Thumb print gift tags

I think there is something special about gifts that are actually wrapped, especially when it shows that the person took time to make it beautiful. This year to go on our gifts we made our own gift tags. If you want to make ones like ours you will need:

card stock, ink pads, hole punch, and a pen.

 I cut card stock into the shape of tags but you could also use pre-cut tags. Once I had our tags cut out Scarlett stamped her finger in the ink and we printed them on our tags, it helps to have a wet washcloth handy for this so you can wipe any extra ink off.

 For our reindeer tags we did three fingerprints in a row.

 Once the ink dried I added little eyes, a nose and antlers.

 For the Christmas light tags we alternated our colors and did four fingerprints.

 Once they were dry I added little coils to the tops of the lights....

 And a curly string to hold them all together.

 I then added a To: and From: section to the tags, punched a hole in the end and they were ready to go on our presents.

 Presents ready for Christmas!

This is one excited girl! She is really enjoying all of the holiday fun this year which makes it even more of a blast for us and it's Taylor's 1st Christmas so it's fun to see him checking everything out for the first time. What a blessing to have these little rugrats in our life, I love being a parent!

Let's Get Dirty!!

WARNING

You will get messy!!!

We have been experiencing some extremely warm weather for December so we took advantage of it the other day and made a mud pit in the back yard. Scarlett jumped in her bathing suit and crocodile shoes and off we went to make mud.

♥Excited to play in her bathing suit♥

 I would have to say that Scarlett's favorite part of this activity was making the mud, she loves when I let her use the hose and thinks it's especially funny to squirt mommy.

 We brought out all of our sand toys and I found a few sticks in the yard that were just perfect for stirring our mud pies. Scarlett was a little cautious about getting too dirty but had fun all the same. I think next time she'll really get into it.

♥Welcome!♥

After we were done playing in the mud I hosed her off and she happily ran around playing in the yard while she dried off. Pretty crazy that Christmas is in 2 weeks and my kids can play in the yard in bathing suits! 

Circle, Triangle, Square

In an effort to identify shapes a little better we made a game out of it. I took painters tape and recreated shapes on the ground for us to play with.

 We had a blast dancing in them, singing about them, and talking about the different shapes. We took different colored balls and Scarlett placed them in the different shapes and we practiced rolling them into the shapes.

 Then Scarlett got creative and took some of her favorite little stuffed animals and moved them from shape to shape. It got us movin' and groovin', which I love and she can now correctly identify circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, and stars.

Toddler Trail Mix

With toddlers in perpetual motion, it seems that they need an endless amount of fuel to keep them going. I am always on the lookout for good snacks to keep around and threw together this trail mix for Scarlett that has been a real hit. It's pretty much just a mix of toddler friendly finger foods that can be mixed and matched to your kiddos likes. Here's what went into ours:

1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup raw peanuts
1 cup yogurt covered raisins
1 cup organic o shaped cereal

Just pour everything into an air tight container, shake it up and watch it disappear.

Yummy!

Think before you toss

Next time you are going through your kids clothes to pass on things that don't fit anymore, think before you put it in that box. Some items just might not be ready to move on yet. Perhaps some pants that are too short could be shortened into shorts or capris, or cut the feet off some old tights and they become leggings. I recently ran across a dress of Scarlett's that no longer fit her but still had so much life left in it and knew it would be perfect for a refashion.

 I had a shirt sitting in her closet that was still a few sizes too big for her that had been handed down to us and was the same purple as the dress. I cut the bottom of the dress off, gathered it and sewed it to the bottom of the shirt to create a new dress. I then used the leftover fabric to make a bow that I added to the waistband for a little extra sass. Not to let anything go to waste, I cut the bows off the straps of the old dress, glued them to hair clips and voila!, instant matching hair accessories.

What do you have in the closet just waiting to be reborn?

From Summer to Winter

Please excuse my short hiatus, I was having some technical difficulties but have worked them out.

So with the weather cooling off now I have found us to be a bit lacking in the warm clothes department. Always trying to stretch our budget, I wanted to work with the great clothes we already had but just make them a little more comfortable to the cooler days. One of the ways I did this was by making Scarlett's short sleeved shirts into long sleeved shirts.  All you need to do is cut the sleeves off a long sleeved shirt that no longer fits and add them to the bottoms of a short sleeved shirt.

 Of course this only works if the sleeves from the old shirt still fit around your little ones arms, so check to make sure before you begin.

 And when you are done you are left with a shirt just perfect for these lovely fall days.

Bubble Bowl

As long as your kiddo can blow out through a straw and keep from sucking in, then this is a really fun activity that cost nothing!  All you need are straws, a bowl, water, and a bit of dish soap.

 Take a bowl and add about a teaspoon of dish soap and then fill with water.  We did this on a rainy day, so we just put a towel down on the kitchen floor and played inside but you could also take your bowl outside and not have to worry about any mess.

 Once you are set up, poke your straws down in the water and start blowing, you will end up with all kinds of bubbles that will just keep growing and growing.

 Scarlett had just as much fun playing with the bubbles as she did creating them.

We played with them with our hands and popped them with the straws and kept busy for almost and hour, not bad for using stuff right out of your own kitchen.