Sensory Play

Today I decided to take the time to do something I love to do... it's been awhile since I set up an invitation for the kids to play.  I used to do it all the time when Kyle and the girls were young, but it seems like laundry, dishes, and meal prep have absorbed all my free time and creative energy.  But today, I decided that I'm tired of waiting until I have the time to be fun and creative, so I just took the time to create a fun place space for the little girls.  And as it turned out, the big girls quite enjoyed it, too!  I'm guessing Kyle will play once he sees it, too.

This is our sand and water table filled with pinto beans.  I bought several bags at Aldi today and fill the bin with spoons, cups, and small containers to fill and dump.  The only rule is that any beans that land on the floor must be picked up.  Natalie, Gracie, and Kianna followed the rule perfectly, but Hattie, not so much!  She's still learning, I guess.  Although for her, dropping the beans onto the floor is about as fun as picking them up, so it's all good!

A bird's eye view

Let the fun begin!

Once the big girls got home and changed for dance, they played for 20 minutes.
Altogether.
Peacefully.
So much fun!

I'm definitely going to take more opportunities to invite the little girls to play.  Because they deserve it.  And because I do, too!  I always dreamed of being a mom and I'm not going to let laundry and dishes steal these precious days with them.

Birthday Party Crafts!

Before Gracie's 5th birthday, we decided that she would have a mermaid party at the local YMCA.  She's a total fish and loves the idea of mermaids!  I found a cute idea on Pinterest to make mermaids, which we turned into magnets to hold her birthday invitations.  I did some prep work to cut the tiny tails, swimsuits, hair, and faces.  Then Gracie, Kianna, and their friend Charlotte worked with me during nap time to design custom mermaids to their liking.  We had such a great time decoupaging together!

Once we had sent out the invitations, next came party favors.  I'm not big on handing out junk at my girls' birthday parties, so I always try to think of something fun to go with the theme.  For Gracie's 5th party, Splash Bombs seemed to be the perfect favor!  Gracie, Hattie, Natalie, and Kianna and I made the rounds to find the best deal on sponges.  Turns out that Walgreens and CVS had the best deal on them!  Then we got to work back at home.  First, all the girls gathered in and around the bathtub to soak the sponges and squeeze them out.  After the sponges were wet and easy to work with, I used scissors to cut each sponge into 5 strips.  The girls then gathered 8 strips (of any color) together and we used a ponytail holder to gather them together.  I made it into a math lesson for the big girls.  We talked about how 4 + 4 = 8, also 6 + 2, 5 + 3, etc.  It was fun!  

Hattie was also a part of the Splash Bomb fun!  She mostly played in the sponges and smiled real cute while we worked away!

Dr. Seussville

The nursery has been Dr. Seussified thanks to the amazing creativity of a good friend's dad. I'm so grateful to Mr. Kennedy for turning my vision into a reality in the nursery. He did a fantastic job, see for yourself!

Lampshade complete!

After 3 snow days, I've had plenty of time to get things done around here. My crafty project for today was decoupaging a lampshade for the nursery. My goal was to create a lampshade that followed the random, uneven pattern of the crib quilt we bought at Pottery Barn.

It was relatively simple, once I figured out how to align the pieces properly. I used 3 fat quarters of fabric ($1 a piece at Walmart), Mod Podge adhesive, and red rick-rack. I'm pretty satisfied with the final product, although it never turns out quite the same as it looked in my mind.

Crafts to keep in mind...

I've always been a crafty person. I like to find cute and creative ways to save money. Often times my crafty creations require a little bit of sewing, but only a little bit because I'm not really good at sewing from a pattern. Maybe my mom will have to teach me how one of these days!

Because today was an unexpected day off work (gotta love snow days!) I've got a little bit of time to surf some crafty blogs and get ideas. I'm posting them here so I can go back and reference them later.

1. Hooded towels - I'm definitely planning on making these. I already have my towels purchased, just need to get my sewing machine fixed (or go to my mom's house!).
   
2. Undercover Crates - Thinking maybe these could be useful for organizing closets (baby gear, hats and gloves, toiletries)
   
3. DIY Lampshade - Hoping to make a lampshade to coordinate with the nursery decor
   
4. Homemade Bookends - I haven't found a link for homemade bookends, but I'm thinking of using mason jars and paint to make my own.

Sesame Street

Kyle's third birthday is tomorrow! I can't believe he's already three! Time has flown by... it seems like just yesterday he was a tiny baby and now he's a little man. He can do almost everything all by himself. Just ask him, "I do it all by myself!"

To help celebrate, I nominated myself to make his birthday cake again this year. The theme is Sesame Street and Kyle's only birthday wish for his Aunt Nerned was an Elmo cake. Easy enough, right?! Not quite so... do you know how hard Elmo Red icing is to make? Yeah, I didn't know either. Until now. Now, I know! Six gel colors and one tube of already-made red icing later, the icing is Elmo Red. My sister-in-law, Brandi, helped me out tonight... thank the Lord! I told her that I'd do it all over again because it wasn't that bad. But next time I might just buy the Elmo Red icing at HyVee.

Here are the pictures of the Elmo cake and his cupcake friends - Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster, and Oscar. Several tubes of icing, a few M&Ms, and this is what you get!





Now I must head to bed and pray that when I clean the bathroom tomorrow, the Scrubbing Bubbles will take the red food coloring out from under my fingernails and cuticles!

"It's like a tree house!"

Yesterday, my friend Sarah and I tackled a fun project for her daughter's bedroom. It all started when we were at the City Market in one of the boutique-ey shops and saw this super-cute faux tree decorated with butterflies, white lights, flowers, etc. Sarah and I both marveled at the whimsical look and thought it would really be cool to recreate in Avery's bedroom.

So there we sat, a couple of months later, with a roll of brown paper, some straight pins, yellow ticky-tack, fishing line, six strings of greenery, a few glittery flowers, and 4 homemade butterflies. Although we didn't have a clue how we were going to pull this off, we knew that between Sarah's decorative eye and my strategic problem-solving, we'd be able to figure it out.

And we were right... 7 hours later and a quick trip to Michaels and JoAnns, the project was complete... well, phase one of the project, anyway. It was really a very simple task... scrunching paper and cutting it to size for the trunk. The branches were just scrunching and rolling to make a long tubular shape. We pinned things to the walls and ceiling using straight pins and attached greenery using fishing line.

Sarah has more creative ideas to add to the tree. Avery has already chosen a birdhouse to paint and hang. There's plans to add other pieces to make it feel even more enchanting! When we had finished, I asked Avery to lay in her bed (which is right below the tree) and look up. She said, "It's like a tree house, it's like a tree house!" I was pleased with her excited response... I'll admit that I worried she would look up there and see a scary, dark tree, hovering over her and we'd have to think of a new plan (or move her bed!)

Here's Avery pretending to catch the butterflies in the tree!

It was a fun a project for two creative gals who never get to spend enough time together! I just hope that Avery didn't wake up this morning with green leaves and brown packing paper all over her bed!