Our littlest superhero.

I was inspired to make Zion a little superhero shirt to play in around the house.  It was super simple and super cheap.  AND she looks super cute.  The only thing that I had to sew was the cape to the shoulders of the shirt. The "s" on the shirt and lightening bolt on the cape are attached using iron on adhesive.  A fun and virtually no sew addition to the dress up bin.

Yeah, I'll admit it...

We LOVE Angry Birds around here.  I mean, we really love it.  I haven't bought any merchandise or anything, but I will play.  A LOT!  And the girls love it too.  I don't mind them playing, but they will veg out in front of the computer forever if I'd let them.  Now I'm not a huge fan of them having tremendous amounts of screen time, so they don't get to play very much.  So, to satisfy their need for destroying questionably stable structures inhabited by pigs, I decided to make them a table top (or floor) version.  Actually, they started building their own Angry Birds games using blocks and dinosaurs and dollhouse people.  So, technically this was their idea.  I just spruced it up for them a little bit.  The pigs are just some little wooden balls that I had in our craft bin and the birds are rubber balls from the dollar store (they came three in a bag).  Total cost for this project?  $1 (plus tax) and about an hour total of painting.   I will post pictures of them playing when the sun comes up.  It's too dark in our house right now for my little point and shoot to get a good picture.  But they are playing happily, I assure you.

And completely off topic, I have been having trouble posting comments to my own blog (probably me doing something wrong), but I always want to respond when you all comment.  Know that I do read and appreciate whenever I get comments!

Bijou's Dinosaur Tea Party

Bijou is five years old today.  I know I say it every time a birthday rolls around, but I can hardly believe that she's five already!  She has had such a big year.  She learned to ride a two wheeler, tie her shoes, got glasses and learned to read.  So what better way to celebrate such a big year than to have cinnamon pancakes, scrambled eggs and hot chocolate for breakfast and then a dinosaur tea party? And that's just what we did.  The party is over and Bijou and her friends had a great time.  I'm tired and glad it's over.  Here are some lovely pictures for you to enjoy!

I made fossil shortbread cookies.  The cookies kind of puffed for some reason while they were baking, so the fossils weren't as defined as I would have liked.  I dusted them with a patina of cinnamon to make the edges stand out a little better.

Dinosaur birthday cake (white cake with raspberry lemon buttercream frosting) surrounded by chocolate rocks.

Thanks to our local Goodwill, we are now the proud owners of a bajillion tea cups.  I am sure they will be put to good use.

Dinosaur garland...

The entire spread.  There were cheese sandwiches, jam sandwiches, fossil cookies, chocolate rocks, peppermint tea, pink lemonade and birthday cake.  Oh and of course a multitude of prehistoric table dwellers.

The birthday girl.  We had a Cosby Show moment before getting dressed for her party.  Remember the episode where Rudy wants to wear the summer dress to the fall party and her mother wouldn't let her?  That was us this morning.  But just like the Cosby Show, it all worked out in the end and she looked perfectly cute in her sweater dress.

Last, but not least, I thought I would share the gift that I made for her.  She'd been bugging me forever to make her a wooden camera.  So I gathered a few blocks from her room, some other random wooden bits and some paint.  Voila, homemade camera.  Nothing like a present that doesn't cost me a dime.

Wooden Block Upgrade for the Kiddos

Our house has an abnormal number of wooden blocks. I think it may be some sort of obsession on my part, but I'm trying to get it under control. It's one of those toys that the kids play with, but not often. So I decided to give some of the plain blocks a little makeover. Here's what I came up with.

I added very simple architectural details with black sharpie. Nothing too complex and there wasn't a lot of emphasis on straight lines or perfect circles.




Maybe the blocks will get a little more use now. They did, at least, play with them this morning.

Fun with playdough

I'd been promising the girls for months that I would get them some playdough when we got the art room together. It took months, but we've finally put our unused laundry room to use as the kids' art room. It has been a VERY welcomed addition to the house. I'm not sure who thinks that carpet is good for a house with children, but we have been blessed/cursed with a lovely house covered in carpet. Because of that, there has been very little paint or playdough used over the last year. So this morning while waiting F-O-R-E-V-E-R for Zion prescription to be filled at Walmart, I decided to finally get the girls some playdough. They played Ace of Cakes and Food Network Challenge (Cake Off) all day (except for when I forced them to do some math and reading). Jena created her own playdough island, complete with waves in the water. I'm sure some day soon I will have pictures of 8 tier wedding cakes draped in flowers.