baby it's cold outside

it's finally starting to feel like winter at my house.  (ok, actually today was pretty warm!)  i found lots of little cotton gloves on clearance at target over the past few weeks.  a normal person would have grabbed a pair or two......i grabbed them all.  i know.  it's hording.  they are all girl gloves.  i have one girl.  with tiny hands.  anyways- i just knew i could find a good project for these bargain priced gloves. 

and i did!!  i decided to add fabric flowers to them and give them away as valentine's gifts.
here is what i did:

yes, that tag says 60 cents.....for two pair of gloves!  can you believe it?

i used the same tutorial from this post.

i learned how to make these other flowers right here.  her crafts are amazing.

 added a little hot glue to the back and stuck it right to the gloves.

pretty cute gift for thirty cents!  of course i still had like twenty sets of gloves when i was done-  you'll be happy to know i donated those.

stay warm :)

crab dip

this is one of my favorite things to make.  it's pretty easy and so, so good.  if i were to ever audition for a cooking show- this would be my signature dish :)  (don't worry, i have NO plans in ever doing that though!)

you'll need: 8 oz room temperature cream cheese- don't use low fat, 1/2 cup mayo, cup drained chopped artichokes, 1/4 cup onion, 1/2 cup red pepper, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese- not the powder kind, couple shakes of hot sauce- we use franks, fresh lemons and a pound of lump crab meat.

 mix everything except the crab meat-

 squeeze a little lemon on the drained crab then fold it into the dip.  cover the top with parmesan cheese.....

 bake on 350 for 25 minutes

 serve with toasted baguette or tortilla chips and fresh lemon.....

 enjoy!! 

super hero

he's the reason our kids believe in super heroes.  he's strong and brave and kind.  he protects us and he really loves us. our very own super hero.  happy birthday jordan.  we love you.

making valentines

yesterday morning the kids requested that we do some type of craft.  with little plan i invited a few cousins over for a "valentine making party."  add the word "party" to any activity and it's more fun.  let's have a clean the playroom "party" - kids are all in.  just say "clean the playroom" not so much!  try it, it works.

 i gathered all of our supplies and we had a party.

i got this plastic coated table cloth last year on clearance at target.  it's perfect when you're using glue.  i also am a sucker for the holiday tin buckets.  i have them for every holiday.  they are perfect for craft supplies, snacks, gift buckets....the list goes on.

like i mentioned this was NOT a planned activity.  these stickers were from last valentine's day.  i keep them with the valentine's decorations.  i just pulled out the markers that seemed most appropriate for our cards.  if you are planning this event- you probably should have some paper doilies. 

i know.  it's not very festive or fun.  the only reason i even included it was to say that everything doesn't have to be perfect all of the time.  sometimes simple food works.  we didn't even have dessert......and some days that's ok too! 

fruit does look prettier in heart dishes :)

since i did call it a party i wanted to have one special touch.  i added sprinkles to our glasses and pink food coloring to the milk.  easy peasy.

since the kids are all so young i made a list of words they may want to include in their cards.  it helped to take away their frustrations of not knowing how to spell many words.  in most cases we help jack sound out words and figure out how to spell.......but remember, this was a party :)  happy heart day!

chocolate mess

i found these pictures today- they are from a few months ago.  i'm not exactly sure what i was thinking.  i must have been wanting to be a fun, spur of the moment kind of mom.  you may or may not want to copy this clever idea of mine. 
i allowed my four year old and almost two year old (at the time) to finger paint with chocolate syrup. yes, i said it.   of course they were going to taste it........why didn't i think of that before hand?

 

look at that face.  he's truly proud of his masterpiece!

it's this face.  this is the reason my judgement gets blurred at times. 

jack and will just walked up to the computer.  jack says, "oh man, i wanna paint with chocolate." will says, "well, you'll have to take a bath when you're done.  that's what mommy made us do!."

teacher work day

jack didn't have school today.  one guess to where we went.....

that's right, we went bowling!  today it was my sister-in-law, myself and our six kids.....7, 6, 5, 4, 2 and 2.  yes, we are such nice mamas- right?  lots of fun! 

anna michael and cole's first time bowling

waiting patiently for their turns...

 here is anna michael's first time bowling......she watched the ball roll ever so slowly down the lane..

she was SO proud of herself

she went up to cole clapping saying, "cole, say good job annie!"

yes, it was a good way to spend the morning out of school!