Bidding winter good-bye!

This winter season was weak!! Although you won't see us complaining when we are at the park in February on a 60 degree day, we still like our time hunkering down for a seasonal cold spell.  However, what we did get this year was our share of indoor time.  This had to be the rainest winter ever!  If these 38 degree rainy days were a tad chillier, we would have had the best snow ever!

The snow boots, sleds, snowboards, ice skates, and snow toys all stayed packed away this year.  We did not bundle up and take winter walks, as it was too cold and rainy most days. Instead we made our cozy home the center of fun; crafts and imaginative play was what we were up to these past few months.

As the days grow just a bit longer, we see a new season just around the corner. We are ready for spring!

Another Reason to Craft

Crafting has gone in full force at the homestead as Valentine's Day approaches. Here's what we've been working on all week:

 

Of course, the gals are not aware that premade Valentine cards exist.  What fun would that be?

 





We also made some sugar scrubs for our teachers.  This may be the easiest and cheapest (and most fun!) gift to give. I follow a simple recipe of equal parts: 1 cup white granulated sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, and 1 cup of oil (vegetable, almond, sunflower, etc)  We used sunflower oil for this recipe.

So we combined all the above ingredients and mixed in some nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon.  We were trying to get a warming, winter scent.  Other times we have used different essential oils, vanilla, or other dried herbs.  It took us about 10 minutes from start to finish to make these gifts.

Of course we always have mason jars on hand, so the packaging was easy.  I also printed these awesome labels (for free!) from Printable Girl. We got the jar labels here and Marlee listed our ingredients on these heart tags that I got here.  Kellie is extremely talented, and I'm not just saying that because I knew her in elementary school. Her website is full of great products and ideas.


Since Marlee is a novice sewer, we put her new skills to use.  She made these nifty little candy pouches for the girls in her dance class.

Oh and of course the Valentine box.  This year she wanted to make this one, which I got the idea from Pintrest.  It is made from a cereal box.

We had fun scurrying around making all these little treats for everyone.  Valentine's Day has become a favorite in our house.  I just wish we had some snow around here to make it feel like a winter holiday. 

Marlee's Birthday

My sweet girl turned 8 last Wednesday. We decided to forgo the birthday parties this year since we went to Disney in the month between the gals' birthdays.  I think we may be on to something though; Marlee claims this was one of her "funnest" birthdays.

In the past, we've had our share of parties.  Living in the neighborhood we do, it is difficult to leave anyone out.  So we just invite everyone...and I mean EVERYONE shows up!  The parties are usually huge and wild, lots of screaming, dancing, things getting broken...the only difference between this and a wild college party is the absence of a keg. I think the police were called only once ;)



Last year's 7th birthday party, this is only half of the kids in attendence. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not.







...and here's Marlee's 6th, I would need a wide angle lens to get the whole crowd!

 

 



Anyway, This year was definitely more quite and calm, but I think more memories were made and the day felt more special.

Here's what went down on the big day:

 

Of course I had to overdo it and make homemade treats for school.

 

 

 

Dave came in for lunch with Marlee.  I love having the same lunch period as her so I can catch these moments :)

 

 

Dave checked Marlee out of school right after lunch, I grabbed Mya a little early and we were off to our favorite spot in Asheville. We are definitely getting our mileage from that 12 month pass.

 



 

We topped the evening off celebrating at our favorite family restaurant with our extended family and one of Marlee's BFFs.

 

 

 

Not sure if I'll get out of throwing a wild bash next year, but it doesn't matter, we always have a great time.

 



Pinterest: Friend and Foe

I look at my Pinterest page and many others' pages.  I wonder:  Do people really do this stuff?  I really like it for the "Pin It" button.  As I use Pinterest directly from other websites, I haven't bookmarked anything since I discovered this lovely site.  So I usually spend more time perusing other websites than the actual Pinterest site itself.

I definitely enjoy the sewing ideas, recipes, and kids' crafts.  I really wanted to do some kids' activities since we always seem to have a plethora of both around here: kids and activities. The activities part is not so structured.  Hmm...as I'm typing this, I'm thinking maybe the kid part isn't so structured either.

So one day when I had a few kids over after school, I decided to structure most of the play date around these activities.  Here's what went down on that Wednesday afternoon:

I found this nifty game for the sweet kindergarten girls that gathered around the table.  It was played with dice and crayons.  We focused on probability and prediction since these geniuses are way beyond number recognition.

 

 

 

The girls enjoyed it and they played it several times.

 

Meanwhile I had my beyond brilliant 2nd grade gang in the other room playing a math game.  It was to be for (again) number recognition at the preschool level, but I modified it for the kids to fish out 3 numbers and add them together.  The highest number wins the round.

 



 

 

 

The game was simply made of magnetic numbers, straws, twine, and paper clips.  They had fun, but got a little competitive...overachievers.

 

Then all the kids got together and tried that popular project, the one with the dollar store mugs and sharpies?  They had a great time creating their bowls.

 

 

 

 

I baked them for the 30 minutes at 350 as instructed. The project was a bust, luckily the kids didn't find out until after they left the household ;)  After washing the bowls out, the sharpie wore right off.  I wish the ink came out of their clothes that easily!

 

So, I'm glad I tried a few projects.  I learned that maybe there will be hits and misses, such as life. No guarantees that it will work out.  I will stick to the ideas that cost little or no money, especially when there's a gang of kids around here.

 

Although I was hoping the kids to behave like this:

 

 

Their behavior inevitably returned to this:

 



 

 

Structured or unstructured activities, I guess that's just how we roll around here :)



 

the happiest place on earth

We went on a short vacation last week; an extended weekend at Disney's Magic Kingdom. Dave and I are usually resistant to these destination vacations, but the magic of Disney won our hearts.  We had a great time with the gals and my parents.

 

 

We stayed at the Art of Animation Resort.  I loved the cheesy decor and the girls loved the Little Mermaid themed room and the swimming pool.  The best thing we did was take a break the day between our 2 day pass and spend the day at the resort.

 

 



 

We were limited with time, so we trekked to Florida for 3 days.  It was just the right amount of time for our little first-timers. The highlight of the trip was the girls having the dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table in the castle.  Thanks to my dear friend Tammy, I knew to make the reservation 6 months in advance (sheesh!)

 

 

 

Although we crossed this trip off our bucket list, I think we may return one day.

 

 

Seriously!!?? The only photo with all of us together had to be this poor quality one! Hint: if you double click the photo to enlarge it, you can see it in better quality ;) 



Hello New Year

Whew!  What an exciting whirlwind of a holiday season.  Everything from our handmade holiday projects, to our holiday activities, and visits with family and friends was a great time, though exhausting!  We are looking forward to settling in and enjoying the winter season. However, before the dust settles, we have one more small excursion first...more on that later.  Happy New Year!