Pumpkin Bird Feeder

I love Fall.  I love pumpkin everything.  I love pumpkin patches.  And I love that they give you a cute little free pumpkin.  

One day a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an article on Martha Stewart about what to do with the seeds from your pumpkin.  One of the ideas was to make this super cute bird feeder.  

Braden really loved carving pumpkins this year so I knew this would be a project he would enjoy.  So one afternoon while baby brother was napping, we picked out one of the pumpkins we took home from the pumpkin patch and got to work.  

We started out by cutting the pumpkin in half and pulling out all the insides.

Then, we made a ridge around the rim to add the seeds for some decoration.  We also found a couple little sticks to add for a place for the bids to land on.  To hang the feeder, we found some twine that I had already and cut 2 equal strands and attach them to the bottom with a thumbtack and tied the ends together at the top.

Braden was so proud of his little feeder!  

He had to get up in the tree and admire it.

And just because he's so cute....my little pumpkin patch buddy.

 Picking out his pumpkin

Happy Fall and Happy Pumpkins!

a book theme baby shower

I don't know what it is but there is a huge baby boom going on around here.  Just about everyone we know is either pregnant or has had a baby within the last year.  It is so much fun to see our friends become parents and welcome these sweet little babies into their families. 

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of hosting a baby shower for one of our good friends, Alison.  She is due with her first baby in September.  Our Sunday School class helped organize the shower as well as our pastor's wife and worship pastor's wife.  It was so fun to plan and decorate. 

I just wanted to share some of the ideas we used.  We wanted to start a library for the baby so we asked everyone invited to bring a book, along with their gift.  All of our decorations were centered around books and we used the colors that Alison is using in the baby's room. 

Photographs taken by Lindsay Burnett at LK Images and a few by myself.

 

I wanted to make a banner with the baby's name, so I found some scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby with writing (it actually had Bible verses written all over it, which I loved!) and then solid colored paper to match the colors of the shower.

 

 

I also made some tissue poms, love those things, using a great tutorial I found on Pinterest. So easy and cheap! 

 

One of the hostesses had a couple different collections of children's books so we stacked those and scattered them around to keep with the theme.  She also was so crafty and made the adorable frames.  She used children's books torn into pieces and mod podged them onto a wooden frame, then made a bow for the top.  She printed out popular quotes and added those to the center of the frame.  This hostess also made a cardboard book into a utensil server, super cute!

 

Our crafty hostess finished it off by making these adorable favors to pass out.  I love the quote on the bookmarks. 

 

We had such a great time visiting and celebrating this precious baby and his parents.  I am so thankful for their friendship and cannot wait to meet their newest member in a few short weeks!

 

And just because I love her so much....

 

Calling all Superheroes {and Super Moms}

Braden, my 3 year old, has become obsessed with superheroes and the idea of "good guys vs. bad guys".  I blame this on his Mother's Day Out school.  They did a superheroes theme for their second summer session, based on the verse "I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength." Philippians 4:13.  I love it.  They were teaching them to be strong and courageous.  Braden fell in love with the whole theme.  He was so excited to go to school each day and loved showing me all of his cool super hero stuff that he colored or made when I picked him up. 

One day a few weeks ago I found a link on Pinterest, of course, for some cute super hero masks.  So, as any cool mom would do, I pinned it to my "kiddos" board, naturally.  Towards the end of this summer school session Braden just had to have everything Batman, a new shirt, jammies, etc.  We even watched a few Batman cartoon episodes (which I had to put an end to pretty quick, I had no idea how violent those shows are!  Not a good cartoon for a 3 year old to watch!  I think we will stick to Mickey and happy shows for awhile).  But he was just loving the idea of being a good guy and helping others - we will stick with that theme and maybe just hold off on the super hero shows for a little while, I mean forever!

So this week, since he has been out of school for a little break, I have been trying to find fun activities to keep him busy (which is hard to do with a 6 month old and extreme heat in Oklahoma).  I remembered that I had pinned the fun super hero masks, so to bribe encourage Braden to be good at his brothers doctors appointment, I told him we would make a Batman mask when we got home.  OH boy!  He was elated! 

Here is the link to the blog that I pinned, including the templates for all our favorite super hero masks.  AND for all those princesses out there, she has another blog post with templates for some super cute crowns!

And, now, I present to you.....dun, dun, dun.....Batman Braden....

You can all feel a little safer now....

And of course, we couldn't leave Spiderman out! 

An easy, and cheap, afternoon project made for lots of laughter and lots of fun chasing away the bad guys!  Oh, how I love my little super hero!

a pinterest project...

With Braden's Mother's Day Out program taking a break for a couple of weeks, I have been trying to keep him entertained during these long hot days.  Since it is SOOO hot, we have been having to find most of our entertainment indoors.  I have seen a really cute idea for snacks on Pinterest, but have not found a good time to make them.  Well, today was the day!  It was our turn to bring snacks to his t-ball game tonight so I thought it would be a fun project for him to do during the day and a yummy, healthy snack for the kids to have after their game.  Luckily, I had all the supplies already in my craft closet. 

So here is what we did:

BUTTERFLY SNACKS

Materials:

-Clothes pins

-Paint

-Wiggly eyes

-Adhesive dots (or glue)

-Pipe cleaners

-Snack size baggies

-Grapes

-Goldfish (or snacks of choice)

First, I let Braden paint the clothes pins to the colors of his choice.  He picked out a paint set with blue, yellow and red.  Then, we used adhesive dots to put the eyes on the clothes pins.  Glue would have worked better but I decided the painting was a big enough mess and the dots would be quick and easy, and less mess!

Then, we got our grapes (washed, of course) and goldfish.  I took about a handful of goldfish and handful of grapes and put them in the baggies, keeping them on separate sides.  I folded the zipper down to the back side of the baggie so it wouldn't be seen and gathered the baggie in the middle.  Clip the clothes pin to the middle of the baggie.  To make the antenna of the butterfly, take the pipe cleaners and cute them in half.  Bend in the middle to make a "V" and then curl the ends.  I just clipped the antenna with the baggie.  I wish I had glued them on, though, because when the kids took the clothes pin off the antenna fell to the ground.   

Here was the final product:

Braden was so proud to pass out his "butterfly snacks" to his teammates tonight.  The kids loved them and they were super easy to make!  And they gave us a fun project to do together while little brother was napping!