Hazel's birthday is coming up fast!

Now that Christmas is over I need to focus on Hazel's fourth birthday! One of the major problems of having a birthday so close to Christmas is the change in focus so quickly. We decided to try having her birthday on Saturday instead of New Year's Day. I don't know what I was thinking in giving myself less time to prepare. Oh, well. Hazel asked for a princess theme. Here is the invitation that I emailed to family and friends who live further away. The wording on our homemade ones were the same, but we used glittery paper and decorated it with stickers and stamps.

Now I need to do all the preparation of our royal castle. More posts on that soon!

I made most of her gift. She has been so into her baby dolls lately so I decided to make her a changing station play set. I saw this idea somewhere (my guess is Little Wonders' Days), but I cannot seem to find it and for some reason did not pin it.

I made her some flannel wipes and used an old wipe case. I used fleece and PUL for the pad and made her three cloth diapers (more to come) from PUL and flannel. I made two different sizes for her dolls. Many are smaller than most of the clothes you can buy so I also made a few outfits for her dolls and on for Ducky.

I think she will love them! What do you think?

After the Storm--Book Review

On Sunday I heard about this great children's book in church. The author is also a member of the United Church of Christ at a different church than mine. She is a board certified clinical nurse specialist in child psychology and mental health nursing. When she joined a group from her church to go on a mission trip to New Orleans, she was asked to do a puppet show for the children who were trying to deal with the loss after Katrina. This story is what she came up with for the puppet show. She performed it for five elementary schools there. Someone suggested she write the story as a book so she could help even more children. She decided to do so and the first issue she ran into was finding an illustrator. She happened to read a UCC newsletter where my church was mentioned involving a couple of artist members doing a project. She contacted my church and was put in touch with Alexandra Parker who is a nursing student at Drexel University. Our church was celebrating their accomplishment.

Now Wendy Parker, self-published this book. It is available at Amazon. Her goal is to reach as many people who need it that can use it. So if you have connections with schools, churches, etc. in any area that has been hit by a severe storm, please pass them this information.

This story is about a group of animals who find one another after they all lose their homes and friends in a storm. They decide it is better to work together than to be mad, sad, etc. by themselves. Together they help one another and become a family of sorts. It is an adorable story and is perfect for anyone who may have lost a house, friend, etc. It is intended for ages four to six years-old.

Please help me spread the word about this amazing resource for young children going through a crisis. Pass on the name, the link, etc. to anyone who may be in need of it. Thank you!!

Merry Christmas!!

I will be taking some time to spend with my family, but wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas! Here are our Christmas cards this year:

The top one was done at Sears when we went for Hazel's photo shoot. The package we chose came with 10 cards. We used them to send to our non-Christian friends. The bottom one we used the finger print light idea that I saw on Pinterest and of course cannot find the pin to give proper credit, so if it was your idea, please let me know so I can give you credit!

Christmas Prep

So I just finished wrapping all of the gifts. Mostly it was just the gifts from Santa. Sorry I have not been too active on posting, but we are trying to get ready for Christmas and more importantly getting the house ready for Hazel's birthday party. Our cleaning people come tomorrow so everything needs to be picked up for them. Here are some of the things I have been up to though. 

We have made our gingerbread house. I bought a kit at AC Moore this week. Hazel has been asking to do it. Here are a few more views of it.

Today Hazel and I baked cookies. We have to have some to leave for Santa plus we will bring some to both grandparents' houses. We made thumbprints using our blueberry jam and some peanut butter cup cookies using mini peanut butter cups from Trader Joe's and mini Hershey kisses.

While we were baking my dear husband took my car to Sears to be repaired. Apparently my tire had a slow leak and being Sunday the only place to get it fixed is at Sears at the mall. Ugh!! What a time for that to happen.

I also made Hazel some new Christmas pajamas. I bought this flannel at Joann's and if they still have some on clearance I will buy it all. It is the softest and warmest flannel I have seen in a long time. I used McCall's pattern number 5965. It is the easiest pair of pajamas ever. The only thing I didn't like is the neck band needs to be a stretchy knit, but it sews up so quickly.

I also discovered HP Create via Pinterest. And have been making some of their holiday projects. I am using this star box to "wrap" a gift card for Steve's stocking. Then I made a bird ornament and a holiday frame.

They have some neat projects to check out! Enjoy!!

FYI: Happy Family Times will not be happening this week due to the holidays. Kelly and I decided we all should be enjoying some time with our family and not posting it. Enjoy!!

Sharing Saturday #51

Wow, it is hard to believe there is only one more Sharing Saturday left after this for 2012!! Last week's was very inspiring!! If you have not had a chance to check out all the great ideas shared, please do so and leave some comment love! This week there was a five-way tie for the most clicked so I am just featuring some of my favorites.

1) From Like Mama ~Like Daughter: Enchanted Childhood Playschool Week-- Lots of great Christmas books and activities to go with them!
2) From The Good Long Road:  Things That Go! Christmas Edition-- A great round-up of Christmas things that involve movement!
3) From Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk: Snowflake Authority--Bentley -- A book to check out and some great snowflake crafts!
4) From Family Home and Life: Christmas Garland -- A wonderful tutorial on cutting garland of different shapes!
5) From Keitha's Chaos: Sneaky Elf on the Shelf Learning Activities --Keitha's Elf almost makes me want to get my own. What great ideas and her elf is so cute!!
6) From Blog Me Mom: Santa Role Play -- A wonderful way to help kids giveaway their old toys and learn charity!
7) From Learning & Growing the Piwi Way: Christmas Science -- Using some Christmas traditions to teach a little science.
8) From De Gulle Aarde: Hummels -- So adorable!!
9) From Earning My Cape: Traveling with Kids--Milestone Packs -- Great idea for those long car rides (which many of us may be making this week). 

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here or earlier this week, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

Button Code:

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From Your Hostess: Simple Christmas Decorations and Ornaments Part 1 and Part 2

Best wishes for a very Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating!!

Now for This Week's Party A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow both hosts via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  
Hosts are Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart. A reminder: Mia is taking a blogging break. Hopefully she will be back soon to host again!!

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) Post the button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

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4) We would love it if you would follow us on Facebook and Google+

Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest.