Raising Cubs in a Campground

Looking for a quick and easy Valentine's Day idea for school Valentine's Day parties look no further! I used Photoshop to create a punny card that says "I THINK YOU ROCK" and then I added candy rocks ordered from an LTD catalog to little bags I ordered in bulk from Amazon a few years ago.  And that's all there is to it! 20 Valentine's in 5 minutes!

My youngests love language is sequins and sparkles so when I saw these wands on Pinterest I knew she'd want to make them for her friends at preschool. I printed out the text and she'll sign her name to them before tucking them into the pocket.  I'm not anti-candy, but I do gravitate towards things that aren't gone in two seconds. I hope these wands bring hours and hours of joy to the little girls in Elsa's class. Want to make some for your kids? Here's how: First visit this blog for the original source of information and instructions. Below I have shared photos of my version for reference.  I opted not to paint the dowel rods, but I did sand them down. My dowels are 10 inches long so I would have enough materials from 3 dowels for the 10 wands I wanted to make. Our local hardware store sells this thickness for less than $1.50 each. I used Elmer's school glue to glue on the fiber fill. I let them dry overnight. This step i...

From 2008 until the spring of 2014 we lived inside a campground/park as the caretakers. Sam was 4 and Julia was 2 when we moved into the caretaker house. By the time we left Sam was 9, Julia 7, and our BabyBear, Elsa was 2 1/2.  PapaBear and I decided that the time had come to find a better work/family balance and that meant a ginormous step of faith because we didn't have housing lined up when we resigned our post.  Through some emotional twists and turns we ended up staying with family for three months before we moved into the house God had picked out just for us. It wasn't my first choice, but He closed the door on my dream home and opened the window to a property that was destined to be our forever home and turned out to be a perfect fit for our family in every way. We have a huge garden, four apple trees, grapes, raspberries, and over 100 different flowering perennials growing in our yard. It feels a bit like we got to bring the country to town with us! ...

When Instagram came on the scene it was so much easier to post there and slowly but surely my little corner of the Internet got covered in layers of dust - so much dust that after three years I didn't think it could ever be found under the multi generations of dust bunnies! A friend asked me yesterday if I had a blog and I mumbled something about yes....a long time ago....that little spark of a conversation and another discussion with a client about mobile blogging got me motivated to try the ten different password options so I could try to log back into my Campground Cubs account.  It only took four tries and I was in! Will I jump back into blogging full time? I'm not sure.... I'm a busy mom who runs a business. We left the campground almost two years ago, but the margin the move to town created in our lives is so precious to me that I guard that time very carefully. I've picked up some new hobbies, learned a lot, thrown some fun birthday parties, and taken...

Elsa & I made play dough this morning and as I was rolling it between my fingers inspiration struck me. It might have had something to do with the Frozen soundtrack playing in the background or the Frozen soundtrack that's been playing in my head for two weeks. Either way, an idea was born.... Why not make more play dough and share it with Elsa's classmates as part of her valentines? I bet moms would love to sample this new idea that's been floating around on Facebook and Pinterest for play dough made out of hair conditioner and corn starch! So I grabbed a black backdrop, hung it over the front of our fridge, stuck Elsa in a red shirt, and snapped away as she played with a snowman. We tend to use photocards as our valentines to make them personal and affordable. My go-to photo processor is Walgreens, but if I need envelopes with them I get them at Sam's Club. We chose 4x6 size so I can get those easily enough at Walgreens and this whole project will only c...

We waited a long time for the Great Pumpkin this year as it was back in t he summer months that I chose The Peanuts Gang as our Halloween costume theme. I knew that once I started working again in September I wouldn't have the time to come up with costumes so I started watching Ebay for Snoopy hats in July, and FINALLY in early September I finally scored this one for under $10.  You can get them on Etsy too, but I prefer this tight knit instead of the crocheted look.   The big pumpkin and the one with Elsa's name grown in it were grown in our straw bale garden . The rest belong to my sister-in-law who brought pumpkins to her parent's house for our annual Halloween photos and pumpkin carving. It is much more relaxing to snap pictures days before instead of the night of. We've been doing this for a couple of years now .  Details on how we put together our version of the Peanuts Gang can be found below each character's photo, but first, here's the whole...

Back in March when I was researching things to do over spring break in Minnesota I came across the RAD Zoo website . RAD stands for Reptile & Amphibian Discover Zoo and is located in Owatonna, MN. Once I showed Sam a picture of Big Al (their 12 foot alligator!) he couldn't stop talking about how much he wanted to go. To be honest I was a little unsure whether it was worth the cost of admission for our family of five, but now that we've been there I can tell you it's well worth it! (In full disclosure - we were given tickets to go from the nice folks at the Rad Zoo for our first visit in exchange for writing a review of the RAD Zoo, but we have every intention of going back some day and know it will be worth every penny.) What makes this unassuming warehouse turned reptile & amphibian haven so much fun?  Well, just take a look at the photo below.... Holding a python is just one of the cool things my kids got to do. Granted to hold it, we paid $5 for the opportuni...

I will forever be grateful that I found Tiff's post over at A Day In My Life. If it weren't for her post about the photo book she made as an alternative to a traditional baby book, I can pretty much guarantee that all the photos I took of Elsa over the past year on the 1st of each month would STILL be stuck on my computer waiting for me to catch up on 6 years of blog books .  Instead I was motivated to get 223 of my favorite images into a book for me to publish using my favorite bookmaking site . When Elsa turned one I was at a loss as to how to keep recording her milestones in a way that didn't require a lot of effort. I knew I would have plenty of photos, but I didn't know how to tie all the text together or even what exactly I would be able to blend together into a cohesive book.  I searched for a 'prompt' so to speak, and what I landed on is so simple yet so full of information about Elsa each month of her second year. All I have to do is complete sentenc...

The first day of school is just around the corner for us so I've been trying to brainstorm ideas for making the transition to a more structured routine & busier schedules as smooth as possible. One area that needs to be addressed is breakfasts. I find that making lunches the morning of makes them taste better so I don't have the luxury of time when it comes to making breakfasts - even if I do get up at 5 or 5:30 most school mornings! I needed something that didn't require me to stand over a stovetop so I Googled Best Zucchini Muffins ever and found this recipe . Then I went to work making some adjustments to cut sugar & increase nutritional value. While not as low sugar as this recipe , the taste is better & there is more zucchini. The reason I chose this particular recipe is that it has three cups of Zucchini for 14 muffins which is a cup more than my old recipe. Nice! I baked up a batch for the kids the other day and the declared they were stuffed aft...