Our Weekend

Our Weekend

Hope everyone had a blessed weekend and all the fathers had a great fathers day! We had us an extended weekend starting on Thursday. I was off work Thursday and Friday so the kiddos and I went down to Darlington to visit my family. It was a far overdue visit since it had been almost a year since we had been. The kids of course got spoiled by their grandma and great-grandma. They loved seeing them!

My silly kids. This is how picture taking usually goes. Especially when I am in a rare one. LOL

I made travel kits for the kids. Everything came from the dollar store and only cost me a whopping $9. The kids enjoyed them. Only thing I suggest is to be sure everything is loose because my 2 year old cried for a good 2- minutes until I could stop because he couldn't get his crayons out of the package. Whoops! 

I bought me a label maker while I was down there and organized my Grandma's cabinets for her. I would have loved to have done more for her but This was all I could accomplish on half a day. 

Excuse the quality of the pictures as they were taken with my phone and are a little blurry. 

When I got back into town, my sweet hubby took us all out to eat and then to Best Buy to look at computers. Our 8 year anniversary is this Tuesday and he said he would get me a new computer as my gift. I have always wanted an iMac but didn't think it was in our budget but much to my surprise, my hubby got it for me! Major bonus points for that man! Just love him! He also knows how much I love taking photos and he also got my photoshop. 

Sunday morning we nwent to Denny's for breakfast before church. Then RJ's family came over to our house to spend some time. His Grandfather was down visiting and it was so nice to see them! Can't believe I didn't get any photos of everyone too! I had my camera out also and just plain forgot. 

Well, my sweet boss at work gave me the day off and let my take the kiddos to daycare so I have the house to myself (hasn't happened in years) so I am off to do some cleaning out, labeling, and get crafty! Hope everyone has an amazing Monday!!

Teacher Gift

I love Target! I mean, who doesn't!?!? So, when it came to teacher gifts this year, ofcourse Target came to mind first. I originally was going to shop around with my daughter to pick out something for her teachers but as a mom to 3, it is hard going into target and they not want everything as well.  So, after church Sunday we ran by to pick up a gift card (because who wouldn't like picking out their own gift) and I saw these cute owls! Precious right?? I thought about just grabbing a greeting card but the crafty person in me ofcourse wanted to come up with a cute saying and put her touch on it. So photoshop was pulled up, some clip art downloaded, typed in the cute saying and printed it out. Sounds fast but the OCD person inside me took forever trying to get it perfect. 

I used these raised up squares to add some depth to the tree, threw the owl under it and ta-da! 

Well, not quite because after looking at it, I thought it looked a little plain so I thought adding some colorful  grass to it would help. So, 6am came and I got Trinity up nice and early to do some painting. Yup, she was asleep. LOL Luckily after sitting her at the table and realizing she was doing something crafty, she was right on board. Just like her mama!   

 Here is the finished project:

Sorry if the picture is blurry. Took it on the fly with my phone this morning. 😊

I also made one without the names on it for whoever might like to make a card as well. Enjoy! 

Get Ready/Dress Up Area Progress & Life Lately

OH Yeah baby, It is Wednesday and that means there are only 2 more work days left in the week. I don't know if was the lack of sleep, running out of coffee or screaming kids that started it off rough but let's just say that I am glad this week is almost over. So happy school is getting out next week too! We are all burnt out with school activities, gymnastics, girl scouts, etc that it will be nice to not have to be running around with our heads cut off all the time. I am looking forward to going to my sweetpea's awards ceremony tomorrow morning though. I can't believe she is almost done with kindergarten! :( She is growing up too fast! She looks its too now with her hair cut shorter!

Isn't she pretty!?!

My sweet mother-in-law kept all the kiddos for me last night so I could go see my cousin graduate high school last night. I remember when she was born so it is making me realize how time flies by so fast. I cried last night knowing that one day I will be watching my children graduate, get married, have children of their own, etc and I need to stop more often and take in the little moments and appreciate the time I have with them now, while they actually want to spend it with me. :)

One of my favorite pics from the night!

So proud of this girl! Graduated with honors too!

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I have been working on Trinity's big girl room for a few weeks now and it is coming along. We got her bed from Ikea assembled and she is loving sleeping in it. I think she likes being high up. Just trying to keep little brother from climbing it and breaking his neck though. Ahhh!!!

Here she is excited about her first night sleeping in her bed. I plan on putting a shelf and light up top for her also. Haven't gotten there yet but hoping to make another trip to Ikea to get some stuff to help with completing all my projects. LOL 

I have been working on organizing stuff at the moment and as of right now, my main focus is on her get ready/dress up area. Here is what I was working on over the weekend.

She doesn't have a ton of bows. She used to have more but they have either gotten lost, torn up or magically disappeared. I plan on ordering her a bunch in different colors and starting fresh. She loves jewelry and I need to take her to pick out some more necklaces. 

I was trying to find a way to incorporate her earrings and as I was feeding Asher lunch, I got the idea to use the container he was eating from as a holder for them. LOL It is the perfect size and I made it to where I can just take it off to pick out a pair! 

Here is her headband holder too. It was an oatmeal container that I just covered with scrapbook paper and painted the top. I like it because I can also keep her bands, brush and detangler spray in it. 

So, here is our work in progress..still have a ways to go on this area. 

-Paint shelving

-Modpodge fabric onto boxes

-Label

-Paint Mirror & hang

Well, hope you all have had a blessed day. Time for me to get the kiddos in bed!

Lazy Day Monday/Memorial Day

I want to start off saying thank you to all the veterans that have served or that are currently serving in the military. It is because of you all that we are free and my family thanks you from the bottom of our hearts. 

(Couldn't believe it only took like 5 minutes to get decent pics of the kids! Ofcourse Gabriel wouldn't smile for any. LOL) 

Daddy went into work for some OT so we are having a lazy day until he gets home. Well, more like I am trying to keep the kids occupied while I keep my sanity. Props to the moms who stay home with their kids all the time! I find it so hard to keep my kids entertained without sitting infront of the TV all the time. So, today I had some projects planned and some activities for the kids to do. Here is what our day has consisted of:

Found this idea off of Pinterest here

Love her blog! 

She has tons of activities for kids and I cannot wait to try out more!

The kids loved doing this and it lasted a couple of tries. After that, I pulled out a bag of beans and rice, some spoons, cups and little containers and they had a blast sorting and playing that for a while. It was a mess to clean up in the end since most of Gabriel's ended up on the floor but was well worth it. 

Trinity has helped me with some painting, I got some organizing done and a couple of other crafty things that I have been wanting to start. Can't wait to show what we have been working on! Now off to go get the kids ready to go out to eat when Daddy gets home. Hope you all have a blessed day and make sure to thank a veteran for what they have done today. Lots of Love!

12 Days up to Christmas Reading

My oldest just started school this year and we are trying to get her to read as much as possible. With Christmas not too far away, I thought it would be a good idea to read a book each night leading up to Christmas Eve. Now, I had thought about doing 24 books but half way through wrapping, I decided to just stick with a simple 12 and do a "12 Days up to Christmas" reading each night with the kids. Trinity can help read the book to Daddy and her brothers, get practice and I can incorporate books on the "true meaning of Christmas." Granted, all of our books are not all on this and some are not even Christmas related but I wanted to use what I had on hand and not have to purchase any more books. I look forward to doing this with the kids in the years to come and starting many other traditions that they maybe they will do with their kids one day too. 

Here are the books I used:

I decided to get rid of all my Christmas wrapping paper to save space (I can't stand clutter) and wrap with craft paper. I love it because it is inexpensive ($2.5 @ Hobby Lobby) and I can just use ribbon, stamps, cutouts with my cricut or even let my kids color/paint on it. Here's what I did with the books:

I used the same idea with our Christmas presents this year too. I stamped the recipients name on the present, added some ribbon and let the kids do a Christmas craft on the back to be festive. That way it looks nice and neat (that's the OCD in me) under the tree and there is a little surprise on the back when the person goes to open it. Here is an example of one: 

It isn't the cutest out of the bunch but one of the first ones we did. I will do a post on those tomorrow. 

Thanksgiving Crafts

Thanksgiving is about to be here and I thought I would post some cute crafts we did in the Toddler room. 

This one was my favorite. I am a sucker for handprint crafts. I love to have them for my kids and see how their little hands grow. I got the idea here.

We also made this adorable paper plate turkey.

Got the idea for this one here.

I also wanted to include the mayflower and indians so we did this one shown and I forgot to get a picture of the indian but it is similar to this one here.

I also like to focus on a different color each month so I got this coloring page here.

Some other cute crafts are this cute hand and foot print turkey, this color palette turkey would be good for older kids (she also has some other cute ideas on her site) or this precious handprint turkey shirt for your little one to wear. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!! 

Sleepover Party

We had Trinity's 6th birthday party this past Friday night and it was a huge success! I decided to have her a slumber party so that she would be able to celebrate with her close girlfriends and then in December we will have a party for her and Gabe so family can also celebrate. Let's just say that even though this Mama was stressed to the max, the little ladies had a blast so it made it all worth-while. I wanted to be sure we had something going on at all times so I made a "balloon schedule" so that each gal could pop one and it would let us all know what we would do next.

The girls got so excited when it was their turn to pop one! I also had heart confetti in them so it was a nice surprise. The schedule included: Let's eat!/Decorate Cupcakes/Craft Time/BINGO/Open Presents/Karaoke/Nail Salon/Pop the Glow Balloons/Popcorn & Candy/Movie

I do not have a table that will sit that many kids so I decided to just move Trins's mattress off her bed into the kitchen and let the kids eat and do crafts at it. I borrowed some pillows and let the kids use them to sit on. I used their pillowcases I made as favors on the pillows and that way each child already knew where to sit. 

If you decide to go the mattress route, you probably would need to place cardboard under the sheet to make it more sturdy. The only issue we had were the drinks staying upright so the kids sat them in between each other. 

After supper and cupcakes, we moved on to craft time. I took a long table cloth and placed it over the mattress so the sheet and mattress would not be ruined. It worked out real well. The kids had paint, glitter glue and gems to decorate with. 

Up next was bingo! I made the Bingo cards using Photoshop and clip art from the internet. I thought they turned out so cute and actually ended up making some for a friend's daughter's party the next day. The girls seemed to have enjoyed it too! I actually ended up replacing the letters B-I-N-G-O with pictures for my friend and it seemed to go smoother that way. They used smarties to mark their spots. 

After Bingo, Trin got to open her presents. I mainly asked the parents to get her dress-up clothes and accessories so the girls could actually play with them later on in the evening. Karaoke was next and the girls seemed to enjoy singing and dancing with each other. Then came time for "Nail Salon." The girls got to pick their polish color and I also bought nail stickers for them to choose from.

I didn't get any pictures of this but we played "Pop the Glow Balloon" next and I just placed candy and glow sticks in balloons, taped them to the wall, the girls put a mask on, twirled and then had to walk to find a balloon. This gave them candy for the movie and we also had popcorn.

Movie Time and then Bed!!

For breakfast the next morning, we had donuts and milk/OJ. I was going to cook toast and eggs for the kids but by the time they woke, we had to eat quick before the parents were there to pick them up. 

This had to be Trinity's favorite party to date and I will have to say it was mine also. It was kind of thrown together but I think turned out pretty well. There has already been requests for another sleepover!

~Favors for the girls were their pillowcases, their craft they did, and a box full of goodies and candy of their choosing.