Snow Day!

Yesterday it snowed. Hazel was so excited. She has been asking since October to build a snowman. Of course, just our luck we are healthy enough to go out and play and get enough snow and of course it is a dry snow, but we made due. Above is a picture of part of our back yard. You can see the tracks where I pulled her on her sled.

The night before I made the squirt bottles of colored water for her to paint in the snow. They only worked a bit. Guess I should have invested in better bottles. But she did have fun. She even tried mixing colors because she wanted orange.

Hazel also made her first snow angel. We have been reading lots of books about snow, so wanted to do everything she saw in the books--make tracks in the snow, snowball fight, make a fort, make a snowman, catch snowflakes and make snow angels.

Then she pulled out her shovel (her garden shovel) so she could help Daddy shovel. She was shoveling the grass, but we didn't stop her. She also tried some more painting and color mixing. And made her second snow angel in the front yard--good thing since Daddy shoveled away her first one.

Next Hazel pulled Mommy in the sled. I helped with my hands. We didn't get a picture since Daddy was off shoveling and clearing all the exits to our house to keep us safe. Then I pulled her around the back yard.

I love our back yard. You can see the creek in this picture that goes around the back and side of our back yard. I took the back yard shots this morning, but the snow is still covering everything.

Then Hazel wanted to walk and make tracks. This is another part of our back yard. Then we pulled out some black felt and a magnifying glass to catch snowflakes and check them out. This didn't last too long since our magnifier wasn't strong enough and we were catching too many with how fast it was falling. Sorry I didn't get a good picture of it. Then Hazel wanted to build a snowman. So Daddy shoveled away her snow angel and that part of the driveway and made a big pile for her. Then we pulled out the snowman decorating kit someone gave us for her second birthday and tah dah! We have a snowman--sort of.

Then of course she wanted to build another one. I went inside to look for more decorating supplies and when I came back they had moved everything over to the second one.

I added the gloves and then took a picture. Then we re-dressed the first one.

I asked Hazel to sit with her snowmen, but somehow she ended up laying down. Not sure what happened there. She also has been very concerned that her monkey hat (otherwise known as her George hat since she loves Curious George) is outside. She wanted to be sure it wouldn't blow away. The hat no longer fits her, but she loves it. Guess I better not pack it up for the charity drop off I need to do.

By this time, Steve and I were getting cold so we made Hazel come in for some hot chocolate and lunch. We had grilled cheese sandwiches and soup with our hot chocolate. The perfect lunch for after playing in the snow. Then amazingly she took a nap for us.

Oh, and I have to share these cute mugs I bought ages ago and always kept for a day like this. This is what we had our hot chocolate in. Aren't they adorable? I bought them when I was single (and I have a matching plate) and always thought they would be perfect for hot chocolate after playing in the snow.

On another note, please go check out our Sharing Saturday. I am having trouble keeping up with all the wonderful posts. There are over 130 last time I checked, and it is still open. So go over and get inspired and feel free to share your amazing ideas.

Sharing Saturday #3

Mia and I are so excited about the 125 entries this past week.  

We cannot wait to see your creative creations this week!!!

Friday Afternoon

This morning we woke up to a bit of snow on the ground. Hazel was very excited, but we had errands to run and the truth is I'm not sure either of us is well enough for too much time in the cold. This afternoon we painted a bit and then rested. Then we decided to make cupcakes. But as we were about to start I asked Hazel if she wanted to make cupcakes or cookies and she said cookies.

Well, I bought these mixes after Christmas for under $1, so we made one and decorated them for Valentine's Day. Hazel had fun mixing. Got a bit bored with the rolling and cutting (she decided she wanted to blow bubbles through a straw instead) and had great fun decorating. I think we will be finding sprinkles around everywhere for a very long time. She poured almost an entire container on one cookie. Needless to say they wouldn't stick.

Out of the oven

Our first ones...can you tell which Hazel decorated? It is the one I had to lift up to get all the extra sprinkles off of.

The pink glob is the gel writing frosting I gave her--this is the first one she used it on and there wasn't much left when she finished it.

We ran out of the icing that came with the package so we used the leftover strawberry frosting from our Valentine Gingerbread House

Hazel's last ones

Well I hope you will join us later for Sharing Saturday! Have a wonderful weekend!!

Let It Snow from the Bathroom & More

We did a couple of crafts before my mother-in-law was able to take Hazel yesterday, so I could sleep. We made this cotton swab snowflake picture. Discover Explore Learn shared it with us at Sharing Saturday several weeks ago. I also saw a similar idea on Pinterest and the original came from Family Fun .

Hazel also made a snowman from cotton balls. I got this idea from There's Just One Mommie who shared it at Sharing Saturday a couple of weeks ago. As you can see I did not help her too much except drawing the shape and putting glue down for the cotton balls. I also helped her glue some of the cotton balls on. Luckily I am not a perfectionist like my mother or husband, so I don't mind posting crafts how she makes them and don't feel they have to be perfect for that matter, I don't usually worry about perfection with my own as long as I enjoy making them. So I cannot explain why the cotton swab arms are coming out of her snowman's head, but that is where she put them. And she had fun doing it!

Today, I asked my mother-in-law to take Hazel to school since it is a parent/child class someone has to stay with her. My mother-in-law often gets lost so she gets nervous going anywhere new, so I had her follow me there and then took her into the classroom to meet everyone, etc. I came home and an hour later got a call that they were coming home because Hazel did not want to stay anymore. But at least I got an hour's worth of sleep. I starting to feel a bit better, but that might be the cold medicine. Hazel seems better, but she just told me her ear hurts, so we are off to the doctor's office again. Luckily I could get her an appointment for today. Gotta love our pediatrician's office. They always give us an appointment no matter when I call. I literally called at 2:15 and was asked if I could be there by 2:45. Since they are five minutes away, I said sure.

Oh, and make sure you check out our current Sharing Saturday. There are over 120 posts shared and it is still open!! Hope you are having a better week than me.

Have a cold = Make Chicken Soup

Today, I'm still feeling awful and Hazel is starting to get better, but still seems a bit off. We decided to make some soup. I bought for her a vegetable chopper and cutting board from Bella Luna which we got yesterday. This is similar to what they use at Cape Ann Waldorf School in the nursery classroom on soup day. Hazel has been asking to help with chopping vegetables when I am making dinner, so I figured at least this way it would be fairly safe to have her help.

She loves it though did not enjoy chopping the onion. I tried to warn her about it and not to rub her eyes, but needless to say, her eyes stung. She however did enjoy the carrots, parsnip and zucchini. Then she helped with the sugar snap peas and broth, etc. She however did not want me taking pictures for some reason today.

Our lazy chicken soup recipe:
3 boneless chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces
3 carrots chopped
1 large onion chopped
3-4 stalks of celery chopped
1 small zucchini chopped
1 parsnip chopped
1 small head of broccoli chopped
dried oregano
dried basil
1 cup or so sugar snap peas broken in half
1 can of diced tomatos
2 quarts low sodium chicken broth

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on high for an hour and then turn to low for 5 hours. Then add fresh parsley chopped and some small pasta (we are using alphabet noodles) and cook for 30 minutes or more. I'm hoping the vegetables Hazel chopped cook all right--they were on the large side.

Since we haven't tried it, I can't tell you how it is, but I'm guessing it will be delicious. I bought a nice loaf of bread to go with it for dinner tonight. Hopefully it will help us both feel a bit better.

Hope you are having a good day.

Snow and Nursery Rhymes

We finally got some snow, but Hazel and I are stuck inside with colds. So much for her building a snowman. However, last night I cut her out some felt so she could "build" and dress her own snowman. She was having fun with it this morning.

We were checking out all the clothes and accessories I cut out--vest, skirt, boots, bow tie, etc. Then she decided the boots needed their own eyes and noses.

The other craft we did involved using some of the Tagxedo prints I made and using the nursery rhyme party hats we made, but didn't use at Hazel's party. I unstuck them and mod podged them onto unfinished frames I bought at Michaels for $1.

The glue isn't completely dry yet, so I will have to do some touch-ups after it is, but that is what we have been up to.





In case you are interested here are the Tagxedo prints I did.

I cropped this one since it was an ice skate and not a shoe

I added Word Art in Word for the handle

I didn't do this one yet, Mary Had a Little Lamb

Hey Diddle, Diddle version I didn't use

I have my cropped and edited pictures in a Word document here. They are sized to fit a 4 x 6 frame.

Enjoy!!

Square It Up Quilts

So back in September when I was really just beginning to get into the blog world, I won a contest over at Sew Happy Geek. I won a pattern designed by Jenna of Sew Happy Geek called Square It Up! and the fabric to make it from the Fat Quarter Shop. I haven't really been quilting in about three years. I made but did not finish a baby quilt for Hazel. It is almost done, but I don't know what I'm going to do with it.

Anyway, this pattern went together so quickly and I noticed how the colors of the fabric I won matched my bedroom walls perfectly so I decided to buy more fabric and extend it to be a bed quilt. I shared the pictures of the completed quilt on Friday, (but I put one at the top in case you don't want to go back). The original size quilt top I pictured here. On October 19th, I was honored to guest blog at Sew Happy Geek and I showed three quilt tops at my blog here. While waiting for the fabric to extend the quilt, I decided to make one for Hazel. I had found the perfect center block for her--a Hey Diddle, Diddle square that was suppose to make a pillow. Since it came with two, I also made a baby quilt. I basically did hers and the baby quilt as scrap quilts though I did buy a few more nursery rhyme fabrics to go with my nursery rhyme theme.

Well today, I finished Hazel's quilt. (My shoulders are not very happy about spending so much time bent and pushing the heavy quilts the past week--oh, well.) So today, I'm happy to share some pictures with you. I took the majority of the pictures on the guest bed since the bed rail and all her pillows and the wall make it hard to get a good picture at her bed. Behind the guest bed is the beautiful quilt my mother made me to take to college. It is a family favorite--my father really wants it to hang in their house, so I put it in the guest room they stay in.

And then her bed--she has a cold so we have the wedge pillow on there and what not, but you'll see what looks like.

Now I just need to finish the baby quilt. I also need to add a huge thank you to my mother for helping me back, layer and pin both of these large quilts!! She actually even provided me with the backing fabrics. Thanks, Mom!! I love you!

Baking, Crafting, and Relaxing

Wow, I'm so excited. My followers moved to over 100 yesterday. Thank you!! I feel so honored especially since most of my followers are not my family and friends I met elsewhere--not from Crafty Moms Share. Also we have 90+ posts shared at Sharing Saturday. It is still open, so please go check it out and share something with us. I am always amazed at everything and love to see what wonderful things people are up to. I often try some of them with Hazel as well.

So this weekend, we baked some muffins. We made Banana Blueberry Muffins since we had some overripe bananas to use up. Hazel is a great banana masher.

She also did most of the mixing and helped scoop them into the muffin tins.

Our recipe is pretty low fat and healthy!!

Banana Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oat bran or oatmeal
1/4 cup ground flax seed meal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup non-fat milk
1 cup plain fat-free yogurt (I use Greek so it has extra protein)
1 egg
2-3 over ripe bananas, mashed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a muffin pan with foil liners or spray with non-stick spray. (The muffins are moist and will stick to paper liners.)

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl.

In large bowl beat egg and then add milk, yogurt, bananas and oil and mix. Then add dry ingredients and mix well. Then add blueberries and stir.

Scoop into the prepared muffin tin. Bake for 20 minutes and then cool on rack for 10 minutes before eating.
Makes about 18 muffins.

We also did a craft of sorts. I had been saving a Tropicana juice bottle. I love the shape and thought it would be a fun playhouse for some of Hazel's dolls. I asked Steve to cut a door in it. Then we glued some double folded bias tape around the cut so there wouldn't be any sharp edges. Then we moved Hazel's Caillou figures into it. I think Hazel and I may decorate it more, but it at least gave her a playhouse for the figures.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend! I know I'm excited to have my quilt done and have been working on Hazel's. And have been enjoying some family time.

Sharing Saturday #2

Thank you to all of you who shared last week!!  We had some last minute entries, so go check them out!

It's Done!! It's Done!!

I finally finished my quilt!! I don't know if you remember this, but I won the pattern and fabric for this quilt, well the smaller version. Once I started working on it, I realized the fabric matched our bedroom paint color perfectly and thought I would expand it to be queen size. I finished the binding this morning before going to Hazel's interview. What do you think?

Come back a bit later for Sharing Saturday!!