Fun day!

Liam and I went to the Kohl's Children Museum today.  That place is so fun and has so many different rooms, that he never gets tired of going there.  We played inside for a little bit but mostly played at the various activities that were set up outside. 

Then we went to lunch.  It was so fun to be able to go to a restaurant with my son.  When the waitress came over to take our order, he promptly said "pancakes peezzz!", and he was so proud of himself.  He sat and ate and watched the choo choo go buy and was such a good, big boy.  I love that we can do things like this together now!

What have you and your little one been up to this summer?

Lindsay

Water Color Jellyfish

Another rainy day brings another craft from Liam.  Here's what you'll need: paper plate, water color paints or markers,streamers, double stick tape or glue, stapler, hole punch and pipe cleaner.

Cut the plate in half and let you child paint or color on the back of the plate. 

Rip streamers into 8-10 strips and let your child paint or color on the strips.

After the paint is dry, flip the 2 halves of the paper plate over and put a strip of double stick tape along the straight edge of the plate halves.

Tape the streamer strips to the inside of the plate halves. 

Take the 2 halves of the plates and put them together with the back of the plates facing out.  Staple all around the half circle.  Punch a hole in the top to thread a pipe cleaner through if you would like to hang it up. 

Let you child "swim" their jellyfish through the air.

Lindsay

Big Boy Haircut

Liam got another haircut today.  I think it's his 4th or 5th because his hair grows so fast.  Usually, I just have them give him a trim but he's been pushing his curls out of his eyes and get too hot and sweaty when he plays.  I decided that it was time to get him his first short, summer haircut.  He did great!  Not a tear was shed and he looks so much older.

Lindsay

Painted Goldfish

It's been raining here non stop and we even had a tornado come through the other day.  Needless to say, we have been trapped in the house for days on end.  BORING for me and Liam.  So this morning, we decided to do a project.  I google imaged goldfish outlines and printed out 3 of these in different sizes (daddy, mommy and baby).

I cut out the 3 fish and put them in the bottom of a shoe box with a few blobs of orange, red and yellow paint and 2 golf balls.  Ladies, please make sure that your husband does not mind if you use 2 of his golf balls for projects. 

Let your child shake the box. 

I think they turned out so cute.  The golf balls give the fish texture that looks like scales.

When the fish are dry you can glue them to a piece of paper.  I wanted to stick them on blue construction paper, but I couldn't find any. 

Lindsay

Liam loves helping

I took Liam to the grocery store on Sunday morning so Troy could have a little break.  Liam loves to go shopping, mostly because they give so many samples, but also because he likes to help fill the cart.  When we stopped at the deli, he was so happy to get a piece of cheese from the lady behind the counter.  He also like to hand over the coupons at the checkout.

When we got home he wanted to help carry in the groceries.  Fortunately, there were a few bags that were very light weight.  You can see in the little video clip just how proud he was to be able to help his mama.  I hope he still wants to help out this much when he's 10.

Lindsay

Liam's Dr. Seuss 2nd Birthday Party!

What a blast!  Liam loved all of the decorations and is still singing "Happy Birthday" to himself.  I had been planning the party for quite some time and used several blogs for ideas.  You can click here and here and here to see some of my inspiration.  I also found a "Grinched" font on dafont.com.  You can download it for free.  For the graphics, I just did a Google image search and made my documents in Word.  If you have any questions or would like me to email any templates to you, please just send me an email or leave me a comment. 

For the menu:  The Apps were pretty light.  I just had green eggs and ham, cheese trees and multi colored goldfish crackers

Dinner: 
Thing1 & Thing 2 BBQ (BBQ chicken)
Poodles Noodles (pasta)
Who Roast Beast (roast sirloin)
Remarkable Foon's Sizzling Hot Pebbles (roast potatoes)
Moose Moss (salad)
Praries of Prax (cole slaw)
Big V, little v what begins with V? (veggies)
Schlotts Knots (rolls)

Drinks and Dessert:
Pink Ink Yink Drink (pink lemonade)
Bezzelnut Splash (sangria)
Valley of Vung Chocolate Rock Blocks (brownie bites)
Yertle's Turtles (turtle candies)
Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes (red velvet with blue cream cheese frosting)
(If you want to know what stories these items came from just email me)

Horton's Field of Clover cupcakes (strawberry cupcakes with hot pink buttercream frosting)
For the cupcake wrappers I used red papers for the Thing 1 and used a round avery label to make the label and for Horton I used grass cupcake wrappers.

I made all of the food labels using Avery tent cards. 

Invitations and Decorations:

I made the invites by printing the wording out on white card stock and them layering it on red card stock. 

Most of the decorations came from Michael's.  I bought almost one of everything they had, including a 5 foot tall Cat in the Hat.  I also used all of the Dr. Seuss books that we had and hung streamers.  The centerpieces were Dr. Seuss pinwheel kits from Michaels and the pinwheels served as flowers and then I used pipe cleaners and pompoms for filler.  All of the gifts were put on a sled being pulled by a little brown dog (from The Grinch).  I made napkin rings with all of the different Dr. Seuss characters and used red napkins with light blue cutlery.





I made Liam a shirt that says "I am 2" and used the "Grinched" font as the template.



All in all, I think the party was a huge success.  I hope you like the idea and it inspires some of you.

Lindsay

Swing Set

Liam will be 2 on Saturday, but we already put up his first Birthday gift.  Liam loves his swing set so much and has a blast climbing up and going down the slide.  We still need to get a todder swing for it, but hopefully we will have that soon.  He is a picture of the swing set and also a little video of him going down the slide.

Liam Video

Click on the link to see video!

Lindsay

Liam is a genius!

He continues to amaze me every day!  I love him so much.  Good job Liam!

Love,
Mommy

Potty Training?!?

Where do I begin?  I didn't think that I would be doing this for a few more months, but the past few days, Liam has been asking to sit on the potty.  I bought a potty chair a little while back and the seat comes off so you can put it on a regular toilet and that is what he was asking to sit on.  He kept saying poo poo so I asked if he has to go, and he said yes, so I put him on.  Well, nothing happened the first 2 days.  Today, was a different story.  He asked to go poo poo, so I put him on, and a minute later..... WE HAD POOP IN THE POTTY!  I couldn't believe it.  He's such a big boy and growing up a little too fast for my liking, although I will be happy to stop shelling out all that $$$$ on diapers. 

So does anyone have any advice, books to read, ways to go about this whole thing?  Let me know what worked, or didn't work for you.

Thanks,
Lindsay

Cute tie t-shirt for Liam

I've made a few things for little girls and for myself, but I hadn't come across anything that I wanted to make for Liam.  Then, I stumbled across Crap I've Made.  It's a great blog and there are some really cute ideas.  I followed her directions exactly and used the pattern that is at the bottom of the tutorial.  I didn't really feel like dragging out my sewing machine though, so I only used Wonder Under to adhere the tie to the shirt.  I found the t-shirts at Carters and the fabric at Jo-Ann Fabrics.  I bought a fat quarter and that is enough for several ties.  I even made one for my nephew. 

I hope Liam likes his new shirt.  I think I'm going to have him wear it for his pictures on Saturday.

Lindsay

Really Cute Spring Tree

This popped into my head this morning because I noticed leaf buds on the trees.  I asked Liam, "Do you want to make a tree?"  He replied, "Yesssss!"  Here's what you'll need:
White construction paper (for background), green construction paper (for leaves), brown construction paper or brown grocery bag (for the trunk), scissors and a glue stick. 

Trace your little ones hand and arm, up to their elbow, on the brown paper.  Cut it out and glue it on to the white paper.  The arm is the tree trunk and the finger are the branches.

Cut leaves out of the green paper and have your child glue them onto the "branches".  Liam is in a bossy phase, so he spread glue on the leaves and then told me where to put them. 

Telling Mama where to glue the leaf.  Even Prada (my kitty) was in on this one.

I think it turned out really cute! 

Here's a picture of Liam saying "cheese" and showing off his work of art. 

You can, of course, add flower buds to the tree with colorful paper or tissue.  You can also color the leaves or tree if you'd like.  Liam told me he was done though.  This would also be a great fall project and you could use red, orange, green and yellow for the leaves. 

Think Spring!
Lindsay

Terrible Twos...already!?!

The past week has tested my parenting skills and patients unlike any other time in my life.  We have officially entered the terrible twos and all of the tantrums and melt downs that go along with it.  Liam has begun to assert his independence by throwing himself on the floor, screaming until he becomes a sweaty mess.  He does this if he doesn't want to come inside, if he doesn't want to go outside, if he wants a snack, if it's the wrong snack or if I put the wrong socks on him that do not have dinedines (dinosaurs) on them.  I realize that this "phase" will probably last until he's about 18, although I'm sure he won't throw himself on the floor if I don't give him the car keys, but WOW!  It's like he has the strength of 20 men and I can't even pick him up. 

Now I don't want you to think that my child is bad because he's not.  99% of the time, he's and angel.  He loves to read, do crafts, kick balls, color and run around.  He's usually in a good mood, even when he wakes up in the morning.  If you saw him laugh or smile, you'd never believe that he was capable of these types of melt downs.  So what I do is walk away ad let him calm down.  I almost ignore the tantrum and let him compose himself.  This seems to work pretty well, even though it can take up to a 30 minutes for him to calm down.

So do any of you have advise or tips for the terrible twos?  What do you do when you little one has a tantrum?  What I do, have a glass of wine after Liam goes to bed.  Cheers!

Lindsay

Prickly Cactus

A fun little project for your munchkin.  You will need:  rice, green food coloring, zip top bag, scissors, construction paper or cardboard and glue. 

Draw and cut out a cactus shape from the constriction paper or cardboard.

Put some rice in a zip top baggie with a few drops of green food coloring and let your little one shake, shake, shake. 

Next, spread some glue on the cactus cut out. 

Put the cut out in the box (glue side up) and then dump the green rice on top. 

Put the lid on the box, add a rubber band to be safe, and let them shake the box. 

Open the box and shake off the extra rice.  Let it dry and there you have it, a Prickly Cactus.

Lindsay