Elf Magic...!

Our Brand Spankin New Tradition this year is our little friend Emilio...!

Elf Magic is a site where you can get your Elf that comes and stays with your family until Christmas Eve and then comes back next year during Christmas {although they have been known to come on special occasions and visit.}

Isn't he adorable?! Maelyn told me "Mom, why did Santa give us an elf that looks like Daddy?" {Hhmm....guess I didn't notice when I picked him out. I am kind of parcel to Daddy...!}

Noe and I re-named him because I didn't like his real name too much.

On the site you can pick out how they look, what size, what gender, etc.

Each night, we sprinkle Magic Snowflakes on him that makes him come alive at night. He does all sorts of things called "Elf-capades!"

The first night we got him....was the night before my birthday. The kids had put all the gifts they bought me on the table. My daughter bought me donuts for breakfast, I guess.

Emilio ate them...!

 The kids woke up so surprised. It was hilarious!

This was the bed Maelyn made for him. We ran out of crackers, which he loves to eat, so he got cornflakes. They sprinkled Magical Snowflakes on him before bed.

 Emilio stayed up and played with the Lego's..!

He built a little house {I hope he wasn't flirting with Lego Girl!}

More surprises that the kids are just loving...!

When you buy an Elf {or are chosen to have one by Santa} you can start the Elf-capades whenever you want. It doesn't have to be so far in advance. We just wanted to have some fun with it this holiday season..!

Every few days, I will post more of our Elf-Capades. If you have an Elf or are going to get one, let me know what types of things you have done..! Pictures would be fun to see {wink!}

Thanksgiving {2010}

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my husband's side of the family this year. My Grandparents came to visit the day before, so we got to visit with my family that Wednesday.

Noe has 5 siblings. All of them came except one brother who got called into work last minute...but his wife and kiddos got to come.

I couldn't decide on what to do for placecards this year. We made some Apple Pie Jam to put on their plates. I don't know...I thought it looked cute?!

 My four lovies...!

 Some appetizers.. {Noe loves taking pictures of the food...his favorite part of any holiday!}

 {Tia painting Carmendee's nails}

 {My in-laws!} 

 Noe and his siblings...! 

 {Me and my brother and sister in law!}

 {The kiddos playing DDR}

 {Game of Chess going on..we're party animals!}

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and many blessings were poured out onto you...!

Coloring Pasta

Ever wondered how to color pasta for a project?

As you guessed, it's really easy....just really easy to make it soggy if not done right...!

Gather your materials....

sandwich bags, liquid food coloring, rubbing alcohol, pasta and waxed paper.

 Put a few drops of rubbing alcohol in a bag with a few drops of food coloring.

Add your pasta of choice. I choose these noodles because we are making necklaces with them, but any noodles would be cute to create art with.

Close the bag and toss the pasta around to coat.

Lay your pasta onto waxed paper.

Do another color in another bag.

It takes a couple hours to dry once on waxed paper. I usually do it at night and wake up to it dried and ready to work with. 

I made enough this time for all the kiddos coming for Thanksgiving. I was thinking we would make little Native American Necklaces out of these.



Smooth Birthday...!

We had to buy for four Birthdays in one week.

So, I decided to do something simple, yet practical.

We bought lotions from Bath and Body Works {BTW, the special right now is buy 3 get 3 free!}

On the tags, we wrote "Hope your Birthday was SMOOTH!" and "Hope you have a SMOOTH Birthday!"

I love Lotion...so I really hope they liked these and everything went SMOOTHLY when they got them...! 

Friday Book Project {T is for Turkey}

For Friday Book Project, we read the book T is for Turkey.

The kids then made Turkey's out of Paper Towel Rolls to go with their reading.

Noe helped me out yet again with this project. I decided to make the turkey feathers out of the paper towel roll and then couldn't decide where to go from there. Suncatcher? Paint the feathers? Cut a circle for the body out of construction paper?

Noe stepped in and took over.

The book is cute. It's not one of their favorites, just because it gets a little boring to them. I thought it would catch their attention with the ABC's, but it doesn't. Inside it goes throughout the alphabet and each thing has to do with Thanksgiving. So, it gets kind of long for them. However, it has great pictures.

 Leave it to Dad to save the project.

Do you have any Thanksgiving children's books that you can recommend?

Letter From {Mickey!}

Mickey Mouse sent the kids a letter...!

While we were at Disneyland, we didn't get to see Mickey or Minnie or even Donald. None of the classics. The kids were kind of disappointed. Carmendee's favorite show is Mickey's Playhouse, so she really wanted to see them. I just thought a cute letter delivered to the kids would be nice.

 Mickey's handwriting is hard to perfect...!

Just a fun little note for them to add onto our Disney experience...!

{I have to say, Carm hasn't let it out of her site. She takes it everywhere!}

Get Organized This Thanksgiving...!

I have a Handy Dandy Download that I made for you all. Well, especially me so I don't feel scatter brained this Thanksgiving. It is a Grocery Planner and Meal Planner. Download right {HERE!}

Hope it works well for you!

Couldn't Leave Disney Without....

Baking Stuff...!

I know, I know...it's pretty bad. I have a baking supply addiction. I love cute, adorable, pans and sprinkles and cutters and rolling pins and.....oh the list can go on. My poor husband. At least I'm pretty easy to buy for...! He does allow me to buy stuff because I use it! Nothing goes to waste over here!

So when we went to Disneyland and I walked into one of their bakeries, I just had to ask if they would sell me their Mickey Sprinkles...! I had to. They were adorable on top of their cupcakes. It wouldn't be right if they kept them to theirselves. 

I got the sprinkles! You know what else? A Mickey Mouse Cookie Cutter! Oh Joy!

I'll share with you too....my Sugar Cookie Recipe.

 Ingredients

1 1/2 cups softened Butter

2 cups Sugar

4 Eggs

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

5 cups Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Salt

Directions

~In a bowl, cream together butter and sugar until well blended.

~Beat in eggs and vanilla.

~Stir in flour, baking powder and salt.

~Cover and chill dough for at least one hour.

~Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

~Roll out dough on floured surface.

~Cut into shapes with your choice of cookie cutters.

~Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet {I prefer parchament on the sheet, helps to keep cookie shape or my Silpat.}

~Bake 6 to 8 minutes. Cool completely.

Friday Book Project {Turkey Trouble}

For our Friday Book Project we read Turkey Trouble by Lee Harper.

This book is probably my kiddos favorite Thanksgiving book. I alone, have read it close to 10 times to them this week. It's really cute though...!

 We made a couple of different types of turkey projects.

This one that I'm sharing is our Shape Turkey.

She's made entirely out of basic shapes to teach the kids, well Carmendee who's 3. She knows them but it's always good to review over and over and do colors as well.

The body and head are circles.

The tummy is a square.

The feathers are ovals.

The beak is a diamond.

The feet are triangles.

The waddle is a semi-circle.

Oh and Carmendee said "Don't forget the circle eyes!"

Pumpkin Time...!

It's officially that time of year to use pumpkins in everything...!

Don't skimp out because this season doesn't last for long...! {grins}



{Pumpkin Jackolantern Pancakes}

We put pumpkin in all of our breads and foods right now.

 Pumpkin cheesecakes and pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin lattes....!

Mmmm....I love all the spices this time of year that we pair pumpkin up with....nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon.

Simply add pumpkin puree into your mixes. You can use the canned ones or make your own by chopping up a pumpkin after taking out the middle, drizzling with olive oil and baking it until soft {then just puree it with a blender or food processor.}

Here's an easy Pumpkin Butter Recipe.

Have fun in the kitchen using your pumpkin creativity...!

Oh, and just one more....that I couldn't resist. Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts.



Paper Plate Minnie Mouse.

The other day Carmendee and her Daddy made a Minnie Mouse from a Paper Plate.

They turned out pretty cute...! 

 Since she is so young, the pieces had to be cut out from Daddy.

They looked up Minnie on the internet and he asked her what was missing from her face. So, one by one they put the pieces together and she glued everything on.

The older kiddos can do it by theirselves.

This would be a fun decoration or project for a party {maybe for the younger ones, have pieces already cut out.}

How sweet would it be made into a mask as well?!

Thankful Board...!

My mantel needed a little something on it for Thanksgiving.

I've been working on some boards that people have bought from me {thank you very much, I could always use extra money.} I thought a nice board would take up some mantel space and still look cute...!

I started off with a white board cut 2 feet long.

Sand it all down. This board was nice. I can't stand boards that I have to sit and sand forever long...!

 I applied a bottom coat to the board. Now, I totally recommend spray paint for this part...however, I ran out of brown 2 days ago and wasn't going to go buy any. So, I used acrylic paint.

Brown, black and white...I think look best for bottom coats.

Put a one even coat of Weathered Wood onto the board after your bottom paint dries.

This takes 30-60 minutes to dry. 

After that, choose what colors you want for the top coat. Mixing different colors looks really neat with the weathered wood technique.

See how the weathered wood gives it a crackled aged look?

 Once dry, add your vinyl.

I used the All Mixed Up Cricut Cartridge.

To match the brown bottom coat, I used a dark brown vinyl.

All finished and looking pretty good...! 

I get excited for projects that don't cost anything...!

Minnie Clippie.

First off, I hope the links on the side for some of the projects make it a little easier for you all to find stuff faster. I myself, think "didn't I do blank last year?" and search through the links and can't find the project...but find it under Friday Book Project or Unplug Your Kids....various categories that I wouldn't remember were there. So, maybe putting some pictures and links out more might help us all?! 

I made some Minnie Clippies a couple of years ago and needed to make some more for my own girls because I sold them all...!

{Sorry about the pictures again, photos in my bedroom are horrible. There is no lighting!}

First thing to do is...cover the clippie with ribbon. I cut my black ribbon to about 4 1/2 inches and covered the clippie using hot glue. Fray check all your ribbon on each step...! If you want to cover the entire clip {this one is upside down but I usually just cover halfway, just the top and side} cut around 7 inches of ribbon. 

 Next.... cut 3 pieces of ribbon at 3 inches, 3 1/2 inches and 4 inches. Hot glue one end to make a circle.

 Cut 2 more pieces of ribbon for the ears at 2 inches each.

Take the 3 larger circles and glue them all together at one point in the circle like the picture below.

 Make a little bow for Minnie.

Cut red ribbon at 3 inches and glue together like a circle. After that put a dot of glue in the middle of the circle and push it down to make a bow. Embellish!

 Glue the ears onto the Minnie head.

Next, glue on the bow.

Lastly, glue it all onto the clippie.

 Make sure it was all frayed by putting fire up to the ends or using Fray Check.

Bad picture, but cute clippie and cute girl...!

Geo Caching...!

We decided to take the family Geo Caching for an outing together.

If you've never heard of it, you should google it! It is so much fun.

Our SIL started doing this awhile ago and told the kiddos that she would pick them up to try it. With our conflicting schedules, we haven't been able to get together to do it. However, the kids have been asking about it since she talked about it. Kids never forget!

We looked up on the internet, coordinates of where people hide little "treasures" for us to find around our area. We then used our GPS to hunt for them.



 The first 3 which were in town, we didn't find anything there.

The next 3 coordinates though where we went more into the country area, we hit the jackpot...!

 The kiddos kept saying they were pirates looking for treasure....! Arg...!

 Noah found something...!

You can either take the treasure and leave something in it's place or just sign the paper with your name and date of when you found it.

Our first day of Geo Caching was really an adventure...!

We got spooked, we crossed a busy highway, we found a dog's paw {yes, disgusting, someone cut off a dog's paw and left it....um sickos}, we found one in a cemetery, and we had way too much fun together.