February Extravaganza

I know I've been slacking on posting our daily activities during the month of February. In my defense, we've been SO busy with projects that there's been absolutely NO time to post! We did a lot for Valentines day and once that was over it was planning Aubrey's birthday bash! Now that I have time to take a breather, I decided to post pictures of some of the fun things we did in February, though, as I look through these pictures, I notice I'm even lacking in that department. Oh well! It was a fun month none the less :)

We made Valentines for our local friends... These took SEVERAL days because we had to make so many! Aubrey Loved her water bottle painting! They turned out so gorgeous!

We made three different types of truffles... Oreo, Chocolate Mint, and Nutter Butter. One type of truffle a day. These are always fun, and we get a tasty treat afterward!

We had all kinds of valentines, but no way to hold them. One day we worked together in making a little carrier. Aubrey loved using stickers and stamping on letters!

SNOW finally!!! It seemed like forever since we got fresh snow! It was a sight for sore eyes for sure! We woke up early to play in the snow with Daddy before we headed down the hill and he headed to work!

All that snow falling made it tough to get down to visit family and prepare for Aubrey's birthday party. We decided to take a birthday train ride! Aubrey loved it and did sooo good!

Once we got down the hill, it was raining like crazy. My sister had a bright idea to take the kiddos to the Stockton Children's Museum. It was amazing and so much fun to hang out with some of my favorites!

A bad picture of Aubrey, but had to use it! You saw the tutu tutorial, they turned out so cute! If you look close you can see the owl on Aubrey's shirt! It was so fun and so easy to make owl shirts for all the little girlies!

After our pizza party, some of us went to Funderland in Sacramento for some extra fun! Aubrey wanted to ride the fish so bad... but felt less enthused once she was actually ON the fishy!

So much happier squished in the tea cups with Abs, Mama, and Auntie!

Had so much fun spending time with family! I keep hearing "I want my Grayson" and "Where's Melia" Wish it didn't go by so fast... I sense a trip to the El Paso Zoo sometime in our near future!

Easy Tutu's

Aubrey's birthday is right around the corner. Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE dressing Aubrey in ridiculous things for her birthday, a tradition I started just last year, but plan to continue until shes old enough to stop me! Our plan is to go down the mountain and hang out with family and I have a lot of nieces. That said, I thought it'd be extra fun if this year I made tutu's for all the girlies. The perk, they're so simple! I didn't even break a sweat making five tutus!

Materials

Rolls of tulle, found in the wedding section of your local craft store

Thin headbands

Large Book... or back of chair...get creative

Ribbon

Ruler or cutting mat

Scissors or craft cutter

First, measure and cut your tulle in 14 inch pieces. You can work it however you'd like, but I liked cutting all the tulle strips first, in two different colors, keeping them separate for now. That way I don't have to keep going back to this step.

Once your strips of tulle are ready grab one strip of color A and then stack one strip of color B on top of it. Next, hold them together and tie them onto your headband, as shown above (yes I'm wearing pajamas, judge me later). Keep doing this until you've tied tulle all the way around the headband. You can push the strips tightly together, or spread them out more, depending on how full you want your tutu... er, I mean, your child's tutu!

Once you've done that, you can spruce up this sassy skirt but adding strips of ribbon. To do this, cut 10 inch pieces of ribbon and distribute them evenly amongst the headband. Just tie them in the same way you tied the tulle. I'd say around 10-12 pieces of ribbon would suffice. I used two different types of ribbon on this one.

And there you are... the tutu is complete and ready to wear.

Ice Blocks

I've had these ice blocks ready and waiting for our next big storm because new snow is much prettier than month old snow... but I finally just got tired of waiting, though I'm getting worried I might never see another crisp white pile of new snow. It is a super easy project that I'm sure is right for some kids, though mine was not quite ready for it, as you'll soon see.

Materials

Cups

Food Coloring

Water Color

Freezer

First, just fill as many cups as you'd like with water. Add a few drops of water color in each until you've reached your desired hue

Next, put them in the freezer until they are good and frozen. I can't give you a certain amount of time because I left mine in for weeks hoping it would snow, though, snow is not required for this project :) Once they're ready just pop the now ice blocks out of the cups.

And that's about it, just use them like any old blocks. Take them outside to play, because they do leak color while melting. Aubrey was getting mad at them because they were too cold, but wouldn't keep her gloves on. That said, I feel like this is a good project for children who have reached the age of reason... you know, the ones who can see the logic in keeping gloves on while playing with ice. That, friends, is not my child :)