Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Or in my case...Happy Singles Awareness Day! :) Just thought I'd share the Valentine's that Pacen gave to his teachers. Thanks to Eighteen25 for the idea! (She said she got it from here.) I thought it was so cute! Pacen even agreed that they were pretty awesome. We found these cool suckers at Wal-Mart. They are sign language suckers and we got "Peace" and "Rock On". :)


Hope you all have a fabulous day and may your hubbies/boyfriends/significant other remember you on this Hallmark Holiday. :)


"I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon." ~Author Unknown

Eggs-perimenting

This is rather late, but I've been pretty busy this week. Oh yeah, do you like the title? Cheesy, I know, but it fit the topic pretty well and I thought it was pretty clever (especially for me)! :) Pacen and I dyed eggs on Saturday. We did a little experimenting (eggs-perimenting) this year. We put rubber bands around some of the eggs and then dyed them. We also played around with the clear crayon that came with the dye. We ended up with some pretty cool looking eggs!

Pacen asked me to draw a peace sign on an egg for him so when I did I wrote "Love" on the other side. He didn't know it until he dyed it and when he saw it he said, "Mom! Why did you write 'Love' on the back!" Then he rolled his eyes and let out a big sigh. Apparently he's getting to the age where being "mushy" is not "cool", especially if it's your mom who's being "mushy".

So, I believe there is no such thing as kids dyeing eggs without dyeing themselves too. Pacen's hands were a dirty green color right off the bat! They just got darker and dirtier looking as we dyed more and more eggs. Actually, this year his hands didn't end up nearly as dyed as I've seen them before! Maybe it's because his hands are bigger and don't go all the way in the dye like they did when he was little. Or maybe it's because he's more careful now that he's 8. Yeah, okay, I'm going with the first thought! :)

Holiday Crafting

Normally during the Holidays I'm stressed and I just can't wait for Christmas to be over. I rarely feel like doing anything except bake a few cookies for Pacen's sake and put out some decorations. This year I've managed to stay pretty relaxed and I've even gotten into the spirit of the Holidays. I'm really enjoying the Holiday season this year and I even did some Holiday crafting (above and beyond my normal cookie baking). I made some lip balm and some ornaments.

I found the lip balm recipe on a fellow blogger's blog and even got the idea from her to put inspirational stickers on the containers. I'm going to give them to my friends. Here is my finished product:



The lip balm was so easy to make! Here is the recipe:

1 oz beeswax
1 oz shea butter
1 oz cocoa butter
1/2 oz almond oil
1/2 oz vitamin E oil
4-5 drops orange flavoring
2 drops essential oil (her recipe called for cinnamon. I actually didn't use any.)
5-6 drops pure vanilla
a pinch of ground clove (this is a skin irritant so don't use more than a pinch)

I put some almond extract in my lip balm because I love the smell of it! You can find the first 5 ingredients at Hobby Lobby (or probably any craft store).


I got the idea for the ornaments from Better Homes and Gardens (yes, I am a BHG fanatic!) and when I saw the ornaments on their website I just had to make them! They are ribbon candy ornaments. Ribbon candy has a special place in my heart because it reminds me of my Grandpa Hess.