Birthdays!

Today, we went to a birthday party. Our little friend turned one year old and had a cute, simple little party. Josiah and I got her a small toy and we wrapped it in one of Josiah's paintings.

Please excuse my horrible handwriting and questionable "balloons," I fixed them after I took the picture! Lately I haven't had the brain capacity to think up new and wonderful ideas for the kids, so we paint A LOT! I use Ikea easels for them and the giant roll of paper (affiliate link). As a result, I now have a ton of large paintings hanging around my room and more drying on the easels. I knew it was about time we found a way to recycle some of them. It was a hit with our little friend's parents and an extra special touch from Josiah. 

The party got me thinking about Josiah's upcoming birthday. Josiah will be two next month and we still don't have a clue what we are doing! For his ACTUAL birthday I have a special idea in mind, but as far as his birthday party I'm drawing a blank. This is one of the draw backs of being separated from his father. Because we both have our own separate lives, we don't always have a lot of time to actually SIT and communicate about things like this. Usually it's only a few short chats when one of us is dropping Josiah off with the other, and those chats generally don't end up with a final PLAN. 

Last year we had a really nice party at the park, I really like the idea of open air because between his fathers family/friends and mine, we are a lot of people and children! We had lots of fun and had the playground all to ourselves. To keep it simple and inexpensive, I think I'd like to go this route again. 

Josiah's First Birthday Party

What would you suggest??  Time is running out and I need ideas, help! Please leave some suggestions here in the comments or on my Facebook page! 

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Starburst Pixel Art!

Hello!! What a week it's been over on my end. If you've read my earlier post about my quest to learn more about handling finances responsibly, you'll be glad to know that I have already taken the first few crucial steps! Although it was hard to think about at first, the more I gave it thought, the more I realized that going back to work (and therefore leaving Josiah in someone else's care) was the right thing to do. Earlier this week, I started working again. I've still got mixed feelings about it all but I think once the newness of it all wears off, everything will be fine. I've also opened up a savings account. Let's just say that the last time I had one of those I was still a minor and had it only because I was too young for a checking account at the bank I was with. Yeah… I didn't do very well with it then because I had no idea what it really meant. This time WILL be different!

Anywho, I've also came to terms with the fact that I probably wont be churning out awesome ideas and activities 3 times a week like all of the "bigger" blogs I drool over. BUT I do have something fun to share today!

This is actually something I did LONG before I had Josiah. I was a part of a message board type website that shared crafts and I shared this there. Then, not very long ago, someone shared a link with me that featured my project and picture. I wanted to give it an official "home" on here and also share with you how easy, fun, AND tasty this project can be!

Two Years STRONG

I've been trying to write a this post for about a week now. I knew what I wanted to write about, but every time I was able to hop on my laptop, something would come up. When I did find some free time, I wrote. And wrote and wrote and wrote. It was way too long and full of way too much detail and my point wasn't coming across like I wanted it to.

And then Monday happened.

But before I explain Monday and before I explain what I had been writing about, let me share one of the last sentences I wrote in my original draft before completely deleting it all and starting over again...

"But everything happens for a reason. And I believe it's ultimately to glorify God."

God. Jesus. My savior. My comfort. My peace. I had planned to add Him in at the end of my post but I know now there is no other place for Him than right here at the beginning. All the glory for everything you are about to read goes to Him!

Pom Pom Painting and our Valentine

Hi! Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's day! I did, I had an interview and got the job! Woo Hoo! The rest of my day was spent with my little love, Josiah!

The day before V-Day, Josiah and I wanted to "kill two birds with one stone" and make our Valentines with the pom pom painting technique.

To set up, I took four pom poms (red, green, yellow, blue) and four clothes pins. I attached one pin to one pom pom and then placed each color pom pom in it's corresponding little pot of finger paint. We were making valentines for his daddy and daddy's girlfriend so I presented the materials to him with two folded sheets of construction paper.

Here's how it went…

No Mess Finger Painting

Hello everybody! Long time no post right? My apologies. Truth is, I've been mentally exhausted lately trying to get certain things in order and also, now I watch my niece overnight while my brother goes to work. So, most days I'm just happy to make it through the day and keep the kids are fed and changed regularly, know what I mean? That doesn't mean we aren't playing though, but it does mean I'm not documenting and sharing everything either.

BUT I have a free moment to share something fun we did recently. Someone sent me a link on my Facebook page to this tutorial from Baballa on mess free finger paints. I loved every part of it, especially because I am constantly stressing to keep messes to a minimum since this is my grandparent's house and not mine.

The original site is in spanish but the pictures speak for themselves (also, you can choose to translate the website and google does a pretty decent job at it too).

Well, my try at it didn't exactly turn out how I expected it to. Have a look :)