Positively Perfect Party for Scotty

All decorations by Tiffany, my talented sister-in-law. Check out her site HERE. Thanks again Tiff, you are one amazing aunt!

Scotty's 5th Birthday

Tiffany made the cupcake toppers and I made the cake. It's all about construction sites in this house right now.

Chocolate Dino Cake

My friend asked me to help her make this cake for her son's 4th birthday party. Considering how long it's been since I decorated a cake, I think he turned out pretty well.

Chocolate cake mix using two 8x2 heart pans. Sugar cookies for the arms, legs, and tail. Homemade chocolate buttercream and white buttercream frosting. Used star tip for body, spots, and claws. Round tips for mouth, eyes, and tummy. Leaf tip for teeth. Believe it or not, the eyes are ping pong balls covered in frosting. Just make your frosting stiff enough, and it works great!

It was so nice to work on something like this again. Happy Birthday Ethan!

Remember making these?

I introduced my 4 year old to the art of making egg carton caterpillars this week. I know it's been a long absence from my last post, but my life has been inundated with autism, therapies, and doctor's appointments for my 2 year old. I don't know if things are ever really going to quiet down for me to create and blog those creations on a regular basis, but I'll put stuff on here when I can....and that's all I can ask for at this point. So, go pull out some pipe cleaners, an egg carton, and some glitter glue and HAVE FUN!

Valentine Sun Catcher Craft

My four year old and I made these fun Valentine hearts today.
Supplies:
crayons with the wrappers off
pencil sharpener
wax paper
iron and ironing surface
2 sheets of thick paper or cardboard
scissors and heart stencil (or free hand it)
small hole punch
twine and tape for hanging

Start off with a piece of wax paper, folded in half and then open back up. Place one sheet of cardstock or cardboard underneath wax paper to protect your working surface from the heat of your iron.

Unwrap your crayons and get shaving! Scotty could do it but it took him a long time, so I would take over periodically.

Spread your crayon shavings over the wax paper, but not too thickly. You can do color combos (these were Scotty's choice) or you can do one solid color.

Fold over wax paper and crimp edges.

Place cardstock or cardboard on top and iron on medium heat. My cardboard was pretty thick so I did about 15-20 passes. Keep the iron moving and check every once and a while on your progress.
(Sorry, forgot to rotate this picture)

Voila! Good color choices, very camo-like.

Let cool completely (30 seconds was plenty for us) and cut your your heart with scissors.

The wax paper fuses together really well, so there's no mess since they can't come apart.

Punch a small hole in center and thread with red twine. Hang in a window that gets lots of light with tape.
Happy Valentine's Day!

My Best Purchase Yet

My new computer desk! It fits everything and I can close it up and not look at any of the electronics if I want....it is so nice, I love it! It's really nice too because the doors are so heavy that the boys can't open them....perfect.
How much did I pay for this beauty? Forty dollars. Yep, that's pretty awesome. Although I must say that my friend, Heather, probably could have gotten it for $4 (she has an amazing ability to find good deals on furniture), I am happy with the deal I was able to make.

Hooray for hiding clutter!

Classic Children's Stories

My dear friend, Jen, asked for help in finding some classic children's stories for her son and daughter. Here are a few of my suggestions.

I don't know if you can even find this anymore, but this is my favorite version of "The Three Little Pigs". This is the copy I grew up with and I snatched it up (along with a few others) when my mom was thinning out the kids' books a couple of years ago. I want my kids to know the actual classic story before they read variations (and there are a lot of variations out there). It's hard to find tried-and-true classics, but this one fits the bill for me.

Info: Hardbound, 28 pages
Published: Derrydale Books
Distributed by Crown Publishers

This is a series which also includes "The Three Bears", "Little Red Riding Hood", and "The Three Billy Goats Gruff". I do not have the others, but I want them.

In my desperation for finding the classic version of these stories, I bought this paperback combo book. It has "Gingerbread Man" (good), "Three Billy Goats Gruff" (ok), "Jack in the Beanstalk" (not good), and "The Little Red Hen" (good). It works for now until I can find copies of these stories that I really like. I bought this at Barnes and Noble about a year ago.

I am still searching for a version of "The Three Bears" that I like. Let's tag team this, Jen, and keep each other posted on our progress. Anyone else with ideas or suggestions...let me know and I'll make sure to pass it on to Jen too.

Some other suggestions for your children's collection:

I love this collection of classic fables. Each fable is one page long and has absolutely beautiful illustrations. My four year old loves these and they have a moral at the end which I love.

I just love this book. It simple and sweet and the illustrations are amazing. It's the story of little Kate who won't go to bed. Her mom begins telling her about all of the baby animals that are already asleep and soon Kate is sound asleep too. I'm always so happy when my son chooses to read this story before bed with me.

What is a children's collection without a little Shel? My four year old is really starting to get into these and has a blast reading the funny poems. We have all of his children's books and we'll slowly grow into them as the boys get older. We've even read "The Giving Tree" once and he stayed with me through the whole book, I was impressed.

I would love to hear about your favorites....I'm always expanding my collection!