Golly Geez Can it be Our Little Madeline is Turning 3!

This year my little angel decided she wanted a "Daisy Party." "A what?" you might be asking! Well, you know,  that duck that plays the supporting role to Minnie... Donald's main squeeze... yeah, Daisy Duck!

So random right!? Well google Daisy Duck parties (or anything for that matter) and you'll see just how unpopular this little duck really is! In truth I was glad to bring this cutie out of the shadows, even if just for a day!

I'm not sure what made M definitively decide on this theme... but once she made up her mind there was no going back. The only thing I can come up with is that M looooves purple, and well you guessed it...So does Daisy! On the "Mickey Mouse Club House" TV show, Daisy is always sporting purple from head to "high heals"!   So in the end a "Daisy-Duck-Purple-Party" it was (and of course I added some pink in there for good measure!) 

My first try using fondant...I'm in love!!!

I had tons of fun making and gathering treats for the main table: Vanilla Popcorn, Candy Pretzels, Hot Pink Gum Balls, white and pink marshmellos, strawberry maltballs (wow!) and  "Brigadeiros"

Work it Daisy, you are cuter than Minnie any day!

Raspberry Lemonade with frozen raspberries! Yummo!

Saw this on a blog somewhere, and knew I had to do it... You ask your kid the same 20 questions every year for his/her birthday and keep them in a scrapbook! It will be fun to look back and see how the answers change! I decided to print it out and display it at the party...I was also going to frame a nice picture of M to go along side it...but ran out of time!

Brazilian Chocolate Fudge Truffles "Brigadeiros" .... to die for!

To burn some calories we  the kids jumped, ran, swung, climbed and beat the head off a butterfly ; )

Sweet Cousins!

Match making... Is he not the cutest???

We love pinatas!!!

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I'm going to call this one a total SUCCESS! Maddy and her little friends had a blast... and that's what it was all for! Thanks for celebrating with us guys!

Oh, want to give a major shout out to Meagan P  for helping me set up/tear down and EVERYTHING in between! You are clearly the best...couldn't have done it with out you! We love you!

I love this child more than anything! She brings endless smiles and laughter to my days! She is amazing in every way and I feel beyond blessed to be her mom!

 I love you Madeline Tarter!

"Pinterest, It's not you, it's me"

I wonder if I am the only one that gets overwhelmed by the “Pinterest Perfection.” At first, the wealth of creativity is intoxicating! You can't get enough, right? But soon the reality of "I can't live up to this standard" settles in and what you're left with is self doubt and guilt! It is modern day "Keeping up with the Joneses"  times 10! So Pinterest and I are officially "taking a break."  Don't get me wrong, I still aspire to make my children's lives a little more magical and my home a little lovelier and more inviting... And I get that Pinterest can be a wonderful source of inspiration. But at the point which I began to feel it was the standard of how I should live, mother, look, cook and breath... that's when I had to reevaluate!  I started questioning, "At what cost does 'perfection' come?", "Who really cares if I'm perfect anyway?"  and "Am I really so perfect and creative or just a great copy cat?"  (geez...sometimes I even fell short of being a "great copy cat") Truth is,  I love being creative and expressing myself, but when I got on Pinterest I found myself copying more than creating. More than inspiring it was sapping of any original or unique idea. Now you might say, that sounds like a personal problem, and I would 100% agree with you! I've been on a creative block for some years now, and I can't blame Pinterest for that. But what I am saying is that during a time in my life when I have more material to keep a blog full for a year, (getting ready for my daughters 3rd birthday party in 2 weeks, making plans for sweet boys nursery, decorating M's big girl room, organizing every square inch of my house, spending thousands on curb appeal, OH! and growing a human in my body, preparing for a peaceful home birth... etc…etc... )  I don't want to lose my own creative voice (or sanity) in the process of trying to achieve someone else's perfect!  Yesterday was a hard day of lamenting all the things "I am not" (remember I am 7 months pregnant...more emotional than usual no doubt!)  So I had a pity party!  But then, I woke up this morning and came across this amazing article by Motherhood Matters...EXHALE... It was exactly want I needed to hear! Tears began to flow; it was one of those times when I wasn't sure if they'd stop!  She said the words my heart was sighing... but more importantly she pointed out what really matters. Love! Are you loved? Do the people in your life know you love them? The rest is fluff! She gets it! I want to live it.  Two verses immediately came to mind:

"Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." John 13:35

“You are worried and upset over all these details!  But there is only one thing worth being concerned about."

 Luke 10:41-42

Truth is refreshing!

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think! How do you stay reminded of truth in your day to day?

Hoping Easter Everyone

"EASTER IS HERE"- Maddy told me to write that ; )

Easter is a blast with an almost 3 year old! We kicked off the Easter weekend with some family fun...

we all enjoyed looking at our finished product and debating who had made the most beautiful egg!

On Saturday morning we headed out with some good friends to do some huntin', egg huntin' that is! This was M's second time to Easter egg hunt and the first time around she wasn't even walking...so lets just say it was a new experience! For some reason I went into "dance moms" mode, shouting at her as if this was a competitive event! She was no really feelin' all my enthusiasm! The result... 3 empty eggs, 3 eggs with one bubble gum each, four jelly beans off the ground and one grumpy little girl! 

Mission Easter Egg Hunt #1: FAIL!

grumpy hug! This little guy is seriously the sweetest
little man ever!

I think this is the only smile I saw that morning!



Jelly bean huntin'



After a much needed nap... We regrouped and attended a wonderful Easter service at Hope Fellowship in Frisco! Wonderful time of worship and remembrance of why this day matters! That evening we went to a Quinceanera of a former student of mine, one of my favorite students ever!!! I wish I had pictures! I was such a fun family event for us. It was all of our first time to go to one of these! Maddy was in complete awe!!! She danced the night away (the only one dancing, might I add!!!)

It was a jam packed day..we didn't get home until 11 pm... YIKES!

Sunday Morning the Easter Bunny drooped off a basket full of treats!!! Maddy opened her door to a big surprise!

Yes!!! That's the "happy dance"!!!

Soon after inspecting all the goodies.... we headed out for our second attempt at Easter egg hunting, we drove about an hour and half north (I think) of Dallas to Bonham, Texas! There we meet with my husband's dad's side of the family! Lots of second cousins to play with which is always a bonus!

This time around I laid off the competitive sport mentality and tried to let her do it her way! It went a lot better!

Three at a time, now that's impressive!

Mission Easter Egg Hunt #2: SUCCESS

They even had a Easter pinata! That was awesome! She's the youngest and smallest of the bunch so she got to go first and last! Super fun time!

Starting a Toddler Bag Collection

So "toddler activity bags" are all over the Internet...You know what that means? There's lots of  mommies needing some time to breath : ) True right?! Well these bags don't necessarily provide alone time, but they are great fun for kids and provide good learning opportunities! What I like most about "toddler bags" or "activity bags," which ever you want to call them, Is that it gives my tot an opportunity to independently choose a learning activity!  So instead of me saying, "today we are going to work on patterns" She can just go to the activity box and make her own selection. The other thing I really like is that it keeps her interest longer because she can choose a couple of bags at once and go back and forth between the two! These days her attention span seems to be shortening so this is a great thing, for me and for her :)  I also like that these activities can be done with me (more direction) and without me (more freedom.)

When I first started reading about these bags I thought the best approach would be to ask a friend to join me one day and we could just bang it out and make one zillion bags each!  After better thought,  I decided the best approach for me would be to make 2 or 3 bags at a time when ever time permits! So here's where I started!

Where's the Cheese

I got this idea from "theiowafarmerswife" . I did it a little differently by adding numbers on the houses which allows more flexibility to it...You can work not only on colors but also number recognition.  Since my tot is a little older we use this for numbers and directions: up, down, left or right!

So the idea is to hide the cheese and guess where it is! "is it under house number 5?" etc... She also enjoyed playing this by herself by helping the mouse find the cheese!  I made this game using spay adhesive to glue felt to a piece of cardboard (from a cereal box I pulled out of my recycle bin, I do that a lot!)  Then just cut the felt houses, mouse and cheese! Easy!

Go Fish!

Not a ton of education value here, but it does provide some hand-eye coordination! I did this in  less than 2 mins...while M was eating breakfast!  For more educational value, you can go fishing for magnetic letter in a bath full of water! I saw that somewhere but can't remember where to site, sorry!

OK so this took a little more time, I admittedly got caught up in the details! : / But I think it turned out really great : ) I adapted this activity from secondstorywindow (many more"toddler activity bag" ideas on there!)  Instead of using dots I used animals and "feeding sacks" just to make it a little more fun! I wish I knew how to share the document here for you to have...that would make this a quick activity to make!  I made this in a word document and added clip art. Cut it out, glued (spray adhesive again!) to cardboard (cereal box) and put laminating paper on top!



So the idea here is for your tot to count the animals and give them the right amount of "food." Fun right?  Obvious skill here: counting and number recognition.

For organizational purposes I made sure all these activities could easily fit into a large zip lock bag. I then labeled the bag and put them in the "activity bucket" which is easily accessible to Maddy!

EXTREME NESTING (Pinteresting)

So I call this phase of my life nesting... or another word for it might be "pinteresting"! We are expecting our second child in early July and the nesting instinct has completely taken over my life!  This compulsion is only exacerbated by my love of Pinterest!  These two together have created A LOT of organization (labels, labels, labels) and lots of trips to the Dollar Store, Hobby Lobby and Walmart!

My first project was the kitchen pantry and kitchen office. Sadly I don't have before pictures to show  just how pitiful a mess it was previously, but here are the "afters" :)


Kitchen Pantry.... 

The organized pantry put a HUGE smile on my hubby's face and that pretty much made it worth it for me! The other bonus to an organized pantry is that it makes me actually want to cook! This in itself is a total MIRACLE!!!

 The only thing that could make this pantry better is a colorful print inside the shelves! Check out  House of Smith   pantry!

  Ah.mazing... I know!!! I plan on panting and stenciling the back of these shelves in the next month or so...I'll update then!

 

So my other obsession right now is LABELS!!!!!  I love making them and looking at them...they really make me happy! And truth is they really do make life easier...it's true!

 For these labels I used "chalk board" contact paper!!! In love with this stuff! Then I labeled using a "chalk board" marker! 

 For this label I used a "shape press," you can find them at any craft store I bought this one at Hobby Lobby.

 More chalk board contact paper!!!

So In the spirit of true organization I neatley taped a "what not to recycle" sign on one side of the Recycle bucket (my husband constantly asks me...."can this be recycled" thought this might help with some of these types of questions ; )

On the other side I taped a large zip lock bag and put the Recyle boocklet for the city I lived in. This booklet is awesome...it gives tons of info on where to recycle bulk items, large boxes, christmas tree drop off, paint and electronics drop off, etc... now the info is handy when we need it)

Kitchen Office....

 I found some wrapping paper I liked and backed the shelves with it! Looks better than plain 'ol shelves and makes me smile every time I go to grab something out of there!

Laundry...

Craft Closet...

We all know that the purpose of organization is to de-stress our lives...but somehow I'm still shocked how it does that very thing...DE-STRESS! My husband and I really do feel more relaxed and I get a lot more accomplished during the day!  It really does work!

 Bottom line is... I heart organizing!