You weren’t trying to read, right Mom?
Eli loves his morning sun in the window.
Grampa with a hose + hot sunny weather = happiest three year old ever.
My little loves to pick me dandelions. Even though they’re weeds, they do brighten up the kitchen. Like little sunbursts!
And another in the red boots series. Some field exploration this time. I’m thinking I need to make a story book for my little all about her red boot adventures! Now to think up a plot. . .
-Kayly
I am so late with this post, considering I opened my Nerd Block for Christmas and the next one will be shipping out this week or next. But I digress.
Nerd Block is a monthly subscription box filled with nerdy goodies! Every month you receive one t-shirt plus a boxful of nerdtastic goodies! For me, this was entirely a ‘how can I go wrong?!’ situation. I’m into lots of nerdy things. I have two large shelves in my living room dedicated to nerdy collectibles. All our friends love nerdy things too if there were things we want to share. Clearly this was a no brainer. So I asked my hubs for one for Christmas. . .and then happened to be the one checking PO Box when it arrived. So I knew I was getting it, but the contents were still a surprise!
My Nerd Block all ready to be opened! I think I’ll put things in order of what I was least excited about, to what I was most excited about.
These little guys are called called Crazy Bonez. I had heard of them, but had never seen them. My daughter likes them, so that’s a win for me!
Next was a Monster Marble. This was something I’d never heard of and while I don’t have a use for it, my cats have certainly enjoyed batting it all around the kitchen (it has a marble on the bottom so it rolls everywhere).
Eeee!! I love this little Captain America! Although I never read the comics (I was always a Batman girl) I love the first movie and Avengers, and my hubs is big fan. Even better? It’s a pen! Seriously, the bottom unscrews and there’s a little pen. Love it!
Then there was this watch, called a ‘Samurai Watch’. Why? I don’t know; pretty sure Samurai’s were not sporting digital watches. . .but the point it this is a pretty sweet watch! As you can see, it looks just like a chain-type bracelet, then when you push the side button, the time shows up (the tick mark on the top left designates PM – it is not there for AM time). Also, this thing is heavy duty – I was impressed with how durable it feels. However, this watch was huge on me as well as too manly for my taste and my hubs hates wearing a watch (despite the fact that I think it looked super sexy on him. Le sigh.) So we ended up giving to my best friend’s hubby, who loves it. That’s a win in my book!
GAH! I love Funko figurines (in fact, my hubs bought me a Jaimie from Game of Thrones Funko for Christmas!). They are so CUTE! And both my hubs and I are big LoTR/Hobbit fans so I was pretty darn pumped about this. Invisible Bilbo now happily resides on one of our nerdy shelves.
Saved the best for last – this month’s shirt! ZELDA!!!!!!!! I am a huge Zelda fangirl so I was ecstatic about this. Just an FYI, when you sign up for Nerd Block you pick your shirt size ahead of time so you know it will fit. We opted for a Men’s Large that way it will fit my hubby if he likes it more, and if I like it more, I can easily mod it on the sewing machine for a more girly fit. Which I am absolutely doing for this shirt!
Needless to say, I was pretty impressed with our first Nerd Block. I can’t wait to get see what January’s box holds!
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My baby girl turn three today! She’s certainly not a baby anymore. . .not even really a toddler. I can’t believe how much she’s grown this year, both in her knowledge and literally her height. We’ve hit some big learning milestones this year and this was also the first year she has done an ‘extra-curricular’ activity – gymnastics class! It’s been really successful, and I’m amazed to see how much her gross motor skills have improved from day one. In January she is ready to move up to the next level of class too – she’s really excited! It’s been a big year full of so many wonderful things, and her party this past weekend was just another thing on that list.
Cookie favors for the guests.
She requested a ‘pink dinosaur’ theme this year (she loves dinosaurs!) and then amended that to ‘pink and purple dinosaur’ theme, so that’s what she got! I decided to go the route of making all (or as many as possible) of the decorations myself this year and I am SO glad I did!
The full spread. . .before the food was out.
I think the two food signs were my favorite decorations!
I made her invitations, banner, cupcake toppers, dinosaur danglies, and table signs in Photoshop and printed them out. The only things I spent money on were some plastic dinosaurs and the balloons and streamers – all in all it cost me $10.00. I’ll take that!
Every year for her party I put out a photo with her name, age, and her favorite things! It’s nice to be able to look back and see the changes as she grows. This year’s favorite things:
 
A terrifying T-Rex cousin, and her new tutu (which had to be worn immediately!).
The party was great – lots of family and friends, laughter and food! Just how a party should be. She got an army of new books, half of which are ALL dinosaur books (of which we are thrilled – both my husband and I adore reading and have already passed that on to our miss; she loves books!!) and at least 15 new puzzles!! She’s on a huge puzzle kick lately so she was a happy camper. Also, one of my favorite presents she received:
This pink dinosaur stuffy HANDMADE by my best friend!! It is so fabulous. And handmade?? How can you go wrong?! Yet another toy for her to treasure.
Three already. . .
Being swept up in party hosting, friends, family, laughter and food, I totally forgot to take a picture of her cupcakes I made. Whoops! But you can see one here. . .just picture ones with purple frosting too and there you have it.
CHOMP! True dinosaur style.
After the party that night our best friends stayed overnight (we were snowed in!) so we spent the night playing board games, laughing, and drinking cocoa. Is there a better way to spend a weekend?
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Early in the month the hubs, little miss, and myself trekked it down to Boston to visit my brother and his girlfriend, and adventure to the Boston Children’s Museum together. We’ve never been, but both my brother and his girlfriend assured us that it is fabulous.
So much fun in the construction area. Despite pink being her favorite color, she loves trucks – and dinosaurs!
They were not wrong! Our little girl loved every minute of it. She had so much fun in each room.
Bubbles, golf ball race tracks, blocks, and fish watching with her uncle. One happy kiddo!
I think our little one is at a great age for this place (she’ll be three in December). There were some things that were a bit over her head, but there is SO much there that she still had more than she knew what to do with! In fact, by the time we got to the Music Room she had hit over stimulation mode, leading into over tired/past nap time mode! Luckily, that was the last room we had to see, so while she didn’t fully take advantage of that particular room, it was still a fabulous trip.
Looking out at the bay after a long day at the museum.
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Since my daughter was running down to the last scrapes of paint in her jars, I decided to give some homemade paints a go. The recipe I used is this:
via Easie Peasie
It worked brilliantly!
I did exactly what the instructions said and dumped everything in the pan (I had my heat on medium/low which is 4-5 on my stove) and although the instructions didn’t say to, I did stir the whole time it was on the heat as I was afraid the cornstarch would settle and clump. So I’m stirring and stirring for probably 6 or 8 minutes, thinking Hmmmm, this really isn’t thickening at all. Then out of nowhere, this happened:
Ah, the magic of science! This was the coolest transition ever since it went from a white liquid to this awesome translucent gel in a matter of seconds. I was still stirring for all of this FYI.
So once it was all thickened, I gathered these supplies for the coloring process:
I just added in the new paint to the old paint jars, and the little container and spoon were for mixing each color (cleaning in between each color is super easy – just rinse with hot water and it melts away).
After mixing up all the colors and loading them into the jars it was time to paint of course!
She loved them! In all honesty they don’t make the best brush paints (they are labeled as finger paints after all) simply because when they are spread too thin they tend to turn clear. But my miss still loved them, and it cost me all of about 50 cents (if that) to make. Much better than driving to the store and paying $10 for a new set of Crayola paints if you ask me! And although this wasn’t a great activity for a two and a half year old to help make (let’s see, hot burner and food coloring – ugh) she did great! She understood she couldn’t touch but she did enjoy passing me the paint bottles to fill and picking which color of paint to make next. Bonus: It further reinforced her learning of color mixing!
While we’re on the subject of kid art, I was curious what you all use for your kids to paint on? I tend to use cardboard recycling as it’s something we always have around the house, and it’s free. Plus, the cardboard is thick enough that it doesn’t bend too much if my little one piles on the paint. And did I mention it’s FREE? The white pieces in the above images are actually inserts in between the cans of catfood we buy!
Cereal boxes (and snack boxes) never make it to recycling – I always cut them up for her to paint on! Do any of you have free around the house art supplies you like to use?
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Mini best buds!
Awesome teepee made out of leafy vines!
Isn’t it amazing! I just love this place.
I mean seriously, does it get any better?
And although I know it’s supposed to be Fun Fact Friday, yet again I have nothing prepared. I swear Friday comes twice as fast as usual sometimes. . .so I think I’m gonna to say Fun Fact Friday’s will be an occasional thing instead of EVERY Friday. At least for now! Happy weekend everyone!
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I feel like for some people, a family reunion can induce a lot of stress and eye rolling. The complete opposite is true for me – I look forward to our annual family reunion every single year. I have been going for 25 years (I was three months old for my first one and have never missed one yet!). I even wrote my college essay on this particular event and what it means to me.
Family has always been extremely prominent and important in my life, and I love that our whole family feels that way too. We have a HUGE, widespread family, but every year for the third weekend in July we all come together to celebrate how lucky we are to have one another to call family. An average size year means about 130 people show up. We camp in a giant field (all forms of camping – RV’s, pop-up campers, and good old fashioned tents) and spend the weekend making music, playing games, and in general enjoying each others company. How fabulous is that?
Loving the tent.
Bubbles in the field.
My hubs relaxing after setting up the site with my brother.
Having such a large gathering takes a lot of work and coordination. We have officers in our family (President, VP, Secretary, and Treasurer) who each have designated jobs that keep the reunion running smoothly. We have games for the kids with prizes, and we also run a raffle and 50/50 raffle to raise money for further family reunions. I’ve been the family secretary for the past two years, which means I’m in charge of keeping everyone’s addresses up to date, and helping out the President in sending out updates, etc. I love it, and hope to ‘stay in office’ for years to come!
             A very happy camper!   My brother – such a handsome fellow.
This year one of my cousins organized a special raffle. She had been in Peru volunteering at a girls orphanage and wanted to raise money to send back to them. She was raffling some of her gorgeous photographs and two beautiful handmade cups that the girls in the orphanage had made! I very much wanted one of the cups, and I got it. I literally jumped out of my chair when they called my ticket number! All in all, our family raised $270 to send to the orphanage – not too shabby if you ask me.
The beautiful photos and handmade mugs in the Peru raffle. I won the mug on the left which is the one I wanted, yay!!
My family is also incredibly musically talented. Saturday night is the designated evening for entertainment and it never disappoints. A full band gets up and plays under the tarp, and then later we all move around the big campfire and sing/play guitar acoustic style until the wee hours of the morning. My little miss fell asleep in her camp chair cozied up by the fire listening to the sounds of her cousins singing. Those are the memories I want her to have growing up.
Family band time!
My miss was just loving the music – she danced the night away, and even had to bring my brother’s girlfriend up to dance with her!
My childhood memories are bursting with different recollections of the reunion, and I can’t wait for my baby girl to be ecstatic about going too. I just love my family!
See you next time!
Kayly
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Because I’m pretty sure it fell off somewhere with all the running around I’m doing this week. We are going on a big family camping trip (our annual family reunion) and between prepping for that, regular errands, a new commitment I’ve made with my best bud, and taking my little girl to the beach often, this week is just nuts!!!
Very happy with her bright yellow mushroom she found at Grammy’s house!
Luckily, I’m feeling a little more organized on the home front because A: I’ve managed to keep the house in relative order this week, which is good since my brother and his girlfriend are staying with us overnight before we leave for camping. I actually don’t have much to clean up before their arrival! And B: I’ve got my lists made. I can not function without lists. I write them for everything – groceries, chores I need to do, projects I have, and especially for packing. I think it’s combination of my inability to remember things (besides loads of useless trivia) and that visually seeing things laid out in an organized fashion calms my brain. I’m definitely not a neat freak, but I do like organization (hence all our Blu-Rays in perfect alphabetical order).
My lists for our upcoming camping trip. . .I go a little overboard.
We’ve spent tons of time at the beach this week too – it’s been so hot up here in NH (90+ every day!), and I can’t think of a better place than the beach with it’s cool-but-not-TOO-cold water and lake breezes. . .ahhhhhh.
           Outta my way, things to do!  Quite happy with her shovel of sand.
This past Sunday we went down to see our favorite cousins and their gorgeous new house they just bought! So glad they moved up to NH so we can see each other more often. They were kind enough to offer up their pool for use, and we had a blast!
Loving the pool!
So the blog will be silent for at least a few days while we go camping, recover from camping, and get the house all back in order and back to everyday life. I’ve got some posts brewing – both about shopping. One on indie shopping and all the AMAZING things I’ve gotten so far from indie stores, and one on yard sales and the crazy cool things you can find for next to nothing! And of course, a post or two about our camping trip will be in the works. Enjoy your week, and stay cool!
My latest crafting project is one for my daughter. I saw this on Pinterest one day, and thought it was a great idea!
(Here’s the link to original blog post on ‘All For the Boys’. http://www.allfortheboys.com/home/2013/2/18/surviving-sick-days-diy-dry-erase-book.html)
Here’s mine for my little girl!
At family gatherings I asked everybody for a photo of them to use in a special project for Ellie. They happily obliged, and I went work. I booted up Photoshop and first made all my photos black and white. Then I reduced the opacity on them to about 60%, so the black marker would really pop. Just print them out and slip them in a clear plastic sleeve. I used super low print quality to save on ink (hence the white lines across the photos) and printed on plain printer paper too. I’m thinking next time I update the photos I’ll add everyone’s name to the pages too (Mommy, Daddy, Mimi, etc.) She knows who they are, but she’s really starting to learn her letters, and that would be a great visual aid!
Eraser cloth and marker storage.
When it came time to cover the binder, I debated sewing an actual sleeve for it. . .for about 45 seconds. I really went the lazy route with this craft and decided gluing would be much less effort. So, armed with my hot glue gun, I got to work. The material is a vintage sheet I got at a yard sale for $1.00. (I have a habit of snagging vintage sheets at yard sales since I love the patterns. . .my closet is rapidly filling up). I hastily cut out a (very uneven) rectangle to cover the binder and glued it down. Then, I cut out a nice even piece to fit over the inside so it looks (halfway) pretty! Note I did not hem any edges at all – I stuck with purely hot glue for this project, and I didn’t cut the squares big enough to fake a hem using folds with glue, whoops. The pen and eraser cloth pockets were made by the same method – cut out a piece of fabric and hot glue all the edges down! Works quite efficiently!
For the cover, I ‘hemmed’ the title piece with hot glue – folding over the edges and hot gluing them down so you have a (roughly) even rectangle to write on. I found a font I liked (it’s called Pea Ellie Bellie – check out my Pinterest board here for a link to download it!) and free-handed the lettering onto the fabric with a pencil – believe it or not you can actually erase pencil from fabric. Then I traced over it with a Sharpie, and glued it to the cover! Done!
I made it for my daughter to play with, I swear. . .but my hubby always said he wanted to be a pirate!
Total cost of this project for me was $3.00 – I had to purchase the clear sleeves for the paper. My mum had a three ring binder for me to use, and I had everything else. I suppose the cost of printer ink is in there too somewhere. But it’s easy and cheap, and I like that as she get’s older we can update the photos, or even add new things in there for her to draw on! It’ll be great for car rides in another year or so – I guess whenever I trust her with a dry erase marker unsupervised!
If you make one for your kiddo feel free to send me a pic or link to it – I’d love to see it! What other crafty things have you made for your kids?
It’s my first Fun Fact Friday! From here on out, every Friday (with a few possible exceptions) I’ll be posting a fact about. . .anything. Whatever strikes my fancy. Why? Well, I seem to have a knack for remembering extremely irrelevant information, so why not add to that cache?
This week’s fun facts are inspired by the gorgeous front yard full of lilies I currently have. They are in full bloom, and just lovely. So here are a few facts about lilies for you! Happy Weekend everyone!
Love having these in my kitchen every day.
  
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