Where's Waldo

I discovered that my town was doing a Where's Waldo event by hiding Waldo in 20 stores across town.  We of course had to find all of them!! What a great time!  Both kids enjoyed it, Bennett refuses to take off the pin he earned, no really, he gets pissed when we won't let him wear it to bed!  I learned new streets and discovered places that we can frequent while we're here.  It was the perfect thing for us to do!

We went to a used bookstore, library, ice cream & smoothie shops, hardware store, bike shop, florist, toy stores, & more! The kids earned a button, a coupon at the bookshop and are entered in a drawing to win the full set of Waldo books!  The party is July 28th at the bookshop, the kids can't wait to celebrate!

Gwyn's actually birthday day

So for her birthday Grandma and I took her to the mall to get her ears pierced, then I felt bad that I made her cry on her birthday so she got a smoothie, a doll at the toy store and a ride on the train!! Sucker!!

I decorated the mirror the night before after she went to bed

I also did her door

birthday lunch at Olga's selfie!

Ears are pierced!!

As you can see she is still NOT happy!!

Ok now she is happy again!!

So yes I made this amazing cake!! I was very worried it wasn't going to turn out, here is the Barbie cake story:

Gwyn really wanted a Barbie cake after her friend had one and she saw it at Meijer, but it was like $40 and I was only having Grandma and Grandpa over!  So I decided to make one with the giant cupcake mold I had from her 1st birthday.  Great right?!  This is what it looked liked:

So after I got this base frosted I held up Barbie next to it, nope it came up to her thigh!  So I added in the layers I cut off to level it, nope only to her crotch!  Awesome!  And might I mention this is all after that tea party birthday!  So I found Courtney, Skipper's friend from my Barbie collection.  A perfect fit and a brunette to boot!  Wrapped her in saran wrap and stuck her in.  Then I frosted it with those cans of frosting that look like cheese whiz.  It was easy, but really bad for carpal tunnel wrists!  She absolutely loved it and it was delicious!!

Gwyn's 5th birthday party

I was going to have a party at the house with all her friends but the list got to like 30 kids so I went to a royal tea party at this cute tea house and decided this was the place!  7 friends and lots of dresses and princesses!

Getting her hair done by the princess

All the princesses transformed!

The dress closet!  Floor to ceiling dresses to choose from!

Birthday princess

the hall

Tea party selfie

 

Birthday girl practicing her tea party manners

castle cake (it was actually card board!)

Dancing with her prince

 

I made the party favors myself!  It took me a couple weeks.  I embroidered the handkerchief, sewed the gloves and made the paper tea cups.  I did buy the beads at the Target dollar spot though!

I also bought hand mirrors at the dollar store and got these books on Amazon for like $1.13/ea!

Didn't they come out adorable?!

It was the best day EVER!!!

Stuck inside

So I realize this is really late but I wanted to share with you what we did this winter when it was too cold to go outside.  I had to really get creative, I'm so glad pre-school teachers blog!!

Valentines Day

We hung pipe cleaner in a borax solution for a couple days and grew crystals

Gwyn's snow-woman

Learning to ice skate at the neighbors

Hop scotch, we needed movement!!

My mom & I hunted these heart ice cube trays down for a school function but then they banned anything not from a professional kitchen so I made colored ice and it was fun to color the snow with it

polar bear kiwi crate (arts & craft kit we get in the mail every month)

water beads and bugs

a tray of snow and markers...

the result!

baking soda and lemon juice fizzy fun

I froze some water in an empty OJ container then we put some food coloring on it.  Gwyn added salt and watched out it melted and the color ran, we learned it was faster to use hot water!  She thought it was cool how the salt made divets and the water made it smooth.

Gwym wrote all those letters for the bulletin board outside their classroom for the whole school to see!

Ummmmm?

Gwyn & I made a dollhouse out of a bookshelf and Grandpa made the trellis/arbor bedroom for the top.  I then made Ken an apartment Grandpa made the stairs and I must say they are awesome!

Bennett also like to join in the fun and this is his 1st haircut!

more valentines day

kids valentines for Daddy

We tried to stay busy and it was hard being kept indoors.  We did do some sledding and skating but it was just so cold the kids couldn't stay out for very long.  So glad it's summer!!