Inspiration For The Weekend - 37 (free museum day)

Today's "Inspiration For The Weekend" post is about a great opportunity to have some free fun.

I found out that Saturday September 29th is FREE MUSEUM DAY:

Check out this link for more information. You can search by museum name, or by state.
There are quite a few in our local area that have free admission.  If we didn't already have plans, we'd go to one.  It would be a great family fun day, and it's free.

We've gone to museums before (unfortunately not on the free day) and the kids love the hands on activities.   Mom and Dad had fun too.

Have a fun weekend!
Christa

Hello There, Happy Fall

After getting the big kids off to school the other day, the Babes and I walked back to the house only to be greeted by a praying mantis.  Why, hello there Mr. Praying Mantis.  The Babes watched it intently for several minutes.

As if one surprise visitor wasn't enough, later that morning a sweet friend stopped by to drop off a delicious treat.

These caramel apples we so big and juicy, and decorated so cute.  I decided to be nice and wait till the kids got back from school so they could enjoy this yummy treat too.  We all agreed it was the most delicious apple we'd ever eaten.

Thanks for thinking of us Rebecca!  Happy Fall to you too!

The weather has been cooling off and the leaves are starting to change colors.  I love fall, it's my favorite season.  Maybe it's because I like to be warm in jeans and comfy sweaters, or maybe it's the beautiful colors (even the color schemes for most of the rooms in my house are fall colors).  Whatever the reason, I'm happy it's fall.

What's your favorite thing about fall?



Thanks for stopping by,
Christa

Baptism Pictures

In the LDS church we believe that children are born innocent. At the age of 8 they become accountable for their sins. Children are to be taught the gospel by their parents and to learn right from wrong.

Sweetie Pie turns 8 on Saturday and has made the choice to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and be baptized a member of His church.  She has been looking forward to this for years.  We are trying to make her day extra special.   Click HERE to find out how we made some simple centerpieces that we'll be using at the baptism.    She also wanted a white dress, 'the' perfect white dress for her special day.

Finding the perfect white dress took a while.  I should have been thinking about this earlier in the year when the stores had white dresses out at Easter time, maybe we could have found something after Easter on clearance.  Oh, well.  We did our shopping online and there were lots and lots of choices.  Finally Sweetie Pie decided this was the dress:

We went to a local college that had a 'peace garden' to take some pictures.

She did a great job of doing what I asked and posing.

I created a photo collage using PicMonkey (it was my first time using it -it was so easy), and used it to print out some invitations using Walmart's photo center.

Sweetie Pie picked out pink as the background color and we included the following at the bottom in white letters:

(her full name)

has chosen to be baptized a member of

The Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter Day Saints

(date) (time) (location)

She would love to share this special event with you.

Just a few more preparations and we'll be all set.   Can't wait for her big day!
What have you done to make your child's baptism day extra special?

Christa

Easy Centerpieces

Sweetie Pie turns 8 on Saturday and in our church 8 is great since that's the age she can get baptized.  She has been looking forward to this day for years and is super excited.  All month long I've slowly been making preparations so her day will be extra special.  

One of the things we made were these centerpieces.  

They were so easy to make and totally customizable to match whatever theme or color combination you are using.

Inspiration For The Weekend -36

On Fridays I share something "inspirational".  It could be decor related, or a DIY project that I'd like to do, or something spiritually uplifting.   Today I'm going to show you pictures of fun kid spaces.  I thought these ideas would be fun to do in a play area or basement.

I mean what kid wouldn't love a play set in their house:

found via Pinterest but could not locate original source

source

source

source

I like how the tree in this basement play room hides the support beam

source

And speaking of trees, how cute is this reading nook!:

source

Have a great weekend!

Christa

A New Look For An Old Platter

I picked up this silver-ish (it's not real silver) platter at a yard sale.  It was in a free bin and I thought I could do something with it.

How To Have A Successful Yard Sale

It takes a lot of preparation to have a good yard sale.   Here's my step by step plan for making your yard sale a success.

STEP 1.

Realizing you have so much unwanted, unused, outgrown stuff that you could have a yard sale. 

Our basement had become a dumping ground for the kids' outgrown clothing and unwanted toys.  The pile just kept getting bigger and bigger.  We weren't going to use this stuff again so I needed to get rid of it.  I could donate it, but I thought I'd have a yard sale first and see if I could make a little money off my unwanted stuff.  What's left over will be donated so that it doesn't end up in my basement again.

Here is a picture of all the stuff after I lugged it upstairs.  I didn't realize how much there was.  Yes, definitely time for a yard sale.  

The Babes Is 2

The Babes turned 2 on Saturday!  

I had grand plans for a party with some of her little friends but never put it together much less invited anyone.  I got busy with other things and figuring she is only 2, she wouldn't remember anyway.  Some of those other things included planning for 2 other parties, helping someone move, and getting ready for a yard sale.  So, I guess I'll have to make up for it next year.  She loves dogs so I was going to do a dog themed party with dog games, party favors and "pup-cakes".  If anyone is thinking of doing a dog themed party, there are some cute ideas for games HERE.  

She also loves the color blue.  I took her love of dogs and blue into consideration when I made her a cake.  I checked out a Blues Clues Wilton cake pan from our local library.   I found out last year that our library has Wilton cake pans you can check out.  They have tons of them.  I've used several different ones and the kids love it.   

I sprayed the pan real good so the cake wouldn't stick to the pan.  Didn't seem to help as Blue's face didn't want to release form the pan.

Inspiration For The Weekend -35

Wow, this week's gone by fast.  I can't believe it's Friday already.  

That means it's time for an "Inspiration For The Weekend" post. This is where I share something that has inspired me in some way. Sometimes I'm inspired to create or make something. Sometimes I'm inspired to do something or to change. I hope you'll find something that inspires you too.

I get so many great ideas from Pinterest.  A while ago I had pinned this gift idea:

Lisa from the Dating Divas created this "All About You Basket" for her husband.  She came up with 101 reasons she loves her husband and bought a few inexpensive gifts to represent some of the reasons.   For example she bought some light bulbs for the phrase, you “light” up my life! 

I originally pinned this idea as a gift idea for my husband, but quickly realized I could do this as a birthday present for my mom.  You see, my mom's birthday is later this month.   I won't embarrass her by stating her age, but it's a milestone.  My sister and I decided that's we'd celebrate by inviting her family over for a small birthday dinner / surprise party.  So that she wouldn't suspect a thing we planned the party 11 days prior to her actual birthday.   I'm happy to report that everything turned out great and she was indeed surprised.   It's always hard to pull one over on my mom, but this time we did it!  Thanks to all who made it a success.  

My gift to her was "60 Things We Love About You!"

I used Lisa's idea above and created a list (with the help of my husband and kids) of reasons why we love my mom.  Then I went to the store and bought a few gifts that could coordinate with one of the reasons.

I typed up the letter and also printed out another copy which I cut into stripes to attach to each small gift.

I laid everything out on my bed to match up the gifts with the word strip.

A Rusty Red Shower No More!

We have well water with a high iron content which makes our water hard, leaving rust stains.  I've tried all kinds of things to clean the toilets which have permanent rings in them.  If I had found a solution to that problem, I'd be posting about it.  But unfortunately I haven't.  So if anyone knows how to remove rust stains from toilets, please let me know.  

I did however, find a solution to my rust stained shower.  Earlier this summer, I borrowed my parent's pressure washer and cleaned our siding and sidewalk.  You can read more about that HERE.  And in case you don't feel like clicking on that link to read the whole story, here's a comparison shot for you:

I mentioned in that post how fun and easy pressure washing was and that I'd like to have a mini version to clean inside the house.  Little did I know, I already had a mini version of this.  It was a Bissell Steam 'N Clean that I had bought years ago and forgotten about.  

This is what mine looks like, but I couldn't find it for sale anymore.  Their current model is called the Bissell Steam Shot and looks like this:

I'm assuming it would give the same results, but I don't know for sure.

Our master bath shower is completely done in tile.  There is a border going around the middle that has some dimension to it which I'm sure adds some architectural interest, but in reality, all those grooves and crevices trap water and turn the tile red. Here's what it looked like before I steam cleaned it:

And here it is after:

Matching Pictures

We've had this empty space in our master bathroom that has bothered me.  It's above the tub and to the right of the towel bar.  It seems like something should be there but I just haven't found the right thing yet.

I found this large Debra Lake flower print at a yard sale a couple of years ago and hung that on the adjacent wall since that is the wall you see when you walk in the room.

I've been on the look out ever since for something to hang next to the towel bar and that would match that large print.

Inspiration For The Weekend -34 (Charity)

It's Friday and that means it's time for an "Inspiration For The Weekend" post. This is where I share something that has inspired me in some way. Sometimes I'm inspired to create or make something.  Sometimes I'm inspired to do something or to change. I hope you'll find something that inspires you too.

Charity

Charity is more than just giving to those in need.  To me charity means not judging others and giving them the benefit of the doubt.  You never know what someone else is going through to make them act a certain way or do a certain thing.  We should love without expecting anything in return, love without reservations, love unconditionally - like our Savior loves us.

This is more easily said than done, at least for me anyway.  So when I read a story about loving others, it gives me renewed ambition to try harder, to love others for who they are (a child of God) regardless of what they've done (or haven't done).    I hope you'll take the time to read these 3 stories, I found them to be very inspirational.

Rug Report

Last month I mentioned how the cute rug in Sweetie Pie's room would shift and we'd have to reposition it several times a day.  In my attempt to remedy the problem, I tried rug gripping carpet tape and hot glue but neither of those worked.   

After doing more research on the subject, I decided to try caulk.  I put it on in straight lines around the edges and an X in the middle.  I filled in the rest with squiggly lines and let it dry for several hours.

I am happy to report that we've been using her new and improved rug for about a week.  It is staying in place much better.  We still have to adjust it every few days but that is better than several times a day, so I'd call this fix a success.  

Rambling On About Our Labor Day

So yesterday was Labor Day, the kids were off school and Kevin was home from work.  I was thinking we'd take the kids to the pool but it was raining so I decided against it.  The kids were up early so once we got ready, we went shopping while Kevin enjoyed the rare opportunity to sleep in.

The Spencinator's foot has grown and while we did find him new sneakers for school, we are still on a quest for church shoes.  Who knew shopping for shoes for him would be so difficult.  He is now wearing men's size shoes.  Some children's shoes go up to a 6 or 7, but for the most part we are buying men's shoes.  Finding something that he thinks is comfortable and easy to get on has been a challenge.  Plus I don't want to spend $50 for shoes he'll outgrow in a year (or less).  I mean they are shoes for church, he's only going to wear them once a week for a couple of hours.  They don't have to be quality, just cheap and comfortable.  Payless did have some for $4.97!  Yes, brand new decent looking shoes for under $5!  But of course the Spencinator didn't like how they felt.  Needless to say we'll have to keep looking.  We've looked at 7 different stores for church shoes for him already and didn't find anything suitable for him.  Oh, well the quest continues.  I hope it ends soon, I'm running out of places to shop.  I'm going to go to the outlet mall later this week and if I don't find anything there I might just give up.  He'll just have to wear his black sneakers to church.

During our shopping excursion, I did get manage to get a couple of things we needed.  And I used the camera feature on my new smart phone to get some crafty ideas.  I'd love to show those pictures to you but I haven't figured out how to download them from the phone to the computer.

After we got back home and had some lunch, Kevin and the Spencinator worked on a Lego helicopter set.

 I love how everyone is looking at the Lego set except for the Spencinator who noticed that I was taking a picture.

Here is the finished helicopter.  The blades turn and everything.

And what was the Babes doing while the boys played Legos?  She was playing with her sister's Zhu Zhu pet and got her hair stuck in the wheels.  Engineer Kevin came to the rescue so no hair cut was needed, although I thought about it.   I didn't get a picture of her crying with a Zhu Zhu pet hanging from her head, but here she is after the fact all happy wearing a crown.  She does have a birthday coming up in 11 days.  I guess she's getting ready.

Also the Babes was walking backward so I mentioned to the kids that she was doing the "moon walk".  They both looked at me strangely and asked, "is that how they walk on the moon?"  It was hilarious!  So I had to show them how the moon walk was really done.  Too bad I didn't have some Michael Jackson music playing in the background.


We had a fun Labor Day, how about you?  What did you do?
 

Road Trip - part 3 (entertaining the kids)

Last month, Kevin and I loaded up our van with suitcases, food and stuff to entertain the kids so we could travel from PA to WY and SD to visit family and see the sites.  We logged 5300 miles and 75 hours in car.  

You can see how we planned and packed for the 17 day trip in PART 1 of my road trip series HERE.

And how I tried to make eating in the van as mess free as possible in PART 2 HERE.

Today I'm going to share how we kept the kids entertained.  This is a critical part of any road trip with kids, especially if you want to maintain your sanity or go on future road trips. 

We  have three kids ages 9, 7 and 22 months.  For the older kids, I told them they could take 1 backpack full of toys.  Of course I had a say in what they took and added a few things I thought they'd enjoy.  For the Babes, I had one of those market totes full of toys.  Since it's open I could easily reach a toy to give to her.  The backpacks were kept at the older kids feet.   I also brought along a plastic white tray with 'pockets' on the sides to be used as a drawing or eating surface.  I thought that tray would be a great idea but in reality it wasn't used much and took up a lot of space and was hard to maneuver from the back row to the middle row of seats.

The kinds of things in the older kids backpacks were:
books they like to read and some new books,
coloring books,
Nintendo DS video game system with extra games,
MP3 player,
pencil case with colored pencils, pencil sharpener and erasers.

** I chose colored pencils rather than crayons or markers because I thought they'd be the least messiest.  Crayons can get lost in the car and with the heat can melt and get stuck somewhere.  Markers can leave marks on the upholstery which may or may not come off.