Get well soon Uncle Hes

My brother is in the hospital right now and in quarantine so we are not able to go visit him so I thought we would make him some cookies to send with my mom. Asher was my precious little chef. I so love cooking with my kids!

And then I made this cute little card with band aids for him to send a little humor his way since he doesn't know when he will be released.

He somehow got some kind of serious infection in his back and had to have back surgery to get all the infection out of his back. Poor guy! And they still don't even know what he got and how he got it. He has been in so much pain we are just hoping he gets better soon!

Marble racing

What do you do when it's the last week of summer and you are running out of steam and ideas to entertain the kids and it's about 100 degrees outside?

Well it involves marbles and pool noodles....

I got the idea on pinterest and it was so easy and fun. You just cut the noodles in half and keep them together with tooth pics. Simple as that!

Of course engineer Boston decided to change the track and make it even better. I know he's gonna be some kind of architect or engineer when he grows up. It's amazing how his brain works.

Best part: this entertained them for hours. $3 spent = SCORE!!!

Vinyl Chalkboard decorating

I love chalk boards. I have been dreaming of painting my entire fridge with chalkboard paint for a long time. There's a show on the Disney channel called "Good Luck Charlie" that has a chalkboard fridge as well. When you have an old boring fridge you gotta do something to make it better. I got super excited when I saw this idea on Under the Sycamore, which meant I could put off the long process of painting the entire fridge but still have all the fun! I bought my chalkboard contact paper roll here. I looked all over town for chalk board markers and everyone looks at me like I have three eyes. So I'm gonna have to break down and order some online. Until then we will have fun with old fashioned chalk.

I also replaced my white dry erase board for this sleek, fun, flat chalk board from the contact paper. Now it fits in with my Tuscan theme kitchen more than the big white board.

And here's a shot of our kitchen. It's been a slow and long transformation. It used to have green counters and wood cabinets. I LOVE paint. With it you can transform anything for very little cost.

Below you can see the table that sits our big family for meals. There used to be a green table attached to the wall with 4 green chairs. The old owner was obsessed with green. Our carpet is green and the fans used to be green. The last green left is the carpet in the house. One day....

Below is another new addition Sean added a few months ago that I don't know how I lived without! Now I have more space in my cabinets and I'm not having to rummage through a ton of pots to find the right one and then go looking for the matching top. Below it you will notice the Menu I designed for my family. To see more about it go here. I used to have it hanging on the wall but recently put it in a recipe holder instead.

Live well....Laugh often...Love much

I painted the cabinets beige and then went over them with brown to make it a more Tuscan look.

These bar stools go way back. When I was going away to college my mom and I found these at Salvation Army. They were covered with green leather (what is it with green people?). It must have come from a smoking home because the foam smelled awful. I got new foam, covered them, refinished the wood and here they are still being used 15 years later.

Whitman original lego men

I have been wanting to do this craft ever since I saw it here a few months ago. We ordered our lego ice tray here and when it came in the boys couldn't wait to make their own lego men! I have some serious lego loving boys in my house and what better way to get them excited about doing a craft!I also pulled out our cookie cutters to give us a little variety. I have a lot of cookie cutters my mom saved from when I was a little girl. Some of my favs are Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog, cupid Mickey, and Ronald McDonald.

I love this picture for several reasons: Asher's smile, the fact that he is eating instead of helping, and that Boston is pounding the heck out of his dough.

Dallas working with super hero focus to get them just right.


And here they are getting ready to go into the oven.

A few days later we got to paint them!

I love how Asher sticks his tongue out when he concentrating.

Instead of just using paint I also brought out my assortment of paint pens. I liked them better. make sure you spray them with clear acrylic afterward to protect them.

Unique 4th of July shirts

We are having a family reunion this weekend for 4th of July and I decided to make all the kids matching, yet unique to them, shirts. I designed them on facebook and then printed them on Fabric Transfer paper. This was my first time doing this and it was very easy. An important note is to make sure you print your image "Mirror" so that when you iron it on the tee it's going in the right direction.

I was really happy with how they came out. I used a 4th of July free font online and colored the top blue and the bottom red. (Except as you can see on Kaitlyn's I was a little distracted by the running of 8 feet all around me and reversed the colors on hers....but it's still cute...hindsight I wish I had reversed all the girls...oh well.) I didn't want their names plastered all over the shirt but I still wanted them on there so I added it small in the letter on each shirt. I thought they came out super cute and can't wait to photograph them on the kids this weekend!

And as you can see I always had lots of help. It's no wonder I didn't have more mistakes than the one color reversal! And to a mom with only one kid I'm sure this picture looks mortifying with Sydney not only near the iron but unplugging it. I assure you I was very careful. And those of you reading this with multiple kids you understand that you have to do what you can when you can with all the little fingers helping you when they do!

PVC foam swords

This morning Sydney had swimming lessons at 8:20 and the boys rolled out of bed not long before having to leave. So I decided that after swimming we would just head to Chickfila and have breakfast and play on the playground. I have to say it was a lot of fun, especially the part where the stay at home dad and his 4 kids (3 girls and 1 boy) wanted to know how in the world I stayed sane with 3 boys. It seems like everywhere I go lately this is the comment I get...."wow, three boys! You have your hands full!" And yes it's a lot of work....a lot of craziness....a lot of energy....but I wouldn't have it any other way!

So after getting some of their wiggles out I made a spur of the moment decision to go to Lowes and make these PVC foam swords today. Yet another project from the fabulous Ashley! I have to say it was a fun trip in Lowes with three boys trailing behind me with pvc pipe in hand with big, excited smiles! I thought the guy in the PVC dept was gonna give me a strange look but he just replied, "You wouldn't believe the projects people come in here with to use PVC piping." Humm I thought...I need to research more things to do with this cheap stuff!

Sydney thought the sword was funny. When she gets a little older I might make her a little one...but I'll have to find some pink duct tape!

It was a really easy project and the kids sure enjoyed it. We had extra piping and made the neighbor kid one (in the first pic he's the one on the left). It made for much more fair fighting with 4 kids....silver vs blue!

Custom Bleached T-shirts

I'm trying to find new and fun things to do each day since the newness of summer vacation has worn off and I feel like a referee in a WWF match everyday. I recently found my way to an awesome blog called Under the Sycamore and I have completely fallen in love with her DIY kids ideas....among many other things...especially the fact that her kids are about the same age as mine and she had three boys and then a little girl.

Yesterday we made these bleached shirts and had a blast doing it! I had never used Freezer paper before but now my mind is racing with all the fun things I can do with it! I can't wait for Sydney to get older because the boys attention span isn't always as long with crafts, but they sure loved spraying bleach on their blue shirts!

This picture is a miracle in itself....or my kids are just getting older. They promised me one good picture all together before stripping and getting into the pool. And Boston and Dallas were gracious enough to hold Sydney's hands so she could stand since she still isn't doing that on her own. Don't they all look like such angels in this picture....

Boston, now 8 years old and getting ready to enter 3rd grade!!

Dallas, 6 years old going into 1st grade

Asher, 4 years old entering into preschool

And my sweet little Miss Sydney, 16 months....staying close to Mama for several more years!

Pumpkin carving

We had a lot of pumpkins this year to carve and had a fun time doing it. Boston did his own. He drew it, pulled all the seeds out and carved it. It was the first time he did it all by himself and he did an amazing job! Sydney enjoyed watching the festivities. Dallas didn't like the seeds inside at all but was excited that daddy was going to put the batman symbol on his. Asher...well Asher wanted to paint his, then he didn't, then he wanted the pumpkins away from his seat, then he was crying.....well....he was acting like a 3 year old. Maybe next year Asher.My little pumpkin celebrating her first HalloweenSome of the pumpkins finishedDallas had batman, Asher was mickey mouse, then there was a pirate and some funny faces. I don't know where Boston's had walked off to at this point

And here they are all lite up. Boston's masterpiece is the far right one.