Easter Ideas

Hello!  I can't begin to explain the craziness that is our life right now.  I'm still exercising with BodyRock (albeit it's only 3 times a week) and still combing Pinterest when I have a couple minutes to spare.

Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be able to post some pics of what we've done with our house because we're about to put it up for sale (one of the four things going on right now).  Remember the whole different carpet in every room thing when I posted about decorating the kids' rooms?  Well the rest of the house was just as bad.  But with some creative solutions and good choices we've been able to update it much more than I expected.

For now though I thought I'd share some great ideas I've found online or on Pinterest for Easter because it's only two and a bit weeks away.... yikes!

First, I'm obsessed with Subway Art.  When I post pics of our house, you'll see one I made for our living room that has important places and dates for our family.  Here are a couple cute Easter subway art printables.  Click on either image to go directly to the site where you can download them:

Source: Yeah, That's Macho & Tough

Source: Eighteen25

Last minute Valentine ideas

I just realized Valentine's day is on Tuesday.  I have Mason's class Valentines ready but I haven't thought about what to do for anyone at home!

I'm definitely going to create my own version of this card I saw on Pinterest for DH.   

source:  stylemepretty.com via Pinterest

I love the 'two halves make a whole' idea, but I'll use the red paper left over from my Superhero Valentines to create the half hearts and put them on a blank note card.  Then I'll write him a little love letter inside.  You could easily create something like this on your computer and then print it onto cardstock yourself.

Superhero Valentines

In October on Pinterest I saw cute little Hallowe'en packages to hand out at school that looked like Frankenstein, vampires and monsters.  I wasn't able to make them in time for Mason so I thought Valentine's Day would be a perfect time to try my own version.

Superhero Valentine

Mason is in a class full of boys so the whole Valentine's thing in the traditional spirit simply won't work, so what better than wishing them a 'Super' valentine with a superhero-inspired package!

ECHOage - A great idea for making kids' birthdays more meaningful

This week I got an emailed invitation to a birthday party for one of Mason's classmates.  The email came via ECHOage, a website that was created by two moms who thought there was a better way to celebrate birthdays.

Here's what the site says about itself:

ECHOage is a online birthday party service where children learn the value of giving and receiving while celebrating. No matter what your child’s party theme or venue, you can easily ECHOage ANY party.

Step #1. Choose an invitation, select a cause and invite your guests.

Step #2. Guests RSVP and contribute [via online credit card payments] and you get to watch the giving grow on your ECHOage Tracker.

Step #3. When your party is over, you get half the funds in the mail from ECHOage to purchase any birthday gift you wish to have AND you donate the other half to a charity of your choice.

Easy on guests, meaningful for kids and fun for everyone!

There are lots of things I like about this idea.  First, it's super-environmentally friendly.  No invitations, no wrapping paper or toy packaging to throw away.  Second, as soon as I sent my RSVP and contributed to the party online I received a certificate for Mason via email thanking him for making a difference so I can explain, as well as I can to a 3 year old, that part of his present to Andreas is to help other people.  Third, a straight donation makes gift-giving easy and takes away the 'What should I get'? that I find plagues me every time I have to make the decision for a little person other than my own.  Lastly, and this is the most reason in my opinion, I throw birthdays for my kids to celebrate how special and important they are to me, not for them to get presents.  In fact, every invitation I've ever sent out requested 'Best Wishes Only' but we have unbelievably generous friends and family and they never come empty-handed.  Using ECHOage, we would be able to donate half of that generosity to a worthy cause and I love that, because I want birthdays to be about the celebration of the individual, not about what they get from people.

As for the other half of the contributions that are mailed to us, I think I would put it into a savings account either for university or to help my kids buy their first home.  But that's just me :)

Want to ECHOage your next birthday party, here's a link to their website.

Have a great weekend!

- Jacs

(Re)decorating the kids' rooms: Mason's Room

Like Avery's room, Mason's is also a work in progress.  I (sadly) agreed to buy a toddler bed for him to transition him from his crib to a regular bed (my little boy is growing up) near the end of November and that precipitated a number changes to his room.

Wall Graphics - 3 DIY Options

I love Facebook.  It has allowed me to reconnect with fabulous people who I've met throughout the years.   One of those people is an old friend of mine from high school who just moved into a new house with his family. He sent me a quick message yesterday asking if I had any ideas/tips for painting on a kids wall.

Here are the three easiest ways that I know of:

1) Using a projector to create a mural

You can use one of the old-school projectors that your teachers used to use.  Or if you have a projector at work, you can hook it up to your laptop at home and project straight onto the wall that way too (this also skips the 'creating a transparency' step).

This is the least expensive method (provided you don't go out and buy a projector!) and the primary benefit is that you have complete control over the creative because you can use any image that you like.  The drawback is that it can take a lot of time if your mural/images are detailed and if you aren't comfortable painting it may seem a little daunting.

Last Minute Mother's Day Gifts

I've been living in bookkeeping hell for the last while (it turns out our bookkeeper last year was horribly incompetent) and then found out this morning that the situation is worse than we thought.  In any case, my limited amount of free time to post fun things and to get ready for Avery's party is going to become even more limited (yikes!) but one of my sisters is coming to stay with us for a week (isn't that incredible?!) to watch the kids so that I can work on the bookkeeping thing... somehow I'll have to find time to get the rest done too although I know the postings will take a back seat to everything else, so my apologies in advance.

Since Mother's Day is only a day away I realized that I need make something for my Mom!  I tried a kid craft tonight based on a great idea that one of my friends came up with using kids' hands.  However, it's still in the beginning stages and I won't know if it worked until tomorrow.... which will be too late for you to try it too.  With that in mind, here are a couple ideas that I'll likely choose from if mine doesn't work out!

Fresh Flowers

Source:  stylehive.com

My mom loves flowers.  Rather than buying a bouquet and giving it to her straight from the store, I prefer to do a little rearranging and put it in a vase/container of my own.  It doesn't have to be a big bouquet, just a beautiful one.  (Ikea & Dollarama have pretty and inexpensive glass vases)