Blog - Pencils to Pigtails

Baby Land – Our Trip to the Cabbage Patch Hospital

July 25, 2017

Oh my heart! I have always dreamed of having daughters (SISTERS!!!) and a trip to the Cabbage Patch Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, GA can make me want to weep at the fact that I have my little girls. 🙂

It really is a fun little outing for your kids and would be a “must-see” for our family so I wanted to share my experience with you in case you are considering the same!

It was a rainy day when we pulled up, but such a beautiful location!

First of all, be prepared to spend some money. Admission is FREE… but and it’s a big BUT… your kids will be walking amongst beautiful dolls and all of the accessories you could ever possibly dream up and chances are that you will be guilted into buying something. The dolls are pretty expensive. My mom had bought Baby Heidi one for her first birthday complete with a birth certificate, bottle, and blankets so I didn’t feel the need to buy my 15 month old another one.

It was really fun to let Aniston find a doll. When you walk in, you are greeted at the “nurse’s station”. They have a lot of cute little puns. In the front room you can walk around and look at the glass cases full of original Cabbage Patch dolls that are worth $15,000. It was fun to look at those.

Then you can have your picture made on a giant cabbage leaf – because… well…. because who doesn’t want a family photo made on a giant cabbage leaf???

Aniston LOVES her cousins “Mimi and Wiwi” (AKA Emily and Lily :))

Next you walk through a few special rooms where you will see babies in their cribs and set up in a hospital like setting. We were a little disappointed that this part didn’t last longer. From what we recalled this part of the the hospital had been downsized and they had made their store much bigger.

The store area is interactive which really adds to the experience.

It is really fun to walk around and just take everything in. You can see babies coming in and out of the cabbages and your child can actually pull out the doll they want if they see one. Of course, Aniston wanted to get her doll glasses, a diaper, and a bottle set.

Baby Heidi was way too excited to hold still for pictures! 🙂

This was the previous location and as you can tell, they have really improved the place!

I had been to Baby Land at its previous location and both times everyone was invited to witness a “live birth”. It’s pretty adorable. A nurse comes out and informs the crowd about what is going to happen. (Mother Cabbage is about to have a baby!!!) She asks everyone to take deep breaths and count before pulling the baby out. That is one of the more memorable parts of the day. After the birth, you can head over to the window to see her check the baby – just like you would if you were at a real hospital. There must be some way to pay for this extra experience or perhaps they select a lucky person. I’m not sure how the “mother” of the live birth is decided.

After Aniston had picked out a baby and all the accessories it was time to check out. I think we paid around $75. Again, if you are worried about money, it is fine to go in, look around, play with the dolls for a bit and leave.. but you may have a whiny child on your hands! Plus, it was such a special occasion that it was worth it to us.

After the purchase you head to another counter where you officially “adopt” your baby. At first Aniston wanted to name her baby “Turtle” or “Monkey”. I think she even mentioned “Ham”?!?

I rattled off a list of possible names and she chose “Whitney” after her cousin.

You can even select a special birthday for your baby. Whitney Kay (my mom, myself, and Aniston also have Kay as a middle name) was born on June 30, 2017. We stuck with that date since it happened to be Dustin and I’s 5 year anniversary!

The girls had so much fun playing together with their new dolls!

What do you think? Would you want to visit Babyland General Hospital???

Great American Solar Eclipse 2017 – Activities, Viewers, Writing Prompts, Party Ideas, & MORE!

July 21, 2017

Hands up if you’re excited about the Great American Solar Eclipse – set to hit us August 2017??? I can’t wait! I realized that the eclipse would take place during the school day so after some good advice from a friend, I started working on a new TPT resource. It is JAM-PACKED with fun things including activities for your kids, 2 different types of viewer instructions, class books, writing prompts and so much more!

You can find it by clicking on the picture below! Aren’t my nieces the cutest models ever???

I even made a video that explains a lot of the activities included and gives you a close up idea of everything you will find in the product – you can go here if you would rather watch a video than read through blah, blah, blah! 🙂

Solar Eclipse Activities Video by Pencils to Pigtails

*****UPDATE!!! Due to requests, I just added a resource for 3rd – 6th grade which you can find by clicking the picture below! Some of the activities/crafts that I talk about in the video are included, as well as a research guide and opinion writing prompts!

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I’ve been busy getting ready for the party we will have. There are lots of party ideas included in the resource… think snacks, activities, and costumes! My amazing principal just purchased enough glasses for every student to have a pair on the day of the eclipse. It is DANGEROUS to look directly at the eclipse. We are not in the path of totality but we are very close so I think it will be a great experience for everybody.

Don’t worry! – if you don’t have access to the special glasses- I’ve included 2 different versions of DIY viewers with instructions and letters to parents if you need help collecting the supplies. It’s so exciting to build your viewer and then find the sun in it!

I’ve been doing some research and eclipses aren’t as rare as some people think. In fact, somewhere on the earth you could witness an eclipse every 18 months or so… notice I said SOMEWHERE. The actual chance of your city being in the path of totality happens about once every 360 years. So… you don’t want to miss it! I live close to Nashville which is the only major city in the path of the eclipse and I’ve heard that hotel rooms have been booked forever!

There are templates for masks or headbands included along with a really cute “Little Moon” activity to give students a strong understanding of how the eclipse works.

Don’t you just love a cute and SIMPLE craft! Students will adore this one where they will understand the alignment of the sun, earth, and moon during an eclipse.

I hope you find lots of good ideas and enjoy this resource! I created it with preK-2nd or 3rd grade in mind but there are things in there that you could also do with older students. Happy Eclipsing!!!

A Patching Tea Party – Patching for Amblyopia

June 23, 2017

So… we’ve been busy this summer sorting out Aniston’s eye issues. My mom asked me one day if I had noticed one of Aniston’s eyes turning in and that she often stood very close to the tv. Major mom guilt moment: I had NOT noticed that! I will say that we hardly ever turn on the tv while the kids are awake so I will use that as my excuse and my mom is a nurse which may be why she was the first to realize… BUT once my mom pointed out how her eye turned in, I could see nothing else. I was watching it constantly and losing some sleep over it so I made an appointment with an ophthalmologist at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.

Dustin and I both have perfect vision so this was all new to me. I remember sitting in the waiting room when I noticed that every child in there was wearing glasses. I realized I was probably in denial. Until that moment I thought that Aniston may have to patch or something but I was not expecting her to have to wear glasses.

Aniston did great and was so proud of herself quickly naming off every picture… until they covered up her right eye. Suddenly she could not see anything. She became really sad and started to tear up. I was devastated realizing that my 2 year old could not see anything that I could see so easily.

I was informed that Aniston would need glasses.

“Like all the time?!? She needs to wear them all the time except when she is sleeping???” He laughed, but I was still pretty shocked. We talked about if/when she may be able to wean herself from glasses and when she could start using contacts.

I remember the doctor saying, “I think you need to just get used to the idea that she will be wearing glasses. You will be surprised. Glasses are the in thing right now.”

I was wondering how I could convince Aniston that she needed to keep glasses on, but it turns out that they helped her so much it wasn’t too hard to get her to wear them. I told her she could pick out any pair she liked and this is what she came up with.

I really can’t get over how adorable she is in them. She is so self confident and loves showing people her purple glasses with hearts on the side.

Doesn’t she look so smart for a 2 (now 3) year old?

Fast-forward 4 months and we had to return to the ophthalmologist so he could see if her vision was improving in her “bad” eye. Unfortunately it wasn’t and our doctor informed us that she would need to “patch” for 4-6 hours per day and that we would need to return in 4 months to see if the patching is helping before moving to the next step (surgery? full time patching?).

I wasn’t really surprised to hear that we would patch. He showed us how to put her patch on and how to slip her glasses on top. Basically you are patching the good eye to force her “bad” eye to improve.

It is hard at first. Aniston can barely see with her patch on. She had a couple of bad falls when she was wearing it and cried quite a bit for a couple days about how she couldn’t see. I have a good friend who had to patch and she had told me that her daughter only patched at home. For Aniston, I knew the opposite would be better. We always try to have at least 1 outing in the morning and we patched first thing to get it over with. I knew it would help her forget about patching if she was wearing it while we were out and about.

I could only find plain skin-colored patches at Walmart at first so I let her decorate them with stickers.

My sister suggested that we have a patching tea party and that everybody who attended be required to wear a patch. I knew Aniston would love that and she did. It was a memorable experience for us all and meant so much to Aniston. I wanted it to be very simple so I just made some scones from a boxed mix and served hot and cold tea, fresh fruit, and cheese and crackers. We had the patches laid out as well as some stickers so people could decorate them. Aniston loved showing everybody how to put on their patch.

The best part was that it gave us all a new appreciation for what she was dealing with. It was EXTREMELY annoying to wear. You found yourself constantly wanting to pull it off. It really made me feel even more proud of how well Aniston has handled the whole situation.

Aniston was so happy that her cousins were wearing them too!

“The family that patches together stays together!” 🙂

One of Aniston’s friends brought her the prettiest yellow sunflowers. She was thrilled!

Aniston was so happy that everyone looked just like her!

As the party was winding down, we realized that Aniston’s 6 hours were up so we let everyone take them off. We were all so relieved. Can you tell who her crush is??? 🙂

Since then, I’ve found some patches that fit her so much better and she loves all of the designs. You can grab them here if you are dealing with the same issues!

I also ordered these posters which have REALLY encouraged Aniston. She loves putting her patch on the butterfly after her time is up. It’s the first thing she wants to do and she loves to show others the design she has created.

I’ve been so proud of Aniston. So many kids have asked her why she has that thing on her eye. I heard her say, “My mommy says… the doctor says… I have wear it 3 hours… then I take it off!” I think she is pretty articulate for a young 3 year old!

Did you ever have to patch with your kids? I’ve realized it is more common than I once thought. Let me know in the comments!

Wild One – One Year Old Theme and Decoration Ideas

June 5, 2017

Baby Heidi is one! Just the sentence makes my heart skip a beat. I can’t believe it. Ya’ll- the one year old age is tough but it is so bittersweet seeing them grow up! I can be at my wit’s end one minute and ready for a much-needed break and the next minute feel like sobbing because she is growing up so fast and I want to keep her little forever! Do you feel me?!? 🙂

I always look around for party inspiration on pinterest and found so many cute ideas for a “Wild One” Birthday party that I had to use that theme. I have since heard from the party guests that the theme was not appropriate as she is a pretty laid back baby. BUT, she can be wild when she wants to be so I’m okay with it. When you are thinking of this theme think of arrows and tee-pees. I loved using turquoise, coral, and silver as the main colors.

I also decided to do a “Young, Wild, & Three” party for Aniston’s third birthday which was about 3 weeks before we had Heidi’s. I wanted to be able to use some of the same decorations so this worked well.

You can click here to see that party!

Aniston’s Young Wild & Three Party, Decor, & Family Pics

I took the girls searching for party supplies. I bought a few things here and there like cupcake liners or a #1 ballon, but was thrilled when I found a whole “Wild One” section at Hobby Lobby. I went a little crazy buying matching supplies there and ended up taking back most of it because I didn’t need as much as I thought. BUT, they have the cutest party supplies there if you want to go the quick route and purchase them.

This was the finished mantle. I used the banner from Hobby Lobby as well as the high chair banner with the “Wild One” on the front. I had made a fabric high chair skirt for Aniston’s 1st birthday and just pulled it out to use with this party. It is basically a long piece of ribbon with long strips of torn fabric tied around it.

If you want to see the “Some Bunny is One” birthday party you can click here:

Some Bunny is One – Aniston’s First Birthday Party Decor and Easter Craft Ideas

I used our antique high chair, a canvas from our recent family photos, a framed picture of Aniston announcing our pregnancy with Heidi (Big Sister’s Training Camp photo), and her invite. I also tied a #1 silver balloon on one of my torn wreaths. I really liked the way the fireplace turned out. Simple but birthday-ish… 🙂

I had researched quite a bit and purchased a teepee, lights, feathered garland, and dreamcatcher on Amazon, which you can find by clicking on the photos below. I was really happy with all of the items I ordered.

I tied ribbons around the white dreamcatcher to give it some color. I’m so happy about these purchases because they served several purposes.

Party decor
Family photo props
Birthday Present for the girls!

We had family photos taken about a month before the girls’ birthdays since they were turning 1 and 3 and I wanted to use the pictures on their invitations. Here are a few of my favorites.

Heidi still has her milk and egg allergy so I made a vegan cake with vegan icing and arranged some fruit on top for her smash cake. She was way more into the fruit then she was that cake!

I had an ETSY designer make the front of the invitations and used Walgreens photo to add some photos on the back and print them quickly.

I thought they turned out really cute for a last minute effort on the design. As you’ve seen before, I like to build the birthday girl’s magic number on our pantry door using pictures. The “1” was pretty easy to configure. I try to include pictures of people who will be at the party. Any extras are scattered or hung up throughout the party space. I think this is the perfect way to celebrate that special birthday girl and reflect on the past year.

I created a “Stats” picture for Heidi using the family pictures we had taken and powerpoint. It was super easy and fun!

I also had a coupon to make a free collage print on Shutterfly so I came up with this one:

Both of these pictures were put in frames and set out for guests to see.

My mom made a chocolate vegan cake because of Heidi’s allergies and I made non-vegan cupcakes.

The cake topper and cupcake toppers were from Hobby Lobby.

I think its cute to put an invite in a frame on the table. We had picked some flowers that morning so added those in some of my white china.

Thank goodness one of my best friends showed up early and helped me assemble these cute arrows. Just 3 marshmallows, a skewer, and the arrowheads and ends were made with some leftover scrapbook paper. (Be careful when little kids grab these!!!)

Did you take monthly photos of your baby? These look great strung from a banner with twine and clothespins. I used precut scrapbook paper to back them. I loved that the paper came in coordinating colors and that I didn’t have to worry about the orientation of the photos.

We took Baby Heidi’s monthly photos with numbers spelled out with flowers and also laying on a bunny with her “Heidi” swaddle blanket and blocks. I will be blogging about those soon.

We had so much fun at the party and the most important thing is how much Heidi enjoyed herself!

Her birthday outfit with the word “One” on it was from the cutest children’s shop in Manchester, TN called Sprout’s.

The birthday song was a huge hit with Heidi!!

After the party I found these next pictures on my phone back to back and thought, “No wonder people get my sister and I confused!” 🙂

What do you think? Would a “Wild One” party work for your baby? Let me know in the comments!

Young, Wild, & Three Birthday Party Theme, Decoration Ideas, and Family Photos

June 3, 2017

My favorite picture from the day! The anticipation!!

Aniston turned 3 in March and I’ve been meaning to share her birthday details with you. I LOVE planning parties for my two girls. I had so much fun with her “Some Bunny is One” party which you can find by clicking here:

Some Bunny is One – Aniston’s First Birthday Party Decor and Easter Craft Ideas

Her 2nd birthday party was a “Tea for Two” theme which I will go back and blog about soon.

I was planning to have a “Wild One” party for Heidi so I decided to use a “Young, Wild & Three” party for Aniston so I could use some of the same decorations.

I bought the girls a teepee from Amazon. This was a fantastic decision. It served as a place for photos to be taken, a birthday present to both girls from us and decor for both of the parties. In fact, we liked it so much that we have left it set up in our living room and have no intentions of taking it down anytime soon. I researched forever before deciding on this one. You can click on the photo to head over to Amazon. It was around $80 and I was happy with the one I picked out.

I also purchased some lights… these were a little tricky the first time but then we had it down. They are so pretty! (Again, click the picture to see them!)

My friend Lindsey came over to take photos of the girls since Heidi was turning one and Aniston was turning 3 around the same time. And let me just tell you… it is next to impossible to take a picture of 2 children their age with both smiling. Luckily my husband was not afraid to act as goofy as needed to try to get the right picture. I wanted to use these on the birthday invitations so we took them about a month before the parties. Here are just a few of my favorites. 🙂

I ordered my invites from ETSY. Aren’t they cute???

I designed the back myself quickly on the Walgreens Photo website and was happy with the way they turned out. I was able to print about 20 invitations pretty inexpensively that way and pick them up in a few hours. I let Aniston tell me who she wanted to invite and she only named family members. We have a huge family so it took her a while just to name the immediate family members. I decided to roll with that and let her worry about a “friends” birthday party later in life! 🙂 I think at this age less is better for the child and not too overwhelming!

Loved how this summed up Aniston. 🙂

Okay, back to the party. You can find a ton of stuff to help you plan a party like this. Hobby Lobby had lots of cute stuff but I ended up returning quite a few things and using simple decorations.

If you are planning a party for a toddler I want to urge you to think about their nap time. For me it always works out best to plan the party to start right as they would normally be waking up from their nap. I love doing it this way because the child is in a good mood and you have all of that time to rush around getting ready while they are sleeping away!

Aniston has dropped her nap so the timing didn’t matter too much. I chose 4:30 so I knew that Heidi would be awake and I could serve Aniston’s choice of pizza, cake, and ice cream. I didn’t want to start too late and run into the girls’ bedtime routines.

One of the easiest things I always try to do is create their age on my pantry door using photos. The guests always love to look at pictures while they are mingling and I think it really helps celebrate how special the birthday girl/boy is. I try to incorporate pictures of the people who will be at the party.

Any pictures that don’t fit on the number are used to decorate the rest of the party area. I take TONS of photos of my girls so there are no shortages of pictures around here!

On the mantle, I placed a couple of framed pictures of Aniston and hung a feathered garland. (I got the feathered garland from Amazon and will link it below.) I thought it added a nice touch to the party.

You can click on the photo to go through my affiliate link. I was happy with this one and after the party I wrapped it around the teepee where it is still hanging!

Another thing I ordered from Amazon was a plain white dreamcatcher to hang on the teepee and added some ribbon I got from my mom. I wanted to order a white one so I could change out the colors as needed. It was really beautiful and inexpensive. It was around $10 when I purchased it. Just a tip… make sure to read the specifications about sizes first. You can get an idea for the size of mine from the pictures and I thought it was perfect. I found several other ones on Amazon that I almost purchased but later realized they were pretty tiny. You can click on this photo to see the one I decided on.

I know this picture is a little dark but you can get an idea of how the living room looked. We just twisted some streamers around the fan and I set Aniston’s baby albums on the console beneath the tv.

If you turned around backwards, you would see this view:

I hung a gold A I grabbed for a couple dollars from Hobby Lobby. Dustin and I laughed after filling it with helium. It wouldn’t stay up at all so we might as well have filled it with air. It was much smaller than I was imagining, but worked out fine hanging above the island.

I like to pick up some plain plates and napkins from the Dollar Tree or Walmart and mix them with one other set of decorative ones. I let Aniston use a gold Washi tape to decorate the cups. She loved doing that! I also like to stick the party invitation in a frame somewhere near the food table.

I forgot to say how excited Aniston was about this party. She talked about the big day for weeks and weeks. She had every little detail planned out in her mind. She is such a sweet girl and genuinely thrilled for anybody who has a birthday so she was especially excited about her own!

We have the cutest little children’s boutique in Manchester called Sprout’s Children Shop. I bought her birthday dress there along with the crown headband. (You’ll notice that Heidi had a matching crown headband that went along with her “one” outfit in the pictures above.) The sizing on Aniston’s dress says 12m – 5T. Sounds a little crazy but you can see that on a 1 year old it would be like a long/poofy gown and on a 5 year old it would be a short dress. I had to have it and will probably have each of the girls wear it a few times to make sure we get our use out of it!:)

These are some of my favorite pics from the day!

Let me know what you think in the comments! I would love to hear about your money saving and unique birthday party ideas!

Big Brown Bear – My First Leveled Reader & Tons of Activities

June 1, 2017

So… years ago I ~~had~~ (okay I STILL have) dreams of being a children’s author. I attended several conferences & workshops and wrote at least 10 manuscripts. At one of the conferences I went to, there was an editor looking for leveled readers. I wrote several and now, many years later, I’m dusting them off and finally seeing them in print with the help of Chirps Graphics. (SHE IS FABULOUS!)

I created a new resource for TPT that includes this leveled reader and tons of activities and wanted to share a little more about them here. If you want to check out the resource in my store, you can click on the product below.

See… I told you Chirps Graphics is amazing! I love her illustrations!

With my kindergarteners we started by looking over the words on our word wall which are of course included in this resource!

Ya’ll! I almost cried when I read the class book to my students and they started reading it by themselves. They were so excited that they were reading and even my struggling readers gained so much confidence with this text and it was so special to see a story that was just a thought in my head years ago go to a manuscript form and FINALLY a printed form for students to enjoy. If you don’t follow me on Instagram – please add me! You can see a video of my students reading this to me!

So… after reading students the class book, I gave them each an individual reader. There are colored and black & white printer-friendly versions included. I printed the large class book in color and laminated it to use every year. Then I printed the ones for my students in black and white.

The students I created this book for should already recognize some beginning and ending letter sounds, have print awareness, and may tell a story from memory. They may invent text, can detect rhymes, have some syllable awareness, and are aware of the relationship between letters and sounds.
This and the other leveled readers I have written have between 32-100 words, predictable sentence structure, predictable story and spelling patterns with simple vocabulary and mimic speech. The most important thing is that these stories have word repetion which helps students build fluency, comprehension and a love for reading. In order to ease frustration, I have avoided compound words and contractions.

My kids loved coloring “Big Brown Bear”.

The next day students worked on rearranging letters to complete the book with the words “like” and “me”.

Later we created these adorable headbands. I loved how creative my students were!

Isn’t she adorable???

Each day we revisited the text. My students were so proud that they could read it by themselves.

I overheard one of my struggling readers exclaim, “I CAN READ NOW BY MYSELF!!!”

I included printable where students will finish the sentence to say what Big Brown Bear likes to do with each of them. They loved them!

There are lots of other activities like a labeling worksheet…

I also included activities to assess comprehension – like this sheet where students will color in the words or pictures that Big Brown Bear likes.

We did the cutest craftivity where students color in a picture of Brown Bear holding one of the writing templates… but of course, I forgot to take pictures!

I hope your students enjoy this as much as mine did. It was truly magical to see all of those struggling readers get so excited about reading! I created this resource as our year was coming to an end, but next year I plan to use this earlier… maybe in October. It could work for any month but I love the idea of giving my students confidence in their reading abilities early in the school year.

You can grab the resource by clicking on one of the pictures below! As always, I love to hear from you whether it be in feedback on my TPT store or in the comments below. Thank you for your support! Happy Teaching!

Home Depot Kids Workshops – An Unbiased Review

May 3, 2017

I know I called this an unbiased review, but I might should mention that I have a special place in my heart for Home Depot. We have a smaller Home Depot about a mile from our house and I absolutely adore it.

It all started back when I was single and living by myself in the house that formerly belonged to my grandparents. It needed some updating and over the course of a couple of years I visited that Home Depot a lot – A LOT – A LOT!

Everyone there was always friendly, knowledgeable and willing to help me. I’ll never forget the time I decided to install a tiled backsplash in my kitchen and they told me to take the wet-saw home with me to complete the project. Although they knew me from seeing me in the store, they didn’t even take down my name and number… just let me walk out of there with it!

Anyways, I had heard about the kids workshops and wanted to give it a try so we went to one in April. The kids were going to learn how to build a bunny basket. I signed Aniston up about a month earlier and had the time it started marked on my calendar. Totally unnecessary. At my Home Depot you could come anytime so you didn’t have to worry if you wouldn’t be there at the starting time. I was so happy when we walked in and they had all of the supplies ready for us and free snacks and drinks. Aniston was thrilled!

We brought along her cousin Whitney and they each worked on one. I loved that each of the products came with detailed instructions, stickers and everything you would possibly need.

Aniston wanted to use the hammer. I let her with very close supervision! 🙂

Once we had the pieces assembled, it was time to add the paint! Aniston LOVED this part!

As we were working, families were walking up and seeing the projects and joining in! It was a very laid-back event.

There was a pre-made sample if you wanted to follow their painting tips or you could paint it whatever colors you wanted. We went with our own unique creation! 🙂

We painted the inside of our basket too!

We were so pleased with the finished product! Aniston wanted to show it off to everybody! We will definitely be signing up for the Home Depot Kids Workshops in the future.

If you are interested, you can click here for more information!
Home Depot Kids & DIY Workshops

What about you? Have you ever attended the kids’ workshops? I would love to hear about your experience!

Organize Your Classroom – Easy Ideas and a Helpful Resource

April 26, 2017

I’m excited to introduce a new resource that I recently uploaded on TPT. These editable black and white labels are perfect for organizing your classroom. You can click the picture below to see them on TPT.

I have these glorious shelves above my cubbies. Don’t you love the word glorious? Ha ha. I really do love them though but they have always looked like a mess no matter how hard I tried to keep them organized.

Like this… ugh….

and this… yuck….

I had previously tried to organize them with monthly labels. I had centers and activities that went along with August placed above that label and so forth. The whole system just wasn’t working. I realized that the easiest way to fix this was to get some matching tubs from the Dollar Tree. Of course, they were just a dollar each.

I laid 33 tubs out on the floor and started removing all of my activities from their original boxes. (Unless they were super nice or wooden ones which I stored elsewhere.) I placed each activity in a plastic storage bag and labeled them appropriately. Then I put like bags together in each tub. This helped me figure out exactly what labels I would need and how many tubs I would need for each one. I spent a lot of time working on this during the kids’ indoor recess time and they loved to help me wipe out the old containers and sort.

I have always used primary colors in my classroom so I wanted some simple black and white labels to place on them. After a quick search, I couldn’t find what I was looking for so I made some using my favorite KG fonts. I think I’m a little addicted to her fonts! 🙂

I’m finished and so proud of the final look. It makes me smile every time I look in that corner of my classroom!

Anyways, I love how they turned out and think they will work in a variety of grade levels. I included every label I could think of for supplies and centers, but made them editable in case I forgot something you needed.

How much better does it look now? I am slowly adding the labels to supplies around my room and so pleased with the final result.

You can click on the pictures below to grab your own set!

Let me know in the comments how you organize your classroom!

Some Bunny is One Decor Ideas & Easter Projects

April 16, 2017

I’m starting a new blog series for Moms with birthday party ideas. I’ve thrown 5 birthday parties for my girls and their cousin Rex (Aniston’s first- third, Heidi’s first and Rex’s third). I LOVE decorating for parties and making things myself so wanted to share some of my favorites. I saved almost all of the decorations from Aniston’s first birthday party and pull them out to decorate for Easter. I think that you will already have most of the supplies needed to make these items at home.

The theme of the party was “Some Bunny is One!” I knew that I wanted to incorporate Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabit as much as possible.

I had bought a pink bunny costume more for dress up purposes months prior for a couple of dollars so I dressed Aniston up and took some pictures of her. Loved how this turned out!

I had Katie from Katiedid designs make the invitation and then I had them printed on Vistaprint for a really low price. They have great deals for printing. You just need to make sure you have enough time to wait as the shipping can be on the slow side unless you pay a fee.

I LOVED making my coffee filter cabbages! I was really proud of how these turned out and three years later they are still in really good shape.

I tried several versions of this craft and my favorite and the easiest by far was the version you can find here:

Silo Hill Farm’s Coffee Filter Cabbages

All she used was a styrofoam ball, acrylic paint, coffee filters, and some straight pins. I had all of those items in my craft room. Some of the other versions I tried used wax and pink filters and those ones just didn’t turn out as realistic as this one.

Another thing I did was make carrots using twine and some fake sprigs of green leaves. I just positioned the sprigs in the middle of some newspaper and bended the paper around them to resemble carrots. When I got the shape I wanted I wrapped them with masking tape to hold it and then wrapped them with twine. After that I just painted the string or twine orange. They were cute and I’m still decorating for Easter with them.

I wrapped green silverware in orange napkins to resemble carrots. You can see them if you look closely in the baskets below. I drug our old ladder in to decorate with and loved how cute it turned out. Can you imagine how pretty this would be at an outdoors party???

I used those cabbages, carrots, Beatrix Potter books, birdhouses and watering cans from my sunroom to decorate. I didn’t have to purchase too much for the party because I already had so many decorations at my house and we collect the Beatrix Potter stories.

Try to think of items you already have like gardening supplies, potted plants, etc.

I sell burlap wreaths and table runners so I had lots of burlap laying around to decorate with. I had spray painted several pictures from Goodwill with chalkboard spray paint for my wedding so I pulled one of those out to make this sign. The “carrots” in this picture are actually bags of cheese puffs tied with a green ribbon. I found the bags on Amazon. These weren’t the exact ones I used but I think these would work great and they are adorable!

A lady from my church, Kathy Carney made this fabulous cake. We were so pleased and she executed the vision perfectly…. even better than I had imagined!

I made fun treats to go along with the theme. I grabbed a pack of ten small potting plants at the Dollar Tree and stuck pictures of various Beatrix Potter characters on the end of some little sticks to be the food labels. I threw a little bit of grassy material on top of the pots. (I already had almost all of this on hand.)

My favorite were the donut holes! They really resembled little acorns and were so easy and cute! Here is a very simple recipe!

Heat nutella in the microwave for about 30 seconds then stir. (Heat longer if necessary to get the consistency you want.)
Dip the donut hole in the Nutella then dip it directly into a bowl of chocolate sprinkles.
Lay them on wax paper or a cooking sheet. When they are completely cooled, add a pretzel stick for a stem. So easy and so yummy!

The chocolate covered strawberries are just white chocolate with a tiny bit of orange food coloring. A few minutes before the party started I had my husband frantically helping me make the bunny ear cupcakes. These did not turn out too great but they would have if we had more time. The idea was really cute. Slice a marshmallow diagonally, dip the inside gooey part in pink sprinkles and place them on top of the cupcakes. Voila! Makes them look like bunny ears! Doesn’t he look thrilled?

We also put marshmallows in a bowl to be the bunny tails, carrots in some little cups of ranch, and made a punch. I cannot for the life of me remember the recipe for that. The carrots were popular and I wish I would have added more around the edges!

We had to have some chocolate dirt cupcakes as well and I thought these turned out so cute!

I also followed a direction for Oreo balls and just added a little green food coloring to the white chocolate. I put these in green cupcake liners to resemble cabbages. The fresh berries were also popular with guests. This was just a bowl with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries and a little sugar on top! (As if guests weren’t getting enough sugar at this party!!! :))

If you’ve been taking the popular “monthly” pictures of your baby, I think a banner is the perfect place to display those. It is really fun to look at the baby’s progression through the 12 months and if you haven’t shed any tears yet, you will when you look at all 12 of these! We always did 2 pictures. We took one of her with the belly stickers on our rocking chair and another of her laying on a desk calendar with the date circled. (These were so fun and different from the typical belly pics!) I just hung them from some twine I stretched across the doorway. (I mounted the pics on some scrapbook paper and attached them with clothespins.)

When Dustin and I got married, I had covered cardboard letters with sheets of moss to spell out “Dustin and Hilary”. (I bought the letters and moss from Joann’s and attached it with hot glue.)

Anyways I just rearranged the letters and added an O to spell out Aniston on the fireplace. I added a string of lights under some white fabric also left over from the wedding. I also put little stuffed bunnies inside any watering cans I had. They looked so cute with just the ears sticking out.

I pulled a wheelbarrow in and threw some burlap on top to hold the presents. (She got spoiled!!!)

I loved this little banner I ordered from an ETSY seller made using a recycled Beatrix Potter book. Her store name is Domum Vindemia if you are looking for one.

To make the high chair banner, I picked up a 1/2 yard for 4 different fabrics. Then I cut a small snip to the width of how wide I wanted my strips to be and tore it the rest of the way down the fabric to give it a frayed look. I wrapped them around a large piece of ribbon and tied them around the chair. I added this to an old wooden high chair and loved how it turned out. (Years later I pulled this same high chair garland out and used it for Heidi’s party. I will put that post up soon and you will notice that our house looks much different. I have since painted the fireplace, switched out the picture frames, and changed the rug.

If you have baby albums to set out, this is the perfect time to do so. The older your child is, the more fun it would be for guests to flip through the baby albums.

I also provided little index cards (I had taped Beatrix Potter characters to them.) and asked guests to fill it out with a memory or a wish. You can see that I set out tea sets as decoration along with the book sets.

That’s a little “bunny bottom banner” I had bought from Hobby Lobby. You may notice the large Peter Rabbit in the photo above. He was my big splurge for the party. I found him at Pottery Barn and just had to have him. I did use a coupon but it was still more than I would normally pay. However, he is very large and looks so cute in Heidi’s nursery now that I’m so glad I went ahead and bought him.

We were so pleased with the way the party turned out! As you can see, Aniston loved her cake!

Our friend Andrew had given her the little bunny ears and my mom had made that beautiful dress and I thought both were perfect for the party!

Looking for more party ideas? Head over here to see the “Young, Wild, & Three” party I put on for Aniston’s 3rd birthday!
Aniston’s Young, Wild & Three Birthday Party

What do you think? Would you try any of these ideas for your child’s birthday party or to make some fun Easter decorations or food? Let me know in the comments!

A Love / Hate Breastfeeding Relationship – the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

April 13, 2017

The Snuggle is Real Ya’ll!

Breastfeeding can best be described as a LOVE/HATE relationship. I’m more on the love side of breastfeeding now. This may be because I will be weaning Heidi soon as her one year birthday just snuck up on us. I definitely wouldn’t call breastfeeding easy. It can be really rewarding and enjoyable if you can hold on long enough. In fact, if you can make it through the first month, you can make it through a year! I had all kinds of trouble with breastfeeding and wanted to encourage any moms who are thinking of giving up. You can do it! (And if you don’t or are unable to- that’s okay too!)

9 Months In & 9 Months Out with Aniston!

When I was pregnant with Aniston, I remember my mom telling me that I should have no problem breastfeeding. Something along the lines of “Every mother in our family has been able to breastfeed without problems.” So there you go. The stage was set – should be all downhill after the birth… right? WRONG!

Let me divide this post appropriately into the love/hate sides of the matter.

We were both a little overwhelmed by that experience!

LOVE – The Connection

Aniston had no interest in breastfeeding for hours after her birth. (Looking back now, I wish I would have requested that she laid on my chest for as long as possible and I think that would have helped matters.) I tried unsuccessfully to get her to latch throughout the afternoon. That night, the sweetest nurses had taken her to the nursery for a few hours so Dustin and I could sleep. I was totally conked out when all of a sudden I sat straight up in bed – looked over at Dustin and said “It’s time!” I think it was around midnight. I phoned the nursery and asked them to bring Aniston back to me. “She’s ready to eat.” I told the nurse. The nurse assured me that they could bring her in an hour or so and that I could rest. “That’s okay. Go ahead and bring her please. She’s ready to eat now.” I replied. I could not believe that from across the hospital, I was so in tune with my baby. Sure enough, when she brought her to me, Aniston latched on and started drinking away happily for the first time ever. I cried tears of joy. “My first motherly instinct! I am a mother!” I told Dustin who was looking back at me through half-shut eyes.

Breastfeeding gives you the ability to connect with your children in a way that is completely impossible without it. I could be miles away from Aniston anytime during her first year and know when she was getting hungry. I could sense her hunger coming on. I was the ONLY provider of nutrition for her or Heidi for the first 6 months of their lives. That is a really neat feeling and one that no one else could ever experience. God designed us to be with our children and to feed them. He gave us special signs to know when the baby is getting hungry and hormones that release in breastfeeding mothers to make them even more anxious when they hear their babies cry. That is amazing!

LOVE (and a teeny bit of hate) – Forced time

If you make the commitment to breastfeed your child, you are sacrificing hours upon hours upon hours of your time. You are also committing to being with your baby or possibly your pump every 2-4 hours. I’ve had friends take a vacation about a month after their baby was born…. without the baby. That is not happening if you are breastfeeding and to be honest- I wouldn’t want it to. I cannot for the life of me imagine being away from my child when they are that young. Heidi is a year old and we have never spent a night away from each other. I’m proud of that. I have really loved how connected I feel to both of my girls. But… it would have been nice if I could take a long break to do some shopping by myself without worrying about a pump or a hungry baby. I’ve had a couple of friends who spent a night or two away from their child with a pump in tow and I think this is great if you need a break and can work out all the logistics. I just never wanted to deal with lugging a pump or storing milk at a hotel, blah, blah, blah. Plus, I still can’t imagine not putting Heidi to bed. Regardless- if you breastfeed – you are making every bit of nutrition for your child and committing your time to your child AND that’s the way I think it should be! If we went on vacation… so did the baby!

Colorado!

HATE – Engorgement

Breastfeeding went fairly smoothly in the hospital until I got home and my milk came in. My boobs felt like basketballs. They were rock hard and absolutely huge. I remember Dustin walking in and I was just sitting on the couch looking miserable, no doubt. “Those are the biggest boobs I’ve ever seen. Like bigger than Dolly Parton’s!” I probably shot him a death stare but it was so true. You could eat dinner off of them if you needed to. I could not even attempt to lay on my stomach or even on my side because of the enormity of them. I was severely engorged for at least 72 hours. It is a viscous cycle. It makes it difficult for the baby to latch when they are so hard. If you take a warm shower and attempt to release some milk, you will feel better and baby can latch again, but you’ve just sent a message to your boobs that you need more milk. I walked around with cabbage leaves in my robe praying that visitors would stay away until I could at least put on a normal shirt. (They didn’t and I felt extremely awkward.)

HATE – The blistering/ initial pain

For the most part, breastfeeding was easier with my second baby. Heidi latched on as soon as they gave her to me after the birth. She laid on me skin to skin for close to 3 hours. They held off on everything so that I could have that first initial contact with her. I am so grateful that I had the chance to bond with her for so long as soon as she was born. I didn’t get as engorged or leak as bad with Heidi because it seemed like my boobs had pretty much figured out the routine. BUT this time around I developed blisters. Those things are SO PAINFUL! Every time that Heidi went to feed I would squeeze my eyes shut in preparation for how bad it would hurt. It took a couple of weeks for them to heal. Even if you don’t develop blisters, it is still painful when they latch on for the first couple of weeks or so. My husband was super supportive and would run to the store for lanolin or cabbage leaves as needed. 🙂

9 Months In & 9 Months Out with Heidi!

I have since found this cream that I loved! You can click on the picture to see it on Amazon.com.

I never tried these but they were highly recommended by several of my friends if you are thinking of giving up from the pain! They can also be helpful if your baby is having trouble latching.

Breastfeeding helped Baby Heidi fight off that awful RSV!

HATE – The leaking

Oh, the leaking. After the engorgement settled down, I continued to leak profusely all day every day for months. And months. And months. I don’t’ think that most people have this problem but for some reason, my breasts just didn’t figure out the schedule. I had to sleep on folded towels to try and keep the bed dry. I used the disposable breast pads because they worked the best and changed them constantly. I could be at the grocery store, eating dinner, at church or where-ever else, look down, and see wet spots on my shirt. I could hear a baby cry and start leaking. It was super annoying and extremely embarrassing.

LOVE- The weight loss

If you continue to breastfeed, YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT – possibly a lot of weight. When I first got home from the hospital, the weight came off pretty rapidly and then I got stuck. For me it was about 5-10 pounds over where I wanted to be each time. At least, I thought I was stuck. I started writing down my weight once a week or so on a sticky note in my bathroom and realized that even though I thought I was stuck, the weight was still coming off slowly. I was not watching my weight or dieting at all. I have been a vegetarian since college so you can call that some kind of diet, but I was eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and still losing weight. Breastfeeding burns a lot of calories. I have also read that when the baby is between the ages of 3 months and 6 months, moms lose the most weight. This can be attributed to the baby being bigger and wanting more milk, but they are still too young for solid foods. This was also true for me. With both girls and no dieting, I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight or smaller before they were 9 months old. It takes 9 months to gain it, give yourself 9 months to lose it before you freak out. Your stomach will not look so strange and EVERYTHING else will go back to normal. (Or close to normal:)) Another benefit of breastfeeding is that your uterus will contract much quicker than if you choose not to. Experts estimate about a month sooner.

Eventually your body will go back and you will be lugging a different kind of weight around!

LOVE – Money saved!

I don’t think about it too much, but breastfeeding saves you tons of money! When Aniston was 6 months old, my supply had run out and she took about a bottle a day of formula. I just couldn’t keep up with her even though I was pumping twice a day at work. Anyways, once I had to start supplementing her I really noticed how much money breastfeeding saves you. Formula is pretty expensive and they can go through it quickly if that is their only source of nutrition. I’ve read that breastfeeding saves you approximately $2,000 per child per year! That’s pretty good. That number also doesn’t take into account that formula fed babies may need more visits to the doctor and medication which brings me to my next point….

Breastfed baby… 2 weeks later!

LOVE – The health benefits

Formula fed babies tend to have more ear infections, diarrhea, and respiratory illnesses. They also lack the antibodies that breastfeeding mothers produce to fight off viruses and bacteria. Breastfed babies have fewer ear infections, risk of diabetes, cancer, or other diseases. Breastfed babies are also less likely to die of SIDS. Formula fed babies are more likely to become obese later in life. Just this paragraph is enough to make you want to breastfeed your baby. We all want the very best for our babies! There are also health benefits for us Mamas. Breastfeeding reduces your level of stress and the chance of developing postpartum depression. Studies have also shown that breastfeeding mothers have a lower risk of developing certain cancers.

Happy 6 Month Girl!

HATE – The lopsidedness

So… this probably won’t happen to you, but it did to me. One of my boobs decided to give up a month into Aniston’s breastfeeding journey and about 5 months into Heidi’s. (It would have happened much earlier with Heidi if I hadn’t been prepared and did everything I could to try and keep it going.) No matter what, if you are breastfeeding your boobs go through multiple sizes a day depending if it is time to feed or not. Well… when one side decides to quit, that side is about two sizes smaller than the other. Thank goodness when I finished breastfeeding they equaled back out. 🙂 Until then, I had to try to find bras that were in between the two sizes and hope they would work and bathing suits to cover the awkwardness. Oh, yeah, that leads me to another point!

HATE – The awkwardness

Breastfeeding and pumping can be extremely awkward. I never could master that cover. I used it multiple times but it was always hanging right in the babies face and who wants to cover their head with a blanket while they eat dinner? I’ve marveled at mothers walking around with the baby in the carrier and breastfeeding them so easily. I’m a hoarder of baby wraps and carriers but I still could never get this to work. I found myself feeding while sitting fully dressed on public toilets. Ew! I’ve had to breastfeed in my car and sometimes I just yank it out in front of whoever when the baby won’t stop crying. I have nothing against mothers breastfeeding in public, but I just felt strange. Pumping seemed even more awkward to me. I did not want Dustin to see me pumping. There is nothing attractive about your nipple being pulled in and out of that machine. Its just one of those things that I feel like should be done in private. I felt like a cow anytime I was hooked up to it. Even though at school I kept my classroom door locked with a large sign that read “DO NOT ENTER” complete with a cow and a glass of milk – I still had 3 different people come in the room while I was pumping. I dove under my desk every time. AWKWARD! Another good lead in to my next point…

The difference a year can make!

HATE (and a little bit of love) – The Pump

If you did need a break for a little bit or if you are working, the pump becomes your best friend… sorta. The reason I have a little love for my pump is because it allowed me to work as a kindergarten teacher while breastfeeding for a year with both girls. I pumped as often as the baby would eat so when I first returned to work, that was 3 times a day. Finding the time to devote to pumping is extremely difficult. Thankfully I had some teacher friends who helped manage my class for me whether at recess or in their classrooms. Without them, I’m not sure what I would have done. It is a huge commitment, takes up time, and like I said before a little awkward. With my first baby, Aniston, I just couldn’t figure out how mothers were breastfeeding and finding time to pump extra. By the time I had Heidi, I knew how to do this better but I really hated pumping extra to try and build a supply. I was proud of myself for having about 50 bags when I went back to work. Some have way more! Either way that stuff was liquid gold. I shed a few tears when my husband accidentally left one at room temperature for too long. Crazy but its a lot of work. Breastfeeding moms know what I’m talking about!

You can click on the picture to see the pump that I recommend on Amazon. I did get a free pump through my insurance both times I had a baby, but it did not compare to this one by Medela! I sold the other two at consignment and kept this one. You might want to check with your insurance first and see if you like the one that is offered to you. If you aren’t getting anything when you are pumping- it’s probably not you. It’s probably the pump.

LOVE – The Convenience

Once you get past the first month or so, breastfeeding becomes incredibly convenient. No washing or sanitizing bottles, warming up milk, running to the store for formula, etc. I didn’t have to lug around a huge diaper bag with bottles, bottle warmers, formula, etc. Once I started supplementing with formula I realized how much more convenient it is to just breastfeed!

No huge diaper bags around here!

First week at home! No makeup and milk drunk baby smiles!

LOVE/HATE – The allergies

We noticed that our easy baby Heidi was not so easy anymore sometime when she was around 4 months old. I’m sure part of this was that 4 month sleep regression but she also had some dry spots and would scratch herself so hard that she would cut her skin. It also varied from day to day how she seemed to feel. When she was around 5 months old she seemed especially cranky one day and I got worried that she was still hungry even though she had just finished breastfeeding. I quickly made up her first bottle of formula and fed it to her. She drank it pretty quickly and immediately started choking and breaking out in hives. I had no idea what had happened. She was gagging over and over. I was home alone and absolutely terrified. I called my dad, sister, and mom all of who are in the medical field for advice. I gave her some benadryl and after a couple of hours she settled down. If my dad wasn’t an ER doctor I would have driven her there myself but just followed his advice over the phone. The next day we saw an allergist and confirmed that she had developed a milk and egg allergy. We were shocked as we have no history of allergies in our family that we know of. The allergist told me to switch her to soy formula. When I told him that I wanted to continue breastfeeding he explained doubtfully that the only way to continue was to cut out all dairy and eggs. That’s the path I chose. On the LONG drive home I tried to think of things that I could eat and the best thing I could come up with was cereal with soy milk. I had several frustrating days where I couldn’t think of a thing to eat and would end up nibbling on this or that. It seemed like every single label I looked at had milk in it or egg. I had to figure out if any of the ingredients were even processed with milk or egg because that also could cause a reaction. I had to make sure everything I ate had no butter, cream, margarine, etc. I’m not going to lie. I missed cheese pretty badly. Since I was a vegetarian, I relied on cheese quite a bit to add flavor or keep me full. Even though it was a pain and I could eat basically nothing at our Thanksgiving dinner that year – I’m so glad that I stuck with it because Heidi went right back to her happy self and I educated myself on all of the things that Heidi could and could not eat. I basically lived the life that Heidi will have to live until she outgrows her allergy so I’m pretty glad I put myself through it.

So there you go… let’s see… the total is 7 reasons to love breastfeeding and 7 reasons to hate it! 🙂

I’m declaring LOVE the winner as the “Love” reasons strongly outweight the “Hate” in my opinion.

Did you have the same love/hate relationship? Let me know in the comments!