Wait! It's October?!

EEkkk.. I'm not scared over here, I am freaking out! I am not ready for this Halloween thing at all! I need to get the girls their costumes, but more importantly, we had traditions in the Midwest... I know where Nothing is here. I don't have a clue where we will be going and trick or treating. I guess I need to get to Google-ing some stuff. I need to go shopping!

While I go get some crap done, here are some cute images from Halloween's past:

My eldest is a crafty one, I may have even shared this one before, but I am just so proud of it/her.

Here is one of the "Chipmunk girls" with her Halloween costume, Yeap you guessed it: ghost!

Cute huh?!

Having girls

Can I just take a minute to express how much I love having two little girls?! I love the fact that they get excited to watch “Cupcake Wars” with me… I love that my little one asks when “Sweet Genius” is going to be on. I just love the fact that I have prissy little girls that love to get excited about the same things that excite me!

Legoland

Last year at this time, we were planning a trip to California, for a college graduation in the family. While out there we were lucky enough to be given tickets to visit Legoland from a family friend.

Let me tell you something: this was such. a. good. time! Me, my girls, & my MIL had an amazing time. I am not gushing because I was asked to, I just loved so many things about this place. The atmosphere was lovely, I had someone asking how our visit was going every single ride we went on. The ride operators asked if there was any way they could make our visit better, but my kids were already so happy! They got to “play in line” on every ride. There are coral areas with large legos in every. single. line.

The food was good, and when going to check out in line, the cashier was helping us to save money by getting the family deal plan. After, while visiting the bathroom, there were complimentary toiletries, I mean who does that?!

I know if you had asked my girls what their favorite part was, it would have been the pirate ships though.  While on the pirate ships, you can shoot your water guns at the other ships while everyone is moving on a track about the place. THEN, you get to get off the ride, walk around the side of the ride, and there are water squirt guns on the side to aim at the people still on the ride.  We were soaked, but it was all good, it was a hot day, and we were happy. :)

When it was closing time, was anyone rushing us out the door? Oh, absolutely not! We had time to take a few more pictures, like the one above.

We WILL be back. We truly enjoyed every moment.

Varner’s Greenhouse

I know when you think greenhouse it conjures up images like this…

Or like this one…

But.. how about this?

Maybe this in a tropical area, but in Indiana?

Fresh Pineapple anyone? I wish this would grow in my backyard!

I have saved the best for last, however. This is the reason I go to Varners…

 

These beauties are my beautiful girl’s favorite. They are so pretty!

Daydreaming the Day Away

When I was a little girl, I had it in my head that it would just be amazing if I had a window seat. I am not sure what triggered this want/need in my young self, but it was merely a wish. When I was nine-ish we moved to an older home that had windows that nearly touched the floors, and my room was upstairs, facing the street. When it was nearing, but not quite summer, we changed our clocks so it was still dusk at bedtime. I would sit in front of those windows and watch the older kids play in the street for another half hour or so. This was as close as I came to stargazing from my totally awesome but not real window seat.

Fast forward about 20 plus –ish years…my older daughter was upstairs for quite the while the other day, I called up “what ya doin punkin?” She replied “Oh just lookin out the window.” A big smile passed my lips. Then she said “Did you know there was a bird in my tree?”

You see this is what she gets to look out her window to see.. her bed just ends at the window. A flood of memories raced to me as I took this picture on her faux-window seat.

Artwalk (part 2)

As promised, here is the other half of the artwalk. These are from all the other grades, so will not include any art works from my munchkin.

I realize there are a lot of pictures here, so you can’t really see the detail, but every. single. one. is holding a child. So sweet! Reminded me of why exactly I was there.

I guess I should be embarrassed that I do not know who she is?! The kids works of art were amazing though!

This was Alisa’s favorite one however. Isn’t it pretty? The middle was tissue paper. I was thinking this would be a nice craft for her & her sister on a rainy afternoon.

This was the one that I wanted to attempt. I would have never thought to try to recreate my version, but I absolutely love these! So bright & colorful to brighten up a space.

Picasso! I was pleasantly surprised at how very awesome these 4th graders did on these!

Here is another project I was thinking would be loads of fun for our family. I had to get all of them in, so here is another picture of them…

What do you think? I love the third one over from the left, top row… reminds me of Paris for some reason????

This one was my husbands favorite. I pointed out the Notre Dame one, but he said it was actually the entire collection together that he liked. I concur.

Art Walk (part 1)

You know when I posted about t.v. turnoff week, and I told you that the part I was most excited for was Artwalk? I took loads of pictures to share with you, in fact enough that I am dividing it into two posts.

As we walked in there was a table with programs, just like an art gallery. As I said before, we tapped all walls with colored paper, so that it gave that professional look. ;)

We started off in the Kindergarten hall, and the first display was this. Most, but not all, displays had three main components: the kids artwork (of course), a “artists poster” that they were aim-ish for, & an art piece from one of the school districts art teachers, which tied it all together. Forgive me, but I do not know the artist of these pieces, nor did I get what was going on till half way through.

Here is my lil punkin’s art piece for this one. Love, cupcakes, rainbows, & chocolates. YUM

This was the cave that the art teacher made for this display. Is it not the cutest thing?

This artwalk was made up of things projects that the kids had done ahead of time, though out the year. This project I went to help with, when they did it. It was called “cave art”, the idea was to replicate a ‘cave wall drawing’. We used a paper bag and crumbled it all up so that we could re-flatten it to give it the effect. Then we used only the colors that they would have had access to. It was lots of fun.

Here is my babies version of ‘cave art’. Don’t you love the bear? So cute!

Last but not least, in the Kindergarten hall, my munchkin’s version of her “Rainbow Fish”. I was super proud of this one because it was not her usual pink, pink. & more pink!

All the other grades in the next post. Other grades are just some of my favorite displays. I have some Monet & Picasso for you!

Who needs T.V. when you have PTO?

WOW guys! This week went by so flippin fast. I don’t want to down play either of the tragic events this week, but our household had a great week!

Here’s how: NO TV WEEK

Our PTO planned something every single night for us. We were unable to go on Monday, but it was family game night. Tuesday we had Dinner with the stars: the local astronomical society came and spoke to us about space. We made comets with paper plates, and my daughters favorite.. The Dry Ice Comets! Wednesday we had our Art walk: post to come, & a play from the 4th and 5th graders, called the ‘granny awards’. Then Thursday we had a cookie and create event. Our art teachers came to help the kids paint their very own canvas! That was my oldest favorite by far.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. I was very concerned at this idea of my girls not having the boob tube to calm them down…. Or mommy should say make them stop fighting. What I quickly realized however is there was more laughter and less yelling. No one was trying to ‘out loud the television’ for a change. Background noise just adds to the chaos in ones home. So lesson learned, time to get that thing turned off! This shouldn’t be hard to do, the sun will be coming out to play soon (I hope).

Naturally Perfect Eggs

I talked the other week about “natural dyeing” our Easter eggs this year… ironically, a week later I stumbled upon an event at the St. Patrick’s Park locally. I was so ecstatic, I invited everyone I knew who had kids my kid’s age. Lucky for me one of my best friends & her son were able to go with us.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but at $5 per kid, it was nearly fee entertainment. I was very pleasantly surprised at how well the teacher had things planned out for the kids to do. There were color pages, and she had strips of pastel paper to make rings for the eggs to set on.

We got to make 6 different colors, so 6 different techniques. Here, all of them are pictured together. From top left: the first was dipped twice; turmeric & then red cabbage (gave us a greenish hue); the second was of course drawn with an amazing sun, then dipped in mashed blueberries; the third was colored quite literally with beets. Next row from left; soaked in grape juice (which left the egg quite sticky); the second on bottom row was boiled in turmeric water; the final egg, boiled in onion skins, was such a pretty brown, no really! The speckles were created from rice.

 

It was overall a long process, but we five had a lovely time. Like I said before the teacher was kind enough to have extra things for the kids to do, so they wouldn’t get bored. My girls loved showing their eggs off to their dad, and I was just as excited with the little carton as the kids were. Too Cute!

The Roz Puppets

As a mom, I truly want to be very connected to the school & the schools community. The way I see it, the people that are around my kids all day, NEED to be my business. So I have been trying to throw myself into any role I can at school. Anything that doesn’t conflict with work, I am in. We go to almost any after hours event that the school has as well, and that is how I came to know about these characters. Moms around my area might have heard of the Roz Puppets before, but I had not, before Friday that is.

Our school was having an event called ‘In your dreams’. It was a career fair in a sense, we had a nurse, teacher, graphic designer, police woman, & a firefighter. Once we heard from all of them, the Roz puppets were up next.

I have not seen my girls laugh that hard in a long time :) He was a huge hit! He read books, all the while having the puppets and himself comment through them. It was loads of fun, Alisa really liked the chipmunk, so she got her picture taken with him. He is quite cute, and his ‘voice’ even cuter.

I would highly recommend going to see him if you get the chance. Our PTO president said he likes to go around to the local libraries for performances. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for his next performance.

Arts & Crafts per my 6 Year Old

It is really starting to look like Easter around my house! My Alisa has been hard at work making us all necklaces to celebrate. So what do you guys think? Are they not so craft-cute for an imagination of a 6 year old? I love mine (the purple one).

<3

Over the Rainbow

I love coming home from a long days work to a lovely sight like this! It reminds me of why I was drawn to graphic design in the first place. My oldest clearly got her love of all things stationery from me! Pens, pencils, markers, crayons, paper, stickers, & just colors in general. It wonderful that she can color group already at such a young age. She’ll have no problems with the color wheel & the different hues and saturations. I know it’s a little on the late side…

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!

Hopping down the bunny trail…

It’s almost that time again! Who else it super excited to color eggs with the children? I don’t know what I love more, their joy or my joy of playing in the pretty colors.

I have been thinking to do the natural dying from veggies & herbs this year. Any opinions or experiences from this you’d like to share?

Healthy Fast Food

As I was eating my Panera Bread tonight, I was thinking about the little amount of food options we have here in South Bend/Mishawaka area. We are getting a Whole Foods soon, but could we get a Trader Joe’s or Good Earth store? We are all trying to eat more healthy, and shouldn’t that include organic?

So, more importantly than all the above, when this mama wants a “night off”, I have basically two options. I could go to Panera, which is not organic. My kiddos do love salad from here though, so I feel good about this choice. The other option is Chipotle, there are organic aspects here, but there is a ton of sodium in these meals.

What I am getting at here, with my rant, is why do moms in this area not have more options? Is it lack of funds around the area to start up new places? Or is it the fact that people just don’t care enough about organics? I am starting to feel like the odd man out when trying to get my family to eat healthy.

It really brought everything full circle in my mind when people all around me are raving about how my daughters love salads. I want to scream at them, because my kids were not exposed to fast food non-stop. Yes my kids have had a happy meal, and yes they have played at the Burger King playland, so don’t think I am one of those moms. Everything in moderation though. We always went toward the healthier options. My daughters love salad so much, because this was going out to eat for them. What are we doing to our kids? What are we doing to ourselves? I eat less and less vegetables every year. This was my true wake up call, and the number one reason I started my garden.

Okay, rant over…

Porto’s Bakery

I was first introduced to this wonderful-in-everyway-place by my lovely sister in law. This introduction, unfortunately was over instagram. You see my SIL lives in LA. Once she finished USC (yes, extremely proud over here), she officially took the plunge of living the high life of a studio apartment *sarcasm indeed*. What is not sarcastic however, is that I am living vicariously through her. Who wouldn’t want to be young, with tons of fun friends, on your own, in Los Angeles? So when we went to visit this past summer my only wish was to go to this place. It’s obviously the closest I was going to get to being young and fun in LA, with children behind me. haha So off we went:

The architecture inside and out was so pretty. I wanted to take tons of pictures, then redecorate my house accordingly.

Tell me one thing in this case that me, my husband, and my two girls wouldn’t want to take home?! Every. single. thing. I wanted to buy and smuggle on the plane.

This is what my husband and I settled on: Tiramisu on the left and mochachino on the right. Mine is the right, good thing, cause it was the most delicious one! I could use one right now, this 1200 calorie diet I’ve been on needs to be blown up!

Monday, Monday…

Wishing I could be in a cute little chair like this. Maybe getting a great new do, I could use one, and a chair massage while we are at it. Another snow on it’s way, and we are into March now! Calgon take me away….

At least this cute little girl is by my side, making me smile. I can’t believe that she is reading to me! Just 5 and a half years ago, she was on this very couch cooing to me!

Happy Valentine’s Day 2013!

 

I wish you all a very loving & lovely day…

I am happy to announce that I am off to party it up with a bunch of Kindergarteners.

So? Are you loving my chocolate décor as much as I? I am beaming with pride for myself on this one! I don’t usually toot my own horn, but I’m lovin’ myself on this Valentine’s Day.

Books! ABC Yoga

We have a small bookshelf in our living room, and although it is quite messy and cluttered, it is one of my favorite things in my house. It might not look the best, but it has a special place in my heart. It is shoved full of books, and they don’t make it back on the shelf in the most orderly fashion, but I could care less! This only means one thing, those books are getting plenty of LOVE.

When my oldest was around two, she would frequently pick books over toys, and a little later down the line, the same could be said about my younger daughter. This, to them, meant bonding time, and not alone time. Although it was tough sometimes, when they asked for a book to be read to them, I tried hard to sit down quickly there after to read it. We went to story time on my Wednesdays off work, and they still talk about it a year later.

So, when the Scholastic flyers started coming home, I was uber excited. The school has a great reading program in place, and so we read a minimum of 375 min. a month.

This past flyer I got a really cute book that I want to share with you. It combines our love of reading, and our need to get off the couch!

Here it is: The ABCs of Yoga for Kids… so stinkin cute. We had a blast doing these, and the poems are so good too. My girls were giggling even before I got on the ground with them.

I had my girls in hysterics while they were watching my do the “Frog”, they were belly laughing so hard, they couldn’t do their positions. It was loads of fun, and it was nice to notice I “did something” the next morning when I woke up. My arms got the bulk of the workout apparently. Nothing was overly stressful on the body, but holding each pose for 10 seconds must have been the kicker.

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

 

You guessed it! Valentine’s Day!

This is lil punkin’s first Valentine’s Day @ school, and her Valentines are due tomorrow.We have loads to do!

Big Thanks to Cinnaberry-Suite & Pinterest for giving us something to give to the boys, that was not too princessy <3

Butterflies in the winter

 

How cute is this… the craft, not the amazing little girl! While at the ice carving festival, there was also a wellness expo going on in our local supermarket’s side deli. To keep warm, we bopped around the expo for a bit. My lil punkin’ here is the crafty one, she loves being creative any way possible. When the lady invited her to make this cute butterfly, she was up for it.

What do you need?

1 ziplock baggy

1 clothespin (colored pretty with markers of course)

a pipe cleaner (folded in half)

some yummy food or candy

How easy is that? The possibilities are endless. I am thinking a springtime birthday party craft, or Valentine’s craft with conversational hearts in place of the goldfish?! How about homemade caramel popcorn with red sprinkles and white chocolate, red pipe cleaners with red heart antennae tips. Oh I love it! Must. make. some :)