Being Thankful for my kids!

I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided that rather wait until Valentines Day I wanted to do this for the month of November as a way of telling my kids why I am Thankful for them (same concept of 'I love..').

The idea is simple. Write a short note that says "I am thankful..." and each morning when they wake up they can go and read their note. I am starting November 1st and will do the last one on Thanksgiving Day.

I made envelopes out of cardstock and then cut out pieces of paper using the business card template in Microsoft Word. (I know there are more creative options out there.)

My goals is to get my husband involved too and for us to share this project together.

Two more Halloween Crafts

Just wanted to share 2 more crafts that were completed for Halloween.

The first was letting the kids decorate some wood masks I picked up from Joanns.

At first I was nervous because it was 'big girl paint' (i.e. not kid friendly washable stuff) but I gave in to my fear (of having a permanently blue/green/red kitchen table) and went with the flow. They really enjoyed themselves and were creative.

I figured if they got to play with paint, mommy should too so I painted a few wooden letters. (They took a few coats to get a decent color.) The polka dots were made with a pencil eraser which was super simple and easy to clean!

I'm not sure how I will arrange them - maybe hot glue them together???  The key to the dots is 'less is more' because you can always add but you can't take away. I tend to over do it so it took some control to stop!

I hope you had a safe and Happy Halloween!!!





FOOD FIGHT!!

Recently I saw a blog post where somebody had an annual cool whip fight.  It reminded me of one of my favorite childhood memories - we had a food fight in the backyard and were covered in sticky soda, Twinkies, and dirt. It was a blast! 

Fast forward twenty plus years and I decided to have a food fight with my family. I stocked up on canisters of cool whip, grape soda, and little cake snacks. My kids thought I was crazy at first.  (My husband already knows I am - ha ha.) 

I made sure we all had the same ammunition - but I did set a few rules. (I know - I'm a party pooper.)

Rules were - 1) this is the only time we do this - we don't do it at school, restaurants, home, or other peoples houses!!!  2) Do on to others as you would want done to yourself - i.e. don't dish it if you can't take it.  3) No faces - I don't want any eye or ear injuries.  4) Have fun!!!

In retrospect I should have made a 5th rule - no food/drink down the pants. Yuck!!!

The ammunition!!! (A 2 liter and Redi Whip canister for each of us.)

The prep table after.

Great way to dye a shirt purple!!



It was fun - even though there were some tears. (Maybe our youngest wasn't quite old enough.)  I will share some advice though: we had a hose on hand for afterwards but I really should have had a towel ready so we could wipe our faces off afterwards.  The cool whip oozed down our faces and got into an eye or two which was no fun.  Also - the redi whip canisters were a major disappointment. They didn't fire far enough and seemed to 'melt' - it got super liquidy before it even exited the canister.

Alphabet Animals

A co-worker gave me this idea of Alphabet Animals. Her daughter's kindergarten teacher did it so I decided to try it out with my children too now that I have a kindergartner. I don't feel like we do enough arts & crafts at home so I wanted to give this simple project a try. I enjoyed it because it required minimal preparation and was simple to clean up.  As my kindergartner learns more letters in school, I plan on adding more animals to our alphabet.

I used construction paper to cut out the animal and then glued it to a piece of card stock for extra stability. Add markers, glue stick, stickers, etc. and you are set!

Girls Craft Day

Hip hip hooray for crafting day. Recently I got together with a few of my friends to do a few hours of crafting, have a nice meal out, and then watch the movie Bridesmaids. What a blast! 

Here are our projects:

My 2x4 pumpkins for fall

Back of my 2x4 pumpkins for Halloween

Sarah's vampire handouts for kids Halloween party (she made 50!)

Jen W getting a jump start on Christmas

Lacey's wine bottle pumpkins (finished product had twine around neck - super cute)

Katie's pumpkins

My BOO pumpkins

Turn them around and they are my fall pumpkins

My children's boo footprints

Katie's photo box (outside)

Katie's photo box (inside)

Unfortunately I am a slacker and didn't get Lori's door hanger - but it was super cute.  (I'll blame it on the whip cream vodka and orange soda.)

I must give pinterest most of the credit for my projects.

Please help me find these bird earrings

Does anybody know where I can buy these birds? They are all over etsy so I know they have to be sold somewhere - I've looked at local stores with no luck and searched on line but I am at a loss. I know I could order from etsy, but I'd like a few to give as presents so I'd rather buy the birds and then make my own. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!!  Thank you!!!

The Help

If you haven't read the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett yet - read it. If you haven't seen the movie yet - go to it.  I really enjoyed both and thought the movie did a good job following the book. 

I lost track of how many times I teared up - but they were for good reasons. (1) Being I'm a sap and (2) After having kids I find that I cry at everything - movies, parades, commercials, runs where I think about marathons, etc.