Key & Necklaces Holders

Sadie and I stayed up late and made these fun little key and necklaces holders with scrapbook paper, cup hooks and some modge podge. A simple but useful project!


Necklace Holder by Sadie

Before-ugly,ugly!



Our improved and fun key holder

Have fun!

Growing Up

I remember my first phone, a white princess phone and I totally would have loved a clear see all the wires ones that they came out with later.  I thought it was wonderful to have my own phone. A cell phone is what my kids are craving.  Brendan has opted to use the free text app on his Ipod. Teagan has been bugging me to get a cell phone and teasingly tells me the other kids have blackberry's and all she has is a little tikes toddler cell phone.  She is so abused!  

She has been saving her money and today proudly bought her first cell phone, no contracts and she loaded it with some minutes.  Here is her proud day:

I'm proud of the research she did, in comparing cost. Her work and patience to reach her goal. I'm thankful for her acceptance and willingness to do for herself!!  Whether she uses it or lets it deactivate, I see a lot of lessons that will come from this experience. 

Beach Time

My favorite vacations involve the beach! Beach trips to me are classic summer memories and a tradition we have as a family. Arizona has a lot of "beach" but no ocean :(  We make at least 1 trek across the dessert to San Diego to see friends and have some time to catch waves, play with little crabs and tide pool. This trip was no different! The water was cold, but the waves were amazing, even the littles did some level of boogie boarding. My favorite memory this time, was Lexi's confidently stated "Look out ocean here I come!"

Besides, youthful feelings and memories, waves, relaxation, the beach is a relatively inexpensive investment for our family bonding.  Since our family has a vast span of ages 2-15 its the perfect spot for each one to have their own level of fun. Some guidelines that make our beach trips enjoyable:

1.  Easy access, without a lot of stairs or blocks to walk.
2.  Bathroom facilities
3.  A playground is an added perk since we stay from 11-5:30 most trips.
4. We pack lightly, less to carry makes us all happier. I saw many families bring the tents, "recliners" seriously folks...we are at the beach, not the living room.

Enjoy these carefree days of summer!
~ DeAnn

Cards

I love crafts we can actually use! I had the jellybeans help me make cards to use through out the year.
It was a nice way to sit around the table and visit while we created cards to share with friends and family.
Keeping in touch and thank you notes is becoming a lost art, but one I hope to instill the importance of in our home.

Stay in touch! ~ DeAnn

Imagination

My girls and when Brendan was younger they entertained themselves on good old fashioned imagination. I love watching or hearing them play...but this made me giggle. I walked in on this:

Apparently the Pride cubs had been naughty, so I first thought this was a form of punishment-YIKES!
Silly mom, the cubs had clothes pins on their ears so they couldn't hear the girls plans to catch them in their naughty acts of making messes.  I had fun, moving their cubs around and making some messes for the girls to find after hearing this one!  ~ DeAnn

Hats

Today's summer craft was to make hats. We took these simple baseball hats, then the girls designed the flowers and I hot glued them on~ adorable!

Before

After

How cute they look in their hats! Though Sadie
looks like a deer in headlights.
I think I need a hat like theirs ~ DeAnn

Feelings Art & Frames

This coming school year I will be working out of only one school. I wanted to personalize my space a bit, so the girls helped me paint &decorate frames. Sadie then drew me some feelings pictures to go in them.

Love them! It was fun working together, I wasn't sure if I wanted them to take over my project butI set the ground rules and they did awesome and had fun too! 

Welcome Home Teagan

Teagan has been enjoying time with her Grandma and her cousins in Albuquerque! She has been gone a week, and I miss her terribly! One of our traditions is to pack notes and surprises in the travelers bag and welcome them home. Today in anticipation of Teagan's homecoming, the sisters and Mom decorated her door!

Welcome Home Teagan! We missed you!

Candlier

When our family doubled, our outdoor table no longer fit all of 7 of us. I missed eating outside to the sound of the birds, the candles, a new table was in order and ordered.   The gold candlier, no longer matched the table set so I seized the opportunity to re do our candlier, save a little money and add a little bling. I painted it black and added some beads. 

I was able to reuse the old table too, by putting it by the pool  which is working out great on these summer afternoons.  Love working with what we already have but feeling like we have something new.

~ DeAnn

Face Painting for Added Fun

To add some spice to the girls play, today we did some face painting. 

Tiger and Pirate on their adventure!

~ DeAnn