11th Anniversary Age of Adaline Date September 30, 2015

In this post: All the details on our Age of Adaline date plus anniversary pictures, and chalkboard door art.

Hello dear ones! I know it’s been a good while since my last post. I promise I haven’t forgotten you. I have so much to share with you and a lot of catching up to do. I wanted to skip ahead and share this extra special date. I hope it inspires you. Here’s how we celebrated our 11th anniversary, our Age of Adaline date (based on the movie).

Lover’s silhouette chalkboard art~ I used the silhouette from a picture of Chris and I. You’ll see the picture on the collage poster board I made. It’s in the middle

Anniversary Collage Poster Board~ I printed out black and white pictures of us throughout the years. I glued pieces of old wall paper I found at Goodwill, onto poster board from The Dollar Tree. I put a poem I had written in the middle.

Here is the poem. You may link to this post, but don’t copy it. Thanks!

The Story of Us” by Amber Dover

“Let everyone see, the rhythm and rhyme of you and me. As we grow old, every storm we can weather. Let us never go cold, because we’re better together. Every kiss is a song, of the sweetest pain. The roses and the thorns; we two remain. I love you.”

My first set for our date.

The set after we went antique shopping.

My Vintage Look

I did as many finger curls on my head as I could. I used a peach lipstick. I added a peach belt to a dress I had to give me that 1940’s style. The big necklace Chris bought me the night before from a street vendor, a lady handmade it.

The Agenda

The night before our Adaline date we got in the vintage mood by listening to jazz live at The Loft in down town. I attempted to put victory curls in my hair but it didn’t turn out quite right.

Me reading to the kids when we got back.

Age of Adaline Date (what I got pictures of)

• Antique shopping

The guys and I went antique “window” shopping (meaning we didn’t buy anything at this place).

Messing around…

We did pay to check out the lunchbox museum.

We finished with lunch at Steak n Shake because it always has a vintage feel. Then my parents got Michael so Chris and I could have some romance.

Here’s my anniversary present: a vintage type writer from either the 1930’s or 1940’s. It works too. We got it at a thrift store.

• Read Braille

• Gigi’s cupcakes~ Wedding Cake is an amazing flavor!

• chili dogs and cream soda

• Romantic photos

• Star gazing

We used the star app on my tablet.

• Speak Portuguese ~We looked up “I love you” and I wrote it on the type writer

• Poetry and slow dancing I didn’t get pictures of

Random funny pic of Leeland partying with us.

God bless and remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Age of Adaline on Pinterest:

More of our Date Nights:

Date ideas on Pinterest:

 

Summer Crafts 2015 Part 2 August 19, 2015

In this post: Ocean crafts and study. Plus a shell study.

Hello dear ones, this Summer we used our crafts to decorate the homeschool room for the beginning of the year. We have a sea theme. So we got a head start. Here are pictures and you can find the links on my Pinterest at the end.

Michael was given two big boxes of shells from my grandma and grandpa. He used them to decorate our homeschool room.

He also made a shell notebook.

He made necklaces as well and gave them to his buddies. Then Michael did a shell lapbook.

Michael did an ocean animal lapbook. He checked out books on ocean animals from the library.

I bought ocean paper and covered our school door and the area near the reading pool. I got the ocean creature cut outs from the Dollar Tree awhile back. I used bubble wrap to make the bubbles, and crepe paper for the seaweed.

I stapled ribbon to shower caps to make the jelly fish. I hung blue and green crepe paper to make the room feel like it was under the sea.

Michael made these origami boats.

Leeland and I made this starfish with his feet.

The jelly fish are from Michael and Leeland’s hands.

Michael made a crab, an oyster, and coral from egg cartons. I made coral from split pool noodles.

I drew the octopus and Michael splattered it with paint.

Michael made a puffer fish using a fork (not pictured).

We made socktopuses from socks.

Michael and I put together this ocean diorama.

We put foam stickers on the bottom of our flip flops and made these nifty prints. We hope to leave cool impressions in the sand when we go to the beach.

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~ Amber Dover

PS: Michael’s Lego creation

Summer Crafts 2015 Part 1

In this post: Dandelions, fireflies,and Summer inchies. Plus a character study.

Hello dear ones! Here are a few crafts we did over the summer. Pics and links included. Enjoy!

Fireflies inspired by: http://elementaryartfun.blogspot.com/2011/03/fireflies-moonlit-landscape.html

Dandelions inspired by: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/82824080620148206/

Summer Inchies (inspired by That Artist Woman and http://www.allthingsheartandhome.com/2013/06/diy-watercolor-summer-art/ )

Mine

Michael and Nana

Michael did this anger lapbook from: http://www.currclick.com/product/26486/Biblical-Anger-Lapbook

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Minions Movie Night July 31, 2015

Hello dear ones! A couple weeks ago my family and I went to see the Minions movie. This is how we had fun. Also, I’ll review the movie. Please come hang out :).

I drew a minion on our chalkboard door to get everyone excited.

 

I bought a Minions coloring book for a dollar. I also found sugar cookies and fruit snacks that are Minion themed. I found the Minion bead kit at Michael’s Craft Store.

 

Chris and Michael made a Minion bookmark.

 

Michael drew a Minion based on a tutorial.

Here are toilet paper roll Minions.

Now my review:

My family and I really loved the Despicable Me movies. Underneath the craziness they were about family and love. They gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. But Minions was a disappointment. There were way too many innuendos. The plot was flat. The Minions couldn’t fill Gru’s shoes as main characters. They are hilarious for shorts, but in my opinion they can’t carry a whole movie. The best part of the movie for me, was the end…when Gru showed up. In conclusion, although there are spots of funny, the smut and lack of a decent plot and strong characters, ruined it for me. This felt way more adult than childlike.

God bless and remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

You can find more ideas here:

Fourth of July Crafts and Our Second Family Olympics 2015 July 17, 2015

Hello dear ones, I hope you are well. Two years ago we had our first Family Olympics. You can find the link here: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/my-family-rocks-sunday-2013-family-olympics/

This year we spent Independence Day having our second Family Olympics. I also have July 4th crafts to share with you. Here we go :).

We made 4th of July T-shirts.

 

Michael and Chris tie dyed a red, white, and blue shirt.

 

I used Leeland’s hand print and craft sticks to make this  U.S. flag onesie.

Michael did a lapbook on the U.S. flag. Link here:

 

http://www.currclick.com/product/72074/United-States-Flag–Speedy-Lapbook

Then Michael made me a red, white, and blue necklace out of beads.

We also did a state lapbook. Link here: http://www.currclick.com/product/76669/United-States-Alabama–Speedy-Lapbook

Then my mom came over for…

 

Family Olympics

 

I really love this event and I can’t wait until the next one. We should really have winter Olympics as well. We began by making our personal flags to represent us in the games.

We used index cards to keep score. Here are the events:

• Archery

Michael

My Step Dad Kim

Mom

Chris

Me

Leeland

• Foam Sword fighting

Me and Mom~ This was fun, but a word to the wise…make sure you zip up the trampoline if you use it. When Michael and I were sword fighting he actually fell through the unzipped part of the trampoline screen. Thankfully he didn’t hit his head too hard. It was scary though.

• Airplane Toss

• Egg Race

• Sac Race

Then just for fun:

• Parachute games

• Michael’s 4th grade piano recital. He played The Star Spangled Banner and Amazing Grace.

 

All of us won at least one medal, but Kim won the trophy.

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

More ideas:

 

Father’s Day Crafts & Our Trip to Jesup 2015

Hello dear ones! This past Father’s Day we visited our hometown and everyone got to meet the new baby. Leeland and Michael also made homemade crafts for Chris. It was a special Father’s Day. Here’s what we did:

I printed out a Father’s Day poem from here:

Then I put the boys’ foot prints on it. I also printed out a Darth Vader poster.

I helped the boys make Father’s Day books.

I stapled Daddy surveys to the back of the books. Here’s the link:

So we visited our hometown and saw our families. We saw Chris’ dad…

and we visited where my Dad is buried.

We visited my Granny.

My family didn’t want to let Leeland go.

Granny

My Uncle

My Aunt

My other grandparents

I loved playing with this Chess set as a kid.

Chris’ mom playing with Leeland

Chris’ older brother and Michael trying out his 3D plastic making pen.

Well, God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

James and the Giant Peach Study July 7, 2015

Hello dear ones! Michael did a study of the book James and the Giant Peach. Join me for a peachy craft and some Southern peach cobbler.

 

 

Michael and I made this sun catcher using contact paper. I drew a peach and he filled it in with orange tissue paper and silhouettes from James and the Giant Peach. He made clouds from cotton balls. The birds are hanging strings.

 

Michael also watched the movie. Now, here’s a recipe that we didn’t get a chance to make.

Southern Peach Cobbler

From the Odum Community Cookbook

by Jeanette Bass

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup self-rising flour

1 stick butter

1 can peaches (sliced with juice)

3/4 cup of milk

Melt butter in baking dish. Add sugar, milk, and peaches, mix well. Add flour and mix until well blended. Bake in 350 degree oven until top is golden brown. Serve with or without whipped cream; you can also sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

 

 

Well, God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

White House Study July 1, 2015

Hello dear ones! Michael learned about the White House recently. Here’s a craft and lapbook for you. This would be a good study for Independence Day in the U.S.

First Michael did this short lapbook and learned facts about the White House.

Link here:

http://www.currclick.com/product/72577/The-White-House–Speedy-Lapbook
Then he and I made the White House out of craft sticks.

Inspiration here:

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Pentecost & Bike Safety June 23, 2015

Hello dear ones! We made a special dove painting for Pentecost this year. I’ve also got pictures from the Bike safety class our homeschool group did with the Columbus cops. Enjoy.

• Pentecost Dove Painting ~ I was inspired by this similar painting on Pinterest:

Michael painted a sunset on canvas. Then we modge podged a dove silhouette, a Bible verse about the Holy Spirit, and words about the Holy Spirit on top.

Pentecost in the New Testament is the time when the Holy Spirit came to live inside Jesus’ believers. Sometimes the Spirit is represented by a dove. He is our comforter, counselor, and healer. This was a special time because in the past only a select few had the Spirit visit them. No one had the Holy Spirit live inside them permanently until Pentecost.

• Bike Safety~ One of our homeschool moms is married to a park cop. He rides a bike through the parks. So her husband and his buddies visited our group and gave a bike safety course. It was great.

The guys showed the kids the proper way to wear a helmet. One cop demonstrated what happens when you don’t wear a helmet and get in an accident. He used a cantaloupe to show this. We have Crazy Carl who doesn’t wear his helmet and gets smashed all over the floor. Then we have Careful Carla who always wears her helmet. She does fine in an accident.

Then the kids watched a video on bike safety. They learned hand signals for riding in traffic. Michael volunteered to come up and show the signals he learned.

Lastly, the kids got to hear the sirens on the cop car.

Leeland hanging out.

Well, that’s it. God bless and remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Spring Crafts & Strawberry Picking May 31, 2015

Hello dear ones, I’m quite behind. I’m still trying to get my groove back after childbirth. It’s taking longer than I thought. So this post is going to be a combination of posts. In the past Michael and I did a craft a day, but lately we’ve barely gotten to one craft a week. So these crafts I’m about to show you are the product of several weeks and everything we did this Spring. We also took a field trip with our homeschool group to go strawberry picking. I’ll share those pics at the end. Here we go:

• Weather crafts and experiments

What better way to start Spring than with a study on weather. April showers bring May flowers after all. So we dug out our weather lapbook from several years ago. Michael gave it a look over then we did a few experiments.

Cloud in a jar~ Who knew that ice, water, and a match could do so much!

http://we-made-that.com/make-a-cloud/

Rain in a jar~ shaving cream, food coloring, and water.

Cloud sun catcher~ Michael glued cotton balls onto tissue paper to make this lovely picture.

Hot air balloon mobile~ This mobile did not turn out how we planned. The cotton ball clouds look great but we had trouble with the hot air balloons. To our defense, we only had a picture to look at…no instructions.

• Sunflower study

Here comes the flowers . Michael filled out this short Sunflower lapbook and then he watched a tutorial on painting sunflowers. We both painted. Here are the links:

http://www.flowerpatchfarmhouse.com/paint-sunflowers-simple-easy/

http://www.currclick.com/product/37913/All-Sunflowers-A-Fun-Study

Sun dial~ rocks and a pencil in play dough.

Michael planted seeds inside his tire.

• Hummingbird study

And with flowers come birds. Michael did a short hummingbird lapbook and then he painted this paint by number hummingbird. It was actually for glass painting and I transferred it to acrylic paper.

http://www.currclick.com/product/82659/Birds-Hummingbird–Speedy-Lapbook

• Bird House

This was the easiest craft. I just bought a mini wooden bird house from the craft store and let Michael go crazy painting. I’m so for easy these days ;).

• Earth and Arbor Day Craft& Outing

So then came Earth Day and Arbor Day. Michael did a couple of crafts and then we took a trip to the park for the Spring Fling.

Earth Day craft~ Michael made a picture of the earth in space. He put his prayer for the earth on it. He prayed that the earth would come to Jesus.

Arbor Day craft~ Michael traced a tree’s shadow.

Park Day with our Homeschool group.

The Spring Fling~ Our pediatrician threw this party at the park.

Leeland “enjoying” a tree…ha!

Leeland’s first feel of sand.

• Strawberry picking in Reynolds’ Ga

Our homeschool group took a long trip to Reynolds to pick strawberries. The kids filled their baskets with strawberries then enjoyed strawberry ice cream.

Well, I hope you’ve been inspired. I hope to catch up on posts soon. I’m actually doing all the writing in car on day trip to the Flint River Aquarium. God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

PS: Earth Day 2014~ flower pounding and other fun ideas.

Earth Day 2014