Father & Sons Campout

I'm a little behind, but last weekend was our annual father and sons campout. N8 missed out getting to go last year which also meant that Mo missed out going. With our crazy schedules this was M0's first camping trip! He didn't know it, but he was super excited too!
They did some awesome dutch oven cooking!

Bud and Mo got to camp together for the first time:

They slept in a tent:

Played some Frisbee:

And played in the water:

Emma was pretty distraught that she didn't get to go (two years ago we let her go, she had really short hair :))! We went to dinner and she got to watch a movie. Then the next day we took a shopping day down to Lancaster. She got to pick where we ate lunch. She still would rather go camping!! N8 has promised her that he will take her this summer.

Craft: Grad Gift

As the school year is wrapping up it's time for graduations! This I have two of my beautiful nieces graduating from high school. They're both in AZ and I'm heading over this next week to stay with my mom so that my dad can attend both. We're very proud of their accomplishments and wanted to get the something fun, yet useful. They're both headed up to BYU (Go Cougars!!) in the Fall. I know when I was up there I was always needing to write down things coming up, phone numbers, or just doodle!
So I made personalized white board/magnet boards with some fun button magnets for each of them!
Here's Erika:

and here's her white board:

and button magnets:

and here's Lucy:

and her white board:

and her button magnets:

for the button magnets I purchased buttons from Walmart and used super strong magnets glued on with a strong adhesive like E6000. I purchase my magnets from this site: Deal Extreme. Their prices are awesome and shipping is FREE!! But shipping does take a while (for me it was about 3 weeks) so plan ahead.

We're super proud of both of them and look forward to seeing what their future holds!

Craft: Teacher Gifts

It's that's time of year. School is wrapping up and I needed an great idea for the wonderful teachers that have put up with my children this year. I looked at Skip to my Lou and almost used the "plant picks". Then through all of my craft blog pursuing I found another idea that I just fell in love with. The unfortunate thing is-I CANNOT figure out where I found it!!! I've just spent the last hour and a half searching online trying to figure out where I got this cute idea. If anyone sees this and knows--please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due!!

I got the round part of the tag at the unknown blog and then added the box around with the to and from.

I found the water bottles at Target and then made vinyl with the teachers name. I put a piece of tissue paper inside and slid a handful of single use drink packets inside! Super easy and fun. Hopefully it's something that the teachers will find useful!

As an added bonus here's our latest picks from our garden-strawberries & one little carrot.

We have a few little green tomatoes, so hopefully we'll start seeing more!

I'm editing to add the blog address where I found the image. Thank you Verity it was posted on Sugardoodle's 10 random pages and is on "A Bushel and a Peck of FUN!"

Small changes...

With all of our bedroom moving, redoing and reorganizing there have also been some small changes made to other spaces. This is mostly to accommodate loosing our guest room/craft space. We did a switch-a-roo with desks. The desk that is now in Buds room was my sewing desk. It couldn't accommodate my sewing machine, vinyl cutter and our printer. Here's what it all now looks like:

It's a lot to have in our bedroom, but it has to do for now. I also added vinyl labels to some of our storage cubbies. Maybe this will help us put things back where we want them to go!

With all of the redo I also decided to make a small change to Mo's room. We painted and redid it right before he was born. We did the light blue with sponge stars around the top.

I was never really happy with the sponge stars. They never really gave the look that I wanted. This past weekend I taped it all off 16 inches down from the top and painted it the color that the sponge stars were (we still had most of a quart from that color!).

Then I added white vinyl stars in random groupings. And a new quote.

I like it much better!! I hope to move onto Emma's closet next. We only have a few more weeks of school left and the more I can get done now the better!!

Mom's

My mom and dad are now home from the mission. They're home a little earlier than expected. My mom was recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer and is now just out of the hospital recovering from major surgery. Chemotherapy will be the next step. I hope to be able to go out to visit them in the next few weeks. So on this Mother's Day I'm thinking of my mom and all of the wonderful things she has done me and my family and all of the wonderful things she will do in the future. I love you mom!!







Happy Mother's Day to all mom's out there!

And the winner is....

The winner of the set of 6 light up Marble Racers is:
Marji!!!
Since I know your address Marji, I will be passing that on and the cars will be mailed directly to you! I hope your kids enjoy them.

Might have to try it...

I follow and check a lot of craft blogs. I'm look for ideas of crafts I would like to do and just enjoy seeing other peoples handiwork! I saw this one a while back and it caught me eye. Then today it was featured on Modge Podge Rocks and it reminded me that I really want to make this!
It was made over At Second Street: A creative blog. The tree trunks are her children's hands, she cut out the leaves and the modge podged it all together on a burlap canvas! Click on the picture to get the full tutorial!

Anyone want to try and make one with me once school is out? Has anyone seen any crafts you just can pass up and just have to make yourself? I'm always interested in a fun new craft!

Don't for get to enter my giveaway. It's on until this Friday: Light up Marble Racers!

Giveaway: Light Up Marble Racers

This giveaway is CLOSED!
Today I am giving away a set of 6 Light Up Marble Racers to one lucky reader of my blog! I was contacted by Momselect about testing and giving away a set of these fun little cars. Since I have 3 young kids, I knew they would love to test them out.
The cars come looking like clear plastic cars with a funny little ball inside. This little ball is the "marble" that lights up with the car gets shaken or in the case of Mo-dropped!! Each car comes with it's own set of decals for you to apply as you like.

My kids have loved playing with them and racing them across our kitchen floor. If you think you want to give them a try leave me a comment with some way of contacting you, either an email address or have a profile I can access. One comment per person. The giveaway starts today Monday May 3nd and will close on Friday May 7th at noon.
I will randomly choose a winner Friday and contact you. The set of 6 cars will be mailed to you.
If you just can't wait and want to go and buy one of these little racers go check out your local CVS where these are sold.

Bud's bedroom redo...

We decided that we would move Bud into our guest room. This will allow the Mo in the room he's been in and move into a big boy bed and the crib to stay put for the baby. Although it means loosing a guest room, it did mean redecorating a new room!

Here it is before we started painting. I forgot to take any pictures when it was full of stuff!

It's hard to tell, but the walls were kind of a minty green. Unfortunately, that was my choice!
Painting the new color was a group effort!

I got new bedding, repainted a desk and we got a bookcase. Once everything was in the walls felt naked. So, since Bud loves Star Wars we did some great Star Wars decals on his walls:
Here's R2D2:

and Yoda:

and C2Po:

as well as some great words of wisdom:

There are still some toys and clothes to move in, but I would say we're mostly there.

Now I need to put back together Mo's room after removing things and putting them in Bud's room! It never end!