Marble Paper Craft

Today we did a paper craft experiment with shaving cream and food coloring.

We put shaving cream in a pan and drops of food coloring. Ben mixed it in (I think his favorite part). Then got the card stock paper I prepped by putting tape on the backside.

He squished the paper in the shaving cream.

 Pulled it out and I scraped the shaving cream off.

We ended up with some cool marbling effects.

When we were done, Ben played with the leftover cream.

 He ended up with blue hands, but at least it was a clean mess.

Plus, I got a hand in the face along with a kiss and a hug for a fun time.

Valentine's Week

We had a week full of Valentine's fun and food. I let Benjamin pick the Valentine's he wanted to give to his preschool class and teacher. I tried to convince him to do something else, but he's a determined boy.

For his class, we made superhero lolly pops. I got to help out with the craft for his Valentine's Day party and helped pass out all the treats and cards. The superheros were a hit with all the kids. Benjamin knew what would make his classmates happy.

His teacher got a bouquet of cake pops. I've never made cake pops and after reading a few pins on Pintrest I figured I could manage my way through a batch. They are fairly time consuming, but not as complex as I thought they would be. I have dipped chocolates before, so that was helpful.

Benjamin did help by eating the sprinkles that didn't stick to the chocolate. He also helped bag the cake pops and eat a few of them.

The finished product was very festive.

 Our next project was to make some sugar cookies. We made a big one for Mike.

Ben helped draw the heart and spell his name.

We enjoyed several treats. Mike got me strawberries and a cupcake from Cravings. Yum!

We then enjoyed our traditional heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's. Throughout dinner Benjamin came around giving Mike, Levi and me hugs and kisses. I'm so happy that I have my family and hope they enjoy these memories we create together.

Valentine Quilt

The Valentine quilt is ready in time to enjoy for the month of February. I used the Moda Table for Two fabric with the Radio Way pattern. This was a quick and easy pattern to piece together. The framed rails are quilted with a heart pattern and the inside rails and long rails are quilted with a feathered pattern. My machine quilter was excited how it turned out and sent me a picture after she finished.

Below are details.

 

 Looks great on the wall...bright and festive to cheer up the room!

San Diego Christmas Trip

Christmas day we got up early, packed the car and the kids and left for the airport. It was cold and snowy with icy roads. We thought we were going to miss our flight, but managed to get there 10 minutes before boarding started. We've never been on an airplane when it's been snowing and got to experience deicing of the plane. It was a fascinating but long process.

We were thankful to arrive in San Diego with warm weather. However, leaving the cold was only the beginning of our adventure. The car rental agency overbooked rentals that day and set us up with another agency. The car was 4x the amount we budgeted, but we were promised that we'd be reimbursed for the difference. That night Benjamin got sick and ended throwing up. He was miserable and freaked out. Even later in the evening, I was sick going through the same thing Ben did.

We stayed at a vacation rental condo by the beach in Oceanside. The first two days of our trip we were recovering and relaxing. Finally everyone felt better and we ventured out to Old Town San Diego. We found the historic site of the Mormon Battalion. We went through the visitor center and enjoyed the presentation they had.

At the end, Ben got to pan for gold...

and pump water for washing.

I got Mike to pose with Ben.

Ben's highlight of the trip was the Old Town Model Railroad Depot. He ran around and around enjoying the trains. We even went back on the last day in San Diego and spent an hour there.

 The detail was amazing. There was even a hobo on the tracks.

The rest of the trip from here on out I was sick but managed to go along with our plans. I was able to enjoy the boys excitement of the things they got to see.

The San Diego Wild Safari Park was nice to see animals in as close to their own environment as possible.

We went to Sea World and saw several shows.

 Legoland was a fun place to take Benjamin. It was very interactive.

Ben got to build his own boat and float it down the water way.

Ben enjoyed going on rides all by himself. I think he felt all grown up. Good trip and it will be fun to take Levi again when he can go on rides and play with the Legos as well.

Levi's First Christmas

We tried to keep the Christmas gift giving simple this year since we were going on a trip, but we still wanted to make it fun for the boys. After all, it was going to be Levi's first Christmas!

We started off by telling the Christmas story and tried as best we could explain to an excited 3 year old that Jesus was our first gift.

Benjamin helped everyone take out their stocking gifts.

Here's Levi opening his first gift.

Mike's favorite gift below. ;)

Benjamin helped Levi open his gifts.

The Piano Guys have given Benjamin a love of music and hopefully this will encourage him to explore the musician he can become.

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!