In our family, we love road trips. My in-laws recently moved close to Cleveland and that opened up a new world of travel opportunity for us. The weekend before the fourth they treated us to a few days in Washington D.C. During that weekend, we managed to travel through six different states, as well as our nation's capital.

When we returned home, I thought about how cool it would be for Luke to see the progress on what states he's visited. My first thought was to get a smallish map and just mark it with star stickers. But that's not fun. Then I thought I could mount the smallish map on a bulletin board and pin the states. But that would double the project cost, which I didn't want to do. So I got creative.

This was my final project.

16x20 presentation board

An overhead projector

An outline of the map

A transparency

Sharpie

Paints/brushes

Staple gun

Pins

What to do:

1. Measure & cut your cork board to 16x20.

2. Mount it on the presentation board.

3. Copy your map outline on a transparency. Place your mounted cork board on a wall securely and use the overhead projector & transparency to enlarge the map to the size you want it. (My board wasn't so secure and moved several times.)

4. Trace the map onto the cork board with a Sharpie. (Watch out for those New England states... they're tricky ones!)

5. Let dry for 15-20 minutes to avoid running.

6. Paint the states whatever colors you'd like. (I used the transparency to "map out" my colors so I didn't have any of the same colors next to each other.)

7. Once dry, put it in your frame. Use a staple gun (or nails would work, too) to secure the cork board in place.

8. Use pins to mark the states you or your family has visited. I found these cute stars (along with flowers, hearts, moons, & butterflies) at our local Meijer store.

I also found some clearance frames at Target for $1.32 each and clearance county maps at Borders for $.50 each and framed our city & surrounding cities to place around his room.

I'd say for a seven-year-old, he's travelled to quite a few states already!

And as an added bonus, here are some other ways to use a cork board map:

*Mark places you've been as a family- mom & dad in one color, each kid in another color.

*Mark the states as you "travel" to each one as a social studies unit throughout the school year.

*Mark where relatives live across the United States.

*Keep track of current events you hear about or study.

*As you study U.S. history, add a tag to each pin and mark where key events have happened.

I'd love to hear how else this board could be used! Leave a comment and share your ideas!

Yesterday I posted about our Summer Bucket List.

On it it says, "Saturdays from a Jar."

I will explain.

Have you ever had one of those Saturdays? Where each one of you is itching to do something, but you're not sure what?

We do. A lot.

This is my solution to life's most perplexing question... "What do you want to do today?"

Saturdays in a Jar should actually be called Saturdays in 3 Jars.

One is labeled with a $. A second is labeled with $$ and the last, pretty obviously, labeled with $$$.

This is, of course, is so we can have something do to any Saturday, no matter our fundage situation. Surprisingly enough, I have a lot of $ activities and it was really hard for me to figure out the $$ and $$$ activities.

Let's fast forward to Saturday. This {very possible} scenario takes place...

"What do you want to do today?"

"I don't know what do you want to do?"

"I don't know, but I don't want to sit around all day."

"Luke, any ideas?"

"Buy Legos and have a Lego-putting-together-party?"

"Um, no."

{Cue the bright lights & angelic music}

So we pull from one of the jars- most likely the $ jar. And we may pull out "Create a sidewalk chalk city." or "Go to the splash pad." or "Wash the cars (and the bikes!)"

If we pulled from the $$ jar, we'd get to have friends over for an ice cream sundae party or go to the beach.

And, on the Saturdays when we saved up our cash during the week (ha ha ha ha ha ha! Oh my. Sorry, fit of laughter there), we could pull from the $$$ jar and go to the drive-in theater or go to a Silverhawks game!

The fun thing is, if we think of other ideas that aren't in the jars already, we can always add them!

If you did Saturdays in a Jar, what activities would you add?

Summer has arrived!!

And I've already heard, "I'm bored." several times from Little Mister's mouth.

So we created a list.

A list of all of the things we want to do this summer.

Of course we're not limited to this... I've already decided I want to go strawberry picking.

Maybe even tomorrow.

We're going to get this printed and put it in a pretty frame.

As we tackle each activity, we'll use a dry erase marker to cross it off our list.

What's on your summer to-do list?

Another fun thing we did on our snow day yesterday was making snow ice cream.

It was super easy & fun to make!

It was tasty, too. Although Luke disagreed. His first thought was that there was bird poop in it. When I finally convinced him there was no bird poop in it, he decided it tasted like coconut. I think he's the coconut.

Today we actually had a snow day! I think that's the first one in two years.


We're pretty diehard here in our town, but apparently a Blizzard Warning is cause enough to cancel.


We got a decent amount of snow, probably about 15 inches in the not drifted parts... and it was HEAVY to shovel!


Well, we made the most of our snow day. We bundled up- well, Luke did. I left all of my snow gear at school by accident. And I sent Luke outside to paint the snow!


What you need:
*water
*food coloring
*empty spray or squirt bottles
*snow


Unfortunately for me, Luke was much more interested in building a snow castle with a moat than painting the snow. But I had a little fun with it!

We had Luke's 7th birthday celebration with his friends yesterday. There are only so many places we can have a fun birthday party in the middle of winter. So, we splurged and took him and ten of his friends to an indoor water park. They had a blast!

Last week, when we were talking about birthday cakes, he said he wanted rainbow cupcakes. I can do that! When I mentioned that I was going to make them, I had a lot of people asking how. So, without further ado, here's how.

You need: a white cake mix (or make your own if you're adventurous), any type of frosting (Luke chose white with funfetti sprinkles), food coloring, one bowl for each color you're going to make. Or course, you'll need a mixing bowl, several spoons, a cupcake tin, cupcake liners, and whatever else you need to make any kind of cupcake, too.

First, mix the cake as directed on the box. I like to use a whisk to mix because it breaks up all of the clumpies easier. (Side note: I use a whisk to mix everything... cake mixes, sauces, and even to mix my flour, salt, & baking powder for not-boxed things. Love my whisks!)

Next, divide up the cake batter into as many bowls as colors you want in your cake. I used six colors- red, orange, yellow, green, blue & purple. If I had thought about it before separating, I would have added turquoise to the mix, since it's Luke's favorite color.

Mix in the food coloring to desired brightness. (The yellow was NOT my desired brightness... however, that's how it turned out. So be it. It was a nasty, nasty yellow, though. Think Spongebob.)

Take a spoon and spoon one color at a time into a lined cupcake tin. The amount of each spoonful is dependent on how many colors you have. You will still want to have your liner about 2/3 of the way full when it's all said and done.

Once each cupcake tin is filled, I "stomp" it on the counter a bit to get out all of the air bubbles. I don't know if it's necessary, but it's kind of fun.

Bake according to the directions on the box.

Let cool completely before frosting.

Decorate to your liking. As noted above, we opted for white frosting & funfetti sprinkles. I think it was a nice touch. Good choice, Luke!

I've been busy this week! I think I've finally found my mojo... she was absent for the better part of June. Here's what I kept myself busy with this week... enjoy!

Credits: Papers- Krafty Damasky Papers by Christy Lyle, You Captured by Traci Reed & Melissa Bennett, A Lot Like Love by Traci Reed, A Little Something by Zoe Pearn, Backyard BBQ by Penny Springmann

Alpha- A Beautiful Glow by Lauren Grier

Elements- Where the Heart Is by Zoe Pearn, Pieces of Me by Traci Reed, I Carry Your Heart by Traci Reed, You Captured by Traci Reed & Melissa Bennett, Platinum Dreams by Krystal Hartley

all found at Sweet Shoppe Designs

Have a happy week!