Pint-Sized Picasso

Posted in Kid's Corner by Selections By Sisters

This was such an easy activity from start to finish!

Materials

Washable Paint
Construction Paper
Corks
Styrofoam Plate
Something to cover table

This activity took no time at all to put together and allowed for me to utilize things that I already had in the house. I found an old set of washable paints and was excited for Reagan to stray from her normal blue and pink paint (I have yet to remember to purchase more colors). But, low and behold the paints were dry;( I even tried adding a little water to the bottle and shaking it, but it just wasn’t the right consistency anymore. So back to the trusty old standby colors.

I placed a cardboard mat underneath where Reagan would be working, even though it’s washable paint, it doesn’t always wash out 100%. I gave her a piece of construction paper, four wine and champagne corks, paint on a styrofoam plate, told her that they corks were stamps and let her go to town!

She LOVED every second of the paint stamping. I mean, why wouldn’t she…she LOVES to dip, dip! Here she is, using sign language, to ask for more.

The activity lasted about 15 minutes before Reagan began to stamp her hands, her face, the chair and was even successful at getting the dog once or twice.

When the fingers went in the mouth, I called it quits on the activity. I could have easily given her a binkie and she would have continues to paint. However, I’m trying to confine the binkie to the crib and the car, so the binkie was not coming to the kitchen table to paint.

We had a blast and ended the activity with her favorite thing…a tubbie! Sometimes I think that Reagan loves to get messy because she knows that she will end up in the tubbie.

Everything cleaned up really easily. I threw away the styrofoam plate and corks- no paint brush washing today! And returned the left over paper, the paint bottles and the cardboard mat to the craft section in the basement.

22Feb2013

A Little Love

Posted in Kid's Corner by Selections By Sisters

My sister, Erin, found this adorable craft on The Party Event (http://thepartyevent.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/valentines-day-candy-and-sweets-for-your-sweetheart-photo-booth-props/) and made the best Valentine’s day gift for someone very special that lives far away. I thought that it was the sweetest idea and that it would be fabulous for my husband who works long hours and often comes home after Reagan is already in bed. This Valentine is perfect for when he misses her and needs a hug.

Erin and I both strayed from the way that the hug was created on The Party Event (http://thepartyevent.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/valentines-day-candy-and-sweets-for-your-sweetheart-photo-booth-props/) and I LOVE the final products!

I decided that Reagan and I were going to make three HUG Valentine’s, one for Reagan’s dada, one for my mother-in-law, a.k.a Grammy and one for my father-in-law, a.k.a PaPa.

Below are materials and instructions for how to make Reagan’s HUG.

Materials

Mod Podge
Paint brush
index cards
4 different colors of paint ( we used pink, red, white and purple)
4 large sheets of card stock light colored card stock- I used a very faded light blue
2 sheets of red construction paper
1 (8×10) piece of card stock
1 piece of paper (large enough to trace hand on)
scissors
string
sharp knife
Printed saying (http://thepartyevent.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/valentines-day-candy-and-sweets-for-your-sweetheart-photo-booth-props/)

Step 1:

Paint both sides of the four sheets of large card stock paper- one sheet for each color (let one side dry before painting the other, this should be obvious…)

Step 2:

Trace hands onto piece of paper and cut along traced lines.

Step 3:

Trace cut out hand onto red construction paper. Using both pieces of red construction paper, one on top of the other, cut out traced hands. We needed six hands for our three valentines.

Step 4:

Measure the length of your child’s arm span. Ask them to put out their arms as if they were giving you a big hug. Henry’s HUG was perfect! It measured his exact arm length! I struggled a bit to get Reagan to stretch out her arms so I could measure her arm span.

Step 5:

Take two cut out red hands and mod podge one side of one hand. Place one end of the arm span measured ribbon onto the mod podge and then the other hand on top (You are sandwiching the string in-between the two hand cut-outs). Press down firmly. I would recommend putting something heavy, like a book, on top of your hands until they dry. Repeat this step three times. You are only gluing one side of the string in between two hand cut-outs at this point.

Step 6:

Cut three different sized hearts out of index cards. You will be tracing these hearts. I only ended up using one of the three sizes that I cut out.

Step 7:

Trace the cut out index card hearts onto the 4 large painted card stock pieces of paper. Cut out the hearts. This is where it became a bit tedious…there were a lot of hearts that needed to be cut out, that I didn’t even use! These will be going into the Valentine’s box, so at least I saved myself some trouble for next year!

Step 8:

Using a sharp knife, cut two small slits (as wide as your ribbon) at the top of your heart.

Step 9:

Thread your ribbon through your slits and place a small dab of mod podge behind the ribbon to secure. Repeat this adding however many hearts that you want to add. We only ended up using four hearts for Reagan’s Valentine, her arm span is super short. I utilized the free printable (http://thepartyevent.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/valentines-crafts-for-kids-a-long-distance-hug-a-beautiful-present-for-someone-special-diy/), printed it on card stock, cut it into an oval and attached it to the string in the same fashion as I did with the hearts.

Step 10:

Take two cut out red hands and mod podge one side. Place the other end of the arm span measured ribbon onto the mod podge and then the other hand on top (You are sandwiching the string in between the two hand cut-outs). Press down firmly. I would recommend putting something heavy, like a book, on top of your hands until they dry. Repeat this step three times.

Reagan’s finished HUG

Erin and I did our own version of the same Valentine’s HUG and they both turned out fabulously! This just goes to show that you can take someone else’s adorable project and make it your own!

This isn’t just a HUG for a Valentine, it’s a precious gift that can be sent at anytime of the year!

18Feb2013

Sweet Sayings

Posted in Kid's Corner by Selections By Sisters

My husband LOVES snacks! So for Valentine’s Day Reagan gave him these cute little snacks with these clever sayings on them that I found on C.R.A.F.T (http://www.creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com/100-clever-valentine-day-sayings/). She also made the adorable HUG craft that Henry made for Valentine’s Day.

Materials

Printed out or hand written sayings
Construction Paper
Cut out painted hearts– we had painted card stock hearts left over from another project
scissors
ribbon
glue – we used Mod Podge
Candy and/or snacks– we used a Snickers bar, a box of Reeses Pieces, two rolls of Smarties and a plastic bag filled with Rainbow Gold Fish.

Using the card stock hearts, cut out sayings, construction paper, ribbon and glue- we created these cute Valentines that my husband LOVED!

18Feb2013

Birthday Love

Posted in Home Life by Selections By Sisters

Year after year I struggle to come up with an idea for a gift to give a man that never wants anything, that says that if he did, he would get it for himself. He doesn’t want a party in his honor or even everyone getting together for a Happy Hour to toast his years on earth. Ugh… So this year I wanted to attempt to give him a feeling. Sounds weird, to want to give a feeling, I know. My husband is a hard worker and is always doing for others. I don’t think he often stops to realize the fabulous qualities that he possesses and the wonderful thoughts and memories that his friends and family have of him.

At the beginning of January, my sisters, our father and our husbands (Jason and Ryan) threw our mother a surprise 60th birthday party. It was a blast and we created a few special things that I know my mom will treasure forever.

Caitlin found this fabulous memory idea on Nothing But bonfires (http://nothingbutbonfires.com/2011/06/sixty-years-memories) and ran with it. The result was lovely and my mother enjoyed reading all of the wonderful memories and thoughts her friends and family have of her.

I thought that this would be such a great way for me to give Ryan a fabulous present without having to ‘buy’ anything. I enlisted Ryan’s brother, Tyler, to help me out and I tweaked the original letter from http://nothingbutbonfires.com/2011/06/sixty-years-memories and we sent the letter out through email to family and friends, past and present. I was anxious to see who would respond and to read all of the fabulous memories. It took some email reminders and a phone call or two, but we ended up receiving 54 memories, which was awesome! Some memories came through email and others were hand written and mailed to Tyler’s house, so Ryan wouldn’t find them. I received memories from a 5th grade girlfriend, an old neighbor, coworkers, out of town friends, family and so many more.

My original idea was to fill Ryan’s office with helium filled balloons and to tie a string to each balloon with a memory attached to the end of each string. I wasn’t thinking of the fact that helium and the freezing cold Rochester weather wouldn’t mix very well (balloons deflated a bit and got wrinkly when I did a test run). So for me to be able to accomplish the office balloon idea, I would have had to fill the helium balloons at his office and lets be honest, what mom of a busy 15th month old has time to do that? So the the plan changed and I decided to place each memory into a white envelope and to number the envelopes from 1-54.

On the morning of Ryan’s birthday while he was still asleep, I fanned out the envelopes onto the coffee table so that he would have a comfy place to sit, drink his coffee and read the notes that his family and friends sent. I was hoping that he would love it. I was hoping that he wouldn’t think that it was cheesy and be embarrassed by the fact that I contacted people for a memory that they had of him.

He thought that it was anything but cheesy and I think that he absolutely LOVED it…yay!!! Reagan had a blast helping her dada open his notes and she of course thought that the ones that included pictures of her were the best! The plan is to put all of the memories into an album so that he can cherish them forever!

Reagan’s Happy Birthday sign that she worked so hard on, hung in the family room for Ryan to enjoy while opening his memories.

I wrote little notes on large index cards and while he was still sleeping the morning of his birthday I placed them around the house in spots that he goes to in the morning. There was a note on the coffee maker, in his bathroom drawer, in his closet, on the mirrors, on the coffee creamer, on the window above the sink (from our dog, Colby), just to name a few. I thought that these could be little reminders of how Reagan and I feel about him.

To finish off our gifts to dada, I had a t-shirt made for Reagan with Ryan’s business logo on the front. My husband is an AMAZING realtor (http://www.rochestersells.com) and has the most clever logo; a bobble head of himself holding a ReMax balloon..very eye catching since he’s so handsome! Reagan rocked the t-shirt and Ryan thought it was hilarious!

So it was a HAPPY birthday and I’m glad that my husband felt special on his day. We love him and wanted to show him how amazing he really is. I hope that I was actually as successful as I think that I was in my attempt to give my husband a feeling for his birthday…a feeling of being loved. By the look on his face, I think I nailed it!

16Feb2013

Must Have Meat Loaf

Posted in What's Cookin' by Selections By Sisters

My husband and I love this meat loaf! I’ve been making it for years and have never strayed because of the simplicity and deliciousness of it! There are two pages ‘bunny eared’ in my Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book; one is the Banana Bread, which I will make as soon as the bananas that are sitting on my counter are ready and two is this fantastic Meat Loaf! Don’t get me wrong, I have tried other recipes in the book and do go back to random ones from time to time, but I have to admit that I keep this gigantic book on my counter mainly for these two recipes and because it’s a pretty off white color!

I made this Meat Loaf for dinner the other night and paired it with mashed potatoes and roaster cauliflower. I’m only posting about the meat loaf, but wanted to let everyone know that I add sour cream to my mashed potatoes as I’m mashing them…such a fatty. And the roasted cauliflower recipe that I use can be found here: http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10052&catalogId=10002&productId=347545 The cauliflower is super easy and is DELICIOUS!

Ingredients

2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup fine dry bread crumbs or 2 cups soft bread crumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons snipped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried leaf sage, basil, or oregano, crushed
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef, lamb, or pork
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard

The original recipe says that the Meat Loaf yields 8 servings. I beg to differ, unless you are planning to feed 8 small children. This recipe fed my husband and I for two dinners. Keep in mind that neither of us are big eaters, but my husband did have seconds at dinner number one. You can see the size of the serving in the final picture at the conclusion of the recipe.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a medium owl combine eggs, milk and bread crumbs. Stir in onion, parsley, salt, sage, and pepper.