Good Morning Sunshine!!

In honor of the first day of summer vacation, I made sunshine pancakes for breakfast. We don't need to mention that we didn't actually see the sun until after two. They were super simple to make and got easier with a little practice.

I started with basic pancake mix, yellow food coloring and a squeeze bottle (Target $ spot) I also had some yellow sugar in the cabinet so I sprinkled that on at the end with a little butter to help it stick.

Using the squirt bottle, I made a spiral circle first and then quickly made the rays. I learned you want 7 or more rays or else it will look like a star (yes, I know the sun is a star but I was going for the iconic summertime sun, not a holiday star)

Ta-Dah!

Summer Break starting off right!!

♥Enjoy your Freedom♥ Gift Card holder

Our family knows a couple who are thinking about starting a family...they also have birthdays close to one another...so my husband and I decided it would be fun to encourage them to get out and have fun, while it is still easy to do and doesn't require the planets to align, clovers to be found and lamps to be rubbed. I may be exaggerating a bit, but sometimes that's what it feels like to get out without the kiddos.

I put together this card to hold the gift cards

(their initials are C & G)

First I gathered my materials...printed out some clipart, found some coordinating paper, along with a gift card to a local wine bar and movie tickets.

Fold the 12x12 paper to make 6 squares, then cut out the top 2 rectangles

Start assembling...cover

first flap

inside top flap

Inside middle

I attached the giftcards to the top flap using a cute paperclip

TA-DAH!

Get your GREEN on

St. Patrick's Day is a favorite holiday in this house. My 8 year old LOVES making Leprechaun traps and now after reading the first Artemis Foul, he is even more crazy about it. Here are some of his traps from last year...

My favorite was the old shoe and hammer he used to attract the green guy's attention...because Leprechauns are believed to be the shoemakers for fairies...along with the letter he wrote offering peace in a weird abduction kind of way.

Traps 2011 already started and now my almost 3 year old is getting in on the act. In the mean time, I've started "Greening Up" the house. We want to make those Leprechauns comfortable if they do happen to stop by and visit.

Last month I re-purposed an old photo frame for Valentine's Day. Now it's ready for St. Patrick's day for under 60 cents. Gotta love that!! (I had to buy green glitter)

First I found these fun silhouettes in Google Images...printed them out and then cut cut cut (see, yet another reason why I need one of those fancy Silhouette machines!)

After they were cut out, it was time to glue and glitter. Glitter makes me really HaPpY!

I used a little gold glitter glue for the top of the pot of goldMounted each silhouette on a patterned paper I printed from here

There you go...aren't they cute!

Here is a view of the other side of the entertainment center

This ADORABLE four leaf clover printable can be found here

I printed this sign from a quote I found surfing around for an Irish saying. I painted the background with more gold glitter gold...oh how I love glitter!!

Think those Leprechauns will like this??

Heart Marshmallow Pops

I am so HaPpY with how these turned out! Super Easy and Super Cute!!

Supplies:
Heart Shaped Marshmallows (Walmart)
White Chocolate Chips
Lollipop Sticks
Misc Toppings
Sprinkles, M&Ms, Nerds, Melted Chocolate
Assemble the Marshmallows on the sticks. I played around with the arrangement. I found one down and one up worked best.

Next I melted the white chocolate, filled up a ziplock, snipped off the corner of the bag and drizzled away. I did the same with the milk chocolate on some and added the sprinkles.

So Good! And a BIG HIT with the Kiddos too!!

I used these as teacher treats...SUPER CUTE!!!

All you need is ♥

Another Easy Valentine's Decoration on the CHEAP!!

I've LOVED seeing this quote on all sorts of signs, so I decided to make my own version with no $$.

Step 1. Type the quote. I played around with the fonts for a bit, trying to find a good combo. I used Robot Teacher & Teenage Girl 2. ( Not sure where I found those fonts but I know they were free because I've never paid for a font)

Step 2. Using yet another extra frame, I wrapped the back with some Valentine's gift wrap

Step 3. I outlined the LOVE with some glitter paint to add some dimension and sparkle.

Wrap it up with a bow! AND DONE!

Gotta Make this one too!

OK, so I think I need to rename this blog...."Stop procrastinating and pack Logan's lunch!"

Again, I've had my eye on this for a long time and I think it would be PERFECT for Caden. He always is asking "Where are we going today?" "And after that, where are we going?"

You can find the info here...BTW - the writer of this blog has a beautiful name! hehehe
You should check out the rest of her stuff! Great ideas!!!

Menus made easy

I've had my eye on these for a while now...I love the idea of having all the regular dinner ideas at your fingertips to try and eliminate the weekly..."what will I make for dinner this week?" chore. I also know that if I go back to work next year, I'm going to need to be much more organized...YIKES! This is the best one I've found so far! The step by step tutorial can be found here. By posting this, I hope to motivate myself to get this done!

Happy Valentine's Day for Crayon out loud!

I just LOVE the idea of passing out Valentine's day cards!! Here are the ones we made last year.

I had seen this idea a while back (probably in FamilyFun) and knew this was a perfect Logan project.

Starting with a bunch of left over crayons, we peeled off the paper and filled up these cute cupcake molds, melted them in the oven @250 degrees for 10-15 minutes and

Voila! a cute little heart shaped rainbow crayon was born.


For the cards, I had Logan design one...he cut out the heart and wrote "You color my world" and then I scanned and copied it...then I glued the crayons to each card and he filled in the to:____ part. He wants to make them again this year but add a warning "this is a crayon not a candy" I guess there was some confusion last year :)

UPDATE: These are the new versions for this year.

For our Valentine's Playdate

For Caden's preschool class

For Logan's class