happy birthday to my niece and nephews!

Part of our summer vacation took us for to my SIL for her kids birthday! Hard to believe they are already two, hand to believe Carson is already two! She threw a cute little ice cream sundae party with pools for the little kids to splash around in. The weather was amazing! My SIL is planning on home schooling (God grant her the patients and strength for that one!) so I jumped at the chance to make them something educational. For their birthday last year I made them a cloth book about colors and one about shapes. The down fall is there are three of them and sharing at that age.... well you all have kids and you can all relate! I really liked the idea of a busy book, partly because I never finished Coltons and partly because I always have so many ideas running though my brain that its hard to nail down one design for anything. I came up with a basic idea of an ABC book  but I really didn't want to make 3. So I came up with this :

The thought it that they can either read it like a book on mom and dads lap or they can lay it down open on the floor and all 3 of them can play at one time! The pages were a combination of fabric printing and and fun interactive thing. Here are a few of my favorite pages.

The connect the dots is fabulous! It makes a bone for the dog! (I imagen sometimes I will do a whole book like this!)

The rocket slides up and down and Im pretty sure Carson did this page a few dozen times before I wrapped it up.

This one the rain moved up and down like an abacus, but my favorite part is the traffic light because it is a pocket that holds a bunch of felt vehicles that drive around the S page.

Im hoping to make a few and put them on Etsy. We will see I always make things as gift but never seem to find the motivation to put them on Etsy. I think I have a hidden fear of failing. Here are the kids enjoying time with their cousins.

We had a really good time up there. Hope we dont have to wait another year to get the kids together... now how am I going to top this cool book for Christmas :)

In the Mail Monday

This weekend we went to a very awesome party for a pretty little 5 year old we know and at that super cool party there was a lady making balloon animals! She did an amazing job and my kids were completely thrilled. So for our mail on Monday we decided to send out pen pals balloon letters (I had to explain to my kids that I could not make a balloon animal and send it in the mail because 1 im not that talented and 2 there was a certain popping issue) So blew up some white balloons and wrote our letters on them and popped them into the mail!
(Please note we used a pump to blow the balloons up so the germ thing isnt a factor)

Happy Valentines Day

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
Im not going to sugar coat it when it came to my husband talking me into more kids we were in negotiation for awhile. One of his requirements that he helped them restore a car for their first car, one of mine, they all got to make homemade valentine day cards and none of them had to match.... and I wish this was a joke but we have a long list of what we get to do with so many kids :)
So this year we were totally inspired by Pinterest and the blogs I stalk but for somereaon the printable I found my computer was like 'umm no you cant use something someone else made make it yourself' and wouldn't let me use the cutest printouts I have ever seen!
So these are the ones we made and if your computer isn't being controlling please feel free to right click save and print these (better late then never right?)


Justin really enjoyed purging his dinosaur stash, and encase you dont get it, it say you make my heart soar but with saur from dinosaur :) (My husband stared at it for along time before he asked what it meant.. in fairness there wasnt a dinosaur on it yet!)



Colton is totally into bugs so when we saw one like this online he was hooked. I love the idea of them getting a toy, a small dinky one but its still better then another lolly pop!



Miss complicated NEEDED candy on hers. I had saved a post a couple of year ago about a firefly made out of Easter eggs and batter operated tea lights we made a set and put the timer ones in them and play fire fly hunt during the summer because once it gets dark they all turn on at the same time... so cute... anyways Brooklyn made these cute bugs but loaded them with candy!



For our teachers I picked up a TON of 2 pack gloves because they are are clearance for $1 at target!! And justin wrote out a note that said your a perfect pear, and when I told him that was the wrong kind of "pair" he cracked up and asked if we could put both pairs in because it drives his teachers crazy that the 2nt graders have such a hard time with two to too. He is so silly but we totally went and bought a million pears!

Pac man

Ok so I have been sitting around all day trying hard to KILL time... why you ask? Umm cause tonight Breaking Dawn comes out on DVD and me and my group of nerds will be there to catch the first preview... which I know will only make November seem that much further away.


But back to my post. Today while killing time I made this cute little pack of magnets for one of the kids I baby sits dad for his Valentines Day birthday.


I took an old picture box I had sitting around and put black peal and stick paper on it (Kinda looks like an old video game cartridge wink wink) Then I cut out a cute little pac man and ghost and made a little sign.


But then you open the box...
TTAAA--DDDAAAAA


Cute arnt they? They are magnets for the fridge. Two things this guy really likes, Pac Man and fridgerators... although the second like might fall in the categories of requirements but im sure he wouldnt be happy without one! Anyways, I will go continue to go sit by the clock willing it to tick faster, in the mean time you can leave me a comment about how you too are going to be sitting at target till midnight for a movie you have already seen :)


I like to brag about myself on these awesome blogs.

In the Mail on Monday

Mail makes me happy, like really really happy. I don't even care if its a bill (ok i try not to cry over spilled milk bills are inevitable so I enjoy the surprise of how much energy we wasted... errr ... enjoyed while leaving lights on:) ) But I looovvveee letters. There is something magical about opening a letter and not knowing what is inside. Earlier this year I was blessed... ok my kids were blessed with getting pen pals. Each of the 3 older kids has two pen pals. Some of our pen pals are amazing, they often write and send fun things, but a couple well... i think they enjoyed the novelty of it and the light has since faded. But that is neither here nor there. This post is to share the fun thing we Mailed On Monday! We mailed our favorite pen pals a snow ball fight!! Yup you read me right, we mailed them a snow ball fight.. because frankly the lack of snow this year has just been depressing. Here is our awesome snowball fight ready to make its voyage across this great country of our:

To make out snowballs we found a pom pom tutorial online and made a larger version of it. (Disclaimer...white yarn is INCREDIBLY hard to photograph so please accept these pictures..)
We used some white yarn and a foot. (laterally see the picture below)


First make sure your foot is clean, the wrap said yard around about 100 times (No feet were harmed in the making of these snow balls but please realize if you wrap the yarn tightly you may loose a toe)

Next remove yard ball from foot. (I do recommend using this opportunity to tickle them until the pee their pants.. because who just hands a mom a free foot and expecting tickling not to ensue?)

Moving on. Cut another piece of string about 6 inches long. Lay foot wrapped yard ball on top to the string.


Tie as tightly as you can creating a mushroom cap effect.

Fallowed by cutting loops around the tie.


Finish it up to trimming up the pom poms... errr.. snowballs.You will see a few pieces that are longer.. and if you are like me they will drive you mad.



Tada!! A pile of snowballs.


Now here you are thinking that was so amazing how in this world could we top that?! Well we can put it in an awesome package and mail it to our pen pals!!
For the container you will need


Pile of snowballs (yarn ones would be best as the real ones would surely melt)
2 plastic water bottles
sharp scissors
and packing tape

Cut the tops off the two water bottles.


Stuff the bottles with snowballs.


Slide the two pieces together and packing tape the middle. Add label and stamps (sometimes we get cranky mail people who don't like us to send fun thing, so we either ask for the manager or just go to another one.)

Tada !!

(Disclaimer 2 and 3... the snowballs will leave little stings around the house, after we sent these ones I realized it might be a big flaw if your baby eats everything off the floor, mine doesn't but to be on the safe side use a jean needle and sew a few times over the mushroom cap part. AND yes I realize my daughter is dressed like a complete creep show.. but to be fair we were on our way to taekwondo and she dressed herself. )

My kids are creative

My kids are cute... and super super annoying... they can nag and nag and nag until I think I might start pealing the paint off the walls... but sometimes these crazy annoyances do end up doing some pretty cool things. After spending the day bugging me to get in the craft box, I gave in and this is what little miss fancy pants came up with!!

She found some animal stickers and made a zoo! No prompting at all!

I was annoyed at first because I thought there she goes just randomly sticking stickers to paper and wasting both (wow sometimes I think Im really not as good as a parent as I should be..) but then WOW she had a plan and it was a great plan. She decided she should send it to her pen pal so we worked out a letter for him and she was on her way! (PS go see her pen pals moms blog.. she is awesome and creative and the fun kinda mom I wish I was more often)

But leave it to Brooklyn to take an idea and run with it... and run she did..
here is her Pet Shop (she saw me blogging this and "said next time tell me you are going to use my pictures, I will do my finger nails and color lots better, tell them my hands were tired from all my time out writing" ahahhahahaaa she is such a nerdo! I really love that spunky ball of nerdiness!)


and here is another letter for her other buddy... she loves transformers!

Sewed it on Sunday! Easy dino mittens

It doesn't snow here like it use to when I was little... this year not even a trace, hardly even a frost BOOOOO!! Yup im one of those annoying people who L-O-V-E-S snow!! It makes the world so quite and it smells so so so yummy. To this day if they think it might snow I can not sleep I get that excited (Although im the same way with carnival rides and good sales:) ) But just because there isn't any snow doesn't mean we all cant rock out with some cool mittens! I think I saw a pair like this on Pinterest... but then again what isn't on Pinterest? Either way I remembered when I was reading Danger the 3 little kittens that lost there mittens.. and I thought fat boy needs some mittens and since he spends most this time stalking around the house growling at people I figured dino mittens for sure!


Here is what you need..
Scrap fleece... enough for 4 hands
more scraps for embellishments
tiny elastic


Make dad hold baby and force him to let you trace his hand... he will give you this look but keep going despite his feelings :) (yes that is blue sharpie on his face..)



cut out your print 4 times (for this I only did one time tracing cut out on a fold then flipped it and cut out the other way on the fold)


Next make some embellishments to fit whatever kinda critter your making (note: im having Brooklyn make kitten mittens and Colton make shark ones in the morning)


Place inside with right sides facing together.

Pin and sew around.


Next measure baby's wrist... again despite his feelings go ahead and do it.. baby's can be so judge mental sometimes. I used the same amount of elastic as his wrist.


Pin end of elastic and PULL as you sew... not to much but enough to go all the way around your glove (Note: im a self taught sewing which means this might not be technically right but its what I did and it worked:) )


Fold inside right and try to get baby to put them on... after refusing convince your 7 year old to put them on and make them eat said baby... he will be making his size dinos tomorrow after school.



Make fun of baby for hating every thing you try to put on him then give him some egg nog for being a good sport.


Ta Da dino mittens, made from scraps so no real loss if you kittens loose their mittens!