Monday, December 19, 2011

Ornament fun!

Shh... don't tell the grandmas! Nolan made them very special surprises. After seeing all the fun handprint art on Pinterest we decided to have some fun with clay. I love Morning Glory Fire ceramic arts in Jacksonville. Kristin does mobile clay painting events at your choice of locations and we've had fun playdates in our mom's group utilizing her! I contacted her mentioning that I wanted to make some ornaments and was able to directly buy some raw clay.

Reminiscing on my high school arts classes, I got to work rolling out the clay. Nolan was such a trooper pressing his hands and feet for me! He liked stepping on the clay a little more than doing handprints though. Once they dried, I took them over to Kristin to be fired. then they came to my place for the painting. The final product is just amazing! Such a great little keepsake! If only I hadn't waited until the last minute, we could have made even more!! I figured the 15 we made was enough. His little hands and feet were tired!



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Don't forget to help us win a giftcard to a local, awesome toy store. The race ends Wednesday and I'm now in second place. It's simple, just click the link below and then like the picture. It's his homemade elf on a shelf riding a train. Don't like all the other pictures in the album or you'll be voting for his competitors. Contest Link

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Diet and Doctors!

Keep Nolan in your thoughts tomorrow! He is having an endoscopy done and will be under anesthesia. Momma is a mess but Nolan doesn't know anything is up so he's his normal happy self! They'll be biopsying his esophagus, stomach, and duodenum. No food after midnight and he doesn't go in to the hospital until noon so this should be interesting!

In other news, the results of his food allergy/sensitivity panel (IgG ELISA) came back and Nolan reacted strongly to wheat, gluten, pumpkin, and parsley. There is a larger list of foods he had some reaction too so we'll avoid having him consume lots of those in one sitting but he can still eat those items on occasion. As for the more severe ones, we're going to be restricting them completely for at least 3-6mo before we they to slowly reintroduce them. I'm researching all I can on how to switch us to a gluten free household! That stuff is in everything!!!




Don't forget to help us win a giftcard to a local, awesome toy store. The race is close so your votes count!! It's simple, just click the link below and then like the picture. It's his homemade elf on a shelf riding a train. Don't like all the other pictures in the album or you'll be voting for his competitors. Contest Link

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Gingerbread trees!

I saw a cute pin a while ago and thought it would be a perfect activity for us with our toddler friends. Jump forward to yesterday and the whole thing came together. It's very simple. You just need sugar ice cream cones, frosting, and some fun ornament candies. Most of the supplies can be found at the dollar store. We simply added green food coloring to make the frosting green. For ornaments we used sixlets, which are processed in a peanut free facility unlike m-and-m's.

Nolan had such a blast decorating his tree. I put the frosting on his cone and handed him his ornaments then went back to handing out supplies to our momma friends. He sat like a big boy decorating for a long time. Eventually he got a little frosting on his finger and gestured for a napkin. I told him to lick it and once he did he realized it was edible. Then the fun began! In the end he ate his entire cone!

Look at that grumpy face!!

First taste!

Haha note all the frosting has now been licked off.


Don't forget to help us win a giftcard to a loval awesome toy store. The race is close so your votes count!! It's simple just click the picture below and then like it. It's his homemade elf on a shelf riding a train. Don't like all the other pictures in the album or you'll be voting for his competitors. Contest Link

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Salt Dough

Ever since I saw fun ornament ideas on Pinterest I've been planning to make salt dough ornaments for Nolan to paint. I thought it was such a great idea that I made a playdate based around. Great idea but not so fun in concept. I spent forever trying to get the dough just right and then made batch after batch so all the moms would have enough ornaments to paint.

All the other blogs out there make the dough seem simple. It's a simple recipe but it doesn't always work out. As soon as you pop it in the oven to dry/bake, it often rises. For me the key was kneading the heck out of it and drying it low and slow. Low and slow in this case was 200 degrees for 4+ hours!!

I really wanted to do handprint ornaments with Nolan but with the rising that happens they turned into blobs. Instead, I'm doing real clay!! Our favorite pottery painter who has done playdates with my group sold me the clay and will fire all of our fun. 15lbs of clay makes and awful lot of ornaments though!! I still have to take them in to be fired and then paint and return for re-firing. Hopefully I manage to do that all before Christmas but if not they are still adorable! Pics to come but I don't want to ruin the surprise!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Contest

Quick post begging for "likes". We are trying to win a hundred dollar gift card to an awesome local toy store just in time for Christmas. If you are on Facebook and don't mind, help us out by liking our picture of our homemade elf on a shelf in action!! Click here for the picture to like.