Norco Fair Time 2012!

 I love fair time!  I especially love our little Norco Fair.  It is this cute little fair that combines a Ranch Rodeo/Bull Riding competition with a regular old fair - carnies and all.  I hate the carnie part.  I will never ride carnie rides...there is something very unsafe to me about riding a ferris wheel that was not there half an hour ago.  Freaky.  And I'm not a big fan of rigged carnie games, although we do occasionally play them for the kids.  But I love the fair!  I love walking through the community competition building and seeing all the projects, canned and baked goods people worked so hard on.  You just know some little old lady has made that pie for every family party she has ever attended, and that there is a young woman working hard right now to perfect her recipe to beat that old lady next year.  I also love fair food!  I know, it's just a regular baked potato and corn on the cob...but there is something about the fair that makes it taste better.  The rest of the family had hot dogs with mustard, but I got a corn with butter and garlic salt (YUM!) and a baked potato with butter, sour cream, cheddar, chives and bacon (do I even need to say it?).  How could you pick a hot dog over those?  I will never understand men or children.

 The girls and I love the 4H level of the fair and always go to check out the animal entries.  We were a little late in the day, since we went after school, so we didn't get to see any competitions.  But we did get to look at all the goats, sheep, chickens and a few rabbits.  We saw a cute little group of middle school boys quizzing each other on pig parts for the swine competition the next morning and the girls spent forever trying to feed the cows some hay.  She wasn't having it, but just kind of looked at them and the hay they were holding while she chewed her cud.  Toots kept falling over trying to climb the little hay hill to get closer to the fence and the cow.

This year, Moo finally got to enter the Legos competition.  They have some fun community competitions for kids and the junior division is for ages 4 to 13.  Last year, Moo entered a drawing and a stick horse.  This year she entered a Lego Friends Treehouse.  She was SO excited to enter something in the lego category.  Each entry got marked with the number entry it was, Moo was number 11, so that they could be judged without the judged knowing who made them.  So when we saw them all out on the table and Moo didn't get a ribbon at first she was sad, but then she saw her number sticker and mistakenly thought it was her finishing place.  She said "Mom, I didn't win a ribbon but I got 11th place!"  She was so happy thinking she got 11th place, Daddy and I just couldn't tell her any different.  So if you see her, congratulate her on her 11th place finish.  I entered a hand sewn little mermaid doll.  The one Moo picked out the fabric for that I posted about a little while ago.  I didn't really think I had much of a chance because they usually have very specific categories like knitting, crochet, needlework, sewing, quilting, etc.  This year, all those categories were lumped together into just two - hand work and machine work.  Meaning that my hand sewn doll was competing against all the knitting, crochet, needlework and hand sewn entries.  I almost didn't enter it because last year there were some AMAZING knit afghans and a beautiful piece of needlework that I was sure would put me out of the running for sure.  But when I went to enter them, the ladies taking entries all comented on how cute it was and that gave me a little confidence that maybe I could compete for third if there weren't too many entries this year.  But second?  Never crossed my mind.  So yipee!  And even though this is a small fair, I'm sure if we lived out in a more "farmy" state, this fair would be a joke, I am still proud of my ribbon!  And it's already encouraging me to think of something great to make for next year!  Last year I got a first place for my zucchini bread in the silly category they added to the food competition for anything made with zucchini.  But I think this one means more because it's something I made.  I know I made the bread, but I don't know.  I don't know if that makes any sense, but I am more proud/excited about the second place in the sewing competition than I am at the first place in the zucchini competition.  And it just goes to show that I have NO idea what they look for in these competitions!  Last year I was sure my photo would win, didn't even place.  I entered the zucchini bread on a whim, since I happened to have a load of zucchini from my Mom's garden I needed to use up and was planning on making the bread anyway for the girls.  That got first place!  This year, I didn't think I really had a chance, but I thought Moo's cute little treehouse would place.  She didn't and I got second.  Like I said, no clue what they are looking for, these judges. 
Now to get thinking about what to enter next year...

Merida, Brave Merida

Moo and I had a date on the books a LONG time ago to see the new Pixar/Disney movie Brave when it got to the theaters.  We both really enjoyed it.  Moo because it was a movie about a strong, brave, adventurous princess and Mommy...well, pretty much for the same reasons.  I also liked the fact that this one did not end with her "living happily ever after" married to some prince and that it DID involve the MOTHER (for once not an evil step-mother or one who is MIA) and the entire plot of the movie hinged upon the mom/daughter not understanding the p.o.v. of the other.  Great.  Loved it.  Which lead us to this...

And this...

Moo decided she wants to be Merida for Halloween, so instead of buying the $50 costume at the Disney Store (no, that does not include the wig NOR the bow and arrow set) I made one.  We will either cave and buy the wig at Target or make the white headpiece she uses to cover her hair in the movie.  And I will gladly purchase the bow and arrow set because it is awesome to have something like that marketed to girls.  To make the dress, I just found a pattern for an angel costume (large bell sleeves and a giant bell body with an elastic neck), made it in blue and added a large gold band to the bottom.  Then I made a simple gold sash to tie around the middle and tacked it just a bit in the back because it kept coming just a bit undone and sliding down.  Since I just kind of winged it, it ended up being just about two inches too long.  But I'm going to wait to hem it until Halloween because with my luck, I'd hem it now and it would be way too short by then.  This kid grows like a weed!  Happy early Halloween!

In a funk

There has been a lot going on around here lately.  None of it too great, although I try to see the good every day.  It has been hard to see lately.  Family issues, money issues, kids acting up, little sleep because kids are now "learning" to share a room, summertime which means Moo is home 24/7 and is old enough to know that there is cool stuff to do out there but we are not doing it!  Ugh.  The Hubby's job keeps him busy - always busy, which means that I do a lot of this stuff - all stuff - alone. Recently, probably because of all the things mentioned above, it has been really hard for me to do it alone.  Some days I just want to crawl into a hole and let the dishes go unwashed, the laundry go undone and let the kids have a death match over the remote or doll or book or whatever it is they are fighting about right now.  But I don't.  I do what I'm supposed to do and remember that this too shall pass.  Soon enough Moo will be back in school and I will miss having her right next to me ALL DAY.  Toots will get used to sleeping in the new "girls room" and not cry out for me every two hours through the night.  Bills will get paid, things will get done.  It is not the end of the world even though it feels like it some days.  And I am not a martyr.  I take care of the house and the kids and the yard and the bills and the family stuff and everything else, but I am not the only one doing these things.  Even though it feels like that too sometimes.   And in just a little while, I'll be bringing home Gnomeo and Juliet (our new rabbits) and beginning a new adventure.  If you want to learn more about it, check out my other blog Cold Hands Farm where I post about all things rabbit.  So I do have that to look forward to.  This funk will go away.  It too shall pass.

A day in the life...

So I was just browsing the Internet, looking for a new blog to get attached to and I saw a post titled "What are you doing today?" where the blogger posted about what she was doing, then asked her readers to post in the comments about what they were doing or what a typical day was like for them. I thought it was interesting to read about how others spend their day. So I thought I'd post something similar, so here goes! Tomorrow is Saturday, so it's Farmer's Market Day! So as usual, Toots will probably wake up between 6 and 7 am. Then she and I will go out and I'll give her a bottle and watch some cartoons while we wait for Moo to wake up. Then it's breakfast time, get dressed time and figure out what's for dinner and do any necessary dinner prep time. Then we'll head out to the Farmer's Market for an hour. Then we'll head to the Sprout's nearby to stock up on organic baby food and maybe some soy ice cream for lactose intolerant Toots. Then we'll come home for lunch. After lunch, Toots will nap and Moo will work on her First Grade prep book and then watch a little t.v. I will do some chores in the afternoon, laundry, dishes, cleaning up, etc. Until it's time to make dinner. After dinner will be a little more play time, then getting everyone ready for bed, a story and a bottle for Toots. Then bedtime for the girls (who will shortly be sharing a room) and Mommy will finally get a little quite time. I usually have dreams of knitting or reading, but I'm usually so tired at that point that I just end up watching a DVR recording of Joyce Meyers or So You Think You Can Dance. And I usually fall asleep watching it on the couch. At some point I'll wake up because a child is calling, I'll deal with that, then tuck myself in and get ready to do it all again the next day! Well, that's my day, what does your day look like?

Childlike wonder

This is a photo I took just a few weeks ago of the girls staring at a big grasshopper stationed on the screen right at Toots level.  She's the one who spotted it, actually and said "Mommy, what's dis?"  Moo raced over, knelt down next to her and they just stared.  For about 10 minutes they were glued to the "screen".  I told them it was a grasshopper and that we don't like grasshoppers because they eat our plants, especially the my pretty Hydrangea which this guy is right next to.  I would have gone out there and tried to smash it, but I just couldn't get over how amazed the girls were at that bug.  Once it started moving they were even more interested.  Toots kept her grip on Moo the whole time. 

Summer Fun List 2012

Well, last year we jumped on the Summer Fun List band wagon and I really liked it. It served it's purpose as a huge inspiration for those summer days when you have NO idea what to do with the kids, they are whiney and don't know what they want to do either. All you have to do is look to the list! The list that you made when you HAD those ideas, but didn't need them and when there wasn't so much pressure to have awesome days planned out before breakfast is even over. So if you have kids, I would totally recommend making a summer list! We used a large piece of paper from one of the rolls of paper used on Moos art easel. Then, because my kids are young and love bright colors, I wrote "Summer Fun List 2012" in a rainbow of colors. Below that I draw an empty box followed by the fun idea so that we can check off the boxes as we do the things listed. I used a different color for each idea to give the list an overall rainbow effect. I would post a picture, but I'm still waiting for magic computer elves to come clean up my hard drive while I'm asleep. So to get you started on your own list, I'll share a few of the gems from my list. Toots is still too little to contribute, although we do take her into account and try to think of things she would enjoy. Mainly the list is a project Moo and I do together. So here we go! 1. Moo & Mommy date - Brave in the theater 2. Park hop day (spend the day going from playground to playground in our city) 3. Get ice cream at an ice cream shop 4. Make s'mores around a real campfire 5. See a fireworks show 6. Camping in the familyroom, tent and all 7. Enter something into the fair 8. Moo makes dinner 9. Try a new restaurant 10. See the Fresh Beat Band in concert That last one is a surprise for the girls. Moo likes them, but Toots LOVES them! We think they will be really surprised when we walk into the arena and the Band walks out on stage! I think I'm more excited about the surprise than I've been about anything in a long time. So fun! So you get the idea. I also have a whole bunch of stuff on there that is "educational" like writing a letter to a favorite cousin once a week (to practice our writing) and reading 50 1st reader books all by herself (can you believe they expect you to read by the time you leave Kindergarten now? Wasn't that a first grade thing when I was in school?). I also have a TON of ideas from Pinterest for crafts and projects and just general fun things to do...can you say DIY sprinklers or oobleck? Yeah, I'm not sure I'm saying that second one right either, just forget it. Anyway, have fun and make a list! Even a little one will help you out on those days when everyone says "I'm bored!" and you can just keep adding to it as you think of things! Our list last year had so much on it, we didn't get half of it done. Our list is pretty full this year too, but I'm going to try to do something on it at least every other day to keep the summer fun! Our summer is exactly two months long so I don't know if we'll get it all done, but the point is to have ideas there when you need them - not to force yourself into a crazy busy vacation! We are almost there, only a few days left for Moo and then it's fun in the sun for this family! I can't wait!

What is up with my computer?!?!

So I feel like it's been forever since I was able to post anything on here! I am having a serious problem with my computer and am having trouble fixing it. It seems as though I take a greater than normal number of pictures of my kids, which has filled up the memory on the hard drive. I have only had this computer for about 3 years and have NEVER had this problem before with any other computer I've ever had. Since the hard drive is full, I can do nothing - not even update my Firefox or create any new Word documents! Moo is about to graduate Kinder and I couldn't even contribute any photos to the collage the parent group is making because my drive is so full it can't even burn a disc! So I am typing this from my iPad, which is an odd experience since I don't think Blogspot was designed with mobile devices in mind. I have purchased an external hard drive, but now I have to figure out how to get everything off my hard drive and onto the external drive. And since the Hubbs is either at work,overtime or the gym about 95% of the time, it is hard to find the time to be in the study. My main problem with that is that the study is not Toots friendly. It is organized and clean, but I cannot be sure that she couldn't get her hands on a pin or scissors or Sharpies. So I try to keep her out of there and since it is on the other side of the house, I can't just head in there and leave her in the family room alone...blah. Someday I'll have a laptop and this will be lots easier. But now that I can manage just written posts on the iPad, I'll try to get on here more often to at least get some written posts up. Like I mentioned, Moo is almost done with Kinder! Then I will have a first grader on my hands, what?!?! I just can't seem to wrap my head around that. As soon as Moo gets out of school, we will be moving Toots into her room. The big girls will use the summer to get used to the whole room sharing thing and hopefully have it down by the time school starts again in the fall. We are also trying to wean Toots off the bottle and onto some big girl sippy cups. She has been resisting like crazy and won't even try to use a big girl cup. So that one might take a while. But it must be done! Hopefully I'll be able to update a little more if this iPad thing cooperates, so summer may be well documented this year! Yipee!

Homemade Non-Easter Easter Dresses

Well, I haven't posted in a while.  The Hubby changed his work schedule, which will be changing again at the end of the summer...so much drama...anyway, I'm basically a single mom- with someone sending her money to support the kids and herself.  So I don't get to blog as often as I like.  Someday I'll save enough to buy a laptop so I can blog from the familyroom, which would allow me to blog every day!  Can you imagine?  But for now, I have to wait until conditions are just right to go clear across the house for 20 to the only room in the house wired for internet access.  Frustrating.  Anywho...

Do you remember back in January I posted about some happy mail?  That I got a package of fabric that I had ordered from Hawthorne Threads?  Well I made dresses for the girls just in time for Easter!  Yes, I know they aren't exactly Easter dresses...but I let Moo pick out her own fabric, then I picked out something kind of complimentary for Toots and since when I ordered them I was not thinking of Easter, this was not an issue.  But since I had time and got a wild hair, I decided to bust them out in time for the holiday.  Plus I've always wanted to make an Easter dress.  Of course, it was freezing on Easter so the girls are wearing long sleeve shirts and Toots is wearing leggings too.  I promise the dresses are not as sloppy as Moo is making hers look.  I made Moos' first and followed the pattern exactly, gathered top and front pockets.  Then I modified Toots' little dress to be easier/faster.  I omitted the pockets because she doesn't need them and I actually like the cleaner look as opposed to the broken line the pockets make.  I also did pleats instead of the gather along the yoke.  I thought this would be easier, but I did have trouble keeping the pleats nice and neat while sewing.  It was a faster set up to do the pleats, but totally easier to sew the gathers.  A toss up, I think.  There is a little button at the top/back of the dress which I was proud of since I have never done anything with a button before.  The girls both seem to like their new dresses and I made them in sizes 7 and 3, so that they should last for a while ( I hemmed Moos' up after I finished it so that it would be the proper length.  The main difference between the 6 & 7 was the length.  It can be let out as she grows.)

Moo likes hers so much she wore it to Costco the day after I finished it.  A woman with about 5 kids all under 10 asked if I made it.  I told her I did, she said it was cute, then we went on with our shopping.  After I had a huge inner dialog about why she would ask that?  Does it look homemade?  Is that a good thing?  I thought it came out rather well and since Moo liked it so much I was pretty darn proud.  But boy did that lady ever throw me for a loop.  I never thought I would be bothered so much by something like that.  Now obviously, I don't care if someone else likes the way I dress my kids or whether or not their clothes come from my machine or Target, but I hope that kind of thing doesn't rub off on the girls.  I hope they always like wearing the things I make them.  I hope they always think of how much time and love went into those items...so much more special than a $10 dress from Walmart.  But I guess we'll see in a few years...

By the way, the fabrics are from Hawthorne Threads and the dress pattern is the Ice Cream Social Dress from Oliver & S.  In case you were wondering.

Baby loves Baby

Today's obsession is not mine, but belongs to Toots.  It is her baby, well Moos' baby, really.

Moo was not into baby dolls until she hit 4.  She still isn't really big on them.  She'll play with one for a few minutes, then get bored and move on to something else.  She's gonna be my career minded gal.  Toots, on the other hand, seems to love her baby.  At 16 months, she is all about pushing baby in a stroller, feeding baby, making me change baby's diaper...she hugs and kisses baby all the time.  She still carries it like a toy (see above photo, I promise I don't carry my babies like that) and will still drop it and run to the table if I offer her a snack.  But the other day she started doing something odd, but funny.  She dropped baby, on purpose, then made a noise that sounded like a tiny kitty meowing.  She looked up at me with a terribly sad face and said "Oh no, Wha happen?  Baby fa dow, baby kwyin!"  (that's crying for all you non-mom's out there).  Then she picked it up, still meowing, and handed it to me.  I did what I do for her and said "Oh no!  What happened?  Did you fall down?  Where is your boo-boo, let me kiss it...there all better!"  She smiled the biggest smile I've ever seen and said "Fank you, Daddy!" (Yes, she still calls me Daddy sometimes-I know, don't even start).  Then she did the entire thing over and over again, about 30 times.  Since then we have had to go through this little ritual daily and while it still is funny to me to see her little face make that terribly sad sympathetic frown and pathetic meowing, it does get annoying when you can't finish making dinner until baby's boo-boo has been kissed.  On the plus side, I actually got a picture of her smiling!  She sure does love that baby!

Moo's New Haircut

Before

After

 Haircut a la Mom.  I think she likes it, thank goodness.  I tried to talk her out of it for a long time because I thought she'd regret it since she LOVES having long hair to do fancy hairdos with.  But she's had her hair like this for about a month now and she really seems to like just throwing on a headband in the morning instead of me spending half an hour brushing through the long tangled jungle of hair before school.  She looks SO grown up now!  The before was taken right before Christmas, not too long ago but look at the difference!  I think I might try to keep it like this, even if it does make her look ready for college.  What do you think?

Stuck!

I have no idea how she did this, but while I was doing the dishes Toots climbed into one of her toy bins.  Then she couldn't get out again.  But she didn't freak out, or scream, or cry.  She just sat there and looked around.  After I noticed her situation, I grabbed the camera and snapped a few pics then asked her what she was doing.  "Stuck" she said.  That's all, just stuck.  Then she just kept looking at the toys around her and started playing with the cow right in front of her face in the above picture.  I slid the drawer out and pulled her out of it.  She stood there looking back and forth, from me to the drawer to me, then just went right back to playing.  She's so odd sometimes.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Love, Moo, Toots and Me!

Handmade Mermaids

A few months ago I found the directions for these cute little handmade mermaid dolls from Wee Wonderfuls and found a free tutorial.  Of course, I can't find that tutorial now so I just posted a link to Wee Wonderfuls so you can see all of her wonderful stuff.  So creative that one.

So after deciding that I just had to make them, I, well, made them.  Actually, I waited until closer to Christmas, since I am really trying not to give the girls gifts just because.  So I bought the fabric, followed the directions that I had printed out weeks before and worked on them slowly.  S-L-O-W-L-Y.  I had to wait until Moo was asleep AND Daddy was home to hold Toots, since she is not a big fan of sewing machine noise.  A little bit here, a little bit there and some sewing machine problems (I still have no idea why the machine decided to change tension on me in mid fin) I finally finished late night Christmas Eve.

Cute, right?  The one with the blue hair belongs to Toots and the pink belongs to Moo.  They came out pretty good, if I do say so myself.  And I was afraid that I would have spent all that time on them and nobody would want to play with them, but Moo seems to like them well enough.  Toots is still not too interested in dolls, but she did carry it around for a while. 

Mermaid in stocking.  They were just too cute - no wrapping required.

Seems to be enjoying her new mermaid.  Here you can see the size, perfect for little hands.  Not so perfect for bad eyesight and hand sewing.  It was about 50% machine and 50% hand stitching, and my big meaty hands are not meant for delicate stitching!  But in the end, it all worked out and now the girls have some cute little dolls.  Moo even asked if I could make her another one so her mermaid could have a friend.  I think that means it's a hit.  I told her I'd make her one for her birthday (in March) and that she could pick out the fabrics.  She should have loads of fun with that project!

Making Ornaments with Moo

Moo and I decided to make some ornaments after seeing Meg over at Whatever with her SUPER cute flower pearl pin ornaments.  So we headed out to the craft store and picked up one of those bottles of scrapbooking flowers, pearl headed pins and I already had some styrofoam balls from some other project.  I put the bits in a crafty tin (a plastic muffin tin) and we got started!

Moo picked out the colors, we both used pink flowers since one of those jars could easily cover more than two balls.  Then she picked pink pins and I picked white.  I just thought it would be nice to have a little contrast, but it turns out one box of 100 pins covers basically one ball - depending on how many flowers you try to stuff on there.

I was a little worried at first and hesitant to do this craft with Moo, since it does use long head pins and it requires a lot of patience, which Moo doesn't really have.  I finally figured that we could just stop when she got tired of it and pick it up again later.  And I had her put the ball in one of the open spots on the craft tin while she was sticking the pins into it, so she would be less likely to stick herself.  As you can see, she really enjoyed herself.

She was extremely careful and placed each flower on the ball in just the right spot before pinning it in.  We discovered early on that it is kind of hard to remove the pins once they have been pushed in.  I was worried about how easily they would come out - I didn't want them to just drop out on the floor with the baby running around, so I tried it out.  Pretty hard to pull them out when you are really trying, so that was good.  It's also harder than you would think to push them in there.

Moo really concentrated and kept at it until her ball was totally covered.  I was very surprised at how focused she was on this activity.  Probably due to the fact that every two seconds I was telling her what a good job she was doing, how pretty her ornament was looking and how grown up she was to be using very sharp pins so carefully.

Her focused face.  I don't see it often, had to capture it.  By the way, she is still in her jammies since this was about 9 a.m. but she had to "fix her hair".  This is how she did her hair for the day.

The finished product.  Very cute if I do say so myself.  Sorry it's a little blurry, I was using the bad camera and had to turn the flash off since it just whited everything out.  The flowers came in a few different shades of pink and some had glitter on them.  Moo loved her ornament and was VERY proud to show it off.  All in all it was a great project that we just might do again in a different color.  Thanks Meg for the great idea!

Teacher Gift Idea

If you have a teacher to give a gift to this Christmas (or this would also work for an end of the year gift), then have I got the gift for you!  The Teacher Survival Kit!  I saw something similar to this on a few blogs and thought I could tweek it to fit Moo's Kindergarten teacher - who is a Saint, by the way!

You just get a jewelry supply organizer, tackle organizer, anything with a bunch of small cubbies in it that closes securely, then go to town filling it with things you think your teacher would need and appreciate!  I went with a red, white and black theme, but you don't have to use a color theme at all.  I just liked the look of everything matching.  I went with Sharpies, pencils, large and small paper clips, binder clips, rubber bands and magnets.  I also added a headache medicine (after a day with 30 5 year olds, I would need those), some chocolates (because they are yummy!), some breath mints (mainly because they were red, white and black) and some heart stickers because she gives the kids a sticker when they are leaving if they were good in school that day.  An easy way for the parents to see if they kid acted up or not. 

Then I got a cellophane bag and some ribbon and there you have it!  I also added the apple post-it dispenser because she is ALWAYS sticking post-its on everything and every teacher needs an apple for her desk, right?  So cute.  This gift was not too expensive to put together, but making two or more would be more cost effective, as I was left with a bunch of paperclips and chocolates and such that wouldn't fit in the bins.  So make one for each of the teachers in your life and spread some love this Christmas!

P.S.  All items used in the bins were purchased at Walmart, as were the bins themselves.  The decorations and the fancy pencils were from Michael's craft store. 

My Little Cowgirls

Moo in my hat and Toots in her old one.  Toots saw Moo wearing my hat, pointed to hers and said "at?"  So I got the old one down and as soon as Toots put it on, she wouldn't take it off.  The same can be said for Moo, who refused to take my hat off for the rest of the night.  What silly girls!

Operation Christmas Child - Building Boxes

 So a few weeks ago I wrote a post about Operation Christmas Child, then I started having problems with my computer - iPhoto specifically.  But now I'm back and I think I have the problem figured out, so let's get on with the show!  Operation Christmas Child, as you can see, is something Moo and I like to do during the holidays.  I slowly gather things all year long (note the small plastic tubs) when they go on sale or when I find them at a good price.  Socks, school supplies, toys, books, stickers, anything fun.  Then in November, we get to pull those boxes out and build our gift boxes.  I also collect shoe boxes during the year to pack our gifts in (note the large brown box full of shoe boxes). 

 Moo grabs a shoe box and goes down the line of tubs, filling the box with all sorts of goodies.  I should point out here that each tub has a different focus.  One has socks and tee shirts in it.  One has hard candies.  One has hair brushes, headbands, clips and the like.  One has stuffed animals.  One has school stuff like crayons, pencils, sharpeners, stickers, paper.  One has soap and washcloths.  You get the idea.  So Moo gets to pick things from each bin to fill up a shoe box.  Then she does it again until we are out of shoe boxes!

The last step is for Mommy to wrap the boxes and for Moo to draw pictures to send with her boxes.  This year she drew a picture of herself with what she imagined the person getting the box to look like and wrote "I love you" on each.  She said she wanted them to know that she was sending them a present because she loved them.  So cute.  Then we close them all up and take them to a drop-off location.  This year it was at the Crossroads Church, not too far from our house.  When I printed out the labels on-line, I also signed up for notification when the boxes were delivered so we could find out where they went.  And I just got notice that they ended up in Malaysia.  They sent some photos of kids getting their boxes and it was great to be able to show Moo just how happy her boxes made those kids.  If you are looking for a way to make your Thanksgiving or Christmas a little more meaningful, look into sending a shoe box to a child in need.  It's a wonderful thing to teach your children how to appreciate what they have and realize that not everyone is so lucky.

Operation Christmas Child

Please don't forget to pack your shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child!  Collection week is coming up, beginning November 14th!!!!  That's REALLY soon!  So get out there, pack a box for a little boy or girl and bring a smile to a child this Christmas. 

We love the Veggie Tales series of books and movies designed to teach children basic Bible stories and morals in a fun way.  That's where we first heard about Operation Christmas Child.  We loved the idea of packing a box of love for a kid halfway around the world who had never gotten a gift before, who had never held a book before and who thought that nobody cared about them.  So we started packing shoeboxes!  Last year was our first year and we sent two boxes - one for each of my little kiddos.  This year, we are sending FOUR!  I don't know how, but I ended up with a lot of stuff!  Enough for four boxes with some left over to save for next year.  I would send more boxes, but there is also a recommended donation per box to help cover the cost of shipping the boxes.  It is all tax deductible, but I can't afford to spend a ton of money on shipping right now!  So anyway, four boxes it is!

If you would like to get involved with Samaritan's Purse and Operation Christmas Child (and I would encourage you to do so) click on the link HERE to go right to the Operation Christmas Child page to get started!  I'll post some photos later today if we get all the boxes packed, or tomorrow if it takes us until then to finish them up.  Moo is going to draw some pictures to include in each box and I'm going to write a little note to tuck in as well.  This really is a great thing to do with your family, especially right now since it's getting close to Thanksgiving.  We use this time to talk about how lucky we are and that some kids aren't as lucky.  Some don't have families to look after them, some have families but don't have enough money to even buy enough to eat.  We go shopping (even just to the dollar store or Walmart) to pick out needed items (soap, toothpaste, socks) and fun stuff (hair clips, coloring books, bracelets).  Then we come home and pack the boxes, talking about how much fun the kid will have when they open the box.  It's a great way to show your kids that giving can be just as fun as getting. 

Ok, enough chit chat!  I'm off to back boxes, teach Moo and Toots about giving and the spirit of Christmas and about being thankful for all that we have!  I love this time of year!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Moo and Toots!

Well this month has just been crazy!  With Toots turning one, making homemade costumes for two little trick or treaters plus Mommy and Daddy, out of town visitors staying in the guest room for a week and volunteering at school for a field trip to the pumpkin patch and the Halloween parade and party I haven't had any time to do anything NOT related to those activities!  I promise to come back here and post about the costumes and trick or treat bags (both homemade), Toots and her party (very cute vintage circus parade themed) and all the rest just as soon as I slip into a coma for about 3 days.  I feel like that's what I need right now!  And then it all begins again with that magical and dreaded month - November!  I love November, it means the start of my favorite time of year, Thanksgiving, family get togethers, Christmas decorations come next, with holiday gift making/shopping and all of that.  Then is New Years and my Anniversary.  Yup, got hitched on the day after the whole world parties.  I like to think they are all celebrating my anniversary.  That's not self-centered, is it?  And though I love the start of this season, it also is something that I kind of dread.  It means lots of extra cooking, cleaning, rushing to finish knitting last minute hats, sew last minute mermaid dolls for stockings and trying to figure out what to get for Moo's teacher, the neighbors and all those other people you feel like you want to give something too, but have no idea WHAT that should be.  A little stressful, but fun at the same time.  So stay tuned in the coming weeks for updates and ideas for gifts to make for family and friends, crafts to do with the kids and delicious food that only comes out at the holidays!  Be back soon!

Oh and tonight is Halloween, so stay safe if you are going trick or treating!  And don't eat too much candy!  Well, TRY not too eat too much candy, if you can.  Who am I kidding?  I'm going to go to town on that stash once we get home!  Come on, the baby can't eat her share!  I'm going to have to take one for the team and force myself to eat her haul.  It will be hard, but I'll do it.  For the good of the family, of course.

The Farmer's Market

We LOVE the Farmer's Market.

We LOVE seeing all the pretty, crazy, new, interesting produce and flowers that we find every week.

What is that?  I have no idea what any of these things are...except Moo.  Everything else I asked about, but of course, I have forgotten all the names I was given shortly after getting in the car.