I know this post is a little late but I wanted to also share my new "planner supply book" with you guys. I got the idea from the MAMBI instagram page. It's basically an extra planner with all my stickers and labels in it. 

I purchased the decorative planner covers and the expander rings from Michaels for $4.99 each. I used a 40% off coupon as well.

I also purchased the MAMBI pocket folders from Michaels. They retail for 7.99 but I used a 40% off coupon. 

I love how my planner supply book came out. It works perfectly to organize all my stickers and labels. 

Now on to this weeks spread. 

I call this week my "secret garden" theme. I love the pinks and greens in this spread.

The cute naturalista is from Pinterest. I just printed her off on regular paper and taped her down.

LOVE my new gold rings!!

I can't believe it's already the end of June! Where is time going?! 

Xo, Jeanice :)

Bookshelf: June 15th-19th.

The Fly Flew In by David Catrow This is a really cute comical book that is great for beginning readers. The narrative is very simple, one sentence per page. The illustrations are wonderfully bright and colorful. The overall story is hilarious and very relatable as we've all been bugged by a fly or two in our lifetime.

The Haunted Hamburger and Other Ghostly Stories by David LaRochelle A collection of short "scary" stories. Scary that is, if you're a ghost. This book is about a daddy ghost telling his kids scary bedtime stories. While the stories may be scary for little ghosts, human kiddos will find this book hilarious. This is a great read aloud book, I read it to Jordyn in the funny voices and she could not stop laughing.

Zombelina by Kristyn Crow I love this story! Zombelina loves to dance so her mother enrolls her in a ballet school. She gets stage fright on the night of her performance but her family and friends show up to support her. The story is told in rhyming text and the overall concept of the story is very sweet and encouraging.

Jamaica Is Thankful by Juanita Havill Jamaicas friend gives her a cat but she can't keep it because her brother is allergic. Jamaica realizes how thankful she is to have her brother and doesn't really need a pet after all. This is a great book to teach family structure and being grateful for what we have. 

Charlie the Ranch Dog: Stuck in the Mud by Ree Drummond We love Charlie! This is an easy reader that includes talking animals which of course, Jordyn loves. 

Fancy Nancy: Peanut Butter and Jellyfish by Jane O'Connor Another easy reader book. Jordyn loves Fancy Nancy so she always enjoys the books in the series. This one is also packed with lots of information about Jellyfish.

3 ingredient watermelon popsicles

I am NOT a fan of watermelon. I won't eat it. It is not good to me. Jordyn however, LOVES it.....here is photographic proof.....

   

How one kid can have so much fun with a slice of watermelon is beyond me. 

Anyway we bought a really giant watermelon. We sliced most of it but had a bunch left over so we made popsicles!

These are the easiest things to make and according to Jordyn they're super delicious. 

The popsicle molds came from Dollar Tree.

Heres what you need.

watermelon...I'm gonna say we had about a pound. The watermelon we bought was huge.

1 cup water.

1/2 cup raw organic sugar.

Heres what you do.

Throw it all in your blender and until smooth.

 Fill each popsicle mold and place in freezer for about 4 hours. 

When you're ready to take the popsicles out run the molds under hot water and they should slide out easily!

That's it! Super easy and super yummy ( according to the watermelon lover) 

Enjoy! 

Xo, Jeanice

Favorite websites for 7 year old

I got an email asking me if I knew of any good, FREE websites for elementary aged children. I've been asked this question a few times before and I realize that even though there are plenty of lists of "good websites" for kids out there, a lot of them are not so great. 

When i'm looking for a website for my daughter to go on I want something that is of course educational but also easy for her to navigate. I look for something that is user friendly that my 7 year old doesn't have a hard time figuring out. I also look for websites that are free and have little to no pop-ups that she can accidentally click on. 

So in order to answer the question i've been asked a few times I figured I would share the websites Jordyn goes on and actually enjoys. 

Abcya.com

This is Jordyns favorite website to go on. It's free and super easy for her to work on her own. The games are all educational but also fun enough her to want to play for long periods of time. 

www.makemegenius.com

This website has a science based curriculum. The information is super kid friendly and interesting. 

pbskids.org 

What kid doesn't love pbs kids? Jordyn loves playing the Wild Kratts, Curious George, and Word Girl games. Very easy for children to navigate and use on their own. 

funbrain.com

This website is not only fun and colorful but the lessons and games are designed to help build upon what kids should already be learning in their current grade level so it is really helpful to those who need extra help outside the classroom.

discoverykids.com

Jordyn is really into science,space, and animals. Discoverykids.com allows for her to learn all about that in a way that is easy for her to understand.

scholastic.com

Scholastic.com is actually really similar to pbskids.com. They feature a lot of the same characters but they do offer a different variety of content that Jordyn enjoys.

So these are our top picks. 

The websites that Jordyn goes on constantly and really enjoys. I wanted to give you guys a longer list but to be truthful a lot of those 'free' websites out there are hard for children to navigate on their own, are filled with pop ups, ads, or push their paid content on you. Some websites offer small portions of their websites for free and then prompt you to pay to access the rest of the content. These six websites are all free and very user friendly. 

There are other websites that are great but require a subscription. ABCMOUSE.COM is great for younger kids. SMARTYANTS.COM is amazing and Jordyn loves it but the subscription prices are high for those. 

What are some of your favorite websites for your elementary aged children? I'd love to know!

Xo, Jeanice :)

Plan with me. June 15th-21st

I've got a pretty easy week coming up with both my meal planning as well as my regular weekly schedule. I've seemed to actually have built up a pretty well stocked pantry so my grocery list for the week is really short and we don't have much planned besides our regular activities ( swim...gymnastics..work...etc.)

This week I decided on a Starbucks themed meal plan. Ironically, I spilled coffee on the page while planning.....hilarious......not. 

 See, top left. Total coffee spill and everything got all wrinkled and weird looking.....oh well. You win some. You spill coffee on some. 

My regular week spread is a very chic black and pink. I'm not a super chic person but I really love how this spread came out. 

Picture quality is a little off. Theres a weird overcast this morning and I wanted to get this posted before we went to swim practice. 

For both these spreads I used stickers from Me and My BIG Ideas as well as images I found and printed off of Pinterest. I have deers on the hydrate stickers and the weekend stickers on my very first plan with me post. 

So thats my upcoming weekly spread. 

Enjoy!

Xo, Jeanice.

Favorite co-washes under 10 dollars!

Co-washing is short for conditioner washing. It means cleansing your hair with a conditioner instead of a shampoo. It's purpose is to keep the natural oils of the hair while still gently cleansing it. It's one of my favorite things to do to our hair since we live in a place where the air gets really dry and the heat is so intense our hair and skin takes a brutal beating. Co-washing makes sure I give our hair extra attention without constantly stripping our hair of the oils that it needs.

Lots of companies offer co-washes these days ranging from gentle cleansers to clarifying co-washes. Which co-wash you choose really just depends on your needs for your hair. For us, I like to keep it light, and cheap. I don't use co-washes for clarifying. I mainly use them for added moisture.

Here is a list of my favorite co-washes or conditioners I use for co-washing that are cheap and easily found at all drugstores. 

Tresemme Naturals conditioner. Love this conditioner. You can get it for around 5 bucks and you get loads of product for that price. Super moisturizing, lots of slip, and the ingredients are pretty clean. I've used this as a leave-in as well as a co-wash. 

Aussie Moist conditioner. This one is around the same price as the Tresemme Naturals. They both feel the same in my hair but the Aussie Moist helps more with detangling. It also makes Jordyns hair a tad bit shinier than Tresemme Naturals does. 

Aussie Moist 3 Minute Miracle Moist. Ok this is my ALL TIME favorite conditioning treatment. It's priced in the 3 dollar range. I also have used it as a co-wash when I was out of all other co-washes and was pleasantly surprised. It's super thick and ultra hydrating. 

As I Am Naturally conditioning co-wash  You can get this product for 6-8 dollars. I love how it cleanses my hair but doesn't strip my hair. My hair just glides through my fingers after I use this products. You get a lot of product for the price but it can go quickly if you have a lot of thick hair. It also comes in a tub which i'm not a big fan of. 

Cantu Shea Butter Conditioning Co-wash This co-wash is also about in the 6-8 dollar range. This is the most stripping co-wash I use. Although it was stripping my hair was still really soft and detangled easily. I use this one sparingly as I don't really like my hair to feel stripped but I do like how clarifying it is. 

I don't believe in paying over 10 dollars for a co-wash so these are some of my favorites. They are easy to find and do a great job. Just goes to show that you don't have to pay a high price for great hair care. 

Xo, Jeanice :)

Mother-Daughter Journaling.

Jordyn and I have a pretty open line of communication but journaling with each other is a way of continuing to keep that line of communication open while also creating something written memories I can keep and give to her when she's older. 

This is such a fun simple idea that I stumbled across on Pinterest. 

I just bought a simple journal from Walmart for about 2 dollars.

If she has something she wants to write to me about, she writes it and leaves the journal for me to find  ( either on my bed or on the kitchen counter.) When I read it, I write her back and leave it on her desk or bed. Our notes range from small things like little drawings and questions such as "whats for dinner?" to deep thoughts, heavy questions, and secrets. 

I debated on sharing a few pages from the journal but I decided it is something i'd rather keep private and just between us. 

It's also a great way to work on penmanship and keep building Jordyns love for writing. 

My hope is that because we have such an open line of communication at a young age, that when she gets older and has more heavy topics to talk to me about that she just can t find the words for, she will be comfortable writing it to me. 

Do you and your kiddos have any special ways of communicating? I'd love to hear!

Xo, Jeanice :)

What we're reading. June 1st-5th.

This weeks books are from our trip to the library.

 Jordyn started her summer reading challenge this week and is so excited. Our library hosts Club Read! kids are challenged to read 10 hours or 20 books and document it on the bookmark that you can pick up from the library.  Once you return your completed bookmark the child receives a book as a prize! 

This weeks books  from left to right.

Oh, No! by Candace Fleming. This book is really cute. The language is very repetitive and the texts are very singsongy. Its a fun book to read aloud! This book was probably intended for a younger audience but Jordyn found it very catchy and the illustrations are beautiful. 

Big Pig by Malachy Doyle & John Bendall-Brunello A very cute coming of age story that tells how Big Pig learns to be more independent. Jordyn wasn't overly excited about this book and said it was just "ok"

Stephanies Ponytail by Robert Munsch I LOVE this book!! A hilarious story about what happens when you are a copy cat. Jordyn and I laughed the whole way through this story!

Friendly Day by Mij Kelly Such a cute story that teaches lessons about being kinder and friendlier. 

Thomas the Toadilly Terrible Bully by Janice Levy Thomas is tired of being ignored so he decides to become a bully but soon finds out he is terrible at it and learns to be a friend instead. 

Are any of you doing a Summer reading challenge with your kiddos?

Xo, Jeanice :)

Plan with me: June 8th-14th.

I'm loving this weeks meal planning spread. The oranges, blues, and greens scream Summer.

 We do crockpot meals every Wednesday and Friday because Jordyn has gymnastics those days.
Most of the stickers on the page are from MAMBI
The gold letter stickers I actually found at Target in the dollar spot! I snatched up 6 packs. lol.

 All of the washi is from Michaels. The pineapple sticker is from a sticker pack I found at Dollar Tree.  The watermelon page clip is a diy.

This is the first week Jordyn will be home from school so I have to start planning out lunches. Jordyn is really simple with her food choices so I sat down and let her tell me what she wanted to eat. 

This week my weekly spread is Lisa Frank themed. How adorable!! I really am loving how much this reminds me of my childhood. 

I stole most of the Lisa Frank stickers from Jordyns sticker books. haha. No shame there She definitely got mad at me because I used her tiger sticker....oops.

 

This mini dashboard as well as the mini dashboard used on my meal plan were made with scrapbook paper. 

The ballerina bunny I printed off of Pinterest. I ran out of hot glue and had to just tape her down. Oh well! Deets on the hydrate stickers and weekend stickers are in my last plan with me post!

Happy Saturday!

Xo, Jeanice. :)

DIY kids room decor: Iron on transfers to canvas

Iron on transfer sheets are probably my all time favorite thing to use for DIY projects. Its really a tie between transfer sheets and Mod-Podge. 

These DIY canvas's are super easy to make. 

( The pillow cases were also made using iron on transfer sheets.)

What you'll need.

Canvas size of your choice. Mine are 12in by 12in from MICHAELS

They were 8.99 per pack but I used 40% off coupons. 

Dark photo transfer sheets. Also from Michaels. These were 9.99 but again, I used a coupon. 

Acrylic paint in the colors of your choice. These were 50 cents each at WALMART

Sponge brushes. Also from Walmart. $1.00 for pack of 4. 

Water.

First we started out by painting our canvas. Jordyn painted two and I painted two. 

While they are drying look up and print out the images you want to display on the canvas. We just did a google search. 

Follow the directions on your transfer sheets on how to print. 

Once printed, cut out your designs. 

I ended up printing out a different design besides the fruit circles. I didn't feel like they went well with the other images. 

Since each brand of transfer sheets are different. Follow the directions on your transfer sheets on how to iron them on. Mine were really simple. Simply peel the design from the backing and place face upward onto the canvas, cover with the included parchment paper. DO NOT USE STEAM. You want to glide the iron over very lightly and only for about 20 seconds max. Don't press too hard or you run the risk of burning your image. 

You're all done! 

You can then hang your creations. Super cute right?!

Happy crafting! 

Xo, Jeanice :)