Spring Thrift - Week 1

I can't remember the last time I went thrifting, which is quite a change from my once habit of going every week.  With a busy work schedule and seemingly something always coming up, it's been hard to find the time.  On Wednesday the sun was shining and warm, I had the day off, and my sister-in-law is in town visiting... there couldn't have been a better opportunity.  I lucked out on my first major score of the season, picking up some new Spring bedding, two pairs of Italian leather shoes, an Easter basket and decorative bowl, some vintage pyrex,  and this delight of a set you see above.  I was intitally on the fence about it, but then my enthusiastic three year old insisted it was "really cool" and the colors were "pretty".  It's official - I can't go anywhere without him.

Let it Snow

While I worked on my husband's birthday cake my son was more interested in making tracks with his hot wheels through piles of flour.  This, combined with his santa pj's ended up being a cute holiday photo op, especially as he pretended it was snow.  Although it created a big mess (with flour making it's way even into our front room) I was relieved he was contented to play while I constructed the three layer cake we're looking forward to giving my husband on Thursday.

Teach Your Toddler To Put On His Coat

Thanks to this video, my son now knows how... becoming more independent by the minute!

Play Series : Playmobile Racecar Found

Last summer one of my son's Playmobile toys went missing.  While he did noticed it was gone, I was the one who was devastated.  We still had the race car driver, but his race car was no where to be found.  So I mourned for a bit and then left it to the universe that it would show up again someday.  Which is exactly what happened one kinda pretty day while I was in the backyard raking leaves.  All the wildflowers were over grown and many needed pulling.  I began yanking a few out and low and behold, there it was - our beloved race car.  Having spent half of summer and nearly all of fall outside in the dirt, sun and rain, it was in remarkable shape... just a little dirty.  I cleaned it up as best I could and my son hasn't stopped playing with it since.

Star Garland

Our theme this week is stars so this morning my son and I spent a little over an hour making this construction paper star garland.  After I hand-cut each one, he taped them (with a little help from me) to the string of yarn and chose where to hang it.  I wanted to put it over a window but he insisted this was a much better location.  Standing back, I had to agree.

Mighty Machines

Last night my husband came home with a surprise toy for my son.  He lighted up like never before when he opened it; having a new interest in heavy equipment from watching Mighty Machines, he was very excited.  He played with it for an hour, and then it had to come to bed with him.

Lullaby Substitute

For the last week or so my son has been asking me to sing him to sleep at bedtime. He stopped enjoying the traditional lullabies I would sing to him as a baby when he hit about two years old, so coming up with material has been a challenge. I don't know a lot of songs by heart, just bits here and there, and a whole bunch of Christmas numbers. Not wanting to flood him with holiday music quite yet (he'll hear plenty when it starts everywhere, like in a week) I scoured my memory for the songs of my youth, with that being the last time I spent hours belting out lyrics while driving my car or riding with friends. I couldn't get enough of this lovely lady back then, and if I listened to the albums today could possibly recall nearly every song by heart. This and one other stuck out in my mind, and before five minutes was up, I had my son snoozing the night away.

Safe and Sane Trick or Treating for Kids

 

I love the tag line for promoting the Halloween event in our neighborhood.  There's no question it's safe, with all the streets blocked off, friendly police officer presence, and store keepers handing out the treats.  Sane?  That would be another story...  it's a very popular event in an award-winning neighborhood in our city, with children in costume coming from all over.  We saw plenty of princesses, goblins and ghouls, along with a little Sherlock Holmes and his assistant father dressed as Watson; a Subway sandwich; and my personal favorite, a moving box.  Our little pirate was a little shy getting started, but soon warmed up to all that was going on.  He had his 'Dinosaur Daddy' (what he began to call him after seeing his skeleton face paint) by his side and eventually began mustering up the courage to say trick or treat.  All in all the three of us had a lot of fun, and got back just in time for the door-to-door treat-ers in our neighborhood.

 he felt comfortable with Napoleon Dynamite

 

an inspiration to all aspiring little pirates 

'dinosaur daddy'

~Happy Halloween 2011~

A Costume Prelude

We've had a bit of a rough go over the last couple of days, so when my little guy wanted to get into the face paint, I let him have at it. He brought me to tears of laughter on the floor when he came out looking like this and said 'I'm Spiderman mom!'. When it comes to cheering me up, he knows just what to do.