Tractors are a boy's best friend

Sometimes all your toddler needs is a tractor.

...or two tractors.
At least, that is what entertains my toddler.

But when it's raining outside, and the tractor work is too complicated for a two year old...
...or maybe I'm the only one with tractors in my backyard?

....then little tractors work too.

Now. This concept is nothing new. Get shallow bucket, add rice, set toddler's imagination free.
Buuuut. For me, it was a huge leap into the unknown... mainly because I know what my floor looks like after this little guy eats rice... and now I'm going to let him play with it? That was a disaster I wasn't willing to consider cleaning.

However, after 2 amazing hours of quiet play time, I was singing a different tune. Who knew rice could be so awesome?! And the floor was actually cleaner after play time than it ever is after dinner time.

So, even if you are clean freak like me, this activity is still a winner. 5 stars. Kudos to the brave, creative mom who decided to try it first. 

A Homemade Costume

Usually I am super spoiled and my mother-in-law sews up a couple fabulous costumes for my kids to wear to our church's annual harvest party. However, last year she was just too busy, so I had to dig into my closet of creativity and come up with something.

Joy wanted to be Pocahontas. Of course the Google Image search resulted in costumes that looked a little... ummm chilly. So this is what I came up with. Based on inspiration from here.

 I love (love, love, LOVE) me a tutu costume. Because, really, when else can you wear a tutu if you aren't a ballerina? Plus (BONUS) they are easy to make. :) Just search for a tutu tutorial and you will find plenty perfectly good, and easy, instructions. I used three different shades of brown tulle for this one. You can't really tell, but I also hot glued feathers to the waist band... mainly because you can only buy feathers one way-- in bulk-- so I had plenty.

 Her little necklace thingy is simply a thousand feathers hot glued to a thick brown string. Don't plan to have finger prints left after making it...  but I loved how it sat around her neck.

Her little head piece and arm bands are made from a thin leather type material I found at our fabric store. I cut the tassels and hot glued them in a loop. I was worried they would be falling down all night, but they didn't bother her at all. The head piece is made just like a simple headband. Then when I braided her hair, I put in a clip with feathers hot glued to it to hold everything in place. I didn't get a great picture of her boots, but they were just her basic warm fuzzy suede boots, and I made tassels similar to her arm bands to go on them. You can kinda see what I'm talking about in the picture below.

 The best part about this costume? It was warm. Just white leggings, white long sleeved shirt and warm boots.

I was happy because she was happy.

Of course... little brother went as a football player....

Because, really, I can't be responsible for two creative costumes in one year. :) Go Beavs!

A snowy Birthday and Rapunzel Cake

Joy's 5th birthday was low key and crazy.

Her birthday is in March and usually falls over spring break, which works fine for us. This year, however (2012), it looked more like winter break!

That's right! It snowed. Snow in March. In Oregon. Just crazy talk. But that's what it did. And Joy was so giddy she could hardly contain herself.

So we took the birthday balloons outside for a little birthday photo shoot.

For her birthday party, we had family join us at Le Patissier, my husband's aunt and uncle's french bakery. (If you are ever in Corvallis, look them up! Amazing!!) Lucky for me, Rob's aunt and mother decorate wonderful cakes, so they made Joy her very own Rapunzel cake. She loved it.

Basically, they used the same items you would need for any doll cake (check out youtube for tutorials). Then they used fondant to decorate. The middle piece was decorated with a stamp and food coloring. We didn't want to get Joy's actual Rapunzel doll all caked in cake... ;). So we used a blonde barbie instead and added doll hair to her ponytail. This Rapunzel had extensions. :)It was a wonderful and easy birthday.

Tractors and a 2nd Birthday Party

For Joshua's Second Birthday, we stuck with using resources that were available to us... and things that he just loves.

Tractors. 

There are perks to living on dairy property-- especially when you have a little boy. Joshua loves anything that is related to tractors and farming. It makes it very fun to live here... and almost makes up for the cow-smell that constantly surrounds us. ;)

 

Haha! Can you tell I'm nervous about him sitting on the edge there... that would be my fear of heights. Those tractors are HUGE!

 Here is the whole crew, and the giant tractor, in our driveway. It was the perfect fall day (Joshua's birthday is in October). I was so glad we were able to be outside the entire time!

For a fun activity, we took the whole crew on a hayride through my parent's property. The kids loved it-- Joshua even sat still the entire time. :) 

 My friends were a huge help for this party! One friend decorated this awesome cake. I simply bought a plain chocolate cake from Costco (I went with Costco because they make yumm-o cakes and their cakes can feed a small army).

Another awesome friend made her delicious apple cider, and then helped serve both the apple cider and CrockPot Hot Chocolate. Both drinks tasted amazing, and we were able to plug the cock pot in outside so they stayed nice and warm. 

I wanted to do a Hot Chocolate Bar like in this picture... however I knew mine couldn't be quite so elegant. Thank goodness for leftover mason jars, tractor cut-outs and my sister's handwriting. Everyone enjoyed adding something to their hot chocolate to make it more interesting (I think my hubby had to try a cup for every option). 

We also served water for the kids who didn't want to drink something hot. Next time I would probably do this with the smaller water bottles. I made the template myself by simply finding a clip art that I liked and playing with the colors a bit. 

For party favors, I made two options since we had a couple kiddos with peanut allergies. The top one is just Oreos crushed to make "dirt" and a gummy worm or two. The second one was made using inspiration from this picture. Hers are better. But they were really fun to make. 

It was a wonderful day with fantastic memories! ...I kinda hope he will want to do another party like this again someday since he probably won't remember this one, and I know one of these years he is going to start having an opinion about his birthday parties. :)

 

Joshua's First Birthday

I love throwing a good birthday party. Especially for my babies. My husband tries to be grumpy about it and say that we shouldn't start throwing birthday parties until the kids are old enough to actually remember the party... but when Joshua turned 1, I was thrilled to throw him an awesome party... that he would never remember. :) Oh well... baby parties are still the best.

I couldn't decide between two different themes... so I combined them! Hey... you only turn 1 once. So Joshua's first birthday was a Mr. Milk and Cookies party.

Isn't he just the cutest! ...I may want to mention that Joshua is months away from turning 3 years old... (I know, I know... blog much?) so these pictures bring back wonderful memories. :)

For the main cake, I made my first ever Chocolate Cookie IceBox Cake. It was amazing, easy and all my guests were impressed-- exactly what I always want in a birthday cake. ;) I also made these Cookie Monster Cupcakes. After seeing this picture floating around Pinterest, I was a little nervous to try them... but I gotta say... they turned out pretty good! ...Especially considering the alternative. :D

I used blue tinted frosting, and then dipped the cupcakes in blue sprinkles. The eyes are white chocolate circles with chocolate chips, and the cookies are just plain ol' store bought.

For Joshua's shirt I simply ironed on a tie using a pattern I made myself. And I also made his bib! I was quite proud of his bib, because I'm certainly not a seamstress, and it turned out so cute! I made my own pattern (someday I'll try for a tutorial... probably in another 2 years), but you can actually purchase the pattern now from here!

A Mr. Milk and Cookies party wouldn't be complete without milk or cookies. And since we live on a dairy, milk was of course a necessity.

I bought a cricut cartridge for the mustache, but got this idea from here. If you are only going to use the mustache one time, I totally recommend buying them pre-cut, however I think my mustache cartridge is used the most between me and my friends.

For party favors, I did a cookie bar. It was a ton of baking. But they all were a huge hit! I made a couple different varieties, including a gluten-free version, and an oatmeal white-chocolate chip.

And, of course, the birthday party wouldn't be complete without a banner.

Welcome to my Blog! My name is Stacy. I hope you enjoy what you read, and see, when you visit this place. The Lord has abundantly blessed me with the life I am living, and I’m excited to share my adventures with you.

I am a Dutch girl from the top of my blonde hair to my dusty toes. I have lived on a dairy for my entire life.

And this is my plus 1:

Rob is my Plus 1. My life would equal nothing without him. We were married on January 1, 2005 and have been living a life, blessed, ever since.  

And here are our treasures from the Lord.

Joy, age 7, came into this world at just the right time. She is her name. There isn’t a day that goes by that I can’t look at her and smile.

And Joshua, age 2. Another child named perfectly by the Lord. He is a gift, and I thank God for trusting us to care for him.

I am a stay at home mom who currently homeschools, and sells Mary Kay. I love the time I am given to be with my kids. And I also love the time I am able to take to search the Lord, be creative, pamper my friends and myself, shop, be funny, and write.

So feel free to follow along! I hope you will enjoy the moments you spend here to savor this journey with me.

Defining Moments

There seems to come specific moments in our lives-- defining moments-- where we may think (probably subconsciously), "now I know how this feels".

...falling in love...

... getting married...

... delivering your first baby...

and then the less desirable

...heartbreak

...miscarriage

...getting or being chronically sick

...losing someone you love...

I have not suffered much in my life. I have been so very blessed to be able to say my life is good... and when I say good, I mean incredible. Yet, I have experienced all of those "defining moments" listed above--the good and the bad. So what makes life so incredible for me?

...God

...Grace

...Hope

Recently, I got my first glimpse into a new defining moment... My family lost someone we loved dearly-- my husband's Grandmother.

She was in her 90's.

We saw it coming.

It was "her time".

She's in a better place.

But those things do not make the hurt go away. It doesn't make the realization that Thanksgiving.... Christmas... Birthdays.... will never be the same.

I only knew Grandmom for eight years. But she made an impact. Her vivaciousness and spunk, her love and insight, her genuine care for the people she loved. She was a blessing, and she will be missed.

So as we continue on in our lives, looking for new "defining moments", and realizing Grandmom will not be here to witness them... we will cling to the things that make life incredible...

...God

...Grace

and Hope.

Because without God, those "defining moments", would only be "moments". For what makes a moment "defining"? When we look at it and say to ourselves, "...So that's how God loves us... and that's how it feels. "