vidalicious.com

We just whipped up an Egg Snake while Lily is napping! Take a look…

Last weekend we attended an egg hunt, and general spring party.  Unfortunately it poured rain the entire time we were there.  I’d say we are pretty hardcore because we still participated in most of the events (not the flooded jumpy houses, to the kids great sadness). Both kids did the egg hunt in the rain (bundled up in snow suits). We came home with cheap toys and candy, tucked inside even cheaper plastic eggs.

Photo from aforementioned rainy event.

So I was excited when I saw this idea for egg decorating! It was easy to do, no mess, and even my 1 year old who is allergic to eggs could participate. Its just strips and bits of colored tape (we use Japanese washi paper tape) stuck all over the egg.

I made this tape dispenser from an old cigar box of my fathers a long while back.  The little tape ends always fall back in, but the box is so darn cute, its hard to mind too much.

We also made a giant nest for the eggs to rest in. Happy, snuggly eggs!

Late night marshmallow sculptures…

Tools needed:

– mini vanilla marshmallows

– toothpicks

– imagination!

This month we celebrated two birthdays!

Lily, just turned ONE!  I can’t even believe it’s been a whole year since she was in my belly. Just blows my mind how fast time goes by these days. Last year Lily’s due date was Maddox’s 2nd birthday. So of course this year we had two birthdays to celebrate back to back. They each had their own day with special activities and gifts, then we had one big party on the weekend in between their special days. Maddox is now a 3 year old! Wow.

Rainbow cakes and rainbow parties have been kind of big in the world of the internet this past year.  So of course we had to up the ante and make not one 6 layer rainbow cake, but rather two 12 layer rainbow cakes! This of course was the feat of the year for this dear old mom. Baking 24 different colored layers, while planning a party, tending to out-of-country house guests, and caring for 2 children took a bit of work. But I did it!  Of course I couldn’t have done it without the help of some very special people (you know who you are!), thank you!

So to the best part… Cake photos!

Read the rest of this entry »

For a year now, I’ve had a ‘Stash of Stashes’ in our side table drawer. They were from The Pretty Little Things Club. The other day Maddox pulled them out and decided it was time to for the family to wear moustaches. We were instantly on board – who doesn’t love an impromptu moustache party??

Next time Lily will have to get in on the moustache action! Because she was only a 2 weeks old, we decided to let it slide this time.

Treat season is upon us!

These have fewer calories than the original, and are twice as sweet!

I know its not even Halloween yet, but I’m starting to keep my eye out for thoughtful Christmas gifts. This caught my eye as a nice gift for a knitter (with a baby).

It is a kit for making a striped baby blanket. The hardest part about ordering yarn or fabric online is matching colors.  Purl Soho took the guess work out of it and even selected multiple palettes to choose from. Deets here.

The theme for Maddox’s 2nd Birthday Party was generally monkey, banana, yellow. As with many parties, the crafting before hand is the most fun part. I love the idea of little party goers having some prize or special gift to take home with them to remember the day. For two year olds, crayons and coloring seemed the best idea.

I made monkey shaped crayons and each kid was given 2 different colors wrapped in a little celo bag with yellow Japanese paper tape. For the crayons I melted down Crayola brand crayons (I heard other brands are no good for this sort of thing), and used a Monkey shaped plastic chocolate mold. I knew I wanted to make shaped crayons for about a year now so I’ve been scouring Craigslist and hounding parents for their used crayons.  This search method was a big fail. Back to school time at Target was the real key. I found Crayola 24 count boxed crayons for 25¢ each.  What a deal.  So to keep things easy I bought 24 boxes.  Then I sorted them all by color into each of the 24 boxes.

Maddox helped me to peel the paper off the crayons and break them into small pieces (his favorite part). Strangely, he hasn’t taken it upon himself to break up all of his crayons since this project. We did lose a few in the early days, but he knows the difference now between craft project and coloring.

I melted the crayon pieces in baby food jars partially submerged in a pot of boiling water, then poured the melted wax into the molds and popped them in the freezer. The only cracking problems I had were when I used pieces from the “found” Crayola crayons. So my advice is to stick with brand new crayons and don’t mix.

The coloring books I made using a lightweight yellow card stock. Using our printer, I added the image of the Monkey from a quick internet search for Monkey Coloring Pages or something like that. The inside paper I cut to size, then sewed together with the cover using my sewing machine. (I didn’t want the little kids to have access to staples, and the sewing worked really well.) I then rounded the corners of all the pages and the covers and smacked on a strip of brown book binding tape. Voila! Toss in some monkey stickers and cup shaped like a monkey head and you’ve got yourself a little monkey party loot!

I’m so excited that I actually finished the baby’s quilt before she arrived!  I think it turned out pretty well too.  The back fabric is a tad billowy, so next time I might pre-wash the quilt front before sewing on the back. All in all, not bad for my first real go at a quilt!

For the back I used a super soft light brown Minky. It is nice to the touch and the bumps keep it interesting.