DIY Holiday Mugs {for all the people on your list}

There are those Pinterest ideas you see, love, pin and never do anything with. Then there are the ones you see, love, pin, revisit, and not only do something with but do EVERYTHING with....that would be these mugs for me. I think we have all seen different versions of these DIY mugs. Simply write with sharpie, pop in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, let cool and you are good to go. Anyone can do that! So I did - over and over and over. Thought I would share the versions some of the people on my Christmas list are receiving this year.

The Papa (insert any loved one) Mug:
The idea behind this one is cute. I actually saw this it through an advertisement on Facebook for a personalized gift company. It said something different but had all the grand kids faces around it which I thought was cute. I browsed Pinterest for a saying I liked best and settled on "All my MOST favorite people call me papa." I then {attempted to} add all my kiddos faces. An artist I am not. In fact, my kids themselves probably would have done a better job. Thankfully, Papa loved it nonetheless.

The Teacher Mug:
I found this one on Just a Girl and Her Blog and knew it would make the perfect gift for my kiddos teachers. She even makes it easy for you and includes the printable tag! Nathan goes to PEP one day a week and has two teachers there on top of his and Jordan's regular teachers so I made 4 all together. I filled the cup with peppermints and spearmints, a cute striped straw and a gift card to Starbucks. Along with the printable tag I attached an ornament that I also found at the dollar store. Actually, everything but the mugs and the gift cards came from the dollar store and the only reason I didn't get the mugs from there was that someone had already cleaned out all the pure white ones. A totally reasonably priced gift that is still super adorable and useful (Lord knows I NEED coffee in my life!).

The Snowman Mug:
I pinned these along time ago as a gift from Elfie and had originally planned to have them at our North Pole Breakfast but didn't have them ready in time. So I used them as part of a hot chocolate treat he brought instead. I picked these mugs with the cute red band at the top because I thought they looked like hats for the snowman (and you guessed it, I got these at the Dollar Store!). They love having their own mugs with their names on them and these will be fun to pull out during the holidays each year.

Have you tried this Sharpie mug method yet? How'd it work for you? Baking them is supposed to keep them from wiping off but we noticed that when we hand-washed the snowman mugs they did fade in some areas. Not sure how to remedy that but if any of you have suggestions I would love to hear them.

I will tell you a tip that helped when I was working on these - Magic Erasers will take off the sharpie if you make a mistake drawing on it in the first place so don't panic if you make an error!

Halloween '13 - Carving Contests, Dress-Up, and Friday Flair

Another Halloween in the books. This has never been my favorite holiday but it sure is fun to experience it through the eyes of my kids. Let's look at what this day had in store for our family.

In my last post I shared the Halloween Pails I created out of coffee cans. The boys loved them and they got a lot of attention at the Harvest Festival we attended. My husband said people kept asking if he was a painter! Too funny. Aren't my little super hero, ninja, and batman cute sporting their adorable pails?

Speaking of cute, while we didn't take Samuel and Amelia out with us, we still wanted to dress them up for their first Halloween. Tell me...are they not the cutest hot dog and chick you have ever seen? I sure think so!

 In my recent post about our trip to the pumpkin patch, I mentioned that we were again going to be participating in the school's pumpkin carving contest again. Want to see what we came up with? Nathan designed this stegosaurus and Jordan helped create the pirate ship. We managed to place 3rd in the creative category for the third year in a row....can you guess which pumpkin was the award winner? Congratulations Jordan, that pirate ship was awesome (and the stegosaurus was a winner in my books as well)!

And as if I hadn't crammed enough into this post, I wanted to try to fit in a Friday Flair as well since I have missed the last few. We have been hit hard with pink eye, ear infections and tonsillitis for two weeks so needless to say, lunches weren't the top priority. Here's what they boys' got for lunch on Halloween:

pumpkin shaped pb and honey sandwiches, graham crackers, carrots and celery (yes, that's an ear in there!), and a special treat of boogers (thank you Dollar Store for this absolutely disgusting candy that is bound to have my guys in giggles)

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):

End of School and Orange Themed Teacher Gift

I can't believe another school year has gone by! 9 months ago Nathan was excitedly getting ready for 1st grade - remember this picture?

And now here he is on his last day....he's grown so much!



His thoughts on his last day of school:

Of course he wouldn't have so many great things to say about first grade if he wouldn't have had a wonderful teacher. And a wonderful teacher deserves a special gift for getting us to this point! Last year I used some subway art to make a teacher appreciation gift for his Kindergarten teacher {you can check that out HERE if you are interested}. I have spent the year pinning all kinds of fun gift ideas for this year's teacher gift and finally settled on one when I saw this adorable Orange You Glad It's Almost Summer Gift Basket from Shaken Together. I just thought it was super cute and loved how bright and cheery it was.  I decided to check out the Dollar Store for my supplies and found plenty of fun orange themed stuff. Altogether, less than $10 spent (including the white tub to which I hot glued some orange ribbon). The tag is part of a free printable pdf, from Shaken Together, where you can also find some more fruit inspired tags for future appreciation gifts. I love how it turned out! What do you think?

kitchen towel, flowers, reese's, orange flavored water, an orange shaped popscicle, fan, tumbler, and citrus juicer

Can't wait to see what Second Grade will bring!

Halloween Countdown Calendar

I was browsing Pinterest {anyone else frequently find themselves starting their sentences that way too?} and actually looking at Christmas advent calendars when the idea hit me - why wait for December when October is here and has a perfectly fun holiday worth counting down to! So I did a quick little search for inspiration and came across an adorable Countdown to Halloween at Tailored Pages that was made using a cookie sheet from the Dollar Store. I happened to have an extra on hand from our road trip {remember the activities I made for the kids?} so I took the idea and ran with it.

I started by raiding my stash and grabbing goodies I already had laying around. I have a friend who snagged a bunch of Halloween craft stuff on major discount last year and was kind enough to share some with me so I knew this was a great opportunity to use some of that. Here is most of what I started with:

After the kids were in bed I sprawled out on the floor and in no time had whipped up this cute hanging Halloween Countdown:

The marker is a cute little spider attached to his web (he has a magnet on his back to keep him stuck to the tray):

I think the kids will get a kick out of this and it will be a fun new addition to our Halloween decor. I am excited that it cost nothing and we will be able to use it year after year!

Road Trip Activities for the Kiddos

Last year we tackled air travel with the kids and I shared some of my tips for making the trip a little smoother. This year we took our first road trip with the kids. We only traveled 5 hours to the other side of the state but with 3 little ones it's always better to be extra prepared. I wasn't too worried about keeping them entertained once we arrived at our destination because we were traveling with family and had lots of great plans for the 3 day excursion. But I was worried about the car ride itself. We frequently take an hour long drive to visit my in-laws and by the end of that they are already starting the "Are we therrrrreeeee yet?" questions from the back seat. I didn't want to listen to that for 4+ hours each way so I came up with some fun stuff to make the time in the car both enjoyable and hopefully memorable.

I started off with some cookie sheets from the Dollar Store. These created the base for all of my activities and are perfect because they are both magnetic and create a tray perfect for lap play in the car.

The first activity cards I created were these Road Trip Bingo cards over at Housing a Forest. I printed off a handful and then attached printable mazes from Game Idea For Kids to the back.

From the same site as the mazes I printed off some character based memory cards. Scooby Doo, Diego, and Sponge bob are sure to make the kiddos smile and keep them entertained! After attaching card stock and magnets to the back, they can also double as markers for Bingo.

Awhile back I picked up some plastic sandwich containers in the dollar section at Target and thought they could be put to good use on this trip. The obvious choice probably would have been to put snacks in them but I instead decided to use them to keep some of the loose pieces for the activities together. You can see the crayons and I ended up putting the memory cards in there as well.

I also printed off some sewing cards from Kids Sewing Projects and punched holes in the cards. I would have liked to have laminated these so that they would be more sturdy but didn't get a chance. Luckily these didn't cost anything so even if they only make it through this one trip, they will be worthwhile. Paired this with some shoe laces that were 8 for $1.00 and they made for an easy letter sewing activity.

 While at the Dollar Store getting last minute supplies for these activities I also picked up some blank drawing pads which ended up giving the kids a way to write and/or draw about their experiences while we were traveling. That made for some precious keepsakes from the trip. I also found some mini playing cards that didn't get used this time around but that I plan on adding magnets to for future activity packs.

After tucking all of these goodies into backpacks, we were set for the road. I must say I was very pleased with how much use the kids got out of their stuff and we had very few "I'm bored" moments. Bingo became a whole car activity that took us all the way home. Hope you enjoy these ideas and feel free to share what you like to do with your little ones on those longer than usual car rides.