Valentines Fun!

Valentines Fun!

 If you haven't noticed I love holidays and giving the kiddos a reason to celebrate for a day. I try not to go to o overboard, but a few crafts here and there are fun and give us something to do.

Tip: -Try to plan ahead for the next year by shopping the post holiday clearance.

- Hit up your local dollar store for deals. (I got all the valentines and tissue paper we used there)

- Think of ways to use what you already have around the house.

- Also I cant tell you how much I love the dollar stores for crafting!

 Valentine Place Mats...

Needed: - Valentines

-Tissue Paper

-Glitter  (optional and adult only)

-Contact Paper

-Stickers

1: Cut your contact paper to the size you want (you will need two per place mat)

2: Take backing off one of your contact papers and decorate!

3: Adults this is where it gets tricky ... take the backing partly off the second sheet of contact paper and line it up with the decorated sheet. Then carefully press the two together while trying to minimize bubbles and wrinkles. THIS IS A ONE SHOT DEAL .... I know sorry! But it is a kids craft and does not have to be perfect, plus you can trim the edges after.

4: Place on your table and feel the LOVE!

*When doing it for a highchair try you only need one sheet and will need to decorate it in the reverse!

We also love your little traditions like heart shaped pink pancakes and pink milk. Last year I used extras from our place mats to make a little garland that I would not mind if it got destroyed. We also hang up hearts  on the walls and cupboards and window stickers all around the house.

Super M Turns1

Superman 

Dinner Party for M

 Mr. Super M recently had his first birthday and was so happy to be allowed to destroy his smash cake!!!

I decided that because M doesn't really have friends and did not really need presents or a huge celebration that we would just have family over for a dinner party. I made one of his favorite big boy foods ... Lasagna! I asked Grandma to bring a green salad and Mama to bring garlic bread. I also had some fruit and sodas. I used the nice dishes and decorated the room. Instead of a cake I made cupcakes again and decorated them to match his giant cupcake/smash cake. M was so thrilled about everything and loved being the center of the universe for a night! 

Here are the results...  

 One more little treat for my wonderful readers! A year in the Life of Mr. Man!

A Finding Dory Birthday Party

The Party Is This Way ..... I Think!

E is totally in love with the movie "Finding Dory" and insisted that her birthday party be a "Dory Party"!

This is how we did it! Hope you enjoy... 

She even got to pick where we went to dinner that night because I was just too worn out to make anything. We added a "Dory" Balloon and had game areas, but being the busy bee type I didn't get pictures of them. 

Inexpensive Party Favors

Inexpensive "Dory Themed" Party Favors

I didn't want our guests to leave empty handed especially when they were all far to sweet and brought E wonderful gifts! I knew that we couldn't spend a lot and so I shopped around at 5 different stores before I hit the Jackpot at the "Dollar Store".

Yes that is right I got this stuff at the "Dollar Store"!!!

I did have some stuff at home like the bags and the ribbon.

After calculating it out  each favor came to about 65 cents... yep that is right!

 

Baby Puff Bowling Set

Baby Puff Bowling Set

I really wanted to get the kiddos a bowling set because Drew and I love going bowling for date nights. After looking at sets to buy and searching Pinterest, I decided that I already had everything that I needed to make my own set and spend no extra money! Which is always good right... I mean who doesn't love saving money but still getting what you want. 

Things Needed:

-10 Puff Containers (doesn't matter the brand, I wanted to match) 

-Some craft paint or even colored tape (make it personal)

- A ball heavy enough to knock down the pins

- Rice        - Hot Glue

- Fun Stickers and decorations (E decided she wanted "real" pins)

 

Pin the Dory in the Coffee Pot

Pin the "Dory" in the Coffee Pot

In the movie with the help of Hank the Septipus Dory finds her way around in a Coffee Pot, a SippyCup and a Barrel of Fish for Destiny. I decided for E's birthday party to put a spin on the classic "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" and make it "Pin the Dory in the Coffee Pot".

I got some "Finding Dory" wrapping paper on sale after Christmas. I used this to cut out the Dory pictures and used them as my Dory to pin. (I didn't have to find a color picture and make a bunch which was awesome) However I used one of E's color pictures of Hank.(I of course used my copier to enlarge him a bit)I also wanted to be able to play this again with E because she loved it so much so I covered all the parts in contact paper.

 

 All the Kiddos love it and the parents thought that it was very cute! I hope y'all love it too!

-Jenna

Dry Erase Color Pages

Color Pages for Dry Erase

I made this set for E to color while in church or waiting in doctors offices with M. 

What you need:

- 5-7 print outs of free coloring pages you find online or ones that you have already

 (scan and shrink them)

- Laminater or access to one and laminating sheets

(with the 5-7 prints I did two in one sheet)

- Scissors

- Dry Erase (marker, pencil, or crayons)

- Small piece of felt or flannel (an eraser)

Disclaimer: I did not draw any of these and do not own the rights to the color pages. I either printed them from free online cites or already had them and used my scanner to shrink or enlarge them to the size I wanted.

Mama Shaws Gingerbread Boys & Girls

Gingerbread Boys & Girls

-Mama Shaw

Ingredients Needed:

Molasses     Cinnamon 

Shortening    Ginger

Sugar    Salt  

Egg     Flour

Vanilla   Baking Soda

Simmer for 15 minutes:

 -1 cup shortening

-1 cup molasses

Cream together:

 -1 egg

-1 cup sugar

-1 tsp vanilla

Dissolve 2 tsp backing soda in 1/2 cup hot water. Add hot water and soda to egg and sugar mixture.

Sift:

-6 cups flour 

-1 tsp ginger

-1 tsp cinnamon 

-1 tsp salt

-1/2 tsp cloves 

Pat on a piece of wax paper. Then cut with a cookie cutter. Bake for 10 minutes @375 degrees. Cooking time may vary depending on altitude and humidity levels. Just keep an eye on them!

Decorate and Enjoy

*Mama likes to dip the fronts in melted white chocolate chips and let the grand babies decorate with colored gel.

Disclaimer: Also I digitally decorated the cookies above because the kids ate their decorated ones before I could wash my hands and take a picture.

Christmas Traditions

Christmas Traditions We Love

- Spending time with Family!

- Chocolate Advent Calendars 

- Christmas Book Advent (wrap them and the kids can open one a day)

- Making homemade candies

- Building Gingerbread Structures

- Having Gaming Tournaments with loved ones

- Christmas Eve Gift (a set of p.j.s, a movie, popcorn and candy to have a party with before bed)

- The Elf Visit (Clean room, good helper and obedient children get a treat from the elf in their shoes, left outside their bedroom door at night - the two weeks before Christmas) 

- Going to the movies on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day

- P.J. Christmas light drive (everyone in their p.j.s and drive around your neighborhood or town and see all the pretty lights)
- Reading the Birth of CHRIST story from Luke 2
- Making and reading a family Christmas book (I will get a tutorial up when I get the chance - my mother made one when we were kids and made one for each of my siblings) 

I hope you find these as fun and inspiring as we do!
If you have any that you would like to share please feel free to add them in the comments below! 

Building a Gingerbread House & Train Tips

 
Making a gingerbread anything is not the easiest task in the world, but doing it with a three year old is a new experience all its own! Here are some tips and pictures from my first experience building gingerbread structures with little ones. Just a heads up we used sets from the store because I am not a good enough cook!... Maybe next year.

Tips:

- Try to put most of the pieces together before you let the little ones in on it.(ours kept falling down when E tried to help and it wasn't done drying yet) Or get an already constructed one!(yes they make those now!)

- If you really want one that looks good for others to see you probably want to get more than one. 

- I got some extra colored gel which E loved and we used on the train. It helped add color without having to stick more stuff on it. (our kit came with some but we needed extra)

- Powdered Sugar works amazing as a light sugar dusting through a sifter. (I didn't use it this year because I didn't want E to get it all over, but I have used it in the past.)

- I like to put mine on a piece of cardboard covered in tinfoil.(It looks nice!)

- Be prepared to have kiddos on a sugar high!

- If you do not plan on eating the cookies you can also use glue instead of icing. It tends to dry faster and hold stronger.

- Allow the kids to have fun! Even if it looks crazy and all the decorations are on one side of the structure it will still be amazing!

Pictures:

My mom and E decorating the ginger-trees

The Beautiful Trees E and Grandma made!

 

Our ginger-train coming together

Finally a finished Train!

Disclaimer: Tips are not guaranteed as this is just from my personal experience. I did use store bought kits as I am not a good cook.

Adventures in Potty Training

Okay, so my little girl E is almost 3 and with my baby boy M in diapers, I was so ready to be done with changing two sets of diapers all day long!

I started off reading everything I could find on potty training and how to potty train girls. I had asked almost every mom I know that has potty trained kids for advise. I was ready or at least I thought I was. 

So it began. I had a few extra days off for Thanksgiving Break and figured what the heck I will make it my mission to get E trained before Christmas! I decided that for the short amount of time I had that we were going to go cold turkey. (Yes I do realize the irony of going cold "turkey" on Thanksgiving Break)

Day 1:The first morning was by far the worst and a true test of my patients. I knew from all my research that it would be "hard" but my heavens was that an understatement! We had 4 accidents just in the first two hours and I almost gave up. I got my hubby on board with it and that yes we were actually going to do it over the break and stick with it. Between the two of us things finally started to click and E was going in the potty. We still had accidents when mommy and daddy forgot to ask her every ten minutes if she had to go but they became fewer and farther between. 

Day 2: "Alright we can do this" had become our motto for the day. We started the day with an accident but stayed dry for two whole hours after that! It was Thanksgiving Day and we were planning on going over to my mom and dads that afternoon for dinner and then to my grandmas house for games with the extended family. Boy was I nervous about taking her out of the house! We put a towel and and bag under her bum in the car seat and prayed that we could make the drives without an accident. I really shouldn't have been that worried, E was amazing and made all the drives dry and even started to ask to go potty! There was light at the end of the tunnel.

Day 3: E woke up asking to go potty and did it! She was really starting to be proud of herself every time she went in the potty. Hubby and I kept up with asking her every ten minutes and she stayed dry for hours and hours, almost the whole day.

Days 4-7: E was amazing and even got to the point on day seven that she took herself to the potty without having to be asked or helped! 

Yes accidents still happen and they are bound to for a while, but we are going to make it. Moms and Dads out there you can do it too. I know not every child is just like my E and that schedules can be hard to work around, but YOU CAN DO IT!!! Every parent needs to know and be told that they can and I am here as proof and to tell you that it can be done. 

Happy Potty Training,
Jenna

Colored Beans

Hey Y'all 

Okay so for my first Craft I am going to show you how I made these awesome Colored Beans for my kiddos to use as a sorting and mixing game!

I hope you enjoy this and your kiddos have fun learning colors and sorting!