How we do our school shopping

 My kids went back to school this week!  Sigh of relief, and a little sadness.  Summer time is crazy! My house is a complete mess for 3 months straight; and for whatever reason, any kind of structure is completely void during the summer.  Am I the only one?  But, man have we had fun!
While I am not super happy about summer coming to an end, I am however,  excited about the structure that will once again make a way into our lives. : ) These girls?  They were excited for the new school clothes!

 I have had just enough conversations and comments about how we do our school shopping that I thought I'd do a quick post about it.  You might be on the edge of your seat right now, wondering what glorious information I am about to share.  I hope you won't be too disappointed in my lack of genius, but seriously, it's kind of genius.  : )  Although it's nothing new or unheard of, still pretty genius.

We simply give each girl $50.

Anti-climatic, sure;  but just hear me out. : ) 

  They do chores every day all summer to earn their $50.  When we're ready to go, I literally give them $50 cash.  (I think it's important that they physically hold the money and see it go as they make their purchases.) They have to account for sales tax and everything.  I mentioned this is not a new concept by any means, but I can't tell you enough how well this has worked for us.  

Let's point out the benefits: 

They learn how money really works. 

They learn what we mean when we say something is too expensive because they've seen a pair of pants for $27 and realize that's more than half of their entire budget;  so they'll pass. 

 It gives them a taste of spending money wisely and staying within their means.  

They choose carefully and appreciate what they come home with.  

They feel so proud when they see how well they did with their allotted funds. 

  It takes loads of stress off my shoulders on shopping day because it's in their hands, and I know I will not over spend.  

Let's not forget the math practice they get while adding up their clothes.  

We realize $50 is not much, and we'll need to figure a way in our budget to increase that amount in the very near future, but it works for now.  I do believe any amount would have the same benefits. 

They each came away with 2-3 pants and 4-5 shirts to take them back to school in style!

First day for the older two.  Little Lila will start Kindergarten next week.

How do you do back to school shopping?  

It's always fun to hear what works for others.

Summer Fun Wrap up

We are spending our last weekend of summer in beautiful Bear Lake!  What a way to go out!  It has been yet another busy week: school shopping, some church craft night planning, packing, swimming and one visit to the doctor for some stitches.  Little Lila hit her chin on the edge of the pool doing one of her crazy tricks.  As soon as I saw her gaping wound I knew we'd be getting some stitches.  We've had this exact injury on 2 other occasions, one of them was even Lila!  She got a little prize for being so brave and I think maybe I should have gotten a prize too for not passing out.  I had to sit on a chair with my head between my knees, making sure to breath  while holding her hand and trying to comfort her.  I can't even get a flu shot without getting queasy.  Lila was very brave though!  

She held "Lucy" the whole time.  Lila and I designed and made Lucy a couple years ago.  (We've got more on that to come!)

Since this is our last week of summer it's time for the last Summer Fun Friday post!  What a fun series it's been!  Let's just wrap it up with a re-cap of all the best posts:

Starting with the 2 most popular Summer Fun ideas:

Giant Bubbles

DIY Water Balloon Pump

Magic Art

Rock Art

Jolly Rancher Lollipops

Have a fabulous weekend!

Ombre glitter monogram

Monograms are such a fun way to personalize home decor.  You can find them in metal, mache, fabric (see our burlap monogram here), and of course wood;  like this one.  I had it for a few weeks but wasn't sure how I wanted to finish it.  Then, I spotted this glitter in 3 shades of pink,  and knew exactly what I wanted to do!

                     

This is as easy as crafting gets here!  Grab some paint, a brush, and glitter.

Paint the letter.

While the paint is still wet sprinkle on the glitter, blending just a bit as the glitter gets darker.

Spray with a varnish to seal the glitter.

Look at that sparkle!  So fun!  And look at that green grass - ah summer!  I hope you're loving it as much as we are : )  

Bad idea and some good ideas!

It's Summer Fun Friday!

This has been a crazy week!  I'll just say, we've got a lot of awesome, creative party ideas and decorations to share over the next couple weeks!  So stay tuned : )

Okay, let's chat about the title of this post.  

My girls and I tried a little recipe called Cloud Dough. 

Which brings us to the bad idea.  You know how some things are really messy, but still worth the clean up?  

This is not one of them.  

The girls thought it was fun, naturally; messy things are fun!

 I however, did not think this was fun.

The recipe is flour and baby oil.  Yeah....so messy!  It was seriously such a pain to clean up.  I would have much rather saved my 7 cups of flour for cookies.   Do NOT make this!  Go for the Play-do. : )

Now for some good ideas I've come across:

Check out this Outdoor Twister game by Sassy Style Redesign.

Garden Rock Caterpillar by Nellie Bellie

(See our Rock Art post here.)

And do check out funclapping.com for lots of hand clapping games!

For more good ideas, be sure to check out some of our past Summer Fun Friday's:

Magic art for kids

DIY Water balloon pump

Jolly Rancher Lollipops

Giant Bubbles

Have a great weekend!

Magic Art for kids

Hey everyone!  It's another Summer Fun Friday! 

My girls absolutely loved doing this craft!  It's great for a rainy day, or those times when none of the neighbor kids can play : )

 First, color a piece of white card stock so that the whole sheet is colored.

                   

Next, paint over the entire sheet with black paint. (Just good old acrylic.)

Once the paint is dry (it dries fast) use popsicle sticks or keys to draw a picture.  The paint scratches away revealing the colors underneath.

Ta-Da!

They turned out so cute!  We had a lot of fun with this craft, I'm sure we'll be doing it again. : )  Give it a try the next time you need a filler activity!

*UPDATE* Click here to see this project featured on KUTV's Fresh Living.

Have a super weekend!