A Birthday Gift on a Budget

 I LOVE birthday parties.  One reason is it is relatively free fun for your kids and they sometimes feed you.  Awesome!  Your kids totally think you are the best mom ever for letting them go, and you get to have fun with friends and meet new people.  It is a winner all around, well almost.
What do you do when you have limited funds and need to buy a gift?
 
I have had to come up with some interesting gifts recently.  I have found some things that are inexpensive, but will make the birthday kid jump for joy.  Here is a list: silly string, air horn, mechanical pencils, personalized journal and fancy pen, and the craft below.

I like to look around the house for things I can use to make a gift special.  A plain journal is inexpensive. If you have stamps and ink, you can add an initial to it and make it special.  A fancy pen from the $ tree or an inexpensive one at W*lMart will make a little girl's day (3-7).
Putting together a crafting bundle is fun for 8-12 year olds.  Include scraps of paper, plain envelopes, and scour the $ sections at stores for stickers, stamps, punches, ribbons, etc.  You can find some great things to add to the gift.
Little boys love noise makers, mess makers, and "grown-up" things.  I just added inexpensive mechanical pencils to my nephew's gift this year, and he loved them.  Silly string and an air horn can add to the awesomeness of his gift.
I have one more gift I'm going to share with you on another post that a little boy would find "fun" and "gross."  Two of their favorite things.

Here is a gift I made for Myles.

 While making a craft a few months ago, I thought the cool "left over" would be neat on a shirt.
You can find the original craft  here.

I had made this. After each stencil, I would press it on a piece of paper to get rid of excess paint before doing another one.  The paper looked COOL!  I told the girls I was crafting with that I thought it would make a cool shirt.  I finally got around to doing it for Myles.  I had made extra cars, so I just grabbed one as part of his gift and made him a shirt to match.

I gathered the materials.  Eric found a shirt at W*lmart.  We loved the price ($3.88), but it had a pocket on the front. That wouldn't work.  It will be going back.  I found the gray shirt at T*rget for $5.  The price was still fine.  I cheated and borrowed my friend's Martha Stewart paints.  It is the same paint I used on the car months before.  It is always great on the budget if you borrow it.   

 I roughly stenciled the car on a piece of paper.  It didn't have to be great.  I just wanted to make sure paint was on the all the way around the edges.

 I then turned it over and pressed it into the t-shirt.  I made sure to rub really hard all over the edges.

 Kinda cool!

 I did the same with the tires.

I thought it turned out super cute and he has a car to match.  

I tied it with raffia, and voila the gift was done!

I hope you liked it! 

Movie Date!

 The girls and I went to see the new chipmunk movie.  

We had movie tickets that Isabel gave Hattie for her birthday.  We enjoyed using them.  Lydda went with us for the first time.  She did well.  We will have to include her next birthday into our tradition of going to the movies.  It is in February.  Woohoo!  I love the movies!

We then had lunch at Subway afterwards using a gift card.  I love spending time with my girls and at such a great price.  It was great end to our holiday.  Back to school for us tomorrow :(. 

Growing Up

Emogene, 10

She shaved her legs for the first time today.

I'm not ready.  I looked at her today and realized she will graduate from high school in 8 years. 

Please don't let these years go by as fast as her first ten. 

Please explain...

 why you need 2 feet of scotch tape.

I still don't understand her reason, but I'm sure it was important.

Loving the Wigs

Weird

This cup had been frozen with some drink in it.  

It then was dropped.  It broke in such a weird pattern I had to take a picture.

What do you think it looks like?

An Early Valentine's Day

A New Stethoscope

Teacher Gift

  I had one last gift to get Lydda's teacher for Christmas.  I was late giving her a gift last year.  Now it will be expected of me to always be late.  I'm okay with that.
I wanted to give her a personalized casserole dish.  I had seen it here and couldn't wait to try it.  I wanted to get her the very well known Pyrex, but the etching cream states that it doesn't work on some Pyrex.  I didn't want to risk it.  I bought two cute Anchor dishes.  They came with nice lids.  I think she will love them.

First, I washed the dishes.

 I cut out her teacher's name on my Cricut.  As you see here, I had the circles in the "o" and "p."  I had to place those seperately.  I didn't like it.  I took out the circles later.  

I paired the dishes with a Thirty-One apron.  

I hope she likes it.

The Dorettes

Uncle Steve thought it was best to give my children a drum set, keyboard, guitar, and microphone for Christmas.  You see, Uncle Steve has all grown children, and I guess he thinks I can't get him back.  Well, I am here to tell you that I was unphased by these noise making gifts.  I wanted to nourish their love of music.  I went right to work getting a practice space ready.  Hattie helped me, and the girls are super excited about their special practice room.  I'm seeing an early retirement in my future because of this family band Uncle Steve is helping create.   

  

 I made them a sign.

 

 You need to respect their privacy.  I knock first before entering.

 Isn't it just cozy.  I gave them a lamp to shed a little light on the band room.  I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the practice.  Emogene was trying to take a nap, but couldn't because of the pure awesomeness of their playing and singing.

They are at this point a Dora cover band.  They practiced the song "Backpack" for a very long time. 

Emogene has since joined the band and plays the keyboard.  

In your FACE Uncle Steve.

P.S.- You know I had to work hard to clean that closet.  It is the closet that Hattie throws everything into when she is "cleaning." I hope you enjoyed this post.

Love the Wigs!

Cheerleader Pinkie and Dr. Mittens

Arnold and Danny

They are called "the boys," "the twins," "Arnold and Danny," or just Sheldon and Shadow.

Shadow is starting to get to know us.  He isn't as scared of us anymore.  He has added a lot of energy to the house and annoys Sheldon almost constantly.  I think Sheldon loves him though.

 Shadow's Stash

Sheldon is his pillow.

Emogene is learning how to clean up dog pee and walk a dog over and over again.  If we didn't have so many mud holes in our back yard, he could go out alone, but Emogene nor I want to bathe him every day.  He loves to play in the mud.  He also loves to chew on everything.  He also likes to go outside and stare at you when you tell him to come back inside.  He sits and gives you the look that means, "I don't think so lady.  I'm not budging."  Ahhhh, to have a puppy.  It is such an experience. 

Crafting

I loved this idea from Marth* Stew*rt.  

I had two large vases leftover from my sister's wedding.  

I had been trying to decorate with them and failed miserably. 

I'm so glad I have a good use for them.

The other one is now helping me organize my craft corner.  

I put my ribbon in it.  Now I can see all of my ribbon.  I love it! 

Chrismas at Paw Paw and Nannie's House

 The crowd was gathering.

 Everyone was getting excited.

 I love spending time with them!

 Daddy and Lydda playing with Hattie's new camera.

 Anything Dora is Lydda's favorite thing.

 A couch for Lalal**psy!

Adorable!

Emogene got a pair of beautiful birthstone earrings. 

We had such an enjoyable time.  We got home at 6:30 and put the kids to bed.  

It felt like 10:00 to the adults.  Great day!

Grandparents' Ornaments

Each year, I've given the grandparents an ornament.   This year we made hand print ornaments.  

I painted each hand white and placed the ornament in each hand.  I helped the girls squeeze the ornament one finger at a time.  I then added the hat, nose, eyes, and mouth after the hand prints dried. I used a black Sharpie for the eyes and mouth.  They turned out cute.

Christmas Morning

 They were waiting not so patiently.  Sheldon was aggravating Vickers (Isabel's cousin). 

 They picked their positions.

 Hattie got a guitar.  She personally asked Santa for it after taking a picture with him.

 Lydda loves her baby.  

She tells everyone it is Chinese like her.

 Isabel hasn't changed much.  She still likes to lay around whenever possible.

 having a funny HA HA moment.

 Lydda finally got a pillow pet!  Her hippo makes very weird noises when you press the nose.

 Vickers did not understand it all.  He started rewrapping the first present he unwrapped.

He got he hand of it.  He loved his marshmallow guns.

Hopefully he can have a marshmallow war with Isabel.

We had a great morning and day.  My mother-in-law came over and had dinner with us.  

The girls enjoyed spending time with Nana.