Fun With Play Dough

Today Sabrina & I made some homemade play dough.  I put her down for a nap and then thought I would make her some play dough to play with when she woke up.  When I was into the 2nd batch I heard loud knocking and wondered what was going on.  After looking out the windows to see if it was the neighbors I ventured over to the stairs to find Sabrina sliding down them one by one and having fun. She then saw what I was doing and so we put the nap off until later.

I found a great link on Pinterest for homemade play dough only 6 ingredients and it can be made in about 3-5 minutes I cut the recipe in half & the portions were big enough to play with some & save some for the future.

Here's a link to the recipe

homemade play dough

Sabrina enjoyed helping make the mix.

She had to play with it even though it needed to cool...it was just to tempting.

Once it cooled we rolled it into balls and practiced our colors.

 We practiced our colors a bit more and made a rainbow

 After practicing our colors it was good old fashion fun time!

 Sabrina decided it would be fun to bake it a bit in her kitchen

 Then we practiced our shapes with cookie cutters.

She had a blast with the rainbow bear, here's a clip of her playing with it.

Click here to watch a video of Sabrina playing

Well that was our fun craft, color & shape lesson for the day. I'm glad we made a big batch because we both had a great time.

Origami Owl...Every locket tells a story, what's yours?

For my birthday this year my sister got me a beautiful locket from Origami Owl.  She just became a representative for the company and is selling these custom lockets.

The company was started a year ago by a 14 year old girl who wanted to save up to be able to buy a car when she turned 16. 

Each locket is as unique as the person who creates it and with over 100 different charms the combination possibilities are endless.  

They make perfect birthday gifts, mothers day gifts, anniversary gifts, or just

the perfect gift to yourself.

Check out my sisters website for more information.

http://Brenda.OrigamiOwl.com/

Every Locket Tells A Story, Here's mine...

The first step in creating your story is to choose the charms:

 Brenda choose mine.

 S = Sabrina and B= Brian

 The birthstones are for Brian & my birthdays (Feb & July) 

The little girl charm with the  January birthstone represents my beautiful daughter Sabrina

The US ARMY charm represents our livelihood

 The butterfly is one of my favorite creature

And the flip flops, palm tree & starfish all represent my love for the ocean...

 She know me pretty well!

Step 2 you choose the locket for your charms.  And Step 3 you choose your chain.

This is the large silver locket which holds 8 - 12 charms shown on the 18" finished silver chain that comes with the purchase.

The locket is magnetic so it can be opened and charms can be added or removed depending on what you want your story to tell for the day.

Step 4 is the optional backplate.  Mine is still on it's way so I will update the picture when I get it.

Brenda also got me a 32" silver flat oval link chain which allowed for one of  the customized dangles (Step 5) that you see hanging next to the locket.

So that's my story, what's yours?

Once again here's a link to her website showing all the charms, lockets, chains, backplates and dangles.

http://Brenda.OrigamiOwl.com/

Have fun creating!

Military mom on a mission

Life with a loved one in the military is not easy.  I've only been involved in this lifestyle for a few years now. Brian's mom has been in this since the beginning of his Army career 15 years ago. This past deployment she became involved in a movement to get our military Medevac helicopters armed.

Here's a link to a great article written about what she's been doing & why.

Enjoy!

Military Mom on a Mission

Decorating fun

We've been re-decorating Sabrina's room lately.  We added a bit of color and some fun accents.  I still have more work to do on other walls but here are a few pictures of what we have accomplished so far.

I painted these before Sabrina was born. I used to have these letters sitting on dowels and a holder on her dresser but to create more space I placed them on top of her door frame and they look perfect.

Here's a view right after we painted.

I saw these paper pom-poms on Pineterst, and followed the online tutorial from Martha Stewart.  They were pretty easy to make and add a pop of color to the corner of her room.

 I love the afghan that my mom made for Sabrina, and the butterfly sheets Grandma Terri sent her. The colors are perfect.

I saw some fun words to hang on Sabrina's walls at Pottery barn but at $20 each I decided I would make my own.  I found theses words at our local Michaels for $2 each and painted them to match her room. And then found the heart & butterfly mirrors at Target on sale for $4 and created a nice backsplash to her bed.

Sabrina now has a tranquil place to rest & play.  I just have a few more decoration to put on the wall opposite of her bed & her room decoration project will be complete.

Two Love Filled Days

How Sweet, Sabrina signed my card with her handprint!

February always brings me two love filled days in a row and this February they were absolutely the best ones yet.  It's so nice to have Brian home to celebrate Valentines Day & my birthday with this year and Sabrina is at such a fun age I've just had the best two days possible!

Sabrina absolutely loves balloons, what child doesn't, so I though getting her one for Valentines Day would be the perfect gift.  This is her seeing it first thing in the morning.

Later during the day we did our art activity, painting with water.  Grandma & Grandpa sent her a couple paint with water books for Valentines day, a Hello Kitty & a Curious George.  Of course she chose to paint George first.

Daddy came home from work just as we were painting so he sat down to help.

Brian then baked his first cake ever... a Birthday Cake for me...how sweet.  Sabrina also helped out.

"Hey daddy what are  you making?"

Looks good!

 At our Valentine day pot luck this past week Sabrina discovered what lollypops were. Here's a few pictures of her enjoying one with her balloon.

Then the doorbell rang with a special delivery, chocolate covered strawberries & flowers!  Sabrina really enjoyed getting to eat them.

Here's a great picture of her eating a strawberry wearing her Valentines shirt & bow from Grandma Terri.

My beautiful flowers just starting to bloom.

On the 15th we came downstairs to find more Valentines presents from Grandma Terri, books.  Sabrina loves to read.

I got a wonderful present as well... A new watch!

And finally when daddy came home from work Sabrina helped me blow out the candles on my birthday cake.

Brian & I finished off the day with dinner at our favorite sushi place.  A perfect ending to two love filled days.
I'm really looking forward to my forties.  Every decade has been an adventure full of magic and surprises and I'm sure the next one will be the best one yet.

Happy Valentines Day!

Love filled sandwiches I made for our Valentines Day Potluck

Happy Valentines Day. I've been having a great time the past few weeks getting crafty & ready for Valentines Day.  It's one of my favorite holidays, a day dedicated to showing those you love just how much they mean to you. 

This weekend we took Sabrina to see her first movie on a semi-big screen.  It was Clifford's Big Heart Valentine event at the Evans Mills Fire Hall.  They set up 2 projector screens and showed approximately 1 hour worth of Clifford valentines shows.  Sabrina did great during the shows...for the first part, then of course got restless.  She had her first bag of popcorn, a cookie & other snacks so I cant blame her, she was full of junk food & ready to move.

Here's Sabrina enjoying a cookie waiting for the show to start.

Enjoying her first bag of popcorn during the show.

After the movie Clifford handed out Valentines to all the kids.  

This looks like they are giving each other a high five but she's really telling him "no"

She didn't want to sit on his lap, hence the "no" but she did blow him kisses as I held her. 

Sabrina & I had fun making our Valentines cards for the family and a gift for Brian this year.  Of course I got the idea off of Pinterest, I just love that site.

Here's a few cards we made

We framed this one to give to Brian for Valentines day.

On Monday we had a potluck with our mom & tots group.  It was a great turn out, about 16 moms & 

20 + kids.  Sabrina had a blast handing out her valentines & playing with friends.

I hope everyone has a great Valentines Day.

Lots of Love~

Melissa