Aww Shuck!!

I'm an Iowa girl...born and bred. Sweet corn has its own food group, and I could eat it every night of the week in the summer. So while on our recent trip to Dubuque I stocked up on some local sweet corn! No offense to Kentucky farmers but it just isn't as good as Iowa corn!

That being said, I loathe shucking corn! I remember sitting on the deck as a kid in front of a trash can shucking corn. As an adult I have always tried to pawn off this lovely task to my dear husband, while looking forward to the days when I could make my kids do it! Thanks to this awesomely amazing trick, my kids may never have to do it!

Seriously. Did you know you could get perfectly steamed sweet corn out of your microwave?!? Without shucking?!? With none of those annoying silks left to stick in your teeth?!? I just may eat it every night!!

It's so easy! Put your corn on a plate and put it in the microwave. Cook for about 5 minutes per ear. Your time may very depending on the size of your ears and power of your microwave.

When it's done, carefully take it out of the microwave and hold it with an oven mitt. Cut the end off with a sharp knife. (Be careful if your oven mitt has had the thumb burned off!)

Squeeze the ear of corn like a tube of toothpaste and it should slide right out...clean, steamy and ready to eat!

I would show you a picture of my kiddos enjoying their sweetcorn but with the one armed bandit and the toothless wonder we had to cut the corn off!!

A Quick Visit

This weekend we had a quick visit with The Morgan's on their long drive.  We grabbed a quick bite for lunch and headed to the Louisville Slugger Museum.  We've been through before but the kids still had a great time! 

It was awesome to spend some time with friends!  It's so funny how the kids pick up their friendship exactly where they left off when we saw them almost a year ago! (Last year we visited the science center)

 Kailey and Amelia held hands for the whole tour and so did Lexi and Elliot! 

 Wow!  They've all grown SO much!  Next time Tyler and Lorelei will probably be playing together and holding hands!

Later in the day Elliot walked over to me, very seriously and said "Mommy, I am SO CLOSE to marrying Lexi."  He was very matter-of fact about it.  And if you know Elliot you can just picture the hand-gestures that went along with this statement!  I hope it's not another year before we see our friends again!

Friday I will be having a "pinterest party." Do a pinterest project, blog about it and post in the comments.  What project have you been wanting to do?

Sidewalk Art

So we started the summer checking off things on our bucket list.  We went in the morning and the kids got their library cards and signed up for the summer reading program.  In 2 days Amelia has read all 4 books she picked out, including 2 chapter books!  The girl LOVES to read!

Then we spent the afternoon decorating our driveway with sidewalk paint.  Yet another pinterest find!  (I have a serious addiction!)  All you need is some containers (I used dollar store muffin tins), cornstarch, water, food coloring and paintbrushes.  Of course you'll also need some kids in clothes you don't mind ruining and ready to paint (the food coloring will stain).   Mix equal parts water and cornstarch and pour into containers.  Then add food coloring to make as many colors as you want!
Give the kids some paintbrushes and have at it!

When we started painting it just looked wet, but as it dried the colors became more vibrant and the longer it dried the brighter it got!

The colors end up being MUCH brighter than chalk, and it was actually less messy!  Amelia painted pictures of what we were doing on a bright sunny day...

Elliot made an army of "terrifying monsters!"

Elliot ran between the paints and his pictures, mixing colors and making splatters.  As someone on facebook put it...a budding Jackson Polluck!

And my budding Georgia O'keefe sat down to perfect her artwork and stayed far away from Elliot's splatters!

 

  And of course we had some supervision!

It's all in the details...

I posted here about our summer schedule and yesterday it went great!  Amelia (our mini Aaron) kept an eye on the clock and me on our schedule all day!  Even my little wild man seemed to have a pretty good day.  Quiet time was kind of a bust, but they'll get used to it.  I need to figure out  a way to keep them separated because Amelia would lay in her bed and read the whole time if he didn't bug her!

Anyway...the schedule...it's not perfect and not for everyone but it's something we're trying...

We are also trying a new approach with discipline.  It focuses more on rewarding good behavior than punishing bad behavior.  We call them "Gem Jars".  This is yet another pinterest find! 

Each kid has a jar and they receive gems for good behaviors.  There are different sized gems for different behaviors.  I occasionally do take a gem away for really bad behavior.  When their jars are half full we will take them out for ice cream, and when they fill the jars we will have a family "date day".  We've talked about going bowling, mini golfing, to the movies, or to a baseball game.

It seems to be working quite well!

Ready, Set, SUMMER!

This summer I have big plans...  Elliot will be starting Kindergarten in the fall and I'm determined to have him as ready as I possibly can.  I also want to see Amelia's MAP scores go up in the fall.  Last summer I did ok; her scores went up a few points.  At least she didn't go down.

With 3 kids, I think the only way I'm going to save my sanity this summer is STRUCTURE!  I've always been a fly-by-the-seat of my pants kind of mom.  That is not going to work with 2 busy kids and a baby!  I'm hoping our schedule will help our behavior problems too!

I'm a very frugal, DIY mom.  Enter my pinterest addiction!  This is a conglomeration of several different pins I've seen.

First up, the Bucket List...After all, it is summer and there is much fun to be had!

Then the schedule...There are a few things the kids are required to do for at least 20 minutes each day.  The first is "practice."  This is a skill I will work on with the kids.  It could be math, sight words, phonics, shoe-tying, etc.  They must also read for at least 20 minutes each morning.  Then there is "home."  They must spend 20 minutes doing a chore (more on how we decide what they'll do another day).  The top left frame is the daily schedule, then we have a frame for each day of the week to write down activities and to-dos!

Finally, the Task lists.  Each time they accomplish a task, they get a reward.  This could be money, stickers, treat; whatever works for you.  I'll talk about what we're doing another day!

This project cost me under $10.  All the frames are from the dollar store, and the scrapbook paper and stickers I had on hand.  The best part is you can write on the glass with a dry erase marker so I don't have to waste paper for every day/week!

How are you keeping your kiddos busy this summer?