils constantly need to be sharpened.  We have tried the small hand-held sharpeners, as well as an electric sharpener, but none have worked as well as this beauty:

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After testing out this pencil sharpener for a few weeks, I can say that the pencil sharpeners from Classroom Friendly Supplies are quiet, stylish and functional.

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This pencil sharpener is easy to operate.  There is something fun and satisfying about sharpening a pencil by hand…so much so that my kids now fight over whose turn it is to sharpen the next pencil–no joke!

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Look at those points–I do not see how pencils can get any sharper!  Thank you, Classroom Friendly Supplies for supplying this pencil sharpener for review.  These pencil sharpeners would be a great Christmas present for parents, teachers and homeschoolers!

Now, you have the opportunity to win a Classroom Friendly Supplies Pencil Sharpener for yourself!  Good luck!

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Thanksgiving In Napa

I do not think that I wrote about this here before, but D’s dad passed away in July of this year.  So, this was our first year celebrating Thanksgiving without him.

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This picture from 2008 is one of my favorite Thanksgiving pictures with k and her grandpa.

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We met up in Napa with D’s mom, sister and brother and his family after our camping trip.  We visited grandpa’s site and placed flowers on it (still waiting for the headstone).

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It might seem strange to take a family picture in a cemetery.  However, it is a beautiful place, especially with the fall foliage and it seemed appropriate.

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Cousins!

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There was a beautiful sunset that night.

We ate dinner at the Marriott.

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Isn’t this a pretty fall salad?

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Mahi Mahi

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Porkchop was an A+!

The kids shared an adult salmon entree and a kids’ grilled cheese.  It might not have been traditional Thanksgiving food, but it was a nice dinner!

 

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