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:

photographer

Ethan's new favorite thing lately has been taking pictures. Good thing we have a digital camera. Here are 4 keepers (actually 3. I think I took the bottom Right) out of at least 100 that have been deleted in the last few days. But he is getting really good at capturing my messy house, the back of mitch's head, carpet, and his personal favorite being his own feet. Yesterday he told me that he likes taking pictures so much that he wants to be a photographer when he grows up. I guess it's time to get him his own camera.

camouflage

Can you see him? I didn't realize just how much mitch blends in with our lovely pink bath tub untill I took these pictures. He sure loves bathtime though.

well actually...

He changed his mind and has decided that he likes to play in the snow again!!!!

We finally had a day that wasn't "too cold" to play outside. And by that I mean that it didn't hurt your teeth to smile, .....so Ethan was able to have fun in the snow again. Yay! One of the hard things about playing in Cleveland snow is that it is sooo soft and fluffy that it is impossible to pack together. But don't worry cause Ethan found a way to still have a snowball fight, and let me tell you, it's not fun to get a shovel full of snow to the face but a five year old will think it's hilarious, so I guess it was worth it.

Curls

Molly got her hair curled for the first time today and I think she looks so cute. I wish I could do her hair like this everyday but we all know that's not going to happen. But now that we have late church maybe it will happen every Sunday?

Snow day

The other day Molly really wanted to go out and play in the snow. It's not often that she asks to play in the snow and she had her heart set on making a "snow girl." I thought it would be fun for all of us to venture out into the cold to have some fun. Well Ethan informed me that he doesn't like snow anymore and would much rather move to California where it's warm. So he stayed inside while I bundled up the rest of us. I pulled the kids around on the sled for a bit and they liked it. We were about to get to work on our creation when Mitch did a face plant right in the snow and was not happy about it. He just couldn't resist checking out all that white stuff. So our snow day got cut very short. I think we will just have to wait for a day when dad is home to make a snow girl.