Easy Valentines Day Craft for Boys

This year I was a little perplexed about what to send family members for Valentine's Day from the little one.  Some of the stuff out in the stores was a little too girly to send from a 3 year old boy so I came up with a fun, easy project to send out to Aunties and Grandmas.

WARNING!!!! IF THE AFOREMENTIONED GRANDMAS AND AUNTIES ARE READING THIS...STEP AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER AND NO PEEKING!!!!! :)

It's really pretty easy, you need

1. a toy dump truck
2. clear packing tape/doublesided tape
3. hershey kisses
4. permanent marker

and Voila!!!! 

Now don't forget my husband is a truck driver and my son is enamored with all things wheels and so for our family, it's the perfect gift!

Now add that to a cute box lined with tissue paper and some other yummy goodies and make an easy photo card and there is a present any Grandma would love!

So, what do you and your kids do for Valentine's Day?

Sound the Alarms!

Of all the gifts this little boy received for Christmas and trust me, there were way too many, his favorite item of all was a plastic red hat he got from the firemen at Safeway.

Sometimes it's the simple things in life that are the best! 

Happy Halloweeny!

Guess what we did tonight? One of my least favorite things...carving pumpkins! I love holidays and I'm usually an eager beaver to prep Thanksgiving, visit Santa, hide Easter Eggs and decorate the house in a festive manner but carving pumpkins just plain ol' sucks in my opinion. The last few years this has been my husband's "thing." I was a designated picture taker and just got to sit back and enjoy them sifting through the stringy pumpkin guts while my hands were cleaner than a freshly swiffered floor. Let's just say that this year I was not so lucky. The hubster is working hard and won't be back home until Halloween day so I had to suck it up, put on my game face and pretend that this was the FUNNEST. THING. EVER. for my kiddo. It started well, I figured out how to use the self-timer on my camera so that we would have a few pics and we goofed off a bit before we butchered those pumpkins. Once we cut them open and started to get dirty things got a bit more interesting. He was not a fan of getting his hands all yucky (at least I know he's mine) but I told him that he had to help me if we were going to light them tonight. Reluctantly, I got another 2-3 minutes out of him and then it started. What started, you ask? The gagging. Seriously, this kid started gagging from the pumpkin guts and actually upchucked in the "guts" bowl. Can you believe that? I was dumbfounded! Needless to say I did not force him to help me carve the rest of the pumpkins and I was stuck to do all the dirty work while he played doctor's office with his stuffed animals. Fun night, huh. And here is all my hard work! If you can correctly guess the pictures below you get an A+ in preschool programming. Happy Halloween!

Playtime at the Pumpkin Patch

October equals Pumpkin Patches in my book. One of my favorite things to do is go pumpkin hunting! I don't know if pumpkin patches have just become more of an adventure is the last 25 years but I don' t remember doing half of the fun things that these kiddos get to do today. Pumpkin picking, corn mazes, pony rides, pumpkin sling shots, 40 ft slides, petting zoo, and my Little Man's fave, the hay ride. And of course, who could resist bringing the camera along for the ride. Unfortunately, I only brought my zoom lens so I kept having to back up and tag behind so that I could actually get everyone in the picture hence no shots of said hay rides, petting zoo and pony rides. I was just too darn close!

Working hard at finding "the perfect pumpkin"

What's Halloween without using a slingshot to launch mini pumpkins at old parked cars just to win a free soda?! $8.00 in mini-pumpkins, 10 minutes of a smashing good time and we win a "free"soda.Here's Daddy picking up one BIG pumpkin! He said it had to be close to 100 lbs.
Here's Little Man following in his Daddy's footsteps trying to pick up the same 100lb pumpkinIt's a very rare occasion when all three of us get in one picture but some nice gal offered to take a family pic for us.

Calling All Crafters!!!!

I'll admit it I am a not-so-crafty mom. I have great ideas in my head but never seem to know how to make it work so that my end product turns out like my vision. I've tried scrapbooking, cuter in my head. I've tried knitting, um, let's just say I'm not patient enough. I would love to learn how to quilt but I figure that too is better left looking beautiful in my head as well. Needless to say I need help so let's talk Halloween! My son has decided to be a construction worker/handyman for Halloween so I've been on the lookout for bits and pieces to complete the look. I was able to find a white hard hat (for an awesome price of $1.50) at Goodwill and I want to paint it yellow but I don't want to screw it up. I want it to look really good, not like another one of my crappy crafts.That is where you all come in. So here is my hardhat and I'm looking for any and all advice as to the best way to turn it yellow. Now is the time to speak up, ask your friends and let me know if certain paint is better than another, how many coats, or if you have any tricks of the trade. Secondly, if you've done a construction/handyman costume before what/how did you do it?

I just wanted to say...

Hope that you all have a happy and safe 4th of July!