kristen's having a baby

my little sister is already a mama to my her adorable ty and addie.  this spring she's having baby #3. she and her husband decided to be surprised on the sex......i tried and tried to change her mind.  she held strong :)  we threw her a woodland themed baby shower- here's what it looked like: (warning, my pictures were not great.  i didnt' even wait for all of the food to be put out.)

the cake was made by tricia at something sweet- she made am's 1st birthday cake as well.

see the invite to the left- super cute, made by sarah pay design. 

she also designed my sunny little things logo and two of my kids birth announcements.  her work is fantastic- you should check it out.

these little acorn treats are SO easy to make.  use white frosting as your glue- attach a hershey kiss to a mini vanilla wafer.  then "glue" a mini chocolate chip to the top- easy as that!  cute little addition to your party!  we just so happened to have had a few trees taken out of our yard the other week.  i had the tree guy slice up some pieces for us to use during the shower.  can you imagine my husband's face when i asked him to load those in the car to nc?  it was pretty funny- so worth it though!

i think the woodland theme is perfect for unisex showers, boys and girls.  it's so cute!  i'd love to recreate this shower or party for you- thanks for stopping by!

easter party

there are some lucky neighborhood kids somewhere in georgia.  first they had an awesome polar express party seen here.....now they are planning their easter party!  i bet they give great halloween candy too :)  here's what they'll be using:

the banner says, "peter's picnic pantry" which will hang over the food table.

i love how these bunnies look like peeps





 it looks like fun to me :) 

if you'd like a set of  those little egg cupcake toppers for your easter party- leave a message about your favorite easter tradition.  mine?  my dad used to make a bunny cake every year. when we're able to see him for easter these days, he still makes one,  it's pretty cute.  my sister hosts a really great easter- we divide our family into teams and play lots of silly games- you know like make the kids find jelly beans in a whipped cream pie using only their mouths.....that kind of silly.  we love it! 

i will pick the winner at the end of the week!  can't wait to hear what your family does!  thanks for stopping by-

and, since i'm here- happy birthday to my little sister, kristen.  later this week i'll share some pictures from her baby shower!  xoxo

chalk

as a teacher i hated using chalk.  i always hated the way it felt in my hands.  i'm grossed out just thinking about it.  i was always more of a overhead projector kind of girl.  a dry erase board would have been fantastic.  anyways.....as a mom, i have a new love for chalk. i love writing with chalk on the driveway.  that's what we did today.  we drew pictures, wrote our names and played games.  one of our favorite chalk games is the ABC game.  here's how it works:

write the entire alphabet in a small space.  do this in a very random order.  then you call out either an actual letter, sound or word and the kids have to jump to that particular letter.  i started doing this when jack was learning his letters a few years ago.  we have now progressed to letter sounds and recognizing ending sounds as well.  they boys have a blast.  the game is fun because i can do different things for each kid- jack (5) could be looking for the ending sound in truck while will (3) is looking for the letter that makes the "t" sound.  see- great fun for all!  i even give them chances where they make me look for letters- they think it's so silly. 

anna michael doesn't like to be left out, she just kept finding a letter and sitting on it :)

he's thinking.....

he's feeling pretty proud of how he did today!

he's a pretty smart cookie too.

go out and enjoy this SPRING day!

bird feeders

since it is monday-funday we made recycled bird feeders this afternoon!  i think i made these when i was in elementary school.  you can make these in many different ways- we used toilet paper and paper towel rolls because jack likes to use recycled household items.  you could also use large pine cones that you find around the yard.  most of the time you would use peanut butter as your "glue" but in our house we stay away from it.  see this face- he's allergic......





 for our bird feeders we used this:



toilet paper rolls, cream cheese, bird seed, string and spoons

 

make two small holes on either side and thread your string through.  this way you'll be able to hang your bird feeder.


spread the cream cheese on the rolls, then cover with plenty of bird seed.

 



and since you're outside, you should just stay and play for a while. 



smoothies

we've renamed the days of the week.....monday is "monday-funday." one of our favorite special treats to have on monday are smoothies or monday sundaes.....same concept.  our monday sundaes are yogurt, fresh fruit and granola- served in a fancy ice cream sundae dish, of course. 

yesterday we had smoothies.  my boys get so excited over these.  they are made with all things i want them to eat...i can be tricky like that.

here's how we do it:


you'll need blender, yogurt, frozen strawberries and any fresh fruit that you have around.  we used blueberries and raspberries.   i like to use one frozen fruit- but if you use all fresh just toss in a couple ice cubes.





blend it all together until smooth. 





pour into your fancy glasses.....ok, they like it just the same in a plastic cup :)





your result is happy kids who think they are having something really special. 





even anna michael gets to enjoy this tastey snack





she's such a big girl feeding herself :) 



now, i hope you turn your monday's into "monday-fundays." :)

rain, rain go away

today our backyard looked like this:

it has rained all day long.  and right now it's snowing.  um, virginia- it's almost spring, get with it. 

so, with three little ones stuck inside we needed some activities to do.  i found my inspiration here at pocket full of posies and here.  we tried her crayon making- we used our old crayons, a little lesson in recycling for the boys.

here's what we did:


grab your crayons




sort out the bad ones- broken &  torn paper




pull off the paper.  this part is tricky.  jordan finally pulled out a knife and cut it off.
 i wouldn't have put this picture in, but look at jack's face.  that's a boy who loves his daddy.




crush the crayons with your favorite tools.  will says, "i'm gonna damn, damn, damn them."
sweet will, the word is bam!




crush the crayons into little pieces.  put them into greased mini muffin tins.




bake 300 for 7-8 minutes. when you take them out, they are liquid.




let the crayons cool, pop out of the tins!  we made the big ones for annie to color with!

 ok, so my suggestion would be to seperate your colors a little better than we did.  when we started coloring it was mostly blue!  it was a fun activity to pass the time on a rainy day!