Ah, Pinterest. What can you not teach me? I have found so many great tutorials and ideas on Pinterest it's just unreal. Many of the ideas on our Summer To Do list came from Pinterest, including this great tutorial on homemade soap and soap clouds.
I'm not sure what we did wrong, but out soap was kinda chunky so our soap ended up with white pieces that didn't take the food coloring. It was still cheap, easy and fun!
If you do this, be careful when you take your soap cloud out of the microwave! Ours was pretty hot in the middle so I made sure to let it cool before letting Amelia dive into it.
Amelia is CRAZY about My Little Pony. OBSESSED! This is the most obsessed she has been with anything her entire life. Problem is, I also love My Little Pony, so I'm vicariously collecting My Little Pony toys through her. There are so many new toys coming out as the Friendship is Magic series grows in popularity, but there are still some special ponies that Amelia loves that aren't out yet. I decided we just had to have DJ PON3 so I custom made one by repainting an existing mini figure.
I used acrylic paint and applied two top coats of Mod Podge. Amelia was super excited and I love how it turned out. Problem now is that she expects me make her tons of custom ponies!
To celebrate the first day of summer (and the last day of school!) Amelia and I decided to hang some crepe paper over the front door before we left to pick Oliver up from school. When we got home we unlocked the door and let Oliver burst through!
Not one to be left out, Amelia busted through the rest of it!
I asked Oliver to show me his face of how excited he was for summer, but he told me he wasn't excited because he missed Ms. Mattingly (his teacher this past year) already. Melt my heart!
Tomorrow is the last day of school for Oliver. I can't believe my two biggest littles are going to be a third grader and a kindergartner. Bananas! Since Oliver's Dad lives out of state and isn't able to see Oliver every other weekend, Oliver spends half of his summer break in Indiana. While this really stinks and we miss him like crazy, I still try to make the entire summer fun for Amelia. I've been compiling my summer to do list of fun things we can do together that will keep Amelia (and Violet!) entertained and keep me from losing my mind. I've included links where applicable.
13. Ride the Horse Drawn Carriage
14. Buy a Sprinkler and Play
15. Make Soap Clouds and Homemade Soap
16. Vacation Bible School
17. A Sleepover with Friends
18. Glow Sticks in the Bath
Sadly the daffodils have already all wilted away in our part of the country, but I was able to capture a few daffodilly (totally a word!) photos a few weeks ago. I looked all over for some daffodils that weren't in someone's yard and I managed to find some blooming outside a broken down house on the edge of town.
I had to basically force them to pose together. This was as close as I could get to smiles, which quickly dissolved into this...
I cannot look at this photo without laughing. Oliver's face KILLS ME. KILLS!
Easter season is upon us! The kids began spring break today and, unfortunately, Oliver spends his spring break in Indiana with his father's family. I'm glad he gets to spend time with them and I know it's very special for him, I just always miss to him to pieces when he's gone. Spring break is two weeks long here, which means Oliver will be out of town for Easter this year. Thankfully our town had a little Easter event in the town square this morning and I was able to snap some Easter-y photos with the kids before Oliver left.
The bunnies were such a hit. They were precious!
They also had chicks.
And ducklings!
Violet refused to pose with the Easter bunny. She wouldn't let him hold her and she was basically climbing up my shoulders to get away from him if we went near him. This was the only picture that she didn't look petrified in. Oliver snapped this one for me.
I have been keeping up with my Project 365, but I haven't been posting them on here. Shameful! Now that we're all settled into our new home I'll get back into the routine of posting my photos weekly. Until then, these are some of my favorites from the past month or so...
Last week was Dr. Seuss week at Amelia's school and to celebrate the school invited the parents to dress up and volunteer to help out. I love any opportunity to help out at the preschool and Amelia loves it when I come spend extra time with her at school. Wednesday was crazy hair day, so Amelia and I dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2.
I felt like an idiot in that wig, but we were a hit with the staff and the kids. I thrifted the red t-shirts and made the Thing 1 and 2 patches with felt and fleece I had in my stash. I used Liquid Stitch to hold them together and attach them to the t-shirts and bought the wigs on sale at a local costume shop. The project cost me around $12 and it was worth every penny.
Thursday was pajama day, but I refuse to go out in public in pajamas (huge pet peeve of mine) so I dressed up as the Cat in the Hat and spent a few hours visiting the classrooms and reading to the kiddos.
The hat and bow were bought at the costume shop (also half off, yay!) and I whipped up the tail in under 5 minutes and drew on whiskers with some eyeliner. I had such a great time! Motherhood is a wonderful excuse to dress up and be silly!
Most of our possessions are out of boxes, but now I'm finding piles of things that don't have a home yet. Ah, the many stages of moving and unpacking. I'm spending today catching up on laundry, working on a very Seuss DIY for Seuss week at Amelia's school next week (photos coming soon!), and listening to this tune. Violet and I are loving to dance to this song! I find it even more endearing that the lyrics were written by kids and then the songs are performed by professional musicians. Awesome.
Hooray for new features! We don't purchase a ton of apps for our iPad or iPod Touch, but when we do purchase an app and ends up being awesome, I like to share this information. It's nice knowing the $.99+ is money well spent.
The first app I want to share is Toca Hair Salon by Toca Boca. This was one of the very first apps I downloaded for the kids and it has been a complete and utter hit. It costs $1.9, but it's so worth it. I originally downloaded this for Amelia since a hair salon game seemed right up her alley, but Oliver has enjoyed this game just as much as Millie. Both kids have played this app for than any other app I've downloaded.
Kiddos can choose from six different clients whose hair they can cut, shave, color, wash, blow dry and more. Josh and I have even played with this app. The game is (in my opinion) awesome visually and inspires creativity. My kids have proven the replay-ability (totes a word) of this app over the past 7 months.
If you want to give it a spin without investing the $1.99, Toca Boca put out a free, very similar app at Christmas: Toca Hair Salon - Christmas Gift. In this app you can style Santa's beard and a Christmas tree -- for free!
We love Toca Boca apps in this family so look forward to my next App-tastic! posts also covering some of our favorite Toca Boca apps.
I'm a few days late posting these, but my first week of Project 365 was a success. I've done a great job remembering to capture a little slice of life every day.
While I'm taking part in Project 365 to improve my photography, I mostly want to capture a little moment of our lives every day. At the end of the year I plan to have all photos printed into a photo book.
Enjoy Week One!
Day One - Traveling with Violet
Violet waking up from a nap on a 3 hour drive to my Dad's house.
Day Two - New Snow
The first snow of the season and of 2012.
Day Three - Squishy Face
Need I say more?
Day Four - Playtime
Playing on the floor with Violet.
Day Five - Floating Away
Playing with my new wireless shutter release.
Day Six - New Shoes
My new shoes, taken by Amelia.
Day Seven - Shopping with Mommy
Just picking up some groceries with Oliver and Amelia.
