Noodles to Dye For

My mom has been bringing home extra Disney's Family Fun magazine for us.  

We love the project ideas!  

This one is particularly easy and fun.  

It's not even super messy (don't you love that?!)

Here's what I learned to do (Thanks, Disney!)

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon Vinegar

10-12 drops food coloring

About 1/2 cup noodles for each color

Mix vinegar, food coloring and and uncooked pasta in a ziplock bag & shake.

 

Spread noodles onto paper towels, turning over once while drying. 

(Doesn't take too long--20ish minutes)

 LOVE (most of) the colors!

 Even Bug can string 'em easily!

Bee making necklaces "for kids who don't have any Christmas presents." 

(Yeah, her idea after doing Operation Christmas Child boxes at church!)

Stored these in jars.  

Speaking of which, I have a lot of jars sitting on my counter.  

They are supposed to be inspiring me to think of a great way to re-purpose them.  

Still waiting for the inspiration.

Bee's 4th Birthday: A Hello Kitty Party

 

 A few of the cute little "kitties"

I love people.  I love my kids.  I love parties.  So, it was a party.  A 4th birthday party, no less.  Brooklyn saw some Hello Kitty party decorations a while back, so she decided on a Hello Kitty party.  We made Hello Kitty ear headbands, cake pops, and my mom made a kitty cake (pic to come!).  We bought crayons and Brooklyn glued pictures of Hello Kitty on them for party favors.  But none of that mattered, really.  It was the people.  We had such a fun time celebrating a special girl with family and friends.  Thank you to all who made her feel so special.

 Our family

 Cake Pops--YUM!!

 Hello Kitty ears for girls & party favor bags

 Duck-Duck Goose--hilarious game with 1-5 year olds

 Love these cuties.

 Group hug after Red Light/Green Light

 The Pinata!

 No, not digging for worms; frantically collecting candy!

 New PJs.

 

 Bug's ears are my fav.

When it was over, my dad said, "Thanks, great party"

I replied, "Anytime.  But let's keep it to twice a year."  

Love parties.  I'm tired.

Dress & Headband for Bee's friend

  It was a birthday party!

Bee's friend "Joey" had her party at the local pool tonight.  

A gift was in order.

 Thankfully, I had already had this fabric cut to make this dress/top.  

(Because, of course, I realized I needed a gift at about 10:00 this morning).  

I had made one just like this for Bug months ago, and was going to make this for Bee, except that she wears the one I made for Bug.

[Insert big breath here; that was a dizzying sentence.] 

So this was the perfect garment to make for the perfect little birthday girl.

  I decided to make a headband to go with the dress.  I mean, what girl doesn't want an accessory? 

 

Baby Shower . . . and so much more!

A dear friend of mine, Danielle, is 6 weeks out from meeting her 1st little girl (joining 2 brothers!)  We threw her a shower on Sunday.  Not only did she get some great gifts, we had a lot of fun:  from eating to creating to praying, it was a fantastic afternoon.

After looking up a few shower ideas, we decided to for-go games and instead set up some more "crafty" things to do.  The first was simply a memory book.  Using a pre-made scrapbook, guests were invited to write advice, a note, or a Scripture inside.  Blank pages will be filled in the photos from the shower.

 The second activity was a Baby's First Alphabet Book.  I pre-made the pages by gluing the letters to the scrapbook paper.  Then I brought glue, extra scrap booking paper, scissors, and pens for people to decorate the pages.  Although I loved this idea, everyone got a little too busy with the third project to do much with this one!

 Lastly, I brought piles of fabric scraps, some shapes and designs to trace, and a bucket full of onesies.  Guests were invited to design a onesie for Danielle's little girl.  This was a super fun activity!  We had guest choose a design (or make their own), iron heat & bond on the fabric's back, then cut the design.  After the design was complete, we ironed it on the fabric.  Now my job is to stitch around them!  HA!

 

 And what's a party without food?!

 Our friend Brenda hosted the shower and did a beautiful job setting up the goodies! 

 

 My friend Bethany made the salted caramel & chocolate cupcakes.  You can find her blog here.

 And what really makes a shower?  The people!  We had a fabulous time!  Thank you to all who made this such a special day for Danielle!