You've Got Mail!

My daughter loves getting cards in the mail. Who doesn’t love mail? Especially the unexpected card? I get excited and make a big deal out of it so it becomes a big deal. There is something about opening an envelope, not knowing what is inside- the suspense, the anticipation, lifting the flap on the envelope to open it… Can you tell I love the Hallmark commercials? This is also what spurred the idea for our Annual Christmas Card Contest.

My little girl loves her cards. She reads them over and over and knows who most of them came from. There is the Valentines card that accompanied a dancing sock monkey from our good friends. There are the teddy bear postcards from her Geegee and Papa. There is the homemade card from her cousin. There is the Elmo card she got from her Yaya, the cards from her birthday. She reads them all. She can pick out some of the letters and points to them. They are getting a bit tattered. These cards are loved.

I am not a saver. I don’t attach a value to stuff. As much as I value getting cards, I don’t save them all. I am constantly trying to simplify and organize. My first instinct was to file the cards my little girl has received away in her box of keepsakes to store. But she loves them so much, I couldn’t bear to do that. Why not enjoy them now? Feel the love behind the cards? Read them and be reminded of the people that cared enough to send them?

So that is exactly what we are doing. We enjoy them now. Over and over…
~Angela

Gettin' Dirty

I like to get dirty. I like a challenge and I like to try new things. This summer my husband and I tried some new races. I ran in the Color Run with my little girl and we did a few mud runs too. My husband blogged about our previous mud race here so you can check it out for more info.




We both ran in the Warrior Dash last weekend in Minnesota. We loved it. Climbing over barbed wire, jumping over junked cars, swimming through muddy trenches and jumping over fire at the end=Awesome.

I struggled to get up this so not-so-tall hill!

swimming in the trenches

At the finish!

I couldn't even clear my watch to see my time after I finshed!

He was much more graceful than me on the trenches

My husband jumping over the fire near the finish

 





Warriors!  Yes, we did wear the hats to the party we went to after the race:)



The finisher's medals...I left mine dirty- adds to the unique aspect of the prize and race.

I love to run- it reduces stress, allows me to eat all the foods I love and I enjoy the high it gives me. More than the workout itself and the fun we have, it brings us together as a family. It is a shared interest we all have. I love watching my husband run and cheering him on and our little girl does too.



My little girl with the medal from her race earlier this summer. When we go to races, she often has to wear her medal.

~Angela

Photo Book

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Build your own high-quality photo books at Shutterfly.com.

Ribbon Memo Board {Homemade!}

I am a note person. A list maker. Not a digital note/list person either (I have downloaded so many Note/List Apps and realize I get satisfaction from crossing things out (with a pen) way more than deleting from a digital list. Therefore, we have notes on our calendar and on the inside of our cabinets.

I saw a tutorial for a Ribbon Memo Board here and thought it was perfect to contain these little notes of mine.  A bonus was that I had all the materials on hand. Although I suspect this would cost under $5 to make even if you had to purchase everything.

I am always excited to put to use the ribbons from my Ribbon Basket (these are all recycled/leftover from other projects)

My finished product!

I hung it with 3m Command Strips and a piece of ribbon duct-taped to the back to create a hook.


~Angela

linking up to:

Ivy Cottage

Practically Functional

Truly Lovely

Six Sisters Stuff

Serenity Now

Alderberry Hill

Bowl Full of Lemons

Homemade bath paints for kids

My little girl (who I have always called Bundle) loves to paint, but does not like to finger paint because she doesn’t like to get dirty. How a child who loves to play in the dirt does not like to play with finger paint, is beyond me, but she much prefers to use a paintbrush. And she always has. She also love the water and her baths. When I saw the idea for bath paints here we got right on that project. I mixed shaving cream (I used Skintimate Shave Gel because it was what I had on hand) and food coloring together and bath paint was born. Bundle painted for 30 minutes in the tub the first night and just loved it! We had to add more water to keep the tub warm. The second night she painted for 45 minutes and I let the water cool in hopes I could coax her out of the tub that way, but she was having too much fun to even mind the temperature of the water!

Crazy hair, optional

We put lids on the containers to use the bath paint again and although the consistency of the paint had changed, it still worked beautifully days later. Here’s my tip: simply rinse the paint off before it dries onto the tub. I rinsed it off while the water is draining, then pulled my Bundle out of the empty tub (she insists on staying in until ALL the water is out) and wrap her up “Like a Bundle” in her towel.

Daddy with our Bundle

~Angela

 

linking up to:

 Ivy Cottage

Practically Functional

Truly Lovely

Six Sisters Stuff

Serenity Now

Alderberry Hill

Bowl Full of Lemons