Octonauts

Have you seen this cute show on Disney Junior?  Remember that friend that I married this past summer?  Well, her daughter Halle loves this show and her mom, Kimberly put together the most adorable 3rd birthday party for her with this theme.  She asked me to make a shirt using the 3 main characters.  Here’s what I did:Isn’t she adorable?!  Kimberly made the sweet tutu and I added the little bow to match.  Happy 3rd birthday Halle!  I hope it was the best birthday party ever.

Pinned It, Did It Monday {headband and glowsticks}

Good Monday afternoon to you all.  Welcome to Pinned It, Did It Monday where I attempt to show you some of the things I’ve done from Pinterest, not just “pinned” to my boards.   This week has been crazy, so just 2 small ones for ya today.I’m always looking for adorable, easy headgear for Ellison.  And this one looked super sweet.
Picture I Pinned:

Source: DIY Jersey Baby Headband from Kelli Murray
My pictures: My review:  If you can thread a needle and you have a hot glue gun, you can do this one.  No sewing machine needed.  Super fast (10 minutes or so) and so cute.  I might have to rummage through my closet for some old t-shirts to make some more!I’m always love a good idea for Owen.  This site is chalk full of them!  This idea is for glow sticks in the bath tub.
Picture I Pinned:

Source: Glow Sticks: Thinking Outside the Box from Play at Home Mom
My pictures and video.  These pictures look totally black on my phone, but not on the computer. :)

My review:  I got a pack of glow sticks from the dollar store.  Threw them in and turned off the lights.  I think he would have stayed in there all night.  He LOVED it!!  We hid them in cups, twirled them really fast and made them into bracelets.  I will definitely be keeping a pack of these near the tub for those days he doesn’t want to get clean!  So fun!

jammie time

I love early morning jammie time.  It's usually spent cuddling, reading some books, watching some toons, and maybe even having a bowl of dry cereal before "real" breakfast time.  I hope they continue to love each other (and books!)

 

Ellie is doing an awesome job sitting up on her own and yes, that's her first Barbie in her hand courtesy of Summer and girls.  She loves diving into "her" toy basket.

Curtis Orchard

Yesterday, we had a small group outing to Curtis Orchard.  Although I have no pictures of Holly and boys or Mike and Stephanie to prove it was a small group trip.  It was our first time there this season and Owen had a blast.  I love that this place is so close to us.  If you've never been, you really should! :)

my guys hamming it up

"cheese"

it was pretty chilly but at least it was sunny!

we sang "the wheels on the bus"

my cutie patootie

 

he braved walking over the bridge to the slide

 

we got to watch the goats walk over us

Nola feeding the goats - she was a little scared :)

 

playing on the "train"

Nola had no hear while I had to go down with Owen

time for a wagon ride

he loved the tractor ride!

self portrait time

enjoying the bumpy ride

love our little family

After the tractor ride, we all headed inside to warm up with donuts and cider.  A perfect way to spend a Saturday morning!

2 going on 16?

Owen's newest obsession is with "driving."  He loves to sit in the front seat of the van and push every button and make car noises.  He's rolling in his swag wagon. :)

 

 

Mentor Mom Dinner

This year, I am involved with our Mom2Mom ministry at church.  It's a fabulous group of moms that meet on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month.  I am in charge of the mentor mom component of this ministry.  This means that I got to recruit some older wiser moms to start coming to our meetings and offering their wisdom to use.  This past Monday we did a super fun event that was open to the whole church, just not moms in Mom2Mom.  I coordinated the Mentor Mom Dinner and was so pleasantly surprised how great it went.  Of course, I have a whole list of things I'll change for the next one in the spring, but overall it was a wonderful evening.

I stuck with the fall theme for the decorations.  I got cheap pumpkins at the Farmer's Market and carved them out (of course saving the seeds for roasting). I put a cup down in the pumpkins filled with water and then bought some large mums at Walmart and cut them apart and inserted them.  Viola, a pumpkin vase.  Add a few little gourds around and that was our simple table decor.

I made little matchbook notepads by simply sewing some paper together and put one at every gal's seat.

 

 

It's not pictured, but I also made this fabulous mulled cider in my crock pot.  It got rave reviews!

 

The ladies started to arrive and then after I prayed for the evening, we dove into some fabulous food made by Darlene at church.

After our yummy dinner, I got the privilege of introducing our speaker for the night, Cathy Vincent.  That link is to her blog.  You should read it.

She gave one of the best "mommy" talks I've ever heard.  She shared "7 Things I Wish I'd Focused on at Age 30."  They included things like enjoy life, train your kiddos to be enjoyable, stay connected to God's family.  She gave great tips and told great stories from her own life.  Watch her blog as she flushes these ideas out even more.  One of the most impactful things I heard was in the simplify section.  She was talking about saying no to stuff and activities and shared that she used to say "yes" to everything unless she heard a clear "no" from God.  But He challenged her to change this by saying "no" to everything unless God gave her a clear "yes."  This totally spoke directly to me.  I've definitely been getting better about saying no, but I think that should really always be my response.  Or at least saying, well let me check with God and William and I'll get back to you.

She made great handouts that everyone was busy filling out during her talk!

 

Then, after her awesome talk and some refills on cider and coffee, our panel of mentor moms came up.  They introduced themselves and shared a bit about their families.

Then, we opened up the floor for questions.  We only got to about 4 or 5 questions before our time ran out.  We didn't even get a chance for them to pray for us as planned.  But they still shared some great wisdom.  I already have this part tweaked for the spring dinner to make it more effective.

All in all, it was a wonderful evening with some great ladies.  I am blessed to have such a great community of ladies to help me through this journey of motherhood.  If you're local, mark your calendars for Friday, March 15th.  We're doing another one of these dinners!