Positive Behavior Jars

Mia and Owen have been busy learning what positive behavior is.  We've been using a reward program for a few years now.  We started out with sticker charts, and both Mia and Owen filled a few charts.  Mia's usually filled up at least twice as fast and got twice as many rewards.  We switched to "bead jars" recently and the kids love filling their jars.  I saved some peanut butter and jelly jars and washed them up to use. Owen could live on peanut butter and jelly so he is quite proud of his peanut butter jar :)

These are the type of beads we use....

Our beads were actually something I picked up at Wal-Mart on clearance.  It was $5 well spent.  Mia and Owen sort them, count them, thread them on strings and tonight while I was making supper they were threading them on spaghetti noodles. 

Positive behavior in our house can be: doing a job without me asking, doing a job I ask with no complaining, being nice to their sibling, answering questions, helping mom with Dylan, asking how they can help, being polite, using good table manners and so on.  If one is not nice to the other, one of their beads goes into the other's jar....and they dread that!!

I will put these labels on my Design blog and you are free to download them to tape/paste/glue them onto some jars of your own.  Your kids will love it and you'll be surprised at how fast the catch on and want to help out willingly.

Here is a picture of my cuties ... (I can't ever get them to look in the same direction at the same time).

Astronaut Owen's Birthday Wrap-up

Owen received an astronaut suit for Christmas last year, and has worn it almost every day since!!  I've even caught him in the sandbox with the astronaut suit on. I asked him what he wanted for his birthday a few months prior.  It was a BIG decision... he had a hard time getting off farming themes.  Mia suggested a "monster truck pulling a wagon birthday" I was quick to discourage that one. The Party 101 store doesn't have many options for that! Finally he came to the decision to have a space birthday. It was a fun and easy theme.  My dad even built a super-sweet rocket for him to blast off in.  Here are some highlights of the party:

Astronaut Owen and Mission Specialist Darren

Getting ready for Launch

Rocket Cake

The Super-sweet Rocket from Grampie

Rocket Power!!  

Moon Cookies.  (Oreo's dipped in blue tinted Almond Bark)

These cookies are so easy a recipe isn't really needed!  I took Almond bark and added food coloring until it looked "moonish"  then stuck a popsicle stick in the oreo and dipped it in the Almond bark.  I used the end of one of the sticks to add "craters" to the cookies.  I let them harden and stuck them in the freezer until the birthday!

Butterfinger Bites

What does left over candy corn, peanut butter, and chocolate make?  Butterfinger Bites.  

I had this recipe pinned on my board on Pinterest, and decided to try it out.  

Melted candy corn??? Really?  

Here's what you do.

Melt 1 lb of Candy Corn

Add 2 cups of Peanut Butter 

Stir.

While these were warm I rolled them into balls.  I thought I'd let them chill in the refrigerator and stick popsicle sticks into them to make Butterfinger pops.  After about an hour I pulled them out and found they were too hard.  When I tried putting the stick in they cracked in half.  So I melted 4 squares of chocolate almond bark and 3/4 cup of semi sweet chips and dipped them to coat them.

These are delicious and taste almost identical to Butterfinger candy bars!

I think next time I will stick the popsicle sticks in while they are warm for a fun treat.