Happy Valentine's Day

This is coming to you late in the day, so here's to hoping you all had a wonderful Valentines day.

We here enjoyed our day. The boys were excited to hand out their Valentines. We made Valentines this year that included a pencil as cupids arrow. Aidan was pretty proud of them. Wish I could say they were all my idea, but they weren't. Truthfully I can't recall where I saw them, it may have been over at Make and Takes, or The Crafty Crow, as I love both of those crafty blog sites.





At home we enjoyed a nice dinner followed by some yummy cupcakes from one of our favorite cupcake bakeries. I made sure to get all their favorites, Aidan loves the coconut cupcake, Miles loves the raspberry vanilla, and of course Liam loves the fudge on fudge. We had fun and the boys were thrilled to show Mom and Dad all their valentines they received. All in all, a pretty good day.

Dear Blog...let's catch up

Dear blog, it's been nearly a month since I've visited and posted about the going ons here in martian land and I've missed you. So, I thought now would be a good time to update you on all that's happened, it's been a busy time, mostly fun. So I thought I would give you a quick cliff note version with lots of photos to catch up:

Mid September, we went to Miranda and Elizabeth's fun birthday party.



For this party I made these cupcake shaped gift tags



When we returned from the birthday party, that evening we had a be-lated birthday celebration with grandma. Grandma stayed with us for a bit in Sept while grandpa was out of town. The boys really enjoyed having Grandma over.



We instituted a new reward system in the house in order to curb some not so fun behavior. I think it actually might be working. The kids are working hard to earn their prize, each wants a pillow pet. (yeah don't ask.)




We survived a heat wave with the help of many Popsicles.




We had friends over for dinner and I made my first attempt this Fall at some candy apples. They weren't the prettiest, but they sure were yummy.



We've made lots of Halloween crafts, including these fun bats.








We watched the Blue Angles perform while fishing and crabbing with friends on the pier.







We enjoyed a fun pumpkin patch picnic with friends that included pony rides, panning for gems and a train ride.





And we continue to enjoy Lego time as much as possible.

So, dear blog, your up to speed now on the most news worthy going ons here. I'll do my best to keep you posted. xoxo.

Artful Thursday - Vintage Inspired Easter Tags; A Tutorial

It's true that I've had the winter blues, I've not quite been feeling myself. So, I'm really looking forward to Spring and all it's beauty that comes with it. Chirping birds, blue skies, the greenness and blooming of flowers, all of this beauty lifts my spirits and brings a smile to my face. Today is Artful Thursday...and I'm dreaming of Spring and Easter. So, I've made some vintage inspired Easter Tags.


Materials I used for this project:

• vintage sheet music
  
• white cardstock
  
• shipping tags
  
• German glass glitter
  
• decorative pearls
  
• watercolor pencils
  
• chalk ink
  
• mohair yarn
  
• glue, and foam squares
  

This was a fairly quick and simple project.

1. Stamp the egg on cardstock and trim the egg out


2. Color the egg with water color pencils and use a damp q-tip to blend the colors


3. Using another q-tip edge the egg with glue and then rolled it in glass glitter




4. Stick a strip of pearls on
   
   
   
5. Tear some rectangles of sheet music to fit the shipping tags


6. Crumple the sheet music, smooth it out, then glue it to the shipping tag.
   
7. Ink the shipping tag & sheet music by rubbing the ink pad lightly over the front and edges of tag.
   
   
   
8. Using foam squares, adhere the egg to the shipping tag.
   
   
   
9. And finally, switch out the tag string with the mohair string/yarn.

Use these to dress up a hostess gift, tie around a bottle of wine, attach it to an Easter basket...so many other possibilities. I'm sure you can think of all sorts of other ideas. I have always loved the gift wrap as much as the gift itself.

You'll find these in my etsy shop.

Enjoying Holiday Crafts and Fun

The boys are off from school for winter break a total of 2 weeks. During this time thus far since there is 1 more week to go, we've had fun with crafts, baking and holiday decorating. Just lots of simple activities to entertain the boys while keeping my sanity.


The boys had fun making glittery pine cones. This was extremely easy, pine cones, glue, glitter and brushes and your set. So easy, yet entertaining for the boys. Best of all, we get to enjoy the beauty of the end product throughout the holiday season as I have them displayed in a pedestal bowl. Our dear neighbors came over for this activity which added that much more fun.



There was also coloring and construction paper fun that resulted in some great snowman art. Also displayed in our home. The boys just beam with pride when we display their handiwork.


Aidan also made a reindeer hat out of construction paper that we ended up displaying in the tree.


We baked cookies for Santa and the neighbors. Yummy oatmeal cookies with holiday M&Ms.


The boys helped place mommy's vintage baubles in a glass cylinder for display (OK this made me very nervous but we got through it. Next time will use baubles I'm not so attached to.)


We made a swag for the front door. We used the bottom branches that were removed from our Christmas tree for this project. This was more of a mom made it while boys observed..but it still was entertaining for them.


We also made a ritual out of putting the holiday cards we received in the card holder. The kids loved this and the challenge of getting them all to stay on the holder.


We also had a nightly ritual of opening up a treasure in an advent calendar and enjoying the sweet chocolate treat together. Yeah I know this was a special treat, nightly chocolate, thankfully it was just a small piece.


And finally, Christmas eve we put together a gingerbread house with help from Uncle Jess and cousin Zach.

Holiday Treats for a Holiday Party

Aidan had a holiday party on his last day of school before winter break. For this party I baked some festive cupcakes and decided to put together a little gift for Aidan's classmates...so they each got a sweet gingerbread boy and a mini candycane in a cellophane bag with a star tag. Aidan was thrilled!

A Day of Recitals

Today was a day of recitals...Miles and Liam's Christmas program in the morning. Aidan's Winter Concert in the evening. Grandma and Grandpa came to join us in the fun. It was sweet to see Miles and Liam at preschool as this was their first real performance. I know Miles knows all the songs because he's been singing them at home. However, he was more of an observer than a performer today. He smiled and looked around at everyone but he wouldn't sing. I really thought Miles would be the performer, surprisingly Liam was. Liam sang a handful of songs and looked quite pleased with himself. As for Aidan, well lets just say he wasn't on his best behavior. He did sing halfway through the performance but the first half he spent pestering his friend next to him. Although I really wanted to chew him out for this I restrained myself and just encouraged him to do better next time.

All Aboard The Polar Express

Today we made a trip to the California State Railroad Museum followed by a ride on the Polar Express. Although this trip involved some planning, a small expense, and a short road trip it was well worth all of it. If your kids are train lovers, and you haven't been to the train museum it definitely a place to visit. It's an amazing space with amazing sites and an interactive train table area. I know you're probably thinking, "My kid can play with his train table at home" and I agree but the ambiance of this train museum makes the train table experience unique. The boys absolutely loved it.

Even more thrilling though was the ride on the Polar Express. An absolutely magical one hour train ride that took us to the North Pole. We were served cookies and hot chocolate while the Polar Express story was narrated with live action performance. Waiters tap danced down the aisle, a hobo came through questioning the passengers "do you believe", a view out the window of Santa and his reindeer while Santa reviewed his list, and Santa on board the train handing out sleigh bells to all as a fabulous finally. If there were any questions at all, after this evening my kids are true believers in Santa.