I'm scooting in here at almost midnight!  I hope you've had a wonderful 4th of July.  We certainly have (which is why I'm so late making it to my blog)!

Here are the simple little 4th of July candle holders my girls made.  We've enjoyed burning them the last few days.  We had them as part of our centerpiece on the kitchen table then the girls decided they wanted to burn them in their room one night as they were going to sleep.  After loving them in their room, tonight they asked to turn off all the lights in the bathroom and have only their candles glowing as they took their bubble bath.  When I lit the candles and turned off the lights, they squealed.  Little girls.

As you can see, this is a very easy project.  The girls covered jars with stars of various sizes, poured in some rice, and placed a tea light candle down in the rice.  They do look really pretty in the dark.  The stars are shimmery and pick up the flickering of the candle nicely.

One more thing before I head off to bed...
(Yes, my goal is to be in bed by midnight.  More on that later!)

I made a fruit salad today and I tried a special ingredient.  It has made us all crazy for fruit salad so I knew I must share it with you!

VANILLA PUDDING MIX!  

That's it.  A small box of instant (jello brand) vanilla pudding mix.  I cut up bananas and strawberries and dumped in a couple of cans of fruit cocktail and some mandarin oranges.  After mixing everything together I sprinkled on the pudding mix and stirred well.  Oh.my.  You must try this!  It's sooo good!

That is all for now.  I have three minutes to get up the stairs and into my bed!  Goodnight all!!  

Happy 4th of July!

Simple Summer Projects

I did a little project yesterday.  It was super easy, yet totally packs a punch!  I was so happy with the way it turned out I had to share. 

 For very little money this project livens up the table and gives the room an Independence Day feel.

This was so easy and so fun.  I bought bags of beans at the grocery store (Navy Beans, Black Beans and Red Beans).  They are very inexpensive.  I got out my trifle dish I had stored away in the cabinet, layered the beans in, and placed it on our dining room table - simple!

This little effort, little money project has brought all kinds of compliments from my honey and kiddos.  My boys have been especially excited about it which is very odd.  I really didn't expect them to even notice.  One of them said it goes well with my primitive decor.  Who is that kid?  

While we are on the subject of cheap and easy projects, I will tell you about a couple more. 

My girls and I decorated some sand pails to take to the beach.  This project also takes very little cash.  I picked up the pails at the Dollar Tree and the girls found some beach themed stickers at Hobby Lobby.  The stickers were on sale 50 percent off, but even when the stickers are not on sale you can use a 40 percent off coupon.  The girls got busy decorating their pails and were quite proud of their finished product.  I helped Clare (age 3) spell her name and she did the rest.  This is a great summer project for girls or boys.  You can find every color pail at the Dollar Tree or Walmart.  You can find all different sizes as well.  

Want to send a child some summer fun in the mail?  How about a flattened beach ball that you've written a special message on?  A flattened ball is very easy to mail.  When the child opens their special package they can blow up the ball and read your message.  We recently did several of these to send with our Pastor to children in Kenya.  Again, this project is inexpensive (I got our beach balls at the Dollar Tree) and easy.  Just make sure you write your message with a permanent marker.  

I love fun little projects, don't you?  You don't have to spend much money to get crafty and kids love to help too.  

What kind of projects are you getting into this summer?  

The Gnome Garden

These rainy days can be sort of hard on the kids.  No biking, no sidewalk chalk, no running and playing outside...it's been raining for days.

We've had to get creative with activity choices.

Olivia and I made a garden for her gnome.

It all started at the library.  We stopped by to pick up a few books and the kids brought along their reading logs.  Olivia had read 20 books and was eligible for the next reward.  She chose this guy...a gnome.  {He's now affectionately known around our house as "Gnomie".}  I don't know what it was that caused Olivia to fall so in love with him, but she has.  There is a sign hanging near the library entrance that says the library gnome is hiding somewhere inside.  I'm not sure if she thought she found him or what, but from the minute she picked this little guy she acted like he was her long lost BFF.  She has taken very good care of him and suddenly everyone in the family is playing along.  Oh my.

So...what's one to do on a very rainy day?  Make a gnome garden, of course!

I'm not going to bore you with any kind of directions because of course, there are none.  Olivia planted mint in her gnome garden and that was strictly because it smelled good.  (And because she's seven, that too.)  You could plant anything, do anything, with this project.  It is a lot of fun and did keep her busy for a while.  She found little things to put in her garden and has already started making plans for the changing seasons.  She saw a bag of tiny pumpkins at Hobby Lobby the other day and announced she would be buying those in October to add to her garden.  I have to say, that wheel barrel piled high with miniature pumpkins would be super cute.

So if you are looking for a rainy day project (if you aren't - tell me where you live because I'm coming for a visit!) this is a fun one.  Simple, inexpensive, kid-friendly fun - my kind of project!

Something Fishy is Going On Here!

We have started the preparations for Clare's 2nd birthday party.  Today the kids made "sishys" - Clare's FAVORITE word!

For the Birds

We made a little treat today for our feathered friends.

Plain cheerios, pipe cleaners, and yarn makes for quick and easy bird feeders.

Notice the heart shaped one?

Now the little kids are stuck to windows watching for birds to come and eat.

Crafting Winter

Today we decided to make it snow, in our house anyway.  We miss having snow days to play outside and build snowmen.  We once lived in the mountains of Virginia and we enjoyed our share of snow.  Every winter we would engage in snowball fights and sledding and other such winter fun.  Now we live in Tennessee.  We live in a city that hangs right on the Georgia line.  Going into Georgia is about as easy as crossing the street.  I tell you this to explain the "southern-ness" of our current habitation.  It's usually warm here.  In our two years of living here we've seen snow only once.  So today, being January 14th, we decided to add a little snow-day to our school-day.

Since we can't make snowmen outside, we made them inside. This craft idea came from Pinterest - my  favorite place to hang out.  I believe the original idea came from The Happy Home Fairy.

Now that we've finished our craft we are going to enjoy some sugar cookies that Colin baked and some hot chocolate.  I think I might have to turn on the AC to make it feel cold though.  On second thought, the hubs would probably frown upon that.

Happy Winter!

What a Hoot!

Have you noticed how popular owls are right now?  Every where I go I see cute owls on backpacks, wall hangings, and pillows, adorable owl Christmas tree ornaments, lunch boxes and sleeping bags.  Where we live, the local high school mascot is even an owl, the Ooltewah Owls! 

It seems one of my little gals has hopped on the owl bandwagon.  She just so happens to adore our neighbors, who collect owls and one of their daughters is an Owl cheerleader.  Every time we see something with an owl on it my sweet Olivia thinks we should buy it for them.  

During craft time yesterday we made a couple of owls, which Olivia does quite often, but these were a little different.  They are made out of empty toilet-paper rolls!  (I believe she read about this craft in an American Girl magazine.)

  
These are really cute and easy to make.  All you need is an empty toilet paper roll.  (I always save empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls.  They are nice to have on hand in the craft closet.)  On one end of the toilet paper roll, press the sides together until they meet, forming two points.  Use a pencil to sketch an owl.  Go over the pencil lines with a thin black marker, and then color. 

Owl Pals!  Aren't they a hoot?!