A Frilly Millie Birthday!

Well, it just occurred to me that Millie's 3rd Birthday is coming up in 2 months!  I would usually have almost the entire party planned by now (I LOVE Birthdays!) but I haven't even started yet.  She's been talking about a *Princess* Party pretty much all year, and no matter how hard I tried to sway her in any other direction, she won't budge, so Princess it is!  Not that I don't like Princess Parties or anything, it's just not very original, and I kinda hate the look of the Disney Princess party supplies, but of course Millie loves them!

So anyway, I DO love Disney Princess movies, and I'm SO excited that Beauty and the Beast is being released the same month as Millie's Birthday!!  She has a trunk of Disney princess clothes that she loves to wear anytime she's watching a princess movie, and always gets upset when she wears Belle's yellow dress but doesn't have the movie to go with it!  Beauty and the Beast was probably one of my favorite movies as a kid, so I'm thinking I might try to go with that theme, not to mention that the two main colors are one of my favorite combinations right now, yellow and blue!


The Birthday Dress

I know if Millie is having a Princess Party, she should definitely be dressed like a Princess!  The trouble is, I don't want her just wearing a princess costume or dress-up clothes, so where does that leave me?

Luckily, I found this amazing Belle Dress Tutorial over at Crafterhours.  And the amazing part is that it was just posted last week, just in time for my party planning! I cannot WAIT to get started!

a not so happy birthday.

Sorry for the lack of posts, I have nothing to blame but cranky kids and a little bit of laziness and lack of focus (or a lot!)

I finally got motivated over the weekend to plan some new projects (keyword being plan, not do), and then I got a little reminder today that you can't always put things off until tomorrow.

Did I mention that today is my birthday??  Yep, that's right, today I reached the halfway point to fifty. (For anyone like me that can't do math without a calculator, that makes me 25).

We spent the day running our usual Saturday errands, came home for naps while I finished up a very last minute birthday gift, and then went to Pump-It-Up for a birthday party for one of Millie's little friends.  My husband got a phone call from his dad during the party, and he wasn't going to answer because it was so loud in the room, but he got a feeling that he should.  Just a few minutes after cutting into the birthday cake, he came to me and told me that his sweet Grandma Millie had passed away.  I know that she had been ready to leave this earthly world for quite a while, her husband passed away about 40 years ago, but it still breaks my heart to see that she is gone.  Todd was so close to his grandmother, I've never seen anything quite like it.  I've cried on so many occasions at the close relationship that the two of them share.  She is such an amazingly wonderful woman that we even decided to name our first child after her.

Millie and Millie

October 21, 2007

June 16, 2008

I hate myself for not getting a picture of the two of them together during Grandma Millie's last visit in February after Anson was born.  I was still exhausted from having a baby, and Little Millie was going through a no-sitting-for-pictures phase so I didn't want to put Grandma Millie through all the trouble.  However, I did manage to get a picture of her with Anson.

She would always fight everyone over holding Anson.  She'd say, "Let me have that baby!"  I never expected to have so much help from an 86-year-old woman, but she definitely knew how to take care of things!

Grandma Millie was such a strong woman. After her husband died at a young age, she raised 6 girls by herself.  She's such an example to me, and I love her so much.  I have so many memories from the past 5 years that I've known her, like her obsession with butter, playing cards, and her never letting me forget that time she caught me clogging in the kitchen.  I miss her so much already, but I know that she's happy.  We love you Grandma Millie!

April Showers Blog Design Giveaway

I just barely came across this website a few days ago, and now she's giving away a free blog makeover, which I am in major need of!  What an awesome giveaway, I love love LOVE her stuff!  I'm thinking and hoping that the stars will align and decide I deserve an awesome birthday surprise for my new business! Did I mention that I'll be turning a quarter of a century next week??


Anyway, go check her out at www.aprilshowersblogdesign.com!  Her name is April, and she has an amazing design portfolio, not to mention that she seems like an awesome person and has an amazing story!  Go ahead and take a look!

A few examples of her work:

Love it!  I'm keeping my fingers, toes, arms, legs, and eyes crossed that I win!

New Products!

I finally got around to taking a few pictures of my hair accessories for sale and added them to my Etsy Shop! You can purchase one for yourself by clicking here.

I am very ashamed to say that I made my little boy, Anson, be my headband model! What can I say, I needed some pictures and don't know any little girls around here! The even sadder thing is that he keeps them on WAY better than Millie ever did! I think he'd make a pretty cute little girl! These pictures just might come back to haunt him one of these days... sorry Anson!

Felt Flower Hair Clips

Satin Flower Headbands

All flowers are hand crafted and sewn by me! I think that making flowers just might be one of my favorite things to make now, they're so much fun and you don't have to do any of that painstakingly perfect measuring, just lots and lots of cutting! AND I can just sit in the rocking chair and work on them while I'm watching a movie with my kids. Way better than being hunched over my sewing machine in a room all by myself!

Hope you enjoy the new products!

Full of Great Intentions...

As you can see, farm week kinda turned into a flop. I guess it's hard to stay motivated to blog every single day when I know nobody's even reading the blog yet (besides my husband!) Not to mention a very spoiled and cranky baby boy, he won't let me put him down! And he hates when I get on the computer because it makes the screen saver (his favorite thing in the world) disappear. These days I'm lucky to even get a shower in!

So anyway, here is a list of the other farm week activities. Some of them we did, some of them we didn't.

Heart Cow Paper Craft

Handprint Lamb

Farm Animal Mothers and Their Babies Book

Also on the agenda: Farm Animal Puppet Show, Cow Milk Shakes (in Millie's adorable little cow print mixer), Fisher Price Barnyard Play, Millie's On The Farm Mini Play Scene, and lots and lots of of books! Ever since she was born, we've called Millie "Millie Moo" (which I hope and pray she's not a chubby girl when she's older, she'll hate that nickname!) so we've had a little bit of an obsession with anything cow-related. So if you're ever looking for some cute cow books, here are a few that we own and love!

Millie Moo by Roger Priddy

Millie Waits for the Mail by Alexander Steffensmeier

Millie in the Snow by Alexander Steffensmeier

I Udderly Love You! by Kate Toms

Moo, Baa, La La La by Sandra Boynton

We read even more farm books like the Gossie and Friends series by Olivier Dunrea, LOVE those books! Open the Barn Door, The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Little Red Hen, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, the list goes on and on! I never noticed how many farm books and toys we had, we could study farms year-round!

I also planned to end the week with a trip to the family farm (which we visit about twice a week because it's only 10 minutes away and my parents still live there) but we ended up swimming instead of going to see all of the animals. Oops! At least we got a dozen eggs from the chickens! And we could see a few cows from the swimming pool, that counts, right?

Before I get any new crafting ideas in my head, I seriously need to clean this house. And now Anson is crying... guess that's not gonna happen right now!

Farm Week - Day 2

This little piggy went to market.

This little piggy stayed at home.

This little piggy had roast beef,

This little piggy had none.

And this little piggy cried "Wee! Wee! Wee!" all the way home.

Yep, that's right! Today we are learning about PIGS!

First, we made a cute little piggy out of a Toilet Paper Roll! You can find the printable template at http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mpig2.htm

Materials:

• Toilet Paper Roll
• Printer
• Scissors
• Glue
• Paper
• Something to color with (optional)

Instructions:

Print out the template of choice here (Color or B&W)

Color and cut out the template pieces

Glue the large rectangular piece on first to cover the tube

Glue on the head, arms, and chest

Fold the feet tabs and glue to the inside, bottom of the TP roll

Fold the tail in half and glue so it looks colored on each side the fold tab and glue

Glue the corn cob into one of the hands

Millie's finished TP Roll Piggy:

Next we made a pig-themed lunch, Mini Pigs in a Blanket and Pigs in the Mud! Silly me forgot to take many pictures, probably because I was too busy eating (Mmmm... crescent rolls!)

Mini Pigs in a Blanket:

• Lil Smokie Sausages
• Crescent Rolls

Cut each crescent roll in half, and loosely wrap around sausage. Cook according to crescent roll package instructions. Serve and Eat!

...just try not to inhale them like I did!

Pigs in the Mud:

• Instant Chocolate Pudding
• Pink Mini Marshmallows

Follow pudding box instructions to mix your pudding. (Mine said to stir in 2 cups of cold milk, beat, and chill for 5 minutes). Add your pink marshmallow "pigs" to your mud mix, and enjoy!

Millie said her favorite part was the MUD!

We finished the day off by reading The Three Little Pigs for story time!

Farm Week - Day 1

Well, I had a hard time deciding what to focus on this week, too many choices! I wanted to zoo animals, but thought that it would be kinda silly to do zoo animals without an actual trip to the zoo, and there is just NO WAY I'm going to walk around for hours at the zoo when the heat index is over 100 degrees! Maybe we'll get check it out in like... November, because it pretty much stays hot in Mississippi until then!

So anyway, we'll be learning about Farm Animals this week! And since I was craving some scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning, I think we'll start the week of with...

Chickens!

We started the day off with some yummy scrambled eggs with cheese and talked about where eggs come from. Millie helped me mix everything and had so much fun!

Next we made a Handprint Hen!

Just print out the template HERE

Trace your child's hands on a piece of white paper

Cut everything out and paste it together, or glue it to a piece of construction paper

Millie glued hers all by herself. One chicken wing looks a little crazy, but she said that's because it's waving "hi!"

"Hi!"

A few facts about chickens

http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Farm/Chicken/

Chickens live between 10 to 15 years

The male is called a rooster.

The female is called a hen.

The young are called chicks

Roosters crow “cock-a-doodle-doo”

Hens say “cluck-cluck”

Chicks say “cheep-cheep”

Chicken eat worms, insects, seeds, grains, snails, slugs, fruits, vegetables, and many other foods.

Animals like hawks, bobcats, snakes, skunks, owls, raccoons, foxes, and opposums prey on chickens.

A Hen lays an average of 300 eggs per year. The hen will sit on her eggs to keep them warm so that they will hatch into chicks. A chicken takes 21 days to hatch.

Story Time:

Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton

I LOVE Sandra Boynton books, and so do my kids! I've found quite a few on sale at places like Ross, TJ Maxx, and Marshalls, but I found these giant ones at Sams Club for only $7 and some change (can't remember how much exactly!) What a great deal!

Ocean Week - Day 5

Mermaids!

I found these adorable free paper doll printouts at http://www.makingfriends.com/friends/f+mermaid.htm. Millie had so much fun gluing her ocean shapes on Monday that I just had to let her glue some more! (Mostly for my own sanity, she keeps asking to use her glue stick about 40 times a day!)

I just printed and cut out all of the pieces (works best with card stock, but I can't find mine and refuse to go buy more when I KNOW it's around here somewhere...) and let her glue away! She had so much fun, I can't wait for her to be able to cut things out for herself, I'd let her do it every day!

Next we watched The Little Mermaid (I mean really, how could you have Mermaid Day without watching The Little Mermaid??) And then we went outside and swam in the little kiddie pool that daddy picked up at a garage sage! (and stuck her plastic slide on the side, another garage sale find!)

AND I picked up ANOTHER little treat at one of my many many trips to Hobby Lobby this week.

Grow Your Own Mermaid!

1. Fill a large container with 6 cups of room temperature water.

2. Hold your mermaid in your hands. Close your eyes & make a wish.

3. Return your mermaid to her watery home by gently submerging her in the container.

4. Using a spoon swirl the water and say "Mermaid, Mermaid, return to the sea and grant the wishes I ask of thee."

If you truly believe in mermaids, your wish will come true in 3 days when the mermaid grows to her full size.

We had such a fun day with mermaids. Millie is such a girly girl (hence the name "Frilly Millie") so I would most certainly say that Mermaid Day was by far her favorite day of the week! Make sure to check back to see next week's activities!

Fabric Notebooks with Ruffled Initial

Stop by my Etsy Shop for today's newest item, fabric composition notebook covers!

Complete with a ruffled initial of your choice! Perfect for to-do lists, journals, school, and inspiration notebooks!

Get yours today here!

Ocean Week - Day 4

Octo-pops!

Well, ocean day almost didn't happen today, but Millie just refused to let me forget! I decided to go out shopping with my mom at the last minute, and as I was trying to quickly jump in the shower, Millie said, "but I wanted to make octopus popsicles!!" So... we made octopus popsicles, in less than five minutes!

Supplies:

Small plastic cups

Juice or popsicle recipe

Gummy worms

Craft popsicle sticks

Plastic wrap (optional)

Fill the plastic cups with your favorite flavor of juice. I was actually hoping to find some kind of fun and tasty popsicle recipe online to try, but since I ended up doing this in about 2 minutes, I just decided to use some fruit punch from the fridge! Maybe next time...

Hang gummy worms from the edge of the plastic cups. These will be the octopus' tentacles.

I wanted my popsicle sticks to stand up straight, so I put clear plastic wrap across the top, poked a hole in the middle, and stuck my popsicle sticks through. (And as you can tell by my pictures, I was in a MAJOR hurry!)

Stick them in the freezer and wait for your yummy ocean friends to be ready to eat!

We didn't get home until bedtime, so Millie will just have to wait until tomorrow to try out her delicious aquatic friend!