Dear Savannah,

Eighteen years ago it was hard to imagine the day where I have an adult child, but here we are and the day has arrived. Happy 18th Birthday, Savannah! This will be my final letter to you here on the blog since you are an adult now. I’m sure you’ve had enough of your childhood shared online and you’d probably like to move into adulthood with a little more privacy. So here are some things that I’d like to remember about your on your 18th birthday and some things that you might like to remember about your 18 year old self.

1. You are living in NYC all on your own. You graduated high school a year early and moved there at just 17 years old to study dance at the Steps on Broadway Conservatory.
2. You have really improved your cooking skills this year since you have to prepare all your own meals. You barely knew how to boil water before you left, so I’m impressed with how much you’ve learned in such a short amount of time.
3. You’ve started singing in NYC. You always refused to sing growing up since you identified more as a dancer, but since your school requires singing, you’ve really taken to it and, dare I say….maybe enjoy it? It’s fun helping you select songs for different genres. And I’m glad you come to me for advice.
4. You are still super organized and on top of things. You plan ahead and don’t save things for the last minute. Since you’ve moved to NYC, you definitely keep your room more neat and tidy. Probably because it’s such a small space, but it’s nice to see you make a change from the way you used to leave your room at home.
5. I miss you so much and you miss me. You say I’m your favorite person and that really warms my heart. You still love to call me and tell me all the details of your day. We text many times a day and I don’t think I’ll ever stop missing you when we aren’t together.
6. You are turning 18 on the same day as Grandma Jane (my mom) is turning 70! How cool is that? Two milestone birthdays. You are coming home a day or two after your actual birthday, Grandma Jane and Pepo are flying in from Texas and Uncle Ben, Aunt Brooke and Luca are flying in from Colorado and we are celebrating BOTH of your birthdays.
7. For the last several years, you have said that you wanted to end up dancing in a professional contemporary dance company. I think you have now opened your mind up to other potential opportunities and are definitely more open minded about your dance career. You just want to be able to make a living doing what you love…..dancing and performing!
8. You have made a lot of friends at the Conservatory. People definitely appreciate your work ethic, funny personality and kindness. You are a REALLY nice person. For some reason a lot of them call you Papa Wilkes. I’m not sure why exactly, but it’s cute. Some people you’ve mentioned a lot are Kenzie, Sierra, Mia, Gabrielle, Reid, Scott, Aleah, Arden, Shelby, Gabriela, Gabi, Selah and that’s all I can remember off the top of my head.
9. You are already panicking about finding a job after you finish your dance program. I like that you are aware that you need to support yourself at some point, but I’d love if you would take a little more time enjoying being in NYC on your parents dime and a little less stressing about the future. Enjoy the journey and don’t stress over the destination.
10. Speaking of stressing out. You taught me a really good lesson recently when you were home for Christmas. I was VERY nervous about your youngest sisters Level 6 gymnastics meet since her first one didn’t go as well as planned. You told me that I need to stop worrying about things out of my control. You said that God has a plan for everything and what will be, will be…it’s already been determined Him. And you asked if I though that God made mistakes. It really helped bring a sense of calm to me. Because even if JoJo fell off the beam, it was in God’s plan and that would have happened for a reason. We don’t always know the reason in the moments, but usually God reveals His plan to us over time. I really appreciated your wisdom…..now follow your own advice and stop stressing about AFTER graduation. God has a plan.
11. You dyed your hair red before you left for NYC to hopefully make your look stand out a little more. I was quite shocked that you wanted to do something that drastic since you’ve never even had highlights, but it looks really fantastic on you!
12. Sometimes I think you miss your dogs more than you miss your family. Well I know I am your favorite, so you definitely miss me, but I think the dogs might come next. You wish you could have them in NYC with you. You especially miss Scotty because he is attached at the hip to you when you are home.
13. Some of your favorite foods are cheeseburgers, Navel oranges, my tortellini alfredo, Panera broccoli cheese soup, Grandma Jane’s blueberry muffins, southwest salad and avocado toast.
14. You love being alone. You can act like an extrovert when you need to in social settings, but you are an introvert at heart and truly love your alone time.
15. You really enjoy making things and having some type of craft project. You love making these miniature book nooks out of wood. We have them in our hutch in the great room and I love looking at your creations. You also got a diamond art kit from Gigi and Grumpy for Christmas and are currently working on that in NYC. I think you would really love crocheting or even hand embroidery but I’ve offered to teach you and so far you’re not interested.
16. You love having a calming, tranquil living environment. Your apartment is decorated with white, cream, beige, sage green and light blue.
17. You’ve gotten really good at taking the subway. The first time I visited you, you seemed to really have it down and can get pretty much anyway by subway or walking.
18. You’ve been enjoying streaming some different shows this year. You were really into Young Sheldon and The Middle and like having those episodes playing when you are in your apartment.
19. You love Christmas. Like looooooooooove Christmas. You decorated your apartment after Halloween and for all I know, you still have your Christmas decor up! That’s your favorite holiday of the year!
20. You’ve been the only person in your dance program under the age of 18 so you love to remind people that you are still a minor child. But that’s a thing of the past because you are an official adult now!

Savannah Rose, I am SO proud of you! You have already done such amazing things with your life. It’s so fun watching it all unfold. I can’t wait to see where life takes you into adulthood. I know you are destined for greatness. You are the most deserving person. I love being your mom and I am so grateful you are mine.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

I love you from here to the moon and back again!!

Love,

Mama

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Dear Josephine,

Happy Birthday sweet girl! Today you turn 11 years old. You’ve had an entire year of being double digits and there is more to love about you every year. Here are some things I’d like to remember about you when you turned 11 years old and some things that you might like to know about your 11 year old self……

1. You still love gymnastics. You will competing USAG Level 6 this year. It’s your first year competing in optionals. Your older sister, Savannah, choreographed your floor routine and you love getting to practice now with the high school girls. You work so hard at your sport and spend 22 hours a week training. It’s insane dedication for a young girl but there is no place you’d rather be.
2. You are in 5th grade. 5th grade is in junior high at our school. You have been put in accelerated math and english this year and you’re loving it. You have one homeroom teacher and a different teacher for math and english.
3. You broke your right hand in 3 places this past August (luckily you are left handed). You were doing a flip flop on the beam and landed wrong. You broke two parts of your pointer finger and one major bone in the hand. You were in a cast for the start of school, but have been cleared to get back to gymnastics after several months of not being able to use your hand.
4. You still love pink and bows. You no longer like to wear the big giant bows (insert sad face), but you love wearing the really light, romantic style bows. I think you will forever love PINK!
5. You are the girliest girl! You just love dressing super feminine with skirts, having your hair done everyday and having everything coordinate.
6. You love sparkly gymnastics leotards. We found some companies in the UK that make the prettiest leotards with crystals and you can’t get enough of those leos. You received one for a birthday present.
7. You have lots of friends, but you are very selective in who you allow to be your close friends.
8. Your favorite food is still chicken nuggets with fries and ranch, but some other favorites are scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs, pickles, grapes, protein bars, strawberries, turkey, mac and cheese, salami, bacon and pasta. You recently tried my homemade Alfredo sauce and LOVED it. You also love super spicy foods like hot sauce and flaming hot Doritos or Cheetos.
9. You are more into name brand clothing than your two older sisters. You requested some specific Nike things for your birthday that you received. You also really love things from Abercrombie Kids.
10. You love to snuggle. Like you REALLY love to snuggle. You just come on the couch and need a snuggle from time to time. Everyone loves your hugs. You are super affectionate to your close family and very not touchy with most others.
11. You had a boyfriend this last year which was cute. You ‘broke up with him’ which basically meant you just no longer said he was your boyfriend…..because what is a boyfriend in 4th grade? Just a sweet friend.
12. You always have to say ‘See you later Alligator’ and Daddy or I have to say ‘After while Crocodile’ when you go to school or go off to gymnastics. You do not like if we don’t respond. And I also have to blow you a kiss when you go in the door from gymnastics. One day there were people in my way of being able to see you and you were not happy that I didn’t blow my kiss. Yes, probably a bit OCD about this one, but for now, we’re still going with it.
13. You love things to look beautiful and, as you say, ‘aesthetic’. You like the way I arrange and wrap gifts for others and love making things look organized and pretty. I think you’d be a great designer / decorator / organizer when you grow up.
14. You love riding on airplanes. You always ask if you can go on a trip. You go to Texas every summer and this year we are going to New Orleans for a gymnastics meet so you are VERY excited for that airplane ride.
15. You love to give me compliments on my outfits which really makes me feel so good. Last week you told me that I looked ‘snatched’ which I guess is a good thing. You are really good at paying others compliments. That’s a really great quality in you.
16. You still love all those little blind toys where you don’t know exactly what you are going to get. You love the ‘Make it Mini’ mini-verse toys where you can make tiny food. You also really love slime, squishy things and fidgets.
17. You are having a small birthday party at home this year. The theme is pink bows and we have requested that everyone where pink to the party since that’s your favorite color. We are doing a craft making a large shell dish, having an ice cream sundae bar and we bought a cotton candy machine to make homemade cotton candy! You are SO excited for your party and it’s happening on your actual birthday.
18. You love to make silly faces. Like REALLY silly faces. So much so, that one of your gymnastics coaches had a special award for you and she made a giant poster of all of the funny face photos that she had of you in her phone. You are really a character!
19. Some of your best friends right now are Kenzie, Viv, Peyton, Clara, Lily, Jordyn and Ruby.
20. You love crafts. You are a lot like me and just absolutely love making things. You don’t like doing things exactly like the instructions. You love to come into my office and just randomly sew scraps of things together. You love seeing different stitches and just being creative.

Josephine Mae, you are one incredibly special child. You light up every room that you enter and anyone that has ever met you has always absolutely adored you. You are a really easy child, you delight in the most simple things and are so grateful for the blessings in your life. You are smart, funny, kind, stylish, warm and inviting, hardworking, dedicated and silly. I hope you have the best day every and I’m SO excited to celebrate you!

I love you from here to the moon and back again!

Love,

Mama

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Dear Caspian,

Happy 14th birthday to my very favorite son! Here are some things I’d like to remember about you when you turned 14 years old and some things that you might like to know about your 14 year old self…….

1. You love soccer. You are still playing travel soccer and are working really hard at improving your game. You typically play a defensive wing position but are happy playing any position.
2. You are doing cross country again this year. You took a year off last year, but are back doing that with your school on top of club soccer.
3. This summer you did a running club to get back into running and improve your endurance. You ran at 7:30am every Monday, Weds and Friday during the summer. I was very impressed at your commitment to get up early and workout.
4. You love playing video games online with your buddies.
5. You are in 8th grade this year. You are taking 10th grade math and are in the accelerated ELA classes. You are VERY smart!
6. You still don’t love to read. And you don’t like writing much either. So I’d say ELA is your least favorite class and math is probably your favorite.
7. You have lots of friends. You are social and outgoing, but not obnoxious. You have a great group of friends at school and at soccer.
8. You love steak. You could eat tons of it! You also like cheeseburgers, cheese tortellini with cream sauce, ice cream, pickles, beef tacos, brie cheese and ham sandwiches.
9. You love to go find friends in the neighborhood. There are lots of kids your age in the neighborhood so there is generally someone to hang out with if you are feeling social.
10. You have really matured in the last year. You’re good about getting all your things together for school and after school sports. You offer to help me bring things in from the car and put things away without me asking. It’s very sweet.
11. I love hanging out with you. You always make good conversation and are really funny.
12. You got back into Pokemon cards this last year, but unfortunately, I had gotten rid of a lot of the ones that you had when you were younger. We’ve been trying to find more, but the stores are always sold out. I’m always on the lookout!
13. You have grown a lot in this last year! You are now 5′ 4″ which is great! For a long time, you were pretty tiny amongst your friends, but now you are catching up. I can’t imagine how tall you’ll be next year!
14. You still wish you had a brother. Daddy will go out and try to play soccer with you, but he’s not a real sporty guy, so you really wish you had a brother to kick the ball around with outside.
15. You love soccer jerseys. You have quite a collection of them and asked for several rare ones for your birthday.
16. You aren’t interested in a girlfriend right now. You said that you are waiting for high school because they are too much work in junior high.
17. You don’t have big plans for your birthday. You are playing in a soccer tournament on your birthday and then will maybe go out to eat with your family. You seem kind of over the whole party thing and more often than not, choose to be with your family on your birthday.
18. You still don’t like putting your laundry away. It’s always a battle!
19. You rode a ‘real’ rollercoaster a couple months ago (apparently you don’t count Disney rides) and really loved it! You and JoJo had me go on some rides that I don’t think I’ll ever go on again! (too scary for me!).
20. I love that no matter how big you get, you’ll still give me really nice hugs and snuggles. I hope that never ends!

Caspian Finn, you really are such an incredible son. You are kind, fun, social, athletic, smart, funny, passionate, hardworking and so much more. I know I still call you my little buddy even though you are far from little these days. But I just have such a special place for you in my heart and I could not love you more! I hope you have the best year EVER!

I love you from here to the moon and back again!

Love,

Mama

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Dear Matilda,

Today you are 16 years old! Happy Birthday sweet girl. I hope you have the most amazing day today! Here are some things I would like to remember about you when you turned 16 years old and here are some things you might like to know about your 16 year old self…..

1. You still play percussion in the school band and marching band. This next year you will be playing the quad drums in the marching band. You love your band director and band friends so much!
2. You are still in choir. You auditioned and made the top choir in school (there is another one that meets after school, but you didn’t audition for that one). You also had some really nice solos in the choir concerts this last year. Everyone is always impressed by your singing.
3. You were in the high school musical this past year (Anastasia) as an ensemble member. You are hoping that maybe you will be eligible for a little bigger role this next year since you will be a junior.
4. You were selected to be a Pack Leader for the high school this year. In August you will help the new freshman find their classes and lead some orientation groups. You will be fantastic at this because younger students always adore you.
5. You got really great grades this last year. I had to stay on top of you during your freshman year, but during your sophomore year, it was ALL you. I was so proud of your organization, determination and hard work in making sure you got the best grades possible.
6. You have a beta fish named ‘Linus’. He is missing part of one of his fins, but you love him so much!
7. You are still a Girl Scout. You aren’t part of a troupe anymore so you are a ‘Juliette’, but you had a great time being a PA volunteer at a Girl Scout day camp this year. You had a 5th grade group and those girls loved you SO much.
8. You LOVE music. Like love, love, love music! You are always listening to something. You have really cool music taste. You and Daddy are going to the ‘The Crane Wives’ concert later this month in Chicago and you can’t wait. You don’t care if others are listening to the same music, you like what you like. You and Daddy have bonded over some of his old school punk music which is fun for both of you.
9. You really like musicals. You also find really obscure, interesting musicals to share with me, which I love. You love singing songs for me from those musicals.
10. You are still taking private voice lessons. This year you will perform in your voice studios’ cabaret. We are excited to see you and the other vocal students perform.
11. You are still one of our pickiest eaters. You like very basic stuff like pizza, chicken nuggets/strips, burgers, fries etc.
12. You will not drink anything that has caffeine. Sprite is your soda of choice.
13. You love your friends. Some of your best friends right now are Greta, Linnaeah, Morgan, Scarlet, Addy, Ella, Brecken and Jacob.
14. For your birthday celebration, you are going to the beach with five of your girlfriends and then coming back to our house for pizza and a fire in the fire pit with s’mores. You planned exactly what you wanted to do and made the plans with your friends.
15. You were inducted into the International Thespian Society this year and are still part of the Music Honor Society (Tri-M).
16. You are very happy that your older sister is moving to NYC in a month. You have never had your own room and you can’t wait to have it all to yourself. You and your sister are complete opposites and get on each others nerves. I’m hoping that absence makes the heart grow fonder? But we’ll see.
17. You don’t like to be wasteful or have excess. You like to have just enough but never too much. You don’t like when I try to get you to buy more shoes or other variations of things that you already have that work just fine. You will use and wear things until they are falling apart. You are extremely practical.
18. You have a very defined sense of style. You love earthy colors as well as plaid. You are probably the easiest one to shop for because you have a specific vibe. I love that you are true to yourself in that way. I feel like I was constantly trying to find my style in high school, but you know your style 100%.
19. You don’t like sharing silverware or drinking glasses with the rest of the family. It’s kind of odd, but I think it’s an OCD germ thing. So you have your own silverware and we got you several of your own drinking glasses this year for your birthday.
20. You want to be an elementary music teacher when you grow up. You want to be the reason kids love music. I think you will be amazing and will inspire so many!

Matilda Jane, I cannot believe you are 16 years old! There are so many things about you that I admire. You are kind, a good friend, really unique, cool, artsy, smart, funny, talented and beautiful. You know who you are and you don’t try to be like anyone else. I can’t imagine this world without you. The world needs more people like you. You bring such a wonderfully different way of thinking to our family and I’m so grateful you are mine. Happy sweet 16!!

I love you from here to the moon and back again!

Love,

Mama

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I know many of you are like me and have a gazillion scraps hanging out in your fabric stash. I wanted to do something to use up my tiny scraps that would be a fun and cute craft for myself and my youngest, Josephine, to do together. We got this set of 6 plastic Easter eggs in this egg carton at the Dollar Tree for $1.25. I liked that these didn’t have a seam in the middle like most plastic Easter eggs. We think they turned out so cute!

Supplies:

-Plastic Easter Eggs (or you could use wood or another material)

-Tiny fabric scraps

-Mod Podge

-Paint Brush

-Wax Paper (optional – for protecting surfaces and letting the eggs dry)

Directions:

Step 1: If you don’t have any teeny tiny scraps, cut up some of your larger scraps into small pieces. Mine were about the size of my finger nails.

Step 2: Brush a layer of mod-podge onto the Easter eggs and place a fabric scrap on top. Paint another layer of mod-podge on top.

Step 3: Continue doing the same process, making sure to overlap the fabrics so that you can’t see any of the plastic eggs. If you have trouble with the curves, cut some snips in the fabric so that they will lay flat.

Step 4: Paint one last layer of mod-podge on the Easter eggs and allow to dry completely.

And that’s it! So simple and so cute! And perfect for all of you fabric lovers out there!

Happy Easter!

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Dear Savannah,

Today you turn 17 years old! Happy Birthday sweet girl. I cannot believe this is your last birthday that I will have with you living at home. These years have just flown by and I could not be more proud of you. Here are some things I’d like to remember about you when you turned 17 years old and some things you might like to know about your 17 year old self.

1. You still love dance. You still dance at a studio called The Colony in downtown Chicago and this is your 4th year with them. You train and compete in all different styles of dance, but contemporary is your favorite.
2. You are going to be graduating high school a full year early! You have worked incredibly hard and have gotten straight A’s in all your classes. I have never had to ask you about assignments, check on your grades or push you to do your best. You do that all on your own.
3. In August you are moving to NYC by yourself to attend the Steps on Broadway Conservatory training program for two years. You are wanting a career in dance and this program should get you prepared to enter the dance industry. You will train 5+ days a week in all styles of dance and you can’t wait to start your life in NY. I’m sad you are graduating early because I feel like I get one less year with you at home. But when I think of all amazing experiences you are going to have in NYC, I can’t help but smile.
4. This past year you attended two nationals for dance. First up was The Dance Awards (TDA) in Las Vegas, which is the nationals for a group of competitions (NUVO, 24 Seven and Jump). You competed for Teen Best Dancer at TDA. This nationals was also your team nationals so you also competed in groups. This is our 2nd time attending nationals in Las Vegas and you have realized that you really don’t like Las Vegas. You also attended NYCDA (New York City Dance Alliance) Nationals in Phoenix, AZ and competed for Teen Outstanding Dancer. You placed Top 25 with your solo ‘Immediately’ choreographed by Kirsten Russell.
5. Your favorite foods are burgers, pulled pork, tortellini with Alfredo sauce, shrimp, olives, avocados, pickles, bagels, Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos and sweet treats. You asked for a bag of food as one of your gifts for your birthday. It had your favorite Doritos, candy, drink, treats etc. I think you and your siblings think the bag of food is fun so that you can have all the things for yourself.
6. You are very well liked by all your school teachers. I am constantly hearing how on top of your work you are and how exceptional you are as a student.
7. Next year you will be taking voice and acting lessons. That is something outside of your comfort zone, but you know that it’ll be good for your dance career. You had to send in a vocal audition of ‘Happy Birthday’ to Steps on Broadway and I think you are going to really surprise yourself in the singing department once you start training. Girl…you can sing!
8. Your dream job would be to dance in a contemporary dance company. You auditioned, and were selected, for the YAGP International Contemporary Ensemble and attended a week long intensive in NYC working with choreographers and other teens from around the world. You love concert style dance which tends to be more contemporary and modern in style and you love artsy, quirky choreography. You know that there aren’t a lot of jobs in contemporary companies, so ultimately you hope to just work and get paid to dance, but I love that you have big dreams.
9. You still share a room with your sister. You still are VERY opposite in just about every way, but somehow you manage to coexist without too many fights. Your sister is looking forward to having her own room next year for the first time ever.
10. You like to leave cabinets open. We always know when you’ve been in the kitchen because many cabinets will be left open. I think you are always on such a time crunch to get all of the things done (you are VERY busy), that you sometimes overlook basic things like closing a cabinet. Hopefully you’ll fix that in NY or your roommate might get annoyed.
11. You take really good care of your skin and it is beautiful. One of our dance mom friends asked you for your skincare routine and you made a video for her. I’m not sure how you have avoided any type of teenage breakouts, but you are very lucky.
12. You absolutely love both of your dogs, Scotty and Scarlett. I think you really have a soft spot for Scotty since he is definitely more needy and snuggly. You’d take him with you to NYC if you could and I know he is going to miss you so much.
13. You don’t want much to do with anything school related. You have lots of friends but you don’t get together with them outside of school. They asked if you wanted to go to Prom and you have zero interest. You are ready to finish school and move on.
14. You are incredibly organized, disciplined, hard working, responsible and smart. You truly are an exceptional 17 year old. I don’t know many kids like you.
15. You love to sleep. You get very little sleep each week since you dance in the city and don’t get home until 10:15. Then you have to do your homework, so you maybe get 5 hours of sleep a night. But when you have a day off, you catch up on all your sleep and love to sleep in and take naps.
16. You love all of your dance friends. The little kids at dance have really taken a liking to you and you are so great with them. You help do their buns for ballet, talk to them, listen to them, help them with homework. You are truly a great mentor and example for those young girls. You will miss them next year and they will miss you.
17. You want to have Broccoli Cheese Soup in a bread bowl from Panera for lunch and Slyce Woodfired Pizza for dinner on your birthday. Good thing both of those things don’t have meat because this year your birthday falls on the first day of Lent (Ash Wednesday).
18. You and your Grandma Jane share the same birthday which is really special. Grandma Jane and Pepo came in to visit this last weekend from Texas and you both got to do a little early celebrating with a trip to Texas Roadhouse and cake and ice cream.
19. Your room is still messy. I don’t get it. You are so exceptional in every other area of life, but your room is such a mess. I call the pile of clothes at the foot of your bed ‘Mt. St. Laundry’.
20. You have a really funny Instagram channel called ‘ASMR.Incredible’ where you film ASMR videos with friends from school and dance. I love that it shows your funny and weird side because not everyone gets to see that.

I still don’t think it has sunk in that you will be going off on your own next year. I try not to think about it. You and I have shared so many incredible memories. I will cherish all our fun that we’ve had through dance….traveling, competing, meeting new friends etc. I can’t wait to see where life takes you! I have no doubt in my mind that you will be incredibly successful in whatever you choose to do. You make me so proud to be your mother! You are amazing and I hope you are proud of yourself. Happy 17th Birthday, Savannah!

I love you from here to the moon and back again!

Love,

Mama

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Today I’m back with another craft that we did over the Christmas holidays! I was in charge of the craft for JoJo’s 4th grade holiday party this year. We only get 45 mins. for the party at her school so I had to come up with something quick and easy. I like the crafts I do for the school parties to be something that is nice enough that parents will want to keep year after year or something the kids can gift to a friend or family member that looks nice.

I originally thought I would do this entire craft during the party, but in making my sample, I realized that was definitely not going to be possible. I had grand plans of bringing a hair dryer to dry the mod podge, etc., but realized those plans were way too grand. So I glittered all of the ornaments ahead of time and had the kids decorate the front, smooth side of the ornaments with permanent oil based paint pens that I brought from home. I’m SO glad I didn’t try to tackle the glittering at school. We had the kids rotate in 3 groups so we only ended up having 15 mins. for this craft which was barely enough time to decorate, tie on the hanger and for me to bag them up.

I brought some clear cello bags, kraft paper shreds and twine with me as well and if the kids were going to gift the ornament to someone, I made sure to wrap them up really nicely. I think the kids really liked that extra touch of having a beautifully wrapped ornament.

DIY Acrylic Glitter Christmas Ornament

Supplies:

Clear Acrylic Ornaments

Glitter (in different sizes)

Mod Podge

Oil Based Paint Markers

Twine or Ribbon for hanging

Foam Paint Brushes

Directions:

Step 1: On one side of the acrylic ornaments, using your foam paint brush, coat the ornament with mod podge. Be sure not to get any on the opposite side. I got these 10 packs of acrylic ornaments at Hobby Lobby when they were 60% off. The pack of 10 was only $3.99 and at 60% off, it was a steal! I got 3 packs so I’d have extras in case any child messed up their ornament and wanted a new one. You can also find lots of them over on Amazon.

Step 2: On a paper plate, spread out your glitter. I used round circles, tiny hexagons and some glitter snow. You can use whatever you’d like, but I had just wanted mine kind of chunky. I mixed them all together in a zip-lock bag before pouring it onto the plate. And I didn’t pour it all out because I wanted to save some if there was extra and I didn’t want it to get sticky with the mod podge.

Take your ornament and place it on top of the glitter with the mod podge side down. Press the ornament into the glitter and then tap off the excess.

Step 3: Place the ornaments on a piece of wax paper or parchment paper with the glitter side up. Once they are dry, apply another layer of mod podge with your paint brush to lock in the glitter. I ended up doing two layers of glitter because I wanted them really covered. If you want to do that, you’ll let them dry, brush on more mod podge and press them into the glitter AGAIN. Then you’ll let them dry again and add the final layer of mod podge to lock in the glitter.

Once all of your ornaments are dry, you’ll just stack them up to bring to the classroom. I pre-cut all the twine for the hangers so that we didn’t have to do that there (I got the twine from Dollar Tree). I also pre-cut all the twine for the wrapping as well. It just makes life easier doing as much as you can ahead of time.

I had all different colors of paint markers for the kids…..red, white, gold, silver, bronze, green, blue, black etc (you can find the type I used HERE). They could decorate this however they would like. Some of them put their names, some put their initials, some made them for their grandma, some made them for their pet. The paint pens dry SUPER fast which is great, but if the child messes up and isn’t happy, you can get the paint off with hand sanitizer or probably just rubbing alcohol.

Thanks so much for making it to the bottom of this post!

I hope you are having a great NEW YEAR!!

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It is not Christmas in our house, if we don’t have homemade Chex Mix. The kids look forward to this all year long! And it’s a definite must while we are decorating our Christmas tree. I posted this recipe many, many years ago, but Savannah had a photography project recently where she had to photograph us making a family recipe, so I thought I’d go ahead and share it again. It’s SO good! It’s very similar to the recipe on the box, but it’s the ratios that I use that make it extra special and what makes my kids go nuts for my version!

Ingredients:

1 box Corn Chex Cereal (18 oz)

1 box Rice Chex Cereal (18 oz)

1 box Wheat Chex Cereal (14 oz)

1 bag Pretzels (any shape) (my kids prefer the sticks)

1 box Cheez-Its (Family Size)

(Optional) 2 cups mixed nuts

For the sauce:

3 sticks of salted butter

6 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce

4.5 teaspoons seasoned salt

2.25 teaspoons garlic powder

1.5 teaspoons onion powder

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

• Next, in a large roasting pan combine all cereals, pretzels, Cheez-Its and nuts (if using).

• Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl.

• Add in the Worcestershire sauce and spices. Stir to combine.

• Drizzle the mixture evenly over the mix, stirring to make sure everything is coated.

• Bake in the oven for 1 hour, stirring the mixture every 15 mins.

• Pour Chex mix out on a counter covered with paper towels to cool

And there you have it! Our family’s favorite Homemade Chex Mix, Cottage Mama style!

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We always have a lot of people in our lives to thank around the holidays. So many people have such a huge influence in our children’s lives and I always want them to know just how much we are grateful for all the love they poor into our kids. We have dance teachers, gymnastics coaches, school teachers, music teachers, band directors, choir directors, soccer coaches and the list goes on and on. I wanted to create a special gift for all of these folks that was homemade and that could be enjoyed this holiday season. There is something about the holidays that just gets me in the mood to make things!

I decided to create this DIY Homemade Cozy Winter Bath Soak to gift to all the special adults in our kids lives. If you can believe it, I ended up making 25 bags of bath soak. And I did have some left over so that I (and my family) could use it and let me tell you……it is divine! The flowers that I used were all from our garden. My husband grew many of these flowers with the intention of making some of them into tea but he never got around to it. So I dried them and used them as sort of a ‘bath tea’. I included a muslin bag with each bath soak so that the bath salts could go inside the bag and dissolve into the tub without getting the tub all messy.

DIY Homemade Cozy Winter Bath Soak

Ingredients:

I’m not going to give you exact measurements for any of these because you don’t need them. And depending on how large of a batch you are creating, will depend on how much you want of each ingredient.

Epsom Salt

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

Dried Flowers

Essential Oils (I used clove, orange and cinnamon)

Muslin Bag

Directions:

Step 1: Mix the pink sea salt and epsom salt together. I used 1/3 sea salt to every 1 pound of epsom salt.

Step 2: Add in your dried flowers. You could also add things like dehydrated orange peel or lemon if you wanted to add even more prettiness to your bath soak. You can dry these flowers out in the oven or just leave them on the counter to dry for a week or so. You could also order dried flowers if you don’t have any of your own to dry.

Step 3: Add in your essential oils. I used about 20 drops of each oil for the large quantity of bath soak that I created. Each portion was a cup and I would say I had approximately 30 cups of salt/flowers. If you are making a smaller batch, then consider using less essential oil. I intended this as a winter soak, but if you’d like to do something more spring-like, consider using lavendar oil, tea tree oil or other lighter essential oils.

Step 4: Place 1 cup of bath soak into each bag. Create your own label and your DIY gift is complete!

I ordered these cute little appreciation tags online to attach to each bag. I also created the label in Canva with details about the flowers that are used and some info from our family. The muslin bags that I included with each bath soak is behind the soak. I was so happy with how these gifts turned out and I hope all the receipients got some much needed R and R over the holidays. It truly takes a village to raise these kids and I’m so grateful that our village is filled with some of the best people I know!

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I’m back with another fun, easy and inexpensive Christmas Decor DIY. Our kitchen has sort of a candy cane theme going on when it comes to our Christmas decor. The rest of the house is a little more traditional, but since our kitchen is white, I just love the pop of white and red. Now, believe me when I say, this is not a post sponsored by Dollar Tree. BUT this happens to be another dollar store craft. There’s something so satisfying about turning something unexpected and inexpensive into something super cute.

These yarn candy canes literally cost me pennies to make. Will you believe me when I tell you that these are made from foam curlers? Yes, I purchased Dollar Tree curlers to make these cute and cozy candy canes. I originally was going to use fabric to cover them, but I didn’t love that look so when I tried the yard, I knew that was it!

Supplies:

-Foam Curlers (1 – 2 packages)

-White Yarn

-Red Twine or String

-Glue or Hot Glue (optional)

-Scissors

Directions:

Step 1: Bend the curlers so they look like a candy cane. Tie the white yarn to the bottom of one of the curlers right underneath the plastic end so that you can’t see it.

Step 2: Wrap the yarn around the curler. You don’t need to be neat and tidy about this, just keep wrapping up and down until the entire curler is covered. Then tie another knot at the other end of the curler under the plastic end.

Step 3: Tie your red twine at the same place where you started your yarn. Wrap the twine so that it looks like a candy cane. You may prefer more or less stripes depending on the look you like for your candy canes. Tie the twine off at the other end where you tied the yarn off.

Step 4: Now here’s the completely optional part, put a dab of glue on the knots. It’s not totally necessary but I wanted to cut my knots really short and didn’t want them coming undone.

My original plan was to turn these into a candy cane garland, but once I got my house all decorated, I didn’t really have another place for a garland so I just incorporated them into our decor.

I added the candy canes to a bunch of my house plants where I always put picks for Christmas as well as in some jars and other arrangements.

You can also use these cute candy canes as ornaments on your Christmas tree. We don’t have a themed Christmas tree. We always get a real tree and the kids put their ornaments on it, but if I had a candy cane themed tree, I’d definitely add these as ornaments.

You can make so many of these candy canes in a short amount of time. And this is a great project for the kids to get involved with making. I already had the yarn and the twine so it was simply the two packs of curlers which were $1.25 each. Also consider wrapping these in different colors for a variation on the traditional candy cane. I covered one in twine to see how I liked that look and I actually really liked it too, but I didn’t have enough twine on hand. And the white goes more with my kitchen decor!

One last idea……use these as toppers for your Christmas gifts! It’ll add that extra-special detail that takes your gift wrap from ordinary to extraordinary.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this mini-tutorial and I hope you are having the BEST holiday season!

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