Missing Mommy & Daddy Gifts

Andy and I got an amazing opportunity to go visit Paris, France and Monte Carlo, Monaco for 9 days.  Andy has a job that offers these opportunities.  The only downfall is that I had to leave my babies behind for 9 days.  Luckily, my mom and dad were up for the job!  

I thought it would be fun to leave the little guys some gifts from Mommy and Daddy to open while we were gone.  I got the  idea from the web somewhere... not sure right now, if it's you, let me know!!

 Day 1- Family Photobooks for each boy.  I used my Creative Memories program to create a book for each boy with all our immediate family.  I laminated the pages, hole punched each, and then use a ring to connect them.  I made it "pretty" by adding ribbon, too!

For Day 2- I made Maxwell a ribbon ring. It's a  canning jar ring with lots of colorful ribbon from my stash tied to it.  Jackson got an electronic game to play.

 Day 3- Maxwell gets some paci's to have and Jackson gets some "Color Wonder" paints (don't worry Grandma, they only work on the special paper).  Day 9 is also in this picture- Jackson got some Candy for Day 9.

Day 4- Maxwell got a binkie clip mad by Mommy find the tutorial here.  Jackson got a game that was already at my Mom and Dad's waiting for him.

Day 5- "Guess How Much I Miss You" story book read by Mommy and Daddy.

Day 6- Matching dinosaur T-shirts made using my Silhouette SD and the fuzzy heat transfer material.  They also get a copy of Dinosaur Train shows and a dinosaur book.

Day 7- May Day Basket for Jackson- there is a pair of gardening gloves in there to help grandma.

Day 8- Puppets that I found at Michael's awhile back.

I hope the boys loved all their little treats from  Mommy and Daddy, because we missed them so much!!

Linking to:

Easter Baskets

Out there in "blogland" there are a ton of cute ideas for Easter.  I have wanted to make a few things for the boys' baskets.  So I just picked a couple of things.

They both got a hand sewn chocolate bunny.  I used felt and filled it with the plastic Easter Grass so it would crinkle for Maxwell.  I found it out there on a blog, I can't remember where (if it's you, please let me know so I can give you credit!).

I also made Maxwell some eggs and chicks.  I found it on this awesome blog Modern Parents, Messy Kids.  So cute and easy!

Then I made a Goldfish "carrot", I found this idea on The Moody Fashionista.

I made these sensory bottles for the boys and our nieces.  All it is, is a water bottle (I used the small pint sized bottles) with the label off.  Then I put some Easter confetti from Hobby Lobby, a little glitter, water, and a few drops of Glycerin (this is found in the baking aisle at craft stores by the food coloring- I looked for a long time to find this stuff).  The Glycerin helps keep the stuff moving in the water.

These were not in their Easter Baskets, but I also made "My Peeps" shirts for my boys and my friends' girls.  It was so fun!  I got the idea from Crap I've Made, but instead of making fabric appliques, I cut out the patterns on my silhouette and I used fabric paint.  I thought they turned out super cute! 

I also made these Easter decorations.  I meant to get out more, but really didn't want to make any more mess. I got more mess out, I wanted to put some more eggs on the mantel and just got more of the decorations out. :)  I made the little egg plants from plant sticks from Dollar Tree and  planters are from Pamida, the grass is from Hobby Lobby.   I made the banner from here.  I will change it to Happy Spring, so I can use it longer.  The crosses are from Hobby Lobby and I just used ribbon out of my stash.

Peeps Shirt

I love Freezer Paper Stencils... Here  and here is a great tutorial!  I made these super cute shirts for my boys and my friends' girls.  I got the boys' shirts at Hobby Lobby and the girls' shirts at Target.  I am finding it super hard to find plain shirts for little ones.  But have so much fun doing it!!

Featured project

Kind of exciting and fun...


A craft blog Little Helping Hands, featured the Valentine's Day shirts that Polly inspired (okay I TOTALLY copied) me to make.  She also inspired my love of making freezer paper stencils.  Check out her site for lots of fun crafty things to do with and for  you kiddos.

Happy Valentine's Day

Freezer Paper Stencils

My boys all got a hand-made shirt for Valentine's Day.  They are my special Valentine's!  I made the boys' t-shirts by cutting out stencils using Freezer paper.  I found the patterns here.  Then for Andy, his favorite saying and the name of his coporation is Go Big or Go Home.  So when I found this on the Silhouette website, I couldn't resist!  I printed it out on a piece of vinyl using my Silhouette die cutting machine and then use acrylic paint to paint in the stencil.  The acrylic paint is permanent, but it looks faded.  I love all my creations... of course the house didn't get cleaned and Jman watched a little too much TV, but it's good for my sanity!!

They are so stinking cute!!

As part of our Valentine's Night out... Andy and I went to Prairie du Chein for dinner.  We didn't have reservations at the Hibachi Grill (no kidding, in PDC there is a Japanese restaurant!) until 7:30, so we stopped by Walmart... oh what a fun life we lead!  I got the  boys a bunch of long-sleeved shirts that I can embellish for next year and Andy got some microfiber towels that I am going to embellish with AJ's Pro-shop so he could give them away when he sells bowling balls.  After dinner we also hit up Culvers... yum!!