Sunday Snapshot -- Home again, home again!!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy 4th of July holiday!!

Sunday Snapshot -- Monkey Toes

How Clara earned the nickname "Monkey Toes".....

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!!

Rainbow Slides

On the drive back from the Pancreatic Cancer Symposium last weekend, we were so lucky to spot a fantastic rainbow!! (A sign I took as a good omen!) Emily remarked that she wished she could slide down the rainbow, and I thought that was a great idea!

First, take some photos of the kids pretending to go down a super-fun rainbow slide! Ya-hoo!!!

Cut up some small pieces of colored paper to make your rainbow mosaic picture. We focused on one color at a time. This was great cutting practice for Emily! And it's a good exercise for fine-motor skills too!

Clara was soooo happy to see the glue!!

Glue on the cut-out photo, and admire your FUN artwork!! Emily thinks Clara's picture is soooo funny!

Weeeeeeeee!!!

We also found that leftover confetti makes for some fun pixie dust!

Have fun!!

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Please help send me to Vermont for the Stonyfield Barnstorming Tour by voting for me here! As an added bonus, if I make the top 3, Stonyfield will make a $5000 donation to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. ((fingers crossed!))

You are allowed one vote per day per valid email address, and voting ends TOMORROW @ noon EST.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who is voting for me!! I truly appreciate it!

Sunday Snapshot -- On Your Mark, Get Set...

......Go!!!

Wishing everyone a fun weekend! I'm still trying to catch my breath from all these races!!

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Please help send me to Vermont for the Stonyfield Barnstorming Tour by voting for me here! As an added bonus, if I make the top 3, Stonyfield will make a $5000 donation to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. ((fingers crossed!))

You are allowed one vote per day per valid email address, and voting ends May 25th @ noon EST.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who is voting for me!! I truly appreciate it!

Photo Puppets

These photo puppets were so much fun to make, and I think the girls will enjoy making scenery to act out plays with them. What little girl doesn't like to imagine herself as a flying fairy? For boys, try this same technique, but turn them into superheroes instead. Not that there's anything wrong with boys who want to be fairies or anything... I'm just sayin'.

This is mostly a Mommy/Daddy craft, but you didn't think we let the girls have ALL the fun, did you? Heavens, no! Mark took some photos of the girls playing with magic wands and I cut them out.

Sunday Snapshot -- High Tech Toddler

We purchased this refurbished ancient iMac on eBay years ago as Emily's first learning computer. This week, it has been officially passed on to Clara! It takes a lickin'... and keeps on tickin'!

Easy City Scape Mural

During taping for a segment on today's 10! Show, I had the pleasure of meeting Eren Cannata, a very talented singer/songwriter who was today's musical guest. Eren performed his title track from his latest CD "Blame it on the City" -- a fantastic song, and it was the inspiration for our lovely city scape mural!

Emily and I put the mural together using inexpensive masking tape, construction paper for buildings, and Post-It Notes of various sizes for the windows. I love how bright and colorful it looks in our living room!

Added bonus -- it makes a super-fun backdrop for spontaneous jumping on the couch sessions!!

Sunday Snapshot -- Happy Mother's Day!

................from my brother's puppy, Storm!!  

Sunday Snapshot -- Look Who's into Sidewalk Chalk!

Wishing you a fun and frugal weekend!!

Cheap Thrills -- Poolside Edition

It was such a sunny and warm day, Emily decided to take a dip in the pool.

Ahhhh... refreshing!

Happy April Fool's Day!!

Sunday Snapshot -- Egg Hunt Fun

Wishing you and your family and fun-filled weekend!

Sunday Snapshot -- She's Six!!!

Sunday Snapshot -- Hurray for Naps!

Sunday Snapshot -- Little Eskimo

Cheap Thrills -- Tea Time Edition

For a fun time, take photos of your child (or yourself) jumping around. Print out the photos, cut them out, and attach to the end of the string of a tea bag.

They make fabulous tea tags!!

Lucky for us, we have plenty of aforementioned photos, since Emily is constantly in motion! In mind were these tea tags from a café in Turkey. We found they were easy (and so much fun) to make ourselves.

I think they would be the perfect gift -- with a personalized touch! They would be great for grandparents, aunts, uncles, and of course, teachers. Basically anyone who loves tea! And who doesn't love tea??

And for us, tea time just became a whole lot more fun!

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A Quick Update

We wanted to pop in here to thank you for all of your caring and supportive comments. Your powerful thoughts and prayers are working! My father is home now and is recovering remarkably well from surgery. Much of the girls' artwork was proudly displayed in his hospital room, and we printed out all of the wonderful comments from this post for him to see.

Our local MOMS club was also a huge help, and many members dropped off meals for the girls and Mark while I was away. We are very grateful for all of their help and support! And someone... we still don't know who.... even shoveled our driveway during the intense snowstorms we had here. We feel truly blessed to have so many people looking out for us!

Yesterday was Mark's birthday, and we went to a Chinese restaurant to celebrate! Hence, the photo above.

We'll be back Monday with our usual adventures in frugal fun!

Who Needs Toys....

Who needs toys....

... when you can have Mommy's purse? Seriously, what is with her obsession with my forbidden purse of mystery? [Note -- I love how she dug through all of that just to get to the coveted lip gloss.]

Sunday Snapshot -- Frugal Entertainment

Mark and Emily were outside raking leaves, while I was inside taking care of some laundry. A few minutes after they left to start raking, I heard Clara struggling with something...

... it was like a grunting sort of noise. Was she trying to lift something heavy? I went to investigate...

...and I found this! She had dragged her princess chair to the front door to watch the "show".

I could have sworn I heard her say, "Hey, you missed a spot!"

More frugal crafty goodness, and a special blogiversary celebration is coming up this week! We are very excited!!

The Halloween Deal

Between Clara's Little Red Riding Hood, and Emily's Link from Zelda, we're kickin' it old school in our household this Halloween.

Mark made the shield from cardboard, and I sewed the tunic, hat, and sheath for the sword ($5.00 fabric from JoAnn). The sword was a Target find ($5).

Emily and I worked out a deal. She gets the M&M's. I get the Reese's. Nobody gets hurt.

Wishing everyone a happy and safe Halloween.

Sunday Snapshot -- Princess Hair

Instructions for this awesome 'do found here!