New Organizers!

Awhile back, I mentioned on facebook how Jeremy had made me this awesome jewelry organizer.

Corkboard covered in fabric with pins holding everything up.

It was kind of a big deal to me because, all on his own, he:

1.  Noticed that my jewelry was really disorganized.

2.  Went on Pinterest to find an idea for how to organize it.

3.  Made the organizer and hung it up.

Without saying a word to me!!!  In I walk to our room one day and there it is.

Amazing, isn't he?!?!

Oh...but it gets better.  I now have a matching makeup organizer to go with it!

Whenever I find great ideas, I instantly message them to him.  I'm sure he loves it.  :-P  I think his To-Do list has like 10 major projects on it right now that can all be traced back to Pinterest.

Magnetic Makeup Organizer (in five simple steps)

1.  Attach sheet metal to scrap wood using construction adhesive.  Make sure the metal will hold magnets.

2.  Stretch the fabric over the metal/wood and staple it to the back.  

3.  Cut trim to size and nail to wood.

4.  Cover the fabric with plastic and spray paint the trim to help disguise the nails.

5.  Gorilla glue or hot glue magnets to the back of all of your makeup.  (Magnet tape is not strong enough, get the round kind.)

I LOVE it!  It makes getting ready in the morning a snap, as I'm no longer digging through a bag or searching the bathroom counter for things.  Plus, it's out of reach of certain 3 year old girls who look like this after they play with makeup...

YIKES!

Best Children's Books (Printable List)

Last summer, I shared that we were working on a list of "101 Books to Read Before Kindergarten" with Micah.  Now that Micah is all ready for Kindergarten-------pause for a moment to admire his 4K graduation picture----------

Ohhhhh!!!!  So cute!  Anyways....now that Micah is all ready for Kindergarten, I wanted to get started on a reading list for Liliana.  She read most of the books on Micah's list, so I was looking for something different.  One of the lists I linked to last summer in my post has been getting pinned a lot on Pinterest.

While it's a GREAT list, it has two small problems.  1.  It says "Top 100" but they're missing a book between numbers 51-60, so it's really only the top 99.  2.  It's not in printable form to bring with to the library.

Solutions: 1.  I emailed them about the number thing, because I'm totally OCD like that.  Someone, somewhere is banging their head against a table at this very moment.  2.  I made a printable list.  Two actually.  The first one is listed in the order of their ranking and the second is listed in alphabetical order according to author, because I care far more about finding them conveniently at the library than some arbitrary ranking (Llama Llama came in at 86???  Really???)

And because it makes no sense to go through all that work without sharing my goods, here they are:

Top 100 Children's Books


Children's Book List by Author


Yay for summer reading!!!

Firefighters to the Rescue!!!

No, not real firefighters this time!  I now use oven cleaner instead of the self-clean function, so hopefully we won't have any visits from our friendly, neighborhood heroes ever again.  Our kids were the firefighters in a super fun game Jeremy made up.

They had to start at the cones, grab the hose and use water to knock over the targets (various items from our recycling bin).

This then inspired a re-creation of the water fights that our hometown does for one of their festivals.  My brother is a volunteer firefighter, so the kids love to watch Uncle Joe's team compete in the water fights.  The real water fights involve an empty keg on a wire strung between two firetrucks.  Now while you might think it doesn't get any more redneck than some beer drinking firemen aiming their hoses at an empty keg at a small town festival...think again.  I give to you a halloween pumpkin, strung on some rope we had around the house between a basketball hoop and our street lamp.  Impressive, eh?  Maybe not so much, but Micah's strategy to beat Daddy was very impressive and resourceful!

A great way to spend a hot day!!!

Garden Play Table

Liliana loves to dig in the dirt.  She doesn't have the patience to wait for plants to actually grow, but she likes to pretend.  We had been letting her "garden" in one of our empty flower beds, until we discovered 3 snakes like to hide in the pavers surrounding it.  While we're all about embracing nature, we are soooooooooo not cool with snakes.

So Liliana got her own garden play table.

You're looking at a sand/water table half filled with dirt from the snake infested flower bed* and the other half includes:

• Rocks to use as pavers
• Watering can
• Pumpkin seeds 
• Gardening tools
• Fake flowers
• Pots
• Sticks

*So I'm using a shovel to dig up the dirt to put in the table.  My neighbor sees this and comes outside.

Neighbor- "Are you doing yardwork?!?!"

Me- "No!  I'm making a garden themed sensory table."

Neighbor- "Ohhhhhh.....I was going to say!  You hate doing yard work."

It's true.  I detest yard work.  Sensory tables on the other hand....well, let's just say I'm willing to go near a snake infested flower bed and get dirt under my fingernails for Liliana to have a fun learning experience for a few hours.

She loved it!  LOVED IT!  I'm going to give her a few more days with it like this, and then add some plastic vegetables and a cash register and she can play Farmer's Market.

Hope you all are enjoying the beautiful weather too!!!

Pinterest Week!

I declared last week "Pinterest Week" at our house.  The kids are always looking over my shoulder while I'm on the computer and love to ask me about everything I pin and when we can make it.  Usually I just vaguely reply "sometime."  Last week was the time!

Sunday

The Recipe:  Quinoa Stir-Fry with Vegetables and Chicken

Originally Pinned From:  Handle the Heat

The Verdict:  Fab!!!  I will definitely be making this again!  Perfect for those days when you know you should really be eating a salad but are craving comfort food instead.

The Project:  Handprint Chicks

Originally Pinned From:  Handprint and Footprint Art

The Verdict:  I love that my kids no longer fuss when getting paint on their hands!  They enjoyed glueing everything together.  The chickens now grace our kitchen cabinets.

Monday

The Recipe:  Clean Eating Cinnamon Rolls

Originally Pinned From:  The Gracious Pantry

The Verdict:  FAIL!  If you're 100% clean eating, then you'll love these...you can now eat cinnamon rolls again.  If you're 90% clean eating, like me, then use one of your passes to make these rolls instead.  The clean eating rolls were expensive to make, ridiculously messy, and not great.  

The Project:  Do a Dot Activities

Originally Pinned From:  Simply Montessori

The Verdict:  She loved them!  The only problem is she whipped through it in about 15 seconds each page, which ended up being a lot of paper.  

Tuesday

The Recipe:  Yodalicious Apple Snack

Originally Pinned From:  Kitchen Fun With My Three Sons

The Verdict:  Mine didn't turn out as cute as hers, but both kids recognized Yoda right away, so good enough for me!  They were delighted, I felt like supermom, and it was healthy and fun.  I realized I didn't have any marshmallows so I whipped up a bit of frosting instead for the eyes.  (Tangent- I can't believe how much my cooking skills have improved in the last three years.  I used to burn frozen pizza and now I can whip up frosting without a recipe.  I'm all domesticated.)

The Project:  Big Bubble

Originally Pinned From:  Play at Home Mom

The Verdict:  At first, I wasn't sold on the idea of spending $11 on the plastic sheeting to make this, but it has entertained them for hours and the memories they'll have from it are priceless.

Wednesday

The Recipe:  Key Lime Pie Paletas (I made half as paletas and half in a dish)

Originally Pinned From:  theKitchn

The Verdict:  There are no words to describe how heavenly this treat is!!  Just imagine a long deep moan here instead.  The world is a better place simply because this dessert exists.  Background- when I was pregnant with Liliana, I got totally addicted to DQ's Key Lime Pie Blizzards.  YUM!  Then, they went ahead and discontinued them.  WTH?!?  Picture me, 8 months pregnant, bawling my eyes out in the middle of a shopping mall while yelling at some teenage fast food employee...because that's what happened.  This dessert is so close to that blizzard:  tart yet sweet, cold and creamy, pure awesomeness!  I'm not even going to calculate the calories because A. I don't want to know and B. I'm not sure it would even make a difference.  I'm just going to keep making it and eating it over and over and over again.  TRY IT!

The Project:  Homemade Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Originally Pinned From:  The Idea Room

The Verdict:  Liliana loves to paint and she loves sidewalk chalk, so this was a big win!  She decided to paint letters, which I thought at first was just going to be her scribbling and it turns out she knows how to make over half her letters!!!  We've been working on identifying them and somehow along the way, she picked up letter formation as well.  Exciting day!

Thursday

Thursday was a wash-out.  Our pet guinea pig had been missing outside for two days and we found her, Praise the Lord!!!!!  So rather than doing any cooking or projects we just sat by her cage and told her how much we love her.  Cause we're mushy like that.

Friday

The Recipe:  Sesame Soba Noodles

Originally Pinned From:  Annie's Eats

The Verdict:  Besides actual granola, this is the most "granola" thing I've ever made.  It's organic.  It's vegan.  And it contains things like buckwheat noodles and edamane.  Was better than I expected, but I won't be making it again...it was really salty and the kids wouldn't try it.

The Project:  Coffee Filter Butterflies

Originally Pinned From:  Make it and Love it

The Verdict:  Easy.  Fun.  Kept Liliana entertained for a long time and she loves looking at the butterflies which brighten up our basement.

Saturday

The Recipe:  Bacon/Egg/Toast Cups

Originally Pinned From:  Cut Out and Keep

The Verdict:  My husband has never loved me more!!!  Heck, I've never loved me more!  These bad boys are AMAZING!!!!  Even the kids adored them!  We will definitely be making these again.  Weekly.

The Project:  Hand/footprint Lobsters

Originally Pinned From:  Crafty-Crafted

The Verdict:  Meh.  I really REALLY like handprint projects.  But I'm kind of ODing on them.  Notice how close my kids are in size though.  2 years, 3 months apart...and they both are in 4T clothes and are 1 shoe size apart.  Crazy!

While I won't be doing anything this insane for awhile again (just keeping up with the kids, housework and Pinterest occupied my life for the week!), it was a lot of fun to try new things and I definitely found a few new favorites!  

Mine For a Moment

As part of our fabulous Mother's Day, we went for a family bike ride along the river.  While this was special in itself, it was made additionally special by the fact that Micah was riding without training wheels.  WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS!!! 

As we followed along the path, I was thinking back.  Back to the day we bought our bike trailer, excited for years of family bike rides...only to become irate that the store didn't carry infant bike helmets.  Why would they sell trailers for babies if they didn't make tiny helmets for them?!?!  I remember deciding to risk it and stick to non-roads and then being a nervous wreck the entire time that some crazy person was going to think it was a road and drive their car on it and hit us and hurt my baby because he wasn't wearing a baby bike helmet.

I remember when Micah's head was big enough for the toddler helmets and trying to bribe him to wear it while we rode.  "Maybe if we just start going, he'll stop screaming about it."  It worked.  Sort of.  He screamed until he fell asleep.  Then I sat there and watched him sleeping, nervous the bike helmet would somehow interfere with his ability to breath, but not wanting to risk removing it for fear of waking him.

I remember when he was 2, and he took off on his big wheel down our alley.  I stood there for a minute in complete awe.  "How could my little boy be big enough to be driving away from me???  Quickly too!  My gosh this is an alley.  Micah Paul get back here right now before someone runs you over!!!"

I remember when he rode down the big hill at seminary for the first time.  I couldn't watch.  I was sure he was going to hit a pothole, fall off of his bike and end up in a coma.  (If you haven't caught on yet...I'm a totally neurotic mother.)  But he survived.  And laughed.  And wanted to do it again.

And now here he is, riding without training wheels.  And here I am, riding behind him, quietly crying and thinking of how fast time goes.  While I delight in each new milestone, I just want to hold him tight and never let go and keep him in this moment forever.  But he isn't mine to keep.

Dear God, thank you for these precious children you have entrusted to me!  Thank you for the gift of being a mother and watching them grow and learn.  Every day is filled with such joy and frustration.  And I am grateful.  Grateful for these moments, however fleeting, that we have together.  Grateful for this day, to celebrate together.  And grateful that they didn't beat each other to a bloody pulp while I sat here and typed this.

Amen.

Almost 3 years old.  Our first evening at seminary.  The second his bike was unloaded from the moving truck, he was off and riding with friends.

Big Bubble!!!

If you don't already follow Play at Home Mom...do it!  Their stuff is amazing!  This idea was from them, and I had pinned it on Pinterest awhile back intending to do it "someday."  Today was the day, thanks to our "Pinterest Week" (we're making a recipe and a project that I've pinned every day this week and I'll post about it when the week is done...but this project was so much fun, it needed its own post.)

Introducing.....Big Bubble!

• 1 package of plastic sheeting
• Some duct tape
• A fan
• And a couple bricks to keep it from flying away

SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

Micah said "Whoa.  This was actually a good idea."  Like he was surprised.    Aren't all the ideas I do good ideas son??? 

This is Liliana SQUEALING with delight!  It was loud.  She was excited.
   

I love their poses lately.  Cracks me up! Really Micah?  That's your go-to move?

Liliana demonstrates how tall the bubble is.  It's big.

Micah suggested we act like the bubble is blowing away.  I went with it.

Don't worry.  We would never dream of leaving the pig out of the fun.  Well I would, but Liliana would admonish me immediately.

They're such hams...I just love it.  The sandwich isn't ham though..it's PB&J rolled up in a tortilla, in case you were dying to know.  You weren't?  Oh.  Okay then.

Yeah, she was just posing with the strawberry in her mouth.  As soon as the flash went off, she set it back down.  Goofball.

Like I said earlier...so. much. fun.  From now on, instead of just admiring all of Play at Home Mom's ideas, I'm going to actually do them.