The Eve of her 5th Birthday, Busy Tooth Fairy & Non-Crafty Mama

My oldest daughter is minutes away from turning 5. That in itself seems unbelievable. Tomorrow she will be a year older and on the eve of this special birthday she looses her first tooth. Its been wiggly for quite some time and it was bound to happen soon. Her big tooth has already made its appearance behind her baby tooth. Having trouble eating the past few days we convinced her that taking the tooth out would make her feel much better. To our surprise she accepted our bribe of a tooth for some M&Ms.



As a child my mom gave me a tooth fairy pillow. I loved it. It was super cute and special. Little did I know the value in such a pillow to the Tooth Fairy. For my son we did the under-the-pillow method and the tooth fairy never had trouble getting to his bunk beds. But we were worried that the tooth fairy, even with the map Miss E drew for her, would have trouble finding her tooth. So I set out to buy a tooth fairy pillow. But alas, I couldn't find one that I liked. After a long turmoil I decided to make one myself. I am a terrible artist and don't know how to sew but I thought I would give it a go.

Here is the final product with a happy girl.



And here is how I made it.

I started with two sheets of felt (per pillow, I plan do do two more for the other kids), some string and a tooth pattern that I found on the internet.



I cut out the pattern and traced it onto the felt.



I then cut out both of the felt pieces so that they would be the same shape. I used white for the front and pink for the back.



Then I used the scrap from the pink (back) to make a pocket on the front and I stitched it onto the front panel.





Next came stitching around 3/4 of the tooth.



After searching two craft stores I could not find any pillow stuffing. So this old throw pillow that matched our old house gave the ultimate sacrifice to be re-born as tooth fairy pillows.



I stuffed the bottom of the tooth first and continued to stitch the rest of the way.



I added a handle with the scrap from the left over white felt and finished stuffing the tooth. Then I secured the handle as I finished the stitching around the top.



One final touch was to draw a little face. Cause all good tooth fairy pillows need to be festive.



Even though it is extremely simple and low-tech, I think she likes it anyway. Maybe I will still add a little flare but I think it came out pretty ok.

Here is the big girl after her bath admiring her new look.



Tomorrow we celebrate her becoming 5 with tooth fairy excitement, cookies for her pre-school class and a special dinner with ice cream. Oh and a little trip to the Elementary school to register her for Kindergarten.

Happy Birthday Eve to my toothless almost-5-year-old.

Purim Carnival Fun

Purim is the most fun Jewish Holiday. The kids get to dress up as King and Queens to take part in the story of Purim.

Then we go to a carnival with our Temple chocked full of games and fun. Mr Z is deciding what to play next.

Then Face Painting.

Then crafts and mask making.

Then jousting. Mr Z takes his turn against an older girl. He did quite well. :)

A Bloggity Face Lift & A Typical Monday Eve

Its been on my 'to do' list for many months to give this little blog a make-over. I finally got the nerve to wipe out all my former work and start over. I am quite happy with how its shaping up. But I still may make a few changes as I settle in. I would love to hear your thoughts on my new layout.

But no post would be complete without some photos. Here is a typical monday night for us.

It starts with a rushed commute home, shuffling the kids in the door to eat a quick dinner and a rush out the door again for my son to Karate. That left me all alone with the girls as my victims subjects.

I love this little Children's Place 'retro' outfit.

And of course a silly one.

Miss E calls these their twin outfits. I love it when they cooperate.

Bath time for the girlies.

And...of course a silly one.

Finally the girls are off to bed just in time for Mr. Karate Kid to get back and show off his new big boy tooth. He lost another baby tooth and was proud to show me.

And now my handsome young man is off in dreamland awaiting the visit of the Tooth Fairy. I love that he still believes and he super excited to check under his pillow in the morning.

Goodnight Monday.

Cub Scout Banquet

This week was the banquet for the cub scouts to earn their new badges. My son has been working real hard to memorize his pledge since this is the first year he is participating. The men also baked a Father and Son cake for an auction which they had a good time creating.

Here are some highlights of the event.

Looking very nice in his uniform.

My daughter waiting for the buffet to open.

More waiting (we got there a little early).

Finally two new badges. :)

A Valentine Message

A Valentine message from Miss E. Totally her idea all she asked me to do was write out the message on a paper. She drew the bubble letters, cut them out and pasted them. Then she wants me to take it to her school to tape to the door so that when people come in they will think of Valentine's day and be happy.

My Grandma and SNOMG!

My girls love to play dress up. These necklaces belonged to my Grandma. They are nothing special, just some cosmetic jewelry that she loved, but when my kids wear them, they remind me of her.

This has been quite the winter. We have gotten more snow in the last two months than we usually see in 3-4 winters combined. This latest storm has seriously shut everything down for days. We finally were able to get the truck out to do a little shopping just in time for the second blizzard of Feb. Yay.us.

Tomorrow...more digging and snow blowing. When is spring again??

Resurrection

I am officially bring this blog back from the dead. I have been gone from it way too long working on other ventures and I am now ready to continue the drama that is My Life.

I am choosing to start off with a post about my son. He is in 2nd grade and this is his first year in Cub Scouts:

Cub scouts has been quite an adventure in how to handle lots of little boys. Wow, do they have such energy. Getting them to listen, sit still and do group activities is near impossible. This up coming weekend was scheduled to be the Pinewood Derby Race. Little did we know that we are planning to get socked with close to 2' of snow which is scheduled to start any minute. However, my son and my hubby set out last weekend to start building his car.

First cutting and sanding:

The dangerous parts were obviously done by the Hubbs but my son had fun sanding his car.

Next was the paint. Mr. Z had the notion that he wanted red for his car. He thought that was a nice fast color. So off to Home Depot we went to buy some spray paint (in another snow storm, I might add):

Then we waited for the paint to dry for a couple of days. In the mean time we found a cute little 'driver' for the car and some numbers. Mr. Z decided on the number '81' for his car. Why? I am not sure. He thought it was a nice number to put on the car. I have no idea the significance.

Wed night the boys set out to put the finishing touches on. The wheels, driver and numbers were all placed on. I have to say it looks mighty cute.

Now the race has been moved out one week but its nice to know we are ready anyway. I am keeping my fingers crossed that our little car does well. But even if it doesn't we have a nice little project to display in my house.

PSF About my Blog Neglect & Beach Trip

This poor blog has been seriously neglected since I have been working on my Project 365 and my new Biz Website. So to those who still read this lonely blog, you can see much more activity from me in these places:


The Gaggle Photography Website
The Gaggle Photography Blog
Gaggle365 Project

Please bookmark the other two blogs as well.

But don't go removing this blog from your readers just yet, I still plan to keep it (and try my hardest to update it) and post family events and pictures.

So, without further ado, here are some lovely photos from our recent trip to the beach.


Our first night we took in a stroll on the boardwalk.


My son figures out that waves are used for more than just jumping.


Playing at the beach by the bay my baby found that starfish were very ticklish and hermit crabs are kinda ugly up close.


The older daughter collected rocks while the younger daughter copied her, as usual.


It was a good long weekend and they needed a rest.

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

PSF - Such a long wait

I love spring. I love the flowers and the blooms on the trees and the smell in the air. I plan more flowers each fall so I have new things to photograph in the spring. But Mother Nature saved the best for last, my lilies. They are the last and the most beautiful, at least to me. Each color seems to bloom at a different time but when they are all out in full force, their smell is heavenly.

This week, the orange greeted us.



Looking forward to my star gazers.

Oh and I have my fingers crossed for Mama Geek!!

PSF - Nature

I love nature. Love scenes. Love landscapes.

This flower was calling out to me to shoot it:



Only then did I realize there was a bug.

I hate bugs. They can live in the world and I leave them alone, provided that they keep a huge distance and they are not in numbers.

But they are fun to shoot:

PSF - They Like Butter

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

We were camping over Memorial Day weekend and having a good time walking around the campground. Miss E came across a field of Buttercups. Of course I told her that if she held it under her chin and it glowed yellow then she likes butter.



But of course she loves butter.

Then later, she decided to try this trick on her brother.



He loves it too but thought that this game wasn't as fun as his sister did.

PSF - Behind

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Man I am far behind at updating this blog. Things are busy but good. Last class has started and tomorrow I go to graduation. I have my first paying gig this weekend (working on my side-biz) and my youngest baby toddler turns two on Monday. Its almost summer and my 1st grader will soon be a 2nd grader.

Luckily I am trying my hardest to capture it all with my 365 project/blog.

I will try to update this blog more often as well. I know I slack. So here are a few recent ones in the mean time


Baby and me - who needs a serious haircut.


She asked me to take her pic today, can't say no to that!


And my handsome, sweaty man who loves to camp and ride bikes.