Enjoy your kids

I'm totally overwhelmed with cute kid ideas... So overwhelmed that I'm trying to come up with a good storage solution for all the printouts I'm finding. Stay tuned for that one...

In the meantime, here are others around the blogosphere that have caught my eye. There are such cool parents out there enjoying their kids!

A Spring scavenger hunt from I Am Momma Hear Me Roar. Using an egg carton is genius!!

Image from I Am Momma Hear me Roar

Cardboard guitars from Make It and Love It via Ohdeedoh

Image from Make It and Love It

A nice way to structure the day with young ones from Say Yes to Hoboken

Image from Say Yes to Hoboken

Charming little Peter and the Wolf Puppet Kit from Sarah Jane Studios via DesignMom. I actually bought this as soon as I saw it on DesignMom. Just $5.50 for a pdf. I've got to say that it is even lovelier in print. I can't wait to put it together with my boys! I plan to download the play and have it on in the background.

Image from Sarah Jane Studios

April Showers

Marimekko umbrella from Umbrella .net

Another month is here. What happened to the first quarter of 2011?! It is going to be a very busy few months. Here's what is on my calendar for April:

April 1- April Fool's Day I plan to put this and this in the boys' lunches. My mom always used to do funny lunch things for us and I always looked forward to it, even if it meant that I would be getting carrot sticks instead of my Dips granola bar!
April 2- Remembering my grandfather's 86 wonderful years of life
April 8- My dad's birthday!
April 15- Probably the day I'll file my taxes
April 24- Easter brunch at Callie's

I'm also looking for some new wellies and think I'll go with the classic Hunter boot. But what color??
And trying to organize my out-of-control craft and party supplies

Planning ahead for:
Something Mothers' Day-ey
Birthdays for mom, sister and sweet little nephew (1!)
A Fathers' Day picnic (all decorations made out of security envelopes- super excited to share this soon!)
Sister's big wedding in July!

Furniture Lust

Oh, I want this for my boys so much, but am not about to drop $1k on a chair for a wee one.

Available at Restoration Hardware, found via Ohdeedoh

But isn't it lovely??

New toys at Ikea!

Attention all pint-sized workpeople! Cruising Ikea last week, I saw these two new toys...

 Cute felt toolbelt and tools $4.99 Totally going to stockpile some of these for birthday parties!

And workbench $79.99

New (to me) magazine: Phyllis Hoffman Celebrate

So excited to find a new magazine, in Lowe's of all places! I was there to buy my grass seed for Easter, when I saw this adorable cover.

image from Hoffman Media, LLC

They had me at the Peeps! I'm definitely making this adorable cake for Easter. So sweet and so springy! Phyllis Hoffman Celebrate is great. In addition to the alluring cover, inside there are several styled parties highlighted. On the website you can download the invitations, fill in your info and print! It's not all my style, but there are lots of great ideas. This issue showed an Easter dinner, an egg dyeing party, a ladybug party for a little girl, an April Fool's Day party, and a Kentucky Derby party (there might have been more, even). It's not inexpensive (7.99/issue), but definitely worth it. Sending my subscription in now! And you can order back issues here! I have to have the Halloween one!

Enjoy your kids: Robots!

Last weekend we were looking for a good way to spend our "technology-free Sunday" together. I suggested making superhero capes, but apparently that is so 2010... Atticus suggested we make robots. I quickly got on board. First step... We needed supplies! We loaded up in the car and headed to Archie McPhee's. They've got all sorts of fun things in the back that are roboty. After a quick coffee break at Cafe Besalu (best pastry in town!), we continued on our robot supply search at McLendon Hardware. Then when we stopped at Nana's to pick up something she added to our stash. We got home around 2 and worked on robots until dinner. I love it when a project lasts all day long!

 Hank was more interested in dressing up. And scowling.

We used screws to attach the different parts, so they should stay put for a bit. To make the silver body, we used aluminum foil and contact paper. Some tinsel in my holiday stash became "rock star hair". We stacked the boxes up and screwed them together. By keeping the opening part on the back, we can continue to add to it. Plenty of robot parts left for the next rainy day. There sure are plenty of them here!

Happy Spring!

Photo from Private Places via Apartment Therapy

Yesterday spring officially began. I guess you can sort of tell by the 3 degree raise in temperature and the slightly more sporadic rainshowers; I'm in serious need of some spring cheer!

Some ideas:

Adding Spring Color to Your Home roundup from Apartment Therapy. Or perhaps just some green

A new rug for just $18

Or a fresh blue for the wall

Or something new from ikea here, here and here

Images all from ikea.com

So far I've settled for a new pillow in yellow and orange with plans to recover a few other sofa pillows.

Yay for spring!

Hank's party is finally here!

Hank turned 3 last week and his party finally arrived! Here are some details:

Theme: Lego guys
# of small guests: 3 + my 2 boys (5 kids, and 1 baby)
To snack on: cups of cheese and crackers, grapes and blueberries and m&ms and raisins and of course cupcakes!
To drink: Lemonade, limeade, lavender lemondade and water
Colors: all sorts of yellows, golds and oranges- sort of lego guy head colors
Activity: Build your own guy
Favors: Their guys, bubbles, play clay

Sources: boxes for take-home treats and striped favor cups for the guys bought at Packaging Specialties in Seattle
Striped and polka dot treat cups at Sweet Lulu
Plain treat cups at local party store
Lego parts, pick-a-brick at lego.com
Cupcakes from Trophy cupcake in Wallingford
Fringe streamers- handmade using crepe paper, idea from Oh Happy Day. Super easy and super cheap! $6.50 for all my streamers!

Celebrate the Boy!

I totally forgot about the wonderful Celebrate the Boy series from made and made by rae (found this year via Say Yes to Hoboken). I've loved it in past years! There aren't enough craft projects for boys, but my guys really love them. Here are my favorite ideas this time around. It's going to be a busy crafting spring!

Superhero Cape and Powercuff from Southern Institute for Domestic Arts and Crafts. So easy! This would take about 5 minutes to make.

Monster tooth pillow from the Long Thread. Atticus is five. I've got at least a year to make this, right?

I think this cool boys' wallet would be cool for grown up boys, too!

Wouldn't this money cuff from A Lemon Squeezy Home be perfect for Hank to carry around his beloved lego guys?

Perfect for our spring clothes refresh! Spring jacket from I Am Momma Hear Me Roar. (And if you want to feel like you're completely depriving your children of a well-designed playroom, check her's out here. What lucky kids!)

And, I think my favorite. Retro duffel bag from SaltwaterKids. Um, look at the fort kit on the bottom of that post. We're totally making this for a friend's birthday next weekend!

And from the past, the absolutely best, most comprehensive Star Wars roundup.

St. Patrick's Day Fun!

St Patty's day is not exactly my favorite holiday. I'm not Irish, I don't like beer (or corned beef), but I love a party, so I'll play along. Here are some cute ideas I've gathered for this year. We'll see if we get around to any of them! (Um, can we all pretend that we don't notice that these are all food-related...)

Treats from Twig & Thistle (photo from Twig & Thistle)

Cute for the dinner table! From marthastewart.com

Adorable Lephrechaun Breakfast from http://www.onecharmingparty.com/

Rainbow cake at whisk kid via Ohdeedoh

Short break

I took last week off as we said goodbye to my dear grandfather. He was almost 87 (1 week shy) and lived life the fullest of anyone I've known. My fondest memories include our season tickets to the Pacific Northwest Ballet, outings with him and my boys (who adored him), family gatherings at his lovely (mid-century) home and his love of excel spreadsheets. He was even once webmaster for his church's website. Not many octagenarians can claim that status! I feel lucky to have lived near him and to spend such quality time with him in his last few months and that my boys knew their great-grandfather. I loved him very much.

And, of course, he had impeccable style! This photo is of my grandparents at Pike Place market, probably late 1940's. Aren't they adorable?

Wedding Wednesday

Since I've been helping my sister plan her wedding, I've been introduced to the beautiful world of wedding blogs and it's a little addicting. I won't blog about what my sister is deciding on, but I'll try to do a weekly post on some fun wedding ideas. 'Cause, you never know... I could get married again someday!

Duchess Satin Noelle gown from JCrew
Emerald Fields Kisslock clutch and Bow-topped slingbacks from Anthropologies BHLDN
Floral boquet via Martha Stewart
Vera Wang Wedgewood Dinnerware, available here
Ampersand letterpress wedding suite by Mitchell and Dent, available here
Groom's suit from Banana Republic (sorry he's so small, not to say he's not just as important as the bride, just not as pretty with pretty sparkling accessories)

Hank's Party Details

My baby (baby!!) is turning 3 in March. He loves Lego guys. The teeny ones. He carries them around by the handful or in his (brother's) Star Wars lunchbox or puts them in his pockets. So, I thought a guy party would be perfect. Here are my initial ideas:

Refreshments

• Polka Dot Candy Cups  In yellow, of course. Will fill some with fruit and some with snack mix
• Cupcakes will come from Trophy. Yum! And yay Groupon for having the perfect deal at the right time! I'd rather know that the dessert will be superb rather than worry about making it myself.
• I'm going to try to go easy on the drinks- this is where it gets expensive! Lemonade and water are what I'm thinking. Although alcohol for the adults braving the party isn't a horrible idea...

Guy Station

• Lots of legs, heads, hats and bodies to build your own guy (from Lego)
• BrickStix to decorate the guys
• Cute little boxes to carry them home in (from Packaging Specialties, not pictured)

Invites
Invites from Pear Tree Greetings These turned out great. They were about $1 each and are really good quality. I also bought some stickers for the goody boxes and some return address labels with Hank's name on them (it's so confusing having different last names, can't just write from the Smith Family).

Decorations
I'm contemplating using some yellow paper lanterns I already have so as to evoke the round guy heads. I'm sure the 3 year olds will totally get it. No other grand ideas yet. Probably some balloons.

Other Ideas
I'm also looking for a Craigslist Train Table I can turn in to a Lego table for Hank's present and an activity at the party.
Invites to family and family friends have gone out, but I have no clue which "friends" to invite! Poor second child has never had a play date set up solely for him (he tags along on all of Atticus's). He loves his big brother so much that I've never looked further than the top bunk for a playmate! I don't want to invite the whole class (19), so I think I'll pick 5 or so kids he talks about the most.

Party is March 20. Look for details soon after! Hopefully, my brand new camera will function perfectly after last year's infamous photo failure. Hank's 2nd Birthday.

Happy Presidents Day!

photo credit

Of course, my favorite president, stylistically speaking, is the iconic JFK. Does Jackie just look lovely? But when didn't she?

If you like... you'll love... and you'll really love...

If you like this rug by Inigo Elizalde. Wool, handmade in Phillippines and $2,520.

Then you'll love...

This rug from homedecorators.com. Wool, handmade in India and under $500.


And you'll really love...

This rug from Overstock.com. Wool, handmade in New Zealand and under $200. A steal!