More Summer '09 pics! (and poor clownfish)

Here are some more pictures of our fun summer :)





This was precious. We were at the Splash Pad and Brianna was running around calling Connor trying to play with him. But Connor was too busy playing and running around to hear her. I felt so bad for her and it broke my heart. Well he was running past her and he finally heard her calling his name. So instead of being too busy for her, he stopped right there, took her by the hand, and led her around! He brought her through sprinklers and led her carefully around and played with her. He did this many different times and all on his own doing! Oh, be still my heart!




We got this awesome picnic basket from friends of ours as a wedding present almost 7 years ago! Is that not a great wedding gift idea?!




Just a little sidenote from our trip to the zoo:

Id just like to personally apologize to all the clown fish out there who will forevermore be named Nemo. Im sure you all have great cute little names and your own individual personalities. But you will always be Nemo to every adoring child who will ever see you. I am sorry we will never know who you really are.
Sincerely,
The parent of yet another Nemo adoring fan.

Muffin Tin...Tuesday?

So its my first week of MTM and i already forgot to do it yesterday. Sigh. Pathetic i know. So we had a Muffin Tin Tuesday instead. I saw that someone did a numbers theme on theirs and i liked the idea.
1 cup of milk
2 apple slices
3 animal crackers
4 turkey sandwich squares
5 pieces of dried fruit

We counted out each food a couple of times. Connor ate it all!

For more MTM ideas check out- http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/search/label/Muffin%20Tin%20Monday

My First DIY's!!

I have been on a huge decorating kick this past week! All thanks to awesome bloggers like Thrifty Decor Chick! Shes awesome! And soo funny! Anyways, shes very big into making alot of your own things. So ive been checking blogs and sites and looking for ideas. I ended up MAKING (yes, making!) this...


And this...



Heres a close up of the wall:
I am so proud of this! I LOVE it and it looks so pretty in her room, especially over her crib. Heres a little info on how i did it. First i bought these plain wooden letters at Joanns for $1.29 a piece. I couldve bought nice white ones, but they were a dollar more each letter. So i painted them myself since i already had white paint.


Then i looked online for butterfly pics (you can search butterfly images on Google) but ended up finding the perfect shaped one i was looking for on The Print Shop, a computer program we bought a couple years ago. I printed it on a piece of 8 1/2 X 11 cardstock (so it would be thicker than regular printer paper) and cut it out...



And using it as a stencil i traced it onto different colored scrapbooking paper i had also bought at Joanns.


I cut them all out and folded their wings. Originally i folded them this way...


But then i realized i liked the look of them with their wings up instead. So i folded them again and to make sure they would stay out, i left them overnight, folded with a pen against where the body was and held down. By what you may ask?

Well a smoke detector of course! What else?! J/K! It just happened to be there so thats what i used.

Then my awesome hubbie hung the letters (there is a staple on the back of each letter that he pulled out slightly so they would hang on the nails) and i hung the butterflies.


Right now the butterflies are hanging by tape (so not crafty, i know!) but Mike is picking up some velcro strips tonight. So we will cut the velcro into strips small enough to fit onto the butterflies bodies. And one side of the velcro will stick to the wall and the other will stick to the butterfly and we will stick the velcro ends together. Which is nice because if i ever have to take the butterlies down to re-fold their wings or something, i can! Ok, so lets check out my awesome cool craftiness one more time :)

*Sigh* Ok, ill shut up about this. But onto the next thing i made!

This:



A curtain for Miss B's room. I will not go on and on about how i made this. Because actually, it was all in my head! No instructions to follow at all! All i knew was that this is my favorite kind of curtain (See? I dont even know what its called people!) and that i had to have on in her room. I picked two materials i liked (the pink and the teen tiny bit of brown, which isnt showing enough in this pic) and threw it together. I am still shocked i did! B/c i hadnt seen this bad boy..


in about 4 years!! (Ok, thats enough laughing at my million year old sewing machine) Talk about intimidating! This machine gives me the willies! It just stares at me saying "Remember me? Im about to make your life a living nightmare. Turn me on. C'mon, i dare ya". My sewing machine and i definitely have a love-hate sort of relationship. I actually had butterflies when i got it out. This machine and i dont exactly see eye to eye. It loves to just stop working right in the middle of a project and i swear it does it on purpose. And i have no idea how to fix this thing when it stops working! I usually end up screaming at it for 15 minutes as im trying to take it apart and act like i know what im doing. I dont know where this part goes or what this tool does or why its making this noise. And when im almost in tears, it must take pity on me because somewhow it starts working again. And i love it in that moment. I will go along merrily sewing. And then it happens all over again. A love-hate relationship.

But youll never believe this! After not using the thing for 4 years, i had no problems when i sewed that curtain! None! Which is a good thing because i could barely remember how to use it! It must have felt lonely and decided to behave so it didnt end up back in storage for 4 more years. It is being all nice an easy now, but i know what its really like.

Ok, im done babbling about my relationship with my sewing machine, promise. Well, i hope you like my first DIY's! Ive got more in the mix and i will post them when they are done. Im doing everything little by little. Oh hey, any of you have a money tree i could use?

We are all getting crafty!

16 months and 38 months


Our second week with Tot School. We did lots this week!!


Bri played with some cards from the Baby Einstein Language Box.













And with her shape sorter. Shes able to put in some of the easier pieces, like the circle, square, flower. The others she needs help with.








Connor played with his Thomas Dominoes. We didnt actually play dominoes with them though. He just liked setting them up in rows and finding the green trains. Green is his first favorite color!










Connor made this cute little guy out of an egg carton, pipe cleaners, some paint and googly eyes.










Brianna painted for the first time ever. She LOVED it!! She cried and cried when i said we were done and took the paint away. I had to throw that paint away b/c she mixed the colors so much, they were all dark gray by the time she was done.








Here's what her finished picture looks like :) It took a loong time to dry!










We started a new game on a whim one day. Connor had brought the comforter off of our bed and into the LR. They were climbing on it and i started pulling them around across the floor and voila! The Blanket Game was formed. They both LOVE it! They eventually started standing on it and laughing soo hard when i would pull it and they would fall, sometimes onto eachother. We did this for over 20 min, until i fell onto the couch exhausted!




I got out the Fisher Price stacking rings for Bri. We hadnt played with them in a long time.












We played with Connor's Animals learning mat. He got this as a present for his first bday i think it was? It came with a set of different board books. It has questions around it like "Which animals walk on 2 feet?", "Which animals may live on a farm?".















Here's what the other side looks like.













I copied this cute watermelon craft from A Mommy's Adventures.











Hes using his finger to make the seeds. We didnt have black, so we used brown.

























Bri painted again too, which she was happy about! This time i learned and only put one color in a tiny Pyrex cup. So no need to throw any away.








Mommy got the pots and pans out to drum on so she could get some things done!










We also played this great 56 piece Cookie Matching Game from Oriental Trading! I just bought it this week, for only $5.50!!

(Im not sure why this pic is coming out sideways, lol)












Connor made these while at Half-Pints Camp at the YMCA. Its a camp for 2-4 year olds. Connor goes every Tues and Thurs from 9-11:30, for two weeks. He loves it and i love the alone time i get with bri. This was his first week and he will go again next week.





Connor and Brianna werent the only ones getting crafty this week. Mommy went to work and made this...










And this!! I am so proud of both :)











Im so excited because i ordered these trays to start doing Tot Trays soon! I cant wait!! See you all next week!

Tot School

Our first week of Tot School! I am sooo excited! Check it out if you want to know more.

I took the kids out one afternoon to paint on the easel. Connor loved it!


I had him on one side painting on tall white paper.


I had Bri on the chalkboard side, 'painting' with water.


The next time we do this, i will have them paint separately though. Brianna found the paint and then proceeded to paint her hand and make a mess. Notice the big paint glob on her dress. I only turned my back for a second! But thats all it takes i guess.



Anyways, they did have a fun time with it and Connors pics came out so cute. Here they are:



Connor also blew bubbles with these amazing Dollar Store (!) bubble wands!



Brianna used Fisher Price TaDoodles markers. Um, i dont recommend them for this age. Notice the marker all over her hands and um, face? I bet the TaDoodles crayons would work better for her at this age.



Here are some of Brianna's favorite books. We borrow them from the library pretty frequently.


















I bought this frog wand from the dollar section at Joanns. Connor painted it and we stuck it in the garden. I just hope the paint doesnt wash off when it rains. If so, ill have to invest in some water-proof paint.














We went mini golfing too!