mother's day craft

looking for a last minute mother's day project?  why not make her flowers? here's a cute and SUPER easy way to do it.  i literally did it today and tomorrow is mother's day.  all you need is paint, paper and some cute helping hands.


supplies- finger paint, white paper, green construction paper cut into strips for flower stems.



the boys (5 and 3) are able to paint their own hands.  i of course have to do this step for anna michael (1).
 i let each one have their own color.

let the hands dry!

cut out the hands, have the older kids write their own names on the back of each "flower."

i love glue dots.  i know sometimes people have a hard time working with them.  the key is not to touch the dot with your hands.....that's a big mess.  touch the paper to the dot, then pull it straight off.

now the glue dot is sticking to your first piece.....

simply attach the other sheet, in this case the flower stem.

i added some leaves to a few of our flowers.

and there you go!  a vase of homemade flowers. 

happy mother's day!!! 

to keep her busy, i let her paint today.  trust me on this- it's SO worth the mess.  enjoy your kids & let them be messy.

cheerleader chloe

as we sang happy birthday to chloe i was thinking of her very first birthday party.  it was red and black ladybugs. time flies by because she turned 5 yesterday.  she and jack have been playing together since before she could stand.  we're hoping they have desks side by side next year in kindergarten. 

chloe's dad and jordan went to high school together.  tim now is a teacher and football coach at the school where they graduated .  i guess that's why his girl loves cheerleaders.  the party was held at the high school.  the girls were taught cheers by a few of the school's cheerleaders while the boys were led in drills by the coach.  the kids had a BLAST!!  

this crew could be trouble one day.  at one point they will all be in high school together!
 they are wearing their daddy's old high school football numbers :)  we're hoping miss chloe will keep them in line!

happy 5th birthday chloe! 

a little easter recap...

we celebrated easter in nc with my family.  my sister and chris hosted a wonderful holiday.  we started off with easter breakfast.  the day was then spent playing games.  i'm talking sack races, family hula hoop races, tissue box pulling (from minute to win it), egg on a spoon race.....the works.  jen and chris took much cooler pictures here.  i must warn you- after you see these you'll be begging for an invite :)  

i made this for last easter, jen reused it.

the beautiful table

my girl in her easter dress from daddy.

all of our sweets ready for games!

they LOVE this one.  they can't use their hands but need to get as many jelly beans from the whipped cream pies! 

am's wardrobe change for dinner.  you can't tell in this picture, but my pretty little sister is about to have a baby any day!

getting ready for our sack races....

water balloon toss- ty and uncle chris won! i'm sure ty would like that documented :)

the kids had a dab of vaseline on their noses.  they had to stick cotton balls to their noses w/o using their hands and walk them over to another plate.

we also had an easter egg hunt and grew a lollipop garden.  my camera was dead by that time of course.  the lollipop garden is a precious tradition my sister has created.  she gives the kids handfuls of confetti.  they sprinkle it in her front yard.  each kid waters the "seeds" with their own watering can.  we sing the lollipop song (lollipop, lollipop oh lolli, lolli pop) as we water them.  in the meantime the guys are hiding eggs in the backyard.  we give our crops time to grow as the kids hunt for eggs.  when the hunt is over they get to check on their seeds. where their seeds once were are a garden of lollipops!  it's magic!!  i think that would be perfect for a sweet shoppe themed party.

hope your easter was just as much fun as ours. 

pineapple

seriously, i know this post is so random.  i love fresh pineapple.  i think people don't buy it because they think it's too hard to cut.  a few years ago i watched someone on the food network do it with ease.  seriously, they do everything with ease, i'm so jealous :)  anyways- ever since then i've been eating them like crazy.  i ate at least two a week when i was pregnant with will.  here's how to do it:

simply slice the top and bottom off.  if you're making a fruit tray- don't even think about decorating with that top- please, throw it away.  fruit is pretty on it's own.

stand the pineapple up and simply slice down the sides, turning the fruit as you go.

this is what it should look like

cut it straight down the middle, then quarter it.

cut off the center core, it's hard and not good to eat.  i'm sure there are ways to use it, i just don't know any of them.

cut into cubes and enjoy!

it's super easy and so much cheaper then buying the precut pineapple in the grocery store.  and it's SO much better than the kind in the can.  like i said, this post is totally random.  it's just what we snacked on today after lunch......thought i would share!