Summer "to-do" list

I will be starting my internship in September, which means fewer days home with my baby girl.  This makes me sad when I realize that I will not be spending as much Momma/Daughter time with her, but I know that what I am doing is best for our family.  Another good thing is that Julia is going to "school" at Kenowa Hills Learning Center and that has been really good for her.

GRKIds.com posted a list of 92 things to do this summer.  One for everyday of June, July and August.  Not all of them will work for a 3 year old, so I kept some of their list and then added things of my own.  This summer is going to be a little different for Julia and I since I'm working again, but I want to make sure that the days we spend together this summer are fun!  

We will be doubling up a few things and skipping some, so our list will be a little different.  Here is our summer plan:

1. Construction Truck Petting Zoo
2. Spoonlickers
3. Festival of the Arts
4. Grand Haven Musical Fountain
5. Getty 4 Drive In
6. Fulton Street Farmers Market
7. Millennium Park
8. Holland Peanut Store
9. Fredrick Meijer Gardens
10. Radiant Sportz
11. Java Gym Out of business :(
12. Peppler Memorial Park at Rockford Dam
13. Grand Haven State Park
14. Jesters Court
15. Blandford Nature Center
16. Duck Lake State Park
17. Downtown Farmers Market
18. Storytime at Sweet Mellisa’s - (Wednesdays)
19. Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park
20. Holland State Park
21. John Ball Zoo
22. Ice Cream Month at Dairy Discovery
23. Hager Park (Jenison)
24. Tuesday Night Music Club (Fredrick Meijer Gardens)
25. Grand Rapids Children’s Museum
26. Impression 5 Science Center.
27. Binder Park Zoo.
28. Holland Street Performers
29. Leslie E. Tassell Park
30. GR Fish Ladder
31. Michigan’s Adventure!
32. Kent County Youth Fair
33. Downtown Polish Festival
34. Tunnel Park
35. Ride the Grand Haven Trolley
36. Stanwood
37. Grand Rapids Public Museum
38. Potter Park Zoo
39. Detroit Zoo
40. Visit the Residents at Busia's work
41. Camping 
42. Bowling at Westgate (Kids Bowl Free Program)
43. Jazz at the Zoo
44. Spring Grove Park
45. Feed ducks.
46. Play with bubbles in the backyard
47. Fallasburg Park
48. Make (and eat) homemade popsicles
49. Visit the MSU Children’s Garden and get ice cream at the MSU Dairy Store
50. Set up and run through the sprinkler
51. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
52. Find a local food truck and have lunch there
53. Imagination Station Playground in Grand Haven.

54. Get ice cream at a new-to-you location

Sniff, sniff. My baby is TWO!

I can't believe that Julia is already two!  It's bittersweet.  She is as independent as ever.  She is talking like crazy and repeating everything she hears.  I miss my sweet little snuggle bug, but I love watching her grow into a big girl that is full of personality!

We had her birthday party on her actual birthday this year.  I had so much fun getting ready for her "Princess Party"!!  Of course, I was having so much fun that I forgot to take pictures of everything.  Thank goodness I have a picture happy family, so they picked up my slack!

We turned the house into a pink and purple explosion of glitter and tulle!
I made tulle pom-pom decorations for the cake table.

Grandma bought Julia a beautiful pink princess dress to wear for her party.  She loved twirling the skirt around!

I decided that instead of games at the party, the kids could decorate crowns and wands!  I used the Cricut Princess Party event cartridge and cut out cute little crowns with a number two in the center.  Then the kids used foam stickers and jewels to decorate their own party crown.  I also used my Cricut to cut out stars for the top of the wand.  I ran the stars through my Xyron and then stuck two together with a dowel in the middle.  I added some curling ribbon on the stick and we had wands!

Julia thought that the stickers were really cool, but she just wanted to play with them.  She didn't want anything stuck on her crown or wand!

Here is Kadymn with her beautiful crown!

Grandma also made Julia pink strawberry cupcakes with pink buttercream frosting and purple sugar sprinkles.  And, since Julia is a goof ball, she decided to eat her cupcake without using her hands!

And she thought she was SOOO funny!

Everyone knew exactly what Julia loves!  She received tons of babies and baby accessories. 

And Uncle Jason knew exactly what kind of Barbie she wanted.  One without clothes of course!

And Uncle Mark and Grandpa sure know how to spoil a girl!  They bought Julia her very first car.  A Jeep Wrangler just like they both have!

We loved having everyone here to celebrate with us!  Even if it was cold outside so there were 50 people stuck inside.  Everyone had so much fun and Julia was so happy to have her family and friends here with her.  She told me all day long that she was happy!!!

Quick, Stress-free Glittering!

When I decided to glitter the letters on Julia's birthday I dreaded the wait for glue to dry!  Xyron to the rescue!!!  I instantly thought about using my Creative Station so that I can have a nice edge to edge coat of adhesive without having to wait on wet glue to dry before I continue on with my project or worrying about adding glue in small sections so that parts didn't dry before I added glitter to everything.  It made things go MUCH faster and took the stress out of adding glitter to 17 letters and crowns.

Want to try stress-free glittering?  Here is how I did it:

Run your pieces through your Creative Station. Remember to add adhesive to the TOP side, not the bottom like you would to stick the piece down on your project! (I admit, I ran the wrong side through twice!) Then peel the plastic sheet off and remove the piece to be glittered.

For crisp edges and to make sure that glitter only goes on the image, you will want to run your finger along the edges of your shape to make sure that there are not any rough edges.

Here you can see that in the sharp turns on the crown there are a few adhesive leftovers.

After running my finger along the edge quickly, we are all set to add glitter!

Here is another helpful hint to stress-free glittering!  I use Ziploc storage containers for my glitter and embossing powders!  That way the extra glitter falls right back into the container and I don't have to worry about trying to roll a piece of scrap paper enough to get the glitter back into the small container it comes in and it's a lot cleaner that way too.

I held onto the shape along the edges so I didn't get any adhesive stuck to my fingers rather than on the piece.  Then I spooned my glitter over the shape.

I then tapped off the excess right into the Ziploc container.  No worries about clean up!

Because the Creative Station add a protective plastic layer over the items I am adding adhesive to, I was able to run the glittered pieces through it to add adhesive to the back side.  This allowed me to have a strong adhesive on the back of each letter and shape I was adding to the banner without having all the glitter get ruined or clog up the machine with glitter.

And, you can see that the glitter still looks great even after putting the letters and shapes through the machine again!

Once the letters were all full of pink, sparkly glitter and had adhesive on the back, I stuck them to the pennant shapes that I had already layered together.  I then strung the banner and it is ready to go for Julia's 2nd birthday!

Cooking up a storm!

Today when I put Julia down for her morning nap, I decided that I would make good use of that time and get some meals ready for the week and a few more things in the freezer for when the school chaos begins.  First up was mini meatloaves.  You can use any recipe that you normally use to make meatloaf, but I used this {one}.  Then I cooked them in a muffin pan so that they can be frozen in individual servings and I can just pull out what we need for one meal and re heat them for dinner.  All the hard work is done!  The other meal I made for the week was {Shepard Pie}.  So that is two meals ready for this week and three meals for the freezer. (Meatloaves are enough for three meals.)  That will help me to stay on track of cooking dinner each night even when I've been in school all day or when I have a lot of homework to keep up with.

The other thing I made for Julia and I as a treat today was {35-second Chocolate Cake}.  A friend of mine pinned it yesterday, so when I was craving chocolate today I decided to try it out.  The best part, these are ingredients everyone usually has on hand!  It reminded me of the new microwave desserts by Betty Crocker, only MUCH cheaper.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 tablespoons Splenda Granular or Whey Low powdered (I used regular sugar since I don't use these.)

2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon  instant coffee crystals – optional, but brings out the chocolaty YUM!

Pinch salt

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon oil

Drop of vanilla extract

Directions:

Spray a coffee cup or ramekin with vegetable cooking spray.  In the cup combine the flour, Splenda, cocoa powder, baking powder, coffee crystals and salt until no lumps remain.  Stir in the milk, olive oil, and vanilla until smooth.

Bake in the microwave on high for 35 seconds.  You may need to add 5 more seconds (maybe 5 more after that, depending on your microwave)… but don’t be tempted to overcook or it will be rubbery!  It should be moist on the bottom and will continue cooking as it sets.

Serve with chocolate sauce…a sprinkle of powdered sugar…whipped cream or eat plain as a brownie.

Here is what our looked like out of the microwave.

Here is Julia taking her first bite.

And I think this face says, "YUMMMY!!!"

Julia's One Year Photos (and a few family shots)

I found our photographer, Kerry Lee Photography, through a cousin.  I went to her for Julia's 6 month photos and fell in love!  She is great with kids and really laid back.  Julia and I both felt comfortable and it made for amazing pictures.  Well, we went back for Julia's one year photos and Kerry amazed me again.  I can barely get Julia to sit still for five minutes, but Kerry just went with it and let Julia run around and got beautiful pictures.  I think it might have something to do with the fact that she is the mom of two boys (and soon a sweet girl)!

Here they are!  Julia at one year...

Just look at those chubby legs!  Melts my heart!!!



And of course she had to show off her "Scrunchie Face!"

We also got a couple of the three of us...

A little crazy around here!

The moving is underway and things are a bit crazy around here!  It all started last week.  My parents started staying at their new house and we brought Hexe (oh yeah, the dog's new name is Hexe) home on Monday.  She is doing pretty well adjusting to life here.  She is a VERY loyal dog.  She doesn't leave my side if she can help it.  It's pretty cute, but there are times where I wish I could just go throw something in the trash or go to the bathroom without her following me.  It's kind of like having two of Julia around here!  She is great with Julia though.  She puts up with Julia "petting" her and climbing on her with out even batting an eye.  We have been pretty lucky with that.  I think it's because she knows that if she is nice to Julia, she will get bits of food thrown to her from the high chair every time Julia eats!

This is what a typical meal time looks like with these two!  It might not be the best behavior, but Hexe is really nice when she takes the food and we all know Julia doesn't miss a meal, so I'm not worried about her not eating. 

Another thing to change now that I am a dog owner is that I get up around 6am!  Hexe doesn't like to be left alone.  I think it's from being a shelter dog and a loyal German Shepard.  That means that I have to get up with her when Lou leaves for work.  It has it's benefits though.  As I sit here writing this at 8:56 am, Julia is quietly asleep, I have done the dishes, dinner is in the crockpot, I have checked my email, I picked out paint colors for the living room, kitchen and bathroom, and I am making a blog post without having to stop to do any of the loads of stuff I normally have to do in a day.  It's really nice!

Yum, beef pot roast!  And now I don't have to think about what I am going to make for dinner tonight.  I am also able to fall asleep before 2am.  We will see how this 6am thing is going for me in another month, but for now I am enjoying my peace and quiet.

Right Now - July 2011

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW … I hear the the little pops of fireworks.
I AM THINKING … about what I want to do with the house when it is ours.
I AM LEARNING … how to redo furniture. (Reading lots of tutorials online and itching to go garage saling to find some good furniture waiting for a new life in our house.)
I AM THANKFUL FOR … my family.  I was blessed with the best family!
FROM THE KITCHEN … tonight was brats, baked beans (with sausage), salad, and chips.
I AM WEARING … denim capris and a Brandon Inge Tigers shirt.
I AM GOING … to enjoy a holiday weekend with the family.
I AM READING ...  nothing at the moment.
I AM CREATING … ideas!  I hope to be able to scrap this week.
I AM HOPING ... that everything goes smoothly with my parents move and our transition into home owners.
I AM HEARING … My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. (Hilarious train wreck!)
AROUND THE HOUSE ... things are going to change!
ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS …watching my baby girl sleep so peacefully!

A FEW PLANS FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK … visiting Casey at Clifford Lake, fireworks at Lou's dad's in Stanwood, and Lyon family fireworks at the lake.
A PICTURE TO SHARE… Julia in her red polka dot bikini on our trip to Grand Haven. (6.28.11)