More Learning

The little girls and I did more vegetable seeds today.  Tomorrow, we are going to plant some flowers outside by our steps.

Next we are going to try our hands at container gardening.  I am going to try growing potatoes and carrots in containers by the door.

Inexpensive Mother's Day Ideas!

I thought I would share some inexpensive ideas for Mother's Day (and most of them are from The Dollar Store!)

Photo Holder - Instructions from Shanty2chic

Centerpiece 

Teacup Pincushion

Creative Picture frames

Fabric Covered Journal

Make her a Cake Stand

Cute Garden Gift

Inexpensive Multipurpost Storage Ideas!

Due to the limited storage space in our new home, I am looking for ways to multipurpose household items for storage.  Here are some things I am planning to do:

1. Use an ottoman for a coffee table.  It can be used as storage, coffee table, and seat!

2. Use storage cubes as end tables, they look cute and have the added benefit of storage.

 3.  I plan to put a latch on Little Prince's closet so that he can't open it.  I will then store his dresser, plastic containers of winter clothes and things like that in there.  That will have the added purpose of being a bit of a sound barrier between his room and the neighbour's place (My adorable little autistic boy can be a noisy boy at night)

4.  I will use a storage bench in my room at the end of my bed as well.

5.  To make more room in every one else's room (other than Little Prince) I will be creating closet systems to store their clothes instead of dressers and a lot of the items I want to use for it can be bought at either Walmart of the Dollar Store. 

Easter . . . Ready for the Kids

Here are the Easter Decorations before the kids came down.  I was almost as excited as they were!  LOL, I love seeing their joyful faces!

close-up of the baskets

Close-up of Mrs. Bunny and the little Easter Tree

Close-up of Mr. Bunny and his Easter Flower Pot

Close-up of the Easter Flower pot.  Loved creating this, I wanted something to put some candy in, so I picked out this little bucket I had. Then I found the flower straws I had found and 'planted' them in the candy. The I remembered the eggs on a stick I had and 'planted' them too. It just looks so cute!

Cupcakes Princess Snifflefritz requested.  

Cocoa Footprints left by the Easter Bunny!

Free Easter Printable Ideas

Here are some ideas for printables for your kids!

Easter Egg Match Game 

Bunny Party Favor Bags

Hoppy Easter Tags  

Roll-a-Bunny Easter Game

Spring Photo Checklist

Easter Mommy School Pack

Lego Easter Bookmark

Cute Bunny Table decor.

Free Easter Party Printables

Some Bunny Left You a Treat

Easter Scavenger Hunt

Easter Egg Crafts

With Easter fast approaching I have found some fun Easter Egg Crafts to try with the kids:

3D Paper Plate Easter Basket Craft for Kids

Paper Strip Easter Egg Art (or you could have them color the page behind)

Yarn Easter Eggs

Easter Egg Potato Stamping

Plastic Easter Egg Easter Bunnies

Easter Ideas for the Kids

Here are some Easter Craft ideas I had to do with the kids.

1.  Easter Basket out of a paper plate

2.  Rice Krispies Hidden Surprise Easter Egg Treats

3.  Toilet Paper Roll Bunnies and Chicks

4.  Paper Plate Easter Bonnet

5. Paper Plate Bunny Mask

Easter Table ideas

As anyone who follows me knows, I love to do fun things for the holidays.  Here are some ideas I have found so far for my Easter table:

1.  Bunny Cake

2. Carrot Napkins

3. Easter Basket in a Jar

4.  Easter Peeps Centerpiece

5.  Easter Egg Vase

Thrifty

I had a fun day out cruising thrift shops with my friend.  There was no deadline, no kids, nothing except to moms out having a little fun getting deals. 

I got some great deals including: 

• great Tupperware (which I LOVE!) 
• a few cute things for the kids to wear
• some learning books at 10 for $1

I also stocked up on milk and bread for Little Prince in case the storm that is coming is as bad as they are calling for.  (When you have an autistic boy whose entire diet consists of milk and peanut butter sandwiches, you don't run out of bread and milk!) I got the milk at Costco, it is the cheapest milk around!  And as a feel-good bonus, the bag boy at Costco flirted with us.  That's always a nice thing for a 42 year old mom of four! 

When I got home and got the food put away, I took a look around and every single member of my family was reading one of the books I got!  From Prince Charming to Little Prince, everyone was enjoying a book.  I LOVE it!  I guess that was a dollar well spent. 

I have been organizing my cupboards, so as soon as I got home, I put my Tupperware straight to work. 

And just for fun, aren't these a cute couple of super-spies?!

Crash!

Well, Little Prince climbed out of his crib the other night.  The loud crash sound and subsequent screeching scared the heck out of me, and he cried LOUDLY but luckily he wasn't hurt at all.  But it does mean that it is time to transition him to another method of sleeping.  I was nervous about a bed because he rocks HARD at night and he has very little idea of edges and keeping away from them.  So I really felt like he would rock himself right off the edge of his bed every night.  I could see many bumps and bruises in my future.  I thought of putting a mattress on the floor, but I didn't want it to seem like I just threw a mattress on the floor like some poor college student who couldn't afford an actual bed.  But then I thought of the Montessori idea of little kids having mattresses on the floor so that things are all at their level.  If I did his room up nice, it could work for him and it would keep him safe.

Here are some rooms I am looking at for inspiration:

I decided to keep the chair in their because he likes it, but I put the edge of it by his mattress so that if he falls off it he will simply fall onto his mattress only a few inches down.  I left the decorations we had up high, but I am going to put some down low for him too.  Here is my start (It isn't finished, but it was a quick fix for now)

We tried him in his new room and he LOVED playing in there.  It does take him a LONG time to go to sleep and after "naptime" we took him downstairs for supper and within seconds he was like this:

Silly boy played so much he tired himself out.  I am just happy he adjusted so well to his room.  I really expected him to kick up a fuss.  When we changed around the living room he did.  I think the fact that I left as much the same as I could may have helped him adjust.  I think he liked having freedom to run around his bedroom helped too.  I could hear  him running around a lot, but every time I peeked at him, he was sitting on his bed with his monkey pillow in his lap, rocking hard.