oh what do you do in the summertime???

ok so summertime.  its just like the song says...  oh what do you do in the summertime???  i feel like i'm always scrambling for ideas and activities and most of the time, i don't have the energy or supplies and then we just end up watching tv or i'm listening to the kids argue...  i know, i know- awesome right?  so this summer i want to do a little prep work to make the most out of our summer!  i want to set up a simple routine.  there are tons of great ideas on pinterest for schedules and such but i need one with some flexibility- one where i had flexibility as the mom to say what i was up for that day!  and i wanted to incorporate a way to be sure that she still gets her morning chores (make bed, brush teeth, get dressed, etc) and some reading done.  so during a long sleepless night of bad dreams, fevers, and ear aches... i came up with my

2013 summertime jar!

so i gathered ideas of activities- big and small- that we would want to do this summer.  some require zero prep work and some are outings (swimming, to the zoo) and some are crafts.  some are for that moment, some will be for naptime, and some will be planned within a few days.  varying options but all within our realm of possibilities!  i typed them up and put the slips into our summertime jar.  

i then made her task garden.  each flower is glued onto a magnet for her to place on the stem once she's accomplished that task for the day.  and the butterfly magnet is her reading time.  (downloads from shabby princess)  so once her task garden is complete, she gets to draw a slip of paper from the jar!  we then talk about it and plan when we'll do it.  as i said, sometimes that day and sometimes within a few days- whatever i or the younger kids need :)

and since the hardest part for me with any fun idea is the prep work (and actually doing it!), i've posted all the pages for your printing.  i'm hoping that you can just click on the image and save it?  hope that works.  if not, comment (with a way to get back in touch with you!) or email me and i'll send you the file.  oh and most of the ideas are pretty straightforward but for the ones that i found on pinterest or i needed to remember what to do, i've put together a special summertime jar pinterest board for y'all.  you can go here to find all of the ideas in one place without having to search or look through other ideas or boards!

here is the jar lid (for a pint sized mason jar) and the task garden pieces-

and all of our summertime jar idea slips-

let me know you're thoughts.  do you have any activities you love?  tips or tricks for summer??  here's to hoping we have a fun, enjoyable, easy and memorable summer together!!

love these cute monkey faces!!  :)

Dress up station

Ok so my daughter looooves princesses! She loves playing dress up, her little friends love to play when they come over; our dress ups are played with a lot! And after Santa brought more dress ups for Christmas, I knew we needed a solution to our dress up issue. I felt like our whole house was being taken over by dress ups! Or my daughter would hang them up in her closet but then when friends would come play, they'd play with her real clothes too! Talk about a mess... :)

So I began searching Pinterest for options. I fell in love with some ideas but when it came down to it, I just didn't have the time or energy to make my own from scratch. I wanted it nice though since we've got Lissa who'll take over the dress ups in a few years. But I wasn't wanting to spend a lot of money either! So I randomly stopped in our thrift store one day and found an amazing score! It happened to be a 40 percent off furniture day- sweet! I saw this distressed black dresser and fell in love instantly. It was $60 and then 40 percent off of that. So as I stood there thinking about, having not wanted to spend over $20, decided to check all the drawers. Well 1 was super jammed and after the worker spent 45 mins trying to fix it, I offered him a deal. I said, I'll you $20 and I'll deal with the drawers- he was going to remove every drawer and then put them back in. I was just going to go home and remove them all again anyways! He said done! I said score! So we put it in my car, I struggled and got it out by myself, and spent naptime removing drawers. There were about 12 or 13 screws each drawer... But it worked! I'm so happy with how it turned out and how easy it was!

I left the bottom drawer for shoes and large accessories. This has been a huge hit and keeps the dress ups clean! Win win. Easy, cheap, fast- I can't complain. Happy dress ups!!

Easter!

Well we are ready for Easter around here! I love the pbk Easter baskets but knew looking at them, that I could make these with felt scraps I had on hand. So I whipped these up yesterday afternoon and couldn't be happier with the results! I found a great tutorial with the pattern already made. Su-weet! The only thing I would change in her tutorial is to do the face before sewing it together! It would've been so much easier. But I'm happy with the end result and can't wait to celebrate our family Easter traditions!

Check out the tutorial and pattern here-
http://kikicreates.blogspot.com/2011/04/little-bunny-basket-all-about-easter.html?m=1

Ok and I'm trying a post from my phone for the first time! I have been sewing and creating again lately and want to share! I'll be back again soon with an update- I promise ;)

football!

are you ready for some football???  i know we are!

and what makes watching football enjoyable?  for the hubs- the game.  and for me- it's friends and treats :)  so for today's big game, i decided to whip up football oreos.  thank you pinterest for the idea!  i thought these were so cute.  the only tip i have, is let the dough sit for a bit before attempting to shape/roll them.  my first batch were super sticky and hard to roll and shape and i was so frustrated!  but then unintentionally, i had to let the dough sit.  (all 3 kiddos needed mom at the same time for various reasons.  such is life these days!)  when i came back though, the dough was much easier to work with and far less wet and sticky.

my homemade oreo recipe:

(from my older sister sarah)

cookies:

2 boxes devil foods cake mix

4 eggs

1 c oil

mix together, shape, and cook at 350 for 8-10 mins.

frosting:

1 pkg cream cheese softened

1/4 c butter softened

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 c powdered sugar

mix together and frost cookies.

and for the laces decoration- put small amount of frosting in a ziploc bag, smoosh to one corner, barely snip the corner off, and squeeze out slowly decorating the cookies.

and now go enjoy!  grab a diet dr. pepper, a cookie, chat with friends and be prepared to clap and cheer whenever you hear others clap and cheer!!  at least thats how i plan on enjoying the game :)

circle skirts!

well i'm not sure if anyone even checks this blog anymore...  i've lost my desire to blog!  but i have loved crafting lately and am slowly trying to work on some fun projects as time permits with 3 little kiddos!  if you can't tell from the pics below, our sweet baby girl was born in june and we are so happy.  she is such a sweet and good baby!  and i love having 2 girls to sew for.  after seeing the fun tutorial for the baby circle skirt here, i had to make one right away!  and after seeing baby sister's, miss m wanted one too.  love it!

m thought it was perfect for twirling in-

and miss a found it perfect for lounging in and looking cute!

(3 weeks old)

wow our family has grown!  i am crafting and at some point may start posting again but i'm not sure.  i love crafting and just do it for my own sanity and to push myself and learn new things.  but i have so many projects rolling around in my head!!  i'm going to try dying some lace this week- wish me luck!  but first, i'm off to make new matching circle skirts for church tomorrow!!  just need to finish washing and drying their cute turquoise fabric...

just a little late v-day post

ok so i know that v-day has come and gone but i'm really trying to post again!  apparently having a baby and then being pregnant with a baby so close has left me with barely enough energy to either sew and craft or post- not both.  but i'm working on it!  i've really enjoyed getting back into my craft room and sewing again.  i've done lots of projects lately and will slowly start trying to post again.  but no promises :)

so to start off the catch up, lets start with the v-day things.  some fun cupcakes to pass out!  we were going to have a whole little v-day party for m's friends but thanks to the all the germs going around, all of us moms and kids were too sick!  but we did get the cute little cupcakes made and dropped off for my visiting teaching.

and then next up was a new cute little pink dress for miss m.  she was so excited to see me making her a dress- especially out of her uncles old shirt!  she loves him and loved that the shirt was his.  so i used this tutorial for the base of the shirt and then just did my own thing when it came time for the sleeves and sewed ties onto it for the waist band knowing that m would love them.

the funny thing was that i was rushing to sew it for her and ended up sewing both sleeves on backwards AND inside out!  i almost just threw it away but instead set it aside for a few hours and then just unpicked the seams and re attached them correctly!  she was so excited and loves wearing it.  its a little on the big side so i think it'll be cuter in a year with leggings but i still love seeing her wear it.

so excited when she woke up in the morning and saw that it was finished!

ok so i've started on the catch up.  many more posts to come!  slowly...

winner!

and we have our winner!  thanks to all that entered but the winner is randi.  i've emailed you all the instructions.  thanks everyone!

oh and guess what?  i've actually crafted- just a little bit- this week.  i'll be posted some fun stuff soon...  once its finished!

My Memories Suite GIVEAWAY!

Happy New Year!  Wow...  it's been awhile since I've checked in.  But there is a reason!

Yep!  Thats right!  Our family is growing again.  Baby 3 is due next summer and as I'm now entering the 2nd trimester, I'm slowly beginning to feel human again!  So I will try to check in more frequently but as life is still on the crazy side, no promises!!

But what do you say we start the new year off with a bang?  How about a giveaway?!

I have had the My Memories Suite for a bit now and have loved playing with it!  You are able to do all of the scrapbooking, photo cards, and such as you can with the bigger programs but its much much cheaper and so easy to use!  1 feature that I love about it is that all the downloads you buy (or even the free downloads) from their website, are right there in your program!  It is so easy to access your papers, embellishments, etc. right there in the program.  No trying to remember where they were saved to.  And I need all the help I can get with remembering these days!

So do you want to try it out for your self?  Well we will have 1 lucky winner who wins there own My Memories Suite.  Sweet!  If not, you can still choose to buy it for yourself with this code (STMMMS49041) that will give you $10 off of the MyMemories Suite and a $10 credit for downloads.  Awesome!

So a few ways to enter...

1- mandatory- Go check out their website and then come back leaving me a comment on your favorite digital pack- paper, embellishments, etc.

2- check them out on facebook and leave me a comment letting me know you liked them.

3- check out their blog and then leave me a comment letting me know you are a follower.

4- and then just for fun, leave me a comment with your favorite part about the past holidays!  treats, gifts, games, etc...

This giveaway will run until January 15th and I'll announce the winner soon after!  Good luck!!

b family pictures

so this past weekend, i was lucky enough to do a photoshoot with one of my favorite families.  seriously love them.  i could just eat these boys up!  and hello- gorgeous mama!!  and she is as beautiful inside as she it out.  thanks b fam!

party like it's your birthday!

party party!!  so a couple weeks before m's birthday, i asked her what she wanted to do for her party.  she told me she wanted- friends, cupcakes, and balloons.  well sweet!  i assumed she'd want something princess but i took the balloon theme and just ran with it.  she was so excited!!

the polka dot themed food:

oreo lollipops

cheese circles and crackers- to try and counter balance the sugar :)

marshmallows, grapes, and donut holes- from our favorite local donut shop

cupcakes with lollipops for the dots

for drinks, i labeled the waterbottles so that names could easily be written onto the the paper so they didn't get confused with who's was who's

l was so content just chilling and taking it all in...

now for the games:

as they came, they got to make candy necklaces!  they ended up being more bracelets because it was a little harder than i anticipated but they still loved it.

pin the dot on the crown

a pinata that my awesome friend leah helped me make.  and this was great because all the halloween candy is gone from the house!  well except for what i wanted to keep :)

then came the balloons!  my hubby was so sweet and helped me blow up every balloon out of a bag of 72 the night before.  and he blew up more than i did and they were way bigger than mine!  ha!  so the plan was to tape and hang them up all around outside for the decorations but it was a little windy and for every 3 i would hang up, 2 would pop.  and this was before it even started!  so i just left them inside and was going to bring them all out to let the kids pop them in the yard but again- it was windy and didn't want the balloons to just blow everywhere into our neighbors yards.  so for the last game, the kids just came into our front room and popped all the balloons inside!

it got really noisy really quick so we didn't pop quite all of them...

we then sang happy birthday and tried to light a candle and ate food!

it was a fun party, pretty simple and low-key, and i'm so grateful for all our friends here that came and helped us celebrate m's birthday.  i still can't believe she is 3!