Little DC Garden

My little friends and I have really been having fun playing in the dirt this week.  ON Sunday, Shaun and I drove down with the tiller in tow and tilled up our garden spot at the day care.  On Monday I broke out my dc hoe and rake and also little kiddie garden gloves and hand tools donated by my loving Mother.  The kids were all about the gloves and tools and dug and played.  We have been out there every day this week.  We finally planted our seeds on Wednesday. 

 

This year we are growing corn, watermelon, squash, zucchini, green beans and tomatoes.  The green beans in the dc garden are new this year.  We frequently have green beans with our lunches so I thought it would be neat for them to watch them grow. 

 

Now we will water a little and wait for the plants to come up.  Then we will begin our weeding.  I also used the side of our storage barn to hang our tools where they are protected by the roof overhang from the rain and sun.  Makes garden life a lot easier not having to tote all those accessories!

 

 

 

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Hooray!  Spring is almost here!  April showers may seem far off, this being early March, but it's really not.  I started out today wanting to have white, daisy like flowers on the wall around March on our wall.  I wound up with a few clovers around the month and making flowers and raindrops for the mirror in our eating area. 

I made a PDF template to share with you of simple flowers that I made from circles in three colors.  You can print them on white paper or card stock and simply cut them out.  I also used left over bits of green construction paper for the stems and folded a light blue piece and cut out rain drops. 

You can find the template for the flowers by clicking HERE.  Please let me know if you have trouble and I can email it to you. 

HAPPY SPRING!  It may still be cold but we are definately on the down hill slide from Winter!

Pay no attention to the girl behind the mirror!

Spring Bulletin Board

Sometimes I change the look of our bulletin board on a monthly basis.  Sometimes I change it just because I get the hankering for something new.  Spring is always something that inspires me and today it did just that.  Plus I thought it was time to retire the little snow men. I think it is important to keep happy, brightly colored decor everywhere you look and today this one did the trick.

First, I made a bunch of clovers out of hearts on my computer and printed them out.  I gave the kids several shades of green to color the clover with.  Then during nap time I cut them out.  I had quite a lot.  Enough so that I can use them in other areas of the DC once March gets here.

Next I broke out the freezer paper and cut the length of my bulletin board.  The board is bigger than the paper so I have to cut an extra strip at the bottom.  Then I push pinned it all down. 

I did the painting part by mixing a little bit of water with light blue for the sky and three shades of green paint with water for the grass.  I was worried about the grass because while I was painting the lines of grass I felt I should have painted a green background first, but nap time is only so long so I proceeded to paint.  Each of my strokes of paint seemed to fill in more and more until I was happy with the result. 

For the buttercups I simply folded a piece of yellow construction paper in half and drew pointed ovals then cut them out.  The paper had been colored on before on one side.  Personally I think it adds to the glamour of a kid's world. 

When the paint was (semi) dry I used Modge Podge glue to put them in place and added a yellow cupcake liner for the center of the flower.  I also used the glue to affix the cut out clover in the grass. 

Lastly, I had to add some glitter glue stems to the clover, pink glitter blobs here and there for clover blooms and gold glitter glue for the flower centers.  It seems a bit sloppy but looks great and adds a piece of Spring to our play room.

Let the kid times roll

Now I've gone and done it!  I am so excited to bring you a brand new blog dedicated to the life and times of what goes on at my day care!  I plan to run a structured outfit here that includes kid friendly recipes, crafts and ideas for you to share and use with your little ones. 

To share a little bit about me.  I run a small child care center at the road front of our thirty acre farm in Tennessee, where my husband and I live.  The day care is located in a mobile home that we moved here to live in while building our house at the back of the farm.  After we moved out, we rented it out for a couple of years and finally decided that land lordship was not for us.  At the time, I was burned out and not happy with my job choice so one night Shaun suggested keeping kids full time in the trailer.  I thought it was a heavenly idea and we worked on it cleaning, repairing and getting things ready from December 2011 until I quit my job the following April.  I began with my first kids in May of 2012 and haven't stopped yet.  I love what I do and being able to watch these kids grow and aid in their learning. 

I have another blog, peppysis, where I have been sharing bits and pieces of my life since 2009.  I have gotten to where I share a lot about the day care and what we are doing.  So much that I feel a designated blog is necessary and will give readers a certain spot to look at all my kid stuff. 

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you will just love it here!

Isn't it just dreamy?

 

This was taken before I finished painting the outside.  Before there were flowers and little rocking chairs lining the front porch.  And definitely before Black Rose got her lift kit.