Returning to Normal

So my husband left for his second year of a management school his work was sending him to. It was TWO weeks, home alone with four kids. Yikes! Most days were okay, Savannah & Colton had complete melt downs, almost every.single.day. missing their Daddy. I had visions of all the things I was going to accomplish while he was gone, but instead, did nothing. Absolutely nothing. I survived though ... which seriously felt like quite the feat near the end. :)
One bright spot was a cricut that I was given by one of Ryan's co-workers. It didn't come with any cartridges to cut out shapes, so thankfully I have an awesome friend Lacie who let me borrow one of hers. Thanks Lacie! :)I have now cut out 500 butterflies to surround our home for Savannah's up & coming fairy party. So much fun! :)

Scrappin' Again

I'm so frustrated with my sewing machine ... I just can't seem to get it to work right ... ugh. So I spent this weekend making another butterfly (a gift for a friend) art piece ... and lots of time scrappin' (during ALLLLLL my freetime ... lol). Here's a couple of favorite layouts lately.I used to scrap ALL. THE. TIME. ... but then I discovered sewing, and the textiles, colors and actual physical finished project took over my craftin' life. So I now have two and a half years of un-scrapped pages ... and lately the kids have been actually asking to see their pictures and it's made me want to start doing more scrappin' again. And I have to admit it feels great to see the finished projects. :)

Fairy Planning

So I am knee-deep in tulle & party planning. I know it may sound early (her birthday is a month away) ... but with the fussy baby & hand making a lot of the party stuff, it seems too close! Here's some of the links I've found so far:

Fairy party ideas & games: here, here, here and here.

Fairy Digi-Kit (for the invitations & scrappin' the event).

How to make a Fairy Princess Wand

No-Sew Fairy Tutu's

Make a Jedi/Elf Robe (for the boys)

Rainbow Cake - looks so awesome ... but really intimidating too! This would be fun as a tinkerbell cake!

Thrifty Thursday -July 9th-

Even though I put the kids to bed at a decent time, Hunter always stays up too late and waks up exhausted in the morning. He loves to read, and will sit there until after ten o' clock some nights soaking up a new adventure nightly. He's read the children's versions of the scriptures in a couple of nights each and loves to tell me scripture stories when we are driving around. So it seemed like it was time to get him some chapter stories to enjoy! I can't believe how expensive the goodwill is getting though lately ... yuck! But, I did get some fantastic books for only $4.50 total! (It was a sale day.)

4th of July Weekend

Here's hoping everyone had a fun & safe 4th of July! :) We took the kids to see the Grand Canyon on Friday And then spent the 4th with friends & family and had a great time! I got the kids all some patriotic shirts and then made bandana pants (using $1 bandanas from wal-mart) using this tutorial. Also, Savannah got some fun patriotic hair bows using ribbon from the Target dollar spot.
It was a really fun & crafty holiday. We didn't get a chance to do our sparklers yet though ... maybe tonight we can light them up in the backyard.

It's not a new project ...

Honest. I have not started or bought anything for new projects ... I'm slowly going to clean out the craft/game/junk closet of all my un-finished beauties! But, Savannah's turning FOUR (!!!) next month and wants a fairy birthday party. So far I have been searching and found lots of fun ideas ... but first I must make some no-sew tutus. I'm only making 6 of them ... heaven help me. :) Oh! And here's a pic of Savannah right before bed in one of her pjs ... so fun!

Thrifty Thursday -Our New Pool -

The pirate pool we got last year at Goodwill is without a doubt one of my favorite purchases. EVER. The kids had so much fun shooting water out of the cannon, steering the ship, sliding down the slide ... it. was. awesome. So we were ALL sooooo bummed to see the top half of the pool and most of the accessories had holes in them this year. Hunter begged & begged me to take him back to the thrift store to find a new pool. He has great faith, that a blow-up pool would just be sitting at the thrift store, waiting for him. :) And thankfully, it was! Not a pirate pool, but a safari one, and only $10 (instead of the $45+ price tag in the store). That curved section on the top shoots water out, the kids love to jump in & out of it all the time.

Finished!!! (well, almost ...)

First, can I go on a small rant? Did you know that when you make a comment, blogger doesn't add in your e-mail address so I can respond??? It's so frustrating wanting to respond individually to someone and not being able to ... ugh. It almost makes me want to switch to typepad ... but that costs money ... so it's probably a no go. Anyways ...

I have made 14 pairs of pj's for the kids now!!! :) It is so addictive, and the best part was when they were picking out which pair to wear last night ... Hunter chose his golf pants & Savannah chose the blue with flowers (but fell asleep before I could get a pic) ... the only thing left to do is check Colton's length & trim his bottoms ... which will take less than 30 minutes today!!! :) YEAH!!! Hunter got 4 pairs, while Savannah & Colton each got 5. The only thing that REALLY bugs about the patterns I used were for Hunter's. They turned out like boats on him .... but thankfully he doesn't mind. Next time I'll try slimming up the sides to the size 5 or a bit smaller, rather than following the lines for a 6. Blogged about here and here. Now to start on this week's goal ... finishing the cowgirl quilt. :)

Total out of pocket expense for 14 pairs of pj's: About $25

• $20 (for flannel) and $4.72 (for elastic)