Christmas Magic

There are not enough hours and days to complete all the fun and festive details I want to finish.  I am having such a wonderful and joyful Christmas season.  Making magic!

My Partner

My lunch date, and I love these days with her.  She is growing up so fast, and it is a blessing to have this time with her.  Today, we enjoyed errands and lunch before an hour at Michael's picking out Halloween treats.  She loved every minute of it, and so did I.  Love you Miss Riddles!

Valentine Crafting

It is serious Valentine prep time at our house.  Ryland and I finished home created valentine cards with melted Crayon hearts.  He was excited about the deer head stamp and camo paper.

The finished Crayon hearts packaged in camo.

The Valentine box ended up perfect!  It is a great dear stand.

Gingerbread House

We used our building skills this evening on a gingerbread house.  We skipped the directions and tore into the candy and icing.  We quickly learned that it was a bit more difficult than we thought.  We had to regroup and find some patience, so the "glue" icing could set.  We all had fun and can't wait to dig in.

Fun with Lizzie & Pops

The fun with Lizzie and Pops continues with a bowling celebration for Pops' birthday.  Everyone had fun laughing and hanging out at Main Event.  All three of the kiddos enjoy bowling, and the automatic bumpers help keep them happy. 

After a morning full of activity, Lizzie and the boys worked on the foam trains she brought.  They had a blast building and embellishing them. 

Thanksgiving Crafts

The sweetest and cutest placemats I have ever seen.

Monday

Reed's preschool was closed, so we enjoyed some free time.  We have been wanting to make the tractor molds, and today was the perfect day to give it a shot.  The molds turned out perfect, and Reed is a wonderful painter.  He mixed colors and was Mr. Chatterbox, which I loved.  He is full of stories and has quite the imagination.   Today, he told me all about his friends at school.

Reed and Ridley watched out the little window of the gameroom for Ryland to come home.  I think this is one of my favorite pictures ever.  I love the sweet moment of excitement when they saw the bus turn into the neighborhood.

Valentine Partying

It was time to celebrate LOVE!  All the cards and candies are stuffed and ready to give to all of the friends.  Ridley and Reed joined me in celebrating with Ryland's class.  It was total craziness, but all smiles.

The story of little love monsters were an inspiration for a craft.  Ryland's love monster turned out looking a bit like a devil.

Reed and Ridley posed for pictures and this is the best one I could get.  Those two!

Ryland and his buddy, Campbell, in their Valentine shirts.  Watch out ladies!

My Helpers

In preparation for a baby shower this weekend, I needed to make a diaper cake.  The boys were very curious about this craft, and they wanted to help.  After rolling the entire case of tiny diapers, we started bundling the tiers.  I love that my camouflaged boys love to help their mommy!

Recycling

Chapel Hill has focused some lessons on recycling in honor of Earth Day.  Students were asked to bring "trash" from home to use in a special creation.  A robot was made and her name was Rosie Ridley Robot.  

I think an Allison boy had a little input on the name, and I love hearing that he shares his thoughts with the class.  What an improvement!

CHCS Christmas Parties

Reed's class party was first thing this morning, so we had to arrive early for set up and a little decorating.  Reed loves stickers, so he was very happy with the tree craft.  In fact, he refused to do the class craft that we had prepared, because he was having so much fun peeling stickers.  His teacher told me he was one of only two kiddos in the class that can peel the stickers on their own.  She is quite impressed with his hand coordination.

Smiling while waiting for his breakfast, Reed is a happy boy.

Later in the day, it was time to party with Ryland's class.  He had fun making the Christmas crafts, but he was a little more interested in eating the craft goodies.

Busted!  Licking the tree icing is yummy!  Ryland's grin gives him away.  

It was a full day of fun, and the boys came home with tons of goodies.  Reed made a hand print ball ornament, and Ryland had a silhouette cut.

The Rudolph Hersery bars were a hit once again, and they turned out really cute.  We are definitely in full on Christmas spirit.  It was a wonderful day!

Birdhouses

It was time to do some inside crafting since the temperature outside was over 100 degrees.  The boys painted two beautiful birdhouses, and we talked about birds, homes, and blessings. After they dried, the boys picked out the perfect tree in the backyard

 

 

 

They look very welcoming.  It was really sweet that the boys wanted to hang them beside each other, so the bird family could be close.  Awwwww.

Crafters

The boys are serious crafters.  This pile of awesomeness is from just a few hours of activities from Adventure Kids.  I was told the boys were very excited about the underwater theme, and they loved crafting. 

 

First VBS

We had a great week at White's Chapel!  This is the first year that we participated in VBS, and it was a ton of fun.  Ryland loved the crafts and playing with friends. Reed seemed to be happy as could be hanging out in the nursery.  They both were worn out by lunch and ready to relax at home, which I loved. I volunteered the entire time, and I was exhausted too.

We had so much fun our first year.  We plan to be back next year for more!

 

Creating gifts

Mother's Day gifts are almost complete.  The boys helped out again on the finishing touches.  Ryland is a big fan of Mod Podge, and as long as I keep an eye on him, he does pretty well.

 

Reed enjoyed tearing the paper and helping to rub the edges for an antiqued look.  He also liked to look at pictures of himself and his brother.

 

The reverse side of the blocks hold pictures of the boys from their birthday photo shoot.

 

Masks

While Reed took an afternoon nap, Ryland and I made masks.  Ever since he wore out his Mardi Gras mask, he has wanted another one, so I suggested we make our own.  We used bright paper, stickers, and markers to create a cool superhero mask.  Ryland wore his all afternoon, and put it on his dresser before bed to make sure it was "in a safe place". 



Invitations

Reed's birthday is quickly approaching, so it was time to get started on party planning.  I started working on the invitations today while the boys played.  We are having a carnival/circus party, which is pretty fitting for our day to day life.

 

Lesson Learned

How can a simple vase teach me a lesson?  It started out as offering a little help to a group for a big charity fundraiser, and it has turned into a big lesson for me.  I need to learn to say "no" and sometimes just to be quiet. 

After working with a wholesaler for several years, they unexpectedly closed without notice last week.  The really bad thing is that I had received a price quote for a few things for the charity event.  I passed along my price, so that they could enjoy the savings and the decorating budget could go a bit further.  Now that the wholesaler is closed, I can't find the same prices at any other wholesaler.  I haven't exhausted all options yet, but like I really need one more thing on my plate. 

I did go ahead and "fix" the vases they are using.  While removing glued on crystals, digging out the old styrofoam, painting the ugly green and purple to a glossy black, gluing on new crystals, and putting new foam and moss inside, I had plenty of time to think. I love working on projects like this, but I do need to learn to slow down.

Making hearts

I made the mistake of browsing Pintrest for Valentine treats for Ryland and Reed's class.  I found tons of adorable ideas, but we picked heart shaped crayons.  We found a pan at Ross that would work great, so we got an early start by giving it a try. 

It took a little while to get the paper off the crayons, but the first batch turned out really cute. The boys thought it was super cool that they could color with hearts. Only three more batches, before we can package them and call it complete. 

MOPPETS craft

 

While I enjoyed my meeting this morning, Ryland worked on a fall craft in MOPPETS.  He stuffed a bag, painted it orange, and attached a leaf tag.  The leaves were pre-printed with the words "I am thankful for..."  The kids' answer were added to the tag.  I was so pleased to see Mommy on Ryland's pumpkin leaf.  What a wonderful surprise!