The Newest Family Additions

I would love to introduce you to our newest family additions...Oreo and Cookie

Oreo is Reese's first birthday present. Cookie is Cade's Easter present. They are twin pygmy goats and we are already in love with them. They rode in the front seat in our laps on the way home. They thrive on attention and follow my son Cade around everywhere he goes. They are even sweeter then my husband and I expected.


Cade with Oreo in front and Cookie in back

You might ask why a goat for a birthday present...? Well, our son Cade, received a calf for his first birthday and we wanted to follow the animal tradition. The calf was promptly name "Holy Cow" We enjoy that our kids love animals and share in the job of taking care of them. Here is Cade with Holy Cow on his first birthday.



Cade and Holy Cow

Here is Holy now! (Cade is three)

This is precisely why I call it Greene Acres Hobby Farm. We did not grow up in the country but our kids are. I can't imagine a better place for two active little boys!

Make Train Birthday Party Favors

I looked at four party stores before I determined there were not many options out there for train party favors. I ran into a few train whistles and tons of Thomas the Train but they were not exactly what I had in mind. I eventually came up with this idea...

I bought these yellow mini frisbees at Party City for 10 cents each. What a steal! I used a black sharpie to draw on them and create a railroad sign.

You don't have to be a perfectionist on these. Mine definitely are not perfect but I was very pleased how they turned out.

Train Shirt 1st Birthday

In order to stick with the whole train theme, I decided my one year old, Reese, needed a shirt for the party. Of course, it needed to be engine #1.

I used iron on adhesive on some precious blue and white material. It reminded me of the material engineer caps are always made of. I traced a train on the back and cut it out.

Next I ironed it on to a simple white shirt. I found this shirt on sale at Children's Place last year for 99 cents. I love to stock up on plain shirts when they are on sale.

I used a zig zag stitch to sew it on the white shirt.



Next I sewed on the #1 in the same way I did the train. This train is now ready to head down the tracks!

Train Birthday Party Invitations

My youngest, Reese, is about to turn one! We have decided on a vintage train theme for his party. First thing is first...Invitations

I will warn you...these are a little time consuming to make but they are so worth it. It does not help that with all our family and friends I am sending out more then thirty invites. Absolutely ridiculous, but we can't and don't want to leave anyone out.

I started out with a cream background and a brown textured paper for on top. I found this fabulous punch stamp from Martha Stewart to produce the train silhouette at the top. Blue and white striped fabric was cut by hand into small pockets for the train ticket to slide into. I found tacky glue to be the easiest way to affix the pocket on the card.

Luckily, we recently had some precious pictures done at the train station by Melissa at ebonyblancimages.com. These wallets made the perfect addition to the invites and can be easily removed by our guests for an updated picture of Reese.

The train ticket was a lot of fun to design. I made them in advance because all I had to do when I picked the date was punch out the correct month and date.

The address to the party was under Boarding at 2 pm

The tickets easily slid into the pocket and once they were finally all assembled I sent them out!

           

Repurposed Puzzle Pieces

I am not sure how it happened, but we lost the puzzle frame that our wooden puzzle pieces went into during transport from one house to another. It seems with puzzles that we always misplace something! I hated to throw away all the nice chunky wooden puzzle pieces so this is what I came up with...

I started with an extra piece of wood I had laying around. All I had to purchase was a dowel rod. My dowel rod was 3/16". Therefore, I drilled five holes that were 3/16" in the board.

I sanded the corners of my board and the ends of the dowel rods. I spray painted it all red. I then cut the dowel rod into 6" pieces. I used a little wood glue on the bottom and secured them into the five holes drilled in the board.

As for the puzzle pieces, I drilled a 7/32" hole in each piece. The difference in size allowed them to slide easily on and off the dowel rod.

It turned into a fun new version of an old puzzle that could be compiled in many different ways.

It is also ready to add new puzzle pieces to when we run into the same lost puzzle situation again!

Bathtime Foam Fun Creations

Foam bath toys can be so much fun...

When I was trying to teach my 2 year old shapes and colors I cut a bunch of them out of different colors of foam. I picked up a pack of 12 sheets at the $1 store. I soon discovered with a little water they easily stuck on the side of the bath/shower wall. A priceless discovery!!

For older kids they can trace out their own patterns from stencils and cut them out. You can have a whole town, a race track, a foam version of paper dolls, or even a train station. Imagination is key!

Have an extra special bath time with your kids tonight!

And another fun idea...we take all the miniature bubbles we seem to aquire as party favors and keep them in the bathroom. We have found the bathtub is the perfect place to blow bubbles. 

Leprechaun Shamrocks

I was trying to explain to my son all the things that Leprechauns like because he decided we needed to try and catch him. We are planning on making a trap but we needed to make shamrocks to put in it first. I am sure you have made wax paper and crayon crafts before...but to me it is an oldy and a goody.

We started by laying out a square of wax paper. Next we used a pencil sharpener to peel two green crayons.

I had a very willing assistant...

We moved our crayon shavings on the waxed paper to the ironing board and placed a second sheet of waxed paper on top. I used a pressing cloth to set on top of the layered wax paper and heated it through for about 20-30 seconds until the crayon shavings melted. We traced shamrocks and cut them out. You may always add a small magnet to the back for some precious magnets to hang St. Patrick's Day crafts.

Now we need to make a trap...







Mischievous Leprechaun Gone Bad

Some may say my poor three year old is deprived when I tell you that he has never had any cereal besides Cheerios and Raisin Bran. Therefore, when he woke up this morning and discovered our little mischievous Leprechaun had left a golden coin path to some Lucky Charms cereal he did not know what it was. Lol!

After he found out Lucky Charms had mini marshmallows in it he was very excited. We served them up with some green milk from yesterday. Unfortunatley, it was a complete mishap of timing. Little did I know Cade had a stomach virus until...GREEN MILK WAS GOING EVERYWHERE! Talk about your all time backfire! White milk is bad enough to clean up but green milk is even worse.

Mischievous Leprechaun Day 2

Our mischievous little Leprechaun was back again last night. He left a path of gold coins all the way to the fridge. When we opened it up we discovered green milk!

The adventure continues...

Mischievous Visiting Leprechaun

With St. Patrick's Day quickly approaching I decided we needed to get in the spirit. Amazingly, a little leprechaun came to visit us while we were asleep last night.



While we were asleep that mischievous little leprechaun turned picture frames upside down in our house and left a trail of gold coins leading up the stairs. My three year old, Cade, came upstairs the next morning with a handful of coins and I explained to him that a sneaky little leprechaun must have come to visit because St. Patrick's Day is quickly approaching. I wonder what kind of trouble he will cause tonight!

New Baby Washcloth Fast Gift Idea

I have two friends that have just recently had sweet baby girls. I gave them gifts before they were born but I always like to give a little something extra when I go to visit for the first time. One of my favorite fast gift ideas is baby washcloths. I buy a whole bundle at Walmart to have on hand for personalization. I love giving burp cloths too but I have found that washcloths are really more useful over time. Especially when you buy the adult size washcloths to make them out of. Here are the gifts for baby Julia and Alice.

I often make up several with a boy or girl themed circle in advance to have on hand. I have found that felt is the easiest way to add a letter on top. Now for the simple and easy directions. Iron on your adhesive to a small section of desired fabric. Then use a glass or cup to trace the circle size. Cut out your circle and peel off the paper backing on the adhesive. Iron on to your washcloth.

Next I cut out a small square of wax paper to layer under my washcloth while sewing to act as a stabilizer. A zig zag stitch will easily secure your circle to the washcloth. I then embellished with a felt letter. So fast and simple!

Some other washcloths I have made in the past...



Western themed



Turtle and Duck

Up close veiw of the turtle



Googly Eye Books

March 2nd is Read Across America Day. I love that we have a day to celebrate reading. I am sure all of you have seen the adorable googly eye books. My kids love them. The bigger the eyes the better! They come with quite the pretty price tag too. One of our favorites is...

Googlies Funny Farm

I decided there was no reason we could not make some of our own. I went to the dollar store and found several cute books I could use. We took out some googly eyes and glued them on with craft glue and...

Sometimes it is fun to put larger eyes then you would expect because it just makes the characters or animals look even sillier. Please be careful with young children that the eyes do not detach because they could easily be a choking hazard.

 

Oink Oink Gift Money Holder

For some reason it is just hard for me to give someone money for a gift. It does not feel very special or thoughtful in its own right to me. I found this adorable piggy bank at the dollar store.

My aunt, whom I needed a gift for, loves a huge monthly craft fair in Canton, TX. We enjoy shopping there and finding ideas and treasures. I decided to stencil in pencil the word Canton and then fill it in with a permanent black marker.

Five minutes of work made a much cuter gift card holder then an envelope. I hope she likes it!