My Little Cupid

My little Valentine....Jake. He happens to turn 2 today, and it will be a Valentine's Day I remember for the rest of my life. We had a great party for him. It was a little hampered by the weather- I wish all the family could have made it, but he had a great time.

Hot dogs were the dish of the evening- Jake's favorite (not Mommy's). Monster cupcakes were for dessert to match his new monster themed "big boy" room. Since the cutest (easiest) cupcakes I could find were Cookie Monster, that's what I went with. The recipe is here.

His room turned out great. I'm disappointed in the wall sticks. Not because I don't think they are adorable, but because they didn't stick very well. I'm going to attack them with some spray adhesive tomorrow (don't tell my husband). For what I paid WITHOUT a coupon they should stick without issue....

Of course, he needed an actual present. So he ended up getting an electric motorcycle. I found it at a consignment sale for $5! It didn't work but my handy brother figured out a wiring issue and now it runs with no problem. Yes, it is used and doesn't work perfectly, but he loves it just the same. I love this age- he cares not if the toy is new or used!

He looked so small in that big bed! Oh how I love you boys.....

Shave and a Haircut...well, not a shave

We've had a miserable time trying to get Jake's haircut. He started off as such a good little boy- you could feed him a few fruit snacks and he'd sit there patiently. Since about 18 months it has been going steadily downhill. The last trip we made was to a family oriented hair place. There were cars to sit on while he got his haircut, videos to watch, toys to place with and it STILL took 2 people plus mom to give him a haircut.

I know he's a better boy than that, but I refuse to endure another trip like that. Not to mention the ridiculous price I paid for all the extra kids spoiling. So, I did what most cheapskate moms do. I bought some clippers and decided to do it myself.

Why not. He's too young to complain yet anyway! : )

Turns out, I'm not bad at this. At least, I don't think so! Plus, Jake was pretty good. He wasn't happy at first, but he had popcorn, iPod movies, and dad to keep him occupied. He sat STILL, he didn't SQUIRM, and he let me cut as long as I wanted.....

I am so stinkin' happy. Not to mention I saved money!

So enjoy the pictures, and if anyone would like to know what sizes I used on the clippers, or what went into it I am happy to share. For now, I will bask in the glory of my handsome dude's stylin' haircut....

Curtains!

Not just any curtains, special blackout IKEA curtains! And I love love love how they turned out. I can't believe that what I wanted in my head translated into what I made. I'm used to things not quite working out how I plan so this is a little unsettling. Could I actually design something that works? Hmmmmm?

The fabric is from Ikea. It is thick, it is wide, and it has a crazy design on it. I bought 6 yards. I was able to cut a 3 yard section in half and use those on either side of the windows. (Rather than buy another 3 yards at $6.99 a yard). And the total amount covers both windows- yipee!

The only problem with this room is the amount of light. In fact, it's actually a bonus. Beautiful light comes through every morning. BUt I have a toddler that needs to nap during the day and sleep past 5am in the mornings. So I checked with Hancock Fabrics, and they have this stuff called "blackout lining." It's very heavy and a lot like vinyl. I bought 6 yards. No ifs ands or buts- this will block out the light.

It nearly killed me! The fabric was so heavy, and such large pieces! It took every pin I had in the house (which annoyed me) and a lot of time. And after I broke a needle on the serger, made a nighttime trip to the fabric store, and spent a large amount of time trying to get Jake off of my fabric, I finally finished. TA DA!!!!!

MIA

Hmmmm, "where have you been?!" you might ask. Well, there are a few places that I've been hiding. Since news that I was pregnant, I was EXHAUSTED. I mean, sit on the couch and stare at the blank wall exhausted. Jake didn't care. Sigh. So a few things got moved to the bottom of the priority list.

Christmas was great, but Christmas was a lot of work too. Everyone liked their homemade presents which made me very happy. It was almost like letting my children go.....kinda hard to watch them leave my house.....

And then there was school. School came to a close around the second week of December and it was DIFFICULT. So much so that I decided to just take things easy for awhile.

Of course, for my birthday I wanted to take a much needed trip to IKEA with friends. Maria, Suz, and Tricia helped me shop and eat. It was glorious! I spent a lot of money, but not on myself! Oh no, always on Jake. Yep, he got a lot of new furniture for his big boy room.

So that's what I've been doing. I'm working on turning our former guest bedroom into Jake's new room for his birthday, Feb 14th. Stay tuned for new posts!

Reindeer Hay

There is a lady I work with that gives out Reindeer Hay to all the staff members with kids. This is the first year I qualify! It's a really sweet idea. Santa gets milk and cookies, so the reindeer get special hay.

I always wondered what was in the brown paper bag and I finally got to dissect it. The contents include a handful of dried grass, a little bit of rice crispies, and red glitter. Magical!

Feel free to copy and pass to the young kids you know. We really had fun with it. Jake is a little young, but next year he will love it!

Check This Out

What a fun idea! You can find links to all kinds of crafty projects here...

A "Second Try" Project!

This is a fun post, blog world. I'm going to have a new little person to sew for!!!