Summer wreath

So my house has been a mess of sickness lately. First it was Peanut and now it's Daddy and Bulldozer. Yuck! In between taking care of my boys, I finally managed to finish my summer wreath project. I started off with a rainbow of colored tissue papers, some straight bins and a Styrofoam wreath.

I cut the tissue paper into circles, folded each circle in half twice, and put two of them together to make a small flower.

Then using a straight pin, I pinned it to the wreath.

The end result was fantastic and I'm completely in love with it! Yay!

I'm excitedly linking this to:

Carole

Day 2 - Paddle Boats & Ice Fun

Day 2 of the Summer 2011

Today has been a very good day. This afternoon we managed to purchase a paddle boat, 2 kayak boards, and a kiddie kayak for $200.00 at an auction! Yay for good deals! My kids had the best time looking over our loot and picking which one was their favorite.

I love the second pic. Bulldozer was in the middle of saying "Please" as in "Please take me to the lake". LOL! Too cute!

In addition to getting some awesome lake toys, we did a little ice excavating. I got the idea from a wonderful post found here. I had the kids put some of their little toys in some pie pans, filled them with water, and put them in the freezer over night. Today, it was 104 degrees outside so it was the perfect temp for an ice activity. I dumped the icy toys out onto the back porch, gave the kids tools to use, and let them rescue their toys.

Due to the intense heat, it didn't take long to rescue the toys but they had a great time doing it. Afterwards, they enjoyed their success with popsicles! YAY!!!

Carole

Day 1 of Summer 2011

Day 1 of Summer Vacation for 2011

I woke up this morning, our first day of summer vacation, to find Peanut sick to his tummy at 4am. Yay! So our plans to begin our Summer Lovin' picks. (It's our version of the Summer Bucket List) Little Peanut wasn't up for much more than Pedialite and Disney movies. Which was fine.

This is how we spent our first day of summer vacation. Peanut is the one in the yellow. This was as alert as he could muster all day. Poor thing.

I did manage to put the finishing touches on our version of the Summer Bucket List. I used a revamped formula can instead of a bucket. Buckets never last long in my house because of Bulldozer. That boy has a talent for destruction. We decided to title our Summer Lovin' and it includes about 42 colorful pieces of paper with summer ideas printed on them.

Some of our ideas include:

• Having a campout in the living room
• Making a puppet theater
• Making bubble wands
• Make homemade ice cream and
• Having a no-electronics day

I've also decided to take a picture of my kiddos doing these things every day of summer vacation to make a scrapbook in August!
Have a happy summer break everyone!!

Carole

DIY Tutu and Matching Onesie!

So my mother has been buying Ballerina a ton of tutus with matching bows and onesies. I know she's spending a fortune so I decided to help her budget a bit and make my own. I went to Walmart (the place of torture and doom with bargaining prices strategically placed) bought a pack of plain white onesies, found some iron-ons that were too cute to pass up, and used some tulle and ribbon I had on hand.

I love the way it turned out. Ballerina was snoozing when I finished so I couldn't put it on her and then before she woke, a friend of mine stopped by and ended up falling in love with the whole thing. She bought it for her baby girl Zara for $25. Seriously! She gave me $25 for an outfit that honestly couldn't have cost me more than about $4 to make. I wasn't complaining but Wow! And now, I need to make another one for Ballerina. haha!

**I entered this little craft in Polka Dots on Parade: Wow Me Wednesday #11,Tatertots & Jello, and Smilemonsters So excited!! **

Carole

After the storm...

It is with a very heavy heart that I make this blog post.

I had planned on posting some recent projects of mine but tornadoes have changed those plans. I live in Oklahoma and just two days ago, tornadoes ripped through the state during rush hour. In Piedmont, Oklahoma, a tornado leveled a home where a pregnant mom and her three children were huddled in a bathtub attempting to ride out the storm. The mom and her five year old daughter were both injured badly, her 15 month old son didn't make it, and her three year old son is still missing.

Our state, as well as states around us have been devastated by these storms. I've lived in Oklahoma for my entire life and know what precautions to take when I hear the sirens but still. I'm asking for prayers for those who have lost family members or have family members missing, as well as those who have lost everything due to these disasters.

Thank you.

Carole

Friends of the Blog

So I just happened to glance over at my "Friends of the Blog" list and was thrilled to see that I now have 5 (count them...5) friends! Yay!! Now a couple of weeks ago I saw that I had 5 friends and almost squealed out loud until I noticed that I somehow became my own friend. How dumb is that!? HAHA. I don't even know how I did it or how to remedy it but I guess it's okay to be my own friend.
Carole

Penne Pasta w/Aspargus & Peas

Well I accomplished one of my goals this evening!!
I found a fantastic recipe that included asparagus. This has been my kryptonite for about a week. I bought three bundles of asparagus (on sale for 1.45 a bundle) and had no idea what to do with it. Well tonight I figured it out.
I boiled some penne pasta, cut the asparagus into inch long pieces, sauted them with minced garlic and olive oil. I added some frozen peas to the asparagus and half a cup of chicken stock. I let that simmer for about 5-7 minutes then added it to my penne pasta. Garnished it all with 1 cup of finely shredded Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and grape tomatoes.

I paired this wonderful concoction with grilled chicken and it was a huge success with the entire family! They requested that this meal be made on a semi-regular basis! So long post short....momma is winning! haha

Beauty in the Rush

This is the final week of school for my kids. Yay! No more rushing out the door at 8 am!! Now that I have that out of my system, in my rush this morning I was delayed by this.

I'm told it is called a night lily. It blooms only at night and lives for a few days. (Bugs are very attracted to it.) Isn't it beautiful? I just wanted to post about the little bit of beauty in my morning rush.
Oh and there was this little bit of this beauty this morning too.

Couldn't you just squish those cheeks!?!?! My little Ballerina.

Goals for May

So I've decided that rather than post weekly goals, I'll do monthly. These are my goals for the month of May.

Monthly Goals List

1.   Finish Peanut’s dresser!!!!

2.  Make Ballerina some new rattles.

3.  Work on paintings for next year’s Arts for All festival.

4.  Ballerina needs new bows.

5.  Make summer totes for the kids to take to the lake.

6.  Come up with summer activities for the kids.

7. Organize my lesson plans

8.  Organize my craft area (THIS IS A MUST!!!)

9.  Find a good recipe for asparagus.

You'd think I can accomplish this easily, but alas...my five children are often better distractions than they are motivators. LOL!

Cow Rattle

So I am obsessed with socks. I love to wear crazy colored socks all the time because my idea is that no matter how crappy my day is, I can always think about how my socks don't match anything else that I'm wearing and it makes me smile. It's like my dirty little secret. :) So anyways, that being said I always buy new socks so I've decided to start recycling my older ones.

Last year, my mother (knowing my obsession with socks) bought me some bizarre socks with animals on them. Well, although they were cute, they were too narrow for my big old feet so I decided to try recycling them.

I took the cow sock (Yes. I actually said COW SOCK.) and I cut it off about half way. I added a plastic Easter egg with beads (taped securely) and put it in the toe of the sock, added the rest of the sock as stuffing, and sewed it shut, added little ribbons to the top for flare.

And TA-DA!!! Ballerina has a cute cow rattle!!

**This was placed on Social Saltuation: Saturday Social **

Carole

Dresser Makeover and Cute Kid Pics!

So I accomplished 50% of my goals last week! YAY!! I managed to pick up our family portraits (I'm not thrilled with how I look but the rest of my clan looks terrific!), I finished Bulldozer's dresser but didn't get to Peanut's yet, and I'm still coming up short of ideas for summer projects.

Well onto what I did accomplish...

I wanted to upgrade Sugar's clothes to a different dresser so I moved hers over to a thrift store find and moved Bulldozer's clothes to her old dresser.

Before...

You probably can't see the crayon marks but Bulldozer has colored the heck out of that thing. I painted it his signature color green and mod podged some cute wrapping paper on the drawers. Then I added his name for some flair. It turned out okay.

I ended up putting his name on the wrong drawer. Arg! I didn't really notice the difference in the sizes of the drawers until it was too late. Oh well. He likes it and that's all that matters.

In other news: This is my Bulldozer waking from a nap...

He's my little Curious George. LOL!

Carole

Weekly Goals

Weekly Goals List

1.   Finish the boys' dressers (They’re painted!)

2.  Make summer gifts for the kids

3.  Pick up our family pictures from the portrait studio

Last week, I managed all three of my goals! I made my kids' teacher appreciation gifts, painted the boys' dressers, and finished my finals! I made all A's this semester. Sorry! Needed to toot my own horn. LOL!

Carole

Fantastic Friday Craft!!

So it's officially summer vacation for me (not yet for the kids) so that means it is time for CRAFTING!!! This morning I decided to start a Friday crafting routine. I'm a lurker and that's no secret but to give credit where credit is due this Fantastic Friday's craft is one that I saw on A Steed's Life. On her website, I think she added her wedding date which is totally cute!! However, I have a ton of kids so I just left mine at our birthdays.

First, I took an 8x10 canvas and painted it a beautiful khaki color. Then I printed on cardstock a page with all of our birthdays on it. I added a heart between my husband's birthday and mine. Then I added a cute little banner between our birthdays and our kids' birthday. I decided at the last minute to put a colorful background there and it turned out wonderful!!!

Now I just have to get an adorable frame and hang it! YAY!!! The only thing I have left to do I start on the boys' dressers!

Carole

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

So I am officially finished with Finals and have completed this semester with straight A's!!! Woot! Tonight I finished putting together the teacher appreciation gifts for Sugar & Peanut to take to school tomorrow. I realize it's the end of Teacher Appreciation Week but at least I got them done during the same week. That's quite an accomplishment considering all the testing I've been doing.

In honor of Earth day (still...) I decided to make the gifts out of recycled products. I used the bottoms of Dr. Pepper bottles and cut "leaves" out of the side of the bottles. Then I sprayed them with red and green spray paint made especially for plastics.

After they dried, I hot glued the leaves on top of one of the bottle bottoms and added some green beads to the very top for asthetic purposes.

Then I added some red tissue paper and candy. I suggested Smarties to my kids to show how "smart" they have become thanks to their teachers.

And finally I put the bottle bottoms togethers and.....TA-DA!!!

I got this whole idea from a website I happened across one day but I can't for the life of me find it again to post a link. GRR!! But anyways, Happy Teacher Appreciation Day!!!

Carole

Weekly Goals with my apologies!

I managed to complete 1.5 of my goals last week. I made the kids a chore list and posted it on their bedroom wall and I didn't start my Mother's Day gift yet but I bought all the materials for it. LOL! That's a start. I'm sorry I haven't been on the up & up but this is Finals week and then I'll be much more available for the crafting! Yay!!

Weekly Goals List

1.   Finish all of my Finals!

2.  Complete the teacher appreciation gifts for Cupcake & Peanut
3.  Paint the boys' dressers (This was my last week’s goals too.)

Carole