Summer is in Full Swing

Seems like most of my posts lately begin with some sort of explanation for why I haven't been posting. This time, rather than make excuses, I'll just post a few pics of what we've been doing around here.

We went to the park with Daddy, which we really need to do more often. Little Bit spent much of the time flashing her Pull-Ups to everyone while hanging on this bar. Hanging is her new favorite thing. She hangs on EVERYTHING: the kitchen table, Bitty Baby's Jumparoo, the handle for the oven door. If she can wrap her hands around it, you can be pretty sure that very soon her knees will be pulled up to her tummy and she'll be dangling in full delight.

She actually doesn't like looking at the camera, so sweet little shots like this are few and far between. Such a shame.

Bitty Baby spent most of her time on the infant swing before deciding to hang out with me. I was sitting on a bench in the shade complaining about the heat. I wasn't dressed for the park because we were supposed to be going to a museum...with air conditioning...but that's a story for another time.

While we sat watching Little Bit play, this way-to-friendly squirrel came by for a visit. I was slightly paranoid that he would jump off of the tree and climb all over me, so I tried shooing him away. At which point he moved back up the tree a few feet and proceeded to tell me where I could go. I swear he was totally cursing me out.

A few days later we were invited to a horse show close to our house to watch my aunt show her baby...horse that is. We all had a great time.

Bitty Baby sat on her first real horse...

and Grandma helped Little Bit show off her latest freezer paper stenciled shirt.

We even got some behind the scenes action before it was my aunt's turn to ride.

I would say that fun was had by all, but these two tweens, my nieces, were pretty bored until they were given a "job" to do.

Ask a kid to take some shots and they suddenly perk right up!

Turn Any Shoes Into Tap Shoes

Here's an idea I've been wanting to try since seeing it in a Martha Stewart Good Things for Kids magazine. Little Bit, obviously bored, was actually asking me to do a "project." I was supposed to be enjoying some much needed personal time, but Daddy-O was "indisposed" at the moment, so I just needed something quick and easy that she could do for a few minutes until he could come and take back over watching her.

I grabbed some pieces of yarn and taped baby food jar lids onto the middle of the yarn. Next, I wrapped the yarn up around Little Bit's shoes and tied them at the top.

Then she shuffled around and doh-see-dohed and listened to the sound of her feet clacking against the concrete patio.

She always loves to dance, so this spur of the moment activity was a no-brainer. It would probably also be fun to experiment with different sounds. Or, perhaps strapping bells to her wrists and letting her go all out as her own percussion section!

Another Hiatus

I know, my presence here has been sporadic. Here's what's been going on...

I have a new friend. Her name is Helen.

Is it strange to name a sewing machine? For some reason I had her named before I even had her in my car when leaving Joann's.

I just got her yesterday and prior to that I had spent most of my down time researching machines and visiting sewing shops. I finally decided on Helen (a Husqvarna Emerald 116) because she seemed like a good little machine for a newbie. She's not as fancy as many of the machines out there, but she seems pretty durable and she's nice and quiet...I think we're going to get along famously!

For my first project, I sewed a pint sized headband for Little Bit following these instructions. I'm not showing a picture yet because it was my "practice run." But I promise I'll show you a final version soon!

Another new addition to our family is this little guy:

He came free with Daddy-O's new MacBook and was my prize for letting him buy it. Of course my response to this was, "What am I going to do with that?"

Hah!

There's a ton of stuff I can do with it! I added our photos from Little Bit's birthday party to show my mom. I can keep it with me throughout the day and check my Google Reader and Email without having to leave the kiddos and go to my computer. And, I can download podcasts!

Yes, I said podcasts. Another thing I raised my eyebrow at when I first heard about them. But here I am, listening to CraftSanity, Grammar Girl, Material Mama, and Broadway Bullet.

Podcasts are wonderful to listening to while working on a project. In fact, I wish I'd had the Touch earlier so that I could listen to my podcasts while making new hair clips for the girls. Well, I say the girls, but in reality Bitty Baby is the only one who wears them without immediately pulling them out.

Aside from the aforementioned activities, projects with the little ones have been few and far between. Due to an unexpected chain of events, Daddy-O has been home all week and will be around for a couple more. With him being home, we tend to fill our days with either running errands or simply enjoying family time together.

I did manage to squeeze in a mixed media collage today with Little Bit and her cousins, but I ended up joining in rather than taking pictures! I'll see if I can paint you a picture with words: fabric scraps, yarn, glue, old children's books, buttons, and glitter. Lots of glitter.

I'll probably spend the next few nights getting better acquainted with Helen, but I can't wait to come back and show you what I made. Hopefully I'll end up with something blogworthy!

The Birthday Bash

No Unplugged Project this week. We were so busy getting ready for Little Bit's party, we just didn't have much time left over for other stuff.

The party was great. The kids had a blast. And Little Bit LOVED having everybody over at our house.

Of course, we forgot to buy eggs, so the cake didn't get baked until about 45 minutes before the party started. In all of our last-minute preparations, we forgot to hang the Birthday Banner. And the ice cream balls came out looking like this

But, with all the fun, none of that really seemed to matter. Here are some of the highlights:

The sand bucket cake was a big hit!

As was the slip and slide.

Yes, we let the kids play with squirt guns. I know, very questionable parenting.

I love this one with the two little heinies. They're reloading their squirters in the pool.

We forgot to teach her how to blow out a candle before hand, but she worked it out (with my mom's help).

And, of course, presents. Here she is sporting her freezer paper stenciled birthday shirt while she opens a card.

The party really could not have gone any better. There were about 8 kids at the party (half 3 and under and half 8 and over) and everybody got along. I was afraid of the big kids taking over, but it wasn't even an issue.

Even with all the fun, these parties are a lot of work! I'm so glad they only have one birthday party a year. Now I'm in the clear until Bitty Baby's first birthday in October. Hmmm....4 months away? That might be enough time to recover from this one.

A Story About A Little Flower

Back in April, we planted seeds as a way to connect with nature in honor of Earth Day.

We watered everyday.

Often more than once.

The stalks grew quite tall.

Then, one sunny day, a little bud popped up and bloomed into a beautiful, vibrant, flower!

The end.

Comments Disabled

I'm doing a bit of an experiment for myself and this blog. It has occurred to me recently that every couple weeks or so I start feeling totally burned out on the whole blogging thing. Here's how it usually goes:

Oh, this was a good post! Lots of comments! People like me!

Oops, what happened? Nobody commented today. What did I do wrong?

Oh, goody! Some more comments on this one!

Look. Some new people commenting! I wonder who they are? I'll go check out their blog, too!

Oh, no. Where did everybody go? Nobody likes me. This sucks.

The comments turn blogging into a complete roller coaster ride. And I know, for a lot of people, the comments are where it's at. It's where most of their blogging satisfaction comes from. But for some reason, for me, I think the comments are draining. Not only do I get my panties all bunched up over how many comments I got on a particular post, but then I want to go around and comment back on everybody's blogs. And if I just don't have time to get to everybody's (because I take care of a baby and a toddler who rarely take naps at the same time and who both demand 100% of my attention all through the day), then I get my panties all bunched up over that, too.

So, you see. Much of my blogging woes have to do with the comments. And since that's the case, I'm going to experiment with disabling comments for a while and see how that affects my approach to blogging. If anybody still wants to get a hold of me, you can shoot me an email. It's on the left sidebar under "About."

I'll still visit everyone and try to leave comments as I am able. It might not be as often, but be sure that I am reading. :) Let's see how it goes!

This Weekend's Birthday Bash

I've mentioned that Little Bit's birthday is coming up. Well, it's this weekend.

GASP!

She'll be TWO!

Anyway's, I didn't want anything big, but somehow I still managed to create a bunch of work for myself. In addition to the usual house-cleaning and other pre-party prep-work, I've added a few other things on my list of things to do.

Here's the rundown of our party preparations:

-Beach ball invitations- done

-Felt flag banner- mostly done...just have to cut slits to run a ribbon/cord through.

I decided to do the flag banner after seeing a post at Our Green Nest. I loved how festive and cheery all the colors are. And, since it's pretty generic, we can use it again for birthday celebrations down the road (assuming the felt holds up).

- Freezer paper stencil T-shirt with beach image.

You can read about freezer paper stenciling here.

- Sand Bucket cake.

I did a practice run of the cake and it was super-easy and quite tasty. I think I'm going to add a layer of bananas in with the pudding. Yummy!

- Beach ball ice cream scoops on a stick, from Martha Stewart.

OK. So not really beach balls, per se. But I think a ball of ice cream with colorful sprinkles (center) is close enough.

- Favors- plastic beach buckets filled with travel sunscreen, sunglasses, beach stickers, goldfish crackers, and SPF 30 lip balm.

- Sandbox- need to buy a bunch of play sand and fill plastic pool.

- Slip-n-slide- can easily be set up at the last minute.

Hmmmm. Anything else?

Oh, yeah.

- Take dog to groomer.

- Relax.

I really wanted this to be a small get together, but due to some family politics, I think there are going to be a few more people than I had planned.

As long as Little Bit enjoys herself it will be a good party. :)

Sticky Project in Pictures

Busy weekend.

Very tired.

Unplugged Project: Sticky

Tissue paper on sticky side of contact paper.

"Can I stick it here?"

"I want to try!"

Two artists at work.

Viola!

Found this at The Artful Parent. Go there. Also check out other sticky projects here.

Off topic: Very behind in my blog reading. Hope to get caught up this week!

Easy and Delicious Homemade Ice Cream

I recently tried out this recipe for homemade ice cream with Little Bit and I could not believe how EASY it was, nor how tasty it turned out for being so incredibly simple to make. Your kids will love making the ice cream as much as they enjoy eating it.

First grab:

• One gallon-sized resealable plastic bag
• One resealable sandwich bag
• Kosher salt (or ice cream salt)
• Half & half
• Vanilla extract
• Sugar

Fill half of the large bag with ice and add 1/2 cup of salt.

Then pour 1 cup half and half, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract into the little bag.

Now put the little bag into the big bag...Make sure both bags are sealed tight!

And shake. Shake. Shake. Shake. Shake your bootie off. Shake for about 5 minutes.

Little Bit had a hard time shaking the bag. It was just a smidge too heavy for her. :)

After shaking for a few minutes, check the consistency of the cream mixture. Once it's nice and thick, you can scoop it out and enjoy!

This ice cream was so good. You could easily change it up by using different flavored extracts. I'm thinking a little almond extract would be yummy!

Bloggy Business: Meme of Fives and an Award

First of all, I was tagged by Maureen, Toddler Mom, for the Meme of Fives.

How it works:
1. Post the rules of the game at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read the player's blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

What were you doing five years ago?
I had just completed my Master's Degree and was searching, and searching, and searching, for a job I didn't want in a career that I had no interest in pursuing.

What are five things on your to-do list for today?
1. Clean house (perpetually on my list)
2. Sew some felt
3. Upload the day's photos
4. Post to my blog
5. Try to maintain my sanity

What are five snacks you enjoy?
(Lately it's been:)
1. Yogurt
2. Granola
(before it was:)
3. Ice cream
4. cookies
5. frosting

What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1. Hire someone to clean my house.
2. Travel extensively.
3. Hire a private instructor to teach me to sing and dance like a Broadway star.
4. Take classes...all kinds.
5. Blog about being a billionaire.
(These are all completely self-centered. I'm sure I would do a ton of philanthropic stuff, too.)

What are five of your bad habits?
(all of my habits are disgusting...fair warning)
1. Picking my ears
2. Picking my nose
3. Scratching my head
4. Plucking my chin hairs with my fingernails, especially while driving
5. I think four bad habits is more than enough

What are five places where you have lived?
1. Florida
2. North Carolina
3. Missouri
4. Virginia
5. Germany
(The first four were in the last 5 years or so, the last one was when I was a kid)

What are five jobs you've had?
(in no particular order)
1. Card stuffer (Hallmark)
2. Graduate TA
3. Shallow water life guard
4. Exceptional Student Teacher's Aid (one-on-one)
5. Compensation Analyst

Five people I tag:
1. Somebody who can't think of anything to write about.
2. Somebody who has something in common with me based on my answers.
3. Somebody who has never been tagged and would like to be.
4. Somebody who cares for at least one toddler on a daily basis.
5. Somebody who puffy hearts Memes.

And...I was awarded an award! My first bloggy award!

I have the marvelous CC from If I Only Had Super Powers to thank for my award. Thank you, CC! My gratitude overfloweth.

I am passing this award on to:

My Sweet Life because Kelsey is going to help me improve my picture taking skills. She is a very talented lady who not only takes inspiring photos with touching and humorous stories, but also gives great photography tips on Fridays.

Bits and Pieces because Jenny is a lovely gal who openly shares her home and family in a way that makes you feel like you've been pals forever.

Here you go ladies....this is for you!