Angry face

I console myself that every family has one of those children who can't keep out of trouble. Isabel is ours. I woke up this morning to completely reorganized condiments. Cream and coffee grounds in the coffee pot. Sugar in the honey pot. Farina cereal ALL OVER THE FLOOR. Not to mention the ashes she dumped everywhere the other day. And all the other things she does that I try to forget. Sometimes I want to be angry. I tell her that I want to yell at her, but instead we make angry faces at each other. And we all laugh. I know she is curious and can't sit still... I am so thankful that she sleeps or I would be a basket case. More so than I already am. I love my little mischief maker to pieces, but somedays its harder than others. ;)

I know.

I know it has been a while. I am getting worse and worse at keeping up my blog. Not sure why!? With 3 little ones, my craft and typing time is few and far between. We have been spending time outside with the 70 degree days we had last week. And Kieran had his first swing ride last week! I think the picture says it all. :)
I decorated the seasonal table for Valentines Day. It adds so much warmth to the once cold wintery scene I think I want to keep it up until March! Over the weekend we did our taxes and I am now seeing finished wood floors, painted walls, a new bed, and so much more in our near future. And there are plenty of bills to pay. ha.
And our Valentine gnomes we made (tutorial here) are so sweet and festive! Wish I had made many, many more! I think a Christmas versions would make splendid gifts! Lately I have been selling my used cloth diaper stash on Diaper Swappers. I am borderline addicted to buying more used and new diapers.... I even sent Nick to Babies R Us to snag free magazines (American Baby and Baby Talk) to get Amazon coupons that can be combined for really, really, cheap brand new diapers. Lets just say I am set for a while. I imagine someday I will be *saving* money on cloth diapers. lol.
Oh and look at my little lovey boy. He was pooped after our Valentine party. I can't stop staring at him and he can't stop smiling. I am worried his whole face is going to turn into a great big smile! He has become such a happy little guy for the most part. I kind of feel like my life is on pause because I don't want to miss anything. These sweet baby days go by so, so fast....
I hope to start adding some Easter gnomes to the shop later this week. Kieran and Isabel are suffering from a sniffly cold and it is making them a little less pleasant these days. I hope you are all having a lovely week.... :)

Be Mine...

We have been working on Valentines this week! I am super happy with how sweet they turned out! I printed the adorable Woodland Valentines from Ink Tree Press (And look the CUTE CUTE CUTE Woodland Nursery featured on her blog and THIS Little Red Riding Hood dress!!! Not to mention that I want everything in her Etsy shop... but especially the gnome growth chart!!!) (Wow that was a lot in parentheses!)

So we printed the Valentines and Isabel glued them in the middle of my precut-and-hole-punched cardstock while Anastasia "sewed" the Valentines with ribbon. I tied the bows. It was quite the family project! I was inspired by these lace-up Valentines at Pearlie Pink!

And I love, love, these gnomey Pinecone People from GardenMama!! Her whole blog is inspiring... but these gnomes just melt me! I hope to prep these for our little Valentine Tea tomorrow. :)

And if I had air dry clay and glitteer, we would have made a whole bunch of these clay bowls from Ordinary Life Magic for all the loves in our life... maybe we can do an Easter version because I am just needing to make some!! :) The blog world is so inspiring and full of lovingly creative projects for Valentines Day! It isn't to late to whip up some love! :) Anyone else feeling the need for some Conversation Hearts right now???

I wish you all a sweet and happy Valentines Day spent with the ones you love most! And I wish you quite a bit of chocolate too! <3

Princessy Party Favors...

Nothing is as sweet as leaving a party with a little souvenier. I always think of favors as a little "Thank You" for our guests. I know it will be lovely when the girls are a bit older and can make their own little "Thank you" favors. So I made little peg princesses and paired them with dove hearts in a zip-lock bag with a favor tag again from the oh-so-clever Paper Glitter. I am really happy with the princesses and how sweet they turned out. I made them all in pink to avoid any conflicts with different hair. Perhaps some of these lovely maidens will make it into the shop? My only issue is that I did these in a bit of a hurry, and the hair was a bit complex, so there was glue EVERYWHERE. but hopefully the little princesses overlooked the imperfections and found themselves enjoying some imaginitive play.

The treasure hunt lead us to lolli pops and heart necklaces... because afterall, what makes a princess a princess, is what is in her heart. ;) For the necklaces I just used my favorite elastic rainbow cord and some heart charms that I purchased ages ago at Michaels. They were originally used on necklaces that my Maid of Honor and I made for the 4 flower girls in my wedding. I have been holding onto them a while.
And another plug for the cute Princess Party kit. I would have never come up with something so cute and clever as PAPER NAPKIN HOLDERS. but I love them. It was nice to have everything rolled up for each guest to hand out with cake. Cute. cute. cute. The cutest cute you can get for $10. :)

Princessy Party x 2

Do you ever find with children you do things you never thought you would do? I was one of those kids that was into nature, bugs, frogs, climbing trees and anything related to the such. I pretended to be animals, forest children and fairies occasionally. Princesses were not my passion or strongpoint. I hated pink for a very long time. And now I am consumed by pink and princesses. I did not try to encourage this love of royal maidens but I am not one to suppress the passion of my eldest daughter. So I have officially embraced the castles, tiaras, pink dresses and all other things "princess". I know soon enough the tutus and tiaras will be ditched in favor of the latest fashion trends, the curls will be straightened and those precious smiles smothered in lipstick. And I will miss all the ruffles and lace.

After having the grandparents in town and Kieran's baptism, I did not really plan on having a party for Anastasia. I thought of having 1 friend over to have a princess day or something, but I wasn't going all out, or inviting a crowd over to celebrate her turning 4. My parents stepped in to do a family party for her and my neighbor and I combined efforts to throw a party for both our daughters, taking the burden off of me significantly. Yet I was able to partake in, and embrace all the fun. And look at the amazing cake my mom made:

I think this cake turned out FANTASTIC!!! It is such a shame we had to cut it up and eat the deliciousness that it was. She used the Wilton Castle Cake kit from Michaels. She said it was much easier than the roller coaster cake she made my brother and I when we were younger. She set up a treasure hunt to find the Queen's jewels (modeled in the first picture) that were guarded by a royal cat (the cat was actually sitting next to the treasure box, and played his role quite well). She also set up a princess and the pea game where the girls found out they were real princesses indeed and recieved flower crowns. Then we followed a trail of dragon's jewels left in the snow to a special surprise (princess dresses).

After we came back in, we found that the dragon had laid eggs all over the living room! thankfully they were full of candy and not baby dragons! :) And we of course had presents which included real ballet slippers and a ballet dress, a bride doll and belle and Snow White figurines. I also found my old Polly Pockets that I had as a child and saved for my own children. I have over 30, and decided to start giving them to the girls at special occasions. They have been playing with them non-stop!! They just don't make Polly Pockets like they used to.Anastasia was completely in her element as Princess of the party. And then on Monday my neighbor and I had another "Princess in the Forest" party. And Kieran of course was not left out of the fun: This is how I found him when I came in from loading the van. He is totally thrilled. :) Poor kid is completely outnumbered. For the friend party I purchased and printed a Princess party set from Paper Glitter on Etsy. The kind lady who owns the shop sent me a brown and blonde set for the two party girls. It was super easy-peasy to just print, cut and tape the entire party decor. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the decorations, cake, and cupcakes except this one lonely cupcake:

We read "The Princess in the Forest" by Sibylle Von Olfers and did a treasure hunt with games and tasks along the way. The tasks included finding a pea under a pillow again, walking like a princess with a book on their head and courtsying, guessing items inside of "dragon eggs", and getting out of the witches spell by answering "Princess Trivia" (which I will share later). My friend Sharon also made these adorable felt crowns for the kids to decorate (modeled by my little prince so royally):

We gave the children pretend jewels, felt butterfly stickers, and sequins to decorate them and they turned out amazing. If I did this again, I would probably get more felt stickers and some of the stick-on jewels so the children could wear them right away instead of waiting a while for the glue to dry! Everyone had a great time but I am really glad I have until October for another birthday to plan! I need a break! Isabel was pretty party-pooped too:

She just crashed before the party was over. hehe. :) My original party idea was to do a Snow White party with apples and an enchanted forest... but like I said, I have been too busy for a whole DIY and clean your house and bake and arrange, and decorate party. And this was perfect anyway.

*Remember the fairy party I did last year? That was so much fun too. With another girl, I see more fairy parties in the future!!!

*And check out this Little Red Riding Hood party... I was so going to do something like that for Isabel, but she was so into birds so a bird party it was.

*I am not usually into commercialized character parties but this Disney "UP" Party is to die for!!!!