fun activities

I've been trying harder to find new fun activities for Millie to enjoy. I always want to do fun stuff but find that unless I have it planned ahead and written down it doesn't usually happen. So, I finally got around to making a plan. I wrote down some fun ideas and searched online and penciled them in my planner: 1-2 activities each week (and I found enough so that I could schedule 3 months worth of activities). ANYWAYS, here are some of the things we had fun with.

Nature Box: paint each compartment of an egg container with diff. colors then go on a nature hunt and find objects that match the colors. Mill Loved this one!

Bead Butterfly: all you need is beads and wire- make sure the wire is thin enough that you can fit 2 strands of wire inside the bead hole (so you can make your feelers). I obviously had to shape this but Mill enjoyed trying to string the beads on the wire.

Easter Chicks: 2 diff sizes of pom-pom's, yellow and orange felt, beads for eyes. I used hot glue- then after I put the glue on I let M. press the pieces together.

Flower cupcakes: Mill loves to mix up cake mixes and cookies etc. and also loves to put sprinkles on stuff (I think all kids love that huh? it's just the best thing ever!) Then we just put dum-dum's in for the flower and cut out some scrapbook paper leaves.

Back Yard Picinic: I put her food in an easter basket b/c we don't have a real picinic basket- ha ha. The dress she is wearing is her "picinic dress" (it's something I made in a sewing class in college) I'm not really sure why it is her picinic dress but she has clearly stated this to me several times.

Strawberry mice: slice the bottom of the strawberry on a diagnal so the mouse can sit flat. poke 2 almond slices in for ears, I used chocolate sprinkles for the eyes and mini chocolate chip for the nose. The tail is pull and peel licorice (this was my attempt to get millie to try nuts- but sadly, it didn't work)

Science: This one was super fun! We made "Oblec": 1/2 c. cornstarch and 1/4 c. water. She LOVED playing with this. We also did Volcano's: 1 T. Baking soda, then pour in 1+ Tbsp of vinegar. Also: color mixing: get a clear glass cup/jar and fill it with water. put drop's of food coloring in and watch them swirl around! Oooh!

Pink bath: probabally not a great idea because now she wants it all the time... She fell and scraped up her knee pretty bad and wouldn't take a bath b/c it hurt her knee. After a couple days with no bath I was getting desperate.

But- now I need to plan some more activities so what ideas do you guys have?

California

Last week we took a little trip to N. California. Josh had a race at Stanford so Millie and I bummed along.

This was his first steeple of the season. He did take a little fall, but was fine & still ended up winning! (I can never get clear shots of him while running, so you get to see the starting line line-up.

I had a hard time keeping an eye on the race and an eye on Millie (I really need one of those kid leashes) Above is her pullin some "grumpy faces" because she didn't want to watch the "running race" she wanted to go to the "Man Village"

We went out to Santa Cruz for several hours. The drive out there was georgous-- it's so nice to be out of the city and on the relaxing coast. Mill literally had the time of her life!!! The day was pretty cold so we didn't bring her swim suit but she loved running from the waves and of course ended up gettin soaked- we took off layer by layer, and she ended up like this.

Yes, those are boys underwear. ha ha. I let her chose her first pair of undies, I figured they all do the same job when it comes down to it. (but really, they need to put girls and boys undies in different places so we don't have this problem)

One of the beautiful spots on the drive out to Santa Cruz

We also spent a day in San Fran. Although I could never live in San fran, I really love it there! We walked around the piers and had a good time. We loved the candy shop (I love salt water taffy, Mill does too, but Josh doesn't care for it.)

Of course I have to talk about food right? It really just sets the mood to sit at Fishermans Warf and eat some warm clam chowder served in sour dough bread bowl (although still not as good as market street grill's- in SLC)

Chasing Pigeons was also a blast!

Merry-go-round at pier 35 (this little girl got to be really spoiled this day)

oh yeah, and I'm pregnant! 22 weeks and it's a boy! We're SO excited and feel very blessed to finally have another one healthily on the way :)

Paper dolls

I loved paper dolls when I was a girl. I though i'd get one for mill and came across these cute (free) paperdolls. Just thought I'd share.

click here if you want the above doll

or to get the full size of this doll, click here

also check out this darling paperdoll website

Mardi Gras

We headed down to New Orleans for Marti Gras this last weekend. We had a GREAT time! I know what you are thinking, 'they must be crazy, Marti Gras is pretty riske' '. But we had a few friends and also ward members who've said it is really a family freindly event, just don't go to the french quarter at night and you'll be fine. We went to one of the night parrades, (tonz of other kids there) We scored about 100 sets of beads, 6 stuffed animals, gold coins, and several cups. Mill was in heaven!

Next day we went to the aquarium. Mill is so brave and didn't mind petting the sting rays at all.

Below is Millie on a "Fishally" She was in heaven this trip because we got to go on so many "fishally's" (ie: an exploration. I have NO idea where she came up with this- her vocab. is in no way limited so it's not because she can't pronounce something??)

We ended up gettin rained out. I was sooo dissapointed because we left early and didn't do our sight seeing because, well, we couldn't see anything b/c the rain was so thick. needless to say, this is about the best pic. we got.

We were able to grab a bag of Beignets (cross between doughnut and scones, covered in tonz of powdered sugar) that New Orleans is apparently famous for.

I thought the architecutre and culture was so awesome down there! (wish I had more pictures to share) Everything was old, and bright, and cool, cajin/creole food and all that. I've always wanted to see the Bayou, so one of my fav. parts was driving into the city. The freeway goes right through the Bayou-- it's all built up on stilts. There are a few neighborhood areas built on stilts with their means of transportations being boats. So crazy! I'm sure Gators just show up on their doorstep and it's no bigger deal to them then it would be to us if we found a spider in our house. Loved the trip!

Happy Engagement!

(tracy and kyle on their engagement night)

Alot of you probabally know my little sister Tracy. Well, she got engaged this last weekend!!!! I'm so excited for them! They are a such a cute couple! they have known each other for about... hum... 12 years? but didn't ever date till Kyle got home from his mission. Kyle's a great guy, super personable, and fun. (Also alot like Curtis Stone if you watch food network. ha ha ) Tracy and Kyle are both kindof... crazy (ie: menstal-tute. if you know what this is then you know tracy very well !) They are such a good pair in so many ways! We're excited for Kyle to be in our family! congrats you guys!

best cupcake ever

Yes, Another food post... You see, this was quite certanly the best cupcake I've ever had. I wasn't expecting much from this blueberry cupcake (top R.), picked out by Millie, but it topped the list! Very dense, with real blueberries inside. The frosting must have been half freshly whipped cream half frosting. Just wishing I could have another! If you are ever in Fayetteville AR. (on the way to most places, jk) stop by Bliss Cupcakes and try out one of these!

Weather

Memphis weather is pretty crazy. I love that these 2 pictures were taken the same week. Start out with a snow storm and temperatures in the 20's... end the week with some sunny 60 deg. weather! (It's like coach Kuhlmann always says, "you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes" ha ha, love that guy!)

last minute valentines

My Valentines is kindof last min. this year (due to being out of town last week, and planning for New Beginnings) but here are some cute, easy valentine ideas... just in case you are on the same track that i'm on (well, on second thought, if you are on the same track i'm on you may not check blogs on a busy day, but oh well, i'll post anyway)

All images from B.H.G.

Message in a bottle!

(mini candy bar for the body)

This one for mill.

This one for Josh

and some yummy treats that you could make later this week- from BHG as well (you can find the recipes by using the recipe search on BHG.com)

Chocolate-covered strawberry cake(only i'm using a cake mix rather than making home-made cupcakes like the recipe suggests)

chocolate-malted mousse

New Favorite Activity

Playing "snow" is Millies new favorite activity- We play this like every day or two lately! The supplies, ie: Gillette shaving cream, only cost about $1.59 ... it has provided about 3 hours of entertainment so far --and is super easy to clean up! We just put out a plastic placemat (or just put it on the table) and squirt away. we had some plastic arctic animals that millie loves to cover in the snow. Of course the snow generally ends up all over her face and cloths and on the chair etc but it is so easy to clean up!

Valentines Wreath

I saw a wreath like this in my friends magazine and thought it was pretty cute. I like how it looks home-made and kind of cheesy with all the glitter but that's what valentines is about! The cost was about $4. I've written up a little "tutorial" below

Supplies:

-scizzors

-newspaper or pages from an old book

-4-5 different sheets of "valentines paper"

-red cardstock

-glitter glue

-glue stick

-modge podge

-sponge brush

-Thin card board box (like a cereal box)

-normal cardboard box

-ribbon to match

-glitter love letters (Target has a pink glitter pack of ABC's for .99 cents)

1. cut out hearts from scrap book paper. (I got my paper after last Valentines so it was like 50% off) You will want to cut 4 big hearts (out of same paper), 8 med hearts (1 did 5 out of newsprint and 3 on a brown print) and about 12-13 small hearts, can be cut in various small sizes.(I used about 3 different prints AND the plain red cardstock for the smaller hearts)

2. brush modge podge on the back of the hearts and stick them on the thin cardboard (ie; cereal box) when the Modge podge is dry, paint over the tops of the hearts. wait for it to dry.

3. Glitter glue!

squirt red glitter glue around newsprint hearts, and silver glue around the 4 big hearts... I was to cheap to buy red glitter paper so I just painted my small plain red hearts with the glitter glue...

4. cut out wreath from thicker cardboard- I traced a large mixing bowl (about 12") then I cut out the center- leaving me with a wreath that was about 1 1/2 in wide.

5. arrange hearts on wreath, and glue them down with glue stick (or hot glue or what ever you want) I also wanted my hearts to be a little more 3d so I cut some small tabs out of cardboard (like the one in the gap between hearts in photo above) and then glued the heart onto that. some hearts were glued directly to the wreath, some on 1 tab and others on 2 tabs (does that make sense?)

6. make sign- I had reversable paper so I used the back of one of my sheets. covered it with modge podge and glued on the love letters. (the ribbon looking things off to the side of the sign is just paper that was modge-podged and folded like a ribbon)

7. attach ribbon to top!

Young Womens New Beginnings

New Beginnings is comming up in our ward. I'm the "Personal Progress Advisor" so I'm the one who gets to head up New Beg. The girls in the presidencies came up with a cute theme- "Girls just wanna have F-U-N" - accompanied with sleepover themes (the "fun" stands for the sponge bob song; I do NOT like sponge bob, but the song did fit and was kinda cute so we let the girls use it) I'm excited about it and think it's going to turn out really cute, so I thought I'd share a few of the fun things we came up with:

Invites

these took me a little to long to make but I think they turned out cute. The paper doll is in a sleeping bag, you pull her out and the invite is on her dress. (template for doll head found at (http://greenbeanbaby.typepad.com/main/2006/08/cut_paper_illus.html)

DECOR:

Like the flower vases filled with candy (photo from "the celebration shop")

Cute and super cheap tabel decor. The girls are just bringing patterned sheets/bedspreads.(photo from "the celebration shop")

FOOD:

(photo from "allergymoms") we'll just bake cookie dough in a pizza pan, then use red frosting for sauce, white for cheese, and fruit roll-ups for the pepperoni's

chocolate dipped mallows- but we'll do rice crispy treats

**So, if any of you other gals are in Y.W. you should post what you are doing and then I can steal some ideas for next year ;)