Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Little Jake...on the move


This is my latest layout. I made a promise to myself this week to try to complete at least one layout a week. Now these layouts may not be the most original or embellished layouts you've ever seen, but I will try! For this layout, I took all my photos to the store and wandered around until I found paper that went with Jake's outfit. It's a cute one-piece velour outfit from Gymboree. I just love Gymboree! And these cool papers are from the Lil' Man collection by Cosmo Cricket. I used Cheerful Charlie, Michievous Max and Silly Sam...aren't those awesome names for paper!? (Do check Whimzee's for this whole collection!) I was trying to get a great close up photo of Jake and I also shot some video. I wanted to get some video of him while he was just crawling around and not walking yet. Now that he IS walking, I'm really glad I got some photos & video of him crawling around the house. He loves it when he thinks you're chasing him. He crawls 5 or 6 steps and then stops, turns around and starts giggling.

I just thought I'd share my newest creation, I'm so excited about it. It's my first experiment with stitching on a layout. At first I wasn't too excited about how the stitches turned out, but the more I look at it, the happier I am. I'm happy that I tried something new and stuck to my guns. I wanted the stitches to look like the stitches shown all over these the Lil' Man collection papers. I found myself wanting to go back & add extra stitches to connect my first separated ones. I may still do that....not sure yet. OK, I know that's not sticking to my guns, but I haven't done it yet & I've shared it with you, so that's pretty good! The photos on the left were my attempts at getting a great shot of Jake's face. He was moving around so much I could never get his whole head in one shot. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to include them, but I kept on looking at them and decided I love them. They show exactly what he was up to this particular day....MOVING!

Monday, March 30, 2009

I need a vacation from my vacation...

After our trip to the Seattle area, the kids & I finally made it home late Saturday night. It didn't take too long into the trip for me to start wondering whether I was the one who was on vacation. Maybe it was Dave...home alone after work watching all the games of the NCAA tournament, quiet house, sleeping however many hours in a row he chose...yes, Dave was the one on vacation! I did learn that traveling with a 14 month old and an 8 year old has its challenges. Like getting them both breakfast at my friend's house, while listening to Jake scream! Like being responsible for packing & unpacking everything, while hoping Delaney & my friend Laura could keep the little guy happy & away from the sorts of dangers a curious boy can find in a new place! I could go on & on...but then it would seem like the vacation wasn't any fun. We definitely had lot's of fun! I'll fill you all in on the details later...I've gotta go get the vacation laundry started.

OH, and there is some NEWS...Jake started walking all over the place during the trip. He LOVED the ferry trips and I think the rocking & vibrations of the boat really helped him keep his balance and have the confidence to toddle all over the boat making lot's of new friends!

Off to the laundry! :)

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Off on a holiday

Just thought I'd post a quick note. I'm off to Seattle in the morning with the kids. It's Spring Break here in Oregon and after the big hoopla of Delaney's birthday & slumber party, it's going to be nice to be away for a few days. We're heading to Seattle and Bainbridge Island to visit my friend Laura. I can't wait to see here & use her place as home base to explore the island and ride the ferry over to Seattle to eat our way through Pike's Place Market. Mmmmm....I'm thinking tiny doughnuts sound awesome right now! It will be Jake's first ferry ride, Delaney's so excited to take him on a trip. We're hitting Rainforest Cafe on the way up for lunch. We'll have lunch with our friend Christine & her boys. Delaney loves animals and has been asking to eat at Rainforest Cafe since we ate at the one in Disneyland. If the weather is nice enough, we'll visit the Woodland Park Zoo, with our membership at our zoo, it's free. So that makes a great addition to our Spring Break vacation on a budget. I'll give everyone a little kid friendly review of all the places we visit when we get back.

Enjoy the rest of your week and chat with you next week!

Friday, March 20, 2009

CHEERS! Join me at Ann's VGNO

If you haven't tried it yet, you really must...yes, you really must! Head on over to Ann's Virtual Girls' Night Out over at Ann Again...And Again. See you there!

Join JulieChats at The Ultimate Blog Party 2009

OK, one quick reminder to all of you bloggers out there, be sure to join in the fun at 5 Minutes for Mom's Ultimate Blog Party 2009. You can win cool prizes and meet tons of other Mom Bloggers.

Ultimate Blog Party 2009

Here are the prizes I'd love to win, I can't believe how long the list is! And of course, as usual I WANT EVERYTHING!

3 Happy Panda Gift Card
4 TottieBEAN t-shirt
41 Simply Precious Necklace
49 Jillians' Workout DVD (I NEED this one!)
53 Signing Time DVD
58 Kitchen Aid Mixer (promise I'd cook with it!)
71 Mom & Daugther Flip Flops
91 Scrabble Pendant
101 PR in your PJ's (NEED this too!)
Gift Cards to help with my current money shortage...19, 21, 22, 26, from Target, 118 from Old Navy or 123 from Kohl's...who couldn't use those?!

See you at the party! Now...back to organizing my scrapbook space so the girls can have their slumber party in here!

Happy Birthday to Delaney!



HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY DELANEY!

Well, her birthday is really tomorrow, but I'm thinking we'll be a bit busy getting ready for her slumber party to do a post.

So here I go...

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday Dear Delaney!
Happy Birthday to you!


Love, Mommy

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Getting Ready for the Tie Dye Slumber Party


Well, I think I'm doing pretty well on the housework side of things. I don't ever get all the things done that I think I can, so I'm learning to be ok with what I can get done. Still some things left to do though....

I'm looking all over the internet getting things together for Delaney's birthday party this weekend. She's having a Tie Dye Slumber Party. Including herself, she'll have 7 girls. That seemed like a good number and it isn't too big a group to be able to tie dye shirts (in the garage since it will probably rain). I found a lot of cool ideas for this party on the Cookie Magazine site. They have a great party idea section and a Tie Dye Party was on their list. Check out their ideas & photos of the Tie Dye Party here. Their party happens all outside in the yard during the summer, oh how nice that would be!

I bought the t-shirts & tie dye kit at Michael's. I'm going to be using the Tulip Ultimate Tie Dying Kit. This kit has 5 colors of dye in bottles ready to mix, with an extra packet of each color dye, in case you run out. I've been looking all over the web for tie dying techniques. I was a bit disappointed to find out that everyone recommends 100% cotton shirts for tie dying, as the sale ones I bought at Michael's for $2 each are 50% cotton / 50% polyester. Different sites say different things, but I was able to find one with photos showing the difference between 100% cotton & 50%/50% after they are tie dyed. More proof you really can find everything on the internet. This lady recommended putting the dye on damp shirts, so we'll do that, she said the dyes might work better on the 50%/50% fabric when it's wet. The real difference between the two fabrics according to her is that the 100% cotton turns out brighter. So maybe our tie dyes will be pastel this time. But I don't think a bunch of 7 & 8 year olds will care. I picked up extra gloves at the $1 store and some bags of rubber bands. Both things come with the kit, but I'm not sure there are enough gloves or rubber bands for our big group plus a few adults to help out. I also bought some extra plastic dish pans so that each girls can have one and hold her shirt over it when applying the dye.

So the girls will make their tie dyes as soon as they arrive. I'll put them in plastic ziplock bags and let them sit. Right now my plan is to the let shirts sit overnight and wash them in the morning, so we can get a big group photo of everyone in their tie dyes.

For dinner I'm going to make Mini Deep Dish Pizzas I saw on the Rachel Ray Show. I'm going to change the recipe a bit and put out all sorts of kid friendly pizza toppings, so each girl can make her own. On one of the sites I found some cut tie dye cupcakes. Just make regular cupcakes, frost them in white. Then take two different colors of frosting gel pens, make a large circle of gel in one color on the top and then a smaller circle of gel in another color inside of the first one. Next, take a toothpick and draw lines in the gels from the center to the outside of the cupcake. You will drag the colors through each other creating a tie dye effect on the top of your cupcake. Delaney wants to make all the cupcakes before the girls get here or else I'd let each kid decorate her own.

Delaney and her friends love to do crafts & play games, so I'm going to put out some beads for making necklaces or bracelets and then do some simple games. We did find one craft that fit in with our tie dye theme. We're doing to use Delaney's Lite Brite Flash Art FX Spin Art machine to create fun tie dye looking art. This machine is cool, it has a black light and plays music, showing off the fluorescent paints especially well. Since we already had the machine, it makes a cheap craft for the kids. Also, I wasn't able to find any refills in my area this week, so I'm going to be cutting some cardstock paper to fit the machine. I know that you can order the refill paper online, I'm just a bit late in starting my search.

So those are my tie dye party plans for now. We'll see what actually happens as the party goes along! I always try to over plan and then just sit back & see what happens. I usually have a few games or activities that never get accomplished. But I'd rather have too many things for the kids to do and then see how things are going. If someone is bored or things are getting to crazy, I can gather everyone for a game. Delaney & her friends usually just like the free time to hang out together and that's fine with me too! I have a couple friends coming to help Dave & I and we're going to have a few margaritas while we hang out, helping the girls when they need us.

But I'd better get back to work or my plans to be "over-planned" will fall by the wayside! Hope everyone has an awesome weekend and a fun Spring Break, if yours is next week. I'm heading up to visit a friend in Seattle with the kids for a few days, so we'll tell you all about our adventures after that!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Getting off to a Good Start

Hi everyone! I just wanted to stop in & welcome my new followers! I had a great time Friday night at Ann's VGNO, skipping around the web, reading, chatting & commenting on a bunch of cool blogs that I haven't read before. I'm following some new ladies, check out their latest posts under who I'm reading. And some of them are following me too! Thanks! :)

After the sickness at our house last week, and feeling just plain depressed, I've got a new lease on life this week. And I really need to! I've got a lot to do and not that much time to do it in. Saturday night is Delaney's 8th Birthday slumber party. We're having a tie dye theme and I've got some planning & prep work to do for it. In addition to cleaning up my totally dirty house. Spending a few days with everyone in bed, sick, is a great way to get completely behind in your chores, that's for sure!

So I'd better head off to do the dishes, laundry, dusting, vacuuming, sweeping....need I say more! Except that I should make a coffee on my way through the kitchen! Have a great week!

Friday, March 13, 2009

YEAH...it's Friday and time for Ann's VGNO

If you haven't participated yet, Ann's Virtual Girls' Night Out is THE place to be for all you bloggers hanging out at home on a Friday night in your PJ's. Please check it out! You'll have the chance to meet tons of other bloggers you'd never met otherwise....and get them to come check out your blog, for FREE! :) Just join the list and check your blog often to see who comes by for a visit! Happy Early St. Patrick's Day! Like I need another reason to have a cocktail on a Friday night! Thanks Ann!

My Shamrock 3 ...can't wait to read yours

3 Places I'd Rather Be:

1 Negril, Jamaica
2 Kauai
3 Sunriver, Oregon

3 Thinks I'll Never Drink Again:

1 Anything with a Cuban Cigar for a chaser.....trust me, just don't do it!
2 Red Bull & Vodka, if I've had any liquor before that point!
3 Buttermilk...I'm with Ann on this one!

3 People I'd Like to Pinch for Not Wearing Green:

1 Patrick Dempsey
2 George Clooney
3 President Obama....just think it would be fun to cause a stir!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

A New Place to Go for Support!

Oh, how I love reading about other parents in my predicaments or who are enjoying my giddiness over the latest baby product. Ann over at A Latte in the Morning, posted about New Parent. I just signed up. It looks like a lot of fun. They've got parenting forums, blogs & discussion groups. I'm always excited to share fun new sites with everyone, so check it out. I'm going to get right over there & sign up for the toddler group. It's been 8 years since I've been at this stage and I think this time will be very different. Jake's already opening drawers & cabinets that his sister never cared about. I found him on the bathroom floor shaking his newest "rattle" the other day, aka a bottle of Zantac. When I saw the sly smile on his face, I immediately ripped the bottle out of his hand, opened it and washed one down with a glass of water....seriously, one more POTY nomination for me! (Parent of the Year, as my friend Teresa always says) Apparently I'm leading in nominations right now! And it sounds like this new site is the perfect place for me to head for some babyproofing advice or at least to rant & rave about how different Jake is from the little angel I call Delaney!

Baby Things

I was just reading a post on Now with Baby, Joanna talks all about her little guy & what he's doing now. It just made me think that I should do some posts about what my kids are doing now. As we speak (or I write...), Jake just woke up in his crib and is chattering quietly to himself. I wonder if this is a developmental milestone. It seems like the first time he hasn't woke up & started squawking for me to come get him, half way between screaming bloody murder and asking for help. It's so cute to listen to him. None of it sounds like words yet. I swear Delaney said more than Bye & Baby at 13 months. I'll have to pull out her baby book though to check. Things always seem skewed from this angle. He's still only taking 3 steps before he throws himself down & crawls to his destination. But he did advance his pointing skills last week. Now, not only does he point, when he does he thrusts his hand quickly toward his chest, making a "fsst" sound....seemingly saying, "you see what I want, give it to me now!" He's still playing peek-a-boo, covering himself with anything he can find, sheets, towels, blankets, his own tiny hands slimy from just coming out of his mouth. He's just waiting for us to say, "Where's Jakey!" You have to say it in just the perfect high pitched voice and he starts giggling. Oh, don't get me started on his giggling. I need to make a video on my camera & post it. He gets instant attention from anyone who hears his, "He, he, he..." a la Woody Woodpecker!

OK, gotta go, the cutest little guy in the world just got carried in by Daddy in need of help...changing a blow out! Ahhh....such fun being a parent....of a little guy recovering from some yucky sickness! Better go help! :)

PS-Tonight Jake crawled into the room and blurted out his third word, "HI!"

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

A Funny Story

I've just got a quick little story I had to mention this morning. I've got so much to do today, I promise I'll be quick. My bloggy friend Annette mentioned that she & others are writing about where the time goes....I know I don't have an answer for that one! When I do, I'll let you know! Off to my story...

Last night, Dave was holding Jake so their faces were right next to each other. The little guy was just smiling and enjoying being with Daddy. It was so cute to see them gazing into each other's eyes. When suddenly....Jake sneezed! No advance notice of his nose & face scrunching up or anything. Just a bunch of snot and spit shot right in Dad's face. The shock & disgust on Dave's face were priceless, if only I'd had my camera at the ready. It would have been a gold mine, had I been shooting video at the time. I know America's Funniest Home Videos is sad today. Of course, Jake just giggled & smiled the same way he has done after every sneeze since he was first born. I was laughing so hard, I could barely get Dave a kleenex for his face! Ahhh....kids....

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...