April Fools!

Who's pranking their kiddos???? 

April 1st tomorrow!!!! 

Me!!!!
Checkout some awesome pranks I found around the web and CAN'T WAIT to try...

Jello juice from www.meetthesubiens.com

And

Wash off mustache!

Also,

"Grilled cheese"

From

http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/2012/03/12-fun-april-fools-recipes.html?m=1

Making the "bread" tonight!!!

Should be a good April Fools day!

Hoping to find some poppers for the pooper for the hubby to find!!!

Enjoy!

Kelly

Super simple and Fun Holiday gift for kiddos to make

Need a quick and easy, simple and fun gift idea for the kiddos to make? Look noooo further! This is a really cute magnet that can hold a card, kids picture or special note. We made ours for Valentines day. Olivia is having her own party tonight- with my help of course. Everything she planned, shopped for and picked out. It ended up costing about $25 but well worth the creativity, educational experience and proudness she and I both felt. Proudness? Is that a word? I think I am looking for another one, but wheteve, 

So, totally easy all you need is: 

A base (I used foam hearts)

Stickers or  any crafty embellishment

Clothes pin

Hot glue

magnet

 Here are the foam hearts and stickers we used:

Olivia enjoying her craft time:

Here is her final product and materials I used to complete this project:

 

Glue clothes pin on to foam heart or whatever you choose:

 Waa la:

Now glue magnet into clothes pin

Taaa Daa

Finished product:

Happy Valentines Day!

Kelly xxoo

Snow...what?!?! ThE bEsT SNOW ICE CREAM EvEr!!

Hello Monday!!!! Annnd for us in the midwest... hello snowstorm Linus....yaaay (can you sense the sarcasm? It's there.) But what else does snowstorm bring besides snow? Snow ice cream. One of my favs! I used to work at a day care and when it snowed we'd rock the snow ice cream. Now that I have my own girls- WE rock the snow ice cream. It is surprisingly good. Just make sure to get clean snow. Yah know, 'Don't you go where the Huskies go and don't you eat that yellow snow!'

SIDE NOTE (to see snow ice cream SCROLL ON)
Despite the inability to travel easily, there are some living things that enjoy the snow! Meet my Husky Mya! She loves the snow, she spends a lot of her time outside this time of year.

And then there's my polydactyl cat- Schwartz. He's confused as to whether is a cat or dog. But he too, enjoys the snow. 

And so, now, for how my girls and I enjoy the snow- from inside!

This recipe is super easy. First collect about 8 C of CLEAN snow. And don't mind the child is summer jammies collecting SNOW! It was a quick collect ;)

Next, gather all ingredients: 1 C milk, 1/3 C sugar, Pinch of salt and 1tsp Vanilla extract.

Add everything to a large bowl and mix to desired consistency.

Scoop into bowls, add sprinkles- A MUST!

and Enjoy!!!

Yummm....

Here's the recipe:

It's February- Heart Month- CHD's SUCK!

CHD...Congenital Heart Defect-HUH??

February is American Heart Month. Mean anything to you? Maybe not. In all honestly up until 2010, it didn't to me either. I mean, yea, we do Jump Rope for Heart at school, wear red and eat healthier in the teacher's lounge. But that was about it. But you see in 2010, Mayish, that change. My first daughter Olivia...

was very sick and I had to call the on call doctor at 2 am. I reached Dr. Dana Hartwigsen, who has since moved to Iowa and we are heartbroken. She spent so much time with this distraught mother. She checked and rechecked herself- which meant so much to me- no one knows everything. I instantly knew I was switching to this amazing woman/ doctor. First time I took her in, she remembered us or read her notes/chart whatever. As a mom, OMG that meant so much. I fell in love. 

She did her routine stuff and in listening to Olivia's heart, she said "Has she always had this heart murmur?" GULP... Heart sinks, Stomach turns, Eyes well up annnnnd I puke a  little in my mouth- sorry for the details! I had no idea what that meant other than her heart was not right. My beautiful baby. We had been to the previous doctor and bazillion times. She never had it then. A Heart murmur?! 

Dr. Hartwigsen calmed me down as much as possible. I called my parents (my husband was at the visit) to find out my dad has one. OK, OK. Maybe I can handle this. Maybe. 

So...a few weeks later we go to a local heart doctor and because she is so little he refers us to a pediatric cardiologist. Ok, maybe I don't got this. A new doctor a special doctor- for little people? I was supposed to be no big deal. Here we go- PANIC! 

So on we go and schedule with Dr. Steven Neuberger. Very kind man, gentle with the little ones and later on I will find THE BEST Pediatric Cardiologist EVER. We take her and he explains she has an ASD (Her oxygen rich blood was leaking into the oxygen poor blood's chamber) as well as Pulmonary Stenosis. HUH?! What the hell does all this mean? Dr. Neuberger did his best to educate and calm us. There was a very good chance it would all heal on it's own. Cool, cool. THAT will happen. Right?! So, follow up visit next year, no restrictions...We are on our way will our broken-hearted baby that we would love forever and ever. All would heal all would be fine. Right?

WRONG.

And that, my friends, was 2010, when heart month became a little more important. It's importance now has exponentially grown. And that change happened in 

2013.

In order to try to raise awareness; I will share our personal journey and what happened. I will post our journey throughout the month of February, focusing on the week of 7-14, CHD Awareness week. 

CHD's are the #1 birth defect and #1 cause of birth defect related deaths. 1 in 100 babies are born with this defect. 

Ours was and we took her home... with it UNDETECTED.

Kellyxxoo

If you or some one know needs some info try these links or contact me directly.

It's my Heart

The Children's Heart Foundation

Mended Little Hearts- one of my favorites

$5 Frozen Pillow DIY

Hey everyone! So today I am going to show you how I made my daughter a Frozen pillow for around $5.

You see, it all started when my youngest was carrying around the Frozen DVD case, she's about 18 month and would fall with it in her hand. I was always scared she would hurt herself, so I wanted a Frozen pillow for her. Olivia had one so I thought it would be easy to find...yeah, it wasn't. So, again, like I said before, using my reusing abilities. I had remembered seeing Frozen T-shirts at 5 Below I figured I could use that to make her a cute, cuddly pillow! It worked- YAY! Here is my cut 'em up get done, nothing fancy but cute pillow instructions!!!

So I ran to grab a tshirt. They had tons of cute designs. I wanted all 3 characters and something with striaght edges that would be easy to follow. Nothing obscure. I found this design, but grey.

So I turned it inside out, pinned it together (so it was ready to sew) and cut the arms and neck hole off...

 After everything was cut, I was left with this...

I sewed all edges together (I am not a seamstress, so please forgive me anyone with awesome sewing skills! I'm sure I jacked something up somewhere)... Leave on small corner open so you can turn it inside out and stuff (see below)...

Opening I left...

 Then, I snipped the corners, while still inside out...

Next, I filled it with fluff from Joann Fabrics. Or, in my last tutorial, I had a pillow we never used, so I cut it up and stole it's fluff. Then just freely stitched the opening closed...

 And there you have a full stuffed Frozen pillow!

She's in love!

Hope you can create and enjoy! Post a pic if you do!!

Kelly xxoo

DIY Light up stuffed animal less than $5

Every year we do a Lighting of the Lights party. It occurs on the day Chicago lights up Michigan avenue. With two little kids the idea of heading out to see the lights light up is very, very scary. So... that is how this party was born. We typically invite a few close family and friends to share in the festivities. It's pretty lax, apps, drinks and convo. But fun. The catch is you must bring a light up element. We've had some pretty cool things! Things we've done...

I lit up my daughter one year! I sewed some pockets in a dress and put in light sticks!

Chad, one year, bought a "Starry Night" photo and inserted lights in the stars!

When Snuggies were awful but in, I bought 2 from 5 Below and hot glued lights in and glued them together. Fire Hazard, I'm sure but fun none the less. It's really warm and I must admit (hanging my head down) I still wear it when I am cold. 

But this year the Liv wanted to make something on her own. Oh jeez, gotta think of something fr her too now. But Dollar Tree to the rescue!

I picked up a animal washcloth and a push light. I had the fluff and velcro- well, my last minute "I can't find my velcro what can I cut up version" of Velcro. You'll find with me, I am a re-user, recycler, upcycler and a just find a way to get in done gal! So, anywho, I cut up an old item with velcro- think weird velcro, buuut this is just for fun, you could fix it any way you wanted...

1. So we added a ton of fluff to the head first. Then we added fluff to the body, but we pushed it flat to the bottom of the animal. 

2. After that, we added the light and then fluff on top of that.

(You can adjust the fluff so that you can't feel the light.)

3. Then, I glued half of the bottom closed with the glue gun. I left the other half of the bottom open. Ugly, but had it been for something more 'serious' and not just for fun, I would have taken the time to sew and use real velcro! ;)

4. We added the velcro. This makes it so I can replace the batteries on your light. 

Tap the tummy and, wahla...it's a $2 light up stuffed animal. 

Something fun for the kids to do, pretty much, on their own.

Lit up and....

not!

Enjoy my friends! Your kids will love it!

Kelly xxoo