~Easter Treats~

Another holiday and that means another round of treats to make for the kids to take to school.

For Avery's class and friends we made Bunny Pops.

We used rice krispy squares and popsicles sticks.

We then melted chocolate wafers.

We then dipped each square into the chocolate, we also use white wafers.

I then added bunny ears, eyes and noses on each one.

Avery loved making these!

We then added a label to each one and wrapped them in cellophane bags.

For Caleb's class, I made some tags.

And then attached them to little bags of bunny treats.

Once again Madison did not want to give to the whole class, we bought these cute little birdie eggs and she filled them with treats to give to her closest friends.

She then added some green grass to these cute little boxes and placed each egg inside.

I have a few other crafts/activities that I am going to do with the kids. I'll post some pics again soon!

~A New Creation~

As I mentioned below Avery's newest fave is her Ugly Dolls. I showed her a tutorial online on how to make them and she begged me to make one for her. So over the weekend, I made this little guy to add to her collection.

That's right, this little guy is 100% homemade and hand-stitched I might add! And didn't cost me nearly as much as a new one would.

You can see at the bottom where I left the opening to add the stuffing. I should have done a reverse stitch but Avery was very anxious to hold her newest stuffie and was rushing me along!

Can you spot the fake ugly doll?

The one I have made has quickly become her new fave. And like I said it cost me nearly nothing to make.

Here is the cost breakdown:

~an old fleece blanket that Avery was more than willing to part with, so no cost there

~buttons for the eyes that I took off of a shirt that I didn't need

~felt, that we used for the eyes, mouth and tongue - $0.49 for each colour, but I have a tonne left over and can use on future creations

~stuffing, got a huge bag at Wal-mart for $2.97 and again lots left over

~needle and thread that I already had

~for the pattern, I used a small diecut that was made with my slice machine, then at work I enlarged the image by 300% and printed it on the large format printer (the advantages of working at an engineering firm ;-)

~and of course my time, maybe 3 hrs in total but only because I hand-stitched it

Total Cost: $4.44 plus tax!!

Cost of a new Ugly Doll: $29.99 plus tax

You sure can't beat a savings like that! Especially when she loves it so much. She has decided that it is a girl and has named her Zog. We watched Astro Boy on the weekend and there is a character with that name and she liked it.

As you can see she loves them!

Of course, little brother had to get in on the action too!

Thanks for looking and feel free to leave a comment!

~Finally...~

Things have been really busy lately and I have had good intentions many a night of updating the blog that just never seemed to pan out.

Needless to say I have been missing my blogging. I didn't get a chance to post any of the V-day crafts or the kids valentine's but of course the kids thoroughly enjoyed that day.

March Break is coming to a close and the children are back to school on Monday. They were lucky enough to have beautiful weather the whole week. And of course are not looking forward to going back to school!

Since I have been neglectful in my blogging, I have decided to give a little update below of how each of the children are doing. Because ultimately I did create this blog for them :-)

MADISON
Madi has been busy being 12! Who knew being a 12 year old was so exhausting! Surely, I was never like this as a pre-teen! lol

As usual she is loving her books. Her current favourite series is the one pictured below:

She is also loving right now the new TV series, The Vampire Diaries (of course, she has read the books). For Valentine's Day she had me create Valentine's out the picture below. (Last year she had me do ones for Twilight).


Lately, she has become quite the little fashionista. With her most prized accessory being her earrings. Since she got her ears pierced for her Birthday last October, she is loving the earrings!

Lastly, Madison has always been known as the drama queen within our little family of 5. She has finally decided to put some of that drama to good use and asked me to sign her up for drama classes this spring! I'm all for it! I figure it is a good way for her to harvest her energy and she startes on April 6th!



AVERY
Avery is my eccentric child. She loves to be a little different and is not afraid to show it. Definately a good trait to have.

She is loving her new purple Converse high tops that she got for Christmas. She could not wait for the nicer weather to get here so she could finally start wearing them! She wears them with everything...


epsecially...crazy socks! She loves to wears funky socks. The crazier the better. She also often mismatches her socks on purpose!


Another new favourite of hers is her sock monkey. This is actually one of the only things that she asked for, for Christmas.

She also loves her Ugly Doll. Sleeps with him every night. This girl definately knows what she likes and is not afraid to show it!

Avery has also been busy working hard at jazz and ballet class. She loves to dance and rarely sits still! I guess all of her hard work has paid off because she was invited to participate in the competitive classes next year at her new dance school.

CALEB

Caleb is definately all boy! He loves his Hot Wheels and can't get enough of them.

Right now he is also loving Lego. Loves to make new creations and show off his masterpieces.

His all time fave right now is playing Lego Star Wars on the Xbox. This kid is good and kicks some Dark Force butt! But everything in moderation and we have had to limit his time with the video game.

I also just signed Caleb up for a 8 week course in karate. He is so looking forward to it. We are also going to be signing him up for indoor soccer that starts the first week of April. Nothing like having kids to keep you busy!

So that's about it. Colin and I are doing okay, just busy with work and the house and the kids and making some plans for the near future, but I will update on that later.

I hope that you enjoyed my little update. Please feel free to leave a comment I would love to hear from all of you!!

~neglectful :-(

I have been very neglectful in my blogging these days. I am finding it hard to get back in the groove of things after the holidays. Kids are settled back into the swing of things and Mom & Dad have been a little scatter-brained, to say the least!

But slowly I feel it all coming together again. I have started thinking about Valentine's crafts and hope to have some started soon. I will share my creations when I do!

January has been a busy month of Birthdays. Way to many to list in separate posts, so I will do a mass listing here.

Big Birthday Wishes to:

My Sis in Australia ~ January 5th

My niece, Sarah ~ January 11th - Happy 17th!

My niece, Chelsea ~ January 13th - Happy 7th Birthday!(card & gift are in the mail-sorry it's late!)

And upcoming Birthday Wishes to:

My niece, Ashley ~ January 30th - 18! Wow!

Love you all!

Here's to getting back into the swing of things...I will update again soon!

~Treats for School~

I've been busy making Christmas treats for the kids to take to school.

I made these little treats with a tag attached for Caleb's classmates. I think they turned out really cute.

I started again, by making tags.

Then I used the same type of treats that I used for the advent calendar.

Finally, I attached the tags with a single staple to the top of the little bags.

Remember these? We decorated them with Christmas colours and they too turned out oh so cute! Avery will be taking these in to share with her classmates.

Loving the little Christmas pails that I picked up at Michael's.

For Madison, she wanted me to make my nacho dip for her to take in for the class party. She also only gave gifts to her 3 best friends. She wasn't into giving to the whole class this year.

And last but not least, Caleb and I made some Magic Reindeer Food for him to share with his classmates. When both the girls were in JK we also made this for their classes. It is wonderful to see how excited they get to help make this. He can't wait to hand this out to his little friends!

Hope everyone is doing well and ready for the holidays!

~O Christmas Tree...~

This is one of Colin's collector cars. For days every time I would pass by it, I would think: 'Something is missing'. Then the other day I was at the dollar store and came across this little tree that is meant for a Christmas village and an idea was born!

I think it is too cute for words!

~Happy Advent~

So here it is! The Advent calendar that I made for the kids. They are thrilled with it and can't wait to open a new tin every day!


I started by printing out some tags for each day. They are for a variety of things. Some are for a treat, others are for a family outing and then a few for an advent surprise that they have to go and find.

These are the advent treats, that I packaged in to 3's. One candy for each child.

Each day they get to open a tin.

Here are some of the advent surprises that will eventually get hidden and they have to go find based on the clue.

Here is a pic of it on the wall.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

~A Winter Craft~

The other night we created these cute little snowmen. Avery and Caleb loved making these and they were so easy and fast. No messy glue was required and clean up was a snap.
Everyone in our house is getting excited for Christmas and the kids have just finishing writing their letters to Santa tonight. They can't wait!

~Other Advent Calendars~

So besides making Advent calendars in the past I have also bought a few. We have this Play Mobil one pictured below. The kids like it but I think that they are getting bored with it now.

The picture on the box

There are small boxes that hang on this board, each day one box gets opened to reveal a play mobil accessory

This is the backdrop for all the accessories At the end of the 24 days you have a play scene that looks like this.

The kids loved opening a box each day to find out how it fit in.

I then considered buying a new calendar this year and was looking at this one:

I know that the boy would have loved it as he is into lego right now (& playing Lego Indiana Jones on the Xbox!) but decided to save getting this one til next year.


Now onto to my new creation! I know in my last post that I said I would reveal which calendar I was going to create, but I have decided that I will do the big reveal on Dec 1st. So for now, here are some pics(hints) of my work in progress.

~The Countdown is On...~

So now that Halloween is over, everywhere we go we are bombarded with Christmas. And for some reason this year, I am falling into its trap! Usually, I avoid anything Christmas-like until about the first week of December but this year I find I am anticipating and planning more than I have in a long time now.

Also, I have been feeling idle. I need to create something. Now that the Girls' birthdays are over, I need a new project. The last thing I created was a circle birthday banner for Avery (see the pic in that post) and now I need to do more.

So what is on my mind, you ask? An Advent Calendar!

I have been scouring all my fave online blogs and sites searching for something new. And I think that I may have found what I was looking for.

Below are some pics of my faves, a few of them I have done in the past.

I have done an envelope one before (not the one pictured above but something similar)

I like the look of this one but don't think it would be as appealing to the kids

I have made this matchbox one before also (mine is almost identical to the one in the above pic)

This matchbox one is cute too

This one is very creative in the numbering

The ones below are my absolute faves:

oh so cute!

This one & the next 2 are made with small round metal tins

Which ones are your fave? What one would you choose?

I will reveal which one I am going to do in the next couple of days.