Cullen's First Haircut

Cullen got his first haircut yesterday, and man was he stunned. I don't think he moved an inch the entire time his Aunt Julie was trimming his hair, he just didn't know what was going on. I can't believe it, he's still my baby but I can see him growing up every day.

Angry Birds!

Caleb loves the game, doesn't matter if its on the smartphone or the board game, or throwing around our huge stuffed birds/pigs around the house. Here's how we played it today.

Caleb's 4th Birthday!

My oldest son, the boy who first called me mama turned 4 yesterday, I could barely believe it! Well today we threw him a Star Wars Party at his request of course! We did a lot of the preparation together as a family DIY style! I absolutely love throwing parties, I wish I could do it full time.

Every good party starts with a great invitation. This invitation was really designed by everyone in the house (well maybe not Cullen). After I laid out the rough draft, Tony came back and corrected my 'yoda' language and Caleb picked the pictures.


After the invites, I started scouring the internet for ideas for the goodie bags and decorations. For the goodie bags I wanted to do something DIY so I made some R2D2 crayons using a mold I got on amazon. Of course we had to have a pinata, and what else but a Death Star. Unfortunately you can't find a death star pinata in the store so we decided (well Tony wanted) to DIY it. We found plans on http://www.starwars.com/ so we went for it. We ended up cheating a little (using spray paint instead of tissue paper), but hey it turned out. It was crushed in like 5 seconds so I'm glad we didn't spend more time than necessary. I also made some yummy snacks and other food, along with fun labels (star wars themed of course).

And you can't have a star wars party without light sabers!! We started the party with a create your own light saber activity. The kids took a light saber and picked a color to use (duct tape comes in lots of colors) then they added buttons (foam stickers!). The light sabers were very easy and cheap to make. Tony made them using PVC pipe, PVC end caps, and Pipe Foam Insulation. I think the total cost was under $1 a saber.


I didn't get a lot of pictures of the fun, hey even moms try to have fun at parties, but I did get a few candids. Caleb had a really great time, the best part I didn't get pictures of, but video. If I ever figure out how to share video on here maybe you'll see it!. All the kids took some light saber training (by none other than muah), then out of the blue, Darth Maul showed up. thank goodness so many trained jedi's were in the room, they destroyed him, it really is a funny video.

Kitchen Updating

If your my friend on FB you know we've been doing some updates to our Kitchen. We're not completely done, actually we have a lot more to do, but I thought I'd do mid before & afters since my kitchen was nice and clean and I had fresh flowers :)

BEFORE: *Notice - cabinets were raised, and counter extended into a bar.



AFTER:


BEFORE: *and of course the TILE!!!



AFTER:




This was such an easy update/fix, gives us some space to hide things that were normally sitting around our sink!


Things we still have to do:
Finish Tiling - we had to move an electrical box that was somewhat behind the stove so we only did one wall, I wanted to have the main part tiled before the party.
Clean up the tile and finishing touches with outlets/covers
Decorate Dining room (Ignore what's there now, that's up for Caleb's b-day party)
Pick an "accent" color, I'm gonna get rid of the red stuff, I'm thinking White, or just Stainless stuff.
Replace the vertical blinds with something else!

Day in our Life

It seems like its been forever since I just got out my camera just to get it out. So when Cullen was playing with his little car it inspired me and for the rest of the day I took a few shots here and there. I hope you enjoy the wordless story of our day.

Pinterest Craft for the Weekend

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I love pinterest.

This weekend we decided to do a child-friendly craft, one that turned out beautiful and was really simple to do to boot!

Here's the blog post that has the cutest how-to video: http://eisforexplore.blogspot.com/2012/01/bead-bowls.html

And here's our final project. Caleb did most of the 'work' but it was super simple. We used those fuseable beads from the craft section of jo-anns.

Getting Organized... Better

As the co-CFO of the family my duties include making sure the bills are paid, then filing them away for later reference if need be. My normal filing consists of putting them in one of these crazy binders, and by the end of the year it is just out of control.



This year I decided to take a new tactic and organize a little better. I got one of those filing cubes and put all my stuff in there. Usually I have a pile of unpaid bills on the counter or buffet, and another pile on another counter by the back door of coupons to be used. well guess what I just added another couple files and now hopefully I won't have paper piles around my house!



But what's even better? I added a seat on top. I was hoping that the seat on top would give it a better look as I like to keep the bills and filing in the main part of the house. I don't have much in the way of storage around here and the closets are all awfully full. The basement just isn't convienent for putting mail, paying bills, and storing stuff that I use daily.

Plus the boys think its a pretty cool place to sit. Now I just have to make it look like it goes in my livingroom or diningroom!

Super Slushy | Kid Science

So my kids watch TV, yeah I know, but some shows are actually educational and entertaining and hey it distracts them so I can clean and cook :)

Well did you know they had infomercials on kids tv channels?? Yep stuff like this Slushy Magic that your kids immediately want to buy and try out. And who doesn't need another kitchen object around the house? THIS girl! I have enough of that stuff, especially with 2 kids and all their fun cups and sippy cups and crazy straws Oh Em GEEE that stuff piles up.

So after a couple times of Caleb telling me how he just HAS to be able to make Magic Slushies, I decide to teach him a little science experiment and this is what we did.

I filled up a ziplock bag with some warmish water and some sea salt. I don't measure, just crossed my fingers and hoped I got enough of the stuff. Then we put that in the freezer to sit over night.



The next day I got my bag back out and it was a little big (yeah I need to find a smaller ziplock) so I put it (the whole bag) in a tupperware container and added juice. Topped it off with the lid and had Caleb shake till his hearts content. I think after about 2 or 3 minutes of Tony shaking, they had a slushy! The slushy then got poured into 2 cups and immediately devoured (sorry no picture of the actual slushy, I'll try to grab one later). I then rinsed off my ziplock bag and put it back in the freezer ready for the next time!

Some Projects!

If you know me, you know my latest obsession is pinterest. I've been doing a lot of little projects here and there in my 'spare' time, not that I have much of that, but its me time and I enjoy doing crafts. who knew?!

With Caleb's birthday always falling right after valentines day I usually have so much going on that I buy his friends cheap $ cards with an off brand candy attached, there's nothing wrong with that, and I know all kids like candy. However, my cupboard is still overflowing with candy from christmas, so I thought I'd get a head start this year and finish my kids classmates' valentines early.

Here's what I did for Caleb's Class:



They are little plastic animals they can play with. I actually spent almost no money on this project, the animals I got on super clearance (90% off from constructive playthings last fall and had no idea what to do with them) the baggies I had from Cullen's party, and I made the labels in photoshop with free paper I downloaded from the www.


And here's what I did for Cullen's Class:




I actually spent more money on these since I had to buy the silicone mold, I got it from JoAnns and it was already marked down 25% so I couldn't use my 50% off coupon :( but at $7.50 and reusable I'll take it.

Another project Caleb and I did last week was this new pillowcase for him. I got the images from a pumpkin carving stencil that was online and then just printed it on iron on transfer paper. I really want to try the freezer paper method I have printed but just haven't gotten around to it.

On top of things

Tonight after the kids went to bed, I got started with a Valentine's Day Project I had been thinking about since umm this morning. LOL Here's what Caleb's giving to his friends at school!!

Best part? These were basically free, I bought 144 little animals from constructive playthings website last fall when they were 90% off and really didn't know what I was gonna do with them, so they have just been sitting in storage. I already had the little plastic bags (they are candy bags from JoAnns) and I just made the label tonight.

Sorry for the poor cell phone quality pic. Maybe when I get Cullen's done I'll take better pictures.