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Summer Survival

July 1, 2009 By 1 Comment
New York State Capitol Building, completed in ...
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Here we are just 6 days into summer and I am more then done.  The kids are NUTS.  The house is a mess and I think that I have pulled all of my hair out.  The $30 worth of crafts I bought on Friday have all been done and I have no gas to take a trip.  I am not sure where to go from here.  We are all a little cranky and the baby is wondering why all of these other people are on her turf in the middle of the day!  I am lacking the motivation to do anything about it and the patience not to boil over.

Why is it that Summer vacation is still something that we need to have.  It was started to accomidate farming.  I am sorry to say that there are few farming families left here in NY.  I know of just 3 in the town I live in.  Why is it then that we have not changed all of this.  Why can’t the kids just go to school in the summer?

I know that all of this sounds bad but I also know that I am not alone in my angst!  Please September come quick.  I am not sure how long I can hang on here!

Becca

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Easter Pictures: Spring Break Survival

April 11, 2009 By 4 Comments
Sears Auto 35 TL
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OK so as I mentioned I am having a hard time with this entire Spring Break thing!  So today my mother and I dressed all of the kids in their Easter outfits and threw them into the car and were off to Sears.  Now I know what you are thinking… why did you head to Sears.  We were off to Sears for Easter pictures.  We have not had pictures in YEARS.  The last time was when the baby was a month old.  For those of you who do not know she will be 2 in a month!  So needless to say it has been a while.

We have never been to Sears so I was a little bit aprehansive.  It was great though.  They had a kid friendly waiting area which I did not have to wait in because they were ready for us when we got there.  The girls did great although it is difficult to make them all smile at once.  Abigail kept trying to make the baby smile and Emma had the fakest smile.  Even with all of these obsticales we were able to come out of the seccion with a few really nice shots.

So day two of Spring Break has been a success.  We did the pictures, went to lunch, had a play date and now we are getting ready for bed.   I am so happy that it is all working out.  I would say that going and having pictures done is a great way to survive Spring Break!  You should give it a try!  I found that it really occupied a lot of time, the kids had fun and we were out of the house.  We will not discuss how much Grandma spent though!  We will keep that part to ourselves!  Either way day two survived.  Nine days to go!

Becca

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Valentine’s Day Bookmarks

January 28, 2009 By 7 Comments

bookmark-1A craft for kids:

This is a simple yet cute craft to enjoy this valentines.  It would be great for preschool, 4H groups, Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts.  I think that it is better for children ages 3-6 but I know Abigail enjoyed making one.  As always let Alli and I know how it comes out.  We would love the feedback!

Difficulty Level: 1 Star

Supplies:

  1. Popcycle sticks bookmark-open
  2. Glue
  3. Wooden conersational hearts
  4. crayons, markers or paint

Step 1:

Have the children color or paint their popcycle stick.  They can decorate it in any way they want.  Younger children could just color the stick while older kids can get a little more creative adding designs, words and just about anything else they can think of.

bookmark-2

Step 2:

Glue the conversational heart to the top of the popcycle stick.

bookmark-3

Step 3:

Let it all dry and you have a new bookmark to keep as children begin to learn to read or they can pass it along to parents or grandparents as a great little gift.

We hope that you enjoy the valentines day bookmarks.  Our kids all had a blast making them.  We would love to hear and see how yours came out.  Please leave us a message in the comment box!

Becca and Alli

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Children’s Crafts

January 22, 2009 By 2 Comments
IMG_2373
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Coming soon to www.askbecca.com is a new focus for the new year.  I know that time and time again I am looking for crafts to do with 4H, daisy scouts and brownie scouts.  There are even times I want to do something fun on a snowy day with the kids.  I will be introducing a new section to askbecca.com.

Becca and Alli’s craft corner is a new place to find all of your favorite crafts for kids and more.  Once a week we will be introducing a new, low cost craft that you can enjoy with the children in your life.   Each new craft will have a 1-5 star rating.  This rating will determine the difficulty level of each craft.

We are so excited to be crafting away!  Perhaps we will become the Martha Stewart of the kids crafts world!  You know a girl has to think big.  We will see you here!

Becca and Alli

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73 Days Until Christmas

October 14, 2008 By 3 Comments

Save money on Christmas, make your own gifts.

A bauble on a Christmas tree.

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Ok so we are two days into our 75 day plan. I have chosen some items to list on ebay. One of my goals will be to list some of the items. The next thing that I would like to think about is making a few gifts to save some money. When looking at crafts to make you have to be quite careful. They can end up spending more money then if you were to just go out and buy the item new. A few years ago I had made Christmas Tree skirts for my mother, my mother in-law and my sister-in-laws. They loved them but my mother-in-laws was ruined last year. I am thinking that I will make her a new one this year.

Today I am off to AC Moore and JoAnn Fabrics to buy some fabric and check out some new craft ideas for others on my list. I think that I will see what types of things the kids can make for their grandparents as well. Grandma and Grandpa always love some homemade treasures. The kids also love to make new treasures. This will be a great thing that we can do together closer to Christmas. I figure if I buy it all now I will have a chance to make it when I am ready. I will not have to rush out and shop on the day that I want to make something.

I would also like to look for some Christmas tree ornament crafts that the kids and I could make together. This will create some special memories and help to fix out Christmas tree tragedy from last year. Again the kids and I will have a great time together making some special memories.

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75 Days of Christmas

October 12, 2008 By 5 Comments
Christmas cards with angels, scandinavian “nis...

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How to Get Through Christmas

Christmas Day is in 75 days…

I know that I sound like a huge retailer trying to make up for the missing back to school specials! If you are like I am you want the holidays to be PERFECT! So far it never has been and I am starting to think that it never will be. Last year we did not have the money to go out shopping until December 23rd and it made the entire season VERY stressful. So here we are with 75 days left to make it perfect. I know, I know, it will never be PERFECT but perhaps I can come a little closer if I start planning it all out now. There are so many things to think about. Forget about Halloween this year, forget about Thanksgiving! This year I am setting my sights on Christmas!

OK, so here I am sitting all motivated to do something to make the season better than ever. Where should we start though. I think that the most important thing to do this year is to establish an early budget. This will make the entire season more enjoyable. I think that in order to examine a budget I have to look at who I need to buy for and how much money I plan on spending. This will help me determine how much money I will need. So here it goes…

Nieces and Nephews: There are 6 of them now and I estimate that I will spend $15 each. I know that I sound cheap but I am a bargin shopper. I am going to round this up to an even $100. This way I can go over and under and stay within my budget. The truth is that kids do not know nor do they care how much you spend on them. All they care about is that you buy something fun!

Parents: I tend to spend about $40 for each of my parents and about $100 for Rob’s mother if not more. Any presents that she gets come from all of her kids so I think that it is important for her to have a Christmas that is magical too! I will round this up to $200 to be on the safe side. It never hurts to have extra money.

Siblings: This year Rob’s family has decided to do a grab bag. We need to pick two $20 gifts for the grab bag. I also have one brother who has no children. I try to get him something cool since he gets the girls things. I figure about $40 is what I will spend. Again I am going to round up to be on the safe side. This makes this section $100.

Our Girls: While Santa does do some of the work, Christmas is still an expencive venture. I figure that we will spend aboiut $300 on Abigail and Emma and about $150 on the baby. As kids get older they want things that cost more and more. By aiming high we will assure that we have enough money to make their dreams come true. This brings this section up to $750.

Pictures: It is important to me that we have pictures taken this year. The last few years we have not had the money so I plan on doing this early. Although there are deals, I figure we will spend about $100 on pictures this year.

Cookies: While baking cookies is a day or two of fun for the kids it can be quite expencive. This year I would like to put about $100 aside for baking. I figure this will cover any cakes, candy, and cookies.

Wrapping and shipping: Wrapping paper can add up. For family gifts this year I plan on making wrapping paper. This will help us to save money and it will be a great activity to do with the kids. We will have to buy and ship Christmas cards and a few gifts to family who lives far away. We will also need to donate some paper to Santa. This will all total about $80 this year.

New decorations: Well, last year our tree fell and about half of our tree ornaments broke. I was quite upset. I have had almost a year to recover though. Now I am excited about being able to get some new treasures and memories for out tree. I am putting about $50 aside for this.

Teachers, bus drivers, mail person and others: If you are not careful this can really add up. I think that it is ok if you do not have a lot of money to give these people cookies and treats that you are baking. Last year I gave the bus driver a Dunkin’ Donuts gift certificate for $10. This way he could stop and have some coffee. Classes in our school do teacher presents all together so this should only be abbout $10 this year. It will be cookies for the rest. This will add up to about $20 this year.

So all in all I think that I will need about $1400 for this Christmas. It sounds like so much for one day but I am determined to make it special. They key is to spend cash! With the economy in a state of “crisis” I would rather not have to rely on anything other then the money that I have.

I would like to do a lot of my shopping on Black Friday. I find great deals and love getting up early with my female in-laws and hitting the pavement. So I would like to have at least half of the money for Black Friday. Thanksgiving is about 6 weeks away. This means that I will have to put about $130 away a week to assure that I do not have to spend on credit on Black Friday. This is going to be a huge challenge. Things are tight right now to begin with, but I have a plan!

I think that we should all avoid spending money on our credit cards this year. Work out your personal budget and see what you have to save a week to reach your goal. I will post new posts everyday with craft ideas, fun activities, money making tips, and recipies to use for the next 75 days. It is going to be a great Christmas this year!

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