Cooking with Annie

This is Anna's favorite spot to be, and I have to admit it's one of my favorite places for her to be too. She happily sits in this spot as we fix dinner or cookies. She sings, chats, sneaks tastes, helps pour things, and basically is just cute and fun.

And since we highlighting Anna banana, here is a cute peek a boo shot!

On a random note, here is a project I put together for my primary kids' birthday gifts.
If you can't tell it's a picture of them digitally scrapped and with "I am a child of God" on the side. With the frames from the dollar store and the pics printed for about $2.50 for all, a fun economical gift!

Here Comes the Bride...

Today has just been a crafty day. I threw together this fun dress up for Annie:

with some leftover tulle from a Christmas project and flowers I cleaned out of my craft box from way back when we lived in Elko and I was in the YW presidency.

She is very excited to "go to the ball and marry the prince," and now says she's marrying Carter!

My first craft of the day was actually these flower clips:

I've seen them in every little girl's hair and finally found some big gerber daisies in Michael's that I liked.
Yea for crafting!

Valentine Extravaganza

So every holiday is a big fat deal in elementary and preschool. What this translates to is a ton of stuff for moms to do! But it's fun and the kids love it. Ryan and Anna let me do these Valentine's again this year:

But Carter was so over those! He wanted the standard Star Wars store bought cards and Butterfingers for his friends. (If you are keeping track that is 57 total Valentine's!)

Now I get to go to 2 parties (Anna's preschool doesn't really do parent stuff...and I'm a little glad!) and watch my kids get the sugar high of a lifetime!

A bow explosion!

So the big thing in my life lately has been bow making! My cousin Kami and I decided our girls needed new bows so we went to Michael's together, picked out some ribbon, and got going.

(for some reason the computer won't let me put the pics in the order I want, what can ya do?)

Here's Annie sporting the new blue bows that go with her "Cinderelly" shirt!

Even Copper loves the bows! :)
Note to self...next time don't use a flash for these kind of photos! But you get the gist...




Yes, that black, gray, and white one is HUGE but it was my first one and I learned a lot from it! :)

Yea!

(Here is an awesome site with instructions for bows, tutus, and all sorts of fun stuff. It's where I looked for how to make those korker bows.)

How to Make a Mummy Costume...and scald your hands!

Luckily I only had to make one costume this year! Carter wanted to be a mummy and I had a ton of white muslin so I thought no sweat. So I too my muslin, made a small cut then ripped it into strips to give it the unraveling mummy feel.

I was going to sew it on, but after some research I decided to use my trusty glue gun.

So I started wrapping! Putting the fabric all around the shirt takes the elasticity out of the fabric, so I had to be careful not to make it too snug.

Using a chair as a kind of dress form I did dots of glue and pushed the fabric onto the shirt. I didn't really think about it, but gravity was kind of against me and I got dripped on with scalding hot glue all over my hands! Wow, that hurt!

Then on to the pants, which I got at DI so I didnt' have to ruin any of Carter's pants.

And after I covered a hat and wrapped his hands in extra muslin, here's our finished mummy!

Pro-Jacks

Carter calls projects "pro-jacks," so this post is about my latest project!

My window collecting friend Melissa gave me these windows to use to decorate.

The tall ones didn't have any glass in them so I had to think a while to figure out what to do. I have wanted to make a "command center" in our kitchen for a while, which is just kind of the organizational hub of the house. SO I decided to make these work for the project.

First I spray painted the windows black:

Then I got lazy with the pictures! I went to Lowe's and had some cheap wood cut to the size to be put in the window frames (2 of them). I painted these wood pieces with chalkboard paint. I also bought thin pieces of steel , a little bigger than my panes would be. So I put the dried chalkboards in the top opening, and nailed the steel behind that bottom opening. In the middle I was putting corkbboard and discovered that I would have to piece together the cork I had and that would look dumb. So I got some toile and covered it and liked how that looked even better than just the corkboard.

So here's the finished product:

Oh, with the single window with glass I stole my friend Amber's idea and made it a calendar. I put a grid on the back (that still needs some tweaking), then used chalk markers from Michael's to write in the month etc. All in all I love how it turned out and we will be oh so organized! :)

While we're on the topic of "projacks," my mom inspired me to do this Halloween project she saw on the Joys of Home blog:

Fun fun!

It is finished!

I have a zillion things to blog, but I only have time for one and here it is! My cute banner is done! Here is the boy side:

And the girl side:
I absolutely love how it turned out and I know we will use it for years and years. Yea! My mom is visiting and she did the finishing sewing for me, thank goodness! We have already used the boy side for Carty's 7th birthday party today and will keep it up through his actual birthday tomorrow. Heck, it's so cute I may leave it up all the time... :)

Here's the pattern I used:

http://seemommysew.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/happy-birthday-happy-baby/

Here you go mom!

My mom mentioned in a not so subtle way that we haven't posted anything to the blog in a few days. So here's what we've all been up to lately.
I...

have been trying to use up the bounty of our garden. Here are a couple of zucchinis that were hiding and got HUGE!

I have also been canning a ton of peaches. Yum! I really never appreciated my mom doing this every year, but I sure do now! She would always tell me how beautiful the canned peaches looked and I thought she was nuts. But look at these beauties! How could I not have seen it back then! :)

I also started a new project. A cute "Happy birthday" sign for the fam. Here are the cut out banner pieces:

boy side

girl side

Now I am in the process of getting the letter on the triangles. The girl side is taking forever b/c I'm hand sewing them on, but the boys' side will be glued and much faster!

Michael...

has finally worn me down and gotten a laptop. I am actually doing this post (my first one) on it. I complained about it, but I have enjoyed watching the last few season 4 episodes of Lost on the darn thing. :) My sweet hubby has also been up to his eyes in Cougar stuff. If I have to hear about the "Lockergate" nonsense one more time...watch out!
Carter...

is having some issues with first grade. He is doing great on all his work, but is having a hard time dealing with being at school all day. He's been teary at school and really putting up a fight in the mornings getting to school. But we are working with his teacher and bribing him so hopefully all will be well soon.

Ryan...

is enjoying kindergarten immensely. He is playing with friends as much as possible and has a hard time in the afternoons when Carty is at school and Annie is napping. He is a social butterfly!

Anna...

continues to be fun, sassy, and sweet. She is "Angelina Ballerina" about half of the time, making Ryan be "Alice," Angelina's best friend and sidekick. I altrenate between being called "Angelina's mom" and "Miss Lilly." She is still loving preschool and has been a great helper lately.

Copper...

has found a new friend...or enemy. Ryan's little Elmo is a fun toy to chew and carry around the house.

So there's the latest from us!

"Junuary"

June 11, 2008

6:15am temperature: 36 degrees

8:25am temperature: 40 degrees

What this poor 3-year-old has to wear on a "summer day:"

Global warming is a crock!

On a cuter more fun note, here is Anna singing a selection from the soundtrack of her life, Cinderella. (you may have to be pretty familiar with the songs to get this, but if you are is pretty fun!)

Spring Break Desperation!

Spring Break is here and you would think that since Carter is only in half day kindergarten and Ryan is in preschool this wouldn't effect us too much, but we are going crazy! Carter is complaining of being bored ALL DAY! So to keep the kids from watching this:

all day. Or playing on this:

24/7, I consulted my trusty Boredom Busters Book


And we chose this project:
Bank Monsters! The kids loved them and they are still playing with them. Now I just need 3 more projects until school starts again! :)




The only drawback is...the kids are begging for money now! Maybe I can get them to do lots of extra chores for pennies! :)