a FAIRY wonderful day

Happy birthday to our Molly-girl!!!

She has been waiting for this day with anticipation and excitement since Christmas was over, and it didn't disappoint. She had such a fun birthday and was definitely one happy little fairy. We had a party with her little friends and they were all so cute. The girls all got fairy wings and skirts and did lots of dancing. They decorated wands, played fairy games (musical flowers, sleepy fairies, & fairy freeze tag), and of course had cupcakes and presents. Now we have dolls and pink everywhere, several new choking hazards, and she has already started to plan next years big day. We love you Molly.

I didn't know that I bought trick candles for her cake and it was pretty funny watching her try to blow them out. Actually I think it is kind-of a good idea because it gave me time to get lots of pictures.

I got the idea for the fairy party here. And the wings & skirts were so inexpensive, yet surprisingly really nice. All in all it was a fairy good day!

Bath-time intruder

Mitch loves baths! I mean what baby doesn't? So he was a little jealous tonight when his sister got one and he didn't. I put Molly in her special oatmeal bath (cause that's how we roll around here, 3 yr old spa treatments!) right after dinner and went back to the kitchen. I knew Mitch was in the bathroom but figured there was no way he could get into the tub. A few min later I hear a big splash, but no worries cause there is no way that Mitch could climb into the tub? Seconds later I hear Molly call out "Mitchy is in the bath with me!"

Yep! He climbed into the tub! Seriously, nothing is safe around here.

Just to show the height of our tub, and why I mistakenly thought he couldn't climb in.

Just in time

I've been working on this wreath for a few weeks now and I'm happy to say that I finished it just in time for the first snow fall of spring. Yep! It's going to snow tomorrow! Aaaahh!!! Enough already. Well at least it is spring inside my house, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will be outside enjoying the SUNSHINE very, very soon!

Oh, and if anyone is wondering where the pastel felt came from, (cause if you've ever looked in the store for some you will know that there is no such thing!)

I got half of the colors from my amazingly organized mother who just happened to have a plethora of felt that she so willingly and lovingly sent my way!!! Thanks mom:) and the rest I dyed myself with food coloring. found here. I used acrylic felt from Joann's instead of wool felt and I didn't get as good of results. But I like the outcome, and it makes me happy to look at even if it's snowing outside.

Be Specific

The kids found some boxes today and were pretending they were "houses." Trying to make it even more fun I gave Molly some markers and said "Why don't you go and decorate your house." (pointing to her BOX) Then I went back to making them lunch. Molly called excitedly through the window for me to come look at how pretty she had made "her house" look. I came outside to find this!!

Lesson learned... Be very specific when telling your 3 year old that they can color their house. Thankfully the markers were washable and came right off, but not without many, many tears of a sad little girl after realizing her mistake. I'm sure it didn't help that I was laughing at her out of cuteness while she bawled.

more cheerios please

Mitch has been really fun lately. He is clapping and waving and getting closer to walking everyday! Yikes!! He is a really good eater, and by that I mean he loves to eat!! Usually he acts like he can't shove his cheerios in his mouth fast enough. And when the food runs out he bangs his tiny fists on his tray until there is more. He is such a happy fun kid who can always make me smile.

This is the only way I can ever get anything done.

And this is what it usually looks like when I'm making dinner.

He is a crawling disaster. Good thing he's so cute!

On a side note I had a wonderful 29th b-day this week. I got a shiny new saw and have way too many projects in mind I don't know where to start!?!?!!

I thought my mom would like this picture :)

Stay-cation Blizzard

Who ever thought that staying home for your vacation week, in Cleveland, in FEBRUARY, was a good idea?? We started and finished the week with snow storms! Yay! We have spent the majority of the week snowed in and wishing we were on a beach somewhere. But we are not so we have been trying to make the most of it. Last weekend we tried to take a last min trip to see friends in Detroit, but the blizzard/ice storm said no! Thankfully we still made it to Great Wolf Lodge in the middle of the week. The kids had a blast and swam the entire time! It was so fun and all three were completely worn out by the time we got home.

I finished painting/organizing our office. I love the outcome, and the kids have been having fun playing in there again.

Today was another Blizzard!!! So what else could we do but turn the living room into a giant blanket tent, complete with books and popcorn. It was pretty fun and it was big enough for all five of us to get in. Mitch especially loved crawling around in it. And surprisingly it still hasn't gotten knocked down. So, although I don't think we will plan a vacation week in Feb again, unless we plan on going somewhere warm, it was still a nice break. And the kids and I still really loved having dad home for a week. You can't beat that.

Project mode

So Scott has been gone for the past week and just got back today. I don't know about you but when my husband is gone I always go into crazy project/crafting mode. I think it might be because I can't sleep when he's gone so I need something to keep me busy. So this past week I've been doing a lot of painting and crafting, but not very much sleeping.

I painted our office:

this is a before picture of our office/kids coloring room.

I wanted to turn one of the walls into a magnet wall so I used magnetic paint and did that first. You have to do like 5 coats before the magnets will stick but it dries really fast so it wasn't too bad. But since the magnetic paint is only a primer you have to put a top coat on. I thought it would look dumb to just have one section painted so I painted the whole room.

But then I had to paint all the ugly trim too so it would match. So this is where I'm at.

I really wanted to have it all done before he got back, and I probably would have, but then all my kids got sick and that kind-of put a cramp in my painting. But I really like the way it looks and I LOVE having a whole wall for magnets. Now I can re-claim my fridge.

I also finished all my Valentine crafts, just in time for LOVE day to be over :) But I think I will leave them out for the rest of the month.

And I discovered a new way of making felt flowers. I call it the "Fan Flower." I love using felt because you really can do anything with it. Here are the steps to make a fan flower.

In the picture it shows like 8 humps but I think 5 or 6 work best. It is a much easier way instead of cutting out individual petals.

We also decorated Valentines cookies. Can you guess who made each one?

Surprisingly it has been a good week. My house is a disaster, and we have been eating breakfast or lunch for every meal, but now that Daddy is home again things can get back to normal. And hopefully I can catch up on my sleep.

Also the weather has turned pretty nice like 40's-50's which after having -5 feels almost like summer. We played outside all morning and almost all the snow is gone. So now I have major "spring fever" and feel like I want to clean everything.

new trick

A few days ago we taught Mitch how to go DOWN the stairs, since we can't keep him from going UP. He is getting pretty good at it and thinks it's a game. He climbs up two or three steps, slides down, and then does it again. Unfortunately I can't seem to get a good video of it so this one will have to do.

If it fits.....

Yes, that is a golf ball! On average I pull at least 15 foreign objects out of his mouth every day. It is hard to keep up with. Even when I've swept a room of all small treasures before letting him loose, he still always finds something.

Mitch has also been doing a lot of this lately. It's only a matter of time before he is running around with the others. I really need him to just stop growing so fast. I want him to stay this age just a little longer. I love how cute he is right now!

File Folders

Call me crazy, but for some reason I keep making more of these things. And every time I ask myself the same question..."Why am I doing this?" Making a file folder game is VERY, VERY, VERY time consuming, and all the cutting gets pretty annoying. So I'm not sure why I keep making them? It's probably because my kids have so much fun playing with them, and maybe because I secretly like to color.

I started by making a few of them last year in the fall and they have been well used and loved. These folder game are perfect for church. So a few months ago I decided to make some more. And then a few weeks ago I did it again. I really didn't realize that we had so many until I took this picture. 20 to be exact! It's a little out of control. But it makes me feel a little better that my kids actually play with them, a lot! So I guess it was worth it.

This is my latest creation.

I wanted to make some paper dolls for Molly (found here) but I figured they would be trashed in a day, so decided turn it into a file folder game. When it was time to put the dolls into the folder they seemed too small so I created a scenery for them out of an old calendar and some scraps. I think I went a little overboard but Molly LOVES it! I keep saying that I'm not going to make anymore, but honestly I probably will, cause even though it's a pain they are kind of fun to do. So if you want to spend every night coloring, cutting, laminating, and cutting again go here, your kids will love it.

Here are some other ones I have made: