Insta-Friday. Instagram Weekly Photos

Linking up with Life Rearranged again!

This week has been a crazy week. I unpacked my things, packed up some of my sister-in-laws things, and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. Moving isn't any fun! I will just find a cave and live there for the next 50 years. I am sick of moving! So to get out of the house I visited with some wonderful friends and took my daughter to the park. 

This is Emily chasing ducks. Although she did touch every duck that was being distracted with bread (and made me think she was going to get the bird flu...) I let myself enjoy watching her play. 

Then the artist formally known as Prince showed up.
I seriously don't understand why some of these ducks had wigs on. Hilarious, but confusing.

And Emily turned 3 on January 29th, but because we are in Texas now she needed another party to celebrate! So this is her Bday cake with the family. 

Found this at the mall. My nickname is Bri.

And this little ham helped me get through the week.

I hope you enjoyed looking through these pics. I have really started to enjoy my life as a work from home mom! I have noticed such a difference in Emily and myself. I am much more patient with her and she is just not as clingy now that she is seeing me more. I really am happy and I think she is too. Come to think of it she's always happy! ;)

Head on over to Life Rearranged and check out other cool Instagram pics!

Till next time! 

-Bri, Bridgie, Brenda or Brittany. I answer to all of em! :)

Toddler Activities

Seriously, I loved this game as a kid. And I'd forgotten about it until just the other day at Tarjay, I saw it! It was on sale for $4.99. I couldn't pass it up.

So I took it home and Emily and I have been playing it ever since! It's super easy for her to grasp the idea of one bean at a time and we take turns. At first when it would spill out she would be all bummed and pout for a second. But now she gets it, and she even tilts the bucket when I'm not looking to make them spill on my side. Little stinker!

I've really enjoyed finding all these cute little games that she and I can play together.

Here are some other cool games for the 2-3 year olds:

This fun little game I got for $3.50 at Kid2Kid. (It's a little re-sale shop, but it has nicer stuff cause they buy it off of you. They don't just work off of donations) The bummer thing was that it was missing one wand and a ton of the little butterflies. So I just sewed some ribbon in the same shape and it works great!

I got this at Tarjay as well. I don't remember how much it cost but it defiantly was worth it. I have to edit out a lot of the cards for her, otherwise she can't really play. First we started with 3-4 matches, and now we are up to 6-8. She loves it and asks to play all the time!

Advent Calendar DIY

Advent Calendar

Stamping out the tree

Sooo last year I made an Advent Calendar for myself and my sister in law....

As you can see I used my daughters hand and foot prints as my stamps for a Christmas tree.

#1 I bought about a yard of plain muslin, and 2 yards of the christmas fabric.
#2 Purchased the little ornaments that are meant for the pint sized mini-trees. 25 of em.
#3 Lots and LOTS of iron tape. (I don't sew!! I wish I could)
#4 Green yarn
#5 Two different colors of Green, and 1 brown.
#6 The little clasp fasteners "Hook and Eyes"
#7 Some green-ish thread for stitching on the previous item.
#8 Green felt - for the top star.
#9 Wooden Dowel and round ends.
#10 Ribbon that I already had to hang the calendar onto the dowel.

This took me forever and since I made two I did each one a little different.
First I made the one for my sister in law

I took this picture only so that she'd see how it was meant to work. (I mailed this to India, where she was living and working, with the paints included for her to stamp her sons hands and feet with. So that's why the tree is blank.)

On mine I went ahead and puffy painted the numbers on. It was MUCH faster and easier to read.

Here is how I did it:


A) Iron tape the green and blue pieces together (these would be your festive fabrics) all around the edges.  Be sure to place your loops of ribbon in that sticky iron on tape too! This will hold onto the dowel at the end for easier hanging later.

B) Iron tape the three rectangles to the lower portion of your Advent Calendar. Only iron tape the two sides and the bottom. You want to leave to top open for your ornaments later.

C) Take Your Muslin fabric (which will become the triangle) and stamp your child's hands and feet in the shape of a Christmas tree. I put cardboard under mine so that the paint didn't ruin my floors!

D) Carefully cut around their tree leaving about an inch of extra muslin.

E) Stitch on the tree to your Advent Calendar using the green yarn. Also sew "pockets" for separation of your ornaments and days. 

The lines above are not exact. And as you can see from my pics, neither one was the same. 

F) Stitch on the "hook and eyes" to the calendar and the ornaments you've purchased. I sewed the "Eye" portion onto my tree and the "Hook" portions onto my ornaments. Some were sewn into the ornaments, hot glued, and even knotted onto them. Depending on which method worked the best. 

G) Puffy paint on your numbers.

H) Insert Dowel (and hot glue the round ends on if you want to) and Hang up! 

Tada! 2010 Christmas.

My little girl loves this Calendar! And when she's all grown up we'll marvel at how tiny her hands used to be! 

Time, stop going so fast!

 I love you EmJ, you are the light of my life. 

Thanks for stopping in!

Love,

Bri

Pretty Peacock

So remember when I gave you that little teaser last week????

So after I helped my munchkin make some beautiful art,

I let her go to town on her own art!

I love those little hands, with the little dimples... they slay me.

So after all this fun, I saw something in her artwork:

This is what I saw... 

{via}

So after it dried I grabbed my permanent markers, puffy paint and turned her pretty little art into this:

This is what I could muster up.... Now i know it's no Picasso, but I like it! Now I just need to get it framed! 

Oh and while my back was turned here is what my daughter was doing....

A little war paint never hurt anyone! ;)

I'm just glad that a little internet picture from Project Balancing Act could inspire so much fun with my baby girl! Thanks for watching! 

Love ya,

Bridgette