Happy 30th Birthday, Sis!

1. Jimmy John's Gift Card ....sneaks up on you freaky fast

2 Cherry Berry Gift Card ....deserves a treat

3 Scarf ....looks good on you

4 Family Photo Album ....is best spent with family

5 Air Freshener ....stinks

6 Kleenex ....makes you tear up

7 Dark Chocolate ....requires chocolate

8 Bandaids ....hurts a little

9 Razor ....feels as good as freshly shaven legs

10 Racquetballs ....hits you hard

11 Crazy Straw ....is crazy

12 Life cereal ....is part of life

13 Diaper ....is a little crappy

14 Peanuts ....is nuts

15 Bird Napkins ....is for the birds

16 Sharpie (fine point) ....is just fine

17 Sucker ....sucks

18 Can of peaches ....is peachy

19 Can of Rotel ....? That's hot.

20 Superman figurine .... is super

21 Easy Mac ....is easy

22 Bubbles ....blows

23 Extra Gum ....is extra fun

24 Advil ....gives you a headache

25 Airborne ....makes you feel a little sick

26 Shout Wipe ....makes you want to shout

27 Container ....? Contain yourself.

28 Nail File ....is rough

29 Pop Rocks ....rocks

30 Princess Cupcake liners ...makes you feel like a princess

110 Reasons we love our teacher

My friend and I collaborated on this end-of-the-year gift for our boys' teachers in 2013.  We had fun putting it together.  We mailed 5 questions to each student in the boys' classes and each student wrote their responses and mailed them back along with $5.  Then, we alternated the cards with crisp, brand-new $1 bills and bound it with that paint-on adhesive stuff to make a tear-off notepad.  The teachers can tear out the money and are left with a  fun memory of this year's class!  We each had about 2 of 22 cards that weren't returned, but that's not bad, huh!?  We delivered them anonymously to the teachers the last week of school.  Thanks for a great year, teachers!
Questions:
--This year Mrs. Dardis taught me...
--What I love most about Mrs. Dardis is...
--Mrs. Dardis loves me because...
--Mrs. Dardis lives...
--For lunch, Mrs. Dardis likes...

Lego Instruction Manuals

Nothing fancy, but it works quite well.  The binder on the far right in the picture below is a standard sized binder, 1" thick that can be purchased from basically anywhere.  I made the cover and the spine (haha, don't laugh at my weak graphics skills) and just added blank plastic page protector sheets. The large sized manuals and other papers fit in the big binder.

The smaller 2 binders on the left are a small sized binder carried by Office Max.  I brought in one of the smaller instruction manuals and was surprised to find this little binder and the page protector sheets for inside and it's the PERFECT size for the smaller manuals.  I have the smaller binders separated by Lego City and Lego Creator but I need to add another smaller binder for more City and/or misc.  

The one drawback of this system is that there is nothing closing each page protector so if the binder is stored upside down or slid across the carpet, the manuals sometimes slip out the top of the binder.

End of the year teacher gifts

Here are a few teacher/para gifts we made this year.  Our school's PTO sends out a list during teacher appreciation week of different items that are each teacher's favorites: drinks, restaurants, candy, snacks, etc.  Pretty handy to know that the gym teacher likes sugarfree Red Bull!  I wanted the teachers to know that I appreciated them, too, not just our son, so I wrote a short note on the back of each tag.

Cute things kids say

Easily write down something cute the kids say using dry erase marker on the glass.  Use Microsoft Word to draw a speech bubble, print it out, put it on top of scrapbook paper.

Menu

Made from a 4x6 multi-photo frame, scrapbooking paper and letter stickers.  Dry erase marker on the glass to easily change the menu every week and add stuff to the shopping list.

Sunday School Teacher Christmas Gift

Valentine Bugs

Used Vellum and a glue stick and glued only on the neck of the jars onto dark brown cardstock. Bug finger puppets from Party America.  Bug Jar template found here: 
http://www.dandee-designs.com/2012/02/love-bug-valentines.html

Girly Lego Table

Ripped off this idea from pinterest, but made it my own by adding girly matching stickers and the baskets.  Gave it to my niece for her 2nd birthday and she has been playing with it quite a bit.  Success! 

Simple Birthday Treats

This isn't that inventive, but I thought they turned out cute!  Teddy Bear cookie cutter on rice krispie bars and a dum dum sucker stuck through the paw.  Done!

Baseball Birthday Party Invitations

I made these baseball invitations for our son's 6th birthday party - baseball themed.  I also used the same concept to make Thank you cards reading "Thank you for coming to my birthday party.  You helped make my day a hit!" that I attached to a baseball waterbottle and a box of cracker jacks for each party-goer.  That was instead of little treat bags.  I completely forgot to take a picture of the finished product though.  Maybe I'll make one more and take a quick picture tonight :)  I got the template and idea from this gal though:  http://blog.capscreations.com/2010/04/baseball-party.html  Turned out cute I think!  I made baseball cupcakes (see previous post) and we had stadium food for lunch: hot dogs, tortilla chips and cheese dip, apples and carmel dip, and powerade to drink. 

Backyard Baseball Diamond

We mowed a baseball diamond in our back yard and played a little ball as part of the baseball-themed birthday party, too.  Use an L-shaped ruler and a chalk line or string or rope to measure equal distance between bases, mark your bases, bump the mower down a couple settings, line up your mower between bases and mow your baseline.  Remove base markers and mow over it again for a clean, square look. Play ball!

Baseball Diamond Birthday Cake

I copied this baseball cake I found on pinterest.  6 baseball cupcakes for 6 years. Baseball bases are gum, dirt is graham crackers mixed with brown sugar.  Fun!

 

Happy 30th, Sister!

I mailed a big mac n cheese box (not the individual box, but the box that holds the boxes!) to my sister for her 30th birthday.  Inside was 30 things to open for her 30th with the following written inside #1 (the card):

Happy 30th Birthday, Sister!
As a now 3-year-old wife and mother of 2, there are many items that you just need to have.  I categorized these items into 3 basic groups:
--Just cuz you're 30
--Mom's needs
--Mom, I need___ (kids' needs)
Open these 30 mini-gifts in numerical order keeping the above classifications in mind.  I added my own comments/notes/explanations to some of the items.
Hope you enjoy your 30 things!

#1 was a card, #30 was a gift card to a coffee shop, the rest are pictured below.  I had a lot of fun doing this and am looking forward to other fun 30th ideas for future 30th birthdays ;) 

Father's Day Gift from the kids

Here's the father's day gift the kids made for Brady.  I'm banking on him not checking this blog before Sunday.  I think I'm pretty safe.

Hair stuff - Organized!

3 ice cube trays - 50 cents at a garage sale.  What a bonus that they're purple!

This is great because I can see them all and can easily find ones that match.

White Steam/Water Stains on Real Wood Table GONE!

I saw this on pinterest and figured I was out NOTHING to try, and oh my word it WORKS!  I held the blow dryer over the stain for about 10-15 minutes and it disappeared! 

Before: half moon stain on right side

 After:  half moon stain GONE!

Before

 After

I'm confident I can get ALL the stains out, I just need to be more patient as the larger ones take more than 15 minutes to disappear.  It's also a big different looking at a picture since the light glares a bit and makes it look like more of a white spot than it actually is. 

Boy Sports Bedroom

Painted a basketball court on Drew's bedroom wall.  Used blue painters tape to tape off the burgandy lane and the backboard and other straight lines and then free-handed the arc.  We found the basketball hoop online. 

We painted this large baseball on the wall. 

Hot Dog Octopuss

Cut hog dogs into chunks, press several raw spaghetti noodles into the hot dog.  Boil.  I usually just toss these into the macaroni when making mac n cheese.  I only buy angel hair pasta but I bet it would work a bit better with spaghetti noodles instead.

Dr. Seuss Treats

In honor of Dr. Seuss day, Drew brought these cat-in-the-hat treats to preschool.  We partially made them at home and Drew and his class assembled them at school.  Super easy - just dip part of a large marshmallow in water and roll in red sugar.  Note:  I used a bottle and a half of sugar and made 17 pops, 2 marshmallows in each pop (with sugar on them).  The brim of the hat - the bottom marshmallow - is just flattened somewhat.