New Blog Design!

I am excited to show you my new blog design! I've been working on it for weeks. I will still be tweaking things here and there, but the majority of it is done. I need to thank Picnik for it's free services (I will miss them when they close), my niece Emmelia for providing a picture of her tippytoed foot, and my husband for using Photoshop to put it all together!
What do you think?
Please tell me if something isn't working or if it doesn't fit the screen or whatever. Thanks!

Lucky Treasure Hunt

We had a little leprechaun sneak into our classroom today! It was during nap time so nobody saw him. But he did leave footprints behind! He came in through the window and onto my desk.

Then he walked on the wall to our sink.

Then on the wall above our art shelf.

And finally left the room through the door. (The leprechaun probably would have walked all over our room if the children had slept longer! But he had to get in and out before anyone saw him.)

The kids were amazed to wake up and find these tiny footprints! But the leprechaun didn't just walk through. He left us a treasure. And clues to find the treasure.

The first clue was taped to my back. I have no idea how the leprechaun did that without me knowing! So there I was, looking all over for the first clue and the kids were screaming, "It's on your back!!" And I was spinning in circles trying to see what was on my back and they were all giggling. So fun! The clues were things like, "Go to the place where you put all your paperwork." Or "These toys are named after Abraham Lincoln." And the last clue, "This is where Miss Betsy keeps her scissors," led us to the treasure!

A bag o' gold, with an X to mark the spot! Ooh, I love Rolos, so I was pretty excited about this!

Leprechaun Lanterns

Today we made leprechauns! I saw this idea with a leprechaun made from a paper lantern and I thought it was so cute. So we made our own version today. I started with yellow circles for the heads, green hats with a black strip for a buckle, orange strips of paper for the beard, green strips for the arms, and small yellow circles for the hands.

The kids glued the hat to the head and used markers to make adorable faces.

Then they glued the orange strips to the bottom of the face. (I got the idea to make a beard this way from The First Grade Parade.) Some of the kids were able to curl the strips with a pencil, otherwise I did the curling for them. They also added the black strip to the hat and I used gold glitter glue to make a buckle.

Then the kids glued the small yellow circles to the ends of the green strips. Again, some of the kids could fold the strips accordion style, otherwise I did it for them.

Then I made a simple paper lantern and used a glue dot to attach the head and taped on the arms.

They really turned out cute. It was funny to see them all standing in the children's cubbies waiting to go home with them!

Pot o' Gold

I took this potted rainbow craft from Mom on Timeout and combined it with this St. Patrick's Day craft from B.Inspired, Mama! plus added my own thing to come up with today's project. It all started with a pot of gold. I drew half a pot on folded black paper so when I cut it out, it was a symmetrical pot. Then I cut out some yellow "bumps" to use as the gold and glued it to the back of the pot.

In the morning the kids came over one at a time and painted glue onto the yellow paper, then sprinkled gold glitter on top.

During art time, I put out light blue construction paper (cut in half), colored popsicle sticks, glue and cotton balls.

 The kids glued on the popsicle sticks really close together to make a rainbow.

Then they glued their pot at the bottom of the rainbow.

Finally, they added some cotton balls to the top for clouds.

I was worried that each one would look exactly the same, but they didn't. Every child made it a little bit differently.

I was thinking of asking the kids what they hope to find at the ends of their rainbows, and then writing it on their projects, but I'm not sure yet. We'll see how crazy tomorrow is!

Smiling Shamrocks

Today's project actually took two days. Yesterday the kids painted shamrocks by mixing yellow and blue paint. I traced the clovers onto white paper and put blobs of paint right in the middle.

Using a paintbrush, the kids swirled it around until it turned green and then spread it around their paper.

I loved doing it this way because then each shamrock was a slightly different color!

Today I cut them out and the kids added wiggle eyes and a red piece of yarn for the smile.

Wait, I forgot a step. First use as much glue as possible, then add the eyes and mouth!

I trimmed the pieces of yarn that were too long.

Can't help but smile when you see them, right?

Cookie Cutter Clovers

I didn't have any shamrock cookie cutters, but I did have some hearts. I saw this on Rockabye Butterfly and thought it would be a great activity for the kids. So I put 4 different sizes of heart cookie cutters in green paint.

We used light green paper and stamped 3 or 4 hearts in a clump and then added a stem with a paintbrush.

They turned out really cute!

It's definitely getting us in the mood for St. Patrick's Day!

YAH: Spring Wreath/Summer Wreath

This post has been updated with a summer version! Scroll to the bottom of this post to see it!

I know it isn't officially spring yet, but the temps sure feel like spring to me and we did "spring forward" today. Besides, I can't wait any longer to share this wreath with you. Although I do give my permission to pin anything on my blog, if you like this wreath I prefer that you pin my inspiration at P.S. Capture the Details instead. I copied Patty's almost exactly, so it only seems fair. Thank you.

I do want to tell you a little about my experience that may help you, though. If you decide to make this and you get to the store and find out how small the 8" wreath is, you may be tempted to go bigger. I was. But I'm glad I didn't because this wreath took me a full two hours to wrap!

I made three of these wreaths -- one for me, one for my mom and one for my mother-in-law. For the first one, I sat at the table to wrap it. But for the next two, I wrapped while watching a movie. It made it go a little faster. Also, I stopped wrapping every 10 wraps or so to fluff the yarn. I only fluffed the front of the wreath and I noticed a big difference because the back was all matted down and not that pretty. And another thing to make note of, my first wreath took exactly one skein of yarn, but the other two took slightly more than one skein. So I would suggest getting two skeins just to be safe. I also went with multiple colors of pins instead of all pink.

At first it was because that's all I could find. So I used several shades of pinks and purples and loved it so much that when I went back to get more and actually found a pack of only pink ones, I still decided to get the multi-pack.
I copied Patty's "bare feet welcome" sign as well, because it's so dang cute! So I made my own on my computer, printed it out and taped it to a toothpick.

I also made one with green letters and couldn't decide which I liked better. But either way, I love this wreath! It's hanging at the bottom of my steps by my front door. Every time I come down the steps, I see it and smile. Ahh, spring...

So please check out Patty's blog to find out how to make it. Her photos are beautiful!

Happy (early) Spring, everyone!
UPDATED 5/19/2013
I recently made a summer version of this wreath for my sister. I bought a strand of yellow-centered flowers and a pack of yellow and turquoise pins.

I also used yellow ribbon to hang it.

And my little sign reads, "flip flops optional."

It's just as cute, but not as Eastery, if you know what I mean.