Great Music Videos for Kids

My little man absolutely LOVES Choo-Choo Soul on Disney Junior. Below is a link to Disney's site where they have all of the Choo-Choo Soul videos free online! On this site they also have Choo-Choo Soul activities that are free. You should definitely check it out if you have little ones. These short music videos are a saving grace in our house at times!!

http://disney.go.com/disneyjunior/choo-choo-soul/choo-choo-soul-videos-episodes

~Sarah

Fun Hot Dogs for Kids

While browsing Pinterest one day I found a great idea for a fun way to make hot dogs for kids. This recipe comes from http://diycozyhome.com. These were really easy to make and turned out really cute!!

Ingredients:

Hot Dogs

Crescent Rolls

Step One: Take two crescent rolls and lay them out in a rectangle. Press the creases together.

Step Two: Lay your hot dog on the rectangle and roll it up. You will press the ends together to seal in the hot dog.

Step Three: Take some extra crescent roll dough and make your tail, legs, ears, and head.

Step Four: Bake at 375 for 13 minutes or until golden brown.

I served these with ketchup to dip them in! They turned out so cute and were really tasty too!!

Enjoy!

~Sarah

Shutter Makeover

When we bought our house it had these AWFUL and I mean AWFUL baby blue shutters! They are an odd size shutter that is hard to find so we decided we would just give the current ones a makeover. We bought Krylon Fusion for Plastic spray paint in a navy blue and two coats later we were finished!! This was so easy to do and we only needed two cans of paint that were about $5.00 each. The best part is that the paint dries within 15 minutes! Check out the before and after pictures below!!

~Sarah

Shutters Before

Shutters After

Side by side comparison

Homemade 4th of July Shirt

Want to have fun with your kids and make your own 4th of July shirts?! I have a fast, fun, easy project where you can do just that. I originally saw these 4th of July shirts on Pinterest and I thought they were super cute! All you need is a plain white t-shirt and red and blue paint.

First, lay out your shirt (I put paper in the middle so the paint didn't soak through onto the back) and then you are going to get blue paint on your little ones left hand and put their hand print on the upper left part of the white shirt. Since my little guy is only one, I made sure to have my husband there to help wipe his hand off with baby wipes right after we did his hand print.

Next, you will have your little one dip a finger in red paint and make the stripes of the flag. (With really little ones like my little man, mom or dad will have to do this part!) After that all you need to do is let your shirt dry!

Happy crafting!!!!

~Sarah

DIY Crib Teething Guard

So I recently caught little man standing up in his crib biting his crib with those tiny little teeth of his! I knew right then and there I needed to get something to protect his crib from those little teeth marks. I knew somewhere I had seen a DIY crib guard made out of fleece (I can't remember where so I kinda just did my own thing!) so away I went to JOANN FABRICS. I found a nice fleece that was green with white polka dots that was on sale for $3.99 a yard and I only bought 1/2 a yard so it cost me a whopping $2.12 tax and all!! I however should have bought a whole yard because his side rails are wider so I didn't have enough to make those. Luckily the side ones are a little taller and he has yet to nibble on those ones! All I did to make this was lay the fleece over the railing and measure how much I would need to be able to tie knots (like the fleece tie blankets) between the slats of the rail. I then cut off any extra.

 Next I cut the fleece on either side of the slats so it was like little fringe.I did the first one with it on the crib so I knew how far up to cut it, then I took it off and cut the rest on the floor.

The last step was to lay it back over the crib and tie the knots between each slat (I double knotted them). You will have fabric that is left hanging directly on the slats and all I did was tuck it up inside so you can't see it. Below you will see the finished product.

This was so easy (and cheap!) to make!! I looked into ones from the store that are a plastic and they ranged $20 and up! So far it has worked great! I am thinking about going back and getting more fabric to do the other two sides but so far we haven't needed to yet.


~Sarah

Easy Meatloaf

I know most people hear meatloaf and cringe but I really like it. I use my moms recipe which is so simple and very tasty!!

Ingredients:

1 pound hamburger

1 egg

1/2 cup oats

Onion flakes

Ketchup

Step 1: Put your hamburger, oats, egg, and some onion flakes (I just shake a little in...I don't like a lot so it is really up to you how much you want to add) into a mixing bowl and mix well. I use my hands to mix it.

 

Step 2: Take your mixed meat and shape it into a loaf form. I put mine on a cookie cooling rack on a cookie sheet and spray it lightly with pam so it doesn't stick. I like doing it this way so any excess fat will drip into the bottom. 

 

Step 3: Put ketchup over your loaf and then put it in the oven at 350 for 1 hour. 

 

That is it!! Very simple and quick to put together!! I usually serve with baked potatoes, vegetables, and crescent rolls.

 

Enjoy!

~Sarah

DIY 4th of July Door Wreath

Today I made my own DIY 4th of July Door Wreath.....I was at Hobby Lobby this afternoon and picked up all of my supplies for under $10!! What you will need to do this project is a styrofoam ring, red tulle, white tulle, blue tulle, ribbon, a tape measure, and scissors.

Step 1: Cut 16 26in strips of each color of tulle

Step 2: You are going to tie the tulle around the styrofoam ring, repeating the red, white, blue pattern. Pictured below is how I tie on the tulle.

Just and FYI this will make a HUGE glitter mess!!! I was sitting on the floor and this was just what was on my foot! I wish you could have seen my legs, floor, etc!

Step 3: After you get all of your tulle tied on you will need to cut a piece of ribbon to tie around the ring to hand your wreath from. Depending on how you want it to hang will determine how long you make your ribbon. 

Step 4: Tie your ribbon around the ring and then hand up your wreath!! Below is my finished project. The whole thing only took me about a half hour to make.

~Sarah

Keebler Cookie S'mores

We were having a bonfire tonight and decided to try a new s'more. Instead of using Graham Crackers and Hershey's Chocolate we used Keebler Fudge Stripes cookies.  We had saw this idea previously on Pinterest and wanted to try it. This way was so easy because you didn't have to worry about getting a cracker and chocolate.With using the cookie, you have it all in one. So all we did was roast our marshmallow and then put it between the two cookies!! They were SO good!! We encourage you to give it a try next time you are having a bonfire!!

~Karen & Sarah

Diet Coke

We love our Diet Coke!

 

~Karen & Sarah

Nightstand Makeover

Memorial Day weekend when my family and I went to our local stock yards, (refer to our post Two Books and a Tick to learn about what the stock yards are) my husband and I found a nightstand and a dresser that we knew we could fix up. We thought that they would both go great with our new headboard that we just built (post about that to come soon!). So far we have finished the nightstand! The nightstand was structurally in good shape but cosmetically it was SUPER dirty and the inside of the drawer was stained. All we did to fix this up was wipe it down, gave it a light sanding, and then primed and painted it all white. Below are the before and after pictures!

~Sarah

Before (Hard to tell but was really dirty!)

Drawer Before

After

Drawer After

Meatballs

This is a recipe that my mom made often when I was growing up and is now a dish that I make. I will normally serve this with mashed potatoes, a vegetable, and biscuits.

Ingredients
1 pound of hamburger
2 eggs
1/2 cup of rice
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup of milk

In a mixing bowl add hamburger, eggs, and rice. Mix together (I mix it together with my hands).

 Form the mixture into balls and place on broiling pan.

Broil in oven until brown.

In a casserole dish mix cream of mushroom soup and milk. Place meatballs in the casserole dish. Bake for 45 minutes at 375.

 

 Enjoy!

~Karen

Portable High Chair

 

I wanted to share with all of you mommies out there a product that I absolutely LOVE!!! It is called The Portable High Chair by ciao! baby I started using this product with my son when he was about 6 months old and it is truly just like the name, a portable high chair! It folds up just like a camping bag chair and has its own carrying bag. We take this to restaurants so he never has to use the dirty restaurant ones, family member houses, outdoors, etc. It folds up small and is really light so I just keep it in the back of my van so I always have it handy! The best part is that it has a tray and cup holder for him as well. I get SO many questions about it whenever I am out with it. People absolutely think it is great and want to know where to get it. I ordered mind from Amazon.com but I think you can probably find it in more places now. When I got mine they were fairly new and only had black or brown to choose from. Now they have more color/pattern options. If you have a little one I highly suggest this product! Oh and they say that they can be used up until they are 3 years old!!

~Sarah

Grilled Stuffed Jalapenos

My husband and father-in-law love hot food. When we were visiting my in-laws my husband and father-in-law decided to make stuffed Jalapenos. 

 

Ingredients

12 Jalapenos

6 slices of bacon

Block of Cheddar cheese sliced (12-24 slices depending on size of jalapenos)

 

Fry the bacon

Slice the cheese

Place half a piece of bacon and 1 or 2 slices of cheese in each cleaned out jalapeno. Place the stuffed jalapeno in a jalapeno rack on the grill. Grill for 15-20 minutes. 

As you can see some of the stuffed jalapenos got eaten before I could take a picture!

Enjoy! 

~Karen

Bedroom Wall Letters

I have wanted to put my little mans name above his crib for a while. I was on the hunt for just the right letters in just the right color but it seemed like anything I found was in a girly font or the paint had glitter in it etc. I finally went to Hobby Lobby and just bought plain wooded block letters. Then I found the paint that matched his room perfectly and painted them myself (I only painted the front and sides. Don't waste your paint doing the back). They did need about 3 coats of paint but it didn't take me long at all. The coats took maybe 45 minutes to dry, if that. The nice part about the ones I bought is that they are really thin and light so I used my favorite household item to hang them....COMMAND STRIPS!!!  I just love those things because they are simple to use and don't leave millions of tiny holes in my walls. I absolutely love how they turned out!

~Sarah