Furniture Re-do

I had this coffee table that my mom gave me when they got some new family room furniture.  I liked it because it was pretty sturdy but our family room/play room was pretty dark so I had to paint it brown.....

pretty depressing huh??

Ok that is better :)  Stick a cutie on it and it's fine right??  Well almost..... I took Laura with me to Home Depot and let her pick out a paint sample.  It was super cheap and we got a little more than the traditional size all for around $4!  Now it's...............

PINK!!  It matches the pink play kitchen, pink motorcycle, and pink bunny chair in the room!  I mean we could have gone traditional but this is just so much more fun! :)  Cheap, easy, and took about one afternoon to prime and paint!

Caroline's 2nd Birthday: The Making of a Shin Dig!

My youngest daughter turned two yesterday so we are having a party for her on Saturday.  I was racking my brain about what to do for party favors.  I remembered how much fun the girls had making play dough last week so I figured we'd whip some of that up!  We needed it to be special....what could we add..........GLITTER!  My husband has a bad relationship with glitter.  He says it gets stuck in his beard-that is why I made it when he wasn't home hehe :)

Many of your ingredients you will find in your own kitchen cabinets....

• 2 cups Flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 cups water
• 4 tsp cream of tartar
• 2 TBSP veggie oil

 These are the extra supplies that I picked up:

• white glitter for glistening dough
• silver glitter for sparkly dough
• Wilton Brand concentrated food coloring

You make the dough pretty much the same way that you made the dough from last week with a few tweaks.

1.  Dump all ingredients in a pot and stir until smooth.

2.  BEFORE heating divide mixture into as many bowls as you would like colors (I used three)

3.  Heating one of the batches over medium, add food coloring until it is the shade of your choice. Mix.

4.  Add lots of glitter!  I went through two containers of glitter!  

5.  Stir and once its a dough ball, let it sit cool either on the counter or in the fridge before storing it.

6.  Rinse out your pot and repeat with other colors.

I also picked up these cute little Glad Ware containers to keep the dough in when I stuff their goodie bags!  

 There you have it!  A cheap and easy party favor that all kids love!  Who doesn't love glitter play dough!?!

Cold weather activities....

When the weather is cold and we can't play outside, we look to the shoe store for entertainment.  My girls would spend hours in the shoe department at Nordstrom Rack!  Haha hey at least its a free activity that makes them happy!

Oh yeah we tried it!

I am an avid fan of Joy the Baker's blog.  I've baked her cakes for birthdays and the crowd goes wild.  :)  Oh and her mocha coffee cake is to DIE for!!  Anyways, she did not disappoint with this pretzel dog recipe.  Soft pretzels are delicious and so are hot dogs.....although I used Trader Joe's Organic Turkey Dogs for this one-needless to say, they came out amazing!  I Thank you Joy.  My husband really thanks you Joy.  BUT Laura thanks you the most!  Imagine smiling like that over a hot dog!

Recipe:  c/o Joy The Baker

Quick and cheap craft memo board!

My co-conspirator/creative partner in crime and I decided to do this after searching for dollar store type crafts.  Oh I should preface that first line....I am the co-head of creative for my MOPS group in Vienna.  We come up with crafts to complete within the meeting that are under 2 bucks a mom!  This one was pretty close!

We used:

• chalkboard paint
• all purpose craft paint pen
• extra scrapbooking supplies
• Tin serving tray from the Dollar Tree

Instructions are self explanatory but this board is great for kids to write on while riding in the car or you can use it for a memo board.  the other AWESOME thing about it is its magnetic!  You know those cute little magnet letters we all had as a kid on our fridge??  Well you and your little one can play with words and letters or drill them for spelling tests on this little board!  Quick-Cheap- and easy enough to do with older kids!

It's been wayyyy too long.........so why not play dough!

I'm back.  Well hopefully, if I can get my act together!  I have been posting so many fun activities that we do to Facebook or Pinterest.  I felt like their proper home was The Big Pink Pig, therefore....I'm back.  :)

Today was blue play dough.  We are experimenting with favor ideas for Caroline's birthday that is coming up.  We have decided this year to go on the smaller side of things, so there won't be as many people, BUT we still want to show people a good time.  What usually constitutes a good time around here is a mess :)  "Your welcome" to party guests in advance!

Recipe:

1 cup flour
1 cup water
2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 cup salt
lots of food coloring!

1.  Dump it all in the pot over medium heat and stir until it forms chunks (ideally a ball, but it will burn fast at the bottom so stir, stir, stir!)

2.  Let it cool for about 15 minutes in the fridge and then PLAY!

The girls LOVE cooking so it is really an ideal activity for them to do.  Plus, they love "making meals for me" haha so there is a shot of them making tonight's dinner with the dough!

Have fun and please visit soon!  I promise to post more!

Caroline likes to sit in her dinner apparently :)

Fall is here!

The fall weather has arrived here in Northern Virginia.  The girls (and I) enjoy playing outside again.  We don't have to fear dehydration, sun burn, or worse---fatigue.  ( For the life of me, I don't understand why little children fight sleep!)

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of our fall so far.  We have battled through the first days of school, dance, and MOPS.  The girls and I will be making lots of fun fall decorations and adding them to the site!  Keep posted!