Day 5 of Thanks!

For Day Five I am thankful for my two older sisters. I may not have said this as much back when I was a kid. For good reasons, Susan tried dunking my head in the toilet. Susan also put a running vacuum cleaner on my head. Both Susan and Lisa locked me out of the house with just a t-shirt and undies on. Yeah they were loving older sisters. 

But we had some great times together playing softball and basketball growing up. Susan was always the protective big sister of me growing up since we were just two years apart. Most of the time we were in the same school and played on the same sports teams. 

Now that we are all older I feel like we have grown closer together. I couldn't ask for a better set of aunts for Virginia. Lisa is amazing with Virginia and Samantha. Lisa is always taking them fun places and keep track of what they are doing. Susan and I had the luck of both being pregnant with our first kids at the same time. So now our daughters are growing up together. It is great having them so close in age so far they are best buds.

What I love most about my sisters is that I know that they love and care about me. If I need anything I can call either one of them and they are there to help. Love you both, Susan and Lisa!

***************************************************************************************************************Happy November! I am excited to be joining several other bloggers this month to celebrate gratitude through a 21 Days of Gratitude Challenge!! You can read more about this challenge started by Inspired by Family Magazine here. I hope you will join me in this challenge!

Day 4 of Thanks!

For Day Four of thanks I am thankful for my Dad. I am thankful I have such a strong, loving, and caring dad. He was always a great example to me and my sisters to what to look for in a man. He was always active in my life and my sisters from being our softball coach or basketball coach growing up. Now I love seeing how much he loves Virginia and Samantha. Every Wednesday we go down to my parents to have dinner and hang out. Virginia can't wait to run around with my dad. He takes them in the back yard to swing. He is the one that picks them up and tosses them over his shoulder. Or takes them to play shoe shiner, I know it is silly but Virginia and Samantha love to play with his shoe shining kit.  I know that Virginia is going to have tons of great memories of her PawPaw. So I am thankful that I was blessed with such a loving and AWESOME dad! 

***************************************************************************************************************Happy November! I am excited to be joining several other bloggers this month to celebrate gratitude through a 21 Days of Gratitude Challenge!! You can read more about this challenge started by Inspired by Family Magazine here. I hope you will join me in this challenge!

Day 3 of Thanks!

For Day Three I am thankful for my Mom. I know everyone thinks they have the best mom ever. But I know I truly have the most amazing Mom. I don't know how she raised three girls and still is sane. She always made breakfast for me and my sisters every morning before school. She was at all of our softball games and basketball games. She is an awesome grandma to Virginia. Virginia lights up every time I tell her we are going to see MawMaw and PawPaw. She has always been so loving to me and my sisters. Still to this day I talk to my mom almost every day on the phone. She is always there when I need her. I know if I need help or advise she is the one to call. Love You Mom and thank you for all you have done for me :-)

***************************************************************************************************************Happy November! I am excited to be joining several other bloggers this month to celebrate gratitude through a 21 Days of Gratitude Challenge!! You can read more about this challenge started by Inspired by Family Magazine here. I hope you will join me in this challenge!

Day 2 of Thanks

For Day Two I am thankful for my husband Reiggin. We have been married for Four Years now. It is hard to believe we have been together for that long ( and not killed each other ) I kid. It has been a great four years with him, we have had our ups and downs, but I wouldn't change a thing. He makes me smile and laugh. He has introduced me to so much new music and made me fall in love with the Avett Brothers. I am thankful for the fact that he is the best father I could ever ask for my daughter. I am thankful for how hard he works so I can stay at home with Virginia. I am also thankful that he is a better cook then I am and takes care of me when I am sick. I am thankful that I have him in my life and enjoy the quiet moments after Virginia is asleep watching TV and talking with him at night. I am so happy to know that he is always there for me and I look forward to see what kind of adventures we get into down the road in our marriage. 

***************************************************************************************************************Happy November! I am excited to be joining several other bloggers this month to celebrate gratitude through a 21 Days of Gratitude Challenge!! You can read more about this challenge started by Inspired by Family Magazine here. I hope you will join me in this challenge!

21 Days of Contagious Gratitude

Happy November! I am excited to be joining several other bloggers this month to celebrate gratitude through a 21 Days of Gratitude Challenge!! You can read more about this challenge started by Inspired by Family Magazine here.

Each day for the next 21 days I'll be sharing about something I am grateful for. I will either share on the blog, Instagram, or Facebook.

I'd like to challenge you to join in!

For Day One, I will be sharing what I am most thankful for, my daughter. Having my daughter changed my whole world. It really made me grow up and see the world in a different light. I have enjoyed watching her grow and watching her discover new things. She is so goofy and yet shy. I really love the fact that so far she is sharing my love of the arts.

She is always asking me to do crafts, paint, or create something with her. I hope she continues to enjoy and explore the arts. I also love how she is so loving. She is my cuddle bug. My heart melts when she tells me, " Mommy we make a great team." Lately too she has been focused on us being together. So if we are apart for a bit the next time I see her she runs into my arms and says she is so happy to be with me. It is the best feeling ever. 

I just hope to continue to have such a loving and tight relationship with my daughter. I can't wait to see how she continues to grow and see what kind of woman she becomes. I couldn't ask for a better daughter and thank God every day that she is in my life. 

Frankenstein Paint Bag

I wanted to do some fun Halloween crafts with Virginia today. We had planned on having friends over today for a craft play date but things came up and her friends couldn't make it. But we went ahead and had some fun anyway just the two of us. 

Last night while I was doing dishes this idea just came to me. It is funny how ideas will just pop into my head at the strangest of times. I knew Virginia loved the paint bag craft that we have done in the past where you put paint in a bag and the kids can practice writing their letters or just make their own designs. I decided to do a Halloween spin on the paint bag and make the bag look like Frankenstein.

All I did was grab a one galloon size zip lock bag, a sheet of black construction paper, a sheet of white construction paper, crayon, and yellow and blue paint. I first drew a wavy line on the black construction paper and let Virginia cut it out two times. One for the front of his hair and one for the back. 

Since I didn't have gray or silver construction paper I just used white and let Virginia color it gray. I drew out the shape of the blots for the side of frankenstein. Virginia was tired of cutting so I took over. After everything was cut out I used glue dots to glue the paper to the bag. You can use any glue or tape of your choice.

Next I let Virginia pour equal parts yellow and blue paint into the bag. I zip the bag shut and told her to mix the paint and see what happens. She was thrilled when she saw the paint turn green. This turned into a fun lesson of how to mix two colors to make a new color. She played for awhile making silly faces on Frankenstein.

I loved how quick and easy this craft was and it kept Virginia happy for a good hour.

Homemade Clay and Painting Time

This morning after watching cartoon after cartoon I decided it was time to do something else. Something away from the tv and I had an itch to do something creative with Virginia. Last night on Pinterest I ran across a recipe for homemade clay on Etsy New York Street Team's blog. 

So this morning I decided to give the recipe a shot. I already had all the ingredients in my pantry. Which is always a plus, I try my best to keep my craft spending low. I let Virginia help me measure out the ingredients into the pot. Then she stirred the liquid til she got tired and I finished it off. Then I took it off the heat and let it cool in a bowl. 

I do believe I may have needed to cook the liquid a little longer and maybe the clay wouldn't have been so sticky. But Virginia still loved playing with the clay in the bowl. She grabbed one of her plastic spoons and played for hours. This was a great sensory activity. The clay was still warm and felt like mashed potatoes. I am going to try to make something with the clay and let it dry for two days like the recipe calls for and see how it turns out. I still want to make this recipe again and cook it longer to see if it helps with the sticky factor. But overall I am happy and Virginia enjoyed it so it was a win win. ( Ok after playing with the clay for awhile it did lose some of its sticky factor)

We also decided to do some painting. This summer both Virginia and I bought a sketch book for each other, got the idea from my favorite blog Tinker Lab. I was determined to draw at least once each day. That didn't really work out, but Virginia loves that she has her own sketch book. So I grabbed her book and some stickers and her water colors. I let her stick stickers all over the page. Then told her to paint away. After the painting dries I will peel the stickers off and show her the white circles the stickers will leave. That is if she lets me take the stickers off. 

I am so glad Virginia enjoys doing art and crafts with me. I think I enjoy craft time just as much as she does.