Leprechaun Tricks

Last night our house was invaded!  J woke up and found tiny green footprints all over the house, sparkly shamrocks in every room, and clues leading the way to a hidden treasure.  Our milk was green and the toilet water was green.  That little green man even stuck a shamrock in one of our cupcakes! 
But he didn't leave a mess, he left a treasure for the kids!  J was so excited!  We had to run to keep up so we could help him with the clues.  What a wild and fun morning!

The first clue

More clues...I found the printable online (I can't remember where!) and wrote out the clues myself.  Some were original, some were not!

Rainbow twizlers and rolos for J...Idea from HERE.

Froot Loops and Corn Pops for K...My idea! 

J with his treasure.  He was thrilled!

I hear the same leprechaun left pots o' gold at some of our friends houses too--with trails of glitter and footprints leading to the treasure! 



May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.
~Irish Blessing

BoyVille

I know you have been waiting anxiously since I made THESE and teased you HERE for pictures of J's peg people!  They are so stinking cute I don't know what has taken me so long!  But aren't you glad you don't have to wait any longer!!!

I looked HERE, HERE, and HERE for inspiration.  I have plans to order some of the three inch pegs and make some for K. 

These two are my favorites!  I finally let J watch Toy Story and, of course, he loved it! 

He didn't know who Superman was (What!!!???) and didn't know about the knight.  I called him Lancelot but that only confused more!  Maybe Sir Giles from The Reluctant Dragon would have been more appropriate.

Mamaw colored the background and paper pieces for him and I will laminate them now that I finally took these pictures. 

He loves them!

Cupcake Baby Gifts

I love making these!  It is so gratifying to create something fun out of something ordinary.  Flannel blankets, tiny onesies and footies, and socks combined with coffee filters and ribbon make such a cute baby gift!

The first four "cupcakes" are for a guy that works with Blake.  I used four 30 x 30 flannel blankets from Wal-Mart, four white onesies, and I added little socks this time. 

These are for a girl that used to go to our church.  She moved last year and is now expecting twin boys!  Wow!  I love the green and orange.  I used four newborn sized footies in place of the onesies.  I even wrote a little poem for her!  Maybe I'll share it with you sometime.

These are super easy.  I found a tutorial HERE and I made some for Tela HERE.  The only difference is that I added the socks.  I rolled the socks and tucked them into the onesies.  I even had some extra socks that I rolled up inside the blankets.

Surprises from Mom and Dad

On Valentine morning, both kids had surprises in the chair envelopes.  I finally took time to finish the boy peg dolls for J (I still need to seal them and touch up) and he loved them!  He was so excited to have his own set and was especially happy to find a Buzz Lightyear and Woody doll in the box!  I will try to post pictures of them soon.

I decided to hold on to K's cupcake matching set that I made before Christmas and that was her Valentine surprise.  Right now she likes to throw them but I'm sure it won't be long and she will know what to do with them. 

I also gave them cards that play music.  K liked hers and danced for us!

Couples' Valentine Dinner

Blake and I had a few couples over Saturday night for dinner and a gag gift swap.  We cooked stuffed chicken parmesan.  Everyone else brought the side dishes and drinks...green bean bundles, garlic bread, and green salad.  I also decided to make a strawberry pretzel salad.  Thank you Ashley for the delicious recipe!  I had hot fudge cake for dessert with peaches and strawberries.  Julianne brought homemade vanilla ice cream and it was delicious!  Blake and I served everyone and had a lot of fun being hosts for the evening!
After dinner we had a white elephant gift swap and had a good laugh!  What a great night to spend with good friends!  And we had so much fun, I didn't take good pictures! 

The Place Setting...Because we prepared the plates in the kitchen, we didn't set the table with dishes. 

The Entre`...Yum!

The Favors...I used these as my table centerpieces.  I made the tags based off of a printable I found (and can't remember where).  I didn't use the exact wording as the one I saw but used famous couples both real and fictitious.  I found the little paper buckets on the dollar aisle at Target.  I filled each one with Hershey kisses and printed the tags myself.  I inked each tag with scrapbooking ink and attached in the bucket handles with a curled pipe cleaner.  Very cute! 

Crayon Valentines

J helped make his valentines this year.  I peeled a ton of old crayons and we smashed them into tiny pieces.  We used an old mini muffin tin and mini cupcake liners.  We made rainbow crayons for his friends and with the leftover crayons, he wanted to make some for himself.  So we did them all the same colors.  I love how the different shades of each color swirl together!  They turned out so cute!  They kind of look like mini Reese's butter cups.

For his valentines, I put two crayons in a clear pretzel bag.  I made tags that said "Color Your Heart Out" and added his personalized valentine ribbon.  I found the ribbon at Pick Your Plum.  I tied the bags with hemp and a pipe cleaner.  I love the way they turned out!  J is very excited about giving them to his friends too.

Valentine Chair Envelopes

Did you see these in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog? 

They must have been big sellers because they are all gone!  I have seen several knock offs...here, here, and here.  We used the measurements found here for J and K's envelopes.  They are pretty big, 17 1/2 x 13.  We used a double layer of felt for all the pieces so they are pretty thick and sturdy.  I wanted to use them to put their daily activities and books in during the month of February.  (J loved unwrapping books in December and I'm trying to find something different to do each month.  We unwrapped again in January and I don't want to ruin the excitement of it.)  I didn't, however, like the huge felt names seen here.  Mom and I found iron on letters for both kids and they look so much better.  Not so overwhelming.  Mom had all of the cute trim and I think hers look way better than any others we've seen!  Of course, my mother is awesome!

I had big plans to make them for all of the kids coming to the valentine party.  We didn't really have enought felt to make them all as big as J and K's so we cut the size down to 9 x 12 and Mom used her fancy stitches on her sewing machine to do the borders.  Mom made them all and they look much better than I could have done.  I did cut out the letters for all of them on my Cricut.  I used permanent vinyl and they turned out cute!  All of the boys will get red envelopes and the girls with get white.  And they all look a little bit different. 

While I was cutting vinyl, I cut initials for the plates for the party.  I picked up these melamine salad plates at Target.  For the boys, I used white vinyl and red plates.  The girls get white plates with pink letters.  I got my vinyl from Pick Your Plum, a daily deal website that is AWESOME!!

There is still so much to do before Monday!  I hope the kids (and their mommies) like all of the their goodies!

Handmade gifts

I found some great ideas for gifts this year and decided to try some of them.  J has a couple of little girls to give gifts to so I made peg dolls for them.  I saw the idea here and they were so much fun to make!  I am working on a boy set for J but I haven't finished them yet. 
I hope E and I will like them! (The print out for the back ground, wishing well, wagon, and label can be found here.)

I think these are my favorites!

Belle, Ariel, Tiana, Aurora

Jasmine, Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel

I also made K's little friends gifts.  It is so hard to find things for 1 year olds and I know that they aren't exactly ready for matching but I thought these were cute!  I made this cupcake matching game for K and her friend E. (Mom attached the tops to the bottoms but I did the rest!)  The cupcakes are soft and will be fun to play with until they can match the colors.  I found the idea here.

Little L is getting a Cars match up.  I saw the idea here and it was really easy to make.  He will have more fun pushing the cars around but why not make it educational!

Cupcakes and Candy Rolls

Remember this post from ages ago where I gave you a sneak peak at the baby gift I made for Tela?  Well, I'm finally going to reveal the gift!  Mom and Jules took it to Tela so now I can show you!

I made these sweet cupcakes from flannel receiving blankets and preemie gowns and sleep and plays.  I used this tutorial found on Little Birdie Secrets.  She used onesies but the preemie cloths worked too. 

I also made these candy rolls using baby washcloths.  I looked at this tutorial but in the end rolled two washcloths with the same pattern diagonally then staggering them a couple of inches rolled them into the candy roll.  I used a straight pin to secure the end.  I then wrapped them in cellophane and tied the ends with ribbon.  I liked the way they turned out.