The dog ate WHAT???

I'm so glad that I took a photo of the handprint ornament that we made for Dominic because very shortly after the photo was taken, the ornament disappeared. My first reaction was to question Dominic. He's known to leave things in odd places so I wanted to get it out of him while he still remembered where he may have put it. Not one to know to lie his way out of trouble yet, he told me that he in fact did NOT touch the ornament.

After asking hubby about it's whereabouts and getting the same answer that only leaves one more option: the dog! That dirty ol' dog must have thought it was a tasty treat just sitting out in the open like that and decided to make off with it in the midst of the night! Scoundrel!

Now we have to make another one!

I also had an impromptu photo shoot with the babes the other day. I made my mom a card using the photos:

What do you think???

We are having 5 of Dominic's close friends over Friday night for a special viewing of Elf in anticipation of the holidays! I put together a salt dough ornament mix for each family to take home and will be including an x-mas cookie cutter with it, too. We'll have all kinds of Christmas snacks and we're so excited to see everyone. I'll be sure to post pics of all the fun!

On the first day of Christmas...

Before getting to the meat of my post, I just have to share a rare find: Jillian is SMILING!

My poor girl isn't happy unless she's being held (help!) so I rarely get to take a photo of her while she's smiling. Isn't that a cute smile? And please let's not forget the legwarmers. melt...

I had a friend ask me today if I had any ideas for doing a 12 days of Christmas activity with my kids. Funny enough, I have a few ideas that I have bookmarked and have always wanted to try out, but haven't had the opportunity to do so. Until now...

I got the book out a couple of days ago and looked it over again. These follow along with the carol, "The 12 days of Christmas".

Traditionally the 12 days starts on Christmas and ends on the 12th night, January 6th. La Befana's night.

Anyway, I promised her I would get the list posted so here I am. All through the house not a creature is stirring not even the spouse! (I just made that up! Clever, no?)

1st day: Make an ornament for the tree out of salt dough and paint a bird.
2nd day: Read a story about turtles or make a game of slow/fast (like red light/green light).
3rd day: Learn a few French words and use them throughout the day or cook something French.
4th day: Practice phone etiquette. (Never hurts to start early, right?)
5th day: Go out for donuts. (Get it, golden rings???)
6th day: Dye eggs. (It's not just an Easter activity.)
7th day: Make origami swans.
8th day: Make chocolate milk. (Or hot chocolate)
9th day: Do some new dance moves.
10th day: Pretend to have a knighting ceremony.
11th day: Use a bubble pipe to make TONS of bubbles!
12th day: Make a drum out of an empty Kleenex box and a balloon.

There you have it! Looking back at my list I think I WILL do this. Only thing is, we are packing up to move the first week of January. I might as well give it a go, right?

A lazy day for reflection

Today is a chilly 33* here. Little man is down with a low-grade fever and little lady is napping all bundled up in a cozy warm blanket. It's a lazy day all around. A perfect opportunity to reflect on the upcoming holiday season.

I realized that I've been pretty introverted the last couple of weeks. Not really sure why, but I think it has to do with the fact that we had 30+ guests here for Thanksgiving and I was in full on hostess mode.

I really need to get back in the friendship saddle. Christmas is the perfect excuse to get back in the swing of things. Here's some things I have planned to help me re-focus:

**Attend any and all holiday parties that we are invited to.

**Make and deliver gifts for all of our friends and/or neighbors. Any ideas???

**Offer to help friends with wrapping gifts. Perhaps have a mom's night out where we have a wrapping party?

**Like last year I plan to have some of Dominic's closest friends over for a pre-Christmas party. Last year we exchanged favorite Christmas stories. This year I'm thinking we'll get the outdoors heater out, strike up the chimenea and roast marshmallows while we huddle together under blankets watching Elf on the garage door. (We have a projector that has yet to be used.)

That's all I've thought of so far. Any traditions that you guys do with friends that you'd like to share? Leave me a comment!

On another note, we made salt dough ornaments yesterday and painted them this morning. It was a super fun activity! We made ornaments for each of the kids, one for each of his cousins and one for his bestie, Andrew.

Here's the recipe for the salt dough:
1/2 cup salt
1 cup flour
1/2 cup water
Mix all ingredients together until it forms a dough. Roll out on floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Bake in oven for 2 hours at 250*F.

Fall Camp: Days 2-4

I had great intentions of getting Day 2 up in a timely manner and then I remembered that I had BUNCO with the church mom's group!

Then we had a rough day yesterday and Dominic ended up napping through camp so we missed yesterdays activities. So this post will have days 2-4.

Day 2:
We read "Fall Mixed Up" and "Five Little Pumpkins". For our craft we painted pumpkins using the kid's fists and thumbs. So cute! We rotated the papers around the table so that each child has all the pumpkins on it! One of the kid's didn't want to get messy (say WHAT??) so there were only 4 little pumpkins on our paper.

Day 3:
Read "Thanksgiving Cats" and "The Great Turkey Race". Cute book!! In lieu of a craft the kids were to participate in our own relay race and contest.

Day 4 (today):
We read "The Night Before Thanksgiving" and "Green Soup". The first book was really cute!! For our craft we traced the kid's hands and foot to make a turkey placemat. I LOVE this!! We added googly eyes to the turkey and if I say so, it just made the turkey's look all the more adorable.

Tomorrow we will have the last day of camp. Bittersweet, as usual. We will take an official group camp photo to take home. We have two stories picked out to read and the craft is still up in the air, although it was originally supposed to be a scarecrow, which we may still do.

As usual, camp has been a lot of fun. The kids did really well with storytime and crafts. I think 2.5-3 years is the PERFECT age for our camp. We're really trying to help them learn to listen and sit attentively.

I'm already thinking about the next camp session to take place possibly in January. Themes are plentiful, but will most likely be international, sports or transportation. Which do you prefer???

Helllllloooooooo out there!!!!!

It's only been a couple of weeks since my last post, but MAN has it been busy!!! We had Jillian baptized this past Sunday and I was preparing everything for that, Dominic began swim lessons, and hubby was out of town for most of one week. No time to rest, yet, Dominic's 3rd birthday is right around the corner and we're have TWO parties: one for friends and one for family.

For Jillian's baptism I made a new cake. It's an orange creamsicle cake. It was pretty good, but VERY sweet! Here's the finished product:

And here's the recipe:

Batter:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/3 buttermilk or sour milk (sour milk: 1tbsp. lemon juice or vinegar + enough milk to = 1 cup. Let stand 5 minutes.

1/2 cup shortening or butter
1 tsp. vanilla
4 egg whites

And the secret ingredient:
1 pkg. (0.15 oz) unsweetened orange Kool-aid

Pre-heat oven to 350*
In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and 1/8 tsp. salt. Add buttermilk, shortening (or butter) and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl. Beat on medium to high speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Add egg whites and Kool-aid (dry) and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping bowl. Don't overbeat the batter. If the Kool-aid isn't thoroughly incorporated, use a spoon or spatula to gently mix in the Kool-aid. Do not overbeat!
Pour into greased and floured cake pans.
Bake for 18-23 minutes. (mine took exactly 18 minutes) or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes.

Vanilla Cream Filling:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 pinch salt
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make filling: In a large bowl, beat butter and shortening together until smooth. Blend in confectioners' sugar and pinch of salt. Gradually beat in 3 tablespoons milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy.

Orange Buttercream Frosting:
1/3 cup butter
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
Orange zest from one large orange

In a bowl beat butter until fluffy. Gradually add 2 cups of the powdered sugar, beating well. Slowly beat in the 1/4 cup orange juice and vanilla.
Slowly beat in remaining sugar. Beat in additional orange juice if needed. If you're going to spread it, you might need to add more liquid to get it to the right consistency. Gently mix in grated orange zest.

Assembly: After cupcakes are completely cool, fill with cream filling using your preferred method. Frost as desired.

I also had candle favors for guests to take home. I found a nice scripture containing the word "light" and incorporated it into the candle idea. What do you think?

Cute, huh?

For Dominic's swim teacher I made her a little gift of thanks and appreciation for teaching him how to swim. Those who know me know how paranoid I was of him going underwater and she was so calm and awesome that he did it on the very first day! He cried, but he did it! Now we have a bona fide swimmer!! YAY!! Check him out:



Anyway, for the gift. I noticed that she always had a cool drink of some sort with her on the side of the pool since it's been record breaking heat this summer. I found a neat cool-keeping cup at Starbucks and filled it with Hershey Nuggets. What gal doesn't like chocolate, right? As expected, she loves chocolate and raved about the cup. Sadly, I forgot to take a photo of the completed gift. I had it wrapped up all pretty.

Here's the card that I made for her:

I took photos of them secretly and made a little photo booth looking slideshow on photoshop. Cute!

Avast me hearties!

Since Dominic is totally obsessed with pirates lately I have been doing some research to have a perfect pirate party for his 3rd birthday next month. I can't believe it's already birthday time again!!

I've come up with some fun stuff for this fun theme. The invites are out and I must say, they are simply adorable!

I bought a four pack of Sutter Home mini-wine at the grocery store. In case you are wondering, the four mini bottles make one full wine bottle. Good for the hubster, no?

I took the labels off and added my own, complete with a personalized pirate name for each guest.

I used construction paper to make the treasure map insert. I charted each guest's course on their invite and included a cute pirate code for the details. I rolled them up, tied with raffia and dropped them in the bottle for delivery. All in all, I am very pleased.

Next craft: favor bags. I used the crayola studio website to create a personalized pirate coloring book. I'll include a small pack of crayons, too.

I have been wanting to make the next craft for about a month now and was so happy to be able to adapt it to my pirate theme.

What is it, you may ask? It's a spyglass, edu-ma-cational style! I bought a bottle (plastic) of dragees and emptied it into a ziploc bag for future use and filled the bottle with rice about halfway up. I bought some alphabet beads (in the jewelry making section at Mike's) and put all 26 letters in and then added more rice. I superglued the top on and wrote the alphabet along the rim of the lid.

This will be a great quiet game for the kids to play with whenever the need presents itself. Think long car rides, waiting room trips, church, you name it! The kids have to rotate the bottle this way and that to find all 26 letters. I will also be making some bingo-type cards that they can use to find certain letters. Cute idea, huh? I figure they can be presented as a pirate spyglass.

I know I'll have more posts about our pirate party the closer and closer we get to the party, so stay tuned!

Instant birthday in a bucket

What do you get a teenage girl who has everything for her birthday? For this year's birthday I delved deep into my teacher's bag of tricks and thought like a 15 year old girl for a moment.
From my experience as a teacher and being around pre-teens, I know that although they like to think of themselves as adults, they still have that little kid side that enjoys goofing off and having an excuse to be silly.

I saw this idea a few months ago and was just hoping I would get to use it. The opportunity came yesterday. My neice and 2 nephews are visiting the IL's and my neice has a birthday coming up in a couple of weeks. I put together what I call

"Instant Birthday in a Bucket!!"

The idea was to give her a birthday party that any 6 year old would love. Inside was the following:
1. birthday girl ribbon to wear
2. cupcake printed plates, napkins and cups
3. crazy straws
4. crazy candles
5. water balloons
6. a pin the tail on the donkey game

Surprisingly, my 2 nephews said they'd never played the game before, so we broke it out and let them all take a turn!

Guess who won???

That's right! My boy got the tail right on the star!!!

What party is complete without a cake, right? We had that too!!

We bought the new game, Headbanz, for the birthday girl. I specifically chose a game that my little man could play with the big kids. We had to adapt the rules for him, but he did pretty good. And he looked pretty cute playing, too!

Dad's Day is coming...

So Father's Day is quickly approaching in 6 short days. I have been scouring the internet to get some ideas for photo projects for the hubster and came across this site.

http://www.chicaandjo.com/2008/05/08/magic-folding-wooden-photo-cubes

The project intrigued me and I knew I could do it if the naptime fates would allow me some uninterrupted mommy time.

I was able to get this completed in two days. It was so much fun to go through the photos and pick out some of my favorites. This cube allows for 10 photos to be used. I just love how it turned out and I know David will, too.

Here's my finished product:

Isn't that just the coolest gift idea??

I figure it's okay to post this since the hubster only checks the blog occasionally and he's in for a pretty hectic week this week.

Baby's waking up for her 9pm feeding, so I've got to dash!!

36 weeks and my mind is STILL running on high

This is my self portrait taken yesterday in a state of creativity. I was tired of the same old belly shot so I thought I'd try it from different angles. I dunno...I'm kinda liking this one for some reason.

Anyway, the school year is rapidly coming to a close and my neighborhood group is beginning to wind down. I will continue to be the coordinator for our playgroup and I'm starting to compile a list of activities we can do this summer to keep us all from losing our minds. Here are some of my ideas so far:

** Have a playgroup garage sale.
** Weekly picnics.
** Have a movie night.
** Host an etiquette tea party.
** Splashpark outings.
** First Tuesdays at the Art Museum.
** Pool parties.
** Potluck happy hours for mom's night.
** Day at the horse races.
** Putt-putt golf.
** Minor league baseball family nights.
** Arts/crafts themed playdates.

I realize some of these are lofty ideas, especially with me having a newborn on the way in 27 more days, but don't some of these sound so fun???

Project 3 completed!

So, my little cheater book for Jillian has taken a bit longer than I had originally anticipated. I don't mind at all, though, I want her book to be as detailed as Dominic's. It's only fair, right?

First, I printed out my belly shot photos from each month. Then I went through my journal and wrote down all the important dates and details for the month (dr appt dates, HR's, etc.). I made each month a double spread and started to place the photos.

Since this was a pre-made book, some of the pages had lame stickers and I did my best to rip them out without tearing the paper underneath. For the most part I did okay. There are a couple of pages that are totally not my style, but they are done, right, and that's what matters!

Now I just need to continue contributing to May and June and we'll be all set! It's hard to believe I'll be 36 weeks along this Tuesday!

I took some photos of the completed book and then it hit me...you probably aren't interested in seeing my pages. So, I won't post any, but if you are REALLY jonesing to see them just let me know and I can make a montage photo of the pages to post.

Project 3 of SB week: playing the preggo card....AGAIN!

The above photo montage from Jillian's shower is my attempt to hold you over with some nice eye candy until tomorrow. Here's the story:

We didn't exactly get to the store for more ink, but I did get to Mike's to get some adhesive. Confused? Yeah, me too. What was I thinking buying adhesive? What did I expect to adhere? Oh well, I was able to use it for a few things today.

Well, I started to get some things done, scrapbook wise, and then the sleepies hit so I had to take a nap. I've got my book from yesterday just waiting for photos. I PROMISE I'll get ink tomorrow. If you are wondering, the title of yesterday's project is: Simple Pleasures.

Today's project is a lame excuse for a scrapbooker. I cheated and bought a pre-made book at Mike's on sale for $20!!! Poor Jillian isn't even here and she's already being treated with the second child syndrome! I just thought this way at least I have the backbone of a pregnancy scrapbook and all I have to add is photos (which is not doable right now) and the little extras.

So....tomorrow I will work on these two projects whole-heartedly. The Simple Pleasures won't take long at all and today's cheater book shouldn't be too bad, either.

Photos of both coming soon. Pinkie swear!

Project 2 of Scrapbook Week: Simple Pleasures ****UPDATED!!****

As promised, I have some photos of the Simple Pleasures book for this project. Amazingly, I was able to get some photos printed without running to the store! I have a small PictureMate photo printer in the closet that I forgot about! So glad I remembered it, as it saved me some hard earned $$ and time today.

Anyway, here are some photos:

An accordian style book of your favorite things!

What exactly is a Simple Pleasures book? Here's the explanation page:

Back page of the accordian book.

************************************************************

Sorry to postpone this post, but we had much too busy of a day to work on anything crafty. Not to mention the printer is out of ink and I'm totally out of adhesive! What's a crafty gal to do?

Looks like a trip to Mike's is in the works for tomorrow morning! I think you'll get a kick out of the idea, though, so stick around and check back often. I'll try to get the post up ASAP.

National Scrapbook Week

This week is National Scrapbook Week. What, you didn't know that? HA!
As a former big-time sb-er, I am aware of this little known title.

So in honor of this week, D and I will be doing something crafty each day to celebrate.

First up is a little book I like to call: "While you were sleeping". Jillian Grace will be here in just 36 more days (give or take) and I am anticipating a rough adjustment to naptime here. Since D takes one good nap from 11:30 to 1:30 I am hoping that I will be able to get at least ONE naptime that overlaps!

I have done a lot of research on naps and siblings. The advice that I am planning on taking is to ensure that D gets to have some mommy time during one of Jillian's naps- just the 2 of us.

In anticipation of this time, I had D sit down with me and we brainstormed some quiet activities that we can do just the 2 of us. Surprisingly, he was able to name off 11 events! Pretty good, huh?

I came up with the other 26. Here they are (if you are interested):

1. hide and seek
2. watch a movie
3. read a book or two or three
4. do a puzzle
5. bake cookies
6. fingerpaint
7. play-doh
8. color pictures
9. make kool-aid
10. eat ice cream
11. make a movie
12. sing songs
13. go swimming (with monitor on)
14. play in sandbox
15. make crayon stained glass
16. scrapbook
17. funny faces photoshoot
18. blow bubbles
19. sidewalk chalk
20. bubble bath
21. photo scavenger hunt
22. play a game
23. whipped cream letters
24. have a picnic
25. toss balls into laundry basket
26. make a fort
27. make puppets
28. plant a flower
29. make a card
30. create a bedtime story
31. face paint
32. lemonade stand
33. trace yourself
34. play mad libs (adapted, of course)
35. make a puzzle
36. make jello
37. race cars

Why 37 activities, you may be wondering. Well it's one for each day until Jillian's EDD. We made a paper ring chain and on each ring I wrote an activity from the list above. Each morning we will pull one off and put it in a basket in the playroom. This is our countdown to Jillian.

Once she is here we will pull a ring out of the basket each day during her nap to see what activity we will do that day. I am really hoping this works!! I plan on taking a photo of us each day doing the activity and putting it into a scrapbook.

Check back tomorrow for another scrapbook-y idea!

Spring Camp: Day Five (and my 101st post!!)

Wow, didn't realize that I'd hit 100 posts! And I'm coming up on my 1 year anniversary of blogging. I should plan an update post just so we can see how far I've come in one year of my friendship odyssey.

Anyway, our last day of camp was yesterday and it was bittersweet. It is a lot of work to coordinate and plan a week-long camp, I won't lie. But it is so fulfilling when I see the little ones having a good time and giving the moms a chance to interact with other moms makes it all worthwhile.

Friday we had 4 campers and one had to leave early as he was not quite ready to listen to mommy. :(

We:
*Sang our welcome song.
*Read 10 Little Monkeys.
*Sang "The Itsy Bitsy Monkey".
*Read What do you say when a monkey acts this way?
*Sang "Five Little Monkeys".
*Our first craft required the kids to recall the last story we read. (They had to put three pictures from the story into the correct order. In reality this craft was still a little over their heads, but I did test it out on D beforehand orally and he aced it. I guess the photo part was too much.)
*Our second craft was to decorate a jointed, cardstock monkey with their name, stickers, glitter, colors, etc.
*Then I gave out their awards (everyone got an original one) and their bags with all of their crafts and songsheets from the week. I found the bags in the dollar spot at Target and thought they'd be PERFECT:


I didn't get many photos from Friday. It seemed to be a busy day even though there were only 3 of us there, ultimately. Here's a photo of most of the books we read this week. **Not all are represented.


I did put together a slideshow of the week and have them burned to discs ready to deliver this coming week. I did this for the first camp and got many thank yous and even one sweet compliment, "You made me cry!". Course I set it to music and that always makes the slideshow a bit more sentimental.

I have a really fun mommy playdate on Wednesday with my neighborhood group. We are attending a home tour/auction in the morning and it's a Derby theme! I bought a hat at Target this afternoon and still have to try it with my dress. I have to drag out my maternity dresses and see what I've got!

Spring Camp: Day Four

Technically, day four was yesterday but I was all alone all day yesterday and had little to no time to update. I am having a bout of pregnancy induced insomnia tonight so this will have to do.

Today we had 4 campers and D was the only boy. Lucky kid! Again, we had a great day.

Today we:
Sang the welcome song.
Read "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you hear".
Sang a song.
Read "At the Zoo", a cute little book I found at Half Price Books.
I sang a song all by myself, since no one has ever heard "The Animal Fair".
Did our craft. Created a circus train using a square paper plate, yarn and an animal cut-out. CUTE!
Had our snack.

Here are some photos from this afternoon:


Busy at work coloring his elephant.


So proud of his creation!!


All 4 circus cars.

Check back tomorrow for the last day of camp. So sad it's over. Since Miss Jillian is on her way in just 60 days now, I'm pretty certain we won't have another camp for at least another 6 months. And even THAT is iffy!

Spring Camp: Day Two

Today was an awesome camp day! All 6 campers showed up, ready to go! They all wore their shirts and we took the cutest group photo outside beneath the big oak tree in the front yard. Miraculously we were able to catch some shots of all 6 kiddos looking in the same direction at the same time!!

Today we:

Sang our welcome song.
Read "Who's in the Jungle".
Danced to the song, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".
Read "Rumble in the Jungle".
Craft #1: make a lion face on a paper plate.
Craft #2: put the spots on the giraffe. (The kids LOVED this craft!!)
Took our photo.
Had our snack.

Here's a few photos of our day:


Working on our giraffe's.


Working on our lion faces.


The complete lion faces.

Check back tomorrow for Day 3!!

Spring Camp: Day One

Today was the first day of our Spring Camp. It was a short-handed beginning as only 3of the 6 enrolled campers were able to make it today. G is in school on Mondays so I knew he would be out, G has afternoon swim lessons on Monday so she was out and A had to stay home b/c they are having hardwoods installed and the job has taken longer than the quoted time.

That's okay, we had a great time, just the 3 (6) of us!

Today we:

Sang our welcome song.
Read Maisy Goes to the Farm.
Sang a finger play song.
Read Click Clack ABC.
Sang a sing-along song.
Did our crafts; shape animals and coloring book fun.
Had our snack; cereal bar and yogurt with fruit juice.


Eating a snack.


Our crafts abandoned as we take a snack break.


Check back tomorrow for another update of camp.

C'era Una Volta...

It's time for the big nursery reveal! Jillian Grace's room is 98% ready!!!!!!!

Here is a 360 degree tour of the room:


Looking in the door


Looking to the left about 45 degrees (notice the butterfly mobile I made????)


The butterfly mobile from underneath. Isn't it so dainty and delicious?


A close-up of the fingerpainting that D made for his sister's room.


Left at 90 degrees (the saying means, Once Upon a Time in Italian)
**please ignore the fan ball hanging down, it's a TALL ceiling!


Looking behind you at the door wall (this wall has some boxes and bed rails to be moved into storage)


A close-up of the vintage Italy map I framed that is to the right of the dresser/changing table.


Looking to the right as you walk in the room. This wall is mostly closet.


A close-up of the handmade canvases. Translation is: I wish you well or I love you.


That brings us back to looking straight on as you enter the room.


A close-up of the very first thing I bought for the nursery. Thank God for Children Inspire Design for knowing that nursery decor can be modern and fun!!


And lastly, the shelf from BRU with the latest buy, the vespa print from Target. Dominic picked out the cross. It is the exact match to his, only in pink!

So, there you have it! Jillian Grace's nursery, a room fit for a principessa!! Ci vediamo!