Kid's Book Festival

We headed out to our local PBS Kid's Book Festival and had a blast, even with the 90+ degree weather in September, which is very rare in our neck of the woods!

It was a nice surprise when we got there and EVERY child received a new book! Wow! Mac found a very colorful book, Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! Izzie is very interested in the weather these days, so she was very excited to find, What Will The Weather Be Like Today?

They were also passing out used books to the children and had a variety of craft stations.

Izzie making a bookmark.

Of course, there were many PBS characters too!

(And, wouldn't you know it...my batteries died....ahhh, I only was able to take 4 pictures!!!)

Preschool and Tot School

Yep, we had a busy week, so Preschool and Tot School were pretty much nonexistent! Well, the structured part...we did read a lot of books, visited the library, attended two homeschooling co-ops and squeezed in a little family fun too!

We spent a few days at Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg and the girls had so much fun! I was really surprised by how much fun! I was a little worry that they were too young, but it was perfect for them.

Our room...

Izzie loved that she and Mac had their own little "cabin" inside the room...

I loved the fireplace...and yes, we did use it, even though, it was not needed! (We just turned up the air conditioner....kidding!)

View from balcony...we didn't make it outside to swim on this visit! There was also a rock climbing wall and miniature golf course.

On to the gigantic inside water park...

Mac had the best time with the water spouts!

When Izzie is asked, what was your favorite part? Her answer...

Catching Mac on the slide!!

Dinner at the Moose Lodge...

In our own little hut!

Then, on to the show!

Finally, a bedtime story with the Wolf...

The girls were a little scared by the big wolf, but....

They loved the "girly" wolf...

Other sites around the lodge...

Izzie teaching Daddy how to play checkers, her way, of course!

We had a magnificent time....a lot of great memories, cherished....


To see more Preschool or Tot School activities, please visit....

Full of surprises...

Most mornings, my husband has already left for work before the girls and I are up. The other morning, this is what I found attached to the refrigerator...

A sweet little note from my husband! Don't you just love that he took time to draw a leaf and use different colors too! It made my morning, just seeing the note!

And, I was completely shocked when I opened it up....Wahooooo!!! Starbucks, here I come! He's full of surprises!

stART: Mouse Shapes

For Izzie's stART project this week, we read Mouse Shapes.

She made an awesome abstract piece of art out of shapes!

To see more stART projects, head over to A Mommy's Adventures!

Wordless Wednesday: How we spent our last few days...

Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, Virginia

Homemade Accessories...

As most people know, I'm a bargain shopper, who gets super excited when I find great deals!

I purchased these placemats at Walmart on clearance for only 25 cents each!! I really didn't need anymore placemats...so, I started to brainstorm and decided to use them to make a curtain for our newly renovated kitchen...

I sewed one end of each placemat, in order to slide it onto the curtain rod. I only used three of the four that I purchased. Once all three placemats were on the curtain rod, there was a little slit in between each placemat that I wasn't real happy about, so for a quick easy fix, I glued a brown ribbon ($3.99 at Michael's...I did use a 50% off coupon) down where the slits were. Done! A new kitchen curtain for $2.75

Well, once the curtain was finished...I had all this brown ribbon left over and had to use it! So, I started looking around for a project...

I then noticed the 3 basket canisters that I had bought at a yard sale earlier this summer for only $4 and the plastic containers were included inside too! As you can tell, I really didn't need these either, as I haven't placed anything inside the first two canisters! But, they were a great deal...except, the smallest one has a little hole on top.

Umm...I have all this brown ribbon left over....are you thinking, what I'm thinking?

Yep!!

Tot School

We had a laid back Tot School week. Mac had her 18-month well-check appointment. She weighs in at 23 pounds and is 31 inches tall.

Mac working on a shelf activity. This week's theme was shapes. To see all her shelf activities, click here.

This was her first time watercolor painting!

Play-doh has become a favorite activity! She loves tearing it into little pieces!

She has begun pretend playing...she feeds her stuff animals, puts them to bed, gives them hugs and kisses, and recently began changing their diapers too!

Peek-a-Boo

Favorite photo of the week.

Mac is 19 months old

To see more Tot School activities, check out 1+1+1=1.

Kitchen Renovation

We've been doing a lot of projects around the house this summer. I'm really really good at having about 20 projects happening at one time....which, takes forever to get one completed! However, the kitchen is finally finished!!

My husband and I did 90% of the work and my Dad helped with the other 10%.

Before pictures...

We have a galley style kitchen.

After pictures...

Our tasks included:

1. Painting the walls a neutral color (Martha Stewart paint from Home Depot).

2. Replacing the old countertops. I thought this was going to be impossible to do by ourselves, but after finding out the installation price that Lowes was going to charge, we were determine to do it ourselves. It was super simple and anyone can do it! Unscrew screws under countertop and lift off countertop...yep, it's that simple to remove! Then simply place new countertop down, screw in screws underneath and you're done. Seriously, it took a total of 30 minutes for removal and installation of the new countertops on and we had three separate countertops to install. Well, the one with the sink was a little trickier...unplugging dishwasher and garbage disposal, but still very doable by non-handymen!

3. Installation of a glass tile backsplash. This is our third home and I've always wanted a backsplash, so I decided to do one myself and I think it turned out great! Again, it was much easier than what I expected it to be. Around the outlets was a little tricky and grouting in between the million tiles took forever, but it was worth the many hours!

4. To cut cost, we kept our old sink, but added a fabulous faucet!

I love the way it has an adjustable head and two different spraying options. Thanks Dad for installing the new faucet!

5. We changed the hardware on the cabinets.

6. Replaced the white outlets with brown outlets. Again, thanks Dad for all the electrical work!

7. Finally....accessorize, accessorize, accessorize. I really like the bamboo dishrack and paper towel holder. I jazzed up some basket canisters from a yard sale and made the curtain.

I absolutely love the way the our kitchen turned out and love it even more that my husband and I did most of the work and it still turned out!!