Teagen Turns Five

Teagen's day was pretty action packed, but really its the way to do it for preschoolers. And most importantly, keep it simple, make it special. Right? All I can say is thank the Lord for Family Fun Magazine that arrived about a week before her birthday. They covered my class treat and her special cupcakes(at the end of this post). Here are the treats: we have a milk allergy kid in her class. He is really sweet about not caring when he cannot have chocolate of whatever, but I like to try to find things that include everyone. Skittles+Starburst=milk-free!!

If you cant tell, its snack size baggies with clothespin butterfly bodies. The instructions called for glue and glitter sprinkling on the bodies, but I was able to find sheets of self adhesive glitter foam that I just cut in strips and covered the clothespins. add googly eyes and pipe cleaners(fold the tips of the pipecleaner so they are not so pokey) clip in the middle of the baggie and ta-da! Butterflies. What a hit. We now use the bodies as chip clips.(btw- you can get the baggies,eyes,pipecleaners and clothespins ALL at Dollartree. The glitter foam sheets are at the walmart. Easy-peasy)

And because I am insane, I invited the girls from Teagen PreK to our house for lunch on her actual birthday. On a Tuesday. In the middle of the day. When I am alone. With no help. When I have a three year old son. When I worked 4 days straight before the party. After I had a root canal. And I am a total baby. and I promised facepainting. ON A TUESDAY. A.L.O.N.E. what is wrong with me?

Thank you to the 3 moms who hung around. thank you thank you thank you.

It wasn't bad. It could have been. I know from experience. When Summer was in PreK, I invited her entire class(because her friends were mostly boys). I think 10 showed. All dropped off, some getting picked up WAAAYY late. Rachael helped me with that one, but we were both SUPER pregnant and Teagen was a baby. That was one of my craziest moments ever. EVER.

(lovin that BK crown, arnt you? They get them in class. Tea really thought it was somethin'. We dont do BK around here much.)



A cutie face...

Anyway, advice from a party mom:

Simple is GOOD. I planned on pizza, but at the last minute I decided to do tea sandwiches of Nutella, jam, and peanutbutter. I had a bowl of cheetos and a plate of fruit. I also had on the table the leftover skittles and starburst, and a little dish of plastic jewel ring I found for a buck. The cupcakes we on a cake stand, I used 2 dollar store table cloths, layered and bought cheap as heck valentine leftover napkins and table supplies. IF YOU HAVE GIRLS, GO CRAZY AT THE AFTER VALENTINES DAY SALES. Everything I bought was all rainbow-y with hearts and just super cute. And extremely cheap. Like less than a dollar. I have a set of paper lantern that I put up, stuck some balloons to the chairs. DONE.

I did this all in the 3 hours she is in school. not bad.

So all we did was have lunch, play, open gifts, play and facepaint, and then cake and icecream. I planned on a game, but the girls had more fun just playing together. It goes to show that not every minute needs to be planned out.

Oh and I did goodie bags(barbie makeup I purchased at 80% off after Xmas!!) as parting gifts. brilliant idea for 4 year olds that dont want to leave:)

Later that day, we had a more relaxed family evening of gifts and dinner out. Chinese!

I think it was Teagen's barbie year.

The Cupcakes!! Totally recommend. They were beautiful! Its a white cake that you mix up and divide into 6 bowls. Tint the colors of the rainbow, and layer by spoonfuls into cupcake liners. Easy with an awesome outcome.

A special day for my girl. She is such an awesome kid. I'll have to do her 5 year photoshoot this week. Cannot believe that munchkin is 5!!!

comment moderation

So I have been getting lots of weird comments(SPAM) on old posts. Its getting annoying, so I had to change a few things. Now if you comment of a post older than a week, it wont show up unless I want it to. Shouldn't affect anything, but has anyone else been running into this? Often its even in a foreign language. I know its not a big deal, but I feel kind of violated. Makes me think of exactly how public things are on here. Hmmmm...

In other news...I had a root canal yesterday. Exciting, right? I was feeling pain big time, got in right away and they had me come back the next day for the procedure. So strange for someone with only a couple fillings. Very weird. I still have all my wisdom teeth. All I know is that dental stuff is not fun. And very expensive. Its only February and the $$ spent this year on unforeseen expenses(teeth, glasses, washing machine, muffler...) could have nearly sent us to Disney World. That is completely not cool. But its life.

Good news is that we are getting some bookings for face and mama-to-be belly painting!! So excited! It is so much fun, and Angela and I have lots of amazing ideas to try out! We think facepainting is more of a spring/summer thing, so it looks like business will be picking up:)

Anyway, have a great weekend! We are busy around here with sleepovers, a wedding, family visits and I think I'll have to fit in a couple of shifts at work too. Awesome.

Party treats and Friendship

This one was too good to keep to myself. Mostly because its was just too easy! Rachael also did it for Kennedy's class. How perfect for a birthday party treats! It was a complete hit, everyone was so excited about it! Here is all it is- 2 boxes of regular sugar cones(24 all together)
5 bags of cotton candy that you can get at any Dollar Tree(5 was too much, three would have been fine, as you can see mine are double dippers!)
The cone shaped treat bags can be found in the party supplies at Hobby Lobby for 1.99 for 24.
**you can also fill the cones with m&ms, but I skipped that because we have a milk allergy in Teagen's class.

stuff a bit of cotton candy in the cone and then just stack a little on top for your "scoops" drop in bags and tie with whatever you have laying around.

Fabulous!
I found the idea online somewhere, but cannot find the link. I'm creative, but not that creative;)

Here is a pic from yesterdays party of Teagen and her best friend.
I dont know what other pre-ks do, but ours is is wonderful on parent days. She sets up stations and its basically a free for all, but the kids are really good. I didnt take many pics this time because I have this horrid head cold, was working with not only Teagen and Grady, but also took on a few more kids whose parents couldnt make it.

And I leave you with a Valentine message written to Summer from her best friend:

Roses are Red, Lilacs are fine
Valentine will you be mine?
The Sun is Yellow
Your hair Smells like Jello.

Well, I guess she has been using mango shampoo....

♥♥♥We Love Valentines Day ♥♥♥

I adore pink and red and white and hearts and things that are pretty! I love Valentines Day! So I have been on the lookout for ideas for the kids school valentines and for a fun treat for Teagen's class(more on that one later) A note came home from Summer's teacher that the students were to create a card box at home. The requirements were that it had to be "Valentines colors", fit in their desks, and NOT have anything suggestive or crude on them(how said that it even has to be mentioned) We found the idea for this one in Family Fun Magazine. Broke into the scrapbook stash and here's what we created-

(its a dog, not a rabid bunny;)) Cards go in the mouth. I think the one in Family Fun was a cat. But Summer is a dog person.

And here are her Valentines. They are from Michael's. We had some leftover goodie bags and I bought pencils on clearance last year. Add a sucker, staple together.

Ta-Da!

Simple and cute!

For Teagen I bought a case of crayons in Aug when Walmart has them for 15 cents a box. Also at Michael's I got her sticker Valentines( same brand as Summer's) that were perfect for this. wrap a ribbon around each box, slap the sticker on and thats it! Cute!!♥♥♥

You are gonna love my treat idea for Teagen's class. I gotta get the supplies today!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Sick Day

Illness hit the kiddos this weekend. Just fatigue and low fevers. A cough. And Grady got it the worst. Fever up to 103 and he even threw up(it may have been his first episode, but I cannot remember) Here he is at lunch today... When he is sick, he always falls asleep where ever he is. Poor guy.

The girls were content playing DS, reading and drawing. They built a fort on their bed.

With everyone fully medicated, a project was in order so we made salt dough hearts for necklaces.

Salt dough is super easy, if you never done it before.

1/2 C salt

1 C four

1/2 C warm water

mix up with hands, roll out and we cut shapes with mini cookie cutter. Then used a straw to poke the hole for stringing.

bake on cookie sheet for almost 2 hours(you just want them to get hard and dry) at 250. When cool, decorate!


We painted and then glittered while still wet. I have a large glitter supply. we used mostly the extra fine but still cheap stuff. I kept my vintage glass glitter hidden from the little hands;)

I cant wait till they are dry! I think it will look so cute hanging from a ribbon!


If Teagens lips seem extra rosy, its because she managed to get red paint on them.

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List-a-Roo

So I really want to get back to regular blogging. I need to go on a Facebook diet. Its just so fun, but a total time suck. I thought maybe another one of these list things would stoke the blogging fire a bit. Hopefuly get me rolling. I found this one on Nitty Gritty and really liked it. So here goes...

1. What is your current obsession? It should come as no surprise that crafty stuff is high on my list. But not just paper, now you can add sewing to that(sorta). Oh and I have totally become obsessed with doing fun things to my daughters' hair thanks to this blog. LOVE IT.

2. What are you wearing today? my second favorite pair of jeans, and a brown thermal shirt. Its only 11 degrees out there today! Its a miracle I took my scarf off.

3. What’s for dinner? I think is Pioneer Woman's Chicken spaghetti. SO GOOD.

4. What’s the last thing you bought? A really cute necklace I bought on Saturday before I went to a concert with my besties. And then its exploded on the head of the woman sitting in front of me. She was nice enough to hand me the pieces. Oh, and then I returned it and got my $ back yesterday:)

5. What are you listening to right now?

Sponge Bob, and the kids are not even in the room.

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be? Here is when you find out how boring I am. I would always choose to stay in West Michigan. Although, I would be quite happy to live ON Lake Michigan, so Montague, Whitehall, or Grand Haven lakefront would make me pretty happy.

7. What is one thing you want to change about yourself? To avoid a shallow comment, I will say I could stand to have a little more drive. Some sticktoitive-ness. I get excited about something, and never follow thru. I make myself crazy.

8. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go? Hmmm. An hour? Today, I need to be on a beach.

9. Which language do you want to learn? I could learn Spanish. Then I could understand what all the customers on Sundays at the mall are saying.

10. What’s your favorite quote? I am going to go with one of the ones on my sidebar.

11. Would you cook for me? yep. Shocking I am sure, I am a really good cook. I dont give myself too many complements, but I can cook. Not that I do things that are really extraordinary. I have to feed 3 kids and a picky husband. But what I do make, is really good.

12. What is the right way to avoid people who purposefully hurt you? good grief, when someone finds a way to do this easily, please let me in on it. I am sick of avoiding a handful of people who have hurt me. I am not a forgive and forget type. I wish I was! Life is too short to waste it worrying about them! So I guess my answer is to ignore. Thats all I got.

13. What are you afraid of the most? Losing anyone I love. Of course, I will eventually lose another loved one. So I need to just drop this fear and live my life. Enjoy the now and the people in it. And I really am afraid of spiders.

14. Who do you want to meet right now? Ummm...Jack Johnson? Just because I wanna here him sing live.

15. What is your favorite color? Red. Always and forever. I still think I may have a red house someday. But if you look in my closet, you are going to say black. Its easy to wear and looks great with the blond.

16. Give us 3 styling tips that work for you. This is funny. I am all about other peoples tips. You would think I would have picked up something by now. OK- dont wash your hair every day. It always looks better on day 2. Or 3. Expensive tweezers are worth every penny. Find a good self tanner and invest time in applying it right(experience talking,here) and burts bees makes the best blemish roll-on thingy. Oh wow, thats 4!!

17. What is your dream job? Everyone is going to think I am going to say art related, but nope. I would love to have an ice cream shop or candy store/boutique or upscale bakery/resturant. This is a dream I know. In this economy? Yeah, right.

18. What’s your favorite magazine? Right now, I love Family Fun, Martha Stewart Living, and Somerset Studios(any of their publications) I only get subs to Family Fun and Redbook.

19. If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on? Undergarments. You asked!

20. What do you consider a fashion faux pas? Skinny Jeans and leggings. Both only look decent on girls under 10. Seriously. I work at the mall and people watch all day. Dont wear them. Even size 2 looks better in bootcut.

21. Who, according to you, is the most over-rated writer? Any celeb who writes an autobiography. Yuck. Especially if they are under 40.

22. What brings a smile on your face instantly? my family being weird. they rarely disappoint.

23. What is one word that you say a lot? "the" ???

24. What kind of haircut do you prefer? Oh boy. I try new things, but always go back to the shoulder length or longer shaggy mop. Its what my hair wants to do.

25. What are you going to do after this? Go pick up Summer from Spanish. and cook.

26. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed? Take it out on everyone else. Or go shopping. Just being honest. Not proud of it. But I am pretty quick to snap out of it.

27. What makes you go wild? Too many cocktails;)

28. What are your favorite movies? Oh Brother Where art Thou? and pretty much anything with Ben Stiller or Adam Sandler. and The Princess Bride.

29. What inspires you? crafty and decorating blogs, a clean quite house. Anything new.

30. What do your friends call you most commonly? Jennie. Most of my friends are from childhood. Jennie just stuck.

31. Would you prefer coffee or tea? I like both very much. But I NEED coffee.

32. Which other blogs do you love visiting? This is for another post. I have my list on the sidebar, but my favorites is jam packed with awesome blogs. I'll share soon.

33. What is your favorite dessert/sweet? Always changing. I love good cheesecake with cherries. Any kind of fruit crisp. Chocolate covered strawberries. Ice cream(Chubby Hubby is so goooood) Oh and Brooklyn Bagels makes these almond cookies dipped in chocolate...but dont ever try them. Seriously, they are mine.

****did I say that I didnt know what word I use a lot? I am thinking "seriously" is a contender.

34. How many tabs are turned on in your browser right now? I usually have 2 because I listen to my blog playlist while I am on the computer.

35. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought? That I wished the flatiron job I did on my hair yesterday had stayed better.

36. What is your favorite season? I love them all(even winter has its good stuff!) but I have the most good times in the Summer.

37. What is one wish that you really want to see come true? That I don't screw up my kids too badly. That they grow up happy, marry well, work hard, and enjoy life.

38. What breaks your heart? When anyone I care about is messed with. I get all "mama bear" and want to take care of business. And those ASPCA commercials.

39. What's one thing you really want to do in life? I am kind of a homebody, so travel is not a big deal to me. I think that when the kids grow up, I would like to help out at the animal shelters or maybe do some pet fostering or rehabilitation. And have a really big garden and koi pond.

So if you are feeling game, please play along and post your list too!! I would love to see how you answer these:)