Summertime is in full swing and I'm a winner winner chicken dinner...

A few weeks ago Twice Rememered Cottage was having her annual Cottage Linky giveaway party.  I entered a few of the giveaways and low and behold I came out a winner on a couple of them and I'm so glad I did.  First off I won this cute ABC pillow sham from Debra at Loyalist Cottage .  Here is how it came all wrapped up...

Didn't Debra wrap it up so cute?  Love the colorful card and the scalloped tissue paper with the bee stamped ribbon.  Now lets look and see what inside..

 
 yep, that cute ABC pillow in red..doesn't it go great on my cottage bench?  Thank you so much Debra, your a doll!  Thank you so much for always coming to my blog and making comments, you really make my day! 

The next giveaway I won was at Cottage 980, she is a yard-sale, thrifty hunter extraordinaire.  I was the lucky recipient of her lovely generous giveaway..

 
 
 3 more ball jars (around here they go for about 7 dollars a jar) to add to my collection. I got two in aqua,  which will fill out my chicken wire basket perfect and 1 white jar which you see I have already filled it with Salt Water Taffy for Summer Bingo {I'll get to that in a minute}.  Vintage music paper, some scrabble letters which I think I'll make into magnets.  I need some magnets for the Chalkboard or Refrigerator. A darling melamine plate with robins egg border and petite floral roses on it and cute tag with some flowers all wrapped up with ribbon.  Thanks so much Maureen over at Cottage 980.  I loved all my goodies.   I've added both of these bloggers to my blog roll so go check them out.  What sweet ladies they are.  As they say in Hawai'i Mahalo!

Now for the second part of my post.  Summertime is in full swing over here.  We have gone to the beach once and scheduled our beach day for Fridays. Last year you might of remembered this post of Summer Bingo .  I got this idea from Stacy Julian a few summers ago, she has 4 boys and 1 sweet girl adopted from China.  She has the best ideas and I've been following this Summer Bingo program for the third summer.  I change it up a bit every year. And as you can see the li'l one is already on her way to blackout..

 
We have a Paul Frank theme going on instead of Spongebob.

   
Here are the Summer Bingo rules that I adapt to my family, if you click on the link above you'll be lead to Stacy's downloaded copy of the rules and Bingo card but here is Download Summerbingo Card and Download Bingorules-1 {mine}. Have fun changing yours in your word program to fit your own family. 

 
I've changed my schedule up a bit from last summer.  My girls help out in the classrooms at their school from 8am until about 11:30ish Monday until Thursday.  So their mornings are pretty much filled up.  Then they come home and have lunch and then they are off to the WYN club. {Our city does a drop in program from 12:00 until 5p.m. at one of the local parks.}.  They do water games, sport games, crafts everyday and hang out with their friends. They love it and they are "out of my hair"..well if I had any hair!!!   they would be out of it!!   They come home and help with dinner and twice a week, each one picks a night to cook dinner with Mom {that they love too}  Kenzie picked Tasty Burritos..and boy was that yummy on Tuesday.  Tonight Madison is making Tacos.  Yes...we cook a lot of Mexican here!!  This year I've adapted the homework part of it on the Summer Bingo. They don't have to do the Homework sheets and read, but as you can see they do have to read in many of the squares to get a sticker.  I gave them a choice to read or write for 20 minutes before bedtime.   For MacKenzie I also added the choice of going through division flash cards because she needs help with that, according to her report card.  Madison is weak at writing/reading so I'm hoping she'll choose one of those.  We don't do this program during the Holidays or weekends.  I do it to keep them entertained, so they don't fight with each other and so they don't wine with I have "nothing to do"!!  It works for me give it a shot....

Yes, they are tweens and DON'T want to take pictures...

   A new suit for the summer...Last year I was a much better "MOM" and had beach buckets filled with new Beach stuff...slippers, light up balls, goggles, new towels..It was called the "Summer Fun Bucket" ...I forgot to do that this year.  Oh well!! They didn't seem to miss it because they never asked about it.   They always get what they need I suppose.

 
  Here is to a fun filled days of sandy feet, warm sun at the beach and at the neighbors' house enjoying the pool.   To eating lots of popsicles and tanned bodies and enjoying reading lots of books!! Hope you have a wonderful summer and keep those kiddies cool and happy!  AND READING!!

Comments

[Debra]

What a sweet thank you! You have a lovely summer with your girls and thanks for adding me to your sidebar.
Hugs

[Beka]

What great wins for you!! They go perfectly with your cottage style home!! You so deserve to win!!! I am so glad for you!!! That pillow is simply wonderful, and you know how much I adore vintage Ball jars!! LOVE the Summer bingo idea!! I may have to steal that from you. Thanks for the great idea. Your-non-blogging-since-facebook-took-over-friend

[gabrielle]

Your welcome Debra..I know Beca how much you love them...I won't be eyeballing your now figuring out how to get em out of your house without looking...ha.