Monday, October 31, 2011

Cowboys and Indians

What a busy weekend full of fall fun! With two Halloween parties and volunteering for trick or trunk at our church, we spent most of the weekend in costumes! And I think I have eaten my weight in candy corn!! Each year around September I start thinking about costume ideas. I love for our costumes to all coordinate but now that we are a family of four this is more challenging! I try to get creative with costumes and not just go out and purchase one for all of us. My poor husband just waits for me to tell him what he will be wearing each year. :) He is such a good sport and goes along with all my crazy ideas!
This year I decided on cowboys and Indians-mostly because this allowed us to purchase the least amount of items possible! We only had to purchase one little Indian costume and one little cowboy hat. The rest we either had or borrowed from friends. I made my Indian costume from a family member's old dress. Super easy. I just cut the ends to make fringe and glued Aztec ribbon around the arms and neck. I made a headband with feather attached, wore brown boots and my costume was complete. Cowboy outfits are easy as long as you have a bandanna and hat! 

 My sweet little Indian!

Happy Halloween! 

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Homemade Cinnamon Dolce Latte

I love coffee. I mean I really love coffee. I wake up looking forward to my morning cup of coffee and find myself wanting it throughout the day. Every dessert, book, or comfy chair is more complete when a giant mug of coffee is in your hands. Rainy days? They scream coffee all day long!
I could spend a fortune at Starbucks because I love almost every drink there. If I'm in a ten mile radius of Starbucks I somehow find my car slowly drifting that way and before I know it I have a large steaming cup of soul warming goodness. Oh and I live less than 5 min away so you get the picture of how often I frequent there. The drinks there are so expensive though! You can hardly make it out of there spending less than five bucks. So I figured it up and if I visited Starbucks everyday, in a year I would have spent over $1800! Seriously? Think of all I could buy with $1800!
So anyways I have been experimenting with making my own Starbucks like coffee drinks at home, and I have to admit that they have been just as good! The cinnamon dolce latte is one of my classic favorites and it is SO EASY to make at home.
You just need one cup of milk, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, and 1-2 teaspoons of sugar.
And of course coffee!!
 Mix cinnamon and sugar together. Add more or less sugar depending on how sweet you like your coffee drinks.
 Add milk and whisk together. Heat over medium heat just until it begins to boil.
 Pour into your coffee and you're ready to enjoy your own cinnamon dolce latte!

Now wasn't that easy??
Enjoy!!!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Fall Artwork

My two year old daughter is obsessed with painting right now. Every morning she says "Mommy, I want to paint today." She is happy just freestyle painting with her little paint brushes but lately I've been trying to explore some new ideas with her. We've been using our fingers, sponge letters and today we decided to create some fall art. I wanted to share with you three of the activities we did. They are all so easy and require very few supplies!
 Collect orange paint, a round sponge and paper. I happened to have these round sponges with a handle, but you could always use a different shaped sponge.

 Draw a simple pumpkin shape on the paper and then let them get to painting!

Cute little pumpkin! 
 This is our attempt at a colorful fall tree. I first painted out a tree trunk and branches. If your child is older they could draw their own. Then I let her use the round sponge to add colored leaves. She loved this!

 Some of the leaves started wandering off the tree :) We just considered those falling leaves and the one that fell a little too far we turned into a pumpkin!

Our third art project goes with the fall children's song "Five Little Pumpkins". My daughter loves this little song. If you are not familiar with it, here are the words and motions. Try singing it with your little one! They will love it!

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate (five fingers up)
The first one said "Oh my it's getting Late" (Hands on Cheeks)
The second one said "There's a chill in the air" (arms around self)
The third one said "But we don't care" (swing pointer finger)
The fourth one said "We're ready for some fun!" (hand in air)
The fifth one said "Let's run, run, run!" (running motion)
So woooo went the wind, and out went the lights,
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

So after several rounds of this cute little song we decided to make a picture out of it. We created our gate using some wooden sticks I had. You could use craft sticks or toothpicks also.

 We designed our gate! This was her first time using glue. We had a couple of instances of trying to eat the glue, due to it resembling icing. So there was also a lesson on not eating glue. :)
 I had these foam pumpkin stickers that I have had forever and have had no use for. They were perfect for this activity. Of course you could always use paint or draw the pumpkins!
Five little pumpkins sitting on the gate!

Have fun exploring your creative side!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Pumpkin Carving Party

Last year was the first year that I decided to host a pumpkin carving party. This past weekend we had our second one and I think this is a tradition that is going to stick around! It is such a perfect fall occasion! We kept things simple with soups, finger foods, and cookies. We had a pumpkin carving contest, painting for the little ones, and a bonfire to end it all. We were blessed with perfect weather and the entire event went perfectly! Lots of fun memories made!
 Carvers at work!
Pumpkin painting for the little ones!
Messy but oh so fun!!


Wagon rides!


We had so many delicious foods!!

 Comfort food chili...
 Pumpkin Trail Mix...
"Monster" Cookies...
Pumpkin Spice Cookies

I made some simple decorations for the party-
                                        



After lots of carving and LOTS of eating here are the finished products!!!

And the winners are......

 
First place prize- Adorable fall apron!!

Can't wait for next year!!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Banners

When it comes to decorating for parties, almost every party needs some type of banner. When it comes to purchasing one you will quickly find your options are limited. Very limited. If you want any sense of uniqueness then you must get creative! Of course not everyone has the tools, ability, or time to create their own banner. There are so many adroable banners that can be purchased on websites such as Etsy. The great thing is these banners can be personalized!
Here are some banners I have created for various occasions:
This one I did for my cousin's graduation party. Simple and colorful and the "congrats" could be used for a separate occasion.


These were done for a couple's baby shower. They wanted something girly, but still classy because it was being held at a restuarant. I designed the banner so that it could be used for two occasions. The sign said "Welcome Eliana" and was hung as one piece across a stage. The following day they separted the words and hung across a fireplace mantle for a different baby shower! They sign worked so well for both occasions and was super cute!
This was from my daughter's second birthday party! Minnie Mouse theme! More pictures from this party to come in a future post! I loved all the bright colors in this banner!

This was for a 50th birthday party! Actually it was used for two separate birthday parties! I love making signs versatile so they can be reused!