An Epic Day Indeed.

    Something BIG happened at our house today.......Actually it was epic, awe-inspiring, fantastic, I would even go as far as to say it was downright miraculous!!
You ready for this?  The laundry in my house is done...DONE!!!  Not only is it all clean, it is all folded and put away-in the proper places!  This is a huge accomplishment-I can honestly say this may have only happened one or two times in my entire adult life!
   With 5 people in our house(3 being under the age of five)we generate a lot of dirty clothes.  It is a constant battle, trying to work the loads through, getting them all folded and put away, all while trying to accomplish other important things throughout the day.  Important things such as meals, cleaning, and of course, facebook and pinterest!  It's a pretty tall order to get all that done.  Most often there will be a basket of laundry waiting to be put in, sitting at the end of the hall, possibly one in the bathroom and always a random small pile in a bedroom or two.....well, not today!  The other familiar site is the ever-growing pile of clean clothes awaiting folding and proper distribution.  The Hubby is great at loading the washer and switching them over to the dryer, but then the cleans get piled in the corner for me to deal with, often getting infiltrated with 'not-so-cleans', which ends up making the entire pile needing to be washed again-such an evil cycle!
   I love clean clothes, especially right out of the dryer.  I don't even mind folding them-right out of the dryer.  But if they sit there and lose all that cozy, warm, fresh heat-I don't wanna.  Don't wanna fold them, don't wanna put em away, don't even wanna acknowledge their existence.  It's weird, I know.  But its the way I roll.
  Now putting them away is completely different.  I hate it, always have.  Trying to get everything to fit and in the proper place without too much wrinkling.....it's just not fun.
  A few weeks ago my Hubby decided to help me out.  -It was very sweet and thoughtful, and I in no way want to seem ungrateful. -Just need to say that now to preface this next part........
So, I am a control freak, I have come to realize this.  I fold things a certain way, and I like things to be done in a certain way.  My wonderful Hubs does things differently, it's not wrong, just not the way I would choose to do things.  No biggie, I can get over that....if I have to.  So, as I was saying...He folded a load or two and then , lovingly, put them all away for me.  It was fantastic seeing that pile of clean clothes disappear...........until the next morning that is.  Apparently he was having a little trouble getting Bug's skirts and shirts to all fit into one of her dresser drawers, so he just put them in the next drawer that had room, that happened to be Cub's drawer.  The following morning there was an all out brawl over why in the world there were skirts in HIS drawer.  And it just went on from there, 'Momma-why are my underwear in my bottom drawer, they belong in the top?', Momma-where are all my shirts?-why are they in HER drawer?', Momma-I think these undies are yours?'.  It was mildly disastrous, and quite out of control.  Apparently my kids are creatures of habit just like me, and having their clothes in different places just sent them into a tailspin.  Unfortunately I didn't realize the full extent of the situation, or that the kids had tried to rectify it on their own-making it worse.  In the end I had to completely empty all of their dresser drawers and redo the entire production.   But I was thankful for the extra help from Hubby, really I was. 
  Ahhhhh, but today, glorious day!  The only dirty laundry are the clothes we are current;y wearing-and a few dishrags that slipped past without notice-naughty little things!  I admit, I was actually tempted to strip the kiddos down and wash what they are wearing-kids like naked time right?!??  But then I realized I would have to do the same....which would be a little awkward.  So, here I sit, relishing in my accomplishment.  Fully aware that in a few short hours it will have passed.  There will be dirty work clothes to launder, a pile of discarded play clothes at bath time, and then the growing pile of towels...................

Oh look....a washer with nothing to do but sit there empty! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!!

Spring Fevers, Colds and Crafts.

The past few days have been cold, wet and snowy-and the kids have had colds, been whiney and snotty, such an appealing combination.  Everyone has been spending extra time in their jammies and wrapped up in various blankies.  To go along with their colds I've been dealing with a fever..spring fever I think.
   I needed to find some things to keep them occupied and give me a sense of accomplishment.  I've seen all sorts of crafts involving toilet paper rolls these days, but not so much kid crafts.  Seeing as we go through what seems like an unrealistic amount of toilet paper for a family of 5, we have lots of empty rolls around.  I will point out that there has been a large amount of nose blowing with the T.P. lately too, that might have something to do with the extra rolls!
  The first little project I decided on was a snake -what is it with kids' obsession with snakes anyway?  I took a couple rolls and cut them in a diagonal spiral, not really following the seam, that would make a really short and fat snake...I tried that first!  On one end of the spiral I did a little free-form snake head with a tongue(a little piece of ribbon would make a cute tongue too though).  I set up the munchkins at the table with markers-and a blank paper underneath- and let them color their custom snake friends!

Deciding on colors.

Even 'Tinkerbell' loves snakes!

 

The coloring actually kept them busy for quite a while, they wanted them to look just right!  Once their snakes were colored they had lost a little of their curliness.  To get it back I rolled them up and set them inside of a jar for a little while....they regained their twirl and the kids wore them like bracelets!  As they gradually stretched back out, they became little pets that ended up joining us at the table for lunch and dinner.....a little weird, but so are my kids!

Crafty supplies out and ready!

 Well we were on a 'roll' (hee hee hee), so I decided to try another T.P. roll craft.  This time we made bracelets on purpose.   So, first I cut a slit from one end to the other and then cut three equal-ish pieces from side to side.  Since I wanted these bracelets to hold their curve shape a little better than the snakes did I decided to not have the kids color directly onto the cardboard.  Instead I traced the shape onto colored paper of their choice and let them decorate to their little hearts' content.  It would have been fun to have stickers, but I haven't found my sticker stash yet.  Once they had their coloring done(and added words or pictures with the help of momma) I cut out the rectangle and glued it onto the piece of tube.  We could have stopped here and called it good....but I like to complicate things!  I also like to make things that will (hopefully) last longer than a day.  I am a BIG fan of super tape.  You know, the clear tape on the huge roll.  I have a habit of 'self-laminating' many projects.  It can get annoying if your tape strips move or stick to each other in the wrong way, but hey it's way cheaper than a trip to the copy center to get things laminated!

The 'tape sandwich'.

Trim the tape about 1/8 inch from the edge.

So,all that being said, it was tape time!  Taking a strip of tape a little longer than the bracelet, lay the tape sticky side up on the table and place the bracelet on top.  Taking another piece of tape gently stick it to one end of the bracelet and slide it up the inside-sticking it to sticky side of the first tape....basically a tape sandwich with cardboard in the middle.  Honestly, that's the hard part.  Then just trim the edges and grab your hole punch!  Punch a hole in each end and tie a small piece of yarn or ribbon through the hole.  Ta-Da!  Fun little bracelets, or maybe more like arm-cuffs, either way.  They are cute and the kids love that they made them........well, kinda.  ;-)  

Custom bracelet designed by the Cub.

So much style on little arms!

Pile of fun bracelets ready to share!

   Ok, one more little tid-bit of fun from the past few days at our house.  Yesterday morning the kids were feeling generally yucky and needed distraction.  Feeling a little less than inspired I wandered over to Pinterest to find some......not like I need an excuse to wander onto Pinterest!
   Well, the first thing I came across looked just about perfect.  A free'build your own cupcake' printable!  So perfect, on so many levels-first of all, it's free, and second, it has to do with baking-the obsession of my little people!  Yay!!  So after printing out these adorable things I spent the next hour cutting them out....takes a lot longer to do things when I always decide to make double!  So, as I mentioned before, I have a slight obsession with super tape.  Well, this project was no different.  I figured if I was going to spend all this time cutting these little cupcakes out, I didn't want them destroyed in a matter of minutes!  On, to the 'laminating'!

2 'Laminated' sheets ready for cutting!

In the same way as before I sandwich the cut-outs between strips of tape, once you get the hang of it, it goes pretty quickly.  Each set of printables has pieces to put together 8 complete cupcakes: 8 cakes, 8 papers, 10 frosting choices, and 10 decorations. So cute! I stumbled upon a fabulous discovery while putting these cupcake kits together-ready? It's big......super tape covered paper and a fine mist of plain old water on a window creates instant window clingies!!! Woo-HOoo!  My kids LOVE window clingies.  The only problem is that since they are gel like when they fall to the floor they pick up all sorts of nasty, and then they end up getting tossed.  Well, these little wonders easily stick with a single spray of plain old water, stay up for a long time, and when they do fall off, all you have to do is wipe them off!  I have to admit, I felt pretty amazing when I figured this out.  My littles played with their cupcakes on the window for a while and then on the table for a while longer.  It was fabulous and definitely worth the time it took to cut them out.  And best of all, they are safely put in a baggie for the next time they want to play!

Instant window clings!

Makin cupcakes!  :-)

  Here's the link again for the free printable: 'build-your-own-cupcake'