Summer Fun Part 2: Snake Bubbles

Thanks to Pinterest, and this pin, I found some really EASY things to do with Colin this summer. It helps our day go a little faster when we do just something different every day. I hope to document more of these fun activities and share them with you!

First up...snake bubbles.

Step 1: Cut the bottom off of an empty water bottle, put an old washcloth around it and secure it with a rubber band.

Step 2: Mix up a batch of homemade bubbles (squirt of dishsoap and some water).

Step 3: Dip the bottom of the bottle into the bubble solution and blow into the water bottle.

Step 4: Keep blowing! You get a snake of bubbles!

It's also fun to hold the bubbles in your hand, of course.

Colin loved this enough to keep him occupied for about 15 minutes. That's kind of substantial in 3 year old terms.

Handmade with Love

I've been busy the last few weeks learning how to knit hats :) It's super fun and fast!

This one is for Snowflake's first photo shoot:This is a fleece diaper cover. My mom helped me with this one, but it was super easy. At first it was made just for practical purposes, but I may also end up using it for Snowflake's photo shoot since it matches the hat.
A knitted hat for Colin. I made him one that was "toddler sized" that was too small for his head, so I had to make another that was "child sized."
A big brother shirt for Colin. My mom helped with this one too :)
Hmmm...what else can I make in the next few days? I'd love to make a cocoon for pictures too.
Photo Credit: http://kristineldridge.com/blog/?p=3637

But I'm not sure if I will get the itch to actually do it or not.

Colin's birthday party

Colin had such a good time on Saturday at his birthday party!

My parents came up early to hang out for awhile before the festivities started. While my mom helped me in the kitchen, Colin played with his great grandma.
Here's my pride and joy of the day, homemade and decorated by moi. I call it beginner's luck :)
I was so nervous about the taste of it because I didn't allow enough time for the cakes to cool before I took them out of the pan, so both layers were missing some of their tops.

Colin took a long nap and when he woke up, he put on his birthday shirt (designed in Publisher, printed by cafepress).
After eating a second lunch (Barbecue sandwiches, pasta salad, fruit salad, and chips),
Colin dug into his presents. He was spoiled by all the generous gifts he received.
Then we sang Happy Birthday
and ate cake (which tasted fine!).
I had wanted to get a family picture taken at some point during the day, but I was too busy during the hubbub. So right before my parents left, as Colin was wearing down, this is the best shot we got.
This morning, one of Colin's first words was "tractor." It was like he had just remembered he had a new tractor sitting in the living room. So away he scampered to play with his tractor, then his truck, then his trike, then his baseball bat... repeat all day.

Colin thanks you for your generosity. He's such a loved and lucky little guy.

Spring Break Day 5

At 2:20 a.m., Kevin I awoke to Colin saying, "Mama potty." I wearily asked Kevin, "Was that potty or puppy?" (sometimes they sound the same). Kevin said he thought it was potty. We jumped out of bed and I asked Colin if he wanted his puppy. He said, "potty." Away we hurried to the potty, with Colin's teddy bear's head in a choke hold under his armpit. He went potty, we re-diapered him and we put him back to bed. As we climbed back in to our own bed, I said to Kevin, "That was interesting." Mystifying, amazing, all of that.

This morning we went to the pool to swim. Mr. and Mrs. L. said we could use one of their guest passes so we could get in for free. We took swimming lessons last summer, but he was so much more comfortable swimming this time. There weren't many people there aside from a few lap swimmers and a water aerobics class. He liked to pretend he was a fish, and he did a great job of kicking his legs. He really liked just being dragged around the pool and watching people and enjoying the water moving around him most.

Swimming wore him out because he slept for about 2 and a half hours, and then he woke up and slept on my lap for another half hour.

This afternoon we picked up our pottery that we painted on Saturday. Here's the plate I made for Colin to use on his birthdays. The cupcakes are his hand prints (minus the thumb):
And here's Colin's first pottery masterpiece:
Still not sure what I'm going to do with it. I'd like to display it somewhere, somehow.

After picking up the pottery, and Colin and I stopped at Once Upon a Child. I hadn't been in one, so I wanted to see what kind of bargains were there (nothing good enough to buy, although I did consider a pair of rain boots). Then we went to the fabric store. Colin was doing just fine there until he saw a cart and he wanted to push it. The store was not busy at all, so I let him push the cart. Then he ran into a shelf and knocked it down. In an effort to not wreak havoc on the entire store, I said he had to sit in the cart and I put him in it. Enter tantrum. I pushed the cart back to it's spot and we left. On our way out, I told the employees that it was our first store tantrum and there's nobody even there to see it. Disappointing.

This evening after supper we went for a walk. Colin directed us to the school's park, so he went down a few slides.

Two more weekend days and my awesome week will be over. Would it be pathetic if I started counting down to summer now? 11 more weeks (with some days off due to Memorial Day and Easter). Seems so long, but knowing I only have 11 more weeks to make a difference in my students' lives seems like a heavy burden to bear.

Spring Break Day 3

This morning Colin and I hit the store bright and early to buy some cookie ingredients. I gave Colin a quarter, and he decided he wanted to buy a banana with it, so that he did. He gave the cashier his banana and his quarter like a pro. Then we came home and played outside for awhile. We saw the neighbors again and chatted. We got a ride in Mr. L's golf cart, just a half a block away and back.

After lunch Colin took another decent nap while I baked chocolate chip cookies. It was Kevin's mom's birthday today so I made her a largish chocolate chip cookie. It was the perfect size to fill a paper plate. I practiced my decorating skillz and wrote happy birthday on it.
Once Colin was awake, we went to Kevin's parents' house to hang out with the birthday girl. Colin got to ride on the snowmobile. He loved that, no doubt about it! Every time Kevin's dad would make a circle around the yard and stop up by the house again, Colin would ask for more. He probably rode around for a half hour or so. The boy loves things he can ride on.

We got home around supper time, hung out, and then it was bed time. Colin has been on a night time bath strike (we can get him to take a bath in the mornings, which isn't always convenient!), so we moved on to getting his pajamas on. He was goofing around and not listening, so I started giving him choices as I undressed him (socks off first or shirt off first?). He was not having any of it, and was throwing a huge tantrum. Finally I got him to calm down and he was in a good mood again, but would not get his pajamas on. I don't know who or what possessed me to ask him if he'd rather wear undies or a diaper, but I did. And he chose undies. And then I couldn't take it back. He hasn't been waking up dry recently. Nevertheless, he went potty one more time, I prepped his bed (sheet saver on top, a flat changing pad under his sheet, and the pre-existing mattress cover), and bribed him because that's what good moms do. I told him if he kept his undies dry all night long, we could get him some Curious George pajamas that we saw at Target. Night time potty runs will be a lot easier if we have some 2-piece pajamas. So....here's hoping!!!!!!!!! The worst case scenario is I end up changing sheets and pajamas and putting on a diaper in the middle of the night, right? Good thing it's spring break and I can sleep in a little if I need to!

Spring Break Days 1 & 2

Monday
Bright and early in the morning, I started making some apple coffee cake. After a taste-test, I packaged a few pieces of cake up and Colin and I went next door to our neighbor's house. They're an older couple and adore Colin, so I thought it would be nice of us to stop by with a food offering. Colin loves to see them as much as they love to see him, so it was fun to visit. Colin and I headed across the border to stock up on some Curious George party gear. We got some plates, napkins, and cups with the curious monkey on them. The party store is next to Target, so of course we stopped in. I want to find a Curious George shirt. There were no George shirts to be found. I walked out of Target empty-handed (sacrilege, I know). When we got home, we had lunch, Colin took a nap, and then in the afternoon we played outside for awhile.

Tuesday
This morning, we went to the car dealership to have something fixed on the Explorer. Something with the speed control had been recalled, so we got that remedied. While we were waiting, Colin checked out a Mustang and I checked out the new Escape (those were the days...). We left there and got a car wash, then we went to the library for story time.

I wasn't sure how Colin would do at story time because he tends to be shy. Sandy does circle time every morning, so he gets a taste of sitting in a circle and singing songs and doing activities. Well, there are no stories at story time. It's songs and nursery rhymes and movements with noisemakers and scarves. Which is all great! Colin did pretty well. He just watched the other kids sing songs, but he did participate in the noise maker and scarf activities. He even walked up to the adults and received and returned the props himself. At the end, he walked up to the lady and waited patiently amongst the other kids to get a stamp on his hand. I was quite impressed :)

When we got home, we played outside for awhile, had lunch, and Colin napped. While he was napping, I tried out my cake decorating skillz. I have this grandiose plan that for Colin's birthday I am going to bake a cake (I am good at baking) and draw Curious George's face on it. So I made some frosting, loaded up a decorating bag, and free-handed George onto a circular piece of parchment paper. It turned out okay, but definitely needs to be tweeked. His face isn't wide enough and his ears are too elfish. And, obviously, I would use color and actually finish filling in the face. But I am quite impressed with the writing, seeing as it was my first time EVER.
I think I'm going to enlarge the picture I have of George and make a stencil out of it and draw it on the cake that way. The good thing is, Colin recognized it as George when he saw it.

After I was done putzing with that, I put all of the extra frosting into the refrigerator. No sense of letting all that yummy goodness go to waste, right? ;)

When Colin woke up from his nap, I got an awesome 20 minute snuggle with him, then we played outside until it started drizzling. We hung out inside for a little while, and then later on we went outside again.

I have had so much fun with my little boy these last two days and I have more fun planned for later this week. I love spring break. It is such a privilege.

Party prep

I'm throwing a party next weekend. Just thought I'd get some family together. Have some cake. People can bring presents. Eat some food. Hang out. Hopefully enjoy some nice weather. Oh...and celebrate a certain someone's special day. It's bittersweet. Here's what's happening so far:

Food: Grilling out! Burgers, brats, hot dogs.... picnic food!
Cake: Banana flavored cake from the neighborhood bakery. Colin's loving bananas (he'll eat a whole one if we let him) so I thought he'd dig that.
Guests: Strictly close family. That brings us to a total of 20 people, which is PLENTY for a 1 year old's sensory system.
Colin's birthday suit. The 1 was appliqued on by yours truly. I had his name embroidered. The L is a little hard to see, unfortch:
Present: We're thinking of getting him a climber. Something we can have outside. I have a feeling we're going to be out there A LOT this summer, if the mosquitoes will let us. We can also put this in the basement in the winter so he can still climb on it. Something like this (but not necessarily this one)If we decide to forgo the climber this year, we'll probably get him a wagon.

QT with Mommy and Daddy on his real birthday: We're thinking of taking him swimming at the indoor pool for the first time. My first time in a bathing suit since 2008. God help me and my extra loose skin. I've really been wanting to do this though, so I hope he enjoys it.

And just for fun, Colin on the phone this afternoon. He looks like he's in a trance, so it must be a telemarketer, or maybe he's on hold and he's being hypnotized by muzak:

I made something.

It's for his 1 year photo shoot next weekend with my friend Leah.



It took me all of 15 minutes to make. Super easy.

I got the directions and tie pattern here.

Cost? Probably about $8 total onesie, heat n bond, and I spent $1.98 on a piece of "quarters" fabric at our local Ace Hardware (which also sells fabric, etc).

I'm also making a t-shirt for his birthday party. Stay tuned.

Okay, now I'm obsessed with PowerPoint.

It's more than slideshows!

After my success at making my new blog banner, I decided to give Colin's first birthday invite a go.

I looked to etsy for inspiration from seller yogayum:

And copied it:

Still not sure about a) the colors...I heart brown and blue, of course. I might be ready for a change from it though. It's too "expected" of me, and I like to surprise. b) the design itself. But it's a pretty good copy, no? c) if it will even be possible to print at a printing kiosk. it should, it is a jpeg. d) the size of it is a little weird (it's the size of a PowerPoint slide).

And yeah, I realize we need a picture of the future birthday boy. I'm waiting to put a good one in!

I can DO this! And I LIKE to do it!

Today is my first day of spring break. There is much to be done this week. Colin's at daycare for the afternoon, hopefully napping. He is a horrible napper at home, but naps at daycare like a champ. Color me jealous. I'll just tell myself it's because he thinks I'm really, really exciting and finds daycare boring. I've spent my time thus far touching up the paint that got on the ceiling, cleaning a little, and designing this gem (which was far more fun than cleaning, but still on my to-do list)

Okay...now it's off to do another load of laundry and clean my floors before my piano kids come.

::Points above::

EDITED:

I really don't like that [old, ugly] banner. The one with the blog title and Colin's picture. If I had one of those nifty programs like photoshop or scrapblog, I'd make it cuter. But I'm skeered. Perhaps I'll spend Colin's nap time fixing it.

I was able to use PowerPoint to do it :) I feel so savvy.

Does this look like crap?

We're playing a onesie game at my friend B's shower next weekend. Family and friends who are concerned that B will see this, relax. She didn't ask for an invite to the blog, thus, she can't! I'm safe. Anyway...We're bringing a onesie that "relates" to our relationship w/B in someway. A loooong time ago, when we were in high school, B was at my parents' house and a bird flew by and crapped right on her curled bangs. So I searched for a bird onesie. Couldn't find one...and especially not a gender-neutral one. So I thought I'd try my hand at applique and see how it goes. This is my very first attempt at applique.

From afar:And the eh...not so cute closer-up version:
Tell me. Do I chalk it up to being a beginner, put it in Colin's wardrobe (it's in his current size), and try again? Or is this "good enough" (good enough is never good enough...)?

My concerns are...the onesie is Wal-Mart's version of Carters, which is great for a layer underneath t-shirts, but a bit on the thin side. So the space between the between the bird's legs is a little flimsy. Plus, the legs aren't as vertical as I'd like them to be. And just the overall quality of the stitching (uneven...).

I think it looks pretty good from a far. But what I think it looks like (wanting it to be perfect and JUST what I envisioned) and what B thinks it looks like will be a different opinion.

So...tell me. Vote to the right, or leave a comment.

30w1d Belly pics

I don't have to go to work/school today due to icy roads. It's always fun to have a "surprise" day off, but it's not fun today because I was going to give 2 tests today, 1 test tomorrow, and I had a principal observation scheduled for today. Now I have to reschedule my observation (and keep the same lesson because I've already over-planned it out, and I'm not going to do that again). I also have to give 3 tests tomorrow (spelling, math, and reading) which is NO fun on Friday the 13th/Valentine's Day party day. It also is so not cool because snow days are racking up...so far we've had 3. This means that the likelihood of having to make up at least 1 at the end of the year is a definite possibility, and that means one less day that I get paid since I won't be there.

But these are small consequences that I can live with if I'm safe and sound in my home, along with all of the students, my co-workers, etc.

How will I spend the day? I might see if I can go see my midwife today instead of at tomorrow's appointment. I'm pretty sure she's in on Thursdays. I might do some laundry. I wish I could do something fun and baby-related. I think the closest I'll come to that is maybe figuring out what to do with all of my Jafra crap. Do I take it work and see if anybody wants it? Craigslist it? Throw it away? Makeup and beauty products don't last forever. I've already thrown the stuff I know isn't good anymore away. Hmmm....thoughts?

And the title of this post is called belly pics. I suppose I should get to those :) Here I am in my snow day clothes this morning! I had already showered when I got the call. Bummer.



And here's where I show off. This is a blanket I finished knitting last week. Kevin can attest that a few times there were curse words thrown at it, and by the time I was finished I had knitted, taken out, and re-knitted about 10 rows of it. But it was all worth it in the end.