heymomblog

My Favorite Quotes about Moms

2013-02-02T22:01:00.000-08:00

I love mom quotes. Here is my collection of some of my favorite ones:

A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take." ~ Cardinal Mermillod

All mothers are working mothers. ~Author Unknown

Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever. ~Author Unknown

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan

Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs... since the payment is pure love. ~Mildred B. Vermont

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. ~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty

God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers. ~Jewish Proverb

If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden. ~Attributed to Claudia Ghandi

A man's work is from sun to sun, but a mother's work is never done. ~Author Unknown

The phrase "working mother" is redundant. ~Jane Sellman

She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn't take them along. ~Margaret Culkin Banning

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mothers are all slightly insane. ~J.D. Salinger

Cute Photo Idea for Valetine's Day

2013-02-02T21:21:00.002-08:00

I love taking cute pictures of my kids. Today I had the idea to turn a cardboard box (we previously turned into a Tardis) into a little stand that I was going to put something like 5 Cent Kisses on it, but my five year old said he wanted to sell frogs. Since we had a crap load over from his Valentines, I agreed and came up with the idea to make the booth a Frog Prince sales booth, with the promise of the frog turning into a prince when you kiss it! (*With the results not typical warning, of course! lol). I think it made a really cute prop. My kids are wearing some cute iron on bows and suspenders I got off etsy too. =)

Make your own sight words memory card game!

2013-01-29T22:10:00.001-08:00

My 5 year old son loves to play games - either it be video games, computer games, or board/card games. When his teacher sent home a list of sight words he needed to learn, I noticed simply going through the flash cards wasn't helping. I grabbed some thick card-stock I had and make a quick hand written memory game with the 10 words. (20 cards - 2 cards of each word). He liked this a lot! We played every day after homework or before bed and he was always eager to win and play. The more we played, the more he remembered the words - to the point now he knows all of them easily and by heart.

I love to design and print things and often I will use a website called artscow, based in China. Since they are a company in China, they offer printing services at prices that cannot be beat here in the US. I've ordered blankets, change purses, books, pillow cases, canvas, cards, prints - etc. Every single thing has been of exceptional quality (NOT something you always see with a company based in China that sells at low price).

They have a product called multipurpose cards, and you can decide what to print on the front and on the back of each card. Each set comes with 54 cards (so you can make two ten word games, and leave the last ones blank if you want. With my first order I did this, and left the last 14 blank. When my two year old was bored of the word one that was too advanced for him, I make him a shape memory game which he really likes too.

I found that the printed ones work really well for my 5 year old, because the words are written in a font his teacher uses and teaches him with. Some people do not realize writing a small "A" differently typed can really confuse a child.

So I designed images in PAINTNET (free program I love) with the sight words on them in a font that matched the flash cards his teacher sent home, then on the back of each card I used a brightly colored digital scrap book image. I stayed away from images, like cute cartoons or things like that. Right now my son associates an Apple with the letter A, so I think putting any kind of image on the backside could cause confusion or distraction.

It's very easy to create the cards at Artcow. You click create, then upload your images and basically drag and drop them onto each card. Cards can come in shapes of rectangles, circles or hearts. I used circles because there are no corners to get bent, and so far they have worked well for us. They are perfectly sized as well for small hands (but bug hands too).

This is the preview the website gave me (of one card):

Cards are usually $10.99 plus shipping - but they ALWAYS have coupons going on. A quick check on retailmenot.com will almost always get you some kind of cheaper priced coupon. They offer free shipping with most deals too. Sign up for their newsletter to get the really great deals.

Currently right now the great deal is $8.99 with free shipping:

Coupon Code:	PLAYCARDJAN
Expiry Date:	2 / 19 / 2013

Multipurpose cards can be found here: http://www.artscow.com/photo-gifts/playing-cards

You can see my design of the sample shown above here (and even order it if you want):

http://www.artscow.com/gallery/playing-cards/sight-words-ndp3cbkri0oy

Boy Valentine's Day Cards

2013-01-26T15:01:00.000-08:00

My son is in Kindergarten and I was excited to make something unique for him to give out on Valentine's day this year. I decided to go with a frog/toad theme. I designed the paper cover (I used a free program called PAINTNET), and had it printed at www.artscow.com, on their multipurpose two sided card product (I love artscow and highly recommend them, visit retailmenot.com for best deals and sign up for their newsletter for best deals too!). They are in China, so plan ahead if you get anything from them because it does take a few weeks to get your stuff. I bought the little plastic bags, frogs and stickers all on Amazon.com (I use the heck out of my Prime membership, it's worth it!). I left the backside without names so he can fill them in himself and practice writing.

*I noticed my misspelling of 'Toad'lly' after I had them printed, so oh well.

Since the product included two-sided printing, I added some fun frog and toad jokes on the inside.

-Used The Amazing Patterned Frogs Digital Scrapbooking Kit Freebie found here for graphics on card.

Dr. Who Dalek Cupcakes

2012-12-26T22:49:00.000-08:00

So I decided to google Dr. Who birthday cakes to get some ideas for my husband's birthday this year. I didn't see anything that looked easy or cheap, lol - but then I stumbled on super cute Dalek cupcakes on flickr with a link to the free pattern! I downloaded the pdf and sent it in to be printed at staples.com, for 6 pages to be printed it was only about $6 and I could pick it up the next day at the store nearby. I was lazy and made store bought cake mix and frosting - but I think they are cute! =)

Our Elf On The Shelf

2012-12-11T19:07:00.001-08:00

Some of the things we have done this year with our Elf. I need some better ideas though!

He made snow flakes.

paper hat and boat??

He drew faces on our oranges.

Hanging out with Woody and Jessie.

Oh the adventures he's had? Hanging out with the Doctor..

The Pumpkin Painting Continues...

2012-12-08T23:54:00.001-08:00

So my Angry Bird Pumpkins actually got taken on Halloween night. We had a lot of high school trick-or-treators this year that complimented them. Maybe one of them decided to take them off my hands... who knows. They took the Angry birds only and left a carved pumpkin and a plain uncarved pumpkin. The carved one rotted quickly and we threw it away. The uncarved one still looks perfectly fine from the outside so I decided to put it to use for December. I figure I'll stretch that $5 I paid for it? Ha!

Encourage Reading with a Book Advent Calendar

2012-12-01T14:57:00.000-08:00

A friend mentioned this quite some time ago and I thought it was a really great idea. Basically your child or children get to open a new wrapped up book every day until Christmas. I've seen some people use all Christmas and Holiday themed books, but I chose to mix holiday books with regular kid books - and with The Night Before Christmas being the book for the 24th. The 23rd is A Christmas Story about Jesus. I have some others thrown in the mix as well. (including this one I got for $5 on black Friday!)

I'm hoping this excites my children to want to read more. My Kindergartner is suppose to read during the week for part of his homework - so having 24 new books for the house helps with that too! =)

I wrapped mine with newspaper - basically because that's what I had! Ha. You can use wrapping paper, brown postal paper or even scrapbook paper if you would like. Be creative. =)

I made the date tags in Word and printed them on some of my kid's construction paper (cut it down a little on the sides to make it fit). I've made that Word into a PDF file you can easily download and print too if you'd like. Have fun!

LOVE! Tennessee Fabric

2012-11-08T22:04:00.002-08:00

I ran across this fabric on fabric.com when I was looking for some fleece to make some hand warmers for Christmas gifts. This is seriously the prettiest fabric ever! Would make a really beautiful quick and easy blanket. They have other teams as well.

Find it here: http://www.fabric.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=6fad71cd-5025-4598-a8f9-380368d68796

Healthier Snack Idea for Halloween Parties and Treats

2012-10-20T20:21:00.002-07:00

I ordered these on Amazon last week and they are the perfect snack size for little guys. My son is in Kindergarten and I plan on decorating the bags with a Halloween theme. I think they would also be a really neat treat to give to trick-or-treators and at a great price!

Angry Birds Pumpkins, King Pig added!

2012-10-20T19:42:00.001-07:00

So I finally got around to making a piggy pumpkin to go with our angry bird pumpkins. (Got it at Walmart for $3.50!). It's a little rushed looking, because I had to paint it three times since my 2 year old doesn't like waiting for paint to dry... heh.

The crown is made out of a piece of scrapbook paper cut in half, and then given spikes. I painted the red jewels on the crown.

In The Game - Fun with Costume Pics

2012-10-20T19:27:00.001-07:00

My kids are going to be Mario & Luigi for Halloween and are surprisingly pretty excited about it. Today I suggested we take pictures and I would put them in the game, they loved the idea and were very excited to see the outcome! =) I use PAINT DOT NET to do all my photo editing, a free program that can be found on cnet.com .

You could do some cool stuff like this for a lot of different costumes. Just Google the kind of background you want and you'll most likely find andesktop picture that can easily be used.

Angry Bird Pumpkins

2012-10-05T16:34:00.001-07:00

So here in Southern California it's usually really hot for sometime, even around Halloween. If we carve pumpkins they don't really last really long. I saw this really cute idea on Pinterest (sorry I don't recall the origin of it) and so since my 5 year old is a HUGE fan of angry Birds I decided' we'd give it a try. I got the big pumpkin at target for $3.99 and the little guys came from Vons for $0.59 each. I already had acrylic paint at home, but you can buy it for around $0.50 a bottle at Walmart or a craft store. I just google a picture of the angry birds and drew it the best I could and then painted it. You could technically print out the faces on an 8x10 piece of paper and trace it with a little force and it would leave a light imprint in the pumpkin if you want to be perfect or do not think you would do well by eye-balling it.

We plan on adding a big green pig soon, and probably the smaller red bird. Depends on how much the cost of pumpkins are closer to Halloween! BTW the FedEX guy thought they were awesome, heh. :)

Paper Dolls for Boys

2012-07-30T16:24:00.003-07:00

I came home today and was drawing and coloring with my two year old. After that got boring (in like 5 minutes for him) I made him an Elmo and Cookie Monster paper doll to play with. My older son really likes it when I draw things for him and cut them out. I've made him some spongebob characters before on the dollar tree foam (they get played with longer than most toys it seems). Today I used some blank business cards for the paper dolls. I found them on Etsy a few weeks ago. I'm realizing that these blank little pieces of card stock can be used for a ton of things, so it's nice having some laying around.

For the dolls you could either print them out (just google the character you want on Google images - it helps to google character name + coloring page, to get black and white results. Or you can draw them yourself, like I did. I also googled the characters so I could look at them as I drew them. It's a nice and easy free thing to do with your kids that I'm sure they're remember when they're older. =)

Obviously this could work for girls too - you can use any characters. My son even likes it when I draw furniture and we made a fake house out of a cardboard box.

Felt Sweet Bread/Pan Dulce

2012-06-17T19:11:00.002-07:00

I love all the felt food I see on Etsy. Since we get sweet bread pretty often here, I thought it would be neat to make some felt food of it for my sons. My sons love to play pretend with their little kitchen and food. I didn't use a pattern, I just kinda winged it. You could easily make these by hand or with fabric glue. I used an old bakery box we got that was kinda small and was a perfect fit!

Get Organized: Health Record Binder

2012-05-29T19:38:00.004-07:00

I'm sure I could have made this homemade, but at the time 5 years ago after having my first son I decided I needed something to keep all the important things (like shot records) in a safe place. I'm probably one of the most unorganized people you'll ever know, so thankfully for this book I've not lost anything too important yet. It comes in handy and I recommended it or something like this for every parent.

Baby Boy Blanket - Nontraditional

2012-05-27T22:18:00.000-07:00

Okay so I'll be honest. I REALLY wanted a daughter. I really love the color pink and little girl things. When I walk by the little girl clothing section I think everything looks sooooo pretty and cute - but I don't have girls. I have two boys. Two boys that I love and adore. They bring me flowers and give me kisses and give me a reason to smile every day.

Well I still am not a huge fan of baby blue fabrics and stuff like that. I like skeleton fabric and unique fabrics. For my oldest son I made a quilt out of scraps of fabric I collected and bought from various places - some of the fabrics were day of the dead themed, some had pin ups on them, some were Asian themed. The end result was a very colorful blanket I was proud of.

For my second son I found this black and yellow fabric I fell in love with and decided to make his quilt with. (I loved it enough, I used it on a family quilt I made for my grandmother as well)

The back is just a plain black Minky dot fabric with a yellow heart iron on the back of it since his middle name is Valentine.

Baby Sleep Sack

2012-05-27T22:00:00.001-07:00

So when I was a kid I would sew little dolls and blankets with a needle and thread. They never looked like something Martha Stewart would make - but I was always proud of them. It wasn't until I was pregnant with my first son that a strong urge to sew something came over me. I made a handmade quilt for him, which was beautiful until it fell apart during it's first wash. Luckily through out the years with lots of trial and error I've taught myself how to sew (well kinda). For cameras I will always be a Canon girl, and for sewing machines my heart will always belong to Brother brand (even though most Joann's only sell Singer stuff!).

With my second son, my skills were a bit more improved. I made him a baby quilt as well and a sleep sack. I saw these things online and thought they were awesome. I'm also not a fan of swaddling, mostly because my oldest son hated it. So I decided to make one of these sleep sacks and I honestly loved using it while in the hospital.

This is my son Alex sleeping in the baby sleep sack I made. I did a drawing of my own pattern (guesstimating the size - and I got lucky). It's made with an flannel fabric on the outside (although next time I will probably just do a cotton fabric) and the inside is the super soft fabric, Minky. I love Minky. It's like Minky was made for babies. I used Velcro as the closure, but I don't like how harsh it feels - so next time I think I will use buttons.

Free Micky Mouse Pin from Disney Rewards

2012-05-27T13:13:00.001-07:00

FREE Mickey Mouse Pin

(New accounts for Disney Movie Rewards)

Magic code: MICKEYPIN

Shipping is free as well!

Pretty cool!

OC MOM: Going for icecream will never be the same again...

2012-05-24T19:15:00.001-07:00

Last year I moved from Santa Ana to Orange California. We would always drive by this small building (not too far from Disneyland) that advertised itself as Joe's Italian Ice. In the summer there would be TONS of people standing in the longest line ever. We would always comment about it but never really had the inclination to stop and see what the fuss was all about. Finally some family members stopped and they raved about it so I HAD to give it a try. We went and stood in line for a good 20 minutes. Finally when I got to the window I tried some flavors. They are really great and will let you try any flavors you want. They have this thing called a Joelatti. It's Italian ice with their soft serve ice-cream (which is the best, it's seriously the best). It's my favorite and I always get it. I like to try different flavors. The chocolate soft serve goes really well with some of the ices, like banana pudding or coconut. You can see their daily flavors on their twitter account and facebook account. Everyone is always super nice that works there too. My 2 year old likes to get the sample size cone (a tiny cone with ice cream in it) - it's FREE! So if you are ever near it, stop and try it. You'll fall in love.

Find them on facebook! https://www.facebook.com/joesice

Kids Say...

2012-05-22T18:49:00.003-07:00

My sons are 5 and 2. Although my little one is just now starting to talk, my 5 year old says some of the cutest, unusual, and weird things all the time. I use to just post the cute things he says as a status update on my facebook page, but then I thought about it and I realized once that update gets lost in my past facebook stuff I'll probably forget about it and never see it again. I thought it would be a nice idea to write down the things they say in a notebook of some sort so as they grow older I can read it and remember - and also when they are adults I think they will get a kick out of it. I'm sure their future girlfriends and wives will.

Anyhow so I love Amazon and did a search to see what they had and I found the most perfect book. My Quotable Kid. It's the perfect size I even carry it in my purse so it's handy to write down something before I forget it (which I often do). Each page gives you room to write one quote as well as all the details of it (who said it, what age, when, where..etc). You can see the complete book on Amazon. The one I purchased came with a photo holder on the first page inside too, which I think is a nice touch.

My Top 5 Favorite Quotations About Moms

2012-05-21T21:24:00.002-07:00

I love quotations. I guess I'm one of those people, although I don't update my facebook status on a daily basis with one. Here are my 5 favorite quotations about moms and motherhood. Enjoy! Please add your favorite related quotations in the comments section!

The Solar Eclipse

2012-05-20T20:52:00.002-07:00

I remember some happening in the pats, but I never actively went outside to try to see it - and by see it, I mean take a picture and use a homemade view box to see it. It was interesting! Here are my pictures:

View box:

Fairy Door

2012-05-20T00:13:00.001-07:00

So I saw this on pinterest a few weeks ago and thought it was a super cute idea and decided to go with it. I got lucky, did a search on Etsy and found a dollhouse door for $6.50. I bought the additional items for the door from an online doll house store (door knob, mail slot and door knocker). My sons love our tiny door which is a magical door for all fairies, including the infamous Tooth Fairy who has yet to have a reason to visit us. It's so cute I think I will just keep it on the wall as our unique little decoration.

[source]

S'mores Cake

2012-05-19T23:59:00.006-07:00

My son is a pretty picky eater, even with sweets. So for his 5th birthday I decided to make him a cake modeled after a favorite and fun snack he likes. What I used was just some chocolate cake mix, marshmallows, marshmallow cream, crushed graham crackers, and hot fudge.

I cooked the cake (just one layer for us) and frosted it with marshmallow creme from a jar. Then I stuck broken pieces of the crackers along the side of the cake. Then it was topped with marshmallows that I torched with a long lighter. I finished it by drizzling hot fudge over it. He seemed to enjoy it and it was nice to have something different!

I liked it but I definitely think it can be improved! Suggestions encouraged!