A Letter from the Big Guy

I love this free printable letterhead from Santa himself.  This is the first year that Ava actually understands who Santa is and is very excited about meeting him and of course the goodies he will bring.  She is even going to write him a letter as one of her first assignments left buy our elves (more about our elves here).  This will be the perfect way for Santa to write back.  This year our lovely little elves are bringing activities for our family to do such as write a letter to Santa, drive around and see Christmas lights, make hot chocolate and watch a Christmas movie.  The elves are also going to bring the occasional gift as well such as books, ornaments, etc.   It should be a nice change for out elves.

 Found this via Pinterest.  Did I mention that I'm slightly addicted :)

{Image Source:  Design Editor via Pinterest}

Gifts for 3-4 Year Olds

Hoot Owl Hoot

Image Source: Amazon

Small World Living Toys Peel 'N' Play

Image Source: Amazon

Mudpuppy Princess 42 Piece Puzzle

Image Source: Amazon

Cloud b Twilight Constellation Night Light, Lady Bug

Image Source: Amazon

Spot It

Image Source: Amazon

Melissa & Doug Ice Cream Scoop Set

Image Source: Amazon

I do about 90% of my Christmas shopping online these days, and I love it!  Most of which comes from Amazon.  Free shipping for orders over $25, no tax and 2 day shipping if you are a member of Amazon Mom.  I also love being able to read reviews of what other parents think of an item.  What could be better?  

I'm always on the lookout for games, puzzles and pretend play items for the wee ones.  I go to specialty toy stores and bookstores to scout out unique and fun items and then do my research when I get home to find out who has it the cheapest (usually Amazon).  We are blessed to have very generous family and friends who spoil our kids rotten so when Santa comes to our house he usually leaves smaller toys that mommy can store away easily :)  These are a few items for Miss Ava this year.  I think Santa has done a good job so far...

Happy Halloween!

We hope you and your family have a safe and happy Halloween!

Love, 

Dorothy and the Lion

Halloween Prep

Our pumpkins have carefully been selected...

Costumes are complete and have been tried on multiple times by Miss A just to make sure everything is "alright."

 All the ingredients are bought and ready to make our spooky ghost treats for friends...

Image from The Idea Room

 and the monster dough and parts are all set to go for our play date that has been canceled due to all the other littles being sick :(  Miss A will be making all the monsters on her own.  I'm sure she will still have loads of messy fun all by herself!

Image from The Imagination Tree

These holidays are so much more fun when you see all the excitement in your kiddo's eyes.  Sooo worth all the work and trips to the store.  More Halloween fun to come!

Etsy Finds

Image via Fishstikks

Image via Artworks

When we were in Savannah last year I happened upon a shop that carried reproductions of Lori Mitchell's paper mache sculptures.  I bought the little Halloween girl above who currently has a home in our bathroom.  Miss A loves her and keeps asking for her to come in her room instead.  I also picked up one of her Christmas figurines, too.  Since then, I have been obsessed with folk art style.  I currently am drooling over Emily the Cat above.  She's the real deal too not a reproduction.  Hence my hesitation to fork out the money for her.  She is quit cute though.  Don't you think??

Addicted to Pinterest

Image via The Idea Room

First pinned by Cindy Cloyd via Pinterest

So if you haven't checked out Pinterest yet then go...now!!  

I'll wait...

It is a completely genius site that is creative inspiration to the extreme.  As you are browsing the web and you come across images that are inspiring, beautiful, useful, creative, insightful, etc. you "pin" the image to your board.  The image will link you directly to the site that contains that picture so you can come back to it at any time.  I have become completely addicted and can't wait to start making a lot of the ideas I have pinned.  These are 2 of my Halloween favs using Oreo cookies.  I can't wait for Ava and I to make these for her little friends.  I have a feeling that sharing Pinterest ideas will become a weekly post for me.  As I mentioned, totally addicted!

Recipe: Cake Balls

I made these little beauties for Easter this past Sunday and boy were they yummy!  I am always looking for new recipes to try out and this one seemed easy and something that Ava could help me with.  These are quite impressive to look at too so you can use them for all your fancy-smancy parties.  They look so good we had to convince my uncle to try one because he thought they were fake and we were just seeing if he would eat it.  Come on we're family, would we do that to him?!  Well...

Cake Balls

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Makes approx. 50 quarter sized balls

1 box yellow or white cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can vanilla frosting (16 oz.)
2 packages candy melts (I found mine at Michael's Craft Stores)
sprinkles or other decorations for the topsparchment or wax paper

1. Make cake according to directions and let cool completely.
2. Crumble cake into a large bowl and start adding your frosting.  I added about 3/4 of a can of frosting and it seemed to hold together well.  
3. Roll into quarter sized balls and place on parchment paper.  Chill for several hours in the refrigerator.  You can also put them in the freezer if you're short on time.
4. Melt candy melts according to package directions.  I only melted one bag at a time because I was using 2 different colors and the candy cools too quickly.  You can reheat it if need be.  
5. Dip cake balls into the candy and let excess drip off.  Place on parchment paper to dry.  
6. Before the outer candy dries, add your sprinkles.
7. Let the cake balls dry completely before storing them in the refrigerator until you're ready to serve them.

You can do so many variations for these delicious cake balls.  Try red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting.  Or how about german chocolate cake with coconut pecan frosting.  Ohhh, what about strawberry cake with vanilla frosting for pink centers.  You can also use chocolate bark to dip the cake balls in as well.  Let your imagination run wild!

Recipe from Bakerella

Easter

We had a great Easter here!  It's so fun to have these holidays with wee ones around.  Ava really enjoyed the egg hunt Sunday morning and all the goodies the Easter Bunny brought her and Cole.  Cole napped through the entire thing.  What was he thinking!  We went to church Saturday night so Sunday morning we were able to take our time and have lots of family time with just us.  The afternoon was filled with more egg hunts, ping pong, lots of food (cake ball recipe to come) and Ava getting to play with her second cousins.  There was a lot of running and squealing coming from the 5 girls.  Needless to say, we all crashed last night...around 8.

Happy Easter

Egg dying was a huge success.  She was content just putting each egg in one color and then picking it up every so often to see how dark the dye was making the shell.  I thought for sure she would be dunking each egg in multiple colors and we would have a big mess on our hands.  We had one casualty as she dropped the egg from the lovely wire holder into the cup from about 6 inches too high but other than that she was a pro.  Next year we are upping the difficulty level and making them more colorful.  I'm seeing glitter and permanent marker with colorful dyes somehow.  Who knows...I've got a year to figure it out!

Hope your Easter is filled with happiness and family.  Our hearts are extra full this year as we celebrate with our new little guy.  So much to be grateful for and we are!

Egg-spiration

Image Source

I bought the goodies to dye eggs with Ava later this week.  We didn't dye any eggs last year.  I tell myself it's because she wouldn't have remembered it but really it was just me being a bit of a slacker and not getting around to it.  I vowed that this year we would definitely dye lots of eggs. Will they be as beautiful and elaborate as the eggs above?  Heck no!  But those eggs are gorgeous and maybe something for us to try a few years down the line when Ava's eye dying skills are more advanced ;o)  

Go check out Alisa Burke's blog for directions on how to make your own watercolor eggs.

Easter Goodies

Source

The ladies over at We Love to Illustrate have done it again.  Super cute printable freebies just in time for Easter.  There are more over on their site to browse but these were some of my favs.  I especially love the middle printable.  This one will be right up Ava's alley.  You get to search for eggs and then color.  These are also great to let little one practice using scissors.  They can completely butcher the paper but you can always print another.  Happy printing :o)

Naturally Sweet Valentine's Idea

Images: Twig and Thistle

We go through a lot of fruit around here.  Right now our big kick is anjou pears which have been really, really good in the stores lately.  When Ava wakes from her nap she usually wants a small snack and instead of reaching for Teddy Grahams or pretzels, she wants fruit.  I'm happy to oblige her.  We share with Simon, our bun, too.  He couldn't be happier with that snack option either.  

As I was reading through some blogs, I ran across these stickers which are adorable and a nice departure from the sickeningly sweet candy that most people are forcing in your face around Valentine's Day.  Go check out her blog, Twig and Thistle to download these and several more stickers for a healthier holiday.

Kids Project for Valentine's Day

The snow is here and we've been stuck in the house for 7 days now between Ava being sick and now the weather.  I've pretty much exhausted my ideas of things to do.  I'm hoping that tomorrow we can venture out into the winter wonderland to expend some of her energy.

Today, I got together a few materials for Ava to make her own Valentine's for her friends.  Here's what you'd need to make these too...

*Some festive scrapbook paper shapes.

*A glue stick:  This was the first time that Ava has used a glue stick and now she's obsessed!  She glued these flowers for almost an hour.

*Crayons or markers if the little artist decides to add a splash of color.

*Some photos of the wee one to make them even more personal.

I let Ava do these all by herself.  She picked out everything from the supplies I gave her and she went to town creating.  It's amazing what a little glue, paper and crayons can do for a budding 2 year old artist.  

For another easy Valentine idea, check out this post from last year.  The fingerprint hearts are super easy for little ones under 2 to make their own art.

Winter Hands

Every winter my hands get so chapped and dry.  They even start to bleed at times.  I know that was probably too much information but it happens.  I am in love with this hand lotion.  Yes, it is expensive ($19 a tube) but a little goes a long way and it keeps my hands in great shape all winter long.  Steve and I opened presents early this year from each other and this was in my pile of goodies from him.  Love it!  Just thought I would share in case you had some last minute person who you never know what to buy.  Steve uses some of their men's line too.  It's all around good stuff.  Check it out if you feel like pampering yourself or someone you love.

Christmas Wonder

Experiencing Christmas this year has made me feel like a little kid again.  This is the first year Ava really understands whats going on and I'm loving it.  We spent last night driving through Tilles Park to see thousands of lights.  The excitement in her voice as she pointed out everything she saw was making Steve and I laugh so hard and remember Christmas when we were little.  We then ate some yummy Greek food before we headed to Dan's Emerald Forest.  Dan's is just a house in a neighborhood that is pretty amazing.  Ava has been very into trains lately and this house has trains, lights, waterfalls and loads of other winter scenery throughout his entire front yard.  It was quite the site.  Ava was very excited for the entire night.  As we were driving home, she started to doze off in the back seat.  I asked very quietly if anyone would be interested in some ice cream.  She perked right back up and proceeded to eat over half of my mango frozen yogurt loaded up with fresh fruit from FroYo.  I think it's safe to say that she had a very good night last night.  Steve and I had a pretty amazing night, too.

Gingerbread Playdough

Ava and I whipped up a couple batches of play-dough to give her friends for Christmas.  She helped with all the measuring, dumping and stirring while I did all the serious mixing on the stove.  These make quick, easy, cheap and fun gifts for all the little people in your life.  Not to mention that they make your house smell yummy while you make the dough.   We made a chocolate play-dough too but I wasn't as happy with the end texture so I'll work on the recipe and then post it.  

Gingerbread Play-Dough

1 1/4 Cup flour
1/2 Cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar

Spices--Cinnamon, Allspice, Ginger, Nutmeg
1 cup water
1 1/2 Tbsp. vegetable oil 

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients in a medium pot.  I started with a teaspoon of each of the spices.  I know I ended up adding more cinnamon to the pot though.
2. Add wet ingredients and stir over low heat until a ball starts to form and the dough pulls away from the sides of the pot.  It will take a couple minutes on the stove to get to the dough to start forming.
3. Remove the ball and knead until it is a consistent color and texture.

We "wrapped" the dough in plastic containers with a cookie cutter or two and tied with a pretty bow.  

Here Comes Santa Claus

Ava woke up from her nap the other day saying, "I want to see Santa and sit on his lap."  I'm thinking ummmmm, ok.  This was coming from the girl who takes a good while to warm up to people she already knows so the the fact that she brought up Santa and wanted to sit on his lap was huge.  After dinner we loaded up and went to Bass Pro Shop which has a great free Christmas village and a free picture with Santa.  We walked right up to Santa (no lines or time for her to change her mind) and he was amazing.  I can't stress how non-scary he was for her.  He talked to her and held her 2 little hands and then asked if she wanted to sit on his lap for a picture.  I know that again none of these pictures show big smiles but there were no tears and that was great in my book.  Her and daddy colored, played with rc cars and she loved the train.  I even got a little Christmas shopping for my dad done while we were there.  On the car ride home she announces from the back seat, "I love Santa."  That kid just melts my heart.