Bucket List

I have noticed that with all the planning for the future and worrying about the past that Travis and I never do the things that we dream of doing. During my {frequent} trips to Pinterest I have seen, and even pinned some myself, some Bucket List photos from Tumblr. This list is going to be an evolving Bucket List, because lets face it we all change as people as we change so do our dreams. So without further ado I give you...my dreams:


Cassie's List

• Go on a world cruise...or even just an Alaskan cruise
• Create a popular blog
• Graduate College
• Attend and graduate cooking school
• Own an iPhone (Summer 2011)

 

• Marry my best friend (November 2006)

 

• Celebrate my 50th wedding anniversary with my best friend
• Own a house with a fireplace
• Cuddle in front of the fireplace on a cold evening
• Visit all 50 states
• Go back for visit to Louisiana
• Meet some of my WoW friends.
• Attend a blogging conference
• Make my Build-A-Bear (October 2010 Trip to SC)

 

• Walk for Breast Cancer
• Get back down to my high school weight
• Blog once a week for a year
• Go to Ireland
• On our 10th wedding anniversary, have a big church wedding
• Don't be afraid to remove the people from my life who I know do not care about me.
• And my number #1 bucket list item...Open my own bakery

I will be adding Travis's Bucket List to here, once I  force him to make one ;)

Sites that Promote Children's Creativity

I'm currently a college student that is completing the core classes before starting my actual degree. This semester I chose to focus on mainly elective courses and as such I am in four education courses. I'm taking Creative Activities, Classroom Management, Language and Literacy Expectations, and Early Childhood Literature. Our assignment for this week's class was that we needed to come up with five websites that promoted children's creativity and of course a lot of the students went with the old standby's: PBS and Disney. Now don't get me wrong PBS's website that is geared for older students has some awesome science experiments that I myself have used, and I still sometimes go and play some of those Disney games.

My problem was in the fact that these are sites that not only every parent knows but even people without kids know about them. What about those other sites that are hiding out there, those hidden gems that parents really need to know about? Of course I had to be different and go away from what everyone else was doing so I chose to cover blogs. So here are five blogs that I think parents should put into their round-up when looking for stuff for their kids to do on school vacations and snow days.

I'm a blogger. That's what I do on my downtime, I blog. I started a new blog recently that followed my start into baking (I haven't been focusing on it as much as I should with school starting but I plan to get back into it). I mention this because I feel that blogs and bloggers are just kind of brushed to the side, "Oh you have a blog....cool." And when it comes to talking about websites it's always the big flashy websites that get the shout-outs. I also chose blogs that featured arts and crafts because in my opinion arts and crafts allow children to be creative in the making as well use their imagination once the project is done. So without further ado I present five blogs that promote creativity in children. P.S. while a lot of these sites have actual website names they are still in "Blog format". Enjoy :D

The Crafty Cow
The Crafty Cow is a blog that is run by a single mother with three children. It has been around for three years and essentially is a crafting hotspot that will link you to other sites. She has one about String Art and one about Homemade Finger Paint and even Educational Ones. There are tons of other posts so go check it out at http://www.thecraftycow.net

One Pretty Thing
One Pretty Thing is a blog that has daily themes to their round-up of posts. Some days are DIY's while others are cooking and each theme contains a set of activities that were found around the web. They feature activities like Printable Dolls and even Unicorn Poop which by the way is a rainbow confetti cookie LOL. There are way more links over at http://www.oneprettything.com

Plaid Kids Crafts
Plaid is one of the biggest companies when it comes to making arts and crafts supplies. They actually make Folk Art paint and Modge Podge. Plaid Kids Crafts is their blog that is geared towards crafts designed specifically for children. Looking for a summer project to do with your kids? How about Wind-chimes using clay pots? To be honest I completely bookmarked that for myself. Have older kids or planning on going to college and living in a dorm? Well here's some Dorm Decor that you might be able to make. For many other activities go to http://www.plaidkidscrafts.com

Craft Jr.
Craft Jr. is a website in the The Woo! Jr. Kids Activities Network which was created by a working mother who had been feature on the Today Show. The website features tutorials on how to make things from Silk Flower Barrette's to Homemade Play Dough. To see all of the tutorials go to http://www.craftjr.com

Scrumdilly-Do!
Scrumdilly-Do is the only blog on my short list that actually has blog in their web address. However, while she does not pay for web hosting to be able to have that "authentic" web address she more than makes up for it with the content of her blog. Jessica Wilson is just like us, a student trying to finish up her college degree, hers is in Child Development. She uses this to create different crafts and projects but also features more educational topics as well. Currently she had a Ten-Hats in Ten Days project going and back in November she did Picture Book Month where she covered different picture books and did crafts inspired by them. To see other things that she does visit http://scrumdillydo.blogspot.com/

Trip to the Store

I have decided that in the next couple of a weeks I'm going to be baking up a storm. I want to be able to do cupcakes and cookies as Christmas Presents for people but lets get real, I'm probably not going to have them done in time for that. At least to my liking anyway, what can I say I'm a perfectionist.

Anywho. I took a trip to Wally World with the hubby and mother-in-law to get some tools and ingredients. We were in desperate need of some rubber spatulas, an ice cream scoop, and a lot of baking ingredients.

UPDATE:
I was able to go to Wally World again today and picked up containers to ship cookies in, tissue paper to put in the containers, shrink wrap to wrap the containers, and bubble wrap to wrap them again. I'll probably be making the cookies over the weekend to be shipped out on Monday. Stay tuned for updates ;)