Life, Gluten Free

Almost 5

Sophie is almost 5 years old! Today, she wanted to make a poster to get ready for her birthday party which will be on the last Sunday of February.

I thought that was a brilliant idea.

How do they grow so fast?

I think she is one amazing, beautiful almost 5 year old. And I'm lucky to be her momma ♥

She also made this picture for me, and had me write down the story on the back:

Once there was a girl and she went outside

and saw that it was raining.

She didn't want her flowers to get wet, 

but she saw that her flowers loved the water

so she gave them lots of water everyday.

She gave flowers to all of her friends.

Her name is Sophie and she loves to play

with her friends. She invited them to her 

birthday party, a costume ball. She is turning 5.

By the way, do you see the orange flower above the clouds? I thought it was the sun, but it's not.. Sophie told me that it's a secret hidden flower :)

Snow slide

We have a good 12 inches or so of snow, and luckily it's the perfect packing snow. Sophie and her dad made a snow cave and a snow slide! We also found out that it's quite fun to use liquid watercolor paint to play in the snow with. I will post about that later. There's nothing like colorful snow!

Happy New Year 2012!

A couple of years ago on New Years, I received an email from a local toy shoppe wishing their customers a Happy New Year. What was in the email was such a sweet sentiment that I have not forgotten it. I thought I would share it with all of you:

Believe that a better world for our children begins with us and align your thoughts, feelings and actions toward that goal.

Believe in your dreams.

Believe in today.

Believe that you are loved.

Believe that you make a difference.

Believe we can build a better world.

Believe when others might not.

Believe there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Believe that you might be that light for someone else.

Believe in yourself. Believe in each other.

Believe that the best is yet to be.

Our version of New Years is calm and quiet, reflecting on the past year and dreaming for the next.

I will never forget the New Years Eve when I was pregnant with Sophie. My husband and I both looked at each other and exchanged looks that said "there's no way we're staying up until midnight." I was very pregnant at the time, and he was very overworked at the job he had at the time. Needless to say we did not stay up until 12am. But as luck has it, my husband and I both woke up within a few minutes of 12am. We kissed and promptly went back to sleep.

We make sure we eat food that's lucky (grapes, cakes or anything round, greens such as collards and kale, black-eyed peas) just for the fun for it. I am a firm believer that your thoughts create your world. So, my New Years resolution is simple.

Love more, smile more, laugh more, cherish more, hike more, take deep breaths, be thankful everyday and worry not about the little things.

One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this:  To rise above the little things. ~John Burroughs

Here's to you! Happy New Year! May you be blessed in the New Year with lots of love, good times, family, friends and moments to treasure.

Christmas Snapshots

We had a nice Christmas at home with lots of fun and laughter. The days after Christmas may be the best, because that's when you get to enjoy all that you received. Sophie got a set of watercolor crayons and has been using some blank watercolor postcards to make thank you cards for family that sent her gifts :)

One of her favorite gifts that she got from Santa (aka mommy and daddy!) was a mermaid costume from Sarah's Silks. This company is great, they make non-toxic hypoallergenic dress-up and play items for kids.

Sophie also really loved the homemade felt tea bags + cookies that I made her!

This year, we made a lot of homemade wrapping paper which was so much fun to do. One of our favorites was using cookie cutters dipped in paint!

On Pinterest, I saw ideas for using doilies for decoration when wrapping gifts and had to try that out too:

I hope you had a lovely Christmas, and that you have a wonderful New Year :)

Giving Back This Holiday Season

 

My husband and I knew we wanted to start holiday giving traditions to teach our daughter the joy of giving to others, but luck has it she is apparently a natural philanthropist. She believes that every single person she knows should get a gift this Christmas. That includes our mail carrier (whom we actually are giving a Christmas card and homemade ornament to).

Sophie bought small gifts for two of her neighbor-friends, and she saved up a spot in her money bank to buy a book for a young girl through the I Have A Dream Foundation sponsored by Barnes and Noble.

She also helped me make some homemade gifts for family and friends that we know they will love and cherish!

Last year, we cooked a Christmas Eve meal for a family that we know who has a young child with an illness. She is in and out of the hospital a lot. In fact, this time last year she was in the hospital around Christmas and we just found out she is again this year. My husband and I decided to offer to cook them dinner again for Christmas Eve and they thankfully accepted.

We cook them a nice meal, and my husband delivers it to them around their dinner time along with a few gifts for their kids.

They appreciate it so much, and we feel so very good to do be able to help them out. Since Sophie has severe allergies and has had some hospitalizations, we know what it's like when your kid is sick. It's hard. Big time hard.

Doing things like this is easy to do, and it doesn't have to cost a lot of money. The book Sophie bought at Barnes and Noble was just $6, and it undoubtedly will make some little girl very happy this Christmas.

We also donated to our community food share program to sponsor meals for the homeless, and gave to a local canned food drive.

All in all, these efforts seem small but I know every little bit helps. We like to give back as much as we can, because we have a lot be to thankful for. Helping others is something that we all should do, no matter what. We can all give something, and I am a firm believer that every.little.bit.helps.

Does your family have any giving traditions? What are your favorite organizations to support?

If you haven't donated to an organization yet but want to, stay tuned for my next post where I am partnering with Gluten Free Saver to show you how you can can help donate just $2 to sponsor a gluten-free camp next Summer for kids with Celiac Disease.

5 Fun & Educational Gifts for Kids

Still doing your christmas shopping and need a gift for a kiddo in your life? Look no further.

I visited The Stubby Pencil Studio and put together 5 great gifts that are fun, educational, non-toxic and inspire creativity. Gifts that you can feel good about giving!

Here is a sample of what you will find there:

Do-It-Yourself Kaleidoscope Kit - ages 3+

Tea Party Puzzle - made from 90% reycled paper, ages 2+

Creative Scissor Pack - Ages 3+

Glob Natural Blends Paint - biodegradable botanical ingredients, ages 3+

Finger Printing Art Kit - ages 3+

Honestly, it was hard picking just five items! I could go on and on.

Okay just one more. Real quick. #6 Jumbo Felt Pens. I may have to break down and get these soon! What a fun stocking stuffer.

Visit The Stubby Pencil Studio and check it out for yourself, while you are there be sure to check their bonus + specials.

You will be pleased, I guarantee it!

*PLEASE NOTE*: I was not asked to blog about The Stubby Pencil Studio. I have ordered from there in the past, I love the product selection they offer and I want to support them by spreading the word. This post was my idea, and it was not sponsored in anyway.

Our 2011 Christmas Advent Calendar (Plus Activity Ideas!)

December 1st is almost here and I don't know where November went!

There are so many lovely homemade DIY advent calendars on pinterest that it makes me feel kinda lame for using our store bought wooden one. But, it's quite cute and we like it. We purchased it last year on sale, I've had to reglue some of the knobs that haphazardly fell off for no apparent reason. It makes me glad I didn't purchase it for the full price, which was a whopping $60 bucks, we paid $20.

One of my favorite DIY advent calendar ideas is this one, where you wrap 25 christmas-themed books and then unwrap one each day and read it. I counted how many christmas books we have, and we don't have near that many yet! We will have to work on collecting some and maybe we can do that next year.

Do you need ideas for what to put in your christmas countdown calendar this year? This is what we came up with.

Using some top notes from Paper Dozen, I decorated one side using christmas stickers and stencils. On the other side, I wrote down one activity per card.

Next, Sophie helped place one in each drawer. After she was done, I folded up some hidden picture pages from a highlights book and stuck them in a few of the drawers for an extra surprise.

Here are the activities we used (in no particular order):

1. Go ice skating

2. Color a christmas picture

3. Read a christmas storybook

4. Wrap a present

5. Make a christmas card for a friend

6. Do a christmas tree math activity

7. Have a christmas tea party

8. Take a drive to see christmas lights

9. Make a handmade gift

10. Draw and Decorate your own Snowman

11. Make a christmas craft

12. Make gift tags

13. Count Share savings and pick a charity (Sophie has a money bank with three sections: Spend, Save & Share)

14. Make a snow dome

15. Listen to christmas music & dance!

16. Make a snowflake craft

17. Make beeswax dipped glitter pinecones

18. Play a game

19. Watch a christmas movie

20. Make a christmas reindeer craft

21. Have a puppet show

22. Make snowball coconut cookies

23. Make warm honey coconut "cocoa"

24. Christmas savenger hunt

And on a few of them, I wrote little "clues" that we can read to Sophie to see if she can guess the activity.

Do you do an advent calendar? If so, what are you doing this year?

Holiday Ideas from Pinterest

We've been sick.

It has not been fun.

Our daughter was sick first and she had to be hospitalized for two nights/days and on oxygen. She had some type of respiratory virus, coupled with reactive airway. After she was home and getting better, my husband and I got sick (sore throats, etc).

Today is Friday.. it's actually been about 10 days since Sophie's symptoms first started but we're all finally getting better. Thank goodness. 

We did start on a few crafts but our attention span was limited due to feeling overall not good.

Sophie started on some holiday wrapping paper designs (paint, glitter glue + freezer paper = one of a kind wrapping paper). We worked on a few holiday ornaments, too.

Those I can show you when I feel like getting the camera, taking a picture and downloading it onto my computer is actually a feasible challenge to take on. Right now I feel like it would be equal to lifting 50 pounds of potatoes.

For now, I hope you ejoy these few ideas that I've found on Pinterest. (If you aren't familiar with Pinterest, simply click on my links below and then click on the images to go to the original blog post for the tutorial on each project).

DIY Turkey Countdown to Thanksgiving 

Thanksgiving Postcards 

Coffee Filter and Glue Line Leaves

DIY Paper Snowflakes

Reindeer Fingerprints

Fall Button Tree

Do you go on Pinterest? It's a fun way to get inspired to make homemade gifts, home decor, etc!

Happy Halloween!

Our Jack-o-Lanterns are carved and we're ready for the trick-or-treaters to come this evening.

Hopefully no one spooky, no one frightening or gory!

We hope for princesses, some frogs here and there, friendly ghosts, fluttery butterflies and nice witches.

My butterfly and flower pumpkin

My husband's came out SO well! "Mr. Botkins King of the Pumpkins"

And we have our very own.... Rapunzel!!

Homemade Rapunzel costume and hair, thanks to my dad's wife Linda.

HUGE thanks :)

Happy Halloween everyone!

How to Boo Your Neighbor

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon "How to start the BOO in your neighborhood" from Skip To My Lou. It was such a cute idea, Sophie and I knew we had to try it out. We picked a couple of neighbors and made up a BOO bag and a BOO bucket. I didn't get pictures of the BOO bag but it was very cute. It had casper on it and inside we put different goodies (pencils with eraser, necklace, stickers, a halloween craft, etc).

For the BOO bucket pictured above, we used some halloween-themed paper and re-used a halloween greeting card from last year to glue the poem to.

Front:

Back:

There are different poems to choose from but I decided to write one of my own. You are welcome to use it.

You've Been Boo'ed!

This bucket I filled with treats galore,

and I left it at your front door.

I ran with glee,

knowing what a surprise it would be!

You will find treats but no tricks,

it is only a friendly "BOO' from me to you.

If you enjoy it and want to employ it,

simply leave a "BOO" at a neighbors house

to surprise them with joy and be oh so coy.

Leave it at their front door, no one will suspect

it's a friendly "BOO" to say "I like you!"

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

It was so much fun and Sophie had a blast putting together the treats.

For the BOO bucket, we put in several things, including:

a bracelet

a halloween story book

stickers

a wooden wand that Sophie decorated

a balloon

inka chips

a collage by Sophie (using magazine cut-outs and washi tape)

a mini DIY pumpkin game

Have you ever BOO'ed a neighbor?

Do you want to? It's not too late, go gather some treats and get your BOO on!!