Stay at Home Who?

Ballerina Party for My Boo

2015-01-14T23:26:00.000-06:00

My little lady had a beautiful 3rd birthday party, and I would be sad if it were never documented on this dying little blog of mine.

She had just started her first dance class and she was all about ballerinas after she got a few tutus. A ballerina theme just sounded like the perfect fit, so we ran with it!

I landed on whimsical and super girly decor. It was beautiful, and my little Boo loved it!

The cake was beautiful yet so very very simple. I used the ruffle technique that I'd used many times by that point. Click HERE for more details on that. I baked 2 white cakes in a circle pan, stacked them, and cut away pieces to end up with a half sphere. Then, I frosted the dress with the ruffle technique, and stuck a doll in the center. A little extra frosting for the doll's top, as well as some sixlets (candy coated balls from the cake decorating section) made for the perfect finishing touches.

I made some polka dotty sugar cookies with royal icing, and tried my hand at cake balls for the first time ever. They were tricky, but I eventually figured them out; hopefully I'll get around to posting on that.

The rest of the decor was done on a tiny budget. Less than $5 worth of tulle from Joann's (60% coupon - woot!), some dollar store tablecloths, and dollar store flowers made it easy to tie in several different parts of the room and have it all coordinate.

Valentines Crafting: Melted Wax Butterflies

2014-02-10T23:40:00.002-06:00

Here's a fun and creative Valentine's Day project that is really fun for the preschool crowd. It is also a great way to use up some old crayons that tend to accumulate whe you have littles around.

Make butterfly Valentines like we did, or just go crazy playing with melted wax!

You'll need:

*crayons

*regular paper (I used blue, standard printing weight paper)

*parchment paper

*old blanket or towel

*an iron

*scissors

*hole punch

*suckers

I did this project with my 3.5 year old daughter and she had a lot of fun with it.

For starters, de-label and chop up some crayons into small pieces. I tried using a chopping knife. It worked, but it was going to take forever so I ended up using my mini food processor to make dust out of them with a few pushes of a button. I made 3 batches: a red/pink one, a blue one, and a yellow/orange one.

I made small piles of each color on a tray for my daughter to easily access.

Then I setup the work station. I layed an old blanket in the table first. Then I grabbed a long piece of parchment paper, folded it in half, opened it back up flat, and set it on the blanket.

For each Valentine, I cut an 8.5x11" sheet of blue paper in half, then folded the half in half. I placed it on top of the parchment paper for decorating.

I let my daughter sprinkle wax on one half of the folded paper:

Then I folded both the blue paper and the parchment paper with the blue paper sandwiched between the parchment paper:

I circled the iron over the parchment paper for about 3 seconds:

After setting the iron aside, the card could be pulled out, and the melted wax design revealed:

For rapid cooling and hardening, I threw each card in the fridge for a couple of minutes:

Once hardened, the paper could be used to make the Valentines butterflies.

We folded up the cards and we cut out a simple butterfly shape:

Then punched some holes:

And inserted some suckers:

An important tip:

Show your child to be sparing with the wax. Too much wax leaves a thick and brittle layer on the paper that cracks off easily. A thinner layer stays more flexible. In the above picture, the butterflies on the left are much less messy and easier to handle than the two on the right.

Another tip:

Either leave blank spots on the wings for any writing, or make a second butterfly layer out of a clean sheet of paper for writing on. Most markers and pens will not write well on the now-waxy paper. We went with the second layer option since my girl isn't very good at writing her name in a small space yet.

Here are her folded up butterfly valentines right before they got their suckers inserted. The blue waxy part is inside the white:

The finished product:

We even added a science piece to the whole activity by discussing solids and liquids with hot and cold.

Superhero Pop Art Party!

2013-11-05T11:24:00.000-06:00

For my little dude's 4th birthday, the theme was obvious. He was OBSESSED with super heroes, so super heroes it was.

I really wanted to stay away from licensed character stuff for the most part, so I went with a pop art style look. Being Minnesota, I waited a whole month later than his actual birthday so we would be more likely to have a nice day for the party.

Here's the invite:

I used photoshop and made my son into a cartoon for his invitations. I love how they turned out!

Onto the party itself:

This is the main table with all the treats.

Along the far end is a buffet type area where the main meal was. We went with walking tacos. It was fairly inexpensive and easy to customize for a large crowd. Never heard of them? They are basically bags of chips that have taco fixins thrown in so they can be eaten on the go. Great party food!

But let's focus on the best part first: TREATS!

...yes the cookies took FOREVER. They were worth it though. So cute!

In lieu of the proper cookie cutters, those BAM, ZAP, POW cookies were hand cut. I don't recommend that! Next time I will quit being cheap and spring for some cookie cutters. There's a reason these babies cost so much to have custom made - They are labor intensive, even with the right cutters. They sure added a lot visually though, and they were delicious. I tried my hand at cake pops for the first time too. I would have added some coordinating sprinkles, but I ran out of time. They worked well just plain yellow.

You can also see the POP corn containers in many of the pics above. They were a really cute touch and fit in with the theme so perfectly. I designed and printed off a bunch of little pop arty pieces and scattered them all over the table. I'll offer free printables of these soon!

The other corner of the party room:

Some simple polka dot helium balloons added a great touch, as did a cheap roll of blue wrapping paper with polka dots. The dots worked great with the pop art theme and it is a common pattern to find.

My favorite and thriftiest touch:

Comic book bunting!

This thing looked cool and was easily made for a few bucks. First, I bought $1.50 worth of discount bin comics from a local comic book store. Add a $1 roll of solid ribbon and some tacky glue, and you have everything you need! I picked out colorful pages, cut them into triangles, then stuck them onto the ribbon.

For party activities, I had a decent range of abilities to cater to. Some kids weren't even 2 yet, and we had a few 5 and 6 year olds too. A coloring station worked great, plus it was cheap. Some Google image searches + cheap b&w printing + crayons/markers = a good time for all ages. It is easy to customize for all themes too!

The second activity was a little more unique. A friend that had done a super hero party the year before gave me this gem. I bought a large bag of small superhero figurines from a consignment sale earlier in the year. A dollar store may work well too for sourcing these things faster. The whole bag cost me $3. I froze each one individually in ice using small Solo cups. For the party we took the hero-cicles, and threw them into a big clear tub of water. We gave the kids various kitchen utensils - slotted spoons, ladles, pasta strainers, etc. - and they went to town on trying to rescue their super heroes from the ice and water. I swear EVERY kid loved the game. For an older crowd I would have made it a race, but it worked with no rules for us.

Wish I had gotten better pics, but the game was constantly swamped!

That wraps up the highlights of the party. It was very fun and done on a pretty reasonable budget. The really time consuming part were all the treats, but that is always a labor of love for me.

Stay tuned and I'll offer some free printables of the pop art labels, containers, and decor!

Halloween Pinterest Idea Faves

2013-10-18T12:36:00.000-05:00

It's no secret, I heart pinterest! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays in terms of decore, so I have had fun trying to make some of my pins realities. Here are some of my favorite Halloween Pinterest ideas past, present, and (hopefully) future:

Last year I fell in love with a white pumpkin that was carved with a Jack Skellington face and made into a flower vase. I made it, and loved it so much that I made it again this year.

This year's Skellington vase

Last year's Skellington vase

The kids LOVE it!

Tip: Dollar Tree stores sell little fishbowl type vases that are perfect for medium sized pumpkins!

Original pic from Pinterest

Next up I wanted a little-kid-friendly Halloween activity.

I saw this pin and decided this was the one!

From TinkerLabs

Simply cut out pumpkin shapes from orange and black construction paper and cut out green stems. The kids draw faces on all of the pumpkins, and help assemble it all with glue and string/ribbon. My son's preschool has been focusing on emotions lately so I decided to incorporate those lessons into our Halloween activity. I encouraged them to draw different emotions on their pumpkins and we talked about each one as they drew them. It was a great time and we ended up with happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, and disgusted pumpkins decorating our entryway:

Next on the Halloween agenda I plan to make these fun cake pops:

From Treats 4 Ta-tas

Here's one from a couple of years ago that was a huge hit at our Halloween party as well as a very popular pin since then:

Guacamole Puking Pumpkin

A couple more I hope to be able to get around to this Halloween:

Skull string art from A Beautiful Mess blog

Skellington Nails - Source unknown

Thank You Pinterest!

What are your favorite Halloween Pinterest ideas?

Boo's Fish Party

2013-06-20T12:33:00.001-05:00

This party happened about 9 months months ago. . . but it is only fair that it be included in the lineup. I'll make it easy on myself and call it good since I'm getting it in before her third birthday. I'm OK with keeping expectations low.

For my baby girl's second birthday party, I wanted a theme that was not based on a licensed character since she was too young to be too opinionated on that yet anyway. I went with a blue and orange fish theme: like a fish in a bowl. I banged the whole thing out in the 2 days prior to the party. It was a hectic couple of days, but I'm used to my procrastinating ways at this point.

I did have the kids help with a few things so that they weren't bored during the party prep, and so they could have their own marks on the decor. We started with some finger painting:

Yes my kids finger paint naked -easiest cleanup ever!

I had them do several pages worth of painting on blue paper. I gave them cool hued paints to use to keep with the color theme.

The next day I cut them into big ol' letters and threw them up as a Happy Birthday banner:

Simple yet effective!

The kids also helped me decorate some cookies. I went with a simple fish cutter and they helped me cut them out. I piped the royal icing, but the kids helped me fill the middle with squirt bottles.

They were really excited about helping, until I told them it was bed time and that i would have to finish up:

After a lot of baking and prepping, it was party day and everything turned out beautifully:

I used cute mini bowls from the dollar store with some clean gravel on the bottom for plastic wear holders:

The cookies came out great with some fun and simple marbling effects:

I even found a couple of fun fish guys on clearance at TJ Maxx the week prior to the party. I couldn't resist:

Swedish fish inside of course!

Boo had a blast on her second birthday with lots of family & friends:

Her cake was a huge hit. It had my favorite white chocolate buttercream frosting, as well as strawberries and fresh cream on the inside:

Delish!!!

Creative Pregnancy Announcements!

2012-11-15T15:16:00.002-06:00

As social media continues to grow and become the new American past time, it is becoming increasingly more common to see special announcements in picture form for all sorts of life events; one of the most common I've been seeing lately are pregnancy announcements. Pregnancy announcements run the gamut from simple: a status update, to the very elaborate: professional photography sessions.

Wait. . . quick backtrack here: I'm pregnant! 34 weeks today actually so I figured I'd better get some pregnancy related material on here while it is still relevant.

Back to announcements; I never did anything fancy for my first 2 pregnancies. With my first in 2008, I simple started posting some photos of me with my belly in them at some point, and people got the hint from that. With my second in 2010, I the picture route with the "I'm going to be a big brother" shirt, definitely nothing fancy. Not this time though, I was fully ready to jump on the elaborate announcement bandwagon!

There are so many adorable ideas out there, it took me a long time to really come up with something I liked. There are definitely some popular ideas that I really like such as the shoe lineup:

From: The Carolina Couponer blog

I have seen a few friends use this one and I think it is adorable, not to mention nice and simple since there are no wiggly children to pose!

The other one I really liked that has been gaining popularity are the math related ones:

From: The Road to Hope blog

That last one is a personal friend of mine and the best part about it is she was a math teacher so it just fit so well.

I wanted something to fit perfectly for me too, but as the weeks started to fly by, I was still at a complete loss. Then I saw the perfect inspiration from one of the many photography blogs that I follow on Facebook. The sad part is that I don't have the link saved, nor do I even remember who the photographer was to go searching for it. It was an outdoor scene with 2 kids at a fancy party table with a caption stating they were celebrating the fact that they were getting a new sibling. I hadn't seen anything like it at that point which was refreshing.

I figured I could do my own spin on it. Logistically it was a pain because I was on a tight budget, but I wanted the adorable table setting in an outdoor setting. I have loved several photo shoots in the past that incorporated tea parties so I decided to do a tea party picnic. I didn't want the pregnancy announcement part to too subtle, so I figured a 3rd place setting with a "reserved for baby brother" sign would cover that pretty well. I hit up a local junk/thrift store, and for less than $40 I came up with a picnic basket, and a bunch of fancy looking china for a 3 person tea party. The trick to keeping it inexpensive was to buy mismatched items which of course sell for a fraction of full sets. I don't think any 2 items matched, but it worked so well.

My mom made the dress for my daughter, and the only item I had to buy for my son was the hat so that was all very inexpensive. The photography was done by my lovely sister who is an amateur, but has a pretty good grasp on things already. We did the shoot right before sunset so that the lighting would be perfect, and I think it turned out pretty darn cute!

It was a big hit amongst friends, though at 28 weeks pregnant, most already knew. It was still a cute announcement, and I may just have a canvas printed to preserve this special time.

Here are a few more ideas for those currently brianstorming:

From: Paint the Moon Photography

This kind has gotten some crap from joke blogs, but I find it hilarious:

From: Ben's Photography Secrets blog

Last one:

From: Haven Love Photography

Trolling the Web for Toddler Fashions!

2012-07-25T09:00:00.000-05:00

First of all, yes I still plan to keep up this blog. I realize I haven't posted in FOREVER, but ruts happen (and unhappen hopefully) so here I am!

I love this blog for collecting my ideas, and that is what brought me back really. I am hoping to get our annual family photos taken soonish, so I have been brainstorming ideas.

Last year's photos were bright, sunny, and in the middle of beautiful mother nature. I decided that I want a contrasting look this year with something more structured and urban. I haven't completely decided on a location yet, though I really should work on that. I also want a fall vibe versus a summer one. I'm thinking layers, jackets, boots, scarves, etc.

Here is one of my favorite inspiration photos for the style I want for the kids:

I hate putting up photos without giving credit to the original source,

but unfortunately, I haven't had any luck finding it.

I wish I had a boy equivalent to get inspired from, but I'm thinking cargo or wool jacket over a cute printed button up and faded pants. Not sure if a newsboy hat would be over the top or not, but I'll have to consider it!

I want the looks to be a mix of preppy, fashionista, military, utilitarian, vintage, and romantic all in one. That's a tall order considering I have some opposites in that list, but I sure am going to try!

-Some boy outfit ideas after a little bit of surfing about-

Jersey Duffel in Navy by Boden USA - $38.00

Jacket in Black (I prefer the Navy) by H&M - $49.95

Secret Wash shirt in Gingham Hyacinth by Crewcuts - $39.50

Plaid Double Pocket Shirt by 77Kids - $22.95

Stripe Cotton Cardigan in Brocade Blue by Crewcuts - $52.50

Cardigan in Green by H&M - $14.95 BARGAIN BUY!

Sweater Vest in Brilliant Blue by GAP - $26.95

Slim Jeans in Light Denim Blue by H&M - $14.95 BARGAIN BUY!

Destroyed Bootcut jean in Light Wash by 77Kids - $34.95

Palladium Kids Pallabrouse boot in Dark Khaki/Putty or Metal/Black - $45.00

I can't decide which color I like best!

Railroad Stripe Newsboy Cap by GAP - $7.99 (sale price)

-and some girly stuff-

Hooded Cape by Zara (low on sizes - sad face)- $17.99 BARGAIN BUY!

Pintucked Ruffle Dress in Portal Purple by Old Navy - $16.94

Structured Bermuda Shorts in White by Zara - $9.99 (sale price) BARGAIN BUY!

One of my favorite little girl clothes brand is The Measure Designs. They sell adorable handmade vintage inspired little girl clothes that are to die for! I bet my mom could duplicate a lot of the fashions herself, I just need to find the right fabrics. Here are 3 pictures showing off the clothing:

Their FB page is great too!

Minnetonka Moccasin 3 Layer Fringe Boot in Hot Pink Suede - $65.00

doubt that's in the budget though :(.

Ukala by EMU Taj Hi in Charcoal - $28.97 (sale price down from $59.00!) BARGAIN BUY!

Errrm. . . I might have ordered that one on the spot.

I would have loved an Ugg Bailey Button Triplet boot. . . but for over $150 less, it wasn't much of a decision:

That's enough online shopping for now. Hubby has now watched me "look at kid clothes" online for a couple of hours and thinks I'm crazy enough as it is. Who knows what I come up with after hitting the brick and mortar stores. At least I have some awesome inspo for now!

Fun Kid Questionnaire

2012-05-08T15:07:00.001-05:00

Have you seen the kid questionnaires that have been circling the internet? I remember bookmarking one on my phone a year ago, but then I forgot about it after accidentally deleting the bookmarks. Basically, it is a list of simple questions that you ask your young child each year to see how the answers develop as they get older. It is pretty good for a laugh, and a cute memory to look back on.

Little Dude is in childcare for 2 hours every Tuesday while Baby Boo has her early childhood education toddler class with me. They always do some kind of art activity and today they painted Mother's Day cards. On the inside, the teacher filled out a questionnaire with them about mom.

A couple of the moms with kids in the childcare compared cards and they were so fun to read through. Here are little Dude's answers:

Q1 - How do you show your mom that you love her?
A1 - I give her hugs and kisses. (Awe)
Q2 - What is mom's favorite food?
A2 - Bananas
Q3 - What does mom like to do for fun?
A3 - Cook nummy food for me
Q4 - How old is mom?
A4 - 49. . . Oh wait, no she is 99 ((sigh))
Q5 - How did mom and dad meet for the first time?
A5 - I don't know (I think this concept is a little over his head still)
Q6 - What is something that mom loves?
A6 - Apples, bananas, and boys. . . like daddy! (LOL)
Q7 - What makes mom laugh?
A7 - My face!
Q8 - What makes mom mad?
A8 - I don't know, I'm playing right now.

There were a few more questions on the card, but the answers all turned into "I don't know, I'm playing now" after that. I guess he got tired of that game. The other 2 moms that I compared cards with had rather flattering answers for the age question (18 and 22), so we all laughed at my 99. I was also unaware of my apparent love for bananas!

This sounds like a fun little tradition to start for each Mother's Day. I might add some more questions for next year. Baby Boo is only 1.5, so I think I'll start hers next year. I highly suggest all you parents of toddlers try it out too, it really is a hoot!

Construction Party Cake & Decor

2012-04-13T07:30:00.000-05:00

As we all know, Little Dude's 3rd birthday party theme was a construction theme!

. . . If you don't know this, you might want to start at the beginning of this series here are the links:

We had a sandbox with toy construction vehicles as an activity that fit with the theme. The decor and cake tied in the rest. The overall colors used were yellow, orange, and black. I bought a 1000' roll of caution tape off of Amazon. The tape worked great all over instead of paper streamer.

The biggest time hog was the cake:

I made it using 3 cakes baked in a 10" square pan. I cute the corners on the squares to make them kind of rounded, then cut up the top layer to make it look like uneven terrain from a work zone. The layers were separated by chocolate buttercream frosting. Both the cake and frosting recipes came from the Joy of Baking website:

Chocolate butter cake & frosting

Once the cake was assembled, I used more chocolate buttercream to cover the surface of the cake that would have "dirt" on it. Then I crushed a bunch of chocolate teddy grahams and sprinkled that all over the chocolate buttercream to create a dirt-like texture. It looked pretty cool. Then I filled in the rest of the cake using a white chocolate buttercream frosting (recipe from Food & Wine). I added some green food coloring and used a grass tip to create the grass. I considered using toy trucks on top, but opted for gum paste trucks since I could make those several days ahead of time anyway.

Next up was a banner. I figured that I had a ton of colored cardstock laying around so I should try use some up. Lots of freehand cutting later, I had a cute handmade banner:

The lower piece was not initially all crooked like that, but we closed the window in order to light the candles so it was left a little wonky.

Remember these mason jar utensil holder project from the last birthday party?

I ripped off the old ribbon and paper, then did a little spray paint action:

Once they were painted I added some new embellishments and had some construction themed utensil holders. Yay for recycling!

Speaking of recycling. . . The cups and plates were all non-disposable. I bought them from Walmart for 4/$1. It was obviously more expensive than disposable, but I like that they will be reused many times. We even let people use permanent markers on the cups since a little rubbing alcohol cleaned it right off after the party.

The plate holder in the photo above was a $2 metal basket Goodwill find. I gave it the same spray paint treatment as the mason jars and it fit right in. Here it is before I did anything to it:

Another part of the main table display was the adult beverage. For Baby Boo's party I made a white wine drink for the adults, and it disappeared fast. I figured I would do it again for this one, only I made 2 batches this time and we still almost ran out.

Ingredients for 1 batch: 1 magnum bottle of wine, 1 bottle of Sprite, 1/2 gallon of Tropicana OJ, 1 can of peaches, 2 apples (chopped), and 2 oranges (chopped). Mix everything together and let it all soak a few hours prior to serving.

Unfortunately, I don't have many photos of the outside decor, but it was pretty limited. We had two 8' tables with lots of chairs for people to sit outside. They both had black table clothes and caution tape wrapped around them.

Cheap plastic hard hats purchased off of Amazon were fun party hats for the little kids. . . and some big "kids":

My brother

I think that about covers it in terms of decor and such. I had planned on doing cute party favors and tool shaped sugar cookies too, but time (and organization) ran out. They didn't happen, but it really didn't matter in the end. I had enough going on that day as it was. Thank goodness they only get 1 birthday per year!

Make Your Own Pizza Party!

2012-04-11T07:30:00.000-05:00

The last several parties I have thrown included a large budget for food. At Baby Boo's first party we even served steak kabobs! They were delicious, but I wanted to do something a little less expensive this time around that would still be a crowd pleaser. A friend of mine suggested we do a make-your-own-pizza party. I have been to one of these before for adults, but I hadn't even considered it for a kiddy party. I instantly loved the idea for several reasons:

Pizza is pretty universally liked (and vegetarian friendly)
It is totally customizable
It is relatively inexpensive
It is a fun activity for the kids in lieu of official party games

I used the same method for the party that I almost always use for homemade pizza, Chef Boyardee pizza kits:

The kit comes with a dough mix, pizza sauce, and powdered Parmesan cheese. 1 box is supposed to be enough for 2 pizzas, but I find that there is way too much pizza sauce and parmesan cheese relative to the dough. When making the crusts, I throw both dough mix packs into a bowl and combine them with 2 cups of whole wheat flour, as well as a 1/2 cup of ground flax seed. This way, there is a better ratio of sauce/cheese to dough, and I healthify the dough with the additions. I use roughly 2 cups of water with the new dough mixture and add more flour if it is too sticky. I found that 1 pizza kit yielded about 8 personal sized pizza crusts.

The crusts varied in size to account for different appetites. Most people at the party had 1 piece, though a few went for seconds. . . my brother that never stops eating went for 3! Either way, with about 20 adults and 13 kids that stuck around for the food, 7 pizza kits covered them. The kits themselves cost less than $30 for everyone. A 5lb bag of mozzarella cheese, and a 5lb bag of pepperoni from Sam's Club brought the total up to roughly $50 - still pretty good for feeding so many people!

The price definitely climbed once I added a bunch of other ingredients:

I splurged & bought 3lbs of fresh mozzarella which was VERY popular.
To go with the fresh mozz, I bought some tomatoes. . .
& spinach leaves for Margherita pizzas.
I didn't splurge for basil, but there was some dried stuff around in case someone wanted that.
I bought a large can of diced pineapples. . .
& a pack of ham for Hawaiian pizzas.
Veggie wise, we had red onion,
fresh mushrooms,
yellow and orange bell pepper,
pickled jalapenos,
& olives.
For condiments we had dried oregano (& basil),
sea salt,
a pepper mill for fresh cracked pepper,
shredded parmesan
olive oil with a brush for the crusts,
balsamic vinegar for dipping,
& olive oil for brushing onto the crusts.

It was quite the spread. I borrowed a long plank of wood from my mom that was about 5' long and 2' wide. The plank sat on 2 chairs so that it would be child height in our kitchen. I was worried that the 'child height' part would come back to bite me in the butt, but since the majority of the action was outside, it worked rather nicely. I wish I had gotten a photo of the whole setup, but unfortunately I was too busy to snap anything. My sister did get a partial shot at least:

The crusts were all pre-mixed, and baked the day before. On party day, I assembled the table starting with the crusts on one end, followed by the sauce/olive oil, then the cheeses, and then the toppings. All that needed to be done come party time, was to throw the individually built pizzas on the grill or in the oven for 5 minutes to melt everything together. We were going to have just the grill going, but with a few dozen hungry people, we decided to fire up the oven also.

Freshly assembled pepperoni pizzas.

After 5 minutes on the grill; Yum!

All in all it was a huge success! Everyone enjoyed the concept, and the food was delicious!. Many of the pizza toppings doubled as snacks (peppers, pepperonis, pineapples, etc.) or salads (spinach, tomato, fresh mozzarella, balsamic vinegar, etc.). Other than that, we had some minimal snacks like a bowl of popcorn, and some chips with salsa. Really, the pizza was plenty!

The hubs grilling pizzas

The birthday boy patiently waiting for his pizza to be thrown on the grill.

Next time you are in search of a crowd pleasing party idea, I highly recommend having a make-your-own pizza party!

Previous posts about this party (in case you missed them):

Construction Birthday Party

2012-04-09T10:24:00.000-05:00

Over a week ago now, my Little Dude had his 3rd birthday party.

I procrastinated too much on a few things, but overall, it was a pretty awesome party.

I originally was thinking of a Bob the Builder themed party, but ended up generalizing it to a construction type party.

I'll break down the party into multiple posts so that I don't run on forever in one. This post is about the day in general. One of the biggest questions for the day was entertainment. I was going to have a lot of toddlers running around for about 4 hours, and they needed to be kept busy.

The biggest purchase I made was a bounce house. I got the idea from a neighbor of mine who owns one. She whips it out randomly when the kids wanted to play. It is a great way to get them moving and burning some energy. I managed to find one on Amazon for less than the price of 2 rentals. I know they make the rounds on Craigslist too, so if you're in the market for one, keep your eyes peeled. I think it will make our place extra popular for playdates!

Little Tykes bounce house

The other purchase we made for the party was a sandbox. I loved the idea that I got from the Kara's Party Ideas website for a construction party:

Source

I ended up buying a $30 4' x 4' raised bed garden kit from Home Depot to use as a sand box. In my opinion, it looks a lot nicer than the plastic sandboxes on the market. It is made of cedar wood so it is nice and sturdy, it is larger than many of the plastic sandboxes, and it is considerably cheaper than most. We used weed barrier fabric on the bottom, and a $2 plastic tarp staked down to use as a cover. Add $30 worth of play sand and voila; instant sandbox! This is turning out to be a great long-term investment too since the kids play with it pretty much daily.

Since we had a lot of small children at the party, both the bounce house and sandbox were huge hits. We borrowed some old school metal Tonka trucks from my in laws for the sandbox.

Sandbox with trucks

It was heavily used pretty much the whole time.

Our packed back yard. We had an awesome turnout!

The kids enjoying the bounce house.

I chose not to do any official party games since most of the kids at the party were between the ages of 1 and 3. They played to their heart's content, and the parents didn't have to deal with making toddlers cooperate with specific activities.

We even had a puppy at the party courtesy of my sister-in-law!

Noooo she isn't ours!

We really lucked out with some unseasonably gorgeous weather. Without it, we couldn't have had everything outside. Plan B would have been to set up the bounce house in the basement, but it worked out way better this way. Good thing we had the outdoor space because we ended up having at least 25 adults and 15 children there. I wish we could always count on this kind of weather for our birthday parties, but alas, this will likely be a rarity here in Minnesota in early April.

Despite our "no gifts necessary" invites, our Little Dude was spoiled as usual. All the kids had fun helping him with the gift opening:

The birthday boy was very excited to have all eyes on him when the time came to sing Happy Birthday!

My little boy is such a ham!

He needed a little help from his momma to blow out all the candles.

By the end of the day, I was completely wiped out. I could barely get up from the recliner, but it was well worth it. Little Dude had asked me for a big birthday party with all his friends, and I was so happy to have delivered on that.

Oh, and mommy wasn't the only one that was completely pooped out:

Happy birthday my love!

Other posts about this party:

Unexpected 3rd Birthday Party

Make Your Own Pizza Party

Construction Party Cake & Decor

Too Funny Tuesday

2012-03-27T16:16:00.000-05:00

I didn't want to wait for a Friday Funny so I figured I would make up a new (not quite) alliteration. Sorry it has been nothing but crickets around here lately. Between a couple of projects, Little Dude's upcoming birthday party, and some unseasonably gorgeous weather, blogging has been taking a bit of a back seat. I will eventually catch up though. . . (maybe!)

The funnies don't stop when I'm busy though, they just don't always get written down and immortalized in blog form. Here's a real simple one from the other day when I was having some knee issues: I sat down and complained to the hubs that my knee had locked up. Little Dude overheard, came running and said, "Oh no mommy, should we find a key?"

It always makes me laugh when kids don't quite get a figure of speech, yet try to use it anyway. My kids sometimes get confused by the singular versus plural forms of words. For example, Little Dude used to exclaim "Yike" instead of "Yikes" when he first started talking. He hasn't done that for over a year, but recently Hailey brought me back by starting up with "Oop" whenever something drops (accidentally or otherwise). Little Dude really took the cake today though. He tripped over something on the floor and in his frustration he yelled out, "Oh craps!"
*Not my proudest mommy moment since I'm pretty sure I know where he got that from. . .

I'm working on it.

Half Birthday Fun

2012-03-12T07:30:00.000-05:00

My precious and amazing little Baby Boo is officially 18 months old! I can't believe how quickly the time has flown. It doesn't cease to amaze me how quickly a baby can go from a completely helpless little bump on a log to an autonomous little person brimming with personality.

Cuddly teething baby

Personality was in short supply for Baby Boo's half birthday. Her 2 year molars have decided to wreak havoc and they have made my little girl absolutely miserable. Luckily, she handles it by mostly sleeping. . . a lot! She naps extra, sleeps 14 hours overnight, and then passes out on us during the day too. So sleep is what she did for her half birthday. For the few waking moments she had, she was C.R.A.N.K.Y.!!!

Unfortunately she wasn't in a particularly celebratory mood, but I wanted to at least do a half birthday cake for her.

I took the opportunity to bake while she slept. I wanted to make a flavor combo I hadn't done before. I chose a lemon raspberry cake. I went with a new cake recipe from the Joy of Baking website, and it turned out fabulously light and fluffy. Check it out HERE. Since I wanted to go with a lemon cake, I replaced the teaspoon of vanilla extract, with a teaspoon of lemon extract. I didn't use the same recipe for the filling or frosting, though they do sound delicious too.

I cut the cake in half and stacked the pieces to make it officially a "half birthday cake".

Later that evening I pried the sleeping baby from my arms and handed her to the hubs for a while so that I could make the frosting and finish off the cake.

Love Love Love

I used my favorite buttercream recipe that I perfected for Baby Boo's 1st birthday cakes. The recipe is originally from the Food and Wine website; HERE is the link. My own personal addition was a half cup of frozen raspberries (thawed) that were beaten into the buttercream at the very end.

As you can see, the raspberries give the frosting a beautiful pink color (no artificial colors here) with the bright pink specs throughout. It had a subtle, yet yummy flavor to it that paired wonderfully with the lemon.

Nothing fancy here, I simply spread the frosting on with a wide knife and that was that. After all, half birthday cakes are all about yum, and not so much about being fancy. I didn't use a separate filling either. The filling was just more of the buttercream.

Finally we woke up the half birthday girl and showed her her cake. She was interested, but wouldn't crack a smile.

Don't worry, she only got the knife for like 3 seconds, and daddy was watching her closely.

We tried our darndest to get her to smile, and I have about a dozen shots very similar to this:

Her brother, on the other hand, was ecstatic about eating cake. Smiles and applause were not hard to come by there.

We finally snuck a smile so I put the camera away after that.

Happy 18 months precious girl!

. . . and she was out again within 20 minutes.

Friday Funny - March 9, 2012

2012-03-09T14:33:00.001-06:00

Here I thought I would have to skip this week because there wasn't anything memorably funny to write about. That was until earlier today.

We were heading into the house after being out and about when I tripped on the sidewalk. I luckily caught myself since I was carrying a passed out Baby Boo, but my purse did fall and spilled its contents all over. Little Dude looked over at me and said, " Oh mommy, you have to be much more careful. The neighbor might see all your crampons!"

Thanks kid!

Unexpected 3rd Birthday Party

2012-03-08T14:12:00.000-06:00

I LOVE throwing my kids birthday parties. I love the planning, the prep work, and the party itself. They are, however, a lot of work. I went big for my kids' 1st birthdays. Not huge, but big enough that they required a lot of time and energy (and $) from me. Check out party related posts HERE for Baby Boo's 1st birthday party. I was hoping to tone things down and do a small family only celebration this year for each kid, but Little Dude has decided that will not be the case.

I am considering getting Little Dude a balance bike for his birthday. So, last week I asked him if that sounded like something he would want. He replied, "Oh yes, I want a bike for my really big birthday party!" Until then, my mind was working under the small party model. This year, Little Dude is turning 3. With 3 come expectations that he never had previously. I don't know who told him he was having a birthday party, but he knew pretty well what he wanted; He even listed off several of his friends that he wants to be at the party.

*sigh*

Now I'm stuck with a larger production than I was thinking. I have less than a month to plan the thing, and I am determined to go with a much easier budget than I have in the past.

Luckily for me, we don't have a huge list of friends that will be coming. Many of our adult friends don't have kids yet so that keeps the guest list reasonable.

So. . . long story short: I am in a dash to figure out a birthday party in less than a month.

First we need a theme!

I was considering dinosaurs at first, so I ran the idea past Little Dude. He sounded very gung ho about it. I got excited, and started looking up dinosaur party ideas (like these). The next day, Little Dude told me that he didn't want a dinosaur party, but that he wanted a car party. He even told me that he wanted a car cake, and red plates. I don't know where he gets his party ideas from because I have never mentioned these kinds of elements to him. The only thing I can figure is that he saw it on TV or in a book. I wasn't super excited about the car theme, but it is his birthday, so I was going to go with whatever he wanted.

Adorable dinosaur cookies I could have made!

Photo courtesy of Kara's Party Ideas.

Then, we were watching Bob the Builder later that day, and I thought that maybe he would like a construction party. It was a little more interesting than just cars, and still has a lot of the elements that Little Dude loves. I told Little Dude about my construction party plan (tools, dump trucks, Bob!) and he really liked it. I asked him several times if he wanted a car party instead and he adamantly said no. So a construction party it is!

Now I am busy scouring the internet for cute ideas for decor, activities, cake, favors, etc.

Here is some of my inspiration so far:

Courtesy of the Fredellicious

One particular website that I fell in absolute and utter love with is Kara's Party Ideas! Seriously, if you want inspiring eye candy on just about any theme, check this site out!! The photo credit below has the link for the construction birthday party from this site. It has so many ideas for me. Here is one idea for a fun party activity for the littles:

Courtesy of Kara's Party Ideas

Here is another AMAZING construction party blog that will surely put mine to shame: Kinderplays (not in English). While I love everything about that party, I especially love the parfaits that they used for party food:

Courtesy of Kinderplays

There are so many ideas to collect and I am majorly having to remind myself of my goals:
1. Keep things relatively simple.
2. Keep to a small(ish) budget.

We'll see how well I do at these!

Update! Other posts on this party:

Friday Funny - March 2, 2012

2012-03-02T07:35:00.000-06:00

Little Dude was wading through our junk mail pile when he came upon a Vickies catalogue. Intrigued, he started flipping through the pages and looking intently at all the models.

He studied this particular page for about 30 seconds. Then, he looked up at me and said, "Oh my mommy. . . all of these ladies have eyebrows!"

"Look at all the eyebrows mommy!"

That's my boy - Ever the observant one!

Boys & Their Toys

2012-03-01T15:10:00.001-06:00

Yesterday, Little Dude was drawing in the living room. He drew 4 smiley faces and told me that they were mommy, daddy, Baby Boo, and himself. He is getting pretty good at drawing faces, so I showed him how to draw stick people bodies on them. Once we had drawn stick bodies on all 4 faces, he had an additional request; for me to draw penises on him and daddy.

Now I am all about being open with my kids about anatomy. I am getting used to the fact that private parts are quite the fascination for my toddler. This is, after all, the kid that once told a cashier at Target that, "Mommy doesn't have a penis." I do draw the line somewhere though, and drawing private parts is it. I simply told him that the people were wearing pants. Thankfully, he seemed satisfied with that answer, and didn't press the issue any further.

It seems like ever since we potty trained him this past summer, he has been very focused on those particular body parts. He recently told his grandma, "I have a penis, and you have a butt. Don't be jealous!" Luckily, grandma found it funny. He explains these facts of life to his sister all the time too. She's oblivious for now, but I'm sure she'll catch on soon and then they can spout off about the subject in stereo.

Nothing he does is particularly inappropriate. He simply likes everyone around him to be informed about anatomy. Luckily at age 2, it is pretty funny. It just makes me laugh how fixated he can be on the subject. He asked a friend of ours if he wore pants because he wanted to hide his penis once. Once again, the situation was funny, but I did take the opportunity to tell Little Dude that some people don't like talking about their penises. He seemed rather flabbergasted by this. I swear I never could have imagined such a conversation before becoming a mom. A few times he has pulled down his pants just to "make sure it's still there." I think I may have sprayed milk out of my nose the first time he did that.

I'm going to miss this age of innocence down the line. For now, I am happy to write it all out so that I can show him this very post once he is older and much more inhibited (AKA embarrassed).

DIY Wood Plaque Frame

2012-02-24T11:23:00.000-06:00

Remember the "almost finished" art wall in Baby Boo's room?

Here is a reminder:

I put in a lot of time and effort into gathering the perfect collection of photos and what-nots for the wall. Check out that whole post here if you want details.

There was 1 thing missing though, and that was a frame for the 8"x10" print on the very left of the middle row.

Since I was busy doing some furniture painting this past week, I figured that I might as well try to tackle a frame for the art wall while I was at it.

My inspiration came from something I pinned a while back:

Frames by The Organic Bloom

Photograph by Polka Dot Umbrella Photography

These gorgeous frames are very expensive, and generally only available to be purchased through professional photographers. This photo made the rounds on Pinterest with the caption "Mod Podge photos onto wooden plaques from Michaels". While the caption did no justice to the photo, it sounded like a decent idea.

Online you can purchase a variety of beautiful wooden plaques that are more intricate. I simply went to Michaels and picked a simple one from their somewhat limited selection:

It looked a lot like the photo above, and was in the $11 range ( $5.50 with 50% off coupon).

I started by sanding it down with some 220 grit sandpaper since the edges were a little rough. I happened to be painting furniture at the time so I had some Behr paint + primer, satin finish in bright white lying around. One could also use some wood sealer and acrylic paint to do the same job. I painted the plaque white with 3 thin layers of the Behr paint. I sanded a little before the last coat of paint to make sure it looked nice and smooth.

Once the white was dry I departed from the Organic Bloom look and decided to paint some detail onto the "frame". I looked through my stash of paint and found a bright happy pink paint sample:

I painted the beveled edges of the frame, and then grabbed out a stencil to add some additional detail.

Martha Stewart laser-cut stencil in Tapestry

I blotted on 3 thin coats of the pink using a cheap foam brush:

There was a lot of bleeding of the paint. Some spray adhesive might have prevented this, but the store was sold out. Instead I just took a fine brush and corrected the bleeds with some white paint.

Once the paint was dry it was time to mount the photograph. I grabbed my print and brushed a thin layer of matte Mod Podge onto the back of it. Then, I carefully centered the print onto the painted plaque. To keep the corners from curling up, I weighted the edges down with books. I let the whole thing stand for half a day to give it plenty of drying time. Once that was done, I used a cheap foam brush to paint a layer of the Mod Podge onto the whole plaque - photo and all. I let it dry for 30 minutes and brushed a 2nd layer on. Mod Podge does show a little texture when dry, so I made sure that my brush stroked were even and in a single direction.

After another 30 minutes of dry time left me with this:

Pin It

Pretty huh!?!

Hanging the plaque: I brushed a layer of Mod Podge along the back side of the plaque. I like to hang pretty much everything I can using 3M Command strips. They work great and don't leave any holes in my walls; what's not to love! The back of the plaque was porous wood though, which made it a bad surface for the strips to stick to. A layer of the Mod Podge remedied that.

Once dry, I stuck 2 Command strips on the back of the plaque and placed it on the wall:

BTW - The picture is centered properly, the angle of the photo makes it look a little wonky though.

Here is the wall finally complete:

All in all, it was a simple project that worked out really nicely. It may not rival an original Organic Bloom frame. Considering I was able to use almost all materials that I had laying around, my only out-of-pocket costs for this project were the plaque ($5.50) and the print ($2). I can definitely smile about that!

Jewelry Armoire Revamp

2012-02-23T14:06:00.000-06:00

A good year ago, my sister in law had an old jewelry armoire that she no longer wanted. I told her I would take it. It was a good quality, sturdy, mostly hard wood piece of furniture. The only problem was that it was a bit blah for me. Here is my Little Dude modelling the armoire for you (in his PJs of course):

Here it is with all the compartments open:

It has some nice detail to it, and is very well built:

It made some good storage for vehicles I guess. . . that's a plus!

It was just a little too traditional for me, so I decided to paint it! Now, a year later, I finally got around to it.

My 1st venture into furniture painting was almost a year ago with my son's dresser revamp:

Check out the original post here.

It worked out great so I figured I would try another painting project. First, I got to disassembling the armoire. I unscrewed all the hinges from the side compartments and the top, as well as removed all drawer pulls throughout. The next step was to rub the whole thing down with a liquid deglosser. I used this when I refinished my son's dresser and it seemed to work out well:

Deglosser is an easy and inexpensive way to prep treated wood for painting. I just put a nice glob of the stuff on the wooden surfaces, and rubbed them down well with a rag. It was a stinky process; I made sure the kids weren't around, and that there was plenty of ventilation. Next up was the priming/painting part. I had 3/4s of a gallon of Behr premium paint + primer in bright white (satin finish) laying around from an old project to use. I had planned on going white anyway. This part definitely took the longest. I managed to get 2 coats in the first day, and I did a 3rd the next day.

I must admit that I did have a little help. . . some very cute help:

Once everything was nice, white, and totally dry, I decided to add an accent color. I can't for the life of me find the paint swatch I grabbed with the name on it. The paint can doesn't give the name either, but it was a nice deep bluish green in Valspar Ultra-Premium satin finish. I painted the bottom legs and along several beveled edges throughout the whole armoire:

I love the contrast between the bright white and the teal color! I decided it was still a little blah for my tastes so I busted out some stencils:

Tapestry stencils by Martha Stewart

I got an awesome Martha Stewart laser cut stencil pack from Michaels. The largest ones are $16.99 but I used a 50% off coupon which made them rather cheap for stencils. I meant to buy spray adhesive for stencils too, but my local Michaels was sold out so I had to make do with some painter's tape:

I used a cheapo foam brush to blot the design on in 3 thin coats. I ended up with several smudges, so I took a fine tipped brush and white paint to clean them up after the teal dried completely. It looks just fine, though the spray adhesive would probably have been helpful with this issue.

The other detail I did was to re-paint the hardware. The drawer pulls were a dirtied gold color which was not too bad, but the hooks on the inside of the side compartments were bright gold. I'm not a fan of gold so I decided to go with oil rubbed bronze (ORB). I went ahead and painted the drawer pulls too since they were a little lighter than the ORB. You can see the finished pulls in the photo above, and the hooks here:

Way Better!

I used spray primer and spray ORB paint. I used 1 coat of primer, and 2 coats of the ORB for all the hardware pieces:

I let everything sit for a couple of days so that the paint could cure, then I reassembled everything.

Here is the final result:

Pin It

Close up of mirror detail:

1 more angle:

Pin It

I am in love with the final product!

It is so much more interesting than the original, which is exactly what I was going for. In all, I estimate that I put about 6 ours worth of my time into the project and about $20 worth of supplies since I used a bunch of paint that I had lying around, and 50% off coupons for the rest. Not too shabby really.

Planning Planning Planning

2012-02-13T16:14:00.000-06:00

I have slowed down on the household projects lately, but that definitely doesn't mean that they aren't on my mind. I recently got some free (or almost free) subscriptions to a few different decorating and design magazines, and my mind is racing with ideas. Add a serious Pinterest addiction to the mix, and I officially have way too many projects for any 1 person to ever finish in their lifetime.

I am still stuck on the kitchen. I made some decent improvements over the last year, but there is still so much to be done.

The main kitchen projects I hope to finish this year are:

1.   New light fixtures
2.   Backsplash
3.   Window treatments
4.   Shoe/Garbage storage

For today, I'm focusing on the light fixtures!

The light fixture situation recently came to the hubby's attention when he whacked and broke part of the current fixture. He apologized and remarked, "Well, you did say you wanted a new light fixture, I guess here's your excuse now." So there you have it. I get to buy a light fixture! Yay!!

When I first started thinking about replacing the old light fixture, I browsed online and found some gorgeous modern fixtures like this one:

Modern light fixture by Estiluz

Unfortunately for me, these fixtures run in the thousands (if not more), so they will never be in the budget. I tried paying attention to some local light places and the big home improvement stores, but I wasn't finding anything that really caught my eye for less than $400.

A friend and I were browsing a trendy design place in uptown Minneapolis a few months back and I saw a wine glass chandelier that I really loved. This fixture is very "me", but it hung too low for our average height ceilings, and my tall (sometimes clumsy) hubby. I considered trying to DIY my own version in a lower profile model, until I ran across the light selection on Overstock.com.

While I do love me a good DIY project, I think I have found the light fixture of my dreams!

Indoor 5-light luxury crystal chandalier

Isn't she pretty?! It has a 4.9/5 rating and 45 reviews so I trust that it is a good quality piece. The reviews rave about the beautiful sparkle of the light, and about the modern twist on an elegant crystal chandelier. The best part is the price, $250! From all the looking I have done, many comparable pieces start at $1000 and they go up from there. A little further research showed that it is a copy of a chandelier by designer Robert Abbey (pictured on the right). The Robert Abbey original "Bling chandelier" retails right around $1000.

I am pretty set on this guy (gal?), but it isn't in the budget for this month so it will have to wait a few weeks. Hopefully it stays in stock. It is a statement piece for the room, and I love its modern look!

So hopefully that will be that for the main light fixture in the kitchen/dining area. There are 3 light fixtures total in the room. The emphasis is definitely on the big one over the dining table, but I want to make a change on a second one. Here is a shot showing all 3 lights in the room:

You can see the broken one on the left, a white dome in the middle, and a small pendant light on the right. The white dome I plan to leave alone. I want something understated and unassuming in that location because the room is not big enough for 2 large competing fixtures.

Plain Jane gets to stay!

The pendant on the right however, I am not thrilled with. It is frosted glass with brown tones marbled in it and I just don't think it fits in. I bought it because we needed something fro that space when we originally remodelled. I think the whole fixture cost $10 on clearance:

If I could get away with it, I would totally do some fancy crystal pendant instead such as these:

Chrome/Crystal 1-light Mini Pendant round chandelier &

Chrome/Crystal 1-light Mini Pendant square chandelier

Alas, I think that would be a little over the top with the current style and size of my kitchen so I will have to go with something simpler. Here are a couple of other styles I like:

Wimbledon Small Metal Sphere Pendant &

Triarch International 'Cosmo' 1-light Satin Nickel Mini Pendant

I like the circular shape versus the standard (read: boring) bell shaped pendant. The one the right is beautiful, but I'm not sure the dark metallic black color is going to go well with the space. The one on the right is kind of perfect, but I don't know if I want to spend almost $90 on a mini pendant. I will have to keep looking. Maybe in the meantime, I can try spray painting the current one white.

So there you have the status of my light fixture plans. Exciting stuff I know! It is really fun browsing through selections online though. There are so many options! I hope that one day I have a house with beautiful high ceilings that I can put dramatic show-stopping pieces in. For now, I'm pretty happy with my overstock finds. Hopefully I'll have an exciting update in a few weeks with new light fixture pictures.

Out With the Old & DIY the New

2012-02-09T15:28:00.000-06:00

No I haven't given up on the blog, there has just been a whole lot of busy busy days that I find myself having less and less time to write.

I did something yesterday that I had been meaning to do for several months now; I finally ditched Little Dude's crib!

Little Dude 1 year ago

He will turn 3 in less than 2 months so I really have pushed the crib thing as far as I feel I could. We stuck with it for so long because he has always been an awesome sleeper, so why rock the boat?

It is a drop side crib. . .( I know they are no longer acceptable according to government regulations. I looked into why they were all recalled, and I felt confident that his was solidly built and would not have those issues. It is solid maple and the hardware is high quality.) Anyhoo, we have basically left the crib side dropped down permanently for the last several months so that Little Dude could climb in and out easily. He has clearly been ready for a bed for some time now.

What really did it for us is the fact that I wanted Little Dude out of diapers at night. That required the freedom to be able to get in and out of bed easily. He has been waking up dry for months now, but I was too chicken to completely lose the diapers. Poop is scary enough in a diaper, I really didn't want to deal with it all over his bed, blech! Enough was enough though, so I bit the bullet, and got rid of the crib.

The plan is to get a twin sized mattress soon. . . within the month at least. Once Little Dude is used to sleeping in it, I want to build him a bed. Not just any bed mind you, but this bed that I found on Pinterest:

Source: The Slow Life blog

It is a loft bed, styled after a treehouse. I was browsing different loft beds for kids, and instantly fell in love when I came across this one! It is adorable, and it is closed in which I love. I don't think Little Dude is at all claustrophobic, plus the sides will make it harder for him to fall out of it. Our ceilings aren't particularly high, so it may need to be modified somewhat, but I think its doable. Hubby is excited to help me build something so we will give it a go probably once the weather is a little warmer.

The interim solution is a lot less glamorous:

Please pardon the cruddy quality cell phone shots.

Yup, my kid gets to sleep on a toddler mattress on the floor - we keep it classy around here! Oh, and he does have a normal pillow, but he spilled water on it so he stole a couch cushion while it dried.

After 2 nap times and 1 overnight in it, he seems to love the arrangement so I'm not worried. Both kids were very excited by this change:

They both played on the bed for a couple of hours after the switch was made. I had to calm Baby Boo down because she seemed to think that it was a trampoline.

I took the opportunity to rearrange the room a little bit, though I'll probably do it again once the loft bed is made:

I also took down the diaper holder that my mom hand made and embroidered for Little Dude:

That moment was rather bittersweet. My little guy is completely out of the baby stage. His Diaper Champ diaper bin was removed as well. I love being done with diapers in his room, but I can't wrap my head around the little boy that he has become. It makes me a little sniffley sometimes.

I'm excited for the new project at hand though. I know that Little Dude will absolutely love his treehouse bed!

That's it for now; I'll leave you all with some random pics of my kids practicing their yoga moves just because:

Pretty Princesses & Polka Dot Dresses!

2012-01-19T15:01:00.000-06:00

Little Dude is well on his way to being a 3 year old, and I am definitely noticing some changes in him recently. I love noticing all the little differences, and I especially like to record them because these are the details that I really don't remember well when I look back on the blurr that is my kids' babyhood. These are all pretty typical developmentally speaking, but through this momma's eyes, they are amazing and awe inspiring.

First there are the stories. The imaginations on these little guys are mind blowing, and the connections they make can be hilarious. Toddlers are busy putting 2 and 2 together, though the answer isn't always the 4 you're expecting. I think this is the reason we get some of the really funny "from the mouths of babes" comments that are so common for this age. I have posted several of my own under Little Dude's Special Gems. As 3 approaches, the stories become more elaborate as the imagination kicks in. All the sudden I find myself being informed that puppy dogs like to ride in space ships because there are big bones in outer space.

Next there are the questions. 3 is the age of reason. No that doesn't mean 3 year olds are reasonable - far from it actually. They are beginning to understand that reason exists though, and therefore, ask for that reason ALL. THE. TIME.

It feels like I am asked 50 bajillion questions every minute with Little Dude. . . (yes, I counted.)

What's this momma?

Why is that momma?

How you do that momma?

Why?

I am a big fan of when the imagination and questions merge into some very odd question asking. . . or sometimes answering. Earlier today I put Baby Boo into a fleece night gown since she had dirtied her other outfit. Little Dude looked at her gown and the gears in his toddler brain started turning:

Momma why you put a pretty dress on Baby Boo?

Is it because Baby Boo is a pretty princess?

Oh, and is she pretty because she have polka dots?

Momma, all pretty princesses have polka dots on their dresses!?!

Woah, I don't think I got a word in edgewise in that conversation. Little Dude was happy that his question had been answered though, so he grabbed Baby Boo's hand and took her away to play "princesses and crocodiles".

My Kid Said What?

2012-01-04T12:58:00.002-06:00

It is a fact that when learning this whole talking business, most little people are going to be less than perfect at first. Mild speech impediments are very common in toddlers such as lisps and mispronunciation of Rs. Little Dude is no exception here and it has had some hilarious (and somewhat embarrassing) results at times.

I have heard from several people, the example of "truck". The TR sound can be a difficult one, and is sometimes replaced by F. Hilarity ensues each time the child sees a truck. . . especially out in public. I guess my hubby was guilty of this one as a tot.

I have 2 gems of my own so far that I can remember:

First there is the word "football". A very harmless and inert word that Little Dude managed to butcher nicely into something much much less PC. He pronounces it rather lazily, leaving out the t and ll. What is left sound very much like "fupa". If you aren't familiar with this term I suggest you look it up on Urban Dictionary. Note to self: must teach child to enunciate!

The next we only recently discovered when Little Dude received some Thomas the Tank Engine toys for Christmas. The boy is obsessed with trains and all things vehicle, so we knew he would be very excited about it. One specific toy was a talking Percy train. Since Rs give Little Dude trouble, he often omits it. He opened the present and yelled out in excitement, "I have a pussy!" I especially loved the look on his grandma's face later that day when he told her that. She looked at me with 1 eyebrow raised and asked, "He has WHAT now?"

Monday Quicky!

2011-12-19T13:47:00.000-06:00

Imagine my surprise when I went to use the restroom and I found the toilet lid smiling at me:

Courtesy of Little Dude of course.

More Special Gems - With Pictures!

2011-12-14T13:45:00.003-06:00

AKA - Not So Wordless Wednesday

Monday I shared some kids say the darnedest things moments, courtesy of Little Dude.

Today I have some funny (to me at least) photos to share.

This one isn't so much HAHA! funny, so much as it is HUH! funny. . . I'm not sure if that even makes sense.

Anyway, since Little Dude developed his love for all things vehicle, he has enjoyed lining them up in a row. I don't remember when I first noticed it. Maybe when he was around 18 months.

An example of a lineup around the dishwasher door.

More recently, he started sometimes organizing the lineups by color. I don't have a picture of this, but he is pretty good at it. Then yesterday, I was watching him play. He decided to organize the vehicles by size:

He is always so proud of himself.

I find it kind of funny because he gets a little compulsive about his lineups at times. It reminds me of my own random compulsions that I had (and sometimes still have) as a kid.

Then the other day, Little Dude decided to decorate himself just like the Christmas tree:

Goofy

He also proceeded to add his own decoration to the tree:

He even managed to find a green ornament hanger that he placed on the pull tab to hang the thing. I would have left it up, but Baby Boo kept trying to take it down so she could pretend to drink from it.