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Car Bingo

Mindy Zeigler 0 Comments

car bingo

We just got back from our family vacation.  We had a six hour car drive each way and I knew the kids would spend most of that time watching dvd’s.  I decided to make car bingo for them to play just in case they got board with the movies.

I was pleasantly surprised that the kids loved playing it.  I played with my seven year old daughter while my 4 year old son helped us look for the items.  It was fun and got them looking out the window at the scenery.  I was so glad they got to see some of our drive instead of staring at the tv screen the whole time.

I laminated the cards and we used dry erase markers to mark the squares as we saw the items.

Here are the cards we used.  There is a pdf version of the cards as well as an excel file in case you want to edit them.

Car Bingo

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Cowboy

Mindy Zeigler 0 Comments

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Brennen found these cowboy boots about a month ago.  They were from a Halloween costume.  He immediately put them and has rarely taken them off since.  He wears them outside to play, to church, out to eat, to bed, to the swimming pool, to the store, to the kid’s tennis practice, on vacation, etc…

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Read the Directions

Mindy Zeigler 0 Comments

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This is Ella’s last week of school.  She sat down to do her homework tonight and then I checked it over.  At first glance the worksheet looked like every worksheet she has done all year.  After closer examination I noticed the directions were different.  I asked Ella if she had read them.  Of course she hadn’t because it was the same worksheet she has done all year.  So she passed over the directions and finished the worksheet.  I told her that we can relate this to our own lives.  Each day may look the same to us-get up, go to school, learn, lunch, play, bedtime etc.  Just because things appear to be the same, we may miss something really important if we fail to pray and ask for directions for that day.

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What a Beautiful World

Mindy Zeigler 0 Comments

20100601-img15-E7y3mP4y8mB2y2m-outside As the boys were outside playing today, I laid on a blanket and enjoyed our beautiful backyard.  When the boys came over to join me, we talked about the beautiful world Heavenly Father and Jesus have given us.  We went for a walk to find other beautiful things in every color.  Preston found these white flowers.  I enjoyed his brown dirty hand even more!  We also enjoyed the blue sky, green grass, and purple flowers.

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Play Mats

Mindy Zeigler 0 Comments

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I found these cute little ocean and space figurines at the craft store Michaels.  They had many different themes such as birds and horses, but I thought my boys would like these the best.  I made the play mat they are on by searching for themed wallpaper on the internet and then printing them off.  I found a scene for each side, put them back to back to make them two sided, and laminated them.  My boys got them for Easter and loved them.  They are nice because they don’t take up a lot of space and you can take them with you when you go out to eat etc.  I’ve seen a lot of cute figurines like packs of plastic bugs and green army guys at the dollar store that would be fun too.  They make fun and inexpensive gifts for children.

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Multi Purpose Bags

Mindy Zeigler 0 Comments

multi purpose bag

I bought several of these reusable grocery bags at ALDI last year.  I have used them for just about everything!  They are great because they are much larger than the bags from other stores, they are super durable, they can hold a ton of items, they can hold a lot of weight, and they cost less than $2!

In the photo above you can see we used them for beach bags on our vacation last summer.  They worked great because they held everything and it didn’t matter if they got yucky in the sand because they were so inexpensive.  We actually used them to pack for vacation.  I know it looked like hillbilly luggage but it was so convenient.  We had one bag for beach stuff, one for food, one for each person, etc.  It kept everything nice and organized.

I also use them when I am cleaning my house. I will carry one into different rooms to put all the kids toys in that I find throughout the house.  Then I can take the bag downstairs to their toy area and put them all away at once.

We celebrate Christmas with three sets of parents in their homes.  I keep a bag for each home we are going to.  After wrapping a gift, I will place it in the bag whose home it goes to.  Then, when it’s time to leave on Christmas Eve or Day, I can grab the correct bag and everything is there and easy to carry.  They also work great to put the gifts you received in to bring them home.

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My Handyman

Mindy Zeigler 0 Comments

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If you know Phil, you know he’s no handyman!  He avoids fixing things at all costs.  He doesn’t enjoy it and it causes him stress!  But, when the cabin filter on my van needed to be changed and Phil found out the cost to have it done, he put his fears aside and changed it himself.  At the same time, the bulb on our TV went out too.  Again, to save a few hundred dollars, he figured it out himself.  I am very proud of him.

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Preston the Builder

Mindy Zeigler 0 Comments

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Preston wants to be a builder when he grows up (no, he did not get this from his dad).  He talks about it all the time.  One day, we had a huge discussion about how he could be a builder and an astronaut (another of his dreams).  He was afraid he couldn’t be both.  I assured him that he could in fact do both if he really wanted to.  Once that was figured out he worried the rest of the day what he would do with his million tools that he is going to have when he grows up.  He knew he wouldn’t be able to get a toolbox big enough to carry them all and yet he would need them all to fix things.  I told him he could have a huge garage to keep them in and carry a toolbox with just the tools he would need to build his projects.  That satisfied him so he went to his Grandpa Jeff and got his own toolbox and tools to get him started.

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