All posts filed under: Cute & Simple (Friday)

Cute & Simple: Alliterate Your Daily Schedule

Published by

By Leslie Lindsay I don’t know about you, but I am still working out the kinks of the fall schedule.  It’s challenging, and I know you know this…two kids, two different schools, two different sets of friends, a house, a mom and a dad.   We all have our own sense of how the week should go, our own hobbies and interests, and well…it’s a complicated process to make sure everyone’s needs and wants get satisfied.  So, for cute and simple Friday, I am presenting some back-of-the-magazine unconventional scheduling…. MONDAY:  Meijer Monday, Messy Monday (after all of that football stuff on Sunday), Meatless Monday (eat vegetarian for a day)   TUESDAY:  Target Tuesday, Toy Trade Tuesday, Toss-it-all Tuesday (clean out the fridge, pantry, dresser), Tackle it on Tuesday (folks claim Tuesday is the day to make a dent in your to-do list), Trash-and-toilets Tuesday (especially handy if your trash pick-up day is Wednesday), Taco Tuesday…   WEDNESDAY:  Wal-Mart Wednesday, Wegman’s Wednesday, Wonderful Wednesday (for doing all of those things you love to do??), Weed-walk Wednesday (walk around …

Cute & Simple: Picture Schedules Part 2

Published by

By Leslie Lindsay Last Friday on “Cute & Simple,” I presented a couple of ways you can help streamline your routines for the day, week, whatever…(and then you read yesterday’s post about the morning madness and you probably think I have no idea what I am talking about).  But, if you are intersted in doing more with this picture schedule/photo menu idea, then read on.  It really does work. Awhile back, my kids were begging for an allowance.  We go through this allowance cycle every so often, but we aren’t very consistent about it as parents.  The kids are only 4 and 6 years old, after all.  Instead of writing out every job or chore we expect of the kiddos (since they can’t really read), I made a photo/picture chart of the expectations.  Therefore, I am no longer hovering over the kids as they look at the chart asking for the upmteenth time, “What does this say again, mom?!” It worked pretty well.  Well enough that they earned the walkie talkies they were talking (ha!) …

Cute & Simple: Picture Schedules

Published by

By Leslie Lindsay Think it’s hard for you to remember everything that goes into a day?  What about your children?  They, too want to know what is going on and how it affects them.  You may consider creating a picture schedule to be used at home–this is especially great for kiddos who are in the Pre-K+ set; that is, they are beginning to see that each day has distinct characteristics, yet just beginning to grasp the concept of time, and developing pre-reading skills. Not only does it help the kiddos, but it just may help you, too.  You won’t have to repeat yourself 50 million times a day about what is going to happen; kids can just refer back to the picture schedule. How does it work?  Well, I created a rough-draft of our week by first sketching out a Monday thru Friday “calendar” by placing in things I know typically happen, those “set” events: leave for school, exercise, preschool, soccer, homework, dinner, bath, etc. Then, I took that schedule and made a Word document for …

Cute & Simple: Back-to-School Photo Collage

Published by

By Leslie Lindsay With kids, it seems everything marks a milestone.  So, why would going back-to-school be anything but?  This fall, we sent two back to school–one to her Pre-K class at a familiar faith-based educational institute and the other at a “new-to-us” elementary school: welcome to 1st grade. And if you are anything like the other 200 million-billion parents out there sending their kids back to school this fall, chances are you’ve got yourself a fair number of photos marking the event.  Why not turn them into a photo collage and send cards to close family and friends? It’s fun, it’s easy and it’s relatively cheap.  I printed 12 photo collages from Walgreens for about $5.00.  I added a blurb on the back that I created in Word, printed out, and affixed to the photo–names of teachers and schools, fall activities, etc. I even added some extra card stock around the photo itself, and by doing so, it increased the size from a 4×6 to a 5×7, which fit better into the 5×7 envelopes …

Cute & Simple: Kid art collages

Published by

By Leslie Lindsay Looking for a quick way to lure your “bored” children away from the television set as summer draws to a close?  Do what we did–the kid art collage. I had been saving some of my kindergartner’s art work from the last 9 months for just this opportunity.  I purchased some simple gallery-style frames on sale at Michael’s and together, we developed a little theme.  Several pieces of art were about penguins–two from my “big kid” and one from my preschooler.  So we combined them into one piece of art. Another theme we discovered had to do with bees.  Again, mixed media in terms of the kid who created it and their artistic abilities.  I was amazed at all of the bee-themed art that came home over the course of the last school year! Finally, I framed just one piece of  art–those of intricately designed and colored mittens.  I love the cute simplicity of this art.  It would make a nice decoration come winter, or perhaps to give-away as a gift. I plan to …

Cute & Simple: Summer’s End

Published by

By Leslie Lindsay “Summer’s End,” hummm…sort of have mixed feelings about that, and I bet you do, too.  Sigh. Anyway, I am in the process of slowly making that transition from the open-ended days of summer to creating a sense of structure around here.  And in doing so, I uncovered a project that I meant to tackle months ago. In June, our family packed up and headed to Mackinac Island, Michigan.  It was short and sweet, but still a vacation.  A slip back in time, if you will.  While we were there, I purchased a picture book for my girls.  (It’s sort of become a tradition.  Book = souvenier).  And so, as a way of prolonging the vacation, I decided to get crafty. Sorting through photos digital images, I found a few I liked, downloaded, and printed them off to insert in the book (you can print off on regular ol’ computer paper, by “inserting photo” into a word document). I think I will add a few blurbs about what we did and funny things we …

Cute & Simple: Movie and Pizza Night

Published by

By Leslie Lindsay I wish I had something truly “cute & simple” for today, but I don’t.  In fact, you will have to forgive me if my blog entries of late (and later) are not all that exciting.  I am in the midst of editing my book, “Speaking of Apraxia.”  So  far, so good.  But alas it is still a lot of work. Today, though is Friday and Friday at our house means “pizza and movie night.”  It’s a tradition we started–oh several months ago after it was too cold for “Firepit Friday” on the back patio.  It’s our goofy parent attempt to introduce the girls to some movies they may not be familiar with, but were classics when we were kids (or before, even).  In fact, on my list to show them is “Son of Flubber.”  I find a good selection of these “oldies but goodies” at the library, in case you are wondering. Anyway, this past week at Target I found “The Neverending Story” on an end-cap for a whopping $5.00!  I narrowed …

Cute & Simple: Kiddy Up, Little Horsey

Published by

By Leslie Lindsay There is something about little girls and ponies.  Seems every little girl wants one.  Mine are no exception, especially my 4 year old.  She loves them.  She notices them everywhere we go, especially the white ones, “There’s my white horsey!”  she tells me with pure joy and delight.  So, when I learned there was a horse-themed day camp at a local attraction, I signed her up.  Heck, I signed ’em both up. For $20 a kid, they were able to tour a horse barn, learn about horse behavior, how to tack a horse, and ride one.  (And I got two lovely hours of kid-free time!).  A deal! But it doesn’t just boil down to cost and free time.  As a parent, I feel it’s super-important to give kiddos an outlet to explore interests and activities they are passionate about.  Hopefully they will find the event benficial, too.  Perhaps some day they will continue to love and respect horses and feel as though this early exposure made them feel more comfortable and confident around large animals.  One can …

Cute & Simple: Summer Party Planning

Published by

By Leslie Lindsay Not that I have a summer birthday party to plan–I really don’t–but I am just bubbling over with party ideas.  Well, maybe “bubbling” is the wrong adjective. You see, I have a love-hate relationship with the dollar section at Target.  It’s cute.  It’s cheap.  And it stokes the creative fires. This past week, I noticed all of these adorable water bottles, cups, bags, sandwhich containers, etc. with pirate decor emblazoned all over them.  Adorable.  (Alas, I don’t have a kiddo who is into pirates).  But how fun would it be to host a pirate-themed birthday party?!  The trinkets at Target would make adorable party favors.  Fill ’em with loot–a few gold coins, costume jewlery, candy–and viola!  Stage a scavenger hunt with gold coins, have someone “walk the plank,” (blindfolded, of course)–do something cute with eye patches…create a sunken treasure time capsule for the birthday child. Aye, aye matey!  Oh, but there is more…how about a Dr. Seuss party?  Target also has a plethora of Seussical items that can easily be transported into a …

Cute & Simple: Mulching Monograms

Published by

By Leslie Lindsay I wish I had something truly cute and simple to share with you today, alas I do not. Unless you count the summer luncheon party I attended earlier this week in which I wasn introduced to a new line of tableware called LaPlate.  It’s picking up some buzz in various magazines like Southern Living and Martha Steward Living.  The concept is simple: plates, serving dishes, placemats, and napkins (also totebags, cups) all with adorable patterns, colors, and emblazoned with your initial or monogram.  Absolutely charming.   But if you are looking for a bargain, you won’t find it here.  Simply said,  www.LaPlates.com is not cheap.  And when you are considering outfitting a table for eight, well…you’d have purchase two sets of 4 plates at $72.00 each, making your final purchase around $144!  And they are melamine.  Hummm…oh, and those prices are for salad/dessert plates.  The dinner plates, are wonderfully more expensive. Great for gifts, though…a single plate with a child’s name would make a sweet Birthday or even baby shower gift.  Housewarming or hostess …