It's A Mickey Mouse Party!

My little baby is growing up! We celebrated his second birthday last weekend.  Blake's very favorite thing in the world right now is Mickey Mouse...so of course we had EVERYTHING Mickey Mouse!  Here are some pictures of the set up & tomorrow I'll post pics from the party.

Decorating Mickey Mouse Cookies

Mickey Ears for All!

Mickey Mouse Toilet Paper Bowling

Mickey Mouse Marshmallow Toss

This Chalkboard is going to go up in Blake's "hideaway fort" in his room!

Coloring station

Entry table

Just woke up & ready for some fun!

Easy Non-Candy Valentines

I'm not a huge fan of sending candy loaded Valentines to school with my boys.  So I always try to find creative non-candy ideas to send them to school with so that they do not add to the inevitable sugar rush.  They always come home with so much candy after every school party, especially Halloween & Valentines.  This year Dylan decided he liked the parachuting men idea the most.  I picked up a couple baggies of them from the local party store & printed off some bag toppers....and voila!

 

Super easy, cute & best part about it...Dylan gets to help in it!  It's not one of the "typical" Pinterest Valentine projects that kids don't get to help out in & mom does all the work.

 

He loaded up the bags, helped fold the toppers & attached!

 

I think he enjoyed signing his name on the backs of them the most. :)

Blake has been on a sunglasses kick lately so I figured what a better gift than that!? I grabbed a bag of cheap ones from the same party store, threw them in the baggies (Blake's still a little young to help out, so Dylan was happy to step up to the plate & do it for him).  I designed the toppers for the bags & printed them out.

 

Dylan had to help sign Blake's name to the backs of them as well. :)

 

All-in-all...super easy, fun & most importantly, one less piece of candy for everyone tomorrow!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

 

Valentine's Decorating {Part 2}

 Today is Day 2 of sharing my new Valentine's decorations (all Pinterest inspired, of course!)

First up is my "be mine" sign.  I had some old scrap wood in the garage from a previous project and had the paint & frame holder. I printed out the letters & heart, then cut out & traced them on the piece of wood.  

Next up I made up moss covered LOVE letters.  I had never worked with moss before.  I knew going in that it would be messy (which it was) but I had no idea it would be so easy to work with. I bought a sheet of the sticky back moss (which wasn't really very sticky at all).  Then I traced the letters on the back of the moss, cut to size & glued on with hot glue. 

I "love" the way it turned out..hehe..I think I see several more mossy projects in the near future. It will be great for spring! 

The "hugs" and "kisses" pillows are two of my favorites.  It is showing up almost white in the picture but in fact the fabric is more of a natural/outdoor fabric.  I printed out the letters, cut them out & traced onto the fabric.  

And lastly, I added just a few subtle touches around the house such as these Valentine marshmallows in a glass jar.

Finally, we have a post-Christmas/not-so-naked looking house!  

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Decorating

I hate taking down all my Christmas decorations.  One, because it's a huge pain...I have a TON.  And two, because it makes the house seem so empty.  So this year I decided to get a jump start on my Valentine crafting & decorating to fill the void left from the removal of all things Christmas.

First up was replacing my Christmas wreath.  I searched & searched on Pinterest to find something I liked for a Valentine's wreath.  I couldn't really find anything I really liked.  So many were so cheesy.  I found a couple of ideas that I liked & made my own "hybrid" Valentine's inspired wreath.

Next up...I found an idea (Pinterest inspired, of course) of making a heart out of buttons.  I thought the idea was cute.  I started with a square block of wood, put it on some "I love you" paper & then sanded & aged the edges.   Arranging the buttons turned out to be more difficult than it seemed.  I thought it would be a breeze...then found myself arranging & then re-arranging for about an hour!

Next up....my (Pinterest inspired) Candy Heart Tree.  I started out with a foam cone & a bunch of candy conversation hearts.  I (because I am ridiculously OCD) separated out the colors and formed a pattern around the cone.  Now, of course, you don't have to do this & could just as easily put them on at random...but, again, I'm just that OCD.

I severely miscalculated just how long I thought this project would take.  For some reason I had it in my head it would only take about an hour to complete.  Three hours later I found myself still sitting on the floor with glue gun web-like strings everywhere and finally finishing up.  It was messy, it took much longer than anticipated, but I love the way it turned out. 

I've got some more projects I've finished up & will post more tomorrow!

Catching Up {New Years Edition}

For New Year's this year I thought it would be fun for the boys to partake in a mini-celebration.  I invited some friends over and we had a kiddie-approved celebration chalked full of a milk-toast, cookies, horns, confetti poppers & cool Mickey glasses.  I had TONS of food cooking & the adults all gorged on food while the kids had fun.  

Practicing their horns before their "official" midnight celebration. 

The following day (New Year's Day) we ventured out to Legoland.  Both boys had an absolute blast. 

Dylan getting ready to drive his Lego Police Car...

Fighting over the karaoke machine....

 

Who's excited for the new Lego Movie?? That guy! The one in the back...trying desperately to get in the cutout!

Catching Up {Christmas Edition}

I'm trying to play catch up on the blog today, so here's a look back at the end of December for us...
We went to go see Santa & boy was Dylan ready.  He had made out his list & was reciting it, ready to go...

Ready to rock his visit with Santa...

Blake, on the other hand, was a little more apprehensive about the visit to Santa.. 

Dylan rocking it....

Blake terrified.... 

Still adorable!!

Christmas Eve the boys got to open their two presents...new Christmas PJ's & Slippers...they were both pretty excited about both!

Christmas morning opening presents. Dylan's coveted "McQueen's Popped Tire"...

Blake had an important phone call.... 

After Christmas we headed to Kansas to celebrate with family.  One of the days we took the older boys sledding.  It was Dylan's first time sledding & boy did he love it!  You could hear him giggling the entire way down the hill!

Gettin' some air!! 

Snowball fight!! 

Sledding success!! 

(that hair speaks volumes)...

And speaking of hair...Blake was in dire need of his first "official" haircut...

He was a champ!  Now he looks so grown up!

Another Buddy Update

 

Buddy decided to make a nice mess and make snow angels in the kitchen.

 

He apparently flew in from the chimney and left footprints for us to discover.

 

The following day happened to be my birthday.  I had already decided that we would be stealing an idea my sister's elf had done..."bow the house"...the ENTIRE, and I mean ENTIRE house was covered in bows.  Everywhere you could imagine had a bow on it...the center of all the bows landed on one place...around Buddy in his chair.  He, himself, covered in bows...we are still finding bows everywhere...

The morning of my birthday, Dylan woke up to the bows and said Buddy must have done it for my birthday....but of course!....I'd actually never thought of it, but it sounded great!  After some birthday events, Dylan worked on his second loose tooth and in a matter of about 2 minutes, pulled that tooth out! I was so proud of him!  It wasn't even close to coming out, but he was brave and decided he wanted it out.  Out came the tooth!  

That night was a busy night...we had Buddy the Elf heading off to see Santa, as well as the Tooth Fairy coming for a visit!  Apparently, Buddy and the Tooth Fairy ran into each other in passing.  We woke to an enormous pile of glitter by the front door, along with a staggering trail of glitter, numerous items flipped upside down, turned sideways, etc, along with a note from Buddy explaining the situation.  It stated "Dylan, Sorry for everything being all messed up. I ran into the Tooth Fairy as she was leaving and we bumped heads.  I am so dizzy!"  A glittery mess and items jumbled galore was what we woke up to.

 

The next night Buddy and Captain America decided to have a little fun.

 

Buddy made a fort to hide out in while he & Captain America had a marshmallow fight!

 

Then Buddy decided to pose next to Dylan & Blake's new picture with Santa and go fishing for Goldfish.