House of Estrogen

Holidays are in da House!

We are in full-on holiday mode here. The kids are out of school for the month, report cards have come home, and we are DONE.WITH.HOMEWORK for the year. Done. Having the month of December off of school has to be one of the greatest perks of year-round school. We can enjoy holiday parties, weeknight shopping, and Christmas TV specials without homework and school bedtimes interfering. Being done with school also means that we have a month of not having to face the school bus driver at the end of the day to hear her report about our little kindergarten school bus bully. <Sigh> Apparently one of Addison's quotes on the last day of school was, "I'm going to kick the poo out of your vagina." Nice. If she doesn't get kicked off the bus before the end of the school year, it is going to be a miracle. Yes, a month off of school is something we all desperately needed.

Back to holiday mode... our trees are up.

The stockings are hung, and the folk art Santas are chilling on the mantle.

We have finished up the school holiday parties,

made Christmas trees at holiday camp,

and attended the holiday mini-build at the LEGO store.

Elise has performed in her holiday band concert. (As a side note, you can see her braces are in the holiday spirit as well with red and green rubber bands.)

Addison has done rounds at a rehab center with her Daisy troop, singing songs, and doling out homemade ornaments. When I asked her how it went, she said, "Two people didn't have any legs, and one person was missing all their fingers."  I'm just picturing this entire troop of girls staring at injuries, completely forgetting to sing. I hope they didn't traumatize any of the patients too much. (For any of you fashionistas taking note... yes, she is wearing Oilily with cowboy boots. That's how she rolls.)

I have purchased mint chips and red and green m&m's under the guise of baking. We'll see if any baking actually occurs. Buying supplies is the first step though, right?

I haven't put up any outdoor lights yet, but I'm contemplating skipping them this year. If I consciously make the decision to forgo outdoor lighting, then I can say that job is done. I'm kind of liking that plan.

All in all, the holiday spirit has definitely taken over here at the House of Estrogen. Holidays are IN DA HOUSE!

Valentine's Day by Pinterest

How did people ever survive the holidays before Pinterest? How did they come up with cute, fun, simple crafts for kids, and yummy, beautiful, clever baked goods?  I suppose Family Fun and Good Housekeeping magazines contained a few ideas, and some people are just naturally creative, but really... the holidays before Pinterest? It was much more difficult to be all cutesy and clever "back then."  Of course, the flip side is that without all the cool ideas on Pinterest, I'd probably just go out and buy the super-easy drug store Valentines and a box of pink Lofthouse cookies and call it done... no baking, no cutting, no printing, no gluing. Hmmm... perhaps Pinterest has actually made my life more difficult... hard to say for sure. Regardless, we had a very Pinterest-inspired Valentine's Day this year.

1. Elise's iPhone Valentines, template courtesy Living Locurto

2. My three Valentines

3. Nina's heart braid, instructions courtesy Not So Average Mama

4. Reeses peanut butter cookies, recipe from i heart nap time

5. Nina's "You Rock" Pop Rocks Valentines, template from Living Locurto

Happy Balentine's Day!

I think my favorite part of today was listening to Addie wish everyone a Happy Balentine's Day, talk about her Balentine's Day party at school, and to see how excited she was about all the Balentines she received. I doubt next year will be Balentine's Day, so I'm enjoying it while I can.

The last two years, we have put a lot of time and effort into the girls' Valentines for school. Two years ago, we did the iPod Valentines. Last year, we upped the ante with the iPhone Valentines. This year, I had no time or energy for anything complicated. I needed cheap, easy, and quick. Hello Pinterest! I found these great glow stick valentines on the Teacher Wife Blog complete with a free printable. Bingo!  Glow bracelets are 15 for a dollar in Target's Dollar Spot. For six bucks, I got enough for all three kids classes. 

 

I hope Addison's friends enjoyed their Balentines from Abbison and Appison!

For the first time ever, I decided to attempt heart hairdos. I have always admired these but never actually attempted them.

Elise's hair is short enough that there weren't a lot of options. I went with this little side heart. I think it has potential, but I definitely need more practice. She liked it, but apparently she took it out on the bus on the way to school when Nina told her it looked ugly. Gotta love little sisters.

For Addie, I went with the braided heart. It turned out OK, but her hair wasn't quite long enough to really do it properly.

Nina's hair is the longest, and I think hers definitely turned out the best. Fun, huh?

I hope all of you had a wonderful Balentine's Day!

I Just Called to Say I Love You

Elise's teacher from last year stopped her in the hall recently and asked, "So Elise, how are you going to top the iPod Valentines from last year?"  The answer is obvious, right? What's better than an iPod? An iPhone, of course!

 

Aren't these fun? I'd love to take credit as the creative mind behind these, but I can only claim the printing, cutting, taping, and gluing. Amy over at Living Locurto designed these bad boys and provided a free printable! (Click on that link to check out her pictures... they are so much better than mine. I had the wrong lens on my camera for this sort of picture.)

 

Anyway, when I saw these on her website, I thought to myself, "I don't have enough going on right now between work and Girl Scout cookie sales, I still have all that free time between midnight to 2 a.m. We definitely need to make homemade Valentines this year."  That, my friends, is how I found myself with a paper cutter and a stack of candy hearts in front of the TV at midnight the night before Valentine's Day. Awesome.

 

I was pretty sure iPods wouldn't have the same wow factor with the preschool set that they did at the elementary school. I needed to do something different for Addison, so I took this picture just before the sun went down on Feb. 13,

 

added some text, printed a bunch, and stuck lollipops through them. Voila - Valentines! Cute, eh?

 

No, those weren't my idea either... just another inspiration taken from the Internet. I love that my Google skills can make me look like one of those creative, crafty moms. I mean who comes up with that - sticking the lollipop right through the hand in the photograph? So simple, yet so fun!

I hope all of you had a nice Valentine's Day and got a little more sleep than I did!