halloween craft number one

here is a little pumpkin that i got at michaels for $3, spray painted it white and then sanded it down a little to bring out the green underneath. got the idea from eighteen25.blogspot.com (another favorite website that i check daily!) the pumpkin already had the crackle on it so i didnt have to do that. now go make yourself a cute pumpkin for super cheap.

changes...

remember this picture that i fell in love with...seriously obsessed about and wondered what can i do to recreate this room on a budget? well i have been trying for a while and still there is so much i would like to do but wanted to share my progress...

these boards sat empty for a long time not because i just didnt get around to decorating them but because i didnt want to spend money on something i didnt love and then redo it again after six months. finally i had an idea of how to incorporate the colors i wanted into fun thumb tacks to hold pictures. so i got to work on it.

these are just bottle caps that i hot glued a thumbtack on the back of it.

these flowers are just felt cut out in circles overlapped with some hot glue in between and then a button for the middle of the flowers.

flower rosettes are crazy all over the crafting world and i found a tutorial on how to do it at madebythemamamonster.blogspot.com

these i picked up at michaels for $2 and painted them white and tied them with twine to attach to the kids toy box. anything to make the toy box look a little cuter right?! the 4 because brody is 4 and the 2 because brooke is 2...just in case you didnt put the two together.

this was my main project. i hunted and searched at thrift stores, clearance shelves, etc. for inexpensive frames. i then found pictures i wanted online to resemble kind of the ones in the picture and then just free handed it, painted them black on a creamy card stock and that was it. the tricky part was drawing it by far. i am no artist. thank goodness most of them were pretty easy....and they are supposed to look sloppy right?!

next project is sewing some new draped to take out the navy blue...dont like it!

some decorative pillow for the kids beds would be nice, new sheets for brody to get rid of the red. they will be a more of a brown cream color.

and finally just have to showcase my babies in some picture taken a year and a half ago. eventually i would like to redo the bookcase in a fun color and also buy and old chair and add it to the room for more fun. for now though i need to take a break from their room and focus on the upcoming holidays. i LOVE fall!!!

are you getting ready?!

so i have been dying to try this cake from howdoesshe.com (by the way this is one of my top 5 websites i check daily! i promise you will love it too!) and i got the chance to yesterday when josh had to work and the kids were resting after church. although i didn't have enough evaporated milk for the frosting, hence there is not enough for the sides of the cake but oh was this baby delicious! best german chocolate cake i have ever had....by far! i thought i would start getting in the mood for halloween. we have started decorating at our house. and for some reason i am super into halloween this year. i have been crafting up a storm at our house. but seriously try making this cake. you will not be disappointed.

my mom comes for a visit

the peaceful place we live

old cape henry lighthouse

new cape henry lighthouse

my mom with one happy girl and one grumpy boy

isn't she beautiful! people kept commenting on how young she looked while she was visiting. they couldn't believe that i was her daughter.

my mom came to visit us last week. she got here the day before brody's birthday party and left last tuesday. it was so fun to have her come see us. no it was more than fun it was WONDERFUL!!! i haven't seen my mom since spring break of this year in march, and to be honest i was doing quite well. i told my mom that its like shopping....if i don't go to the mall i don't know what i am missing....if i don't get to see my mom i don't know what i am missing....but once i saw her, it made it all the harder to let her go back home. while she was here i took her to the botanical gardens, the old cape henry lighthouse, she helped me handle the three boys at brody's birthday party (couldn't have done it without her help!), she treated josh and i to dinner out and we were able to take aunt patti and uncle john out to dinner as well, she endured a spin class at the gym with me which i don't think she will ever left me forget...we had a lot of fun together. i loved showing her the things i love about living here....we didn't get to see half the things i wanted her to see, but we had fun. i cried pretty hard when she left. brody and brookie kept asking me all day what was wrong. my mom is one of my best friends...i just love her so much. i am a better mother and wife because of her. she teaches me and guides me through out my life. i still miss you mom. thanks so much for coming. dad thanks for letting her come. i love you both!

brody starts preschool

my cute little boy

sporting his bumblebee backpack from aunt jamie

showing me what to do everyday when he gets to school

each day as the kids arrive to school they have play stations at each table. they get to play at these play stations for 15 minutes till all the students arrive.

picking him up from school the first day, it was all smiles for my little guy

brody started preschool this year. he was so excited, but a little scared. mama did everything i could think of to get him ready. the week before school started we read books all about starting school and the fun things you do in preschool. he got to pick out his own outfit from the store so he felt "cool" the first day of school. he of course picked out a star wars shirt and some shorts. we went to the grocery store to pick out food for his lunch on the first day and a treat for after lunch. the night before school, i was sad, brody was excited. i dropped him off, he gave me a hug and said bye mom. it was rough for me. i cried like a baby. pulled my sunglasses over my eyes and let the tears continue to fall the entire ride home. brody is having a great time in school and is so excited to tell us all the fun things he does everyday. me and brooke are wondering what to do without him home. we are still transitioning into it all...but i can tell you this, in the works is some much loved mommy daughter time together. great job brody on your first day of school. you did awesome!

brody's star wars party

light saber invitation

death star cake

the set up (the bear is princess padame in our home)

treat bags

one of the games was pass the death star and when the music stopped on you the death star exploded and you had to pretend to die

the decorations were complete with a dark sky full of stars

another game we played was feed jabba by throwing bean bags in his mouth...excuse the drawing i'm not an artist by any means!

the blanket was our ship and each boy had a pillow for his seat. the boys had a great time pretending with me.

another game was the jedi training obstacle course. part of the course you got spun in the chair and had to run on the line. at the end of the line was darth vader. you had to fight him and save princess padame.

we also had an asteroid hunt where all the kids candy, toys, etc. were hidden in asteroids (wrapped in tin foil). to make it more educational and so each kid got the same things, the boys were assigned a shape and they could only pick up an asteroid if it had their shape on it.

brody loved opening his presents

thanks to ian and beckham for the great gifts!

the boys together

singing happy birthday

for brody's birthday with his friends this year, he wanted to have a star wars party. okay here we go. when the boys arrived they were each given a passport and a light saber. i told them that the blanket was our ship and that we were going to travel to all the different planets. at each planet we would have to complete the course (a game) to move on. along the way our ship was hit was a meteor shower, and attacked by enemies. i had names for all the planets but the kids did not care. our first stop was to feed jabba. next we played pass the death star, learning jedi powers, jedi obstacle course, asteroid hunt. somewhere in the mix of it all we had pizza, bonked heads, the boys fought each other with their light sabers and right before we sung happy birthday the cake was stolen by darth maul. we had to follow the clues and lead us on a path to finding the birthday cake. all in all it was a party to remember. i hope brody had a fun time with his friends. i did learn though that at 4, the kids would much rather just play with each other than do games. oh well it was fun!

brody's fourth birthday

the pile of presents

birthday boy

opening presents

aunt patti and brooke

uncle john

brody fishing

he really couldn't be any cuter

brody catching his first two fish

daddy fishing

mom fishing

the girlies

mom's first catch of the day (i caught 2 all by myself!)

dinner at chuck e chesses

brody had the best birthday ever....really! josh and i had more fun on his birthday than we did on any other birthday this year. brody jumped on our bed at 7 am letting us know he was ready to open presents...and then i hear brookie crying down the hall....too early for her. he woke us all up to come open presents. well he was the birthday boy so i guess he can get away with it. we marched straight downstairs and opened presents. he loved everything!!! he was so spoiled by everyone. the loot:

starwars guys, ship, monster towel from mom and dad
starwars game, lunchbox, book, and the entire season one of clone wars from grandma and grandpa bingham
huge box of legos from grandma and grandpa barrus
and too many more toys to count from uncle john and aunt patti and everyone else

after presents we played and played some more. finally we got ready to go fishing. we asked brody months ago what he wanted to do on his birthday and he said fishing...so fishing we went. we were just so grateful that josh had the day off of work. we took along the experts uncle john and aunt patti (they have taken us in under their wing....they are such a great blessing to our family). we went fishing on the pier and had a blast. mom had never been fishing and i really wanted to catch a fish all on my own casting it out and reeling it in. i did! i actually caught 2! i was pretty proud of myself. brody caught 4. brookie cried cause she was scared of fishies and daddy caught too many to count. we ended up catching about 38 fish to keep and more we gave away. while the men finished fishing patti and i took the kids to play in the water. after the beach we headed back to clean up and rest. after naptime we took brody to chuck e cheeses. he was thrilled to pieces. we have never been and the kids loved it. our night ended at uncle john and aunt patti's with more gifts to open. finally our little boy let us all pass out after a fun filled day at 10 pm. josh and i had so much fun celebrating with brody. he is my little man. brody as you can tell is really into star wars this year. he loves to play "hippopotamus" which means "princess padame" a game our family created where daddy, brookie, and brody rescue "princess padame"--a little teddy bear from the bad guys. he loves to play pretend in any sense of the word. his imagination is amazing. he loves to explore things and plays all day long. he has been in swim lessons since january and can now swim like a champ. he is playing soccer again and is ready to take on the game. he has started to draw people and they are so cute...we all look like mr. potato heads! he loves to learn about the stories of jesus and now insists on teaching us family home evening. he loves to play board games with mom and dad. he usually wins! he is many times my saving grace. when i am having a hard day, he can tell and tries to help. he always wants mommy to be happy and cheers me up. he oftentimes tells me "mommy you look beautiful!" he just melts my heart. his favorite person is his dad. he loves to spend time with dad and go out just the two of them. he is so brave and strong. my baby boy is now four and i hope he has the best year ever! happy birthday handsome....mommy and daddy love you so much.