The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

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How Pinteresting!

Have you heard of Pinterest?  I had not either until a friend posted something about it and of course I had to check it out and now I'm hooked, it's so fun.

 Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.


All it really is, is a board and you add pins to it of your favorite things or something you want to remember, it links to the site. Now I don't have all these papers on my desk with web addresses on them instead I have a bunch of boards on pinterest and it's all managed in an easy place! LOVE IT!!!  If you want to check out my boards and follow me on pinterest click.  This is a warning though, you may not want to get started it's kinda like a new addiction and I have to limit myself to 10 minutes at a time...really I set the timer and everything.  I've found great ideas for our homeschool room, organizing ideas, recipes, etc. and everything has a picture attached to it, this is a FUN idea!

Sandia Peak in Albuquerque, NM

I was so excited to take my family on this Tram, we figured out that the last time I had been on it was when I was around 7 or 8 yrs old so it's been about 30 years...wow, I totally just dated myself!  The unbelievable thing was that it was almost exactly the same from when I was a kid, I couldn't believe that it hadn't really changed in 30 years because I know I have changed a LOT.  If you are ever in Albuquerque and want to do something fun consider Sandia Peak Tram.  Also, a big thank you to my cousin Krista for scoring the free tickets for us!

Check out that view, you can see for miles and miles!

Of course we had a family photo opp

We saw this little guy and the kids begged me to take his pic

Check out this lady riding on top of the tram, she works for them.

Iowa

We went to Iowa to pick up Kylan (he had been in Colorado for a month) and we got to see a bunch of family.  It's always so fun to see all of Kevin's relatives and I'm just so thankful that all of his extended family and our family get along so well.  I love his cousins, aunts, uncles, and Grandma like they are my own.  It was nice and cool while we visited, I think it might have made it up to 86 degrees in Iowa....it was in the 100's in Oklahoma.

Kevin and his cousin Megan

A bunch of family that we met for lunch

Kenzie and I at the Freedom Rock

A corn field, you see a lot of these in Iowa!

Cousins that we haven't seen in like 9 years and their son Tyler

Allie

Sadie, Kenzie and Sierra

Kevin hanging with his cousins

This is the little Freedom Rock that's in the town of Greenfield, it's not the real rock.

The Freedom Rock

Have you heard about the Freedom Rock in Iowa?  Every year for the past 11 years this man named Bubba Sorensen has painted this huge rock as a Memorial Day tribute to honor those that serve our country, it's amazing!  He re-paints this rock with a new design every year and unveils it on Memorial Day and people come from all over the world to see it.  The rock is actually a large granite boulder that was dug out of the Schillberg Rock Quarry and it weighs approx. 56 ton (50.8Mg) and is 12 ft (3.7m) high.

Make your own pads of paper

Makenzie and I had a girls day out, we went to the Cheesecake factory

 for lunch then we saw Soul Surfer (great movie, very inspiring) and then on to Josh's Sno Shack for snow cones.  We had a great day and when we got home it was craft time.  Have you ever made a craft from a cereal box or from the box from pop cans?  We decided to customize our own pads of paper, it's super easy and ANYONE can do it!

1. Cut out cereal boxes, the sides from boxes of pop, popcorn, anything that looks cute to you! My daughter Makenzie wants to use some packaging from the American Girl store, you could also use cute cards, the list goes on and on.

  

2. Trim your paper to the same size as your cereal box (you need a front and back piece that are sturdy).

3. Your front, back and inside paper are all cut to the same size

4.  We used two paint stir sticks and large bull dog clips to keep everything in place

5. Next you paint some mod podge onto the top to bind all of your paper together.

6. Let dry 1 hr and then re-apply another 2 coats of mod podge for a total of 3 coats

This is the finished pad of paper, cute huh!

Here are a couple of cute cereal boxes

and of course something from American Girl