DIY Easter Wreath

Gotta love Pinterest! I was looking for an easy Easter wreath to make and where better to look than Pinterest. With numerous options available I settled on the plastic egg glitter wreath. Check it out!

The finished product

You start by getting those readily available and cheap plastic eggs that you can find anywhere. Then you need toothpicks, a foam brush, modge podge, iridescent glitter, foam wreath form, ribbon and clear enamel spray paint.

Start by sticking each egg on a toothpick (either in the small hole available or use the egg's opening) and then place them in Styrofoam. Then using the foam brush paint, one at a time, paint each egg with the modge podge and sprinkle with the glitter.

Here's James working his magic :-)

Then place those eggs back in the Styrofoam to dry. Here's a picture of the eggs finished and drying:

Once they are dry you can spray them with the clear enamel to help keep the glitter in place. Once they're are completely dry you can glue them to the wreath form. First wrap the form in ribbon so that the form doesn't show through. Then using a hot glue gun, glue your eggs to the wreath. Add a ribbon for hanging and viola! you have a glitter Easter egg wreath.

My Birthday Weekend

This past weekend was my 32nd birthday weekend and I am very blessed with wonderful friends and family who planned a lot of wonderful things for me. My actual birthday was Friday so my wonderful hubby took the day off to spend it with me. It started with a doctor's appointment, which normally wouldn't be something you would want to do on your birthday, but this was an appointment with my OBGYN in which we got to hear the little ones heartbeat, so it was a treat (we find out the sex at our next appointment on March30th!). We then went and had a nice lunch at one of my favorite places, Mon Thai Bistro (they have the best sushi!). After lunch we picked James up from school and took him roller skating, which he absolutely loves. I have taken him before myself, but it was really great to have Mike there with us so we could experience it as a family. As always, James had an absolute blast.

Isn't he adorable?!

James and Daddy ready to skate

Skating with Daddy

After we finished up with skating we headed over to my parents house for a birthday dinner they had planned for me. I feel so blessed to have my family nearby now so that I can spend my special days with them.

James and I with the delicious birthday cake

I would have been satisfied with just that special day, but my wonderful husband planned a date night for us the following night at Tre Trattoria. Of course I forgot to take pictures from that night, but we had a lovely time. Then on Sunday my best friend Margaret planned a spa day for me and some of my friends, which started with a wonderful brunch at her house.

The hostess with the mostest :-)

The wonderful spread: cranberry bread with cinnamon cream cheese, butter cheese (it's some kind of delicious french cheese), fruit salad with minted yogurt, salmon bites, deviled eggs (not picutred) and mimosas

Me and my girlfriend Courtney

Me and my SIL Mel

Ready to get my facial!

Me with all of the ladies after our makeovers (from the left: Monica, Margaret, Courtey & Melissa)

Thank you to everyone for a wonderful birthday. I am looking forward to many many more!

Shaving foam art

I've recently been inspired by pinterest and various blogs to try some new activities with James. Last week we tried shaving foam art work. Here's what you need to do the project:

shaving foam, food coloring, large Tupperware container, paper and something to stir with (we used straws)

You then spray the shaving foam into the Tupperware in an even layer and add drops of food coloring to the shaving foam (this is something the little one can help you out with)

Then you can have your little helper mix around the shaving foam and food coloring to make it swirly

 Here's what it should look like

Once it is swirled to your liking, you lay a piece of paper down on top and press down lightly. When you lift up the paper you are left with a beautiful swirly piece of artwork.

Lay them out to dry overnight and voila, you have some very pretty artwork.

Once they were completely dried I cut them out into heart and star shapes. I made the heart one into a garland by punching a hole through them and placing them on a piece of ribbon. Now we have a valentines decoration for years to come. The stars I just taped to the window.

James really enjoyed this project so it is definitely something we will be doing again. It's cheap, easy and fun!

Valentines Day

Although we were without Daddy this Valentines Day, James and I managed to have a really fun one. He really is my favorite Valentine anyway, but don't tell Daddy that ;-). James had a great time making Valentines Day cards for our friends and family.

he loved the foam heart stickers and stamps

The finished products (he decorated the insides as well)

For his friends at school we made pink rice crispy treats in the shapes of hearts and handprint cards. They turned out really cute!

We celebrated Valentines Day with a pizza party at school. There's nothing better than pizza, ice cream and Toy Story 2 with all of your school friends for a three year old.

James and his buddy Rex

To cap off a wonderful day we had a nice dinner with my best friend (although James will claim she's his best friend, not mine), Margaret. A cheese and champagne (unfortunately not for me however) dinner with chocolate pot de'creme for dessert...mmmmmm ;-)

And no that is not James' champagne :-)

Hope everyone had a fabulous Valentines Day!

Building a Fort

I have started following a blog called "All For The Boys" where you can find activities, crafts and fun ideas for the little men in your lives. They have a weekly post called "Fort Fridays" in which they post inspirations for building forts with your family. This inspired me to build a fort for James last Friday and let me tell you, it is a lot more work than I expected, but we had a great time. Daddy was out that night for a work function, but James and I built the fort and watched a movie from inside the fort. We had such a great time that I had Daddy build another one on Saturday. Here are some pictures from our fort adventure. I look forward to making this a tradition.

James' Behavior Chart



In an attempt to improve James' behavior I created a daily behavior chart. His chart has the following behaviors on it: Today I...Behaved at school, Did not talk back, Listened on the first time, Used the bathroom by myself, Washed my hands after using the bathroom, and Cleaned up my toys.

As I previously mentioned in one of my posts ("It should be 'terrible threes' not 'terrible twos'") three is definitely a difficult age in which the child loves to push your boundaries to see how much they can get away with. We have been having a real problem with James talking back and not listening on the first time. I was hoping this would be a motivator to improve his behavior since he gets to place magnets on the chart each day and if he gets a full day of magnets, he can get a new Disney movie.

(Side note: I recently joined the Disney Movie Club and we got the first 5 movies for less than a dollar each...check it out: https://disneymovieclub.go.com/  It ends up being a really great deal).

We have been doing the chart for about a week and a half and he has yet to get a full day, but I am hopeful that we will get there soon. It does appear to be working to some extent and he definitely gets disappointed when he doesn't get a magnet. Here's to hoping his behavior improves soon!

And baby makes four!

So I guess it's time to finally make it official. We are expecting baby #2! I'm about 12 weeks along and due in the middle of August (my official due date is the 12th). So far, so good! Like with my first pregnancy I am not experiencing any nausea or many of the other symptoms. The only real symptom I have is being tired a lot. Hopefully this pregnacy goes as smoothly as the first one (fingers crossed!). We are thrilled to be having another baby and cannot wait for the little one to join the family. Since we already have a boy, we are hoping for a little girl, but we will be happy with either. As long as they are healthy and happy I will be thrilled. Here's a sneak peak for everyone!