Brush, Brush Your Teeth

Ms. A had her first official visit to the dentist. She's been watching Reed and I during our visits, but yesterday was her turn in the dentist's chair. She wasn't too excited, she wanted her teeth checked at Reed's appointment.

She did a great job! She was very excited to count her teeth. She loves her Princess toothbrush. When we came home, she went straight upstairs and started to floss and brush her teeth.

Kristina's 43rd Color Challenge

Have you ever had one of those moments of unexpected inspiration? That's what happened today when I revisited Ms. Werner's site. She has a new Color Challenge that I loved the colors (Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Brocade Blue and Old Olive), but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it.

I have another project that's taken my focus, so I decided to not participate this time. Suddenly, this card popped into my head. Isn't she lovely. She's from Stampin' Up's Build-a Fairytale die cut set.

I've been playing with castles and put her aside, but today she was pulled out. :)

Is SPRING here?

I have been aching for Spring to come. No more snow or gray clouds, I want flowers blossoming, trees budding, birds chirping and some blue skies!

On Friday, I saw a glimpse of spring!

The skies were blue,
the birds chirping

and a few tulips bursting through the ground.




I was ecstatic! Ms. A and I decided to celebrate with a trip to one of our favorite stores - HOME DEPOT.

We purchased a Heather bush and rushed home to plant it. It felt wonderful to get my hands dirty (gardening used to be torture, but now I love it!). Ms. A got into the swing of things as well. She had a blast digging in the dirt with her spade. :) After our gardening, we had a picnic on the front lawn. YUM! I felt rejuvenated and refreshed.

Now back to the rain..... :)

What a Lucky Mom

Reed has a dentist appointment today, when I asked Ms. A if she wanted to go, she quickly responded with “Can I get my teeth checked? I think it would be a good thing to do.”

I {heart} our dentist. He and his staff are great!!

Now if we can keep that attitude! :)

Thanks and Love

I've had a few creative moments lately thanks to Ms. K. I love this Valentine card, so I had to purchase the heart punches so I could play along. I {HEART} my new punches, now to find them a new home. :)









I loved playing with this color challenge from a few weeks ago.
My creative side loves this color combo and I had to make another card.

You can click on the pics for a closer look. :)

Lost 'Glass' Slippers

Ms. A received a Treasure Chest full of dress up clothes for Christmas. It has been her favorite present to play with. Every day her Cinderella dress comes out and she tries to wear it everywhere. Yes, Princesses go to Target, the library, friends' homes and sometimes, even WinCo.

The past week or so, she has added a new way to play. I will find one slipper mysteriously laying on the stairs, when questioned Princess A responds: "Cinderella lost her slipper on the stairs." When I asked who was going to pick it up, she responded, "My Prince." Then she flits over somewhere to continue her play. I love watching our little princess.

the lost slipper

Princess shoes

Smiling on the stairs

Another Trifle

After my great success, I decided to try another recipe out for my trifle bowl. Lemon Blueberry Trifle. We invited some friends over to share since there was so much to eat. We loved the company and enjoyed the yummy treat. It was delicious, not as sweet and rich as the Chocolate Raspberry Trifle, but still good. It felt like summer had entered our home. :)

Here's the final product.

Here's the directions revised but originally from Pampered Chef.

2 Lemons
1 Pound Cake, frozen for easier cutting

8 ounces of Sour Cream
8 ounces Whipped Topping, thawed and separated in half
1 1/2 cups milk
2 small packages of Instant Lemon Pudding

18 ounces fresh Blueberries, put 10 aside for garnish
2 ounces White chocolate, grated, I used Ghiradelli's

Zest one lemon, put zest aside. Squeeze juice from the zested lemon. Gently toss lemon juice in with cubed pound cake.

Mix sour cream, milk and half of the Whipped Topping, Lemon Zest together until well blended. Mix in pudding. Stir until it starts to thicken.

Add 1/4 to 1/2 of the grated White chocolate to the blueberries.

The layers are as follows:
1 Pound Cake with juice
Blueberries and Chocolate
Pudding mixture
Repeat two more times

Garnish with remaining whipped topping, blueberries and chocolate.

Kristina's 40th Color Challenge

Time for another fabulous Color Challenge by Ms. Kristina. I love her color challenges. This time around the colors are: More Mustard, So Saffron, Taken With Teal, Old Olive and Whisper White.

Stamps: Spring Solitude
Paper: So Saffron, Old Olive, Taken with Teal, Patterns Pack Designer Series Paper I
Ink: So Saffron Stamp Pad and Taken with Teal Marker
Misc: Horizontal Slot Punch, Love and Happiness Rub-on, Old Olive Twill Ribbon

Stamps: Priceless
Paper: So Saffron, Old Olive, Taken with Teal, Petals and Paisleys DSP, Patterns Pack Designer Series Paper I
Ink: Taken with Teal Marker
Misc: Scallop Punch, Paper Piercer and 1 3/8 Square Punch

Shaving Cream!!

I was speaking to my mom a few weeks ago looking for ideas to entertain a certain three-year old. She mentioned at the end of the school year, some teachers spread shaving cream over the desks and let the children play while they clean the desks. I thought what fun idea. When I saw a similar idea from a curriculum program we tried out, I thought I'd try it out. Well, tonight was our first attempt. I learned a couple of things:

- Explain first how it's not food (whipped topping, now that would be messy and sweet.)
- Loads of fun
- Cannot be contained to a cookie sheet
- Blue Food dye is cool
- Mommy makes a GREAT target! :)
- Aprons help a little
- Keeps a three-year old busy for 20 to 30 minutes :)
- One three year old can make quite a mess especially when she claps her hands full of cream :)

Overall it was a blast. She had even more fun washing her hands, face, hair, apron, cloths and cookie sheet.

Here are a few pictures and a short video.

It's Raining, It's Snowing

Our former paper shredder gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago and we welcomed this AMAZING new shredder into our family. It cross cuts paper and shreds credit cards or CDs. VERY COOL! It even has a sensor around the opening of the blades. If you touch it, the machine turns off. Makes me feel much better, but Ms A is still closely supervised by mommy. Whenever there is paper laying around our home, Ms. A and I race to the shredder. She'll giggle and dance as the paper enters the slot. She will also get down on her knees and declare "Mommy, I see the knives cutting the paper!" (with a HUGE grin.) She loves to watch the paper 'snow' down on her evergrowning mountain of paper. Thank heavens she hasn't figured out that she can empty that mountain on the floor. :)

FYI : If you need any paper shredded, let Ms. A know. :)