Thursday, February 18, 2010

Preschool Valentines Day Party

Because of the snow Jayden's preschool Valentines day party was postponed until Feb. 16th.  We signed up to bring the treat bags to take home, so here he is holding some of them up.
 
 The bracelets Jayden made were inside along with some valentines day candy and a baggie of cookies.  Jayden put together the bags too, he was so excited to put them together.
Below, Jayden is showing me his muscles...
  
Jayden was supposed to be the special helper the day of the original party, I didn't tell him in case it was canceled.  So I was sad for him, he loves being the special helper.  It turned out that one boy dropped out of his class because his mom got a new job and then twin girls dropped out because of personal reasons.  So one of them was supposed to be the special helper, so they let Jayden be the special helper, 2 days in a row it turned out.  I was surprised when I saw him come out and announce the kids were ready, 2 days in a row.  He was so excited and proud!  Actually, the day of the Valentines day party they came out wearing these crowns and Jayden said "the kings and queens are ready."
  
 Jayden's crown has little hearts on the back of it.
  
 He couldn't wait to get home and look at all the valentines he got.  Really he just wanted to eat the candy, he didn't want to wait for me to read each one.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

I'm Published in the March 2010 Issue of FamilyFun Magazine

Here is the link to see the page with "My Great Idea"
                                                                                                                                                           
                                      I was published!                
                                       30                                 
                     March 2010                
If the Link doesn't work for you, there is one on the side too, but I print screened it, here it is...
 

 


I wish they would have used a different picture, like one with Jayden playing the game, but whatever... it works!!!  And I should be getting $100 for it!  FYI - they also changed around what I actually said, but I knew they would, they tell you that when you submit it, and hey, I'm not a writer so that's okay!

YAY!!!  So excited!!!

What do you think?  I actually did like 20 different game pieces!!  I started making this a year ago, you can tell by the pictures of Tanner and Carolynn and I didn't finish it until right before I sent it in to Family Fun, I finished on Nov. 8, 2009.  The pieces just sat here on my desk waiting to be laminated, for a very long time!

Oh, I'll post the pictures I took to submit to Family Fun...  I only sent 4 of these, I don't remember exactly which 4, but of course I told them I had more if they wanted them and I could send them at full resolution too.
Here are the ones from November 8, 2009, the night I finished making them...
 
 This next one is the one they used...
  

  

  

  

  

  
 These next 2 pictures are from Nov. 9, 2009...  And I do know I sent these 2 pictures in to FamilyFun...
  
 Above is Carolynn, Ben and Jayden.  They enjoyed playing the game.
  
 At night we invited Pappy and Granny over to play with us and so I could get a picture to send into FamilyFun.
Yay Me!!!

More details and "how to"...

These are double sided.  To get them double sided I used a software editing program (I think you can do this on snapfish.com) to flip the image, so I had a mirrored image.  I ordered my pictures through snapfish.com.  To make sure they were small enough I created a "collage print" on their site with the image and it's mirror image, just 2 pictures in a collage at 9 cents a print.  You could just order wallets, but it's cheaper to create a collage print, and it's super easy!

If you don't let the glue dry in can squeeze out when it's going through the laminator and make a mess, it happened to me with another project.  

I used construction paper with mine, but I recommend colored card stock because it's thicker.  I have to put a piece of clear tape on the bottom of mine so they stay in the stand better.

The plastic stands are the ones that came with the game.

I didn't submit these pictures, but here you can see most of the games pieces I made...
  

  

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Bracelets and Keychains

Jayden was supposed to have his Valentine's day party at preschool on Thursday, but school was canceled because of the snow.  So it will be post-poned until Tuesday.  Jayden (me really) signed up to bring the take home treat for the party.  We put together little goodie bags and in them we included bracelets for the girls and key chains (to put on the zipper of their back packs) for the boys.  We put everyone's name on them.  Jayden did an amazing job!
 

  
 Ta-Da!  There are 10 girls and only 5 boys in his class.
  
I had bought 2 bags of letters so we'd have enough.  It turns out there were not enough "N's" but plenty of the other letters.  So Dave drilled holes in the "Z's" so we could turn them into an "N."  We were going to make ones for Carolynn, Damean, Finn and Tanner, but... ummm... not enough "N's!"  I wasn't going to buy another pack just for one letter.  I wonder if at Michaels or AC Moore if I can just buy one letter.  Does anyone know?