"Mud Pie Cookies" Recipe

First, take two clean and dry children....

Add water....and silly goggles..

Walk to the front yard and get the mail from your mailbox.  Then come back to see what they're up to.

It takes a little bit of team work.  But the clean, dry, children you left....

Might get the good idea to mix some dirt from your flower bed....into the water...

and tell you that they are making "mud pie cookies"!

This recipe is best when followed by a nice bubble bath...which is best when followed by a thorough bath- tub- scrubbing to get the black ring off your tub!

To finish the recipe, treat yourself to some cuddle time on the couch with both squeaky clean children :)

Easy Spring Craft

Ella brought home the neatest little craft last week and I wanted to share it with all of you!  She made this last Tuesday at Pre-School and we have been having so much fun watching it grow!  

Materials Needed:

* Any color paper (but card stock would be best)

*Scissors

*Marker or crayons

*Scotch Tape

*Ziplock bag

*Cotton Balls

*Bird seed

All you need to do is cut out your paper into the shape of a little house.  You'll want the house to have the center cut out so that it appears to be the clear window of a Greenhouse. (See pictures below).  Ella's is plain, but I think it would have been fun to let the kids color and decorate it.  Next, take two or three cotton balls dipped in water and place them in the ziplock.  Pour in some birdseed and tape the ziplock to the back of your little house.  Be sure to keep the back of the ziplock bag open so that air can get in.  Place your bag in a sunny place and wait for your seeds to grow!

We hung ours in the kitchen window.  I didn't realize that bird seeds were really well...ummm..seeds?!? I mean, I KNEW they were seeds (hence the name)..I guess I just never ever thought to plant them and see what they grew!!  The thing I loved the most about using the bird seed is that they have been super quick to grow.  Literally a day or two after we brought them home they were starting to sprout.  This is great for little ones because they can see almost instant results.  Like I said, ours have only been growing for a little over a week!

All thanks for this craft goes to Ella's sweet teacher, Mrs. Debbie.  We have just borrowed her idea to share with our friends because I know alot of you have small children and I thought you would enjoy this simple idea! 

We have been sprinkling in some water every day or two to keep the cotton balls nice and moist..

Happy Growing!!

Sew much FUN!

The Christmas before last, Randy's mom and dad bought me a sewing machine.  I was  so busy keeping up with Ella and Noah who were 2 and 6 months old at the time that I got a little overwhelmed with finding time to use it.  I just put it out of the way and kept telling myself I'd pull it out soon and start playing around with it.  Well, fast forward to last month.  I got this idea that I wanted to make Ella and Noah coordinating Easter outfits and decided to finally learn to sew.  I made a trip to the fabric store, came home and read my entire manual several times, watched a couple of YouTube tutorials and got to work.  I'm addicted.  I'm definitely still a work in progress!  Still lots of mistakes, but I am learning more and more from each thing I make.  I feel like every time I screw up, I learn a better way to do it next time.  I'm having so much fun having an outlet for some creativity.  Only down fall is....I'm usually found at my sewing machine during nap time or after the little ones go to sleep...so I'm a bit sleepy myself ;)

Over the weekend I made Ella a little jumper type outfit that is really lightweight. It's a funky kind of design, but I've almost purchased them for her in the past off of Etsy and have been pretty pleased that I made her a couple on my own now :)

It's a little hard to tell on this picture, but it's not a long dress.  The bottom part has pant legs..

 I had a bunch of really small scraps and couldn't decided what I wanted to do with them.  I've been saving a lot of them to make into squares for a quilt, but I knew I probably had enough of this fabric to make another outfit.  I decided to make a little dress for my friends little girl Hailey.  It's hard to tell in this picture, but the dress is pretty small.  She's only 5 months old, so this was made to fit her.  I'd say it's probably technically a size 6 months because I think it may be a teeny bit big for her still.  Her measurements seemed so small to work with that I found myself adding a 1/2 inch here and there thinking it would be too tiny if not!

Here's the finished product!

 The top has little straps that come together in the back almost like a little halter.

 The back has a button hole for the straps to go through.  You can knot them or do a big bow.  I chose to knot them for now..

 One of my favorite things I have learned is shirring.  I used elastic thread on my bobbin so the whole back of the dress is nice and stretchy.  I'm hoping since it's stretchy she can use it as a dress this Summer and then as a long shirt with leggings in the Fall.

 I'm really trying to work on finishing the little details so that they will wash better, but some of it is so tedious! I've been trying to finish my seems with a zigzag stitch since I don't have a serger or anything like that to use.

 The hardest thing for me right now is attaching ruffles.  My sewing machine has a hard time chugging through the fabric and sometimes when I go back to top stitch I find little tiny parts that didn't get attached right. That's always nice and frustrating.....!

 Had a little bit of an oops on this part where I gathered it a little too much.  Thankfully, it's so ruffle-y that it's not very noticeable..

 It's still overall a cute little dress!!! I am planning to make Ella a couple like it for the Summer.  I already made her a shorter version of this same dress with a pair of matching ruffle pants.  Since it's getting warmer, I'm going to make the rest actual dresses instead of doing the pants now..

Can you tell I'm having "SEW much fun?!?!" ;)

Spring Fever!

It's official, the Strickland Family has SPRING FEVER!  These beautiful, warm days smashed in between gloomy, freezing days are just a tease! Come on warm weather!! We are ready for you!

The kids have enjoyed getting to have an occasional warm day.  It's also been nice that the highs have been around the 50s, too.  So at least we aren't having to suffer through the really cold days in the 30s and 40s anymore.  The mornings have still been in the 40s, but it usually "warms" up by lunch.  The weekend before last Randy tilled some compost into my garden plot!  I can't wait until the last frost so I can start planting!!

Outside FUN!

Last week while getting into jammies, Ella decided that she and Noah will need to wear hats to bed.  Since it was so cold out of course...

I couldn't help but giggle at them in their Winter hats all snug in bed! Too funny!

When I went to get Noah in the morning he had put his back on and was still wearing it.  He wore it around until after breakfast!

Another warm day outside..

So bright I can't look at you Mommy!!

I usually pin Ella's bangs back after the haircut incident, but she was out getting dirty anyways so I didn't bother.  You can see that they are finally starting to grow out!!

Family

One of the hardest parts about living 12 hours from your hometown, is missing family.  Every holiday or special occasion, you always know that everyone is gathered together having a great time..and you're not able to be there.  So this trip we were happy to be able to visit with a ton of our family.   One night we met up with the Brown family which is my family from my step-dad's side.  We had a great time and always enjoy getting to see them.  I posted some pics from that on facebook.  We also had a chance to visit with some of Randy's family as well.  This was a particularly exciting visit because Ella was able to meet her cousin Gracie!  They are only about 6 months apart or so and they had a blast playing together.

 Noah and Ella with cousin Nathan!

 Ella and Gracie playing together!

 The little ones made the play pen into a little fort and were just sitting in there chatting away.  I love it!  Brings back memories of holidays with my own cousins.

 Next, we were able to see some of our McCabe family.  We stopped by my Uncle David's house (my dad's youngest brother out of 7!).  We were able to celebrate his middle daughter Danielle's Birthday with them!  She was turning 6.  Danielle has an older brother James and a younger sister Kristen who is 2, so there were lots of fun friends to play with!

 Ella, cousin Danielle, and one of Danielle's friends..

 Here I am for a picture with my cousin Tiffany (my Dad's brother Tom's daughter) and my Uncle David.

 And here again..from the left: my cousin Tiffany's boyfriend Ryan, cousin Tiffany, myself, cousin Melissa (My Aunt Patty's daughter), My Aunt Patty (my Dad's sister), and my Uncle David. Whew!

It's always great to see family.  Can't wait until the next visit we have!