Glitter Jars

My mother in law and I have been hearing tons about these glitter jars lately.  We decided to make some of our own with the kiddos.  I just love the idea of them as a parenting tool, and even to calm my own nerves from time to time lol.  When you or your little ones are feeling out of sorts or need a minute to calm and process information, just shake the jar and watch the glitter go around and start to settle.  Once the glitter is all settled, you should feel better and more calm to address the issue at hand.

      There are a bunch of tutorials online about glitter jars (time out jars, mind jars, meditation jars and galaxy in a jar)).  We read through a few, then just kind of came up with our own way to make them.  They turned out very pretty :)

First we gathered supplies:

Empty Jars

Glitter Glue

Loose Glitter, different sizes

Glow in the Dark Stars

Charms

Food Coloring

Hot Water

Step 1 - Fill your empty jar one third of the way with hot water.

Step 2 - Add a couple tablespoons of glitter glue, or clear glue with out glitter and stir thoroughly.  It is up to you how much to add.  The more glue you use, the longer it takes the glitter to settle in your ending product.

Step 3 - Now add anything extra, like a drop of food coloring, charms, sequence and more glitter.  This is where you can really customize your jar, and add things you think are pretty :)

Step 4 - Fill the remaining space in the jar with more water until it's an inch from the top.

Step 5 - Secure lid tightly, shake, watch and relax :

Here are a few that we made today.

The kids made some with recycled baby food jars :)

So far they have been working great :)

Here is a video to really show how they look :)

http://youtu.be/AYTDZCi5WGI

5 simple ideas to help learn Spanish

We have recently started to try and learn how to speak Spanish as a family.  Together we came up with 5 ideas to help us along in the journey.  They are all very simple, but I can already tell they are making a huge impact on this learning experience :)

1. Change you phone settings to Español.

#2 Label everything in sight!  My younger children are not old enough for the Rosetta Stone program, so I've been looking for ways to get them involved.  We labeled everything from las ventanas (the windows) to the la nevera (the refrigerator), and had a lot of fun doing so.

#3 Watch children shows on television en Español. This seems to help because they often review colors, numbers and just easier vocabulary. I have Plaza Sesamo (Sesame Street) on my DVR.

#4 Listen to music en Español. Sirius has a lot of great stations to choose from.  

#5 Search Pinterest.com! Just type in "Learn Spanish" and a ton of reference pictures come up and helpful websites.

I have screen shot many of these on my phone to keep as a handy references :)

Christmas Wreath Cake

Here is a quick cake idea for a holiday party.  The Christmas wreath adds a festive touch, and using a bundt shape makes serving slices a breeze :) 

All you need is:

-Your favorite cake mix or recipe

-Bundt pan

-Frosting (see below for recipe)

-Green food coloring

-Spinkles & Ribbon

My town has a holiday potluck every year, and so far every time I bring a veggie tray.  This year I decided to go in the other direction and bring cake! 

Here is a link for the frosting I used. It's a basic frosting recipe that I like to use for decorating cakes and cookies :)

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/9840/sugar-cookie-frosting/