Princess Festival 2012

Jellybean and I went on a mom and daughter outing last Saturday.  We went to the Princess Festival.
Here she is dressed in her finest princess garb:

Jellybean doesn't go out for the Disney princess look. She has her own style.

We met some beautiful princesses who told their stories and posed for pictures:

Meeting Cinderella and Rapunzel

Jellybean tried on a new outfit...yeah, it freaks me out a little, too.

I'm a little confused about why the arms don't match...

Face painting by one of my old high school friends (go figure). I tried to convince Jellybean to choose a more elaborate design.  I wanted to get my money's worth, but this is what she picked.

She looks thrilled, doesn't she?

They had several craft stations set up.  Jellybean was a little young for some, but she loved making her own hair bow and coloring bookmarks to give away to other children. Such a kind princess.
Jellybean also enjoyed building a sand castle and joining in the dance party with Princess Sonrisa and Little Red Riding Hood.

 Before we left, we had to get Jellybean's nails painted.  This was the first time for her. She was so excited. 

She sat so still. Gotta love the hot pink.

We had a blast. I loved every minute of hanging out with my daughter; just us girls. I get such a kick out of my funny, amazing little girl.

One last carriage ride before departing for home.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

WW- Water Play

Join in the Wordless Wednesday fun and

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Leaf Pressing In Progress

I constantly have projects in various stages of completeness. I thought for today's post I'd visit one of those projects in progress.
I love leaf pressing.  This may come as no surprise if you happened to catch one of my previous projects inspired by an Orangeola Japanese Maple.

When we moved to our new home I became obsessed with a red bud tree in our backyard.  I posted a beautiful picture of it in the Spring.  It went from this:

To this:

When I posted the photo of the tree in bloom, I thought that it was a Western Redbud.  Once the leaves emerged it turned out to be a Forest Pansy Redbud.  The leaves are a gorgeous purple red and perfectly heart shaped.  How could I not try and save some of these beautiful leaves?
I picked several leaves (there were way too many to choose from) and went ahead and prepped them for pressing. I started by washing the leaves and then drying them on a paper towel.

After that, I took an sharp knife and carefully cut the stem away so that the heart shape would be more apparent. I usually just press the leaves between two sheets of printer paper, but I decided that I'd try slipping them in some cello bags.  I'm thinking that this will make transport and storage a little easier. I hope it was a good idea. (ETA: Putting them in bags was not a good idea. I felt a little dumb when I realized that pressing them this way would just keep the moisture in. Glad I took the leaves out of the bags before it ruined them.)
Pressing is easy after that.  I like to do it old school. I slipped the leaves between the pages of one of my large coffee table books and then added on a lot of weight. Another valuable lesson brought to you from my elementary school education.

So, there they'll stay for now while the Complete Works of Shakespeare works its magic.  I have so many ideas of how to use the leaves once they are fully dry. Simply framed would be beautiful, but can't you see one of those beautiful leaves as the center piece on a Valentine's Day card?  I can.

Now go and find some lovely leaves to press and...

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

This post is participating in:

Box Canyon-Youth Conference 2012

Crimson Columbine- Aquilegia formosa

I've been MIA for the past few days due to Youth Conference.  Our church does an annual trip with the youth (ages 12 and 18). I had the amazing opportunity of hanging out with about 30 teenagers for two days and two nights.  Yeah, not as terrible as it sounds.
One of the highlights to the trip was a hike through Box Canyon in Moroni, UT. 

It's a great, easy-ish hike over and through fantastic natural rock formations. Good hiking shoes are recommended as the entire trail is made up of loose rock. Not only was it a beautiful day for a hike, but this canyon was very surprising.  The trail is somewhat hard to find, so we were the only group there for the entire hike.
I made a hobby of photographing some of the many, many butterflies (so many butterflies).

My best species guesstimation from Left to Right: Boloria chariclea, Field Crescent- Phyciodes pulchella, Clodius Parnassian, Mormon Fritillary, Weidemeyer’s Admiral Butterfly-Limenitis weidemeyerii

Box Canyon branches off of Maple Canyon. We also went further up for some rock repelling.  From what I could tell, it is an excellent spot for rock climbing.  I let those crazy teenagers do all of that dangerous stuff though.  I thought that I'd return home to my children in one piece.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Onion Bite

Photo via SarahLee Foodservice

Our family goes out for bagels almost every Saturday.  If you frequent Einstein Bagels and order the non-savory varieties (blueberry, poppyseed, cranberry, etc.) like we do, something will become apparent.  That something is what we lovingly call, "The Onion Bite."  The onion bite may sound foreign to you, so let me explain:  Imagine you've ordered a blueberry bagel with strawberry cream cheese (my standard order), you are enjoying it until, quite unexpectedly, you take a bite and it doesn't taste like the previous bite, it tastes like an onion bagel.  The horror!

I've posted this photo before, I still like it.

We don't know why this phenomenon occurs, but have discussed it at length. Do they work all of their dough on the same surface so that a portion of the blueberry dough picks up some of the onion? Do they store the onion bagels too close to the blueberry? Is it actually the cream cheese that is contaminated? Where did this errant onion flavored bite come from??  We don't know, so we've decided to make it a game.  You win the game if your bagel miraculously is missing the onion bite.  You also win if your onion bite comes at the beginning of the meal thereby allowing you to eat the rest of your bagel in peace.  You lose when the onion bite comes at the very end, ruining the entire bagel eating experience.  I hate it when I lose...

So, are we the only people who have noticed the onion bite?  It's entirely possible that we're just weird like that. 

Have a  Happy Day!

~MJ

Father's Day 5 Minute Craft

We just finished celebrating Father's Day in our home.  It was a nice day.  We got to spend time with my Dad, D's Dad and D's Grandfather. 
To celebrate the dad in this house, the kids helped me put together a little gift.

I had some scrap booking paper on hand, so I traced the kids' hands on some scrap paper and used that as a pattern for cutting out their prints in color.  Then I photoshopped a message and printed it out on some patterned paper.  After I glued on the hands, I slapped the entire thing in a frame and whallah!
If you are interested in the template for the message, here it is:

Best Dad Template for 8.5X10 Print

I got the inspiration for this project from this awesome blog: Roots & Wings Co.

You'll notice, that she did her lovely piece on a painted canvas with the hands actually going down, which may or may not add a little extra cuteness to the phrase, "hands down." Also note that their dad is apparently, "the World's Best" That's a pretty lofty claim. Sorry, D, I couldn't quite go there. heh.
This version seemed a little more, what's the word...work. I'm too lazy for canvases and paint. Especially if the project calls for a canvas and paint on the evening prior to Father's Day and the stores are already closed. I do wish I had placed the hands pointing down though, I totally missed that element.  I didn't even notice until D was unwrapping it.  He claims that it doesn't make a difference. I'll take his word for it.

I hope you all had a fantastic time celebrating the dads in your life.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

The Boy Turns Four

So, let's review: 

Here is what Buddy looked like at 1 month old:

and here is what he looks like now:

Pretty incredible, right? It always amazes me to look back at those first photos and to see how much a person can change in such a short span of time.

A little about Buddy at four years of age:
-He loves, loves letters and reading. It's an on going love affair that shows no sign of slowing down. He reads for at least an hour before naps and before bed time. He has a growing collection of alphabet posters on his wall. The books he likes to keep in the bed are threatening to take over the bed altogether.
-He loves super heroes. He wants to be a super hero. His little sister is getting tired of being put in jail.
-This year, after a lot of tears, Buddy became a really big kid. He's busting with pride over his new set of Batman underwear. The new set is slated to beat out the old set of Star Wars underwear.
-This kid is a sliding machine.  After two years of major trepidation when it came to slides, he has conquered his fear and now Loves a good slide. 
-He is starting preschool this Fall.  We are all very excited.

Happy Birthday, sweet boy!

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Eye Spy Discovery Bottle

Buddy came home from church on Sunday with a little discovery bottle filled with treasures for him to look at it. It was his "eye spy." He was smitten with it and carried it everywhere. He even carried it to the grocery store where he promptly left it in the car cart we were using.  I didn't notice that he didn't have it with him and he didn't notice either until we got home.  He was devastated.

So, (in order to stop the sobbing) we decided to make our own... 

We went on an expedition to Hobby Lobby and picked out a few little things to go in our brand new eye spy bottles. Buddy was especially enthusiastic about the ABC beads we found.  I gathered a few more items around the house and then I let Buddy and Jellybean pick what they wanted in their bottles. After they had put in what they wanted, I poured in a generous amount of corn syrup and glitter.

In retrospect, we should have used smaller bottles. I also should have added more glitter. The glitter looks really cool throughout the corn syrup. All in all, the kids are happy with their bottles. Buddy reminds me daily that he is sad he lost his eye spy, but he likes that his new one has ALL of the letters.

To add a little personality and to secure the cap on the bottle, I glued on a bit of ribbon and felt.  With that much corn syrup in there, I wanted to make sure the cap was on tight.

Here's a link to an entire page of discovery bottle ideas.  There are a ton of great ones.
Discovery Bottle Ideas

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

This post is participating in:
 

WW- Playground Sequence

Slide:

Swing:

Climb:

Happy WW! Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Quiet Activity Idea: Handkerchief Folding

When I was a little girl, my mom would bring a simple white handkerchief to church and would fold it into a baby cradle in order to keep me entertained.  I loved it and would request it often.  As a child, it seemed like magic. Recently, I started carrying a bandana in my church bag and have been experimenting with some different ways to fold it.  Jellybean likes these handkerchief tricks as much as I did all those years ago.  It's a fantastic quiet activity for church or the doctor's office.  Here are two folding ideas that we've been enjoying.

The Bandana Bunny:

Start with a flat bandana and knot the top two corners. Bring the corners together and tie a big knot to create the bunny head and ears.

Knot the remaining corners into two little arms and bring the knot up in the back to make a little bunny tail.

Handkerchief Baby Cradle:

Fold handkerchief into a triangle. Roll each corner to the center, then fold in half. Take corner on very top and fold out and around to create the cradle.  Look, they're twins!

Jellybean likes to hold the cradle by each corner and rock it while singing, "Rock a bye, rock a bye."

Throw a bandana or a handkerchief in your bag and experiment with some folding of your own.  Here are a couple more ideas that I found out on the web.

Handkerchief Doll
Handkerchief Mouse (I couldn't figure this one out. I'm special like that, so maybe you can.)

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

This post is participating in:
 

What have I done to my hair?

I've been thinking a lot about hair this week. Not only did the kids get new haircuts, but I decided to change a few things about my hair by jumping on the no shampoo bandwagon. 
Take a gander at my cute kids first, then let's talk about hair shall we?

Jellybean got trimmed and styled.

Buddy got a new, short, Summer cut.

Pretty cute, right? 

Now let's let the discussion get a little hairy.  A year or so ago, I started researching the concept of ditching my $20 shampoo and going without shampoo altogether (i.e. going "no-poo"). There were a lot of reasons why going sans shampoo seemed appealing. Here are the most compelling of the reasons:
1. Clear skin. My skin is a nightmare.  Call me crazy, but I always assumed that when I hit my thirties I wouldn't need to worry about acne. In fact, I find it utterly ridiculous to have to deal with acne at my age.  My skin has always been sensitive to different shampoos and I've noticed that it is just worse lately.  Daily (or in my case every other day) shampooing strips your hair of natural oils. This in turn can lead to an over production of oil. It may be my own theory, but it occurs to me that stopping the over production of oil may aid in my quest for clear skin.
2. Curl.  I discovered in my research that those with naturally curly hair (like myself) can benefit by eliminating sodium lauryl sulfate and other sulfate based chemicals from their routine.  SLS is used as a foaming agent in shampoos and can be pretty harsh, drying and damaging to curly hair.  Not only that, but SLS can also irritate the skin your hair touches (another push for reason #2). My hair has gone through a lot of changes since having two children. My natural curl can use all the help it can get.
3. Cost.  I've always spent a lot on what I assumed were high quality hair products.  The cost of baking soda and apple cider vinegar compared to my salon shampoos is pretty convincing.

I understood from my research that going without shampoo could turn into a two month oily science experiment and I just couldn't figure out a good time when I could stay shut up in my home for two months and not be seen by any living soul until my hair got straightened out.  Then I realized that there would never be a good time for that and that there had to be some middle ground between becoming an oily mess and continuing my less than satisfactory hair routine.

I did quite a bit of research on different methods for eliminating shampoo. Here's what I've come up with for a middle of the road approach to weaning my hair off of the "poo." I'm going to put weekly updates on the side of the page so that you can see how my experiment is going:

First, I purchased/gathered together a few items. I'll note that I rarely purchase something unless it has good reviews on Amazon. Here's what I needed:
-A natural, no sulfate, clarifying shampoo and conditioner
-A good boar bristle brush
-Squeeze bottles
-Dry shampoo
-I already had baking soda and apple cider vinegar in my cupboard

My new shampoo and conditioner.

Next, I readied my new "shampoo and conditioner."  In one squeeze bottle, I mixed 1 tablespoon of baking soda with 1 cup of water.  In the other, I mixed 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with 1 cup of water. The idea is that you use the baking soda mix on your scalp and the vinegar solution on the ends of your hair for conditioning. Make sure you use apple cider vinegar and NOT white vinegar.

My method:
-Once every week to twice a month, I wash my hair with a good clarifying shampoo. This will become less frequent as I wean myself off of shampoo completely.
-Every other day after that, I wash my hair using the baking soda and vinegar solutions.
-Each morning and night, I brush my hair well with my fabulous new brush. This helps distribute the oil from root to tip.
-If the oil seems out of control or annoying, I use a tiny bit of dry shampoo to refresh my hair.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this experiment goes. If it works well for me, I'm going to move towards no shampoo for my kids and *gasp* my husband, too. 

Here are a few helpful links on the subject:
How to wash your hair without shampoo
Using the No Shampoo Method
How to quit shampoo without becoming disgusting

Look for my updates in the side bar as the weeks progress.  Let's see how it goes.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Oven Safety

Maybe it's time for a more serious discussion on the topic:

Turning up the heat...

Happy WW. Have a Happy Day!

~MJ