Monday, May 30, 2011

Super Munchkin...ish

Munchkin was bathed and in pajamas the other day when she came outside to ask me if she could borrow a fan. Now it has been no where near hot here so I didn't know why she wanted a fan. Turns out she had found a pink cape and wanted to try flying. It just so happened it was windy so I told her she could try outside.
She was pretty upset that it didn't work.

We Have Created LIFE!!!

The majority of the plants made it through Destructo-Squirt. About half of the plants you see, she dumped out at least twice. I have an entire row that could be cucumbers,, zucchinis, or pumpkins.

But, amid the rain and hail, we got the garden planted today.

We planted green beans, summer squash, spaghetti squash, zucchini, cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelon, tomatoes, and corn. I also have some peppers (bell mix and banana) that are still in the process of sprouting in my makeshift greenhouse, aka a clear tote on my back deck.

Hubby was digging posts for my kid deterrent chicken wire fence when he hit a sprinkler pipe. So I got to finish making the rows and planting by myself while he made two trips to Lowes and fixed the pipe...twice.
Now, hopefully everything will grow.

Friday, May 27, 2011

We Love Our Teachers

I am the room mom for my son's 2nd grade class. I love his teacher and was hoping that my daughter would get her next year. But, alas, the teacher is heading to a different school next year to be a vice principal. So during teacher appreciation week, I was in charge of decorating the classroom door. I got it all together and had another Mom put it up for me since hubby's graduation was at the same time. It was a "Recipe for Success" with cookies with the kids faces. Super cute!



I was also in charge of getting together a teacher gift to present on Friday. I bought and embellished an apron and had the kids sign it in fabric marker when I went to help with PE. I also asked for donations--which the parents happily provided. I saw the idea of putting the gift cards together in a scrapbook thing. This seemed like the best idea since she isn't going to be teaching next year. Here is my take on it...made around 10 pm the night before.












We are really sad that Thumbelina won't get to have her next year and we won't even get to see her anymore! But hopefully she had a great year to go out on.

Such a GIRL!

My oldest daughter, Thumbelina, is almost 7. She loves anything with ruffles. She went through a long phase where she would not wear anything I made for her. She would be super excited as I was slaving over the item, but as soon as it was finished, she would cry everytime I tried to have her wear it. Good thing she has 2 younger sisters that I can save it for or I would have given up right then!



She is in first grade now. With that comes school shirts. There is the regular school shirt with the mascot on the front. Then there was a fundraiser which came with another shirt. And don't forget the dance festival where all of the first graders got matching shirts.



The problem with this is the shirts are blah. She won't wear them. So I get the fun and exciting job of trying to refashion them into something she WILL wear. Here is my first take on the fundraiser shirt.
The unaltered shirt on the left and the new 'dress' on the right. But dumb me forgot to wash the shirt before I cut it all up. So that dress goes to little sister and I now have to make another for Thumbelina...with ruffles, she said.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Gearing Up

I have an awkward situation. My daughter's birthday is in August. The beginning of August. So if she wants to have a friend party and invite school friends, I either have to keep track of them over the summer ( yeah, right! I can barely keep track of my own kids over the summer,) or move her party. My two choices for moving the party are either 2 months before her birthday right at the end of the school year, or a few weeks after but during all the beginning of the school year craziness. So I chose now. I have spent about 2 weeks thinking about everything I need to do, and probably two full days actually doing it. But I think I am about done!


We are doing a big party for her next year (carnival themed) so this year is low key. With her approval, we decided on painting birdhouses.

These are from Oriental Trading and came in a 12 pack. So I told her she could invite 11 friends.


We thought about games. My kids love Bingo if we use candy as the markers. Thanks to Martha, I found a Bingo game I could just print out. I did have to make my own calling cards but easy peasy!
Then, I needed to fill up the goody bags. I found this awesome tutorial for fabric pinwheels. I made the girl ones into clips and glued safety pins on the boys ones.


Then, crazy me had to make the goody bags. I found some $2 fabric that kind of resembles those canvas drop cloths and was able to make 12 bags. The boy was my go-to-kid and painted all the birdhouses using a stencil we made.

Add birdseed, bubbles, a soaker ball, some plastic pinwheels, and a monster bookmark. Clip on the fabric pinwheel and we are ready to go.


We were going to put about 150 balloons on the trampoline and let the kids go at it, but wouldn't you know it's supposed to rain. So I need to come up with a backup plan.