Handmade Gift for Madelin's Teacher

Pretty much every part of this gift was handmade...the treats, the hand-painted jar and the gift tag. So I saw the chocolate covered Oreos idea on Pinterest. I probably should have read how to make them...I thought it would be fairly easily and could make them without any directions. BUT it was a disaster...you can kind of tell that in the picture. Anyways, I made some more that looked a lot better (thus being the reason why they are white chocolate covered in the picture below - oops! :)). I make the chocolate covered pretzels every Christmas. They are easy to make and yummy! :)

I put m & m's in a jar, placed the treats in a jar, put the jar in a cellophane bag, added a Starbucks gift card to the bag and tied the bag with a piece of scrap fabric. The gift tag was created by the illustrator of my mom's book.

If you look closely, you can see the hand-painted holly berries on the backside of the jar.

Handmade Gift for Madelin's Classmates

Back in August (you know, pre-Kate), I volunteered to be Madelin's class "room mom." Luckily, I haven't had to do much. I volunteered to do the treat bags for the holiday party and instead of buying treat bags, I wanted to make my own. I know, big surprise!! :) What can I say, crafting keeps sane! And here they are... I used paper grocery bags, cut them in two pieces (4 1/2" x 6") for the "gift." I sewed the two pieces together, leaving one end open to fill with candy, then sewed it shut but left one corner open for easy access. I created the pompoms with yarn. Voila! A treat bag for "next to nothing" (except for a bit of my time ;)).

"You is Awesome!"

No, this typically not how I speak! ;)

Anders and Madelin had played in the first snow of the season earlier in the day...

Later that day Anders wanted to go back outside; he had his boots on and gloves and was ready to go. He asked me where I got his boots from and I told him, "the store." He quickly exclaimed, "You is awesome!!" I then explained to him that it was too cold to go out and that it was going to be dark. He was quite disgruntled by this, so I told him I would bring the snow inside for he and Madelin to play with.

My little man all decked out in his snow gear. The duo enjoying the snow! Later in the day... Mad's snow creation, with an addition of yellow and blue food coloring. Anders' pile, pretty much untouched. He enjoyed eating it instead! :)

ChRiStMaS: Another "K" Joins the Bunch

Here's to the beginning of all posts related to Christmas...

We decorated for Christmas last weekend and figured it just wasn't right to not have a stocking for Kate. So another "K" joins the bunch; Madelin was quite concerned that there was already another "K" stocking and suggested we do "E" for Emiline. :)

Remember these from last year? I swear it seems like I just made those yesterday!! Here is Kate's! The mantel is now complete. :)

Purple Stars

An outfit full of purple stars for Miss Kate...

On a recent shopping trip to Old Navy I found this cute skirt/leggings combo for $5.99. I wanted to find a onesie or shirt to match, but no such luck. As I was shopping, I remembered the above white onesie that a friend had found at a garage sale for FREE. I didn't have any fabric that matched the purple on the skirt but I did have some craft paint that matched. I drew a star on freezer paper, cut it out, ironed it onto the onesie, painted three coats of purple on and then finished it off with a white floss border.

Here is my little chunky girl sporting her new "purple stars" outfit, all for about 6 bucks! :)

Pumpkin Art

A carved pumpkin, painted pumpkins, a pumpkin family and a pumpkin gift for Madelin's teacher...

Chris (he doesn't usually dress-up for carving pumpkins, it was a Sunday :)) and the kids getting ready to carve "the big one."

The kids (no, that's not Kate, that's the neighbor girl) painting their pumpkins. Thanks to the neighbor girl Kate's was painted, too! :)

Mad's work of art.

back row: Super-Madelin, Chris (the jack-o-lantern)

front row: Kate, Anders, Madelin and yes, I am the warty one!!! This is the gift for Mad's teacher. I found it here and had to make it. Minus the candy, everything was already in my house...wire, craft paint and a cleaned out salsa jar. Score!

Super-Madelin, Not-So-Super-Anders and a Sweet Little Leopard

Dressing up three kids for Halloween is quite a feat, especially if two of them are not having it at all! Thus, is the case in the picture below.

Weeks ago Madelin wanted to be a cheerleader then decided on a super-hero. And I thought what a great idea (two easy costumes to make)...Anders can be one too because he refers to himself as "Super-Anders" and can be heard running around the house saying "...to the rescue!" And thanks to my mom, Kate was decked out in leopard gear.

Kate and Anders were not digging this whole dressing up thing! God bless 'em!! And don't you like how Mad and I are just smiling through it all? Madelin and her super-hero pose...work it girl! Star shirt and mask (I don't quite have the mask making skills mastered!) compliments of mom. Super-Madelin cape compliments of mom. Anders preferred Shrek over trick-or-treating, fine by me...less candy for me to eat! ;) He didn't want to wear his handmade-my-mom lightning bolt shirt or this... Maybe next year he will wear his "A" cape.

Love it!!!!!

How sweet is that! :)