Dress Up

Carolina has always been a fan of dressing up, but since we moved to our new home last August, the dress up clothes just sat in the garage in a big box. The other day the kids were "bored to death" as Carolina put it. Sophie was also struggling to find entertainment in the everyday toys that we play with....so Mommy opened up the box of dress up clothes! I think they spent a good, long, quiet hour trying everything on! I had two of my daycare kids here too, and there was not a single argument, "he hit me", "she took my toy", cry, or complaint out of anybody! It was really nice, and so much fun to watch all the kids trying stuff on and role playing with each other! It pays to have a box full of special toys or activities stowed away so you can bring it out every once in a while to save the day!

Summer growing

I cannot believe how quickly this summer has flown by already! School starts in just a month!!! Sophie is in full blown toddler mode! She kicks, hits, even pinches, and screams when she's not happy about something. She seems to have lost some interest in her toys, and finds the computer mouse and keyboard much more amusing lately! But one thing Sophie never gets tired of is going outside. One of my very generous daycare moms, Karen, gave us their gently used little tikes cozy coupe car for Sophie to enjoy! Now my girl has her own set of wheels! How did she go from a tiny little baby to a talking, throwing her food on the floor, running away from diaper changes, little girl so fast???

Then there's the tall one. AKA Carolina. She's been at Grandma's house for a couple of days now. Last night I spoke to her on the phone for a minute to tell her good night, and although I know she's getting to be almost as tall as my mom already, and she's so smart and grown up going in to second grade, her voice sounded just like it did years ago. So tiny, and sweet, and it almost makes me feel sad to realize that, that time is gone already. It just makes me want to grab my girls and this moment and freeze it forever! I know I'll get caught up in the next moment that happens though. I'll wish Sophie was bigger so she'd outgrow throwing her spoon at me, or that Carolina would learn to cut paper without getting tiny scraps of it and sticky glue all over my table...but maybe today I can at least shrug my shoulders and say to myself "Enjoy this, it won't last for long!"

Stationary Box

Friday was my mom's birthday. She is very diligent about sending cards out to all of her friends and family on their birthdays or anniversaries, so I knew she would appreciate a hand made gift for her birthday that was chock full of cards, note cards, and gift tags that she could use throughout the year. And they all stow away nicely in a cute little box.

Michael's mom and some of her fellow stamping friends first made the boxes like these on a girl's weekend getaway a while back. They kept the instructions and everybody decided to do them again. As a group we purchased two Simply Scrapping Kits from Stampin' Up. Each box uses a 12x12 piece of card stock to make the bottom part of the box. And a piece from a 8 1/2x11 card stock for the lid. Designer series paper can be used to cover the lid, and to make a cute little address book, stamp and pen holder inside the box. More card stock can be used to make the card holders inside the box. The Simply Scrapping kit comes with adhesive, die cut images that you can use to decorate the cards you make for the inside of the box. You can also use coordinating ribbons and embellishments to jazz up the cards and the box. I had a lot of fun making this, and look forward to making more of these! And my mom really loved receiving one as a gift!

Sophie's Birthday Cupcakes

It's hard to believe that Sophie is already a whole year old! She has grown up so fast! She's just about mastered walking. And the girl loves to eat! She always has been such a good eater, which is a stark contrast from Carolina who won't eat much more than peanut butter and jelly. So in honor of Sophie's appetite we dressed her as a pig for Halloween last year, and celebrated her first birthday with a piggy theme too! I didn't want ugly old farm pigs though. I wanted cute pink pigs. So I made up some invites using my 'It's a Party' stamp set. I stayed with my color scheme of choice lately...brown and pink. I stole Julie's idea, and made little piggy cupcake toppers, and was really pleased with how they turned out. I did the pig on one side and a number 1 on the other.