We will not be sitting all day during the summer with the books however. We can take some of the many assignments that we have, and take them outside for some fun learning. There are so many fun things coming our way. Summer brings on so many different adventures and so many more lessons that we can do! Science is in full bloom around us, and I am excited to get out with the boys and watch nature blooming.

If you have been following along with us, you have seen our ups and downs this year. It has been one crazy ride! I am so ready for this school year to be behind us. I feel as though we have struggled more than normal. Don’t get me wrong – we are learning – but there are days where we are crawling at a snails pace and I wonder if we are ever going to see the end of these books! While we work through the bits and pieces of what we have left, I have found that I almost have to pep talk myself into getting started. I want to scream “You are the teacher, pull yourself together” at least once a day. All teachers go through this!

My kids rejoice during finals week, as they get a few days where I am busy grading other papers. That is our teacher in-service time, as I am usually muttering to myself at what I need to finish with my own kids, and planning out future classes for them in my mind. Multi-tasking at its finest!

Summer promises to be full of fun, learning, and expanding on what we learned this year. Of course, I will already be planning our upcoming year – but that is just part of the fun! How are you spending your summer!?

This acorn tree certainly fits perfectly with my autumn decor and it has such a unique, au naturel look. And it’s probably the cheapest tree I’ve bought or made – I only spent $2 on the styrofoam cones from the dollar store!! Add this to your project list this fall and then leave it out through winter as well with some red berries sprinkled around the bottom, perhaps!

This is all you need:

• Styrofoam cone (can be found at dollar stores or craft supply stores)
• Hot glue gun
• ACORNS! Lots of them. In all different sizes.

I initially decided to make 2 acorn trees. Because I could only find one-size styrofoam cone, I cut the base off of one to make it shorter than the other for some fun diversity. And then I only ended up completing one tree anyway.

Step 1) Start at the base of the cone and hot glue acorns forming a spiral up towards the top of the cone. Once you get about half way up the cone, start forming second and third lines to make sure you can make everything fit. You want to end up with hardly any white styrofoam showing through.

Step 2) You don’t have to worry about straight spiral lines through the entirety of the tree – fill in little acorns in places that you can make them fit. The spiraling just gives it a more interesting look rather than gluing the acorns straight across in rows. Finish your tree off with a few acorns on the very tip top!

For my next tree I may spray paint the styrofoam cone a gold color before gluing on the acorns to help hide the white that shows through the acorns in some places. Either way, I think it’s beautiful! My husband thought I was crazy when I had bags and bags full of those little nuts but agreed afterwards that my Acorn Tree turned out very nicely. Hopefully our neighborhood squirrels aren’t too hungry now!

Would you give this a try?? I’d love to see your results! How else have you brought the outdoors into your home??

For more awesome DIY projects, check out MyMilitarySavings.com!

I kept all of our spider webs and skeletons in storage this year and just brought out the cutesy pumpkins and goofy looking witches. My daughter was excited to help apply our fun window stickers and then it occurred to me… she should help make our OWN Halloween decorations. Something fun that she’d approve of to put the joy back into the holiday and help relieve the stress of it. And that’s how our pine cone bats were born!

Now, talk about decorating on a dime! If you have any conifer pine trees nearby, you can throw this together in a hot second! Besides (free) pine cones, all you need is construction paper and a few googly eyes!

Grab these things:

• Pine cones
• Black and white construction paper
• Googly eyes
• Scissors and glue

Step 1) Free hand a bat shape like in the photo below on black paper. Fold your paper over to cut multiple bat shapes out at the same time. Kill a few birds (err, bats?) with one stone.

Step 2) Fit the bat wings into the grooves of your pine cones. They will stay in place, but you can add a dab of glue if you’d like to secure them.

Step 3) Glue the googly eyes down and cut triangles to make fangs out of the white paper. Glue them below the eyes and you’re all done!!

Set in a fun spot for everyone to admire!!

May your Halloween be filled with laughter and happiness… and lots of chocolate.

Just in case you have a little one that may be afraid of the goons and goblins that will be making an appearance at the end of October… check out this DIY Monster-Be-Gone spray!

For more fun family crafts, subscribe to MyMilitarySavings.com!

So it’s out with the old and in with the new now! My flip-flop wreath has come down and I’m putting out my orange and red mums. I’m not quite ready to go all out with Halloween decorations yet, although it’s a battle every trip to Wal-Mart because my kiddos see it all on display front and center and they don’t understand why we can’t start planting spider webs in our living room TODAY. Sigh. Soon enough I tell them, soon enough!

I AM, however, pulling out my cozy apple pie scented candles, our candy-corn colored fabric banners, and dried corn stalks. As I was sorting through everything I realized that I needed new autumn themed centerpieces for my dining room table and living room so I began brainstorming ways to decorate that I haven’t tried yet and it instantly hit me – a craft that I have been wanting to try for soooooo long but never had a need for it. Well folks, it’s the perfect time now!!! BLEACHED PINECONES!!!

I love the woody, au natural, repurposed adornments around the house so this DIY was right up my alley and it really makes a fantastic embellishment for console tables, mantelpieces, countertops, you name it. Once you read how easy it is to do, you’ll have jars of these things all over the place, too! 🙂

This is all you need:

• Pinecones (open or closed, it doesn’t matter)
• Bleach
• Water
• A large bucket
• Another large bucket to fit inside of the other one OR heavy items such as bricks or large rocks

Step 1) Place pine cones into a large bucket. Fill the bucket with water so it covers the pine cones and then add 1 part bleach to 2 parts water. I eyeballed this – it does not have to be exact. You just want to make sure the bleach is diluted about 2:1 so the pine cones won’t disintegrate and fall apart.

*I, of course, recommend doing all of this outside in a well ventilated area, and using gloves to protect your skin!

Step 2) Depending on what you decided to use, cover the pine cone and water/bleach mixture to force the pine cones down so they’re completely covered. They will want to float so you need bricks, large rocks, or another bucket full of water to submerge them. I chose to use a bucket 1/2 full with water. You don’t want to crush the pine cones, but force them down. You get the point.

Step 3) Let the pine cones soak for 24 hours and then remove from the bleach water. You will notice that they all closed up because they were wet… no problem. Set them in the sun for a few hours to dry and you will find that they all reopen. This will also remove any unpleasant smell.

Step 4) Decorate with them as you wish!

I am all about simple, and I am all about CHEAP! This project cost me absolutely nothing because I already had bleach on hand. And it’s a fabulous look for the upcoming fall season!

Let me know what you think!! Give it a try, and tell me how it turns out! I’d love to see photos in the comments below!

For more frugal DIY ideas, subscribe to MyMilitarySavings.com!