Make It Happen

I just feel I need to share this.

Basically, if you are thinking about travelling to visit a family member and are not quite sure if you're going to do it because of money or time concerns, find a way to make it happen.

My mother came out to help when my first child was born three years ago. She cleaned the house, helped paint the nursery, made us meals and bought us baby gifts. We had no idea at the time, but that was the last baby she was able to help me with, at least in a physical way. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in August of 2010 and passed away in May of 2011 at the age of 62, 6 weeks after our second child was born. Our 3rd child was born 5 days ago, and the small things are so comforting- for my brand-new daughter to be able to sleep on a receiving blanket Grandma Lin gave us, that we can bathe her with a washcloth Grandma gave us. As a young mother, it is hard not to be able to talk to, receive counsel from my Mom (and she was the ultimate mother- 7 children! who all adored her...) She was always such a kind, sweet, gracious, thoughtful, and generous person- it is nice to have these physical reminders of her to care for my babies with.

Collaborative Art

Lately Adelyn asks me to draw pictures, then she colors them in. It's really fun. Around Halloween time, she kept asking me to draw all of our Halloween activities (Trick-or-Treating, Trunk or Treat, The "Monster Mash" at the Library...) Halloween was my favorite holiday as a kid, too!

Then she'll ask for things like, "Me, & Mommy, & Daddy, & Sarah, & Arden, flying in an airplane to France. And I have a big 'mollipop'. And we're bringing candy, and a carrot. And a happy sun, and a mean sun, and a happy starfish, with babies. And a mean starfish. And a mean baby starfish. And a fish, with a mollipop." So cute.

She got her friend Aaron a robot for his birthday,

Then she had the great idea to decorate the gift bag (with a Daddy robot, and a baby robot.) I really like how it turned out! I want to do this on our Christmas presents- wrap them with paper bags or kraft paper then draw Christmas-y stuff on them (you know, reindeer, wreaths, the Nativity, etc.) and have her color them in, then we'll add some ribbon or something. I think she'll really enjoy it- she's really into presents lately- makes pretend presents alot, etc. I'm excited to do this!

Peanut Butter Play-Doh!

The girls & I played with edible Peanut Butter Play-Doh today. It is a little sweet for me (has honey and powdered sugar) but pretty good. I halved the recipe on this site: 

(This is the "halved" recipe)

Mix together:

1 3/4 c. creamy peanut butter

2 c. powdered sugar

Add:

1 3/4 c. honey

Fold in:

2 c. powdered milk

(Be careful at this step. We have a Kitchenaid hand mixer and it started smoking at this point. I didn't really "fold" in the milk, I just dumped in a cup at a time and tried to mix it in. I forget how to properly "fold"- better look it up next time :)

It was pretty greasy, I could have added more powdered milk (but feared killing my mixer, if it's not already dead.) We used raisins and Cheerios to decorate- fun "snacking"!

 21-month-old S. got into it once I showed her how to press the decorations in.

Fruit Gobbler

I volunteered a "fruit platter" to bring to the Thanksgiving Dinner my in-laws put on. I found the link for this idea on Pinterest, the source of all brilliant ideas :) 
My girls helped me put orange slices, grapes, fresh pineapple, raspberries, & cherry tomatoes on bamboo BBQ skewers for the "tailfeathers". The feet and beak are made from an orange bell pepper, and the "snood" (new vocabulary word I've recently learned!) is cut out of a cherry tomato. The skewers had to be "hammered in", and I had to "pre-drill" a bit with a long punaise (thumbtack) before attaching the smaller parts with toothpicks. I love the yam for a head and neck- so much personality. I particularly enjoy his ethnic hairstyle, as well.

                                     

                     

I didn't expect my 1-year-old to be able to help, but she jumped right in and started stabbing fruit onto skewers, too. She's a "figure-it-out-and-do-it" kind of a girl.

On the way to Grandma's, 3-year-old Adelyn said, "I love making turkeys!" So fun to be able to explore, teach, and learn creativity with these girls. "Turkey Feathers" were Adelyn's favorite dinner item. Here he is at the end of Thanksgiving Dinner...

and the next morning, after a "pre-getting our Christmas trees-breakfast" with my SIL's family.

My Bee

Decided to dress Little Bean up as a bee this year. (Big Sis opted for a store-bought lion costume. Not as much fun as making one, but also less work) I ordered a black onesie, bumblebee "Babylegs", and yellow tights (did you know you can get any size, any color tights at welovecolors.com?), and made or "refurbished" the rest. Felt is such a great costume medium for its stiffness. Fleece is great, too, and it's more comfy, warmer, and holds up better than felt. Went with felt this year though. Got butterfly wings at the Dollar Store and reshaped, re-covered (with sparkly silverish fabric), and reinforced (wire from Home Depot) them.

My favorite part of this costume is the little stinger! Hope you had a fun Halloween.

Full of Hot Air

Saturday was A.'s 3rd Birthday Party. We decided on a hot air balloon theme. The girls are pretty into hot air balloons.

Here is why. One morning, we were having breakfast when a beautiful hot air balloon flew right over our deck, like seriously close enough that the people inside could have heard us if we yelled! We ran outside to look at it, then hopped in the minivan with Daddy and "chased" it as it tried to land several times them finally ended up making an emergency landing on the side of the freeway. We parked, went and talked to the pilot and passengers and even helped them "pack the balloon up." A memorable and fun family experience.

So, for the party, we bought a helium tank (did you know you can get one that fills 30 balloons, for like 20 bucks, balloons included, at places like Costco, Target, and Wal-Mart?) and helped each child make their own "hot air balloon". We let each kid pick their balloon and ribbon colors. I got these fancy Italian cupcake wrappers at Sur La Table that looked like "baskets", and used a hole punch for the side holes, and a meat thermometer to punch the "middle bottom hole" to thread the balloon ribbon through. We used scotch tape to attach the ribbon to the balloon. The children decorated their balloons with colored Sharpies. I asked each child what kind of animal they wanted in their balloon and drew one for them to tape into their basket, and it got to float up and go for a ride. We used tissue paper for the animals so they would be light enough to still "float" in the basket.

Arden's beautifully decorated balloon (and Aunt Courtney serenading Daddy and Sarah.)

Joci's elephant flies high...

and Adelyn decided she wanted an "orange alligator mean thing".

The kids got a "hot air balloon lunch". Pink balloon: ham. White circles are those fancy yummy mozzarella "cheese balls", cut in half so that they will lie flat. Love the "drapey effect" of the mandarin oranges. Maybe halved blueberries next time instead of olives? Bean sprout "strings", a Triscuit for the basket and of course a "Teddy Graham". I basted the "Chinet" plates with blue food-colored water beforehand and let them dry, and it turns out ham sucks the blue food coloring underneath it, out of the plate- that's how I made the "clouds". You could also use cottage cheese or cauliflower or something instead. Courtney had a great suggestion of adding sprinkles for color. We grown-ups had "Minted Lamb Stir Fry" for lunch. It was a good time!