post #9 :: Easter traditions

ever since I was a little girl I remember making this special 

{Italian Easter Bread}

 with my great grandma Datomi. 

my mom has the same memory so we wanted to get these little kiddos on board with the

 Easter traditions

 roll out the dough into a snake

 cut and fold over

 

I loved that they all lined up to see what was going on in the oven

baked and ready to frost

 frosting and sprinkles

  frosting and sprinkles

  frosting and sprinkles

  frosting and sprinkles

  frosting and sprinkles

 this awesome pic is what is left over after... frosting and sprinkles

yum yum yum!

 {this is my great grandmother's handwritten recipe}

post #8 :: you're invited

one of my favorite things over the years has been to make the invitations to my kiddos birthday parties...

many-a-night spent hunched over a table or stool while punching, pasting and sticking things for their invites and then add one to their baby book

here is one of my favorites...

 I have neither tons of time nor tons of money so I take my bit of creativity, with a smidge of input from the kiddo and get two or three cute papers from the craft store, cut them up and past away.

 I also totally love brads so I try to add some bling with those

I picked some cute fonts, some cute words and printed this on my home printer on vellum and affixed them with those cute crystal brads

 they didn't look quite finished so I got out some cute stamps, 

some plain 'ol craft paint and added a "k" for Kirra

then I added a few silver dots along the side of her letter

{the lime green comes out a bit yellow in this pic, not a bumble bee party but a rock star party, smile}

post #6 :: little bear

over a year ago a dear friend 

(long story short she served ice cream at our wedding as a high schooler we didn't know, then "met" her again at FPU in the dorms while David was a RD, she was the first babysitter for Cohl 

and became a sweet friend)

anyhow she was pregnant with her first baby

so I really wanted to make something special for her

I found a pattern book with just the "special little someone" I was looking for

this little bear

**handmade with love for Ryan**

{the pattern calls for a tougher fabric so I used a new dish towel that I loved and stitched the eyes and nose and added buttons for the shoulders and hips}

definitely going to repeat this sweet little bear

post #5 :: snack packs

for the past few years we have coined a new vocabulary word around our house...

snack packs

I was noticing just how many ziplock baggies we were using and how wasteful that was 

{I am not one to wash them out and use them four times}

so I went to the tupperware-type isle at Target and found these sectioned plastic containers

pretty sure they are for saving dinners

we use them when all of the kids need a lunch

 like to the zoo

park 

eat in the car on-the-go.

trips

the kids love that they are personalized

I have had to rewrite their names a few times because we use them so much

they are light and they can carry them and fit on small laps quite well

going greener one lunch at a time :)

post #3 :: multi...

I love, love, love to multitask

I also love multiuse

so in an effort to make one decoration for our St. Patrick's Day party

involve my kids

have it match my kitchen

and count down to our Legoland trip

{Legoland is discounted for homeschoolers}

we made this paper chain...

it's made from some cute scrap booking papers that have super cute patterns

every other strip was decorated by my kids, husband and myself {family time}

it has the number of rings to match how many days 'til we leave for our trip {so we don't have to count everyday 'cause they're excited}

it's green, which I LOVE, and we made it the day before our party

check, check, check

{multiuse}

our paper chain hangs in front of the bookshelf my grandpa made me for my high school graduation which now holds most of our homeschool materials

I am dying to paint it and maybe add some molding and detail to the doors

 so stay tuned

**side note :: one of my favorite multitask/multiuse things is when I have the dishwasher and laundry going while I am doing two or three other things...