bunny party

Abby's 3rd birthday party was all about bunnies!  The treats were on a bookshelf in our kitchen.  There are some mossy bunnies from Pier One, a couple white wooden bunnies from Total Class Creative, the bunny cookies, some bunny-shaped SweetTarts, and pink bunnies I made from Wilton molds & chocolate melts.

I love tulips!  They opened up even more throughout the party.  We had some on the table too.

The kids hunted for an orange carrot outside, then came inside and opened it to find beads to make a bunny necklace.

A little rabbit food for our guests - a salad bar, a couple muffins to choose from, and a couple pre-made salads on the other side of the lettuce.

The birthday bunny and her brother and cousins!

pizza party

We celebrated Conner's 6th birthday by having a few friends over to make pizzas.  They each had their own choice of crust, and any toppings they wanted.  It was a feast!

For dessert, they each decorated their own section of a cookie pizza.  Sprinkles, marshmallows, and chocolate chips were delicious!!!

Each child got their own apron, paper hat, placemat, and napkin.  They decorated their placemats & hats when they first got to the party.  Each apron had their first initial embroidered on it with a tomato fabric.

We did it all again the next day with cousins & family.  It was an exciting birthday weekend!!!
As many of you have heard, there was a little snow here in Illinois on February 1st-2nd.  Conner figured it was the perfect birthday present!!

a kindergartener's desk

The next big milestone has reached our house - Conner started kindergarten today!!!!  I don't remember who had this idea, but they had their kids write what they wanted to be when they grew up (in their own handwriting) and then write their names.  When he got home, I had him put his nametag on the back, and we wrote down a couple special memories (the name of the book his teacher read, the name of his friend he met at his table, and the snack he ate).  I also traced his hand and measured how tall he was and wrote it down.  It will go in his memory box, and if I'm lucky I'll remember to do this every year.

When he came home, he found something new in his room - his very own desk!!!!  He's been asking for one for a while, and this just seemed like the right time.  After Abby & I got home from dropping him off, I put the desk and chair in his room (that had been hiding in the crawlspace waiting).  I added some of his favorite supplies in the little cubbies - a glue stick, tape, pencil sharpener, eraser, and scissors.  In some plastic jars inside I put pencils, markers, and colored pencils.  I also included a couple different note pads and a "sketch diary" for his creations.  He has been so artistic lately, and I am happy to encourage that as much as I can.

The best part is the story behind the desk - it used to be my Grama's when she was little.  My grandfather refinished it and my mom played at it as a kid.  I also used it as a child after the hinge was fixed.  I am now beyond excited for the desk to get its fourth generation of use!!!

sunflowers

I planted some sunflower seeds this spring and hoped for the best.  I'd say it worked out pretty well!  We've enjoyed watching the goldfinches and chipmunks play in them!

Conner has been loving the sunflowers so much, that he decided to make some of his own using his new markers.  He added the sticks on the bottom himself.  Some of them were supposed to go to his cousins for their gardens, and some of them have a hole cut in them and they are now sunflower masks.

Next on our list is harvesting the seeds and roasting them!!!!

staying friends

Conner has been going to preschool this year with a lot of kids from all around our town and the neighboring town.  Most of them will not be at his elementary school, let alone his middle school or even high school.  He's very concerned about not seeing them again, so we decided to make him his very own "business card".  (It helps that mommy and daddy each have their own business card.)  I just made them using a digital pic & a label template in Word.  Then I printed them on cardstock and cut them.  He's going to bring them to school and pass them out before the last day.

(obviously I blocked out his last name & the rest of our phone number in the screen capture, but you get the idea)

Making & keeping friends is such a tricky thing... I've made contact with a few of the moms already anyway - but I like him being proactive about maintaining friendships that are important to him.

counting outside

We were sitting out in front of our house playing with the chalk and waiting for Daddy to come home.  And the kids were just LOVING walking on the stones by the garden.  So I made a number line.  Conner could hop back and forth, adding & subtracting as he went.

What a great activity for my little kinesthetic learner!!

I figure when it washes away, we can always write the alphabet and make up some letter games to play too.  I'm just so glad we've been able to be playing outside and moving around more!!!

aren't my kids adorable?

Just a couple random moments I thought I'd share...
Here are the kids on Easter Sunday.  After a major meltdown on Christmas Eve because he didn't have a tie like Daddy, we made sure to have a tie for Easter!  And of course, Abby looked adorable in her dress!

We spent our morning at the Morton Arboretum playing in the daffodils.  It's a huge field (with a beautiful oak tree) that is full of lots of clumps of daffodils all over.  We've made it a spring tradition.  It's such a great place that we go back in the fall and enjoy all the beautiful leaves too.

Then we went to the Children's Garden area to play.  It was there that I had my first random blogger sighting... I saw Maggie from Smashed Peas and Carrots.  I knew we both lived in the Chicagoland area, but had to kind of laugh to myself when I saw her kids and thought, how do I know them?? and then saw her and it clicked. :)  Go check out her blog - she's always up to something fun!

tinkerbell...in person!

Seriously - does Tinkerbell get any cuter??

we're home!

I'm calling this our "Family Tree". It's one of my favorite pictures (taken at Animal Kingdom).


We had a wonderful, magical, busy week in Disney World. I won't make this a travel blog, but will tell you that we felt like there was still so much more to see and do - we can't wait to go back! Some of our favorites shows and rides - Mickey's Philharmagic, Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, Kilimanjaro Safari, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, Beauty & the Beast, Lion King, Turtle Talk with Crush, and Soarin'. We met characters, watched fireworks, rode every kind of transportation, and had a lot of fun together as a family.
I'm looking forward to getting back to some of the everyday things, like sewing! I have a lot of work to reveal soon - new embroidery designs and the Tinkerbell purse tutorial. I'll be back with that later this week!!!

Oh - one of the best parts of yesterday - coming home to NO SNOW! (yes it was colder than Orlando, yes we were MUCH later than planned due to a cancelled flight, yes it was raining, but at least there's no more snow!!!!!) Spring is here!!!

what do you do on an airplane?

You may remember me sharing some of my Christmas presents... and talking about my trip to Boston last July.
Well we're off on another amazing adventure! My in-laws put together an amazing vacation for the whole family - their three sons & their families! There will be 13 of us staying at Fort Wilderness & visiting as much of Disney World as we can in a week.
What to do on the plane? It's got to be easy to carry, quiet so as not to bug the other passengers, and quick for me to put together.

My solution - I cut a bunch of patterned & colored felt shapes and they are going in his bag with the Ed Emberley Picture Pie book. Ed Emberley's book is great because there are a lot of animals made out of simple shapes - basically a book of design templates.
Last summer I did a swap with Mary Anne of Mama Smiles fame. I sent her an outfit for her brand new baby girl, and she sent me a travel felt board, a couple templates, and a bunch of felt shapes. Conner LOVED playing with it on our very long Massachusetts trip. So I decided to up the ante a little bit for the plane ride. I didn't make any templates, but with the ones from Mary Anne and his imagination I think he'll be busy for a while! I also made another felt board for Abby to play with. She loves playing with pieces of felt laying around the craft room, so maybe this will keep her busy for at least 5 minutes on the plane? Right?!

LEGO-mania...

was a success!!!

Friends and family were greeted at the door with some more fun foam LEGOs.

There was some time for hard work & special creations. Awards were given for "Most Colorful", "Most Creative", "Tallest Tower" and "Funniest Creation".
We also played "stick the dot on the LEGO" (you can see it in the back behind the toy kitchen) - and we dropped LEGOs from up high on a chair into a jar. When the kids first got there, they also played hide & seek for a specific color of LEGOs.
There was time for treats & goodies. Brightly colored placemats, red plates, cups & napkins, and bendy straws were set out for each kid. Lego candies were in the middle of the table, and we also had some Chex Mix & popcorn for the kids to munch on. With the kids we had red Kool-Aid, cupcakes with Lego candies on them, and ice cream.

There was time for cake!!!! It's a 9x13 with cupcakes on top. I'm not really happy with how it turned out, but fondant was not my friend on decorating day... and it's REALLY hard to make homemade frosting be a bright LEGO color! We enjoyed the big cake with family.

A good time was had by all... now I'm tired & headed off to bed!

{edited to add link to party}

lego goodies

I finished up the goody baskets for the party!

I used small bright colored tubs from the dollar bin at Target... with foam stickers to label with each child's name.
Each child will also get a Lego magnet - bought at the Lego store near us. They come in a variety of colors, so Conner picked a special color for each guest.
Each child will also get a small bag of Lego block candies - from a candy store in town. They taste kind of like Sweet Tarts. We'll also have a bowl of them sitting out at the party, of course!
At the Lego store, they have a table with built-in tubs full of legs, torsos, heads, and hair. Conner personally selected each of the parts for his guests. Unfortunately, there wasn't any blond girl hair - and the girl torso choices were all kind of pirate slutty-wench looking. But he had fun choosing the parts and putting his friends together. Then you just put your people in that handy dandy box pictured behind them, check out, and bring them home to play. Pretty fun!
They also had a sale section in the back - and we found a couple Duplo grab bags that will be perfect for the younger nieces. Their parents will get the candy too.

room redo

I was going a little stir crazy. I usually do when things are a mess. I love to rearrange furniture too. So this was just calling my name! Luckily, he was happy to play along!
Have I ever shown you my son's bedroom? (I couldn't remember, and after a quick glance through my old posts didn't see it listed. If I have, then feel free to just skip this post!) Well, the picture above was his room at about 1 pm yesterday afternoon. The rest of the pictures are how his room looks now. ahhh....

The shelves are dusted (woohoo!) - they are metal shelves with Where the Wild Things Are magnets on them. The other stuff on the shelves are just little momentos from "the early years". There is also a little mailbox where Daddy leaves him things when he has to be at work early (things like a little toy he finds laying around the house that hasn't been played with in a while, a little snack for later, a short note). The memo board I made using denim fabric wrapped around a styrofoam piece. I used silver pins & tape measure ribbon to make the lines to hold papers and pictures. Right now it holds a picture of his cousins, and a picture of him with a preschool friend. There's also a cable wire strung to hold some of his artwork, important papers, etc.
The chair rail is one of my favorite touches in the room. He counts on it when he's laying in bed trying to fall asleep. LOVE that! The comforter will soon be replaced with the music one I'm making. The pillowcase is one I made out of John Deere fleece. Soft and comfy!
Part of the reason for the rearrangement is my ADD with room design. Part of it is that he wanted a light by his bed, and I had this lamp all ready to go, just no outlet close to where his bed used to be. So now he has a lamp to read books in bed! He's so excited - he wanted to close the curtains and turn off the light and try it out as soon as possible! We keep his Legos and Matchbox in pull-out tubs underneath his bed, so the rug is perfect for right there.
The CONNER letters were painted and hung above his bed when we originally put his room together. They were probably hung a little bit high at the time, but I didn't want him reaching up and playing with them when he was supposed to be sleeping. It worked out perfectly now though because they are the perfect height above his dresser. The curtains were just plain chambray ones we had at our old house - I added the tape measure ribbon along the bottom, and they were perfect for his room!I love this corner. It's just a whole lot of family craftsmanship in one place. The rocking horse was a 1st Birthday present for him from one brother-in-law. (the same one who made Abby's doll bed. which reminds me I need to show you the doll quilt my mom gave her for Christmas.) Anyway - gorgeous workmanship! The bookshelves were a 3rd Birthday present from him. LOVE them too. They have three full shelves for books, and three cubbies for bins of "stuff" - marble run pieces, Mr. Potato Head, you get the idea! The bean bag chair is new - and he is loving it! (Slept on it the first 2 nights he had it!) We have a Mike Mulligan print hanging on the wall, and an alphabet rug on the floor. The pegboard has hooks for hats, dress-up shirts, his calendar, tool alphabet cards, and his chore chart. (We don't make a big deal out of daily chores, but it's something we keep trying to do!)
Then at the bottom of the pegboard - book racks made by my brother. They're perfect for holding some of our current favorites so they don't get lost on the big bookshelf.
Hope you enjoyed the tour of a CLEAN room! Woo-hoo!

power solids

We had a lazy day at home today. I was excited about that, but realized I needed to pull something new out of my bag of tricks if we were going to make it through the day!
So... I went and grabbed my POWER SOLIDS off the shelf. Unfortunately, I didn't have any dry beans and didn't want to deal with the mess of rice. We'd already had a somewhat unfortunate water mess and I wasn't ready for another. So noodles it was!
We scooped, dumped, poured, measured, and had a blast! I realized I don't use terms like pyramid, cone, cylinder, and prism very often. (Do you?) So, we're going to get these out more often, play with different materials, and figure out what it all means!
At dinner when he was telling Daddy about our new toy - he said "you know the blue things Mommy used when she was a teacher?" Well for now, we're just having fun sticking noodles in the blue things - guess the names need a little more practice.

the coolest snack bag ever

"Mommy... everybody has an interesting snack bag. Mine is just all black. Why does it have to be all black?"
Uh, cause I just used an old leftover formula bag that they gave us at the hospital. Sorry kid. Let's see how I can make it up to you...
How's Mickey? Want a fancy strap too? Black polka dots for you then!
"Mommy, I have the coolest snack bag ever!!"

fingerprints & animals

What did you get for Christmas? Here's one of my presents I'm really excited about - an Ed Emberley Fingerprint Drawing Book. I LOVE Ed Emberley, and asked my mom if she knew where my childhood book was. She couldn't find it, so she & my dad gifted me with a couple new books this Christmas. As you can see, Conner and I had a lot of fun with the fingerprint one during Abby's naptime creating a fish, a frog, a turtle, a parade of pink elephants, purple birds, and a couple flowers. So easy, and so fun using the stamp pads!!!

As we were flipping the pages after the animal ones, we saw some trains & cars. I drew the road with a black marker, and we added two cars (with exhaust trailing behind), a helicopter, clouds, a bird, sun, and he drew the building.If you're looking for a new artsy fun with kids book - check out Ed Emberley!!!! I consider myself to have a creative side, but not much artistic ability. I don't feel that my sketching skills are worth much. That makes Ed Emberley perfect for me! He breaks it down into easy steps and even the drawing-incompetent folks like me end up with cute pictures. I also have another one that uses basic shapes to make animals, etc. I'm excited to see how I can incorporate that into craft time - my own sewing - and some felt stuff for the kids.

do you hear the sirens?

All I know is that I think I'm living in a fire station because I've got a fireman at my door and a dalmatian running in the yard!!!
I made the coat and pants. I tackled a collar and I don't love how it looks inside, but it turned out just fine for a costume. I bought some iron-on reflective tape and then reinforced it by stitching the edges. My husband tracked down a Fire Supply store and we got the hat, boots, and letters for our last name on the back of the jacket. The suspenders were actually my brother's when he was little - my mom had them in a box and they were perfect for this!
The air pack is a 2-liter bottle spray painted gray. I then hot-glued webbing straps to one side, added D-rings and tried it on for size. We realized it needed a little more so we looked up Scott Air Packs online. I enlarged the picture, printed it out, and Mod-Podged it on. That added a little shine to make it glossier, and made it look like a little more than just a spray painted bottle.
The dalmatian costume is a white sweatshirt & leggings (store-bought) with felt dots I sewed all over. The ears are white felt. I made sure to give her a cute little collar with a heart tag. She wore black patent leather shoes too - just because!Hope you had a Happy Halloween! I'm off to enjoy a little more chocolate...