tuesday treasure - sight words discovery bottle

sight words discovery bottle

When i was first introduced to the land of blog i saw some discovery bottles and i liked the idea. My Dylan is 3 and all year he has been interested in reading so i thought this was a great idea. We read a lot of books and he asks about the words i have found this website an endless supply of inspiration and references. http://www.education.com/

I did a google search on sight words to learn what they were and did a Microsoft exel sheet of them which we printed and laminated - do the words double sided so that there is a word each side when it surfaces to sight in your discovery bottle otherwise you can end up with blanks if you do it only on one side ( this was what i learnt doing the project )

fill your bottle with other objects substance to have the words move around in eg. coloured rice, coloured barley, wallpaper glue with glitter ( i want to do this one) marbles, sand etc.

we dyed with food colouring some barley and we used some stars and fluff.

don't overfill your bottle you need a couple of c.m's of space to move and rotate your contents so the words come to the top.

love noni

nz moments

Noni moments from the last few weeks, moving to Rotorua

Christmas Rocky Road - Thinking Cap Thursday

I don't normally do food on my blog but this one is a fun activity that the kids can really participate in and its one of my Christmas traditions passed on by my mum to do special baking at Christmas time. Only this is even better because there is no oven needed.

White Rocky Road
Awesome and extremely sweet, very festive perfect for the Christmas party I'm taking kids to tomorrow.

2.5 packets of white chocolate (@ 200gram packet)
1/2 a packet of white marshmallows
1 cup rice bubbles
1/3 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup of granulated peanuts
some raspberry lollies and mint leaf lollies.

 I cut the marshmallows up so that you just get tiny blobs rather than one huge marshmallow, the mini marshmallows would work perfectly but then id have to pick out the pink ones....not sure which is the lesser of the evils there. Then put in your rice bubbles, nuts, coconut. In a separate bowl melt the chocolate, this works best in microwave if you do it in short bursts and stir regularly, burnt chocolate is not tasty and wont stay white trust me on this i have been there. Then add your chocolate to your dry ingredients. Plop it into patty pans and place a raspberry and mint leaf on the top of each, then whack it in the fridge. Done to easy and kids can help, however they will beg to eat all the lollies.

I have made a more grown up version of this with pistachios for green and dried cranberries for fruit mixed in, then put into a slice tin, and cut into pieces looks very christmasy too.
love from, your sweet and feeling slightly sick after licking the bowl sassy

get your mind out of the gutter sassy, smirk, boobs

tada

the impossible christmas and friday finds

Christmas time, i long for a Christmas that can never be, except in neverland wherever that may be.
I think of it often the Christmas that I'd like with a great big gathering, sleekly wrapped gifts a perfectly preened tree, a feast of fine foods and all of the family together. I feel the miles between my family so keenly at Christmas, i wonder what it would be like to have all the little cousins together on Christmas morning, sharing their new toys and sense of wonder. The world is still so big, and plane trips still cost a lot. I imagine chatting over a nice glass of wine with my siblings and laughing at the annual jokes in the Christmas crackers, and us chuckling at my petite mums paper Christmas hat as it slides down over her eyes. We all do so love it when little mum wears hats, haha. But worst of all i long for the family that are gone to come back and see what a wonderful family they are missing, oh I'm sure on some level their spirit know this but its not the same and it's no consolation that another Christmas has rolled around and they aren't here. I miss them, it hurts, i accidentally come across what would have been a perfect gift for them, a stunning red and white outfit for my mother in law and the perfect adventure book for my dad. It has been years and still it hurts when for a split second you actually look at those items and think yes I'm so going to get that for them, then it floods back, oh wait there is no point. Grief comes in waves even with so much time elapsed. They never got to see their grandchildren open any presents on Christmas, they never knew and that makes me saddest of all. The tears are here.

Not for long reality just came back, had to go rescue the neighbour from my Houdini escapee dog.

I know that we will have a lovely Christmas and the family that is here will get together and it will be a nice cold lunch outside on the veranda with drinks and lots of play. grown ups snoozing in the afternoon as kiddies play and watch Christmas specials on tv. The tree is decked out with all the ornaments huddled on the top of the tree, a few lie on the floor eli's been busy with them. The presents will look a bit like santa had a few too many wines when he wrapped them up. It will be blisteringly hot, or monsoon rain will be falling. The paddle pool will be used by more than just the little ones, and it will overflow, the rat bag dog will probably go for a paddle aswell. There will be smiling faces and lots of fun. But i can't help but wonder what Christmas is like for the big families that all get together.
I am going to make the most of the loved ones and hug them extra tight when they arrive on Christmas day, and for the ones far away look for us on skype we will don our silly Christmas hats and show and tell our gifts x x love my family and i hope that you all have the most magical and fun Christmas ever. x x sassy

This friday im just choosing 1 find and its shows the best of peoples christmas spirit.
The wishing tree @ kmart
My mum and I put a gift under the wishing tree every year. I think its important to give to others even strangers as after all christmas is about giving, and its nice to play at santa. We like to choose gifts for older boys as according to the salvo's they are often the forgotten ones in the gift drive. So last year it was a skate board, this year im thinking basketball?
lets all make christmas good for everyone, merry christmas

christmas sewing - only human on humpday

I have been a bit distant with blog world and with facebook because i have been hiding in the air con but also because Ive been madly making Christmas presents for little people. I love Christmas i love giving gifts but with limited dosh Christmas can be a tricky time. So i make some things to boost parcels. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I'm nearly done yay. Now the only reason to have late nights is the sleep resistant 1 year old.

i'm exhausted, hope your Christmas preparations are going well.

love sassy x x x

more handmade christmas paper - tuesday treasures

The first idea is super simple and perfect for very little people. Eli had a lovely time painting but being so little doesn't fill up the page. So i butterfly printed his picture and he even helped me smooth out the paint when it was folded in half. It turned out very pretty.

He did try to eat the paint brushes more than once. looked like he'd been eating smurfs.

The Second is really fun and the effect is awesome. You really can only get this to work with fairly thick paint, so acrylic paint is perfect. Fill the page up with generous amount of paint then lay over the top cling wrap or plastic bags and gently scrunch it so it looks creased. Leave to dry, then when its dry and you peel off the cling wrap you end up with a lovely scrunched looking paint.

The next one would work fantastic on cards too, take pva glue and draw shapes onto the page. Let the glue dry, this may take overnight. Then to encourage my son to fill up the page with colour i put blobs of paint all over the page, he loves spreading them around and try to blend them together. Voila a 3d paper that looks great.

Home made paper can sometimes be thick to wrap with so you may need to use a really strong tape or lots of it, but i think its well worth it. Flynn is very proud when people ask him if he made the paper.  We hope you have fun making some wrapping paper, we sure did love sassy

moments

these are moments from christmas in the past, im feeling rather nostalgic and haven't been very snap happy this week. :)

Santa maze - Thinking Cap Thursday

yes i know its friday ! Right click n save or print out this little game or make your own, there are lots of christmas stickers out in the cheapie shops at the moment then all you have to do is scribble a pathway or two and voila. Get those kiddies concentrating on christmas :) love sassy

versitile blog award - friday finds

The lovely lady, Renee over at Adventures at home with Mum , passed this great award over to Sassy's Sanity. I'm so thrilled, it is wonderful to know that people are reading and appreciating my little blog. Its also an inspiration to keep at it, especially since im finding it tricky to squeeze in the time to blog at the moment. So thank you Renee it was a fantastic gift x

Ok, so The award rules are:
Thank the person that nominated you with a link back to them.
Tell 7 things about yourself.
Pass this award on to 10 newly discovered blogs and let them know that they've received an award.

About me 7 things - very very random things

1. I am getting grey hairs in my eyebrows! at 30 how terrible, i pluck the little suckers out.
2. I am the exact same height as my husband, according to our drivers licences. (wearing heels is a rear treat for me)
3. I sing christmas songs while decorating my christmas tree
4. I really like making the gps recalculate, rebellious side of me
5. I have green eyes
6. I need coffee to start my day or im a zombie
7. I savour every comment left on my blog it makes me super happy.

These are my newly discovered blogs, they are little gems! Like Renee I'm new to blogging so all these blogs are kinda new to me.

1. The Iowa Farmer's Wife - this is a chocker block full of clever ideas blog ( i love the muffin tins.)
2. Lessons Learnt Journal, Pauline entertains her little ones with joy and creativity.
3. Toys in the Dryer loving the reindeer pops
4. At Home with Ali I adore this one, a very honest and imaginative blogger
5. Owlet new to me and Divine photographs, a good sense of fun
6. Alicias 365 Moments of Gratitude Project not new to me but very very dear to me x
7. Tropical Mum fantastic writing, can totally relate to many of the stories on this blog
8. Getting Sorted - Each Day as it Comes this ones for me, for domestic goddess moments
9. Make, Do & Friend wow, lots and lots of clever crafty things for kiddies
10. Mum to 2 Posh Lil Divas newish to me, if you have run out of play ideas, lil divas is the answer

I hope you like these blogs as much as i do, they keep me inspired everyday and they are the perfect boredom busters, reality checks and i respect the honesty and generosity of these wonderful women. thanks for blogging ladies you are all talented writers.

feling brighter - only human on humpday

Ok so whilst its still extremely hot things are looking up and heres why

1.  air con has been installed in 2 bedrooms. These are my new sanctuary if you are looking for me that's where ill be for the next 3 or 4 months. I put mt. washmore away in the cool air yesterday, wow ever horrid chores are great so long as they are in the cool.
2.  have had some lovely catch ups with good finds. hallelujah for adult conversation.
3.  have read 3 books in one week. yay. i love books and its the simplest ans best way to look after myself. As an added bonus its inspired Eli to look at books he is now obsessed with books, 2 weeks ago he couldn't be bothered with them now hes madly pointing at books and demanding to be read to. That makes me extremely happy.
4. its beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our place, i finally got our tree up! and a few other decorations
5. I've got almost all the Christmas shopping finished i just have one tricky great grandmother to organise! I think shes going to get a magazine subscription.
6. Andrew and i have decided on a new way to tackle our biggest sons emotional breakdowns about the computer. and so far so good the system is working and there are fewer tears. The screen time thing is always a difficult balancing act. I remember before we had flynn we didn't even own a tv (we had computers coz were nerds) people would walk into our place and know something was missing would take them about 10 mins then they'd ask where our tv was.
7. Lay by for Christmas was picked up and im looking forward to Christmas morning so much!! i love spoiling my boys. not something i can often afford to do.
8. I got some photos of the boys printed and popped them in frames they are on the walls, hiding my bessa brick walls is always fantastic.
9. I splurged a whole $30 on myself, some new cheap clothes, summer clothes. retail therapy.
10. Finally hubby isn't putting in so many after work hour jobs and favours and thats really a reason to smile.

Just need to finish christmas sewing and it will all be good. 

Hope your week is bright and happy too!!!

 I would love to hear what you have been doing this week

love sassy

Playing house - tuesday treasure and friday find combined

This week i watched a video from Made By Joel and thought, i can so make one of those a bit doggy in comparison but its not like my boy is going to play with a dolls house a lot. So out came the box we had picked up at the local hardware store, its a habit of flynns to choose a box at each visit. we go there a lot because, my husband is obsessed with the hardware shop, and because we have a house in need of major revamping, so box collecting is part of motivating flynn to enjoy the frequent trips. Anyway i put christmas paper up for wallpaper. Popped a paint chip up for a window (i collect paint chips im always daydreaming about painting this house) some napkin for curtains, bit of cardboard cut and rolled into a fancy lantern light. A bit of egg carton and fabric scraps made a bed, another fabric scrap made a carpet. some bottle cap and cardboard for chairs, peanut butter lid table. Cut one end off a water cracker box with cut in one side for doors made a great wardrobe. A tissue box and some cardboard made a garage, a must for any blokes house. Cut out some dvd adds for artworks on the wall. And randomly plonked a couple of tubes above the garage, rain water tanks??? or whatever.

very cosy

garage big enough for a fire engine

Now here's how he played with it, this was definitely not my idea of playing 'house', he hid people in various places, the wardrobe the rain tanks in the garage, they then yelled and shouted till a fireman arrived to rescue them. It then morphed into a hide and seek game where people were being jammed into the lantern, because its a cage mummy and ahh hes going to get him! Naughty boy hasn't gone to bed mum and hes hiding. What the? note to self don't put figurine of naughty Norman price from fire man sam into the play house. Another note to self, hes a blokey boy he was never going to act out a family scene....at least he played with it, that is when he wasn't yelling at his younger brother for nicking the milk bottle chairs and pulling them apart. Yet another note, it needs a skate ramp.
I would love to know how your kids play with toy houses.

ok so here's a few more inspiring house creations

made by joel

craft-project.com

dos family

moments

anyone for a cruise?

yay hes discovered books finally!!!!!

get out of that pot Zephee! and stop eating my fancy grass