Binkies and Briefcases • Page 146 of 268 •

How To Make Cute Flashcards (or Blog Graphics) in PicMonkey

April 30, 2013 By: Stephanie1 Comment

Nicholas is in kindergarten and learning sight words.

His teacher sends home an updated list every few weeks of the words he is supposed to know.

One of the easiest ways to memorize them is with flashcards.

I like to use PicMonkey software because it’s free, quick, and easy. Shhhh…this is the same method I use to make the graphics for all of my blog posts. Like this one:

STEP 1: Upload a picture to PicMonkey. It can be any picture, it doesn’t matter what it looks like because you are going to cover it up.

Step 2:Go to the Overlays section on the left hand side and choose “Geometric Overlay.” Click on the rectangle option and adjust the size until it covers your entire picture. Change the color of the overlay to white.

Step 3: Merge the layers. Look at the top of the screen in PicMonkey. See the button second from the right that looks like two squares on top of each other with an arrow next to them? Click it.

Step 4: Decorate. Now is the fun part. You can play around with the other overlays to add graphics or put a frame around your image.

I like that they have some pretty cool boy-friendly graphics. We can make sentences for him to read or just put one word on each card.

STEP 5: Save your image. If you are creating several flashcards save them all as separate images.

STEP 6: Put all of your flashcards into a Word (or whatever processor you use) document. You can insert them into a Word document by clicking Insert and choosing the picture option. Print them from there.

Building the Dream: We Have a Hole! {the foundation}

April 24, 2013 By: Stephanie3 Comments

Last week was monumental in our house-building process. We broke ground! Our foundation has been dug and the Superior Walls we are using for the basement are scheduled to be delivered TODAY depending on weather conditions.

At the very least, we now have a gigantic hole in the ground and some beautiful blossoming fruit trees.

It will still be quite some time (a month or so?) before the foundation is finished because the basement is only under part of the house. Once the walls are delivered and set, the rest of the foundation will need to be dug, block laid, all that fun stuff. Maybe this time next moth we will start to see walls go up?

Progress is progress.

Abby’s Birthday (with Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes!)

April 23, 2013 By: Stephaniecomment

Sunday my middle daughter, Abby, turned four! We celebrated at home with her favorite ice cream cone cupcakes.

In a very uncharacteristic move, Abby requested a pretty low-key weekend. She asked if we could go to Chic-Fil-A because they have a playground (which we did on Saturday, since they are closed on Sundays), make cupcakes, and open presents. Those were all pretty easy requests to accommodate.

We always make our cupcakes in ice cream cones because that’s the way my mom made them for me when I was a little girl.

It’s very easy to make ice cream cone cupcakes!

All you need is:

-Ice cream cones

-Cake batter

-The things it says on the box you need in order to make the cake batter (eggs, oil, etc.)

Just make the batter according to the package directions, then fill the cones about 3/4 full with raw cake batter, place them in muffin tins, and bake according to the directions on the box for cupcakes. (Sometimes it helps keep them steady if you bake them in a muffin tin.) We found that 1 box of cake mix made 21 cupcake cones. Top them with your choice of icing and sprinkles.

The kids love making ice cream cone cupcakes because it is easy for them to help, and they get to decorate and eat them as well.

After the cupcakes we had a scavenger hunt to find her presents. (Dolls from the movie Brave.)