Time Flies When You're Really Busy

Obviously, from my lack of posting you have figured out that we are just really, really busy these days! 

Yesterday Doug informed me that he would be graduating in exactly 2 months...2 MONTHS!!!!  And although at times these past four years have felt endless, looking back now it's been a total blur.  And this semester (that's how we measure our lives now) has been the craziest of them all!  It's the first semester that Doug has totally been on the other side of the desk, so while he's not had midterms to take or exams to study for, he's still really busy studying his content for the classes he is teaching this semester.  In the midst of that he's been taking his certification exams (passed them all!) and beginning his job search for this fall.  Soon he'll have ordered his cap & gown and in just 8 1/2 short weeks, he'll be crossing that stage to get his degree!  (I've really got to start planning that graduation party!)

In the meantime, Katie and I have been doing our best to keep with him. 

Katie is now attending half-day preschool and she loves it!  She's learning so much and being so grown up!  She can just about write her name, she makes her own bed (sort of!) and can pretty much dress herself.  Definitely not a baby, these days.  Makes this Momma just a little bit sad.  :(

As for me, well, I'm here.  Doing my best to keep up with all our crazy schedules.  I'm glad the days are getting longer.  At least now I'm not totally worn out when I put Katie to bed at 8:30.  :)

Our Pin-tastic Afternoon!

As I've said many times, I get my best ideas from the internet.  Lately, a lot of theses great ideas I find on Pinterest.  It's truly my favorite way to waste time after putting Katie to bed.  :)

Today I decided to it was time to dust off some these awesome ideas just hanging out on my boards and try them out for ourselves.  Without further ado...Our Pin-Tastic Afternoon!

 First we made Snake Bubbles that were pinnned from this this site.  They were awesome!  A few things to remember for next time:  it mentions in the original post to cut circles out of your terry cloth to fit over your bottles.  I did not do this and I wish I had because Katie's bottle got really gross really fast with the excess wash cloth hanging down.  The second thing was that Katie maybe wasn't quite old enough for this yet at just over 3.  She was very impressed by my bubbles, but got frustrated that she wasn't getting the same results.  I guess I need to come up with a better explanation for how to only blow out.  Still, we had so much fun doing this and I can see us trying it again very soon!

  
When we came back in we decided to break out the play-doh, wiggle eyes and pipe cleaners to make some squishy fun monsters.  Here's where I got the idea for them.  As you can see, this was great fun.  I had no idea what Katie would do with all those supplies, but she immediately started sticking eyeballs all over everything!  We ended up opening four different cans of play-doh.  Fun!  In the end, I saved her favorite and the rest were put back into their cans.  I left the eyes in for a fun surprise next time! 

Last but, not least.  You can't spend any time on Pinterest without pinning a million recipes.  Here's what is in my crock-pot right now.  I've made this recipe a couple of times before and it's always a winner.  It'll be for tomorrow's dinner since tonight we're having dinner (and making more crafts!) at my parents. 

Butterfly Prints

 

She didn't quite have the hand strength to cut very many, but she wanted to try.

From time to time I like to break out the supplies and work on a craft with Katie.  We don't do it often enough, so it's a big treat!  Today was no exception.  :)  And I brought out all new tools that she'd never really used before.  Want to try this too?  Here's what you'll need!

• Already finished artwork (We used some finger paintings that I kept shuffling around.  Any printed paper would work though.)
• Butterfly punch (Again, any kind of decorative punch would work.  We just like butterflies!)
• Scrapbook paper trimmed to size
• Glue Stick
• Frames

STEP 1:  Punch out LOTS of butterflies!

STEP 2:  Start gluing them to your paper.  Glue stick works great for this as it dries super fast.

STEP 3:  Place your new artwork in frames and hang up!

School Days

Our baby started preschool yesterday!  *sniff*

Updates!

Oops...today's theme was one and I forgot to take a picture until late. 

Another forgotten picture, cannot get into the groove.   Coin was the theme.  Obviously, the inside of my wallet.

Yet another forgotten picture...I made it just in the nick of time.  My rear spends far too much time in this chair, so I guess it was fitting for the somewhere you sat theme.

We took Katie out on this beautiful day to ride her new bike on the bike trail, so for my logo picture I went with the Huffy emblem on her bike. 

Today's theme is writing, I knew when I saw it that this would be my picture.  My Dad signed my birthday card this year, I'm pretty sure he's never done that!

Also, the Binky Fairy came to our house today, but I think I'll save that post for tomorrow.  We've got to make it through the night before I can declare it a success!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I'm dusting off the old blog here for something really exciting!  My 32nd birthday!  I remember when my mom was 32 and (no offense, Mom!) to me that is a really grown-up age!  For some reason buying a house, getting married and having a baby didn't make me feel officially grown-up, but turning 32 does!  So here I am an official grown-up and I want to start my year off right.  I've made lots of promises to myself about things I'm going to do this year (eat better, read more, exercise, blahblahblah...) and maybe I'll share some of those at some point.  Today I'm going to share a photo.  I've decided once again to participate in a photo-a-day challenge, but this time only for the the month of August (we'll see how it goes from there.)   Today's challenge was "outside."  These are the chairs from our work in progress side yard.  I got them about 5 years ago for my birthday and I love them!  They are getting a little wobbly, but still comfy and I enjoy nothing better than sitting in one on a nice evening watching Katie play.  Oh and they are perfect spot for eating popsicles too!

Christmas in June?!

Upon arriving home Sunday evening, something magical happened.  At least according to Katie.  :)  We had just turned into our driveway when a (rein)deer ran past us.  It was very exciting, especially to the little one with the big eyes in the backseat.  In an awe-filled voice she asked us, "Was that a reindeer?  Did Santa let him off his leash?"  So very precious!  And now we'll always remember that time we saw a reindeer in June.