The Great Valentine's Mailbox

Amazing what you can come up with using a shoe box, kleenex box, paper towel rolls, foil, some pipe cleaners and a fancy twirly heart.....
Kyle even cut out a secret trap door in the back so Luke could easily retrieve all of his Valentine's

A little foil......
A cute sign....
Some little decorations placed here and there...

and voila... one Valentine's Day Robot Mailbox...

We love you Luke...

Rainy Day Field Trip

What better way to spend a rainy day then to read....
So off to the library we went...

First off we love to read, but we usually buy our books...
Kyle needed to do some research though on Robots so we decided to take a look at what the Gilbert Library had to offer...

The kids had fun picking out books and sitting and reading them....







Kyle and I however found that a lot has changed since we have been to the library ... the librarian informed us that our library card expired in 2003... huh..what? Has it really been that long?

When you walk in there are metal detectors and a security officer...(at the LIBRARY??)

Then we could not find ANY research books on Robots.. except for one..published in 1997..umm okay.. I mean you would think a simple topic as Robots would have a ton of books to choose from..

It just seemed the whole library was focused on DVD's you could check out and the internet access available... I know that during this economic downturn that is a very useful and free resource for people, but dang Gilbert Public Library can't you make an effort to keep your shelves stocked with actual books and maybe even some that are up to date...

The kids had a good time though and we ended up checking out some cute books that we can read for awhile...

The other night Luke was working on drawing a picture for Kyle..

He finished and proudly presented it to Kyle..

and daddy exclaimed "Wow Luke, this is really good"

In which Luke responded...

"I know, that is why I call myself an artist"

Loving These Must Do's.....

Can't stop looking at how they used these small black and white photos with a couple colored ones splashed in...

I heart this mirror...

Loving this idea ... I bought some old wooden spools at a Craft Fair I went to last weekend and also picked up some amazing ribbon... now I know what to do with them

Everyone knows about my small obsession with the Eiffel Tower.. it's on my list of things that make me happy .. would love to hang this print in my house from the lovely Etsy store moonflowers...

Guess I will be needing this for my car...

Bare with me as I pat myself on the back...

It's official I am starting back to school on March 16th...
Masters in Health Care Management here I come...

oh and I was joking about the license plate thing...
those rate right up there on the annoying scale with the silly stick figure family stickers ..and the father/mother of an ASU student stickers...

The Easy Bake Oven Experience..

My baby girl loves to help me in the kitchen.. so it was no surprise that she received her very own kitchen for Christmas.. Then mommy and daddy bought her an Easy Bake Oven too..She was so excited about it, how could we not make it a family event... My how Easy Bake Ovens have changed since I was a little girl though..
We had to get the princess one of course.. and now you "bake" with ice..ummm okaySo in went the ice... the mix was stirred just so..and then in the little pans went, and of course who could forget the sprinkles on top...

She was so stinkin ADORABLE putting the pans in the oven..notice how she had to have the oven mitt on.. again we are "baking" with ice...

While the cakes were "baking" she was busily setting up the tea party..

Again, how precious is she with her oven mitt on while setting out the "very hot tea"

And a glorious tea party it was as there little cakes were gone in a matter of seconds with big brother proclaiming, "You are a good baker Hailie", and Hailie simply looking at him and stating, "I know"..

Target.. Will you please be my Valentine?

We were invited to a Super Bowl Party this weekend (as I am sure most of us are either having a party or have been invited to one).. with that said, I have my list of things that I was assigned to bring.. so no surprise I start looking for new recipes to try.. But in my inbox I have the Target weekly ad email so I get side tracked a bit and end up on Target's website.. shocker.. Anyways..

I accidentally hit the See All button underneath the Weekly Ad button and it brings me to a whole list of categories I never even knew existed on their site.. and then Grocery caught my eye..

I click on it and would you believe they have a recipe section!Seriously...It is super cool too, because they have some really great recipe categories.. and to boot you can even print out coupons...but the feature that made me the giddiest.. a little button that you can select under a recipe to add those ingredients in the recipe to your shopping list, and then you can print that out!!!!

I mean are you kidding me... Awesome..

Contemplated dropping our monkeys off at the zoo..

So we decided to take the hour drive out to the new zoo and aquarium that just opened...

The kids really seemed to enjoy themselves..Luke was pretty excited about seeing the alligator this close..he was so cute telling me to take a picture of him..(please disregard grainy photo..don't get me started on my dang camera again..I seriously had a tantrum in the aquarium about it..)

It was pretty cool how they even had it so when you looked up there was things going on..

They even allowed you to touch the ray thingys.. I didn't particularly like the idea of the kids doing that but daddy helped them while mommy stood far away cringing as she took pictures..

Then one huge part of the park is this flume ride..which the kids went CRAZY over..

You get in this log and it takes you through all of these exhibits.. here are the monkeys.. you were seriously so close to the animals I was scared they were going to jump in the log with us..and yes in the back of that photo you can see the part of the ride where you go up and then free fall into the water and get splashed.. We don't need to worry about taking the kids to Disneyland they LOVED that part and were begging us to ride it again...

Here the ride takes us through the aquarium ...

And pass the Macaw's..

Then we decided to take the "African Safari Train" which takes you through "Africa"..

There was an open field that the train traveled through and you could see birds..antelopes..zebra..ostriches.. and other things they said could potentially come up to the train.. we weren't that impressed..

By far though the most exciting part of the whole trip was getting to feed the giraffe's!!

It was amazing!! The kids and I were so excited and I couldn't stop laughing and smiling..

The way their tongues feel when they wrap around your hand to take the food tickles and it was just so neat being able to pet them and feed them..

I have a serious crush on giraffe's now..

It ended up being a very relaxing fun family day..

The Perfect Valentine's Day Card....

Not your Grandma's Buttons...

Love! Love! Love! this absolutely adorable store...
You have to go check it out http://bakeitpretty.com/
I am not even close to being called a baker, but I sure do enjoy attempting to make fun and yummy treats for family and friends.. and this amazingly talented woman has definitely provided the means to have the fun part with this fantastic website.

I just look at these candy buttons and can't help but smile.. they are so darn cute...

I think these would be perfect for the kids and I to make for them to give out as valentine's treats..

Get yours here... and don't just stop at those.. wait till you look around.. I am sure your cart will be just as filled to the brim as mine is!

Handy Dandy...

That title is soo cheesy but whatever..

I haven't done any sewing in awhile due to the craziness of the holidays and I am getting that itch to get back to my machine... anyways I found this pattern for this pin cushion caddy and it intrigued me.. it comes from the book Seams to Me: 24 New Reasons to Love Sewing by Anna Maria Horner

I already had printed out the pdf for Heather Bailey's pear pincushion that I was going to do because my tomato pin cushion needs a serious upgrade..but now seeing this one.. I think I will try it instead..

I always have odds and ends laying around on my table so it might come in handy ( hence the title) to have this as my pin cushion...

I will post pictures when I have completed and tell you how following the directions went.. Let me know if you decided to try it as well...