Building our first Gingerbread House

Posted on December 12, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody!

I hope you guys are well.

The holidays are fast approaching and my mind is about to explode. Please SLOW DOWN!! Wishful thinking, I know. Anyway, the other day we went to my mom’s house and I decided to take a gingerbread kit, which I bought at Ikea (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90218783/), with us because we’ve never constructed a gingerbread house before and I thought my girls and I would have a lot of fun putting it together with Grandma Rose. That was an understatement because we had a BLAST!

Along with the kit I also bought a bunch of decorating goodies:

Marshmallow fluff

Mini marshmallows

Mike & Ike candy

Fruit Snack Gummies

Twizzlers

Mini M&M’s

Skittles

The laughter was non-stop between my youngest licking her fingers (germs galore, yikes!) and dealing with the stickiness of the marshmallow fluff. We did our very best to stack the house, decorate it, and keep it in tact, but…

…it didn’t work. By the end of the night, one side of the roof was falling off and the fluff was melting causing the candies to fall down with it. Oh well, we still had so much fun building it and then eating it.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Washi tape to the rescue…

Posted on December 6, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody!

I hope you guys are well.

Here’s an idea to spruce up any plain boxes you may have around (in my case: a cardboard red box that stores my bracelets) or even gift boxes for upcoming Christmas presents. You can use washi tape. They come in many designs and can be easily removed so if you make a mistake or get tired of the design, just peel it off and reposition or pick another design.

I chose a script writing washi tape that I found at A.C. Moore on sale. These little tapes can be expensive so when they go on sale get as many as you can. If you’re a crafter, you won’t regret the purchase. I just covered the top of the box and lined up the tape so it would look like a continuous design.

I wanted to see the finished box with a gift bow so I took out my scrapbook paper, which I also got on sale at AC Moore (buy, buy, buy) and my bow template courtesy of http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-to-make-paper-bow.html.

I love my cardboard red box now more than ever and if I was gifting this box, I would add the paper bow.

I decorated my kids play doh accessories box with the Super Mario (brand DUCK TAPE) design (found it at AC Moore, not on sale 😦 ). I found the birthday duct tape and glitter tape at the dollar section in Target. Yup, $1 . Score! The other washi tapes that I have are silhouette birds on a wire and cloudy sky with red hearts. I have a strong feeling this tape collection is going to be growing. I’m gonna need a big storage box, STAT!

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Oh angry bird…

Posted on December 4, 2013 by themercadoproject

Oh angry bird

look at you there

staring fiercely at me,

but you bring so much joy

to so many kids, including my own.

You’re even inspiring.

Beckoning me to take a photograph of you

with your beady little eyes,

furrowed eyebrows and pointy beak.

Who knew you were such a model?

You definitely have that je ne sais quoi.

– Angelica Mercado

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Hello everybody!

I hope you guys are well.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, less writing these past few ~~months~~ days. Just going through the motions and preparing for Christmas. The tree and decorations are up at the Mercado household, the online wish list has been emailed and the gift shopping is very SLOWLY getting checked off. As for my angry bird inspiration above, my kids are always taking their toys, whether they’re bath toys or not, to the bathroom and while taking a shower the other day, I spotted the angry bird on the dollhouse table. It beckoned to be photographed. So I did. And then gave it some words.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

DIY Minion

Posted on November 15, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody!

I hope you guys are well.

I have a great craft idea that came from my darling, beautiful and very crafty 6-year-old daughter, Olivia. With a toilet paper roll, construction paper, glue, markers, scissors, and googly eyes Olivia made her very own minions from the movie “Despicable Me.” She came up with this idea on her very own so I’m sharing it with you step by step. Enjoy!

My husband put up a ledge shelf for Olivia’s Arts and Crafts finished projects. Here are her Minions – Ballerina, Mom, Dad, and Baby Minion

I covered the toilet paper roll with yellow construction paper. I added the googly eyes with the glue dots. Then traced around the eyes with the silver marker to make the goggles and used the black sharpie to make the band.

Using the sharpie I drew the smile and hair. With the blue construction paper I made the front of the overalls, adding a pocket and the letter G for Gru.

I glued the construction paper using the Fabri – Tac glue because it works best for me. I used the glue dots for the small strips of construction paper. You can always make the Minion with one eye like the toy figure pictured.

Here’s my finished Minion.

This is a fun craft project for your kids and it’s also a great decorating idea for any Minion party!

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Proof is in the grade!

Posted on November 12, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody!

I hope you guys are well.

Happy belated Veterans Day (THANK YOU to all veterans and those currently serving) and my thoughts are with the people in the Philippines and their worried friends and family throughout the world. May help arrive as soon as possible and heal those in need. May the people who lost their lives rest in peace.

________________________________________________________________________________

So, I’ve been wondering whether or not I did the correct thing in asking for my daughter to be placed in another first grade class with a new teacher. I got the answer this past Friday when my daughter’s teacher wanted a word with me regarding speech therapy for Olivia. I told her that we tried to get her therapy last year while she was in Kindergarten, but due to her above average grades, they felt that she didn’t need the therapy. Olivia’s new teacher balked at that. We are starting the process once again in order to give my daughter the help she needs because this year it’s affecting her spelling, writing, and communicating skills. There are certain letter sounds in which Olivia has a hard time pronouncing so if she’s writing a word that includes these sounds, she spells the word wrong. At home we do practice with her enunciating certain words and letter sounds, but she still needs a therapist. Within a week, her new teacher picked up on this and that’s why I’m loving her. Also, my daughter was given her first spelling test with the words of the week, which we studied for by writing them over every day, looking at homemade flash cards, and making sentences for each word. She scored a:

The proof is in the grade.

I did the right thing and the added bonus is a teacher who’s going to battle for my daughter to get the services that she rightfully deserves. Last year, Olivia’s Kindergarten teacher mentioned that there was some issues regarding her speech, so we started the process of requesting speech therapy for her. It was completely drawn out. My husband and I scheduled and attended meetings, I wrote many letters and finally (many months later) my husband took Olivia to be evaluated, per an appointment made by the Board of Education. This evaluation proved that Olivia was not struggling in school. They concluded that she was above average, but that’s not what we asked for. She can’t say certain letter sounds, but because she was achieving superb grades in Kindergarten, they decided that she would grow out of it. That was their conclusion. Obviously they were wrong, because it’s starting to affect her now in the 1st grade and if not dealt with, it might get worse, but I’m not going to let that happen. No matter how many letters I have to write or meetings I have to attend, my child will get the assistance that she needs.

I’m her advocate.

I’m her mom.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Happy Belated Halloween 2013

Posted on November 6, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody!

I hope you guys are well.

This year for Halloween the Mercado household dressed up as…

…Princess Peach, Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi from Super Mario Brothers

I so wanted to recreate that picture above with the stuff toys, but a certain little girl/Yoshi didn’t want to cooperate and get into the costume my talented husband created, so we went Yoshiless. My oldest daughter, Olivia, was Princess Peach (costume gown and crown bought early at Target.com), my husband was Mario and I, as you can see, turned into Luigi. I couldn’t smile comfortably with that darn moustache on my face. 🙂

We bought the white gloves, blue suspenders, and moustaches at Party City. I ordered a set of Mario and Luigi hats through Amazon, but unfortunately they didn’t arrive on time so I took matters into my own hands…

I took hats that we already owned and using felt, tape, glue, safety pins and a sewing needle I transformed them temporarily.

This idea popped into my head the day before Halloween so I had to hustle in order to have them ready for pics and trick or treating, which only my husband did with my oldest ’cause turns out my youngest was running a fever that night and I had to stay home with her. That’s why she was refusing to cooperate. She wasn’t feeling well. 😦 I was able to put a costume on her in the morning when we took her sister to school. At that time she was okay.

My little forest fairy!

Several days later I was able to make Yoshi come to life…

…here’s Sophia in a homemade Yoshi costume.

My husband purchased a green t-shirt and felt (white, red, orange, and green) at A.C. Moore craft store. He made the shell using red and white felt and sewed it together. He stuffed it with polyester fiberfill (Sophia can use it later as a small pillow). In front of the shirt, he sewed a white felt circle and then attached/sewed the shell in the back of the shirt. He constructed the head-piece on his own, using green, orange, and white felt. He drew the eyes and nostrils with a sharpie marker and to make the nose prominent he used a little of the fiberfill and sewed it up. There you go, it’s Yoshi from Super Mario Brothers!

I hope your Halloween for 2013 was fun and safe.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

A stressful month…

Posted on November 5, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody!

I hope you guys are well.

I’ve been missing in action and it’s due to my wonderful powers of procrastinating, lack of ambition, and finally my computer crashing (even though there were warning signs for several months that something was awry in the system, I chose to…I’ll give you one guess…If you said, procrastinate, then you would be correct). Plus, I’ve been dealing with the fact that my daughter’s 1st grade teacher left after teaching for a month and her replacement didn’t seem to keen on picking up where she had left off. In fact, my daughter was constantly coming home without her sight words for the week or knowing the lessons needed to complete the homework assignments. My instincts kept telling me to do something, speak up. I voiced my concerns with the principal and vice principal of the school.

“Let’s give the new teacher some time to catch up.”

Every day I felt this weight getting heavier and heavier.

“Let’s give her a week.”

I felt the stress building up. I didn’t want to let my daughter down. After all, this is her education and it does start from the beginning, especially now with the common core standards in place. New words and mathematical strategies are being introduced to our children every day. So, if they’re not learning these very important lessons NOW, then they can’t continue to the next grade. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when my daughter and I had to go online and learn how to do the new math strategies, that should have been taught in class on that particular day, but weren’t, in order to complete her homework assignment.

“Time’s up lady!”

I’m not saying that I have a problem teaching my daughter because I don’t. I am her first teacher, her advocate (like her Kindergarten teacher told me), but she’s also going to school for a reason. Right?

Yesterday morning, the weight was lifted off my shoulders when I called the school for an update and was informed that my daughter was happily in her new class, with her new teacher.

Goodbye October, hello November.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Bats, Banners, and Door Monsters…Oh My!

Posted on October 10, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody!

I hope you guys are well.

October has definitely rolled in and I’ve been busy decorating my home for Halloween. I try to put things up in the night while the girls are asleep so in the morning they’ll have a spooky surprise. We’ve also been brain storming on how we’re going to put together our family costumes because we’ve chosen a group theme this year. So far, my oldest daughter is the only one who has her costume already (bought it online a while back). I just need to buy some white, long, satin gloves and take some major wrinkles out of her dress…that’s all the hints you’re going to get. 🙂

Here’s a look at some of my Halloween decorations either taken out of storage or recreated:

I had some bats stored away, but since I like them so much I decided to make some more. I simply used a bat template, printed on cardstock, and then traced with a pencil on black construction and cardstock paper. I taped them up on several walls in my living room as well as the entry wall. As soon as you walk in your eyes simply get drawn to them.

I made this pennant banner last year! I placed it in the hallway outside my front door.

I went to the craft store and found these small foam cutouts, in packs of five, and just taped them up in my living room.

I searched for ghost templates and printed these cuties out on cardstock and just added googly eyes.

And last, but not least, my door monsters. Last year, I was inspired by a picture on Pinterest and decided to make my own. This year, I decided to make two of them. One on the door in my living room and another on the small closet door in my office space/playroom. I used party streamer paper and paper plates for both monsters. My girls absolutely love these guys and so do I.

Happy decorating!

Take good care all.

Until next time…

How Common Core is Slowly Changing My Child

Posted on October 9, 2013 by themercadoproject

mrsmomblog

A Letter to Commissioner King and the New York State Education Department:

I have played your game for the past two years. As an educator, I have created my teaching portfolio with enough evidence so I can prove that I am doing my job over the course of the school year. I am testing my students on material that they haven’t yet learned in September, and then re-testing them midway through the year, and then again at the end of the year to track and show their growth. Between those tests, I am giving formative assessments. I am taking pictures of myself at community events within my district to prove that I support my school district and the community. I am teaching using the state-generated modules that you have created and assumed would work on all students, despite learning style, learning ability, or native language. I am effectively proving…

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Inspiring messages

Posted on October 4, 2013 by themercadoproject

Hello everybody!

I hope you guys are well.

With the right words, a sentence or more can become inspiring messages full of wisdom, love, strength, and hope. A sentence can be transformed into a powerful quote or mantra and it can be spoken, sung, read, memorized, etc. When a person connects with an inspiring message or even one single word, they hold onto it fast because their deep emotions suddenly have a precise description. You breathe a sigh of relief and think, “that’s exactly how I feel,” and then you adopt those words into your heart and mind. I know we’ve all shared that moment more than once.

Here are a few inspiring messages that are currently taking up residence in my heart:

for my family

for myself

for the world

for my children

What words inspire you?

Take good care all.

Until next time…