Scratch it Valentines

Pinterest is saturated with little Valentine ideas. In fact, its pretty hysterical that all these preschoolers across the nation have these super fancy, creative valentines when really what they really want is Toy Story or Barbie ones with a box of candy hearts. Maybe next year, but for now I decided to join in with the other Pintermoms (I just made that up) and make some fun creative cards for Landon's classmates.

I decided on the scratch it valentines. It was SO easy (like, seriously if you are an actual friend of mine, not just a reader, just know you will be getting some form of scratch it gift for your birthday.)

Here are my 'pretending to be a How To blogger' photos.

(***I totally don't want to be stealing someone's idea but I cant figure out how to link the Pin here. If you go to my Pinterest its on there. I promise)

How To:
*Design/print your scratch it
*Mount onto cardstock
*Cover with some form of sticky plastic (the tutorial said contact paper, but I didnt have any so I used packing tape. Worked great.)
*Mix 2 parts metallic acrylic paint with 1 part dish soap.
*Paint over scratch it section. (you could probably be a little neater with your paint but Im so not a perfectionist I didnt take the time. And, it was for kids.)
*Let dry...and scratch away!

Here are Landon's

 He signed the back of ALL 24 of them! And, we added a penny to the baggy so they could scratch them.

 Action shot (ignore my nail polish)

 Ooooo so close.... (teehee)

 Voila!

I also made a few little scratch its for the Mr. with the left over paint.

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!

Weekly Cleaning Schedule

A friend mentioned to me awhile ago about this site that you could personalize and purchase a daily cleaning schedule. The idea is to never have to spend the whole day cleaning, but rather conquering specific tasks each day and staying on top of it. Since she mentioned it to me I have on more than one occasion text her asking, "WHAT WAS THAT SITE AGAIN?!" (each time following a crazy person meltdown after cleaning my entire house all day long, only to have it destroyed in a days time.) Now, I've decided to come to terms with the fact that my house will never be 'clean' in the sense that every room is dusted, clean, organized, folded, etc. all at once. And if it is, it wont last that way through the afternoon. And you know what? That's ok. It means little lives are happening in our humble abode.

That said, there are certain tasks that just HAVE to be done, even if it feels like I never stop cleaning-EVER. I recently had one of the said breakdowns and went to text my friend (having forgotten the site yet again) only to remember she was IN LABOR. I figured I wouldn't bug her with a menial question. (I know, I know...I'm an overly thoughtful friend, what can I say?)

So, what's a girl to do? I sat down and made a list of each room and ALL the tasks that need to be done in those rooms. I then typed them out and assigned them a day of the week. Funny thing, as I looked over it I realized that doing one room a day would take no time at all! (It's that Everyday section that still makes me fight off tears of exhaustion).

 Anyway, I decided I would post it here incase it would seem helpful to any of you. Everyone's house is different but it could at least give you a start.

And, if you want a personalized version in this format to frame or do something cute with, email me!

(Dont mind the made phone pic. My camera is packed up from a shoot and I didn't want to dig it out.)

Happy Cleaning!

Elf on the Shelf

I committed to doing elf on the shelf everyday for my little guy, and it ended up being so much fun for all of us! I dont have awesome pictures or tips like so many other blogs, this is just an entry of each day we did.

Elf Name: Gelato

Day 1: Elf on the Shelf (literally)

 Day 2

 Day 3

 Day 4: First day of the advent calendar

 Day 5: Sleeping on the kleenex box

 Day 6: First night I forgot and ran down in the middle of the night and scrambled for a spot!

 Day 7: Fishing

 Day 8: Landon says, "Man, Santa sent us an awnry little elf!"

 Day 9

 Day 10

 Day 11: Eating Landon's cereal

Day 12: Another night I forgot until last minute 

 Day 13: Nativity

 Day 14: Elf body pillow

Day 15 

Day 16 

 Day 17: Snow Angel

 Day 18: Snowball fight with Woody

 Day 19: cutting down trees

 Day 20: Smores

 Day 21: Tea Party with Mickey

 Day 22: Self Portrait

Day 23: Coming in the tunnel from the North Pole 

 Day 24: Zipline

 Day 25

Day 26 

 Day 27: Reading the Christmas story in Landon's bible

 Day 28: Christmas Morning, with the sword Landon asked Santa for (and Gelato has his swords, too.)

Until next year!!

Santa....I know him!!!

Im glad I had already gotten some cute pictures of my kids in their Christmas attire because our lil Santa visit went, well, see for yourself....

Should have expected this, given our Disneyland experiences I s'pose. Ah well...it was kind of cute:)