DIY Lego Tray

My oldest is OBSESSED with Legos! He has so many and they were all over his room (we told him they had to stay in his room because they were getting everywhere in our house) and all over his floor!

So for his 7th birthday I decided to get creative: I love going to Antique stores with my parents and they always have handmade "Lego Trays" but they are always over $20 at the very least. There had to be a cheaper, better way for me to get this gift of my son. So we went to our local Goodwill and luckily they had an array trays there! I found a breakfast-in-bed type of tray where there were legs that extended and it was clean-ish and functioning. Bonus was the price: $3!

So then we went to our local Walmart and bought 2 Lego base plates for about $8 each. Now if you are adding up the numbers, yes it was over the $20 I didn't want to spend at an Antique store but those trays didn't stand up like this one does so I was willing to pay a little more for it.

So after cleaning the tray with multi-surface Windex, I followed the directions to use Gorilla Glue for the Lego bases.

And then used Lego pieces to make sure the bases were together the right way because putting them side by side would have left it impossible to build in the middle where they meet. There was a very small amount of space in between needed to make it smooth and build-able. Then I placed 2 huge glasses on top and allowed it to dry for 24 hours! 

Now our son has a Lego Tray of his own that he can keep his current project on and free from the cats, his little brother and the evil vacuum that loves eating Legos. 

Happy Mommy-ing!

The Button Behavior Jar

Like everything in life, my kids are always changing! The punishment system/behavior system we put in place last school year is not having the same effect this school year. I wanted to try something else, like a visual reward system, for my oldest especially. I came across this Pin a long time ago and decided to try it out:

How it works:
It is pretty basic, you use the buttons like money and then there are rules that I have set out for my oldest to both receive buttons for good behavior and get buttons taken away for bad behavior. In order for him to get 1 button he can: be good/good listening, do a chore, behave at school or behave at the store. Each one of those gets him a button. To get 2 buttons he has to: do a chore without me asking him to or  behave really well at school. And if he does very, very well at school (I get notes everyday on his behavior) then he receives 3 buttons! Now when he has "Bad behavior" I will take away 1 button per the following: being bad, having to be told "no", telling me "no" when asked to do something, or misbehaving a little at school. When he is behaving worse, he will get 2 buttons taken away per each for: very bad behavior at school/phone call from teacher, putting his hands on others or the cats (hitting, pushing, etc.) or throwing a fit instead of using his words. And the biggest offenses of them all that earn him 3 buttons taken away are: being extremely bad at school, needing a spanking or throwing a fit in public.

And on Saturdays he can "cash in" for rewards. I am hoping this works and motivates him to behave better. If this does work, I will be making something similar for my youngest.

Happy Mommy-ing!

Product View: Zippysacks!

My five year old is pretty good at doing his chores: picking up his room, feeding the cats, putting his dirty dishes in the sink - the biggest issue is making his bed in the mornings. It's not that he can't do - it's the fact that his bed is up against the wall and he moves around so much at night he can't get his comforter back between the wall and his bed. So a lot of the times I go upstairs after I drop him off at school and make it for him, remake it - make look nice. There had to be a better way.
Enter Bed Bath & Beyond with their As Seen On TV Zippysack! I first saw this on a yard sale site through Facebook and then looked it up online. I then found it at the Bed Bath & Beyond website on clearance, plus the 20% off coupon they mail you and got it under $15 shipped! First when I took it out of the package I was a little disappointed.

The pictures and videos that featured it made the product look like it was more of a comforter or a sleeping bag fitted onto a mattress. Not a blanket that fits around the mattress and zips up. So it kind of makes the bed sleeping bag in a way. I don't know how hot or cold it's going to be, it's made out of normal blanket material. So I took off the old comforter, left the fitted sheet, the flat sheet, and the blanket he normally uses and then put the Zippysack on as the comforter on top of everything. It does not zip up as far as the video shows either, it zips up and then you flip it on top of the pillows and you're good to go. It zips on one side which I kind of like it to allow him to move but not too much. My thoughts are this product will kind of keep everything contained so that if he does move around a bunch during the night - there's not much that he has to fixed in the morning. He is at school for the moment so I do not know his thoughts on it, I will be sure to put it down below.

He was not very impressed with it at the beginning...I mean his brother got a stuffed animal to sleep with so he was hoping for a new toy. But then again he is only five years old and all they want is toys. He then said it was super soft and he wanted to sleep in it that night. He told me the next morning that it was easy to make his bed (it cut his time from almost 10 minutes to about 4 minutes!) and that he was warm enough during the night!

All in all this was worth the 15$ and I wish we had purchased this sooner and once our youngest is ready for a big boy bed - we will be buying him one as well!

To purchase yours from the Bed Bath Beyond website: link here
All options are my own, I was not paid for this review and I purchased it - was not given it for free. 

Happy Mommy-ing!