Coffee Can Upcycle - Halloween Pails

Jeremy and I drink coffee. LOTS of coffee. So we often just buy whatever store brand is on sale and the beauty of that is that they tend to come in those awesome metal containers. I started saving them with one intention (you'll have to wait until spring when I get more saved up and the weather turns nice again to see that project!) but as Halloween got closer I had the idea to turn them into Halloween pails for my kiddos to use at the Harvest Festival we take them to each year. This was such a fun, simple project. I think next time I would get the kids involved and let them create their own. Want to see what I did?

I started by removing the lids and peeling the labels off of some empty metal coffee containers.

Then I had my husband drill holes on opposite sides of the cans. He also filed them down so they wouldn't be sharp. We will use these later for the handles.

Then I painted them. I was thinking a Frankenstein, a pumpkin and a mummy so I used green, orange, and black (this will just be a background color for the mummy). I wanted to use stuff I had on hand so I just used the same old acrylic paint I use for nearly every other project - probably not the best stuff for this as it smeared around a lot but once I let it dry I was able to apply a second coat and it worked out fine.

Now let's add the handles. We started with a coat hanger and then my handy, helpful husband cut them down to size and wrapped them in the holes.

Time to decorate these adorable little pails. I used craft foam on Frankenstein and the jack o' lantern and gauze and googly eyes on the mummy. Add a little super glue and we had these cute pails:

 I love the way they turned out and think they could be easily be used over and over. Like I said at the beginning of the post, it would also be fun to let the kids design their own. The possibilities are endless - a witch, a bat, a spider....go crazy with it!

October Fun 2013

This time each year we usually make the trek out to Greenbluff to visit the pumpkin patch and have some autumn fun on the farm. This year we decided to stay closer to home and visit Carver Farms which turned out to be just as much fun and quite a bit cheaper (that's always a bonus!). The sun was even shining which was like icing on the cake.

There were caramel apples to be eaten.

And corn "mazes" to be ran through (I say maze loosely because it was actually just a corn path....lame for the older crowd but kept my brood entertained enough).

Pumpkins to be picked. Our rule is they have to be able to carry it themselves. If not, it's too big.

This year they each picked a pumpkin to paint.

We also selected some for the carving contest at the boys school. The last two years have been ribbon worthy, will be make it in the top 3 again this year? (stay tuned for two more awesome ideas we have in the works!)

2011 - A pumpkin piggy bank

2012 - A pumpkin robot

All in all it was another great year participating in some of our favorite fall activities. Can't wait to get the babies involved next year!

Friday Flair - October Edition {#1}

Does anybody else LOVE October? To me it is the kick off of all of the upcoming holiday festivities that I love so much, so I just can't help but get excited. Not to mention pumpkin patches, apple cider, scarves, falling leaves....really, what isn't to love? 

With so may fun things to look forward to this month I wanted my Friday Flair lunches to focus on all October has to offer as well. For my kids, that pretty much means all things Halloween. So be prepared for a few weeks of lunches that I hope will get my little trick-or-treaters in the mood for the holiday.

The theme of this week was basically orange (how easy is that?!?!) and I threw in a slimy surprise just to make it a little more fun. Can you say WORMS?  Gross, I know. And my boys will LOVE it for sure. What you are seeing is oranges, carrot sticks, cheese slices, DIY Bisquick drop biscuits, and {slimy worms} also known as hot dog slices tossed in homemade BBQ sauce.

Please do not get thrown off by the DIY and the homemade labels. I know for busy moms that can be enough to make you look the other way but I am only adding that in there to show options and to prove that it really is that easy. Awhile back I stopped buying some of the boxed mixes when I realized just how easy and economical it was to make your own. But by all means, use the pre-boxed stuff....heck, use the biscuits in a pop can if that is what you have! And the BBQ sauce came about when we ran out one day and my hubby volunteered to whip some up from a recipe I had found. It turned out that it was a version that all my kiddos could agree on, even those who swore they didn't like BBQ sauce, so we keep that in a mason jar in the fridge now. But squeeze bottle away! Try them with ketchup if your kids prefer. Or leave them dry. Hot dogs are hot dogs any way you dress them, right?

This week I used free printable lunch box notes from Kiki & Company that have Halloween jokes on them. My boys are always looking for a new joke to tell.

That wraps up another week! Until next Friday.....

Samuel and Amelia - 3 months old

That's right, the twins are 3 months old already!

Where did the time go? I swear, each baby I have somehow makes time go even faster than before. I swear I was just finding out I was pregnant, getting the news it was twins, revealing their genders, and counting down to their birth. Didn't I just meet them face to face for the first time and introduce them to their brothers and bring them home?

Mommy's pretty girl

My favorite duo

I am in the ever constant battle with myself that always happens in this stage (well, probably in most stages if I think about it) - that fight to keep myself from looking forward to easier, funner, different times down the road and to just embrace these moments. The smiles, the coos, the cuddles, the baby smell. Such good stuff! And the last time I will ever experience them from my own children.

Love those handsome smiles!

We have a thumb sucker - our first!

All smiles while sister picks on him

The sleeplessness is hard, but for twins I know I have it lucky. Amelia is often sleeping through the night and if not, she usually only gets up once. None of my boys were doing that this early! And Samuel generally gets up only twice. They are down by 7 every night and up around 6:30 in the mornings. There really isn't much to complain about there! Well, minus not having slept through the night myself for months (don't have the exact count since I wasn't sleeping during the night for a lot of my pregnancy either). But it's amazing as mothers how we learn to adapt and function under less than ideal conditions.

Headbands are fun :)

Littlest brothers bonding

The real challenge isn't any different then it was when I had one infant - the simple act of getting stuff done. Keeping up on the housework, getting meals made, getting myself ready. The day to day stuff is enough to overwhelm when there is always someone to hold, change, feed. Especially times two! And when you add in my 3 older boys I truly feel like there is always something to be done and never enough of me to go around. But there is such joy in getting to watch my children form bonds with each other and learn to pitch in to get things done as a family. The love definitely outweighs the work!

Thankful for my Moby Wrap!

My crew

Samuel is currently receiving physical therapy in our home once a week for what they originally thought was torticollis but for what the therapist now thinks is just a preference on his part to keep his head in one direction which has caused his head to be pretty severely misshapen. But he makes amazingly huge progress every week and they are pretty sure it will correct itself over time.

Rockin' his tortle like the cutie he is :)

I am excited to see what the next few months will bring. We are really looking forward to hearing them laugh and are sure the boys will be competing for the honors of getting the biggest laughs from them.

Tackle Box turned Treasure Chest

 As Jordan's 6th birthday approached, I knew I wanted to get him a treasure chest of sorts. He is my little collector and I knew this would speak to his heart in a big way. Plus, it would give me a way to limit what he could hoard keep inside the house. Win/win!!

I had just planned to get a wooden box I had seen at the craft store and paint it up but my husband had a brilliant DIY/upcycle/conversion idea that I so wish I could take credit for. He remembered that he had a spare tackle box hanging around in the shed and thought that after some sprucing up it would make a great treasure box. Just think about those trays that lift out and all the little cubby space. It's a treasure finders dream!

Here are the outdated, sat-in-the-shed-too-long-so-it's-covered-in-stuff, before pictures of the tackle box:

Hubby worked his color magic and painted this up to be a much brighter, cheerier version of it's old self. I love the look of the blue and red together, don't you?

On the bottom of the inside of the treasure chest I wanted to have a treasure map so I found THIS IMAGE, printed it out, and mod podged it to the bottom of the box. I think it's a special little touch.

This was a super easy, fun project that cost us nothing since we had all of the components on hand. I can tell you that our 6 year old LOVED this gift!We filled it with pirate candy we found at the Dollar Store and then we made a little treasure hunt for him to find it. After following the clues, he discovered it up in a tree in our yard. Do you think he likes it?

Featured on The Happy Housewife's 2013 edition of 100 Days of Homemade Christmas:

Looking for another tackle box transformation idea? Check out my mom's tackle box jewelry organizer (click the picture to see the entire post):

Friday Flair - Birthday Edition

Welcome! This week's edition of Friday Flair is extra special because it falls on my son's 6th birthday. Let's all say a loud, "Happy Birthday" to Jordan, shall we?

I tried to find some free printable lunchbox notes with a birthday theme but didn't have any luck. If you know of any, feel free to share a link with me. Since I couldn't go that route, I just decided to make a quick little note myself.

I saw a cute sandwich idea a few weeks back that involved sprinkles so I knew this would be the perfect occasion to try that. So I punched out the top slice of bread with a 6 and filled in the hole with sprinkles. Super cute, right? For fun I put the punched out 6 in a mini-muffin liner and put a blue M&M in the center to match the blue on the sandwich. The bigger muffin liner has a little Birthday trail mix of M&M's, white chocolate chips and broken up graham crackers. Some veggies and cheese and olive skewers rounded out the meal.

Happy Birthday my big 6 year old!