Happy 4th of July!!

This was inspired by my friend Valerie from the Frugal Family Fun Blog. She made sidewalk chalk paint with her daughter the other day and when Cyan saw it, she couldn't wait to do it too!!! These fireworks were made by me and splattered by Logan. :) (Mommy tip: He came inside completely splattered in corn starch and it came right off with a washcloth... food coloring and all. Even off his tee shirt.)

Making the paint was really easy. Just 2 Tbs corn starch, 2 tbs water, and a few drops of food coloring. We tried to double the recipe, but that didn't work out so well, so we continued to make small batches well into the afternoon.

They spent over 2 hours out there on the drive way, making fun creations.

Hope everyone else is having an amazing Independence Day!

A few more pictures:

Cyan putting out the flag this morning.

One of the fireworks from the party we went to tonight.

American flag cheesecake. Inspiration here. Alex made sure it had all it's stars and stripes. :)

Muffin Tin Monday ~ Copy cat

With all my copy cat posts lately, I was surprised to find that the theme over at Muffin Tin Monday was Copy Cat. LOL! We have been copying so many other blogs in the last week that I didn't feel the pressure to copy any one muffin tin perfectly... but I did find a general theme that I had wanted to try for a while; Breakfast!

Today I woke up early and made my kiddos this:

Top: cherry and vanilla granola, strawberry keifer, fresh WW raspberry mini pancakes

Bottom: Maple syrup for dipping, fresh raspberries, scrambled eggs

They were pretty darned excited. I haven't 'made' breakfast in I don't know how long because of the moves, and house hunting and such. We have pretty much survived on organic instant oatmeal, granola and yogurt, and Cheerios. Not that any of these are bad... I added these things to my shopping list for this time in our lives on purpose... but it just doesn't have the personal touches that a good warm breakfast has.

Cyan discovering that she had raspberry pieces in her pancakes.

Logan enjoyed his meal most of all I think... everything got dipped in the maple syrup. lol! Even the granola and the eggs.

Copy Cat ~ Cardboard castle!

Part of the joy of moving with kids is letting them cut up cardboard right???

Ever since I saw Made By K's cardboard castle, I have wanted to build one with the kiddos. We have SO much cardboard running around this place that it was amazing we hadn't thought of it before. So a couple boxes and a set of toddler crayons later, we had this beauty to call our own in our livingroom.

Logan loved the idea of being able to color on the castle. He happily ran around drawing where everyone else was... which made my little girl not so happy.


After I explained to her that it didn't have to be perfect, then both the older kids seemed ok with letting Logan in on the fun.


He sure was proud of himself. :)

Right now the kids are laying in the castle listening to a story on CD. Doesn't get much better than that.

Copy Cat...

How would the first days of vacation be complete without a raspberry jellyfish??

I have become a copy cat. So many people just have so many wonderful ideas! Please tell me I am not the only one?

This wonderful seascape dessert idea came from copies of Her Cup Overfloweth and her kids shark dessert and a wonderful tiny jellyfish idea from Heather on the Muffin Tin Monday flickr page. The kids LOVED it!

If you ever want to get a toddler involved in cooking... let them pound cracker crumbs! Logan LOVED doing this and was upset when I said he was done.

(He is not wearing makeup... he fell last night in the bathtub and gave himself a horrible shiner. He also got into the strawberries day before yesterday and ended up with hives all over. Poor baby is a mess right now. :( )

And soon to be copied: Card Board Castle!