Perfect Puppets

While unpacking one of our Christmas boxes last week, I came across these darling puppets that we purchased after Christmas last year for something like .49 cents each. Yet another reason why I love Martha Stewart ... Her line of children's crafts are so easy to put together and in my opinion, could not be cuter! Sebastian and I worked on these yesterday while Brooklyn took his afternoon nap. We hung them from the ever changing mobile in the playroom and now with the help of the area heater, they dance around delightfully!

The Peg Game

This little treasure was found yesterday in the dollar section at Michael's craft store. They were selling a series of these small "retro" games, and I pick up two of them. (Great stocking stuffers...) The peg game is a puzzle of sorts, and really quite fun. The objective is to jump one peg over another until you have eliminated as many pegs as possible from the board.  Every one of us worked at this yesterday and Sebastian got all the way down to two pegs!My husband Anthony says that he remembers playing this game as a child... Gotta love that!

Jumping In

It rained here is Southern California yesterday. It was cold and windy, and it really felt like the type of day where you want to stay home and snuggle up with a good movie and a little one in your lap. After an entire day spent indoors, Sebastian and Brooklyn were ready for a bit of a treat,so we made our first round of sugar cookies for this holiday season.  We used all of the cookie cutters that we have, even the shamrocks and the Easter eggs. The boys decorated with M&M's, and Sebastian made the cutest little faces on his cookies. Unfortunately he ate them prior to me snapping a picture! Needless to say, the holiday season is upon us and I am ready to jump in with both feet. I love this time of year.

So Much To Be Thankful For...

We spent a beautiful three days in Santa Barbara with our family to celebrate Thanksgiving. What a treat for the children to be together for the holiday. I am grateful each and every day for the beautiful life that I have been provided. I have an abundance of reasons to be be thankful. Life is amazing.

Family Photo Napkin Rings

I made these last week to share with our family at Thanksgiving dinner. Throughout the past few weeks I had asked family to provide me with a picture of each person that would be attending Thanksgiving dinner, with a picture of themselves as a child. After I collected all of the photographs I had them shrunk and that then affixed them to patterned paper. I then made a ring out of correlating paper and taped each ring around a napkin. Once all of the adults were seated, the children took turns guessing which baby picture was which adult. The children really loved this and the adults got a kick out of it too!

Loving These Things Now...

This darling Teepee makes me really, very happy. I met the woman who made it earlier this month and we decided that we would swap a teepee for a holiday photo session. What a great deal!  She calls the teepee's Sugar Shacks... Sebastian and Brooklyn love the teepee, Sebastian will spend an entire afternoon inside it's four walls. He asked me if he could sleep inside, I told him I would think about it! I am also loving this sheet of wrapping paper from The Paper Source,that I have hung in the play room as a poster. The images are beautiful and I love it's vintage feel. Lastly, this darling garland from Martha Stewart's holiday line at Kmart! Too cute! I have it strung across the play room as well! Just a few fun things to share on a wonderful weekend morning!

Christmas Countdown

I received this Christmas countdown from a  friend last week and thought that I in turn would share it with you. The idea is to have one even per day that you take part in as a family, leading up to Christmas day. You can edit the list to your own liking, it's the thought of togetherness and the building of a child's anticipation. Here is the list! Enjoy.

December 2009

1. Make a paper chain with green and red construction paper
2. Watch The Grinch
3. Create a wish list of the presents that you would like to receive
4. Write a letter to Santa Claus
5. Decorate the house
6. Decorate the Christmas tree
7. Watch a local Christmas parade
8. Have your pictures taken with Santa Claus
9. Have your children help you with the Christmas cards
10. Christmas shop with Momma for Papa
11. Watch a Christmas Movie
12. Watch the Oceanisde Boat Parade
13. Construct a Gingerbread house
14. Watch Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
15. Christmas shop with Papa for Momma
16. Wrap gift for teacher and write a note
17. Gather old toys for donation
18. Take a nighttime drive to look at holiday lights
19. Sleep with your family under the Christmas tree
20. Bake cookies
21. Pass out cookies to neighbors
22. Wrap presents
23. Hang Stockings
24. Set out food for Santa Clause and reindeer

Craft Of The Day

I stumbled upon this portion of Martha Stewart's website last night, and was so excited and inspired. She is featuring a craft of the dat for the entire month of November and it looks like into and throughout December. Wouldn't it be fun to try and keep up with her, completing these amazing crafts day after day? I just might jump on board and see what I can do. Enjoy!

Opportunity

I can hardly believe the opportunity that has opened up before me. I have been incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to photograph a multitude of families throughout this month. What a thrill. If you have not seen what I have been up to, please take a peek.  I promise there will be much, much more to come.

Childmade

My newspaper leaves have been featured on another child craft site. Thank you so very much Childmade! Have a wonderful day.

Tide Pools

The tide has been extremely low the past few days , so we headed to the tide pools to see what we could find. Fish, sea aniname, sea urchin, star fish, lobster and hermit crabs were some of what we saw.

Thrift Store Thrills

This morning I awoke with an uncanny urge to go thrift store shopping.  Boy, am I glad that I followed that urge! I found such wonderful books for the boys, including a Dr. Suess book called, I Can Write; (which Sebastian just loved), a sweet story about a Santa Mouse, an old Elementaray school text book and the pie'ce de r'esistance... A scratch and sniff Christmas book! So neat! I also found a Snoopy waffle maker... More on that tomorrow morning! Horray for one persons trash being another persons treasure. Lucky us.

Growth

There is a whole lot of growth going on around here lately.

I wish the same to each of you.

Oreo Cupcakes

I am headed into five hours worth of a shift at my new job today... Thrilled! Although, I am no going alone. I am bringing a tray full of these little morsels along with me... If you might like the recipe so that you can make a tray of your own, please click here. Happy Saturday!

Day Dream

Come here. Read this little ditty and then just before you get to the end of the post... There. There it is. My name, on the Design Mom blog. Complete. Elation.