Friday Blog Hop

This Friday on Life with the Lebedas, Jennifer gave us a theme for the Mommy Madness Blog Hop.  It's, well... Mommy Madness!  

I could (and maybe someday will) write a book of all the crazy things that have happened in our family.  From my oldest and his obsession with poop at 2 yrs old, to him dumping cans of formula all over his baby brother, to my middle son coloring all over his naked body with my eyeliner.  There is ALWAYS a circle of food under my 2 yr old's kitchen chair.  I've found 6 pieces of chewed up gum in various parts of my house in the last week - which has led to a month long ban on gum!  I'm going to spend some time digging around for pics of some of the events mentioned (they are on a cd somewhere!).

But today, the thing that is driving me to complete 
Mommy Madness is:

dun dun dun....the 2 yr old's bedroom.  

Disgusting, I know.  Please don't judge too harshly.  This is the room that I clean for 2 hours - sorting every toy to go in it's specific box or bin, folding and hanging clothes, making the bed with hospital corners.  And an hour later, this is what I find.  I think we may have a wild pack of monkeys living in my house that I didn't know about when we bought it.  I thought about taking all the toys away, but I like the idea of free play.  I thought about locking the door and only letting him in when I can go with him.  But there is no lock - I guess that will be nice when he's a teenager!  I thought about moving all the toys to the game room so I can force the other two to help clean them up.  But that would mean ^THIS^ mess would be out in the open!  So instead, I'll just close the door and ignore it until I've run out of things to clean and I have a couple of hours to kill.  (Oh, and he doesn't sleep in there - he's in our room in his own bed - don't judge for that either, please. lol)

Super Cool T-Shirts

Ok, so I've seen tutorials all over the web about freezer paper stencils.  Well, I decided to try my hand at it today.  I don't know why I can never start off with something easy.  I go straight for the gusto and pick kind of intricate designs.  Oh well, honestly I think they came out pretty darn well - especially for my first try.  The boys LOVED them!  We have already come up with ideas for our next t-shirts.  One wants his face the same size, but with a tiny cowboy hat, tiny body and a lasso.  One wants a guitar added, and the other wants a tie under his face (thinking I'll add a fabric tie applique!).  

Enjoy!

Blog Hop Time!

Please excuse the lack of posts this week!  I'm super busy working on decorations, a pinata, cakes, etc for my son's Lego themed party tomorrow.  I'll take TONS of pictures and do a post all about it next week.  In the mean time, lets have fun blog hopping!

Lego Party - Part 1

Tomorrow is a big day for my middle son - he will be 

6 years old!  

He's still young enough that this is a HUGE deal!  He told me today that starting tomorrow, he'll be taller than all the other kids in his class that are only 5.  

He also thinks that on his birthday AND on the day of his party he's allowed to 

boss all of us around!  

We'll see how that goes over with his big brother.  ;)

This year, we've decided on a Lego theme for his party.  

So this week, we'll be making the decorations for his party, 

snacks, goody bags, and of course the cake!  

Last week, I sent out the invitations: 

I couldn't find any invitations to purchase that we really liked.  Most of them were based around a certain character or Lego video game.  

I wanted something less specific.  

I searched online for high resolution images to use to make the invitations, but really didn't find anything that I could easily use.  

Finally, I just headed upstairs to the game room and started building.  I spelled out "PARTY" 

as best I could, snapped a picture, and in Pages, added the text.  

I printed them out at home on 4x6 photo paper and sent them to class!

My printer is pretty economical when it comes to printing photos - 

I think total, I spent less than 10 cents per invitation!

Today, while the older boys were in school I decided to get a jump start on decorating!

I bought two bags (72 pieces each) of assorted colored balloons.

Most of you have seen those super cute balloon wreaths online - well, I thought that would be perfect to use for birthdays in my family!

I'll tell you what won't work for attaching balloons to a foam wreath form: hot glue and staples.  The hot glue won't stick to the balloons at all and my staples weren't long enough to hold the balloons in.  

I ended up using straight pins from my sewing table!  

I pinned two balloons together and just filled up the wreath form.

 I surprised the boys with it today.

I plan on getting up pretty early to decorate the house and van to surprise the 

Birthday Boy 

with balloons and streamers in the morning.  He's requested a special breakfast - blueberry muffins, bacon and eggs, and fruit.  

I'll also be baking his class a special batch of cupcakes as a treat!  

As the week goes on, he'll help me with the party decorations - a pinata, JUMBO Lego blocks, a banner - all kinds of fun stuff!

Check back through the week for more Lego Party ideas!

Fun Fall Food

I adore fall!  I love the leaves changing, the crisp cool morning air, 

the decorations and most of all - I love the food!  

Every year I look forward to changing up my menu for the cooler weather by adding

soups, casseroles, and more baked goods.

Another fun thing to add to my list is cool Halloween inspired food. 

This year, I'm trying to stay away from all the candy and focus more on savory

food, as well as some slightly healthier versions of our favorites!

Here are some recipes that are on my list to try!

These cool Pizza Mummies were found on  Family Fun

Oooh, creepy Carrot Fingers, also from Family Fun!

I love these spooky spider Mac & Cheese Bites from Celebration!

How about these yummy looking Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins 

I found at Everything I Love And More!

Teaching What My Mother In Law Didn't...

Ok, today's post is going to be a bit different.  I've posted tutorials before that were for YOU - my amazing readers.  I'm going to assume, though that most of you are women.  And as a woman, you probably already know how to do the task I'm about to teach.  So this tutorial is for men.  And boys.  Especially my man and my boys!

Changing The Empty Roll Of Toilet Paper

THIS is what I found when I went into the bathroom this morning.

It's also what I find at least twice a week!  This is an empty toilet paper roll.

An empty roll is NOT what I want to find when I need to "go!"

I thought maybe dh put a new roll on the back of the toilet...

Are you KIDDING me?!  

Really?!  UGH.  

Ok, to fix this problem I'll need you to pay close attention.

Step 1: remove old roll by pushing the spring loaded toilet paper rod to one side.

Step 2: Remove cardboard roll from rod.

Now this is important and cannot be skipped.  

Step 3: Place empty cardboard roll into trash can.  Empty roll cannot be left on back of toilet!

Step 4: Get new roll of toilet paper.

*Note* The woman of the house will usually hide these in crazy places - 

like in a bathroom cabinet, so search high and low.  

Step 5: Slide new roll onto the toilet paper rod.

Step 6: Replace rod into toilet paper holder.  This is just like Step 1, only in reverse.

If you are successful in the above steps, THIS is what your finished product should look like!

Congratulations, you've just completed a little task that will make things easier for everyone!

*Note* For extra points, fold the first square under into a 

little arrow like they do in hotels.  

See how this roll almost has a heavenly glow?  

The world is a little bit nicer when the lady of the house does not have to 

ALWAYS replace the toilet paper roll!

Please feel free to share this with as many boys and men as you can.  I'm thinking about printing this into a step-by-step guide for my husband and sons.  Maybe one for each bathroom?

Ghastly Easy Ghosts

Sorry for the delay of this little tutorial - we spent last Friday in the ER with my oldest, getting stitches!  Of course being a doting, guilt-ridden mama comes first.  I know you all understand!  So without further delay:

Ghastly Easy Ghosts!

You'll need cheesecloth, starch and items to form the ghost shapes.  

We used toilet paper rolls, foil and sticks.  

*Most directions for these ghosts call for liquid starch, which I could not find.  I thought the spray starch worked extremely well!!!*

Cover your work surface well - the starch is a mess to clean up if it seeps through!

Now make the form that will shape your ghosts - 

use pretty much anything you have around the house!

Now cut the cheesecloth and drape over your form.  

Spray with starch.

Repeat with layers of cheesecloth until you get it as thick as you like. 

I think we did about five layers - I wanted them to still be a little transparent.

Spray, spray, spray that sucker until it's pretty wet.

Allow your little ghosts to dry.  

I am the queen of impatience, so I brought out the blowdryer. ;)  

Carefully pull out whatever items you've used to make the form.

Then allow your little cuties to model their ghosts!

 

This is how I've displayed them.  

I think we may make more though and hang them with fishing line throughout the house!

I'm linked up here with other fun crafts:

Monday Blog Hops

Today I'm participating in these bloghops! Have fun, make new friends!

More Fall Decor

I think I posted before that I've never really decorated for Halloween before, but that I'm inspired this year by seeing so many ideas on other blogs.  Well, this week I've realized why I never decorate - my middle son's birthday is in October and I never wanted the decorations to compete with his birthday party decorations!  So, I thought I'd go ahead and show you all the couple of other Halloween decorations we have up so far.  Next week I think I'll probably focus more on things I'm doing for his birthday and after that we'll be back to fall crafts and ideas!

This is on our bar - that's a picture of me and the boys last year at the pumpkin patch.

Our summer-time margarita habit has now helped decorate for fall! ;)

Oh, on Friday, look for the super easy tutorial for those cute little ghosts!  

More SpOoKy Fun!

Boo!

Look at those SpOoKy little ghosts!  Hmm, they look pretty cute, right - kind of like little footprints?  They are!  My boys and I made this to go on our mantle.  I wanted something to replace our large family portrait that would go a little better with our spooky theme.  

To make this, I just took one of those big collage frames I had collecting dust and spray painted the cardboard black.  We traced their footprints on plain white printer paper and the boys glued them on.  Then we added the faces and I painted the little spider and his web.

The last thing we did was cut out the BOO! from scrapbook paper and glued that on.  

Super simple, but I think it's pretty cute.  And I adore anything with my kids' footprints or handprints!

I'm linking up with all these other crafty ladies here:

  

I Won a Giveaway!

I got some great news this morning!  Polly over at Capture The Moment was running a giveaway for a gift certificate to http://www.csnstores.com/  and I won!  Woo Hoo!  They have over 200 websites with a huge variety of items - from furniture and decor to school supplies!  I can't wait to head over and start shopping!

Just for ME Monday

So today's post is going to be about something a little different.  It's not going to focus on my boys or on anything they would necessarily be interested in.  I'm going to focus occasional Monday posts on ME.  Things I like, things I make for myself, etc.  

Today, I'm going to show off my very first apron.  

I adore aprons.  I think there is something so domestic, yet sexy about them!  The one I made here is so cute (IMO!) and I can't wait to make more.  

Lots more.  

This little cutie is for cooking.  I'll soon have one for cleaning and one for crafting/painting as well!  I can see this becoming an addiction.  ;)  

I need to give credit where credit is due!  I found an amazing, easy to follow tutorial for this apron on A Girl and a Glue Gun.

The instructions and pictures are very easy to understand.  

I had this baby whipped out in no time.  The only thing I added were the fabric flowers on the pocket and top.

Alright everyone - go out, grab a pair of jeans from that "does not fit" section of your closet and go make a super cute, custom apron!  

Or heck, go make anything today - just do it for YOU!

I'm linked up to creative ladies here:

Winner, Winner!

Yay, we have a winner for my very first giveaway!  

Random.org chose comment number 7!  

So Shiela, congrats girl!  I really hope you like what I send you!  

We'll be having another giveaway very soon, so when that's announced make sure you guys spread the word!

And thank you, everyone for following me and for all the sweet comments.  I really do appreciate each and every visit, comment and follow I get.  I hope I give you lots of reasons to come back in the future!

Friday Funny - I'm a Dork!

So I need to say something today. My name is Ambrosia, and I'm a dork! There, now the cat's out of the bag and I can move on to showing you exactly HOW I'm a dork. Or at least one way.

I am absolutely horrible about buying impulse items. You know the cheesy, cheaply made crap up by the registers at big box stores? Oh yeah, that's right. The area where you can find both a snuggly and a sectioned brownie pan. I actually give myself a little pep talk before heading into the store - "You are JUST going to buy things that are on the list today. NO CRAP!" It rarely works. Case in point: 2 days ago, I saw this:

Oh, you know it - the Slipper Genie.  The horribly unattractive slippers you wear that promise to do the cleaning for you.  Now here's why I thought these actually look like a good buy:  We just recently moved into a house with hard wood floors.  I spend SO much time cleaning them because I've got three boys walking around leaving little footprints everywhere!  So I go suckered into buying them.  And wearing them.  And liking them.  At least a little.  They actually did a good job at cleaning up the footprints, but only when I used cleaner (which the slippers tell you not to do).  And they gave my thighs a workout - bonus!  But the BEST part about them?  They looked like so much fun that my kids were fighting about who got the next turn!  (Insert evil mom laughter here.)

My only questions:  Is this child labor?  And will I get in trouble?