My friend Beka threw the cutest Presidents Day party for some of the neighborhood kids.

She invited each of the kids to dress up like their favorite US President. My boys went as George Washington, Ronald Regan, and Abraham Lincoln.

When we got there they were all set to do a mile race!

Coming down the finish line!

When the kids were done Beka had a metal for them and a gold dollar. They loved it.

Then she had the most amazing table set up with Presidential treats!

Here is a list of what she had:

Water – George Water Bush

Kool-Aid – Calvin Kool-Aide

Ruffles – Ruffle-ford Hayes

Veggie Tray – Barack-oli- Obama

Salt water taffy – William Howard Taffy

Ranch – Ulysses S Ranch

Dill Dip – Dill Clinton

Bananas – James Banana -an

Orange Slices – Harry S. Fruitman

Honestly I never do anything for Presidents Day so this was such a fun thing to do on our day off and we actually thought about the men who have served as our Presidents! I’m hoping this becomes an annual tradition!

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Sorry this is out a bit later than I was wanting!  I have been super busy the last couple weeks and this weekend I hit a wall (and went a bit crazy) and realized I have got to slow down a bit!  So, this week I’m planning VERY little and just going to mainly have a home week!  I’m super excited for this week too, because my oldest sister and her kids are moving back to Southern Utah!  They’ve been living in ND that last year, but decided it would be better for them to return near family!  We are all excited to have them back!

So, here is the 4th of July Pre-K Pack!  I was super happy with the clipart and think it turned out fun!  I hope that you and your little ones enjoy it!

 Included in this Pre-K Pack is:

Prewriting Practice Sheets – Cutting Practice – Which one is different?

Finish the Pattern Sheet – Size Sequencing Sheet – 4th of July Strip Puzzle

4-piece Puzzles -  Counting Practice Cards – Color the Flag 

2-Part Vocabulary Cards – Shadow Matching 

Letter Ff Identification – 4th of July Matching

Firework Magnet Sheet – Letter Ff Sorting Page

My boys have also been having some fun playing in the 4th of July Sensory Bin I put together!  They always love sensory bins!

A few other crafts we will be doing this are:

Handprint and Footprint Bald Eagle from Handprint and Footprint Art

Handprint Fireworks from No Time for Flashcards

To see some more fun 4th of July crafts (and decoration) ideas go check out my 4th of July Pinterest Board!

Thanks to www.mygrafico.com and:

Pixel Paper Prints or the Boy and Girl 4th of July Clipart

and to http://us-flag.net/pictures/coloring-page!

Just in time for the 4th of July, Lori from You’ve been Framed and I finally made the big pallet flags we have been talking about making forever!

First we split some pallets to get some good rustic wood. Who am I kidding, first John ripped the pallets apart for us so we could have the wood! I wasn’t quite sure of the length so until we started painting I left them full sized.

Next we measured out how wide we wanted our blue section to be and sectioned it off on the top 3 boards. We did ours 13 inches wide.

Then we painted the wood. Red stripe on the top, alternating with white down the boards, and blue in the corner.

Then we cut the boards to the right size, we cut ours to 38 inches. Using her Silhouette, Lori made stars for our blue section. We were so excited to finish them up that we forgot to take pictures of that part! But what we did was pull the center part of the stars out, so we were left with a stencil of 9 stars. We placed that on the blue section and then painted white into the inside of the star stencil.

Next we sanded each of the boards really good to give them the really nice distressed look.

I loved how the boards all sanded a little differently.

Then we sprayed them with a clear polyurethane. I hung mine on my porch. This is the first of many porch projects that I plan on doing this summer. I really want to spruce my porch up!

Lori already has a darling porch and she propped hers up with some of her other cute stuff.

They are super fun for the summer!

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Love these reminders of why I am so happy to have John home tomorrow.  Its ironic that women sacrificed months, years, even a lifetime with the love of their life so that I get to have mine home for one more day this year. Makes me feel really spoiled!

We shared this printable for Veterans day but I think it’s just as applicable for Memorial Day.

Have a wonderful Memorial day! I hope that we will all take a moment to remember why we really celebrate today, and also take the time to teach our children why today is so special.

Did you know Veterans day is coming on Friday November 11th? I learned a lot about Veterans Day this year. It is known as Veterans Day, Remembrance Day, Poppy Day, and Armistice Day and is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty since World War I. Remembrance Day is observed on the 11th of November to recall the official end of World War I. On November 11, 1918 World War I formally ended “at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month” when the Germans signed the Armistice.The red remembrance poppy has become a symbol for Veterans day due to the poem In Flanders Fields. These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red color an appropriate symbol for the blood spilled in the war.

I love my husband John for many reasons but one of the reasons I admire him the most is that I have never seen him pass a soldier in uniform or a Veteran and not stop to say thank you. It doesn’t matter where we are – Disneyland to DI – convenient or not, he stops to express his thanks. We were in our local DI and I was drooling over an entertainment center (pics coming soon!!!!) and he was sitting on a couch with all 3 of our boys talking to an elderly gentleman with a veterans hat. At that moment I was so grateful for the example he is to our sons and so proud to be his wife.

This time of year life is crazy! I have been racking my brain for a way to teach our boys about the sacrifice our military men and women make for our country, one that is realistic for me right now. I’m happy to announce that I have come up with a way to teach them about sacrifice and save me some time! We are going to eat  MRE for dinner on Veterans day and Memorial day in our house from now on. If our armed services can do it while away from their families we can sacrifice one home cooked meal to honor their sacrifice. Its only something small but hopefully it will remind us how lucky we are to be protected by the brave!

I did want to put a new little sign in our table frame and created this printable.

If you would like to print one for your family please help yourself!