Tulip Time!

 We are very excited it's Tulip Time in West Michigan this week!

 We have had a super busy but fun week.  Randal is in Texas, and I've been Dutch Dancing every night, so it's been crazy over here but fun.  Molly also had her preschool graduation yesterday!

 Both the girls love putting on there Dutch Costumes to join in!

Baking Soda and Vinegar Fun!

After seeing this fun idea on Pinterest from Preschool Alphabet, we heading to the pantry to find some baking soda and vinegar. I filled up a broiler pan with baking soda, then put vinegar in 4 paper cups and added different color food coloring to each.

Then I had the girls take turns picking a color and using the dropper to put it on the baking soda! They LOVED this activity.

Molly loved trying to make volcano paths and mixing the colors.

Nora took it very seriously, and was so sad when we ran out of baking soda!
Quick, easy fun!!!

He is Risen!

Happy Easter!

Bubble Wrap Love!

Nora's favorite activity of the day... walking across bubble wrap!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycling at it's best. :)

Harry Potter Obsessed!

Since you all know we are fans of Harry Potter... I just couldn't resist whipping up this shirt for Nora. :)

I used the Silhouette I won (I know, I was SO lucky!) to cut "Muggle Born" in the Harry Potter font, and then cut it on heat transfer paper and ironed it on a black shirt.

Perfect attire for when the girls play with Randal's Potter Puppet Pals.

On Spring Break!

What Could Be Better Than...

...Playing Dress Up???
Playing Dress Up in Mom and Dad's Clothes of course!

...Than playing Dolls???
Pretending the Cat is a Doll of course!!!

...Than Coloring a Picture???

Coloring a GIANT Picture of course!!!

Pillow Beds!

For Christmas this year I made Pillow Beds for my niece and nephew, and for my girls! They were a BIG hit, my girls use them everyday, and it's the choice spot in the house to watch a movie. I used this amazing tutorial from No Rest for the Creative.

There were so many cute fabrics to choose, so I loaded up all my JoAnns, Fields and Hobby Lobby coupons and headed out fabric shopping. I picked cute owls for Nora, and Molly picked cats. My nephew got camo and niece butterflies.

One of my favorite parts is that the back is made like a pillow sham, so I can easily take the pillows out to wash the case, and replace pillows when needed.

Nora is seriously, cozy!!!

Olivia the Pig Birthday Party!

For Nora's 2nd birthday in Feb. we had an Olivia party. Nora loves the Olivia books and movies, and after she was Olivia for Halloween, we knew we had to plan that for her birthday!

Here are a few of the fun decorations we made for the party!

Here are the water bottle labels we made for this party! I love making these, they are such an easy touch to add. These ones are just computer paper printed with Happy Birthday Nora and a picture of Olivia on them. Then I just cut them out, and put them on the bottles with packing tape.

We had lots of red and white (Olivia colors), but I loved these red and white striped straws I picked up on clearance after Christmas; apparently they were candy cane. :)

Dessert area was more red and white. I love making cakes, but for this party we opted for make-your-own brownie sundaes and cupcakes.

It's hard to see in the pictures, but we made little cupcake toppers of Olivia characters.

I made these yummy reindeer noses for the party too. Let me tell you, they were NOT as easy as everyone says they are to make! It took me three failed batches before I learned the tricks!

Red and white decorations were easy this time of year since Nora's birthday falls right before Valentine's day. One of my favorite red touches, was putting red licorice in collin's glasses around the house. Yum!

And even thought this isn't a great picture, we sewed these cute paper garlands to hang up!

And of course pictures of the birthday girl up on the fridge!

Here's Nora enjoying her birthday lunch with dad!

Getting good at blowing out her candles!

She was very spoiled by family and friends, and loved opening her presents!

Along with little Olivia boxes and stickers for all the kids, we laminated activity placemats so they could color them with dry erase markers.

Nora had a great birthday, and we are so happy we could have friends and family over to celebrate her turning 2!

New Year's Eve!

This year we had a fun New Year's Eve celebration with the girls! We celebrated at 6pm, since that was midnight in Paris, and if you know Molly, you know she loves everything Paris!

This party was all about this girls, so Molly had the BEST time, doing everyone's hair and picking out all our outfits. (whoopsies, I forgot to get a picture of me with 20 clips in my hair ;) We all ended up in pink, but she loved being a fashion designer. This Paris dress Grandma gave her for Christmas was perfect!

We had noisemakers and party blowers to start off the celebration!

Molly was very excited to watch the countdown and fireworks at the Eiffel Tower live on the computer!

And Confetti Poppers from the dollar store were a big hit with the girls, and Dad. :)

We had sparkling Grape Juice to Toast the New Year!

Molly couldn't get enough...

Nora tried some...

But wasn't so sure. :)

Molly worked hard all afternoon making decorations. Here is the tablecloth she decorated with markers, stickers and balloons. She was very proud. I just taped a giant piece of white paper to our vinyl table cloth and sent her loose. :)

Indoor Smores for dessert were a big hit!

But the biggest hit of the night was playing glow in the dark hide and seek! We saw this idea over at one of my favorite blogs, Play at Home Mom. Here is a picture of some of the glow sticks hidden in Molly's room. Some in her shoes, under the doll bed, in her plastic drawers! The girls had the BEST time with this. (even though it was super hard to show in a picture)

I got a few glow sticks from the dollar store, and I picked up a ten pack of glow stick bracelets from the grocery store to hid through out the house. Then I let the girls find them as fast as they could and put them in a bucket in the kitchen. This was such a hit, we played for over an hour! Molly loved taking a turn hiding them too.

We had a fantastic time celebrating with Molly and Nora, and since they are only 4 and 1, it was nice to have them still in bed by 8. :)

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!