Decorating Onesies

For our last art project for on Saturday, O and M decorated onesies with fabric markers. I framed off a section of each onesie with masking tape and put a piece of cardboard beneath the top of the onesie. Then the girls started drawing with the fabric markers.

O wanted me to trace her hand on hers.

I need to iron the onesies to set the artwork, and then they'll be ready for the Little Kicker!

Art for Little Kicker

After the girls painted my belly, the girls and Guh-guh painted canvases for Little Kicker's room.

They had lots of fun, and I'm very happy with the results. I think Little Kicker will love them!

Belly Art

After we finished the belly cast, my sister thought we should paint my belly. That sounded like fun to me, so Melanie and the girls got to work! The girls were SO excited!!! They used the tempera paint that O has at her easel. Elliott and O wrote in the paint with their fingers :)

Belly Cast Fun!

We had lots of fun making a belly cast on Saturday afternoon :) It was a family event with my sister, mom, niece, bff, Elliott, and O participating. My niece was a little hesitant to get her hands covered in plaster, but O jumped right in. To make the belly cast, I bought a packet of rigid wrap plaster strips from Michael's (about 4.99). I cut them into 12 inch and 18 inch strips. My bff, EB, covered my big belly with Vaseline, and my sister soaked the strips in warm water before placing them on my belly. Then everyone smoothed the strips on my belly. I had to sit still for about 30 minutes after they finished until the cast was hard enough to remove. When Little Kicker is born, we'll take pictures of her in the belly cast. Once she's older, I'll let her decorate it :)

Fun with Straws

I had no idea that straws were so entertaining until my sister gave O a pack of straws for her birthday. O was THRILLED! She and my niece played with the straws for hours.
My niece made a straw and tape sculpture after she got home from vacation.

O has made many straw creations, but her favorite is her "unihorn." She walks around the house blowing into the straws like they are a horn. She said she has to be very careful because her unihorn is special :)

Painting with Bubbles

Painting with bubbles has been on my to-do list since last summer. I was so glad when Jo posted about this activity recently which reminded me to go ahead and do it! We used bubble solution that we already had and added food coloring. We then used our various bubble blowers and wands to blow bubbles onto cardstock. Our pictures didn't turn out nearly as nice as Ebi-Kun's, but we had a lot of fun!

DIY Moon Sand or How to Make a Mess!

After seeing the directions for making Moon Sand on Skip to my Lou, I decided we should try it. We used 9 cups of play sand (from Lowe's), 3 cups of cornstarch, and around 2 and a half to 3 cups of water.
1st O and Ell poured the sand into the container (we were so happy to have Elliott join us with this project!)


Then the cornstarch


Mixing it all together


They added the colored bubble solution to the sand :)


And here is the mess! If you don't like a mess, DON'T make moon sand! By the time she was finished playing, O was covered from head to toe in moon sand. Elliott dipped her in the lake to clean her off :)

Movie Night

O and I had movie night tonight! Can you guess what we watched? If you guessed "Annie," you're right :) She was very excited that the Annie doll that my mom made me when I was little came home with us, and they sat together to watch the movie. O kept her arm around Annie for most of the movie, and now they are both asleep :)

Learning to Dress Dolls/Stuffed Animals

O is great at undressing her stuffed animals and dolls, but not so good at dressing them :) When I saw several small costumes on sale at Target, I thought that they would fit her small monkeys and be a great new shelf activity. She was thrilled with this activity! I decided to use 3 monkeys instead of just one so they could each wear a costume and then she could play with all of them together.



O insisted on keeping the outfits on the monkeys, so they sat and watched us do our montessori activities this morning.

This activity was NOT easy for her, but it was fun!

They're OFF!!! Hooray!

I went to the dr today with the hope that they could cut off my rings. They didn't have any tools to cut them off, but they were determined to get them off :) The dr. used a circlage (sp) thread and slipped it under one ring at a time and then wrapped it around my finger. Then he unwrapped from the other end and worked it up (see Meredith's link in the comments section for clearer instructions). I had NO idea that a finger could hurt so badly. I was sweating and seeing stars, but I'm SO glad my rings are off, and I'm not sure if I'll ever put them back on :) Labor should be a piece of cake after this experience!

The Magic of a Lite Brite

My mom recently found our old lite brite and put it out for the girls (O and my niece) to use. I loved the lite brite when I was little, and I remember feeling so excited when I plugged it in. It was magical, especially when we turned off all the lights...I'm so glad my mom saved EVERYTHING!

My Rings are STUCK...

advice needed! I'm feeling quite anxious and panicky because there is NO way my engagement ring and wedding band are coming off my finger. I've tried soaking my fingers in ice water, holding my hands above my head, and rubbing my finger down with olive oil, and they are not budging :( I did manage to get my other ring off that way, but my wedding rings are giving me a bit more trouble. It's a little ironic that today is our 8th anniversary, and I'm panicking trying to get my wedding rings off :) I think I may have to get them cut off, but if anyone has any great ideas to avoid that, I'd love to hear them! Thanks!

Striving for Organization

My mom spent a couple of days with us last week helping me clean and organize. We accomplished a lot, but we have so far to go!
Here is a very scary before pic of Little Kicker's room (it used to be our junk room). I'll post after pics after the room is completely finished...if that ever happens :)



O kept herself busy while we worked...I'm so glad that she can easily entertain herself :) She wore her "marrying" dress and was SO excited when we found my wedding bouquet (we used silk flowers since the island where we were married did not have a flower shop). She also decided that she should wear her babies during her wedding. She's such a good mommy :)

Baby Update

Only 5 weeks to go!!! And I'm hoping for 3 :) We had a 3d ultrasound today, and Miss E. Buhstasia Pop was not very cooperative (that's the name O gave her...we are going with the first name, but we'll probably choose a different middle name :) We didn't get any good pics of her (her face was pressed into my uterine wall the WHOLE time), but we did find out that she probably weighs about 5 pounds, and it appears that she has lots of hair. It will be very surprising if she really has hair since Elliott, O, and I were all bald babies!

We are slowly getting things ready for EBP. My mom and I spent hours and hours and hours turning our junk room into a livable space for EBP. However, we still have lots to do. My mom has finished fixing the elastic on all of our cloth diapers, and now we just need to strip them. I bought a swing off Craigslist that I am very happy with. I'm planning on ordering the car seat tomorrow, and hopefully we'll get the bed within the next week or 2. Since we are cosleeping, we are putting a double mattress on the floor of EBP's room instead of using a crib (we had a crib with O and only used it once!). I still need to make the mobile for her room and decide on the wall decorations and make them. Elliott has to put together and paint a shelf that I bought from IKEA. We don't have a place to change diapers, so I hope that EC goes really well :) I'll post pics of her room once it's finally finished...hopefully within the next 2 weeks!

On the Go Dollhouse

Here's the rest of O's handmade Birthday gift! The on-the-go dollhouse is made from foam core board that Elliott painted with magnetic paint. I then painted the rooms different colors using leftover paint from our house. I wanted the walls to be magnetic because I took pictures of various art and pictures that are on our walls and printed them on magnetic paper for O to have to decorate her house. I bought the kitchen furniture when it was on clearance at Pottery Barn Kids. I'm not sure if I'll buy furniture for the other rooms, or if I'll make it...I'd really rather buy it :) The idea and directions for making the foam core board dollhouse came from here. O LOVES her dollhouse, and the magnetic walls have worked wonderfully. I also gave her magnetic decorations by Mary Englebriet for her house, and she has had a great time decorating the rooms. Everything fits nicely in her decoupaged suitcase.