Birthday Balloon Countdown!!!!!!!

Sweet O(5) is SUPER excited about her balloon countdown to her birthday!
The idea for this birthday balloon countdown has been bouncing around in my mind since the girls and I made the balloon surprise gift for my niece's birthday in April.  (Although, I admit that even though I've had the idea for months, I didn't actually put it together until the day that she began the countdown!).



To make O's balloon countdown to her 6th birthday, I filled 10 balloons with either money, candy, or notes with activities.  I printed numbers and taped a number to each balloon.  I threaded the balloons together, starting with #10 and counting down to 1, using embroidery thread.  (The idea to make a threaded balloon garland came via Pinterest...I'm not sure if this is exact link that I saw, but it's similar.)






Each morning O wakes up very excitedly and is ready to pop her balloon!  The first day she received a pack of Smarties (candy)...1 for her and 1 to share and 5 dollars to go shopping for herself and her Grandmama (with whom she shares a birthday).  On the 2nd day, she received a note that we would play hot/cold for her to find a prize.  The hot/cold game led her to the refrigerator where she found a can of spray whipped cream (something we almost never buy), and I sprayed it directly into her mouth!  She was SOOOO excited as this was certainly a novelty for this health conscious mama :)  (one reason it's fun to almost always eat healthy is because it's makes these special occasions even more exciting!)




Other items in the balloons include...a treasure hunt for a gift (Magic School Bus Science Club subscription...yes, I give my children their homeschool curriculum for their birthdays!), a dinner date with her daddy, a trip the the YMCA waterpark near my hometown (but not so near to us), another treasure hunt for a gift (a mama made subscription to a monthly American Girl fun pack, which will also be a part of her homeschool curriculum and the core of our US History program), a couple of dollars to take on vacation, a trip to pick blueberries, and a visit to the Dairy Queen for a blizzard.

Tie-Dyes for Baby

Our girls were SO excited to tie-dye onesies for the new baby in our family (my bff's new baby).  O(5) is worried that baby boy won't like her onesie because the red faded to pink, but I assured her that he'll love it!



Tie-dye is a great way to make older onesies seem new again!  Here are the tie dyes we made for Sweet E before her birth. 

Appliques for Baby

I love to make special appliqued clothes for the sweet babies that we love.  So, for our most recent addition (the sweet baby boy that my bff recently gave birth to), my mom and I made several appliques.

His mom had a special quilt made for him, so I ordered fabric that matched the quilt for the appliques.  My girls chose the pieces for the applique, and I cut the fabric, applied the steam a seam, and ironed the fabric pieces onto the clothing.  My mom sewed around the edges (which started out quick and easy and ended up being a huge hassle when the sewing machine went wacky on her).   We appliqued 4 different outfits (onesies, gown, and a romper) and hung them up from a clothes line to decorate for the baby shower.

Baby Diaper Cake

We (my mom, sister, and friends) recently hosted a baby shower for my best friend (since we were 3 years old!).  We had fun even though the guest of honor was on bed rest.  Luckily, we had the shower at her house, so she was able to participate minimally.

I'm not typically a fan of diaper cakes since I'm an advocate of cloth diapering, but this one was fantastic (and I'm not just saying that because my beloved mama made it!).  She had a lot of fun making it, and she even involved the girls in making the accessories.   They were all SO proud!





A giraffe topper




Sweet rattles to decorate the bottom




Spoons to decorate the top




Baby washcloths rolled to look like tootsie rolls




Baby washcloths rolled to look like lollipops




Don't you love it?  Good job, Mom!   Here is the link for the youtube video that my mom watched for directions and inspiration.

Customized Wooden Dolls...A Review!

Amaria from Amaria's Paper Works sent us these gorgeous wooden "paper" dolls to review shortly before we found out about Elliott's brain tumor.  So, the review was put on hold, and I'm finally getting to it!

We love these customized paper dolls!  She used pictures of the girls to make the dolls.  My favorite thing about these dolls (and the thing that makes them different from other dolls that we've reviewed) is that they are mounted on a wooden backing!  They are very sturdy and well-made.

I also love the packaging!  Here is the front...  It includes a picture of the paper (wooden) doll and a biography of the child which makes a very special keepsake.

Here is the back of the package... 





Here is a description of the dolls from Amaria's shop...

"The magnetic dress-up dolls from Amaria's PaperWork are designed to be played with. They are mounted on 1/8" craft wood with a magnetic sheet sandwiched between the layers and finished with varnish. Both the dolls and their clothes are printed from my own original artwork. The clothes are laminated for strength and durability and attach to the doll with magnetic dots."



Another thing that I LOVE about these paper dolls is that they have multi-cultural clothing!  Amaria sent us outfits that corresponded with the countries that we've studied (or will study) through our cultural exchange!



The outfits are laminated and attach to the dolls with a magnet.



These paper dolls are a great addition to our cultural studies, and I plan to set them up with their various multi-cultural costumes in the geography/culture section of our new school room!  Thank you to Amaria for sharing these wonderful dolls with us!

Balloon Surprise Gift

Our niece turned 8 a few weeks ago, and I wanted to make something special and exciting for her.  It's harder and harder to think of handmade gifts for as she gets older, so when I saw this balloon surprise idea on Pinterest I was very excited!



To make this gift, you need balloons, a small gift (money or coupons for activities), and confetti.




The girls LOVED participating in making this special gift for their cousin!  E(2) and I worked on it while O(5) was at school one morning.

First, E(2) pushed confetti into the balloon using a funnel and a pen.  She was SO proud!



We put a dollar or a coupon for an activity into each balloon with the confetti.  After E put the confetti and money (or coupon) in the balloon, I blew up the balloon and tied it.



O(5) and I finished putting the surprise gift balloons together after she got home from school.  She also loved making the balloons.  We forgot to bring the confetti with us (we were at the girls' grandparents house), so we put sprinkles in each balloon along with money or a coupon for an activity.

O rolled each dollar before sliding it into the balloon.



She had fun pouring in LOTS of sprinkles into each balloon!



Here is our finished gift...a bag full of balloons!



The birthday girl and her cousins had SO much fun popping the balloons to find the surprises inside!


This gift was a huge hit, and I'm looking forward to making a slightly modified version for my girls' birthdays this summer!!!

Homemade Moon Sand....FAIL!

Edit to add:  Our moon sand was great for a few days, and then it turned nasty...very, very nasty.  Don't make my mistake and use cornmeal instead of cornstarch...unless you only want it to last for a couple of days :)

The girls and I had fun making and playing with homemade Moon Sand last week. We made moon sand with O(5) when she was younger (probably 2), and it was really messy. This time we used a different recipe, and I liked it better. Here is the link to the blog where this idea originated. To make moon sand you need 4 cups of sand, 2 cups of corn meal (the recipe says corn flour, but we used corn meal...evidently I was supposed to use corn starch.  However, it worked out fine with the corn meal, and I like it better since we used cornstarch last time, and it was terribly messy.  I'm not sure how long it will last...I'll let you know), and 1 cup of water. We ended up tripling the recipe and adding a little bit of extra water.

The girls took turns pouring in the ingredients, and they loved mixing the dry sand and corn meal. I added in some mini construction vehicles, and we had a work site! I had fun playing with them, and O(5) asked "Mama, how do you know so much about construction?" so I must have done a good job of pretending! We were excited when Elliott played with us, too! They tired of the construction zone fairly quickly and started cooking with the sand...no big surprise there :)