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My latest work for Today's Mama is a printable which includes directions for how to make a geyser with Mentos and Diet Coke plus cut-outs for the pieces you need.  We had to try it out when my sis and her kids were in town. . . Click here for the free printable . . . Oh, and speaking of Diet Coke, I've been Diet Coke free for three weeks now! And it has been much harder to give it up than I ever expected. Anyhow, these pics are making me thirsty.

Sometimes when the sun is bright and the kids are on the move, I like to put my camera on the action or sports setting and just click away. I never know what I'm going to get till I review them later. . . P.S. Anyone know how to get rid of a binkie? It's time.

My parents were in town recently (Mother's Day weekend, to be exact!) and we hit the slopes of Sugar House Park for a little kite flyin'. The wind came in short but powerful bursts which made it exciting and we all loved the crisp, spring sunshine. (P.S. Astute viewers will observe that this is an example of the "matching outfits" I posted about.)

For the last day of school, we sent a yummy bag of Nova Granola made locally by my friend Jane and  teacher report card for each of Lucy's teachers. Don't worry, they earned very high marks. If you need something for the other kids in class, these printable fishbowl cards are still available in my shop.

The girls have been trying to match lately. . . Wait, correction, Lucy has been trying to match Emmie lately. She'll wait until I get Emmie dressed and then she'll go try to find the closest matches in her closet. Then I have to give her a matching hairstyle. Luckily she hasn't asked for a binkie and a blankie to match. I caved in to the whole idea and have bought a few matching things for them. I realized that this will be the last time it's really even possible to buy matching outfits because even though Lu is almost too big for 5T stuff, she is in the same grouping as Emmie's 2T. So why not? One good thing is it motivates Lucy to get dressed by herself and it generally meets parental approval since we put the smaller version together in the first place for Emmie! Win, win. Except it kind of feels like we're on parade when we go out. . . What do you think, are matching outfits cute or obnox?

Well, its a flurry of Mother's Day prep and projects around our place. Some bouquets for the Grandma's.  .  . free printable found here . After seeing tutorials here and here for DIY tea towels this week, we had to try some. Again for the Grandma's. (Sorry for the spoilers! Act surprised, Gramma Linda and Gramma Leen!) This one's for me. . . a mom gets to make special requests, right? It's a simple template with the head and the body and the kids add the rest. We cut out our bodies and put fabric behind. . . Free printable found here . (By the way, see the bearded whale in the red frame? That's an original watercolor from Marc Johns which my hubby surprised me with one year for Valentine's Day! Men if you're looking for gift ideas, sneak onto your wife's computer and see if she has favorites on etsy. . . or an amazon wishlist. . . or look at her pinterest boards and find the board called "dreaming" or "one day" or...

Ranunculus, a desktop and phone wallpaper for todaysmama.com Ranunculus a repeating pattern which can be printed at Spoonflower fabric. For my birthday this year, my little ones gave me some ranunculus. They didn't last long, but I immortalized them in a drawing which I then made into downloadable desktop wallpaper for todaysmama which then got made into a repeating design for fabric which was then entered into a fabric design contest on Spoonflower and was subsequently chosen as one of 100 semifinalists from which 8 finalists will get to design a fabric line from which one lucky/talented artist will get to produce a line of fabric for Robert Kaufman fabrics !  Was that the longest, run-on sentence ever? Let me sum up, my fabric design is in a contest and I need your vote!  See details and vote here! You can vote for as many designs as you like! There are so many beautiful choices, don't just pick mine, pick a bunch! I would love, LOVE, L-O-V-E to design fa...

Easter was only last week. . . I'm only one week behind in this post. I'm not too late, right? This one is right on the way out the door going to church. Running around Great Grandma Gwen's courtyard right before Easter dinner. . . A funny faces pic with all the second cousins, oh, and me because Emmie wouldn't be part of the picture without me.  Dying Easter eggs a couple days before. . . Notice how many colors Lu gets to work with. . . and how Emmie just gets to use one color. . . orange. Why? Take a closer look at those hands. Can you blame me? Orange fingers are much more acceptable than green and blue and purple fingers. These last couple pics are from today. So I'm not too far behind on those, right? This is after church which is even more stressful for photo shoots because Emmie is D. O. N. E. Done. When did she get so willful?

Here is a printable project you can showcase at your Easter brunch or dinner, a cute little pocket to hold just a few pre-meal goodies and is available for free to download from TodaysMama.com  Enough to draw everyone to the table, I hope! Happy Easter!

 Inspired by an old Martha Stewart Kids mag (Winter/Spring 2003), Lu and I made a dinosaur diorama. Martha's examples can be seen here. Ours may not get hung on a wall or passed on to Lucy's grandchildren, but it was a fun project to do together and maybe she'll keep the memories around longer than the diorama. Her preschool's theme for the week was Dandy Dino's and she was assigned to do a "Show and Teach" so this was perfect to take. We sorted through the bag of cheap dinosaurs we'd picked up at Target a while ago and found her favorite ones. We hunted in the yard for rocks and plants that might look like little trees and cliffs. We cut and glued pics from magazines and we hot glued it all in place.

Emmie and I stayed home sick from church one day and I thought I'd catch her on video without her big sis around. This is one of those sweet everyday moments you just want to hold on to forever. . . and then I had to say something. I didn't know I'd ruined the video until I watched it weeks later when I downloaded it. I ruined the video and ruined the moment with my creepy voice. Just watch.

Good thing Lucy is not camera shy. She gets to be the model for a lot of my projects. . . she's even cute with bushy eyebrows and a beard! This is a fun little St. Patty's Day craft project. . . print the templates on paper, cut out, tape together and play dress-up. Oh, and finish it up with a photo-shoot. We had a lot of fun working on this together. And if you don't have orange and green paper laying around, just print it on normal white paper and let your little leprechaun color it herself. Link for free printable Leprechaun Hat and Beard (and Buckles!): here on TodaysMama.com

I've designed two St. Patty's Day printables for the nice lassies over at TodaysMama.com . They're free! Go ahead! Download and print the Shamrock Tags and the Shamrock Pennant Garland and make your March a little more green. . . uh, er, that's the classic form of green. The color kind.

Just so you know, I owe Pinterest a huge thank you. So, Pinterest, imagine this vase flowers is just for you. Why do I owe this "thanks" you ask? Because my last post (another idea for valentine's day) was pinned on Pinterest. . . and then repinned. . . and repinned a gazillion times. I had over 36,800 hits in 9 days and the valentine printable was a big success on etsy. So I want to say thank you. And also a huge thank you to everyone that bought or made the fishbowl Valentine's. I figure there are a lot of people out there with left-over, round-bottomed treat bags who might like an easy, low-mess, art project to do with kids. I think it is especially appropriate because this idea stemmed from this pin I saw not long ago. Put a couple blobs of paint inside the bag and seal the top with some packing tape (fold it over the top so it really seals). Let the kids smoosh it around until it fills the bag. Tape or paste to paper and paint in some flowers. So, thank you,...