Ready for the easiest gift to make ever??? Well, lay your eyes on this Minion ornament!
Last year, I made Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle ornaments. They turned out super cute but by the end of the project, I had no fingertips left because I'm burnt them so much by hot gluing the ribbon on. A stroke of genius hit me when I was at Hobby Lobby shopping for the supplies and turned this into the simplest project ever! Here's a step by step guide how to make your own!
Supplies
Clear ornaments
4 containers of 8 @ $3.99=$15.96
Black Duct Tape (Mini roll)
2 rolls=$3.58
Googly Eyes
2 bags=$5.98
Yellow Shredded Paper
2 bags=$2
Black Ribbon
$3.99
TOTAL: $31.51 for 32 ornaments=98 cents each!
Step 1:
Stuff yellow shredded paper into clear ornament.
So far pretty easy, right?
Step 2 & 3:
Take black duct tape and wrap around the center of the ornament. I did this task while Deven worked on step 3 which was to cut black ribbon (or whatever color you'd like) and tied them on to the ornaments so they could hang on the tree.
Step 4:
Heat up the hot glue gun and glue on the googly eye.
Step 5:
Go a little crazy because you're done!
Seriously, how simple was that? And they're adorable! We made enough for each person in her class at school, the kids at the sitter's plus our neighbors, friends, and whoever else we'd like to give them to!
Step 6:
Save one for yourself and hang on your own tree!
It's that time of year again! I've never been a fan of decorating... period. It's evident in my home to anyone that's ever visited. However, having a little one in the house means it's a must to decorate for the holidays. In the bottom right corner, you can see our blow up tree and laser lights on the house. For two plugs and about ten minutes of set-up, I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out!
This is the first year we haven't had a live tree. Last year, after Christmas, I bought two pre-lit trees on sale. They were super easy to put together. The tree in AR's room came in two pieces and the tree in our living room came in three. The downside is that NONE of the lights in each section connected!!! I found an extension cord that worked on AR's tree and I ended up draping my own Christmas lights over the one in the living room so it's currently not even using the ones that came with it. Live and learn... story of my life currently!
AR was pretty pumped about her tree if you can't tell! She's being weird though and doesn't want the lights on so I don't know what's up with that but either way, she's a big fan of the Christmas tree in her room.
I let her pick out the ornaments she wanted to put in her room. I also let her put them on the tree if you can't tell, that's why there's four of them almost touching! She really didn't want any with her name or picture on her room although I convinced her to take a few, she really only wanted Frozen ones in there.
Our living room tree, nothing fancy, but it works for us. We've never had a topper for the tree so I told AR we could go get one and I'd let her pick it out.
AR's had a blast trying to see if her hand/feet fit old hand/footprints we've made. For the first year of doing all this by myself, I have to admit that I think we did a great job!!! I should also mention that if you come to our house during this time, be prepared to take a seat so she can take every ornament off the tree and show it to you.
As most of you know, AR has been in gymnastics since she was fifteen months so my child LOVES jumping on trampolines, doing cartwheels, and we're now working on handstands! It's exciting and frightening all at once. Luckily, we have Sky Zone close by so we can do all the indoor jumping we want even outside of class!
Here's a little info about Sky Zone: We are dedicated to providing you with the pure joy that comes with flying. Sky Zone Fenton offers open jump, 3 sky slam courts, skyrobics fitness classes, foam zone, ultimate dodgeball, sky hoops, and challenge zone! If you can walk you can jump, Sky Zone Fenton is the ultimate family experience. Here's a sweet offer they have right now too! $5 off open Jump or $50 off Birthday Party - Spend $20 and receive $5 off. Or Book your birthday party (Super Jump or Supreme Air packages only) and receive $50 off! http://stlouiskids.com/coupon.php?regionid=75&bid=12306&dealid=2148 .@usfg
I won't lie, I kind of want to check out the fitness classes for myself! Either way, I'm sure you'll find us at Sky Zone a few times this winter season and even during the hot summer months!
Like many things this past year, yesterday was a first for me. It was my first Thanksgiving without AR. Like most of the time when she's gone, I did my best to stay busy and not just around thinking about how much I missed her. We Facetimed first thing in the morning and she made me get her stuffed monkey because she's thankful for her and needed to tell her that, silly girl!
For lunch, I made spaghetti with homemade meatballs then headed over to my friend Deven's. She was on call and stuck at home all weekend so we decided to binge on The Office, eat a "traditional" meal of spaghetti and meatballs, and then have some of her grandma's pumpkin rolls for dessert. I have to say, she's a much more talented cook than I am to make those pumpkin rolls and they were delicious! Her dog Charlie celebrated with us, too!
I headed home after lots of girl talk and pumpkin rolls to check on my Shadow dog who is currently wearing a cone. No worries, nothing major just majorly expensive!!! My friend Shannon texted me and said they were hitting up Target at 6 so I decided to brave my first ever Black Friday (but really it was Thursday). It wasn't bad at all at Target or Wal-Mart. I didn't get anything major, just marked some items off my list. I did get an Elsa castle that AR had been asking for but I have no idea if it's the right one or not so I've got to figure that out somehow...
Fun story from the night: When I was at Wal-Mart, there was a Tahoe parked in front of the store. There were lots of people and they all had lots of items. Parked behind them was a cop SUV and some of the people from the Tahoe were climbing in with items from the store. My best guess is that they ran out of room in their Tahoe so the cop was giving them a ride home???
After Target and Wal-Mart, I drove back to St. Peters because I had to pick up something at Kohl's that I'd ordered online. Um... yeah, Kohl's was not nearly as quick and easy as the other two stores. Deven and I waited in line for TWO HOURS to checkout!?! That's insane! And the crazy part is that we didn't even get any big ticket items but after we'd waited for 45 minutes, it was like Grey's Anatomy, and we were committed! So, whoever gets my gifts from Kohl's had better LOVE them!
So it was after 10PM by the time we left Kohl's. I came home and what did I do? I got online and did some more shopping for the Adopt-a-Family at work. I'd forgotten the list in my car so I picked up a few things for them. I finally went to bed around midnight but I slept awful because I was thinking about everything I needed to do today like wrap presents to take to my dad's tomorrow, hit up Penney's because I had a coupon, find craft supplies for ornaments we're making, etc... When morning time came around, I was lying in bed, too tired to get up for the day when I heard the trash truck. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my kitchen trash, and tried to open the door but it wouldn't open! The doorknob just turned and turned so needless to say, I missed the trash truck but I did get this blog post written! Hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and thanks to Deven, Shannon, and her family for keeping me company yesterday!
Wow! It's been an incredibly long and fun weekend for AR and me. Friday night we got manis and pedis with friends then had dinner at their house before coming home to pack for our big adventure at Holidays at Union Station on Saturday. Last November, we and two of our friends did the Polar Express train ride and had a blast! We thought what fun it would be to get a hotel room and stay down there the entire weekend. We bought the girls matching PJS, a set for their dolls too, and the girls were so excited. We had no idea what to expect since it was a different group putting in on this year but based off our experience last year and all the pictures of how they'd transformed Union Station, I think the moms were probably just a tad bit more excited than the girls.
After visiting NINE playgrounds on Saturday, AR and I met up with Lynn and Kenzie at Pieology in St. Charles. It was so delicious! I am totally loving these Subway-type pizza places like this and MOD Pizza. AR changed into her matching Elf on a Shelf pajamas, put on some tights, and her cowboy boots and they were ready to go! Kenz rode with AR and me so I got to listen to the first part of Descendants for the sixth time in the last two hours...
Side note: I'm introducing Elf on a Shelf after Thanksgiving so AR has no idea about the pajamas so hopefully once we get the Elf going, she'll get it. For now, she just thinks it's an elf on her PJs.
We arrived at Union Station and I actually got a pretty sweet parking spot right by Hard Rock Cafe so we were close to all the activities. It took a couple wrong spots before we finally found the place to check in then we took a trolley to the front of Union Station, got checked into our room, and headed down to get on the train. This is where it started to go downhill...
It used to be a restaurant, maybe Hooters, which is where you lined up to board the train. We had the first class Comet train, so not the cheapest but not the most expensive either. It said something about being able to pre-board but no one really gave us any details so we just lined up with everyone else at 6:15PM. It was a massive herd of people, no lines, no staff giving directions, no line barriers, nothing but it wasn't too bad. Finally, it's 6:15PM so we head over to the train, climb onboard and find our seats. In our train, we had tables and it was supposed to be decorated. Being that the lights were off the entire train ride, I could only see a few wreaths on the wall and that was about the extent of the decorations. When we went to take a seat at our table, we found out that our four tickets (that were purchased together in a four pack) weren't really together. Our four seats were not across from each other at the same table but four in a row so two of us at one table and two at the other. Luckily, the other table was in the same situation so we ended up just staying at a table together.
The train departed and we met dear, old Snickerdoodle the master elf and only "character" on our train. From telling the kids that we're passing the North Pole Industry District to whispering to me that if the kids were smart they'd recognize it's two different Santas, it seriously reminded me of Bad Santa or some kind of movie like that.
So the train ride started, it was dark the whole time with some holiday carols playing overhead. Snickerdoodle roamed the cart chatting with kids and teasing them. Our girls took our tickets and played a pretend game of Go Fish to pass the time... exciting, huh?
We made it to the North Pole which was a scene projected on the side of a tractor trailer with a small house that Santa stood on waving and laughing to the train. Santa's vehicle, not his sleigh, was also parked nearby and I wasn't quite sure why it couldn't be left behind the tractor trailer so the kids wouldn't see... Kenz asked Snickerdoodle if Santa was going to get on the train and he assured her he was. So the girls sat in anticipation of Santa, looking back and forth, straining their necks to find him. As we started to pull into the station, Kenz asked again if Santa was coming and Snickerdoodle said, "Well, he should be..." Finally, as the train was rolling to a stop, he came in and literally spent about 5 seconds with each kid. Our girls were grouped together but we still got a pretty awesome shot.
I have to say that I am in awe of our girls and quite frankly, I wish I had their mentality. Lynn and I were exchanging lots of eyebrow raises, lip reading, and doing our best to not let the girls know how frustrated we were with our experience. Honestly, AR loves Kenz so anytime she gets to be with her, she's happy and that was evident on this incredibly boring train ride. Seriously, I wish I could rewind life and keep the same outlook as I did when I was four.
The one thing AR was upset about on the train was that there wasn't hot chocolate. She'd been asking about it since we arrived at Union Station so she was pretty disappointed when there wasn't any on the train. Apparently all the activities from hot chocolate and cookies to actually seeing Santa himself are located inside Union Station. In theory, probably a good idea, in reality, you tell a four-year-old that we now have to go stand in multiple lines... yeah, super awesome!
So, we got back inside and went to wait in line for Santa. This was by far the best part of the whole event. Turns out, it was the same Santa who danced and sang and laughed with us on our train ride last year! This man is awesome!!! We went into a room with just our girls and they each got individual time with him. There was no rush, Santa posed for the professional pictures and for me with the phone, it was a really good experience.
After we saw Santa, we went out to an area where they wanted you to buy pictures then we were to exit OUTSIDE the building. So we went outside to head back inside. I should mention here that it was the tree lighting ceremony at Union Station on this night. We knew that going into it, we booked it for that weekend because of all the extra fun and festivities. This by NO WAY impacted our experience at Holidays at Union Station. It wasn't the crowd or the other people that made a sour experience, it was the actual experience itself.
Either way, Santa=awesome!
After Santa, we headed to Gingerbread Junction for our cookie and hot chocolate. When we entered, the girls went to get hot chocolate and a lady working there told them they had to get their cookie first. We went to get our cookie and another lady brought over a disposable cup of hot chocolate and handed it to Kenzie. I asked where we got our souvenir mug at and she asked to see "my papers." I was like, "Um... I don't have any papers. We just have this red wristband that they told us got us into everything past the front desk." She informed me that we were go to go the Elf VIP Lounge for our mugs, cookie, and hot chocolate.
By now, AR is begging her hot chocolate that she's been asking for for the last couple hours. I tell the lady okay and ask if AR could go ahead and get a cup here since she'd already given Kenz one. She told me no that I was to get everything at the Elf VIP Lounge. Now AR is crying because she knows she isn't getting one. I bend down and pick her up, muttering about how ridiculous it was that she couldn't give me a cup and now my child is crying,
We exit, find Elf VIP Lounge, get in another line and wait only to be asked for our papers again. I wanted to scream by this point that I am not a dog, I do not have any papers except for the wristband that they told us to put on. Turns out "papers" are really your tickets. We got our mugs, our hot chocolate, thank god for Kahlua to put in the mommies, and our Schnucks cookies... you know, the ones that your child can get for free when you go grocery shopping... The girls gobbled up their goodies then danced in the middle of the room under the disco ball and holiday songs. Oh, while we were waiting, the hot chocolate lady from Gingerbread Junction walks in looking for me. She apologized and gave the girls light up wands. I thanked her and told her that it wasn't her fault, that we were getting frustrated with the misinformation we continued to receive. This was another highlight in a series of unfortunate events.
Moms sit at the table, enjoy our spiked hot chocolate, the hot chocolate was really good, and start to chill out... still feeling disappointed but the girls are laughing and having a good time so I'm starting to relax. A few minutes later, AR comes over and says she has to go potty. We walk to the front of Union Station where the bathroom is and I'm appalled. The trash cans are overflowing and there are literally MOUNDS of toilet paper all over the floor. By this point, I'm done. I take AR back to Lynn and am on a mission to let my voice be heard. I find the entertainment director and begin to tell him about my experience. He immediately rushes me to the front desk to someone with more authority that can do something because he can't. So I begin to tell my story to the lady, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Between being outside all day in the sun and wind, my frustration, and the little bit of alcohol, my cheeks were neon red by now. She listened, asked questions, let me talk, and then her boss came up. I sighed and asked if I had to tell my story all over again. The boss said, nope, just give me your last name, I'm going to refund you everything. I was kind of in shock. I didn't expect them to refund all of it, which included our hotel stay. The first lady thanked me for being so nice about it and letting them know the good stuff too. She even said that she wanted to give me a hug, thank goodness she didn't because all my co-workers can tell you, I am not a hugger. In the end, the boss lady ended up refunding our entire train ride and hotel ($300+), gave us a free gingerbread house, and four tickets for breakfast the next morning (I think about $80 for 2 adults and 2 kids). I thanked them for listening and making the situation correct and went back to the girls. They were still happily dancing, oblivious that I'd even been gone.
We headed outside to catch the Fire and Ice show but had just missed it so we headed back to the hotel room. For the next hour, we'd hear something, look out the window, see the fire, run out of the hotel room, around the corner, and it would be over. By run through the hotel, giggling and laughing hysterically, I mean both little girls and both moms too! We finally saw it on the third try and it was pretty awesome.
The girls were in heaven in the room! They took the notepads and played waitress, they enjoyed cookies, and they got to stay up past their bedtime!
We woke up at 7:30, which is sleeping in for AR and me, packed up our bags, and headed to breakfast. This was the first time she got to use her Elsa suitcase she got for her birthday so she was thrilled about that.
The lobby of Union Station was beautiful! During breakfast, they had a cool lights show on the ceiling that apparently they do every day of the year so it wasn't just for the event.
The spread of food was pretty awesome, the bacon was great. They had an omelet station. The first three bites of mine were good but the air was on so it was cold after that. They had a waffle station that the lady couldn't get to work and spent the first 30 minutes trying to scrape out the broken pieces of waffle. Overall, good food, yummy bacon, but luckily, we didn't pay for it because it wasn't worth the price it cost.
The girls thought it was awesome to eat on a couch and this is a pretty adorable picture so I had to throw it in.
One of the special parts of the breakfast was that you met one of Santa's master elves and one of his reindeer. Here is the Master Elf and Prancer... not what I expected... especially when I saw dreads hanging out the back of the reindeer's head.
They did get a cute reindeer that my child insists on calling Rudolph because I'm pretty sure that's the only reindeer she knows.
So now it was time to leave but the door we had used to get to Union Station the night before was locked. We asked at the front desk if the trolley was running and they said no, we had to walk outside around the building to get to the parking. As we walk outside, some random man, another guest, sees us walking toward the corner. He informed us that the sidewalk was closed due to construction. This was seriously just laughable at this point because it was just one mishap after another. On a positive, totally unrelated note, we ran into Louie as we were leaving the hotel!
We started our trek back to the car. Luckily, there was a tiny piece of sidewalk that was big enough for the girls so Lynn and I carried the suitcases on the street while the girls stayed safe. We loaded up the cars and saw people were tubing. We decided to go check it out. The door to the ice rink was wide open, all the tubes were out, but no one was there to take money. We decided to join the group of people and jumped on the tubes for a few slides down. The girls thought it was awesome!!!
Overall, it was not a great experience. I appreciate what the staff did for us after I voiced my concerns but the fact remains that there were hundreds of other families that were just as unhappy as us, trust me, I heard them all grumbling too as we waited in line after line. We did the Polar Express last year and while it was expensive, we definitely got what we paid for and I would do it again in a heartbeat. This year, we paid a lot again and it wasn't nearly the same experience, not even half of what it was last year. There were a few positives but far more negatives and the fact that the train ride was just plain boring, well, I'm not so sure that we'll take the risk of going back next year.
The bottom line though is that our girls had a great time because they were together. They really are the true definition of what friendship should always be.
Once the divorce was final, it was time to start taking care of me! I got my hair cut, touched up my gray, and even lost about 30 pounds this summer... damn winter hibernation and gaining some of it back! In July, I went to the local hair school and met an awesome lady who I've now gone back and seen three times... which is about three times more than I normally go in one year to the hairdresser! By my third visit, I was like I want to do something different, completely out of the box, something not me so... I got some blue peekaboo highlights!!!
I got them done right before we were supposed to go to FL but the weather changed our plans and we ended up not going. Since my hair is so dark, she had to bleach it first THEN put the blue over it so it was about a four hour process! Still, it turned out pretty awesome in my opinion!
I know, you're thinking, Alyssa, you're crazy, what if you hated it? Well, good thing that when my hair was down, you couldn't even see them at all!!!
Now that it's growing out, I'm kind of over it. It's once of those things that I can say I've been there, done that, and now it's out of my system. Awesome job, Gabby, thanks for giving me the encouragement to do something different!
First off, thanks, everyone, for the warm welcome back! This is why I love you all so much. I know I kind of dropped a bomb on you with the whole divorce thing and you probably have like a million questions you want to know if you're anything like me aka nosey and want to know all the details. Let me start off by saying I won't be bashing or saying anything bad about any party involved so don't think I'm trying to act like we're perfect, I'm just trying to be respectful. Everything started in August 2015 and I have a couple blog posts that I started to write but they ended up being more of an emotional outlet for me instead. They were really raw and more about my feelings than the facts which is what I'm going to try to keep this to so here goes.
August 2015, Matt and I decided to get divorced. No big drama or event of what got us to this point, we'd both been feeling it for awhile so when he brought it up, I agreed. Matt stayed in the house with us until May 2016 when the divorce was finalized. AR and I stayed in our house and Matt moved about fifteen minutes away so it's nice that we're still pretty close location wise. My mom stayed with AR and I mid-May-mid-August which was a good transition for me and for AR.
As far as parenting plan goes, we trade every other weekend and Thursday nights plus she stays with her dad every Wednesday as well. I won't lie, it's been tough not being with my girl every night but I try to stay busy when she's not home. I've had an awesome support system of people who invite me on walks, let me come over and hang out, or go out dancing with. I definitely can't complain about that although I still have times that I sit at home and have a pity party every now and then but the good definitely outweigh the bad.
She played soccer this fall, Go Grapes! I went to all her practices even though they were on Wednesday nights. My philosophy is that I still attend practices/activities like I would have if we were still married. She did awesome and we made some really amazing friends! One of her teammates is having a Gingerbread House party in a couple weeks so AR is really excited to see everyone again.
Matt and I still struggle at times like we did when we were married. For both of us, we always try to put AR first and what's best for her. Matt and I may not be husband and wife anymore but we will always be her Mommy and Daddy so when she asked if Daddy could go trick or treating with us, the answer was of course yes.
It's been a long road to get to the point where we are now and it's going to continue to be until we get the hang of it. Even then, the only guarantee in life is that it's always going to change so we'll regroup and figure things out at that point again. And while we've had lots of changes in our world, AR seems to be handling it pretty well. I mean occasionally, she'll say something that breaks my heart and I think geez, she's really going to need therapy one day but take a look at that smile of hers? She's a pretty happy and blessed little girl. She's got a Mommy and Daddy that love her, some amazingly awesome friends, and a family that adores her. Our girl is strong willed and sassy and she doesn't hesitate to call us out when she needs to. Overall, we're still a family that's a work in progress.
Hey all! I'm back and I'm sure you've noticed a few changes to the blog. New layout, new pictures, oh and yeah, I got divorced. It's been a long year of eye opening experiences and changes but so far, everything has been for the better. Most days are pretty good but there are some days or stretches of times that I really struggle with all the change in my life. I promise I'll do a post on it sooner than later but feel free to ask any questions.
I'd been debating about whether or not to get back into blogging. Last Wednesday, Jenni from The Average Momma invited me to a viewing of the new Brad Pitt movie along with some other bloggers. I decided that night that I needed to get back into blogging. Not because of the free stuff, that's just an awesome bonus, but because that's where I started. When I moved to STL, I barely knew anyone and started up this blog. Some of my best friends, women that have seen me through marathons, fertility treatments, pregnancy, and even my divorce, have been women that I met through blogging. On the days that I don't have AR, I struggle the most with staying busy so hopefully going back to my blog roots will get me back to a better place so I can keep being the momma my girl needs me to be.
So I think this picture pretty much can summarize... WE'RE BACK!!!
Feel free to read back as I did so some posting while I was radio silent.
