Dec. Recap

I thought I should probably do a quick recap of some of the fun we've been having in December. We had a VERY busy and FUN month. I've been busy with the girls, sewing projects (which I can start posting pics of now that all the gifts are given), parties and so much more, so I've kind of had a month disconnected from the computer, but I definitely got a lot done. :)

We had dance, school parties, family parties, Les Miserables, Wizard of Oz, Church Christmas programs, an amazing Jars of Clay Concert, Trans Syberian Orchestra, Christmas around the world at the gardens, crafts, playdates, and SO much more!!!

Here are a few of the pictures I already have uploaded. Now I'm off to download and order the picture from the last 4 days of parties. :)

Nora LOVED decorating the tree this year!

We went to Holland and Zeeland's Christmas parties. Here is Molly and her cousin Maisy at the parade!

Lots of great cookie decorating!

Molly actually playing the games at her Preschool Christmas party! For those of you who know Molly, this is a HUGE deal! She has lots of anxiety after everything, especially if things are a little different, so she NEVER plays any games at parties, or carnivals, etc. So this was SUCH an awesome day for us!

Doing a Christmas performance at dance class!

Nora enjoying the snow at Fredrick Meijer Gardens!

I took Molly to see the Wizard of Oz at the Civic Theater, her first real play, we had the best time!

Even being ridiculously busy, we still had time to be silly!

Merry Christmas 2011

Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas!

Recycled Wrapping!

After making this TP roll wreath last year, I am always looking for places to use these fun TP roll flowers. Here is my take on recycled wrapping. It's a present wrapped in a paper grocery bag, (my trick to make the paper look nice since it's so thick, is to use double sided tape so you don't have big chucks of tape on the outside) then I wrapped a strip of burlap and ribbon around the top, (also secured with double sided tape) and then just used clear thread to tie the TP roll flower on top, and added a label. I think it is super cute, green, and thrifty.

Favorite Kids Christmas Crafts/Ideas Recap

Here are some of our favorite kid ideas and crafts
from past Christmas posts.

Handmade Nativity Set

Christmas Light Fingerprint Bags

Popsicle Stick Sleds

Handprint and Footprint Reindeer

Bow Wreath Craft

Favorite Christmas Crafts Recap

Here are a few of the most popular past Christmas craft posts from my blog, the Reindeer Rootbeer/Beer I made last year have exploded all over Pinterest! I am SO flattered and glad people love this fun, easy craft! (Clink on the links or pictures below for the original posts.)

Reindeer Rootbeer / Beer

Candy Cane Mittens

Personalized Bags

Ornament Wreath

For more of the fun projects we've done the past few years, check out my old Christmas posts HERE. And come back tomorrow for some of my favorite kids Christmas crafts from last year. :)

Menu Monday!

Here are some of the yummy recipes we have planned for this week:

Monday- Leftover Taco Bake (YUM!)
Tuesday- Baked Southwest Eggrolls
Wednesday- Crockpot Baked Potatoes and salad
Thursday- Pepperoni Pizza Puffs (the kids LOVE these)
Friday- Crockpot Orange Chicken

For more great menu planning ideas head over to orgjunkie.com. And for my past menus check here.

Happy Halloween!

Yes, I know, Halloween was Monday...
But better late than never right. :)

Here is my little "Olivia."

And my "Minnie Mouse," hamming it up!

And Molly and her cousin getting ready to head out Trick or Treating!

They even got to help pass out candy at Grandma and Grandpas.

And Molly was SO proud of the ghost lunch she helped make to match her ghost shirt, that she asked if I would take a picture of it for my blog. So, I had to happily oblige. :)
(string cheese, hard boiled egg, marshmallows, green yogurt, carrots, and ranch dip)

Candy Jars!

It's a little hard to see from the picture, but since I had out my glass etching stuff the other day, I had to etch these fun candy jars. :) I used cheap little jars from Hobby Lobby and etched C-A-N-D-Y on the fronts. I figured I can change the candy each season and keep using them. I'm thinking I can use red and green M&Ms for Christmas.

The letters look much darker in real life, but in this picture I think you can see the glass etching a little better. (Yup, Randal is going to start hiding the glass again, he's worried I may etch everything, it is SO addicting.)
This fun idea was inspired from Random Thoughts of a Supermom. Check out her fun jars! :)

Super QUICK and EASY Halloween snack!

Somedays I am definitely more motivated to come up creative snacks and crafts, and other days I want something super easy, and quick but still fun! So... here is the QUICKEST and EASIEST Halloween treat ever. All you moms might think it's lame, but let me tell you, the kids LOVE it!

Are you ready for this... just stick a Halloween Peep on the end of a sucker stick! That's it, my kids were thrilled (granted they were probably thrilled for the sugar, but still). :)

And, I avoided the sticky fingers this way! :)

Gotta love it!

ISPY Jar!

I finally found a jar (in my basement stash of IKEA jars) to make up an ISPY game for Molly. I got this idea from Meet the Dubiens after seeing her idea on Pinterest.

And, of course I had to glass etch I-SPY onto the bottle. (yes, I still have my glass etching addiction, my husband was nervous when he saw me get the Armour Etch back out) ;)

Here are the random things we added to our jar. I printed a copy of this picture, laminated it, and added a ring to the corner so I could hook it to the metal on the top of the jar. I filled the jar with white rice, and then hot glued the top on for extra assurance it wouldn't open. Molly's favorite thing to search for are the letter beads to spell her name! :)

Outfit Organization!

Here is our solution to helping Molly get ready in the morning and keeping mom sane. :) Molly always wants to pick her own outfit, but most of the time it doesn't work, (like shorts in the cold, etc.). So, instead I help her pick out all of her outfits for the week on Sunday, and she puts them into the drawers for the day she wants to wear them, complete with socks and undies, totally ready to go!

I cut out the days of the week with pink vinyl, and put them on the front of each drawer. Our set is actually 2 sets of 3 drawers stacked on top of each other.

Of course, when I got around to taking a picture, it was already the end of the week, so you only get to see one outfit. :)

This has been working SO good for us. Molly loves to help pick her outfits and have control of what day to wear each one. It also makes her getting ready on her own much easier, and I always know everything is clean and good to go. No more frantically searching for white legging before preschool. :)

Need a Smile!

I haven't had a chance to post lately with lots of craziness going on over here, but I was busy with projects and have lots of great things to post soon! Here is something to make you smile in the mean time...

Yes, Molly is doing Sit and Be Fit, the exercise show for the elderly! HAHAHA! I heard the TV turn on while I was washing dishes, and figured I would tell her to turn it off when I was done. But then she came running into the kitchen asking to borrow a towel, so I figured something had spilled, but she told me nothing had. So I let her borrow a towel, and then dried off my hands to go see what had happened, and I found this..... She was SO into it, so of course, I had to run and grab the camera. :)

Pinkalicious Party!

For Molly's 4th birthday, she wanted to have a Pinkalicious Party! She LOVES the Pinkalicious book series, and everything pink for that matter! So the Sat. after her birthday, we had family and family friends over for a Pinkalicious afternoon. :)

We had lots of Pinkalicious decorations, including Goldie, from Goldilicious on the table.

It ended up being a nice day, so I decorated the deck with these fun lights made from plastic cups!

I just love this craft! I saw it on Pinterest, it's from Better Homes and Gardens, you can see the how-to here. I just used white cups, a bunch of pink papers, double sided tape, and an exacto knife to cut an X in the top. It is so easy to pull the cups off and replace them with another color for other parties. :)

Pink water bottle labels, I just printed the picture and words onto pink paper, and used clear packaging tape to put them on water bottles.

Pink lemonade, like in Pinkalicious and the Pink Drink! Thanks to Rachelle for letting me borrow this awesome lemonade drink dispenser!

A super yummy PINK desert bar, complete with pink cookies, pink marshmellows, pink gumballs, pink chocolate wands, pink candy, and of course pink cupcakes!!!

The pink star wands are just melted pink chocolate in a star mold I got from Hobby Lobby. :)

I tried to make the cupcakes look exactly like the ones Pinkalicious eats in the book.

They are just strawberry cupcakes, in pink cupcake liners. Then I just put pink vanilla frosting on them, white sprinkles, red icing and a cherry on top!

Molly loved them!

And anyone who wanted to could decorate there own cupcake cookie. Here is Cassie, Molly and Shelby decorating. :)

We had all the guest wear pink. Here Molly and her cousin Maisy are showing off there pink. Molly decided she needed to wear her pink crown, because Pinkalicious wears a crown in the book!

And I made Molly's cousin Dominic a Pink-A-Boo shirt (just like Pinkalicious's brother Peter says when he turns pink) using Heat-Transfer paper.

We had crowns and wands for Molly and her cousins to decorate like Pinkalicious has in the book. Also, bubbles and Pinkalicious coloring pages to keep the kids busy!

Here is Nora modeling her crown. :)

And we had "Green" food for everyone to take when they left to cure a case of Pinkatitis!

In the book, if you eat to much pink you turn pink! So the only cure is to eat "Green" food.

We had a lot of fun! And are so grateful for everyone who came to celebrate with us! This is just a few of my 100 or so pictures of the party, lol, but since this post it getting a little picture heavy, I'll wrap it up here. :)