For the Experienced

I wanted to take a moment to brag on my Aunt. My Aunt Greer runs a little Etsy Shop and enjoys making things with her hands and selling them at craft shops. One of her little lovelies is making these wonderful dish scrubbies and crocheting these lovely “wash cloths”. While these wash cloths are actually dish cloths, they work wonders on a smiling pudding or pizza face post “experiencing” dinner.

Love the pot scrubbers that she uses a rough fiber knit into the center. And I love that you can just throw them through the wash and reuse them when they get really oogie.

So thank you for being wonderful you, Aunt Greer, and blessing our little household so with your wonderful talents.

– Love you.

April 15, 2013 0

For the Squish of It

Saw various “sensory bags” on Pinterest and thought we’d give it a go with some of our junk drawer “freebies” and a cold “no play outside” afternoon. Gathered some stray beads, googley eyes, small fake flowers, tissue paper, beads, foam stickers, buttons, bows, bells, leftover lotion, veggie oil, corn syrup, food coloring, shaving creme, paint, and various other little items to allow many, many choices.

“Wait, let Mommy take a picture and try not to look like you hate your life…” – Mission failed. HA! –

“Ok, now pick what you’d like to go in your bag.”

Then we added the gooshy choices to their hearts’ delights, squeezed the air out and sealed that puppy up. I added some duct tape to make myself feel a little easier about handing the bag to the preschoolers who would then run through my house with food colored, water balloon bag joys.

The play got mighty creative.

And some bags had to be double-bagged once *ahem* enjoyed.

“AHHHH Attack-face!!!”

I even made one for the babies. (Supervising at all times)

Hannah approved (Little Man was asleep, but later approved).

So the bags were fun for a day. But after two days they turned all slimy. Maybe it was the veggie oil seeping into the freezer bag plastic. Eh, who knows. But we wished them goodbye and counted it a great “get rid of junk AND enjoy the afternoon” craft. =)

April 11, 2013 0

4th Birthday Cuteness

So here’s Rachael’s 4th Birthday cuteness in pictures. =)

my dear friend, Darlene, sent us this wreath to welcome home our Hannah. It has a clip on sign saying “welcome home Hannah” that can be replaced with this “happy birthday” clip on sign. Then the sign also has a clip attached to it and a name tag for each of the girls. SO thoughtful and super cute.

We started the weekend out with our intermediate family fun.

and we let Rachael struggle with Aunt Jes’ tape job. 😉

She didn’t complain once, especially post-gift.

Then on Saturday we had the family over to celebrate with a brunch and festivities:

our chefs.

our fine china via Rachael’s choice.

clown pancakes

making princess party hats (and knights for the boys)

pin the crown on the princess

pinata with strings (no we weren’t going to beat Ariel with a stick – that would have traumatized my kids)

the cutest little onlooker

And caked goodness. =)

with Daddy’s help again this year.

Then came the surprise slumber party with a friend that night. It was the first slumber party for Rachael and Josie both. =)

Watching a movie together WITH POPCORN!!! (simple excitements)

dance breaks during the songs, naturally

And then this happened:

Wonderful time, indeed!

January 17, 2013 2

Vibrant

Another simple gift I made for the girls this Christmas was watercolor paints. Since it was a gift, I got a set of 19 assorted paint cups with lids (since I figured we’d be making more paint before it’s all said and done). For our back-up stash and the stash I made for a friend, I just used old babyfood containers.

First I used these ingredients:

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Once the chemical reaction part of the baking soda/white vinegar was done (I’ll have to do this another time with the girls so they can squeal), I added in the food coloring.

I used 8-10 drops of food coloring instead of food coloring gel since I had the food coloring. I found that if you let the paints dry for 4 days instead of the 24 hours the recipe said, then the colors that separate a little (8 drops didn’t separate) settle back in and dry out completely.

And the finished product was also quite fun and has provided hours of vibrant painting.

* this is a pic of the colors before they dried. Now image those colors, but dried and that’s the end product. 😉

January 1, 2013 0

Hung with Care

It came to my attention to years ago when picking out Abi’s stocking that stockings just aren’t made like they used to be. They seem to be made of more flimsy material that sure doesn’t look like it’ll last more than a Christmas or two of jubilant dumping.

So this year I saw a pinterest idea that I ran with to create a little more Christmas cuteness hanging from our mantel.

I spent a whoppin $6 at the thrift store to purchase all five of our stockings in cute sweaters. (Rachael’s sweater cost nine cents… yes, people: $0.09!)

Then I laid an old stocking on the sweaters, chalked the outline, cut them out and sewed them up.

And thus I give you our stockings:

Abi’s stocking

Rachael’s stocking (sorry, it’s a little blurry)

Matt’s stocking.

Hannah’s stocking

And my stocking.

Next year I think I’ll add embroidery to them to personalize them, but for this year, our stockings worked out great. I also really like that we can easily add a stocking to the mix for a buck or less for whatever foster kids come through our house while still hanging onto the homemade love.

Time cost: 10-15 min per stocking.

Financial cost: $0.09 to $1.00 per sweater (stocking) unless you want to make more than 1 stocking per sweater.

December 29, 2012 0

Playing in the City

This Christmas I decided to make the girls (and anyone else who may join our household) a “city”. I saw the idea on pinterest and thought I’d run with it/adapt it based on what I have available. After sorting through my wardrobe and getting rid of the tight and the “in a fright”, I had a few pairs of unraveling maternity jeans to kiss goodbye. So I recycled them into roads, naturally.

I made my roads double-wide of a standard ruler.

I used a protractor to make my 1/2 curves.

I also put a small piece of the sticky side of velcro on the backs of some of the pieces to aid them in sticking to carpet and not shifting as much.

Our roads

You could use a seam sealer to do all your edges, but I chose not to in the interest of time. I can slowly pick at it if they unravel too much, but we haven’t had any issues thus far. Maybe if my girls were rougher with them then I’d seal the edges.

Our helicopter pad (made from an old shirt and a zig-zag stitch with various thread.

Let the play begin. =)

(nice Christmas Jammies, eh?)

Our city fits conveniently stowed away and hung up. =)

[I used old clothing scraps to make the bags, a spare piece of wood, three nearby hooks, and the lovely preschool tempera paint.]

Also accompanies our new train tracks (thanks Goga) quite nicely.

Total cost of the project:

FREE + 3.5 hours of creation

December 28, 2012 0