Life as we go it

Janine said that we could bake the glasses in the oven to "set" the Sharpie markings permanently, but I'm a little scared to try it. I'm just going to leave mine alone and hope I never need to wash them! I'm planning to use them as candle holders.

This was a REALLY easy craft for those of you out there looking for something "homemade" to make and give as gifts this holiday season. I highly recommend trying it :)

Over the course of 4 nights (one letter per night) while watching TV, I cut and pasted the map pieces onto the letters. It was kind of a pain in the booty, but it was well worth the outcome.



My favorite thing about making little craft projects like this for Liam is that someday I can say "hey, your mom made that for you when you were a toddler." And it feels good that I didn't just go out and buy already-map-wrapped letters for more $.

And the rest of the maps that I have left over? I can use them for a couple more mappy projects :)

Way back in April I posted a photo of this boring ol' piece of wood, with the intention of making a giant growth chart for Liam:

Liam is just shy of 2' 8".

Okay...so Matt and I are going to measure our heights too! But we actually want to see if we'll SHRINK as the years go by :) And you need to know - Matt was wearing shoes when I measured him for this (he cheated), so he's not that much taller than me :)

Liam decorated his pumpkin (or as he calls it, his "pa 'in") this weekend.

I decided to go the easy route this year! Instead of using knives to carve his pumpkin - which would involve him sitting and watching me carve it + explaining how "knives are dangerous" while he throws a tantrum because he can't use the knife - I decided that paint would be the more fun option for him :)

The facial expressions that this little kiddo makes just cracks me up!

This past weekend Liam and I took a little road trip to my mom's house.

Matt was out of town for the weekend. He had a work event in Florida (lucky duck). So I thought it'd be nice for Liam and I to "get away" as well. Although Liam and I did not escape to palm trees and warm weather and sunshine, it was still nice to see my mom and family.

Both of my brothers and their families were there as well. So Liam basically ran around with his cousins the entire time (which is awesome because it gives me a bit of a break)!

On Saturday night my sister-in-law, my nieces and I took a trip to Hobby Lobby (it's kind of becoming a tradition, since my SIL and I are both craft nuts), had a mom-made meal and watched the Badgers game on TV. On Sunday we bundled up the kids and ran around in my mom's yard, picked apples from my mom's apple tree, visited my grandma (who lives next door to my mom), watched the Packers game and enjoyed my mom's famous chicken noodle soup.


The highlight of my weekend was digging through my mom's basement and finding a ton of mine and my brothers' old childhood toys. I went into the basement to get my old Barbie dolls for my 5-year old niece to play with and I came across a goldmine of memories!!

I found my brothers' old Matchbox cars collection, a box of their Transformers and GI Joe guys and a box of Constructs. I found two bins full of Barbie dolls and endless accessories, a box of Trolls and a bunch of stuffed animals (my Cabbage Patch doll, my Minnie Mouse from when we went to Disneyland, etc.). I found myself immersed in a pile of childhood memories. And a cloud of childhood laughs. Oh my sweet, sweet childhood....

And the best part is -- my nieces and nephews and Liam LOVED playing with all of these ancient (ha ha) toys! It was like a little Jason and Nathan and Erin sitting on the family room floor playing all over again...

Of course I HAD to take some photographs of some of my favorites! They're not the best quality (I snapped them quickly on my iPhone) but you'll get the point. I wonder if any of you had these exact same toys??














I could have taken photos of more things, but I don't want to bore you too much :)

Did this bring back any childhood memories for you?

Thank you, mom and dad, for keeping so many of our toys!

S bought old frames at a thrift store. Then she primed and painted them white. We had the option of "shabby chic-ing" the frames with sandpaper if we wanted. I chose to do it and I love how it turned out. 











Every year when I decorate for Fall I'll see this craft and remember the great time I had with my crafty ladies :)

Do you have any cool Fall or Halloween crafts in the works? I'd love to hear about them