Decorating the Tree

We set up our Christmas trees after Zach's party on Sunday. We don't decorate for Christmas until after Zach's party with family. That way it's only about his Birthday.
Riley helped Jeff set up the big tree in the family room. I don't have pictures of this. I have no idea where I was during that. Seriously. Lily helped Jeff set up the smaller tree in the living room. (Yes, I have 2 trees. One with all of the kids' handmade decorations, decorations they have been given, and decorations that are mine & Jeff's. The other one is a "pretty tree" that matches.) Anyway.....Lily was super excited to be helping. She hasn't gotten to help put the tree up before.

Why yes, she is wearing a tiara.....is that odd? ;0) I like how she cheeses up for the camera whenever I have it out.

Yes, that is a very cluttered TV cabinet.........why do you ask? ;0)
After both trees were up, they kids got into their boxes of ornaments. They each have their own now so there was no more fighting this year over someone putting up someone elses' ornament. It made putting up the tree so much more fun.

There was a mad dash to get their ornament on the tree first though. Riley put a gingerbread man he made in Kindergarten last year on first. He is so proud of it. =)

After the coveted front and top of the tree spots were taken, they settled down and carefully put their ornaments on. Zach took the longest. He has a ton of ornaments. Not only is he the oldest, but because his Birthday is so close to Christmas, he got a lot of ornaments as presents when he was a baby.

Lily picked out this glittery ballerina with a feather tutu for her ornament this year. It just screams Lily. She has a tendency to pick out the most girly things.....

Towards the end of them decorating, (and while they were starting to put up ornaments that are Jeff's & mine) I noticed the front was pretty full. I told them that they had to put some of their ornaments in the back too, that they couldn't all go in the front. Lily then said to me, "We're not putting them all in the front. We're putting yours & dad's in the back." She is such a sweetheart. ;0)

Zach's Birthday Party!

Zach will turn 9 on Friday. (wait, what?!? 9??)
We had a family Birthday party for him last Sunday. He wanted hamburgers, hot dogs, and chips and salsa for lunch. Or as he told his Aunt Amy, "You know, the usual." :0) He's so funny.
He got a lot of nice gifts (and money). He is one very lucky boy!! (Thanks everyone!!)

He wanted his cake to be snow themed. He said it was because that the first time he saw snow was the day we brought him home from the hospital. Which is true. We've told him that. It started snowing as we left the hospital.

His Aunt Mary did her cake magic again and made this winter wonderland cake:

I love the cute little polar bear and all of the penguins, especially the one poking his head out of the igloo. =) Thanks Mary for making this wonderful cake. Zach loved it!!

It was even blue on the inside!

Zach had a great time at his party, now he is counting down the days to his actual Birthday!

Baby Madison

Jeff and I took a quick trip to Texas this weekend to visit our new niece; Madison Brooke Ramsey. She is a month old today! She is such a sweetheart & loves to sleep! But, I was able to take a few pictures with her eyes open. :0)

Most of the time this is how she looked at me though:

She is saying, "Aunt Jenny, leave me alone!!" ;0)
Thanks Joe & Udrika for letting us come down to meet this cute little girl!!

Turkey Day!

Yesterday, we had the cousins that are Lily's age over for a Turkey Day! We made cute turkeys on a stick. This was pretty easy for the kids to do. (yeah!)

Aren't they cute? (Thanks Kathleen for these turkey crafts!!)

We also made these turkey hats!

Lily:

Camden:

Ares:

Johnny:

After craft time, the kids sat down and had these yummy turkey treats:

And drank juice out of these turkey glasses:

It was a day full of turkeys!

Appliqued Turkey Shirt

I have seen appliqued shirts everywhere. They are super cute. So, I decided to try making one myself. Which now means my mom will say, "See I told you that you can sew." Will you still do most of my sewing for me though mom? Please?? :0)
I saw a version of this turkey on a craft website. It was for a place mat, but I decided to make a shirt for Lily instead. They also used lots of cute fabric for the feathers, but I don't have lots of cute fabric lying around, so I used felt.
I started out by cutting out the feathers and two circles for the head and body of the turkey:


Then I arranged them how I wanted them to look on the shirt. I used a little bit of craft glue to hold them in place.


Next, I used a little but if hemming tape to hold the turkey in place while I sewed it on. Then I just used brown thread and stitched the outline of the turkey. (By hand, I really am not that good on a sewing machine.)

After that, I used black, red, and yellow fabric puff paint to make the legs, eyes, beak, and waddle.

Lily loved it!

I am pretty excited about how this turned out. A lot of times I have an idea of how something will look in my head and the end project isn't always the same picture. Thus crushing my dreams of being the next Martha Stewart. ;0) But this time I was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out. It was super easy too, so I think Miss Lily will have more shirts like this in the future. Because she desperately needs more clothes..... ;0)

Leaf Art Project, Batman & Princess Birthday Party, and Hot Chocolate

What do these three things have in common?
Two 4 year olds, that's what.
Ares came over to have a play date with Lily today. The first thing they did, was play with Batman. Well, Ares played with Batman and let Lily play with the princesses along side him.

They kept telling me it was a Birthday party. I'm not quite sure who's party it was though. Here are the guests:

I also do not know why one of the Batmen was on a bed.......

Did you see that the other Batman had a party hat on though?

Too funny!

After the party, we did an art project! We made glittery fall leaves using paint, leaf cutouts, and this glitter I found at Michael's:

I love all of the colors that the glitter came in and I also love how fine the it is. It's not big and chunky like a lot of glitter is.

First they painted their leaves.

Then they gently (ha, ha, ha!) sprinkled (poured) on the glitter. ;0)

They sparkle in the sun!

After they finished their projects, they watched the Polar Express. Yes, I realize it is only November. But Lily could watch The Polar Express in July. She LOVES that movie. She had been wanting to have Ares over to watch it and to drink hot chocolate with her. :0)

They watched it as well as two 4 year olds can watch a movie together (especially when one of them is super talky throughout the entire movie, telling the other one what was going to happen next, but I won't name names here....)

These two have so much fun together and the things they come up with when they play just crack me up! =) Thanks for coming over for a fun day Ares!

Dinosaur Land

Riley came home from school yesterday with a dinosaur that he had made in art class. He was SO proud of his T-Rex!! Lily loved it too, so he made one for her. Then, later on after dinner, I walked into the kitchen and saw this:

He had made Dinosaur Land. (That's what Riley& Lily were calling it.) They had grass, and cliff walls that they walked through. They also had flying dinosaurs!!

And dinosaur eggs!

And a dinosaur water park that the dinosaurs played at!

This is the dinosaur queen:

Riley had SO much fun making his Dinosaur Land!

I am quite sure that he will be adding to these dinosaurs after school today.