Christmas Projects Part 2

First a confession: I do not have the decorating gene other women have. I can tell you what I like when I see it, but I cannot do it on my own. I must beg, steal and borrow to have any style in my home and wardrobe.

So it really stinks on the day after Thanksgiving because I am super excited about getting all the Christmas decs down and out and then I promptly get depressed because I have no idea where to put them. Matt has seen this happen like clockwork for 8 years now so this time, being the design genius he is, he gave me a great tip--pick one or two colors per area. OHHHHHHH so you don't just set out all your trinkets on every surface in your home? Got it. So I set out for Hobby Lobby with a plan, red, white, silver. Here's the thinking behind that color palette. I like traditional Christmas, red and green, holly, garland blah blah blah, and our dining room is green so if I stick to red with neutral accents it comes off Christmas, right?

So here are some shots of what I came up with, with lots of help from pinterst, better homes and gardens and my great husband.

Holiday card display.

 You may notice the ribbon is not straight, it was when there were no adorable cards....oh well, worth the imperfection!

Our tree. I love it, colored lights, all miss matched ornaments because each one has a story. This part I can do.

 Top of the piano

 Buffet (with Bixby the elf. Not part of the decorations I had just moved him there and forgot.)

Mantle in the livingroom, very simple, I like the Nativity to be the focus there.

What do you think? Ok? We are liking it : )

So speaking of decorating, late in November, I saw some really cute throw pillows on an end cap at Target. Like I said, I know what I like, I just can't think of it on my own. The pillows were just red with one white ribbon running over them, not a bow, just straight. We have 5 pillows, so at $11.99 that would really add up for something I truly didn't need. Then a few days later I was in Wal-Mart and they had red flannel on sale for 2.99 a yard! I have a sewing machine......

Before:

And after:

I am not confident in my sewing in a straight line skills, so instead I added a W monogram and a snowflake applique to the pillows. I also learned how to make button holes so I didn't have to sew in the pillows. I just sewed 3 sides and buttoned the fourth so in January the pillows will easily go back to normal. Total cost $7 for 4 pillows! They are not perfect, but they are mine : )

Christmas Projects Part 1

Isn't it funny that the time of the year where there is an unlimited amount of adorable projects you have zero time to finish them! Maybe if I was a responsible crafter I would plan these projects in the summer and get them done while I'm "off" work. But I'm not. I don't think of cute Christmas projects until I see them out and about during Christmastime.

Here are a couple I have finished, I have many many more on the list.

First up a felt full sized Christmas tree for Wesley's room. I found this idea on pinterest. Someone else out there must have had a 3 yr old that really likes to decorate, redecorate and rearrange the Christmas tree. So here is the solution, build them there own that they cannot destroy.

Felt sticks to felt, so all you do is cut out your tree shape, then as many "ornaments" as you want and voila! They can decorate to there hearts content! I added the letters in her name with heat n' bond to a few so she could practice spelling, she loves anything with her name right now. She is convinced the letter W is just for Wesley, no one/nothing else. I said W for "windy" the other day and she was very perturbed.

The next project I tackeld was for myself and some of my coworkers. We are having Polar Express day on the 16th. The whole school will be in their pajamas and we will gather by grade levels to watch the movie. If you are not familiar with this holiday classic, there is a little boy who is not sure he believes in Santa or "Chirstmas" anymore. Then the Polar Express comes by to take him to the north pole and you can guess the rest. It is a heartwarming tale, I highly recommend the book and the Tom Hanks film is pretty good. A little uncanny valley for me but entertaining none the less. Throughout the movie the kids on the train talk about hearing Santa's sleigh bells, but the main little boy can't hear them, because he doesn't believe. So here are the shirts we will wear tomorrow with our pj pants.

There are 10 in all, coordinated to match each persons pjs. And since I was already making them I had to do one more....

Christmas Project Part 2:: I tackled throw pillow covers.......

The Party

I wanted to write this post 18 times over, but haven't had the time to think it through. Turns out I won't have time anytime soon, so I better just write it, even if it's not well thought out and grammatically correct.

We had Wesley's third birthday party on November 20th. This was the first official "kid" party. Where we no longer threw a party for our friends and Wesley got the benefit of presents and excitement. This party was all about her for once? again.

She picked the theme, Princess and the Frog. She helped create the guest list, which included 10 of her friends. She really wanted every single child she had ever met, but y'know, have to draw the line. We really did want to just throw out a blanket invite to everyone, but we thought it through and realized our midtown home gets real small, real quick when tiny people are running around it and pulling out everything Wesley owns. We also did our non-kid friends (which is most of you...hmm hmm) a favor by letting them of the hook on this one.

So here are some of the decorations. Big thank you to our wonderful Sissy for all the photos!

I made the banner, but the tissue flowers are from a wedding shower at our school. I know how to make them, but I see no reason to reinvent the wheel, and I am an environmentalist "Waste not, want not"

Here is the cake and table:

Next we have the wonderful banner my very talented friend Eliza made, she does the banner every year for Wesley's party, and she made the birthday girl her tutu as well! She's rad.

Because we are TRYING to minimize the princess obsession in our home. I choose to make the Princess and Frog theme more about Tiana wanting to be a chef. If you have seen the movie, which I love btw, Tiana does not want to be a princess at all. She works two jobs and saves her money because her dream is to have her own restaurant. So obviously I included princess stuff, but the favors were aprons, and their was a cupcake decorating station, and a chef hat assembly/decoration station, not just dress up and tiaras (we had that too though!).

Here is one little chef after creating a cupcake masterpiece. The hats are just a strip of poster board stapled together, and a piece of white tissue paper tucked and stapled in the top. Thanks Pinterest!

Present time was a whole new adventure. Like I said, first time with lots of tiny people. They are not nearly as patient as a room full of adults who want to watch a 3 year old take her time opening each present.  But here is a great shot of her birthday outfit!

Chaos....

Next we decided it would be great to get all the kids in their aprons for a a group photo.....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.....it was an epic failure.  But here are our attempts. In the end we told them the couldn't have the treat bags unless they sat down, looked at the camera, and said THREE!

All teasing aside, I think it went wonderfully. It was chaotic. Two and three year olds do not follow directions well for longer than 3 minutes. All the games were not played, and ice cream and chips were completely forgotten in the kitchen. But my sweet girl was surrounded by friends and family that love her. We were reminded how blessed we are. And I think everyone who came had a good time.

Happy Birthday big girl! We love you the mostest!

All I Do is Win

This week I took a group of 5th graders to perform for a teacher conference. I thought they did a great job! We did three songs, but this was my favorite.

Thank you to my amazing husband, who mixed the music for me, so that I could use it with the kiddos.

Lawyered S1:E2

Wesley to Matt, after seeing a commercial for a Belle doll, "Daddy, I just saw Belle on the T.B. (tv)"

Matt:"Uh-huh"

Wesley " She is sad, she needs me to go the store and get her"

Matt "Oh Yeah?"

Wesley " Yeah, she needs someone to make her tea, We can go get her and I will make her some."

Never once did Wesley say she "wanted" Belle, or cry or pitch a fit for her. This was a calm, rational conversation on why we should go get this doll immediately.

Lawyered.

Happy Birthday Baby

I'm a day late, sorry. But, we we were just so busy celebrating, cause my "baby" is THREE!!

I cannot be cliche enough to express how fast she is growing up or how much I love this girl. She is so smart and so funny. Her personality delights me daily.

We woke her up at 7am, sleepy head was not interested in starting her birthday early. But when she saw her new princess tent, she perked up!

Then we had to have "cupcakes" which were really blueberry muffins, with 3 candles.

I hope she had a great day. Her actual party will be this Sunday and I will post the fun here next week!

I love you like whoa

I love my dog. As I know all pet owners love their animals. But these friends LOVE their pets like whoa.

Is that a feret on your chin or are you just happy to see me?

Sorry Travis, you take a backseat to giant hamster, he's the favored son in our home.

Don't let the fact that Fluffy died stop you from taking him to Penny's for family portrait day.

Yes Tobey, I give you my heart.

This gives the game "Peep Eye, Playing Possum" a whole new meaning

Last but not least....................................

I can KICK! and STRETCH! and KICK! (Sally O'Malley voice inserted here)

Halloween 2011, my "faborit"

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love the costumes, the candy, the fall decor, the cooler weather (not cold, cooler)...all of it. And it just gets better when you have kids, the festivals, parties and joys of trick or treating are so much more fun through their eyes. And let me tell you, my love of a good costume has certainly worn off on Wee. She loves dress up any ol' day of the week, but when you inform her she gets to leave the house in costume, her thoughts can best be expressed in song "A whole new world....a new fantastic point of view...."(Jasmine, circa 1992)

We had four Halloween activities planned. And you better believe Wesley needed a separate costume for each one. Recycling outfits may work for the Duchess Kate, but not Wesley Elizabeth.

Event One, 10.26.11, School Carnival, Fairy Princess

It took her a second to warm up, the gym was very loud and crowded. But once she heard music, it was on.

She even sat still for her first face painting.

(please notice the marshmallow man, and his Dad the ghostbuster behind us, love it!!)

Event Two, 10.29.11, Zoo Boo, Princess Tiana

Must get our tiara on straight before we head out.

This picture makes me think it may be time for a camera upgrade.....but she's still cute.

Loving on the wolf, who Wesley decided was a fox, no matter what we said.

Event Three, 10.31.11, School party, Princess Aurora, aka Sleeping Beuaty

 I was at work during this party, so I only got one pic after school. But at least she smiled and looked at me this time.

Event Four, 10.31.11, the big show...Halloween trick or treats

All the way home I talked up trick or treating, and what we would do and see. This, apparently, impressed on Wesley this was a big deal, therefore it deserved yet another costume change. Did it matter that I needed to put groceries away, drop off a house warming present, get dinner fixed, get our candy out and get changed...no, we needed a new costume. And so we left the princess world behind for ballet.

She was so proud.

Look at her trick or treating all by herself! Such a big girl.

During trick or treating we hit a rough patch of sidewalk and the tights took the brunt of it. Oh well!

I loved it all. Even with rude adult, yes adult, trick or treaters, and two missing pumpkins from our fall display, Halloween is still my "faborit" holiday, and may be Wesley's too. Just don't ask her what she was for Halloween, you may get a blog entry in response : )

Road Trip part 2:: The Aquarium

The Georgia Aquarium is AH-MAZING. That is pretty much all I can say. But I will elaborate since this is a blog, sorry.

The layout is great because you don't have to do the exhibits in any certain order, read:: you don't get stuck behind that guy that reads every plaque and won't let anyone else in to see. When you go into the aquarium you are in a big open space and all around you are themed "rooms" to go explore as you wish.

We choose the touch tanks first. This area had low open tanks that everyone could just reach into and touch whatever happened to swim by. I thought my 2 almost 3 year old would LOVE this, turns out it just scared her. In her defense, the first tank was sting rays and sharks (tiny cute sharks). She warmed up to the idea by the time we got to the anemone tank, apparently squiggly pink things are always okay.

Then we headed to the amazon. River fish are big! This is the part that had the albino gators. They were so neat, the reason I have zero pictures is because my child was terrified of them. Turns out she knows Washburns never like gators.

 

 

Our next area was for the sea life that enjoyed the cold. Artic crabs, Octopi, Beluga Whales, and Penguins!!

 These freaked me right out, but Wesley loved the way the carefully kept eating the "marshmallows" (some kind of white sea tubey thing)

 I love this picture, but I think we were frustrating that poor octopus. She really thought she was going to get us at any moment.

Wesley could have stayed in the whale room all day. She adores them. By the end of the day we had been 4 times and she knew all four of their names.

This was such a sweet moment. Wesley just got up next to the little sleepy penguin and was talking directly to him. He just kept blinking at us like "Seriously, I am so tired."

I have no pictures from our next area because they weren't allowed. We had tickets to the dolphin show. I thought Wesley would love a dolphin show. Not so much. It was like a play with a ship, a sea monster and a prince. The dolphins save the day of course, but only after lots of thunder, lightning and fire. She was terrified. She wanted to leave the entire time (30 mins) and it wasn't allowed. She had to make it through. I tried bribing, soothing, threatening, feeding....it didn't matter, she wanted out. We did make it through and after it was over she said she loved it, through tears. She even picked a dolphin as her one treat at the end of the day. She will tell you that was her favorite thing she saw at the aquarium.


Back to the fish. Big fish. Length of a school bus big. Meet the whale shark. My favorite of the day.

Too cool. And, as it turns out, super sweet. The whale shark is very docile, mainly because their throat is the diameter of a ping pong ball, so that's the biggest size fish they can eat. His much smaller cousin, the tiger shark, can dislocate his jaw when he eats, which makes him one of the deadliest.

  

The final exhibit was the tropical waters/coral reef sea life. The first hallway was really dark so that you can see the phosphorescent jelly fish. I hate jelly fish, but you could not help seeing these particular jelly fish as beautiful.

 

We wrapped up our day relaxing in front of this:

Not bad, eh?

I have left so much out, these were just the high points. To say the least, I highly recommend this as a destination for all ages. And Atlanta is only 6 hours away. It was a very easy road trip and I thought it was wonderful, I hope the other road trippers felt the same way. I sure enjoyed their company!