Happy Halloween!

The obsession at our house for the past few months has been super heroes! (And princess camouflage spy kids... which is equally awesome.) So it didn't really take my by surprise when my girls announced they wanted to be super heroes for Halloween this year. At first I was dying when I realized it was going to cost me more to make these costumes than it would for me to just go down to Halloween City and let my girls pick out a costume. But I am so glad I went the "homemade" route.  I justified most of my purchases by pointing out to my husband how PRACTICAL this costume is! The capes, sparkly wrist bands and boot tops are going in the dress up box, and the rest of their costume is totally reusable!  (Their cute skirts are from The Children's Place, and are on SALE today just incase you're interested.)  

I knew a photo shoot was in order, but I wanted to do something a little different than the typical "kids standing on the front porch in their costumes" thing. Hence the comic book idea was born. 

I won't lie to you- this took WAY longer than I thought it would. It probably would have been significantly easier for someone who actually knows how to use photoshop. I just pretend to. :) Most of this little comic book was put together in the wee morning hours while I was feeding my baby... which is probably why I think it's way funnier than it actually is. EVERYTHING is funny at 2:00 a.m. 

Here's hoping you "SUPER" awesome Halloween! 

You Are My Sunshine

This is my favoritest card I've ever made.

No, I'm not three years old, just trying to impress upon you the extent of my favoriteness.

Cute, huh?  Now, imagine the sun spinning about on its track, scattering happy feelings along its way.

Oooh, oooh, oooh, let me show you the inside too!

I left it pretty simple, since the outside was not, but I did cross-stitch a bit (the holes are in my SVG, so if you don't want to do it, take them out) to add some textural interest.  I was also thinking about embossing the heart, but decided against it (okay, I ran out of time before card club ;).

I got started on the the idea when I saw this on the Silhouette blog.  SUPER CUTE, huh?

And I checked out this tutorial to figure out how it worked:



And voila!  The possibilities are endless, don't you think?

Here's the SVG of my card--if you make one, I would LOVE to see!  Send me a link in the comments or upload a picture to our Facebook Page (where you are more than welcome to hit the "Like" button ;).

Download Card


 

"We Are Amazing!" - Product Review

I don't know about you, but I seem to spend a LOT of time in the car with my kids these days - running errands, carpooling back and forth to school, and driving kids to soccer, ballet, etc... Now, this may or may not come as a shock to you, but I turn into an American Idol when I get into the car. :) And as such I am always on the lookout for new music to sing along to that is:

A) Family friendly 

B) uplifting 

and possibly most importantly- 

C) Won't drive me absolutely crazy after the first 30 seconds. 

So when we were asked to do a review of this CD I was stoked! 

I popped it into the CD player the other day while I was doing dishes, and within 30 seconds kids started emerging from all corners of our house and making their way to the kitchen. They were totally drawn to the music!  It was like that scene in A Bug's Life where the mosquito is drawn into the bug zapper- "I can't help it... it's so beautiful...!" 

Yup, just like that- except no kids were harmed in the making of this dance party. 

The kids LOVED this CD!  It's filled with toe-tapping awesomeness, and enriched with values that I truly believe are inspired. I love that my kids are learning important life lessons as they boogie in their car seats on the way to school. We have listened to it countless times in the last week and I'm not even remotely bored with it. Which, as I'm sure you know, is a big deal!

My girls especially loved the song Secret Mission- they are always pretending to be spies, so this was right up their ally. Our other favorites are We Are Amazing, What A Smile Can Do, How Big Are Your Dreams, and What Can You Do?  (What can you do in 2 minutes?! You can make your bed, give your sister a hug, pick up your toys, smile at a friend...etc.  Can I get a great big HECK YES from all the mama's out there?! My kids spend more time complaining about a chore than actually doing it. I LOVE this song. LoL. And if I'm being humble here, it's a good reminder to me to make good use of my time as well!)

Want to get in on the fun? You can purchase the CD HERE

 And as a special gift to YOU- our fabulous readers, the kind people at Any Kid Can have given us a special 20% off coupon code!  

OneLuckyPickle

How fabulous is that?!

Now go turn up the tunes and let's DANCE! 

Reading Party

Call me a nerd, but I adored Read-a-thon days back in school. Uninterrupted reading and candy time?  Two of my favorite things!  So we invited the cousins, bought some treats (letting them each pick a kind of candy in the bulk section scored me major mom points), and picked out some books.  Don't forget to drag bedding, pillows, and anything soft to the floor so you can all lie down together!

If you aren't addicted to buying books (like me), or you just want to throw some new ones in the mix to make it special, you could go to the library or the bookstore first.  I bought a million {ahem} a few books with our school book orders and saved them for special incentives or rewards, so I was planning on pulling out the stack and letting everyone choose one to read.  When the special day came, I forgot.  But hey, they didn't know, and they still had fun!

In the end, they were a tadge more interested in the candy than the books...what was I expecting?  But I think a read-a-thon is a great way to make reading fun and exciting.  And your kids' teachers will be proud of you for remembering to read this summer!

 

Click HERE for more fun summer ideas!

The Escape Artist

We were gonna wait to transition to the toddler bed until the house was finished, but... well...

See for yourself.

This girl is in the 10th percentile for height, folks. 

Granted, she's 75th for weight. Apparently it's all muscle!

And before you suggest that it was merely boost via the stuffed animal, think again. I took all the stuffies out and put her in again. She got out even faster that time. 

*sigh*

It's been quite the exciting naptime around here. 

I figured I'd coax the child into her sister's toddler bed (see that big twin mattress leaning against the left wall? Emily will use that now), and when I pulled her quilt back, there was a giant wolf spider hiding underneath. 

Alive. 

Just waiting for a victim.

I may have screamed. Just a little.

I herded the midget out of the room, as the beast fled over the edge of the bed.

A tentative and very girly hunt followed (thanks to my mom for lifting things off the floor while I stood nearby waiting with Kirby's hiking boot.) I even turned the toddler bed up on its side to make sure the thing wasn't hiding underneath in the slats.

We couldn't find it anywhere. 

Finally, I figured I'd put the room back together and turned the toddler bed back onto its legs. I tuned to say something to my mom across the basement and then turned back. 

It was there. On the mattress. Again.

It crawled under the skinny side of the mattress that was resting on the floor when I turned it on its side. 

This beast was too smart to live. 

So I killed it.

THE END.

Good story, huh? 100% true. I even made sure the thing was dead before vacuuming it up. 

Kirby will be so proud.

After removing all the sheets, and vacuuming the room, we now have a whole lot of this going on:

Getting her to sleep was no small task, but I think that's a story for another day.

Time for some Oreos, I think!

Five Minute Friday: Story

Everyone has a story, and every time I take the time to put mine on the back burner and listen to someone else's, I grow.  My own life story changes just a little--I interpret what I'm going through or what I've gone through with a slightly different spin.  It's good for me.  And have you noticed?  The people that you like the very best are the ones who can do that: listen to your story and care about YOU.  They draw it out of you and make you want to tell them everything.

I want to be that kind of person.  The one that talks less and listens more.  The one that really wants to hear--what's your story today?  How much will you tell me in the time we have? 

There's my first Five Minute Friday, folks.  Play along at Lisa Jo Baker's.  And while you're at it, if you feel like telling me a bit about your story today, feel free ;)

 

Phineas and Ferb Party

We are a little bit obsessed with Phineas and Ferb at my house. I think the show is HILARIOUS and so do my kids.  We laugh at different things, but we all like to watch.  It hit me when I was trying to plan a birthday party for my almost 4-year-old that Phineas and Ferb would be a perfect theme for him.  I asked him what he thought and got an ecstatic "YES!!!!"

So we cooked up an invitation:

The inside has the party deets, and finishes the "I know what we're going to do today" phrase: Hey Ferb, I know what we're going to do...on {the date of the party}. Unfolded, Perry looks like this:

I created several printables (like this invitation) along with this party, planning to share them.  Unfortunately, Disney's copyright department makes it really difficult to get permission for these things!  So in 4-6 weeks when I find out if I can legally share them, hopefully I will be putting up links for you to download!