My big secret

Recently I was asked by a family friend that is a photographer to model for a shoot she wanted to try. Well it was a great day for me I rarely get mommy time so to have a couple hours baby free and have someone else do my hair and make up made me feel  great.  I never get pictures done of myself.  Last year for mothers day I had a photo shoot that was a mothers day package where they did a before picture and a after picture, which I loved that shoot too, as they had a hair stylist and makeup artist there on hand. After becoming a mom I stopped doing my hair and makeup all the time and got use to comfy clothes sweats and t-shirts a lot.  Being a mom I put Eloise and cleaning  first before caring what I look like. After my shoot last year I realized yes my body did change but I still have a rocking body just with some tiger stripes added and size changes hips got wider, butt got smaller but myself esteem wasn't as high as it was while I was expecting or before becoming a mommy. After last years shoot I got a lot more confidence in my looks so when Mary asked if I would do a shoot I was nervous but willing to try anything and a baby free couple hours where attention is all on me for once was nice. I personally think every mom should  have a photo shoot done to boost confidence.

     Well on Saturday April 19, my day of the shoot it was fun and I've never actually had to pose ,its so different compared to growing up getting family  pictures done as your always getting told to look this way and smile but modeling you don't smile really as it creates wrinkles and closed eyes it was a challenge as I was excited and happy we did some indoors and some out doors, it was kinda chilly but in the pics you can't tell. After I got home Mary worked on some of my pics and had asked me if she could send them to an online magazine

    I was very flattered that she thought I might get into the magazine, but Honestly I didn't think they would take my pics .I`m a mom and by far no model, well within an hour the editor messaged her back wanting to see all my pics, I was so excited when I got the news that she was interested in my pictures it really has given me a lot more confidence just knowing someone in that field liked my photos and was interested in them I personally only got to see the two pics she sent to the editor but could not post till now.

   Here is my exciting news they decided to use my photos in  Exposure magazine online. I am so happy and proud of myself I never thought Id be in a magazine ever for a photo shoot let alone single pictures of me in one being a cheer leader that travels with my team I knew sometimes team pictures are place in cheer magazines but never thought a single photo of me would be used.  I am so happy to get to share this with you all, so here is 2 of my  my pics and a link to the magazine. my pictures are numbers 61-65 when you get to the site click on the picture of the cover of Erin that's my link and scroll through. thanks for taking the time to read and look through.

here is the link  : on the cover is the  beautiful Erin (Mary's Daughter)

Xposure Magazine...With closed eyes (Version#2):...

www.xposuremagazine.in

DIY The Little Mermaid party Invitations

With Eloise's  2 birthday party coming up I had a great idea to do the little mermaid theme. Since Eloise is  obsessed with the little mermaid movie.Eloise is a swimmer and with us going swimming weekly it was the perfect theme choice for her. I am one of those mommy's that loves do it yourself things and big party's so that being said  here are my invitations step by step on how to make them.

I tried to make a Little Mermaid with the CRICUT but it just wouldn't cut out the hair so I went to plan B. I used Google Images and found an image I liked.I printed Glossy pics at Walmart. I then went home and used my Big Shot to cut the image in an oval to put on the front of the invite.

I then cut a larger oval in purple and a strip of metallic paper to create a sleeve to wrap around the invite.

 then I used the Cricut to cut a scalloped circle to create the card holder.I added bling to each scallop because every girl loves their bling!!!! I scored and folded the sides.

I printed the invite using Printmaster.

 cut it out and mounted it on cardstock, punched a hole and added ribbon. ........ put it all together and here is the final result!!!

rosemary roasted chicken and potatoes

What you will need:




2 Tablespoons paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons rosemary leaves crushed

1 teaspoon dehydrated minced garlic 

1/2 teaspoon coarse grind black pepper

 2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon sage

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken

1 1/2 lb small red potatoes 


directions:

1)wash and cut into cubes potatoes and chicken

2)mix oil and all spices in a large bowl

3)when all mixed add in chicken and potatoes toss to coat well.

4) place chicken and potatoes in pan in a single layer if able

5)roast in oven at 425 f (220 c) for 30 minutes

6)turn  potatoes and chicken occasionally 

7)take out let cool

8) serve and enjoy

Toddler activity Bath time fun

Bath time is a huge deal in our house every night Eloise has a bath in her nightly routine. we love to make it fun and exciting too. since Eloise was a week old she has loved her bath and enjoys being in the water. we have bought many different bath toys we have had books, rubber ducks , many little animals a whale that light up and squirted water.Eloise also loves the bath tub paints or crayons  but Eloise favorite thing so far have been party baths.

Whats a party bath? well a party bath is a bath that you can do in themes with balloons glow sticks different toys or decorations depending on theme you want. our basic party bath we use 3 balloons. Eloise's choice in colour , bubble bath, and toys some days I use her balls from her ball tent. we also love to do night time party baths that you add glow sticks to the bath too you can also use candle light for this. when we do glow party baths Eloise ends up staying in so long that i have to drain and re run the water most times as it cools down.

another bath activity we love to do in the bath is theme baths so some days ill dig out all her little people zoo animals to bath with so that she can pretend to be a zoo keeper and we pretend to feed them we also name the animals and help her to learn the names and sounds they make or we do farm theme with farm animals or circus animals is another one we love to do. we also try to teach colors and big and small while having these theme baths. you can also drop animals into the tub and have your child find an animal when you ask them for it which also makes it fun to learn while in the bath and they don't even realize they are learning.


   For Easter we did a a glow in the dark egg hunt so after the hunt. I  decided to use the eggs and the glow sticks to make it a Easter theme glow bubble bath which she loved. to go with our Easter theme. for other holidays you can use many different things for St Patrick's day we used fake ice cubes shaped as shamrocks with green glow stick.

Easter egg glow bath with the light one

glow stick and Easter egg bubble bath

Glow in The dark Easter Egg Hunt

      I love Easter its one of my favorite holidays there is so many activity's you can do with kids at Easter.  I remember as a child one of my favorite activity's was the egg hunt through the house and if it was nice we had one in the back yard too. Well this year I decided to do a glow in the dark one during Easter weekend for Eloise and my nephew Brayden we still are doing a indoor one on  Easter morning. This is a fun evening activity for before bed  to get them pumped for the Easter bunny visit and the day time egg hunt. Eloise loves glow sticks so I thought  why not included them for Easter fun as we use glow sticks at least twice a month.

What you will need:

 


 20 plastic eggs                                                                               

 20 glow sticks


1 package chocolate eggs or fruit snacks 


if not wanting to use chocolate you can use toys, hair accessories, stickers  


1 basket to carry eggs









Instructions: 

1) open package of glow sticks and crack each one

2)place one glow stick and one chocolate egg in each egg 

3)if not using chocolate place stickers toys or hair accessories in the eggs with a glow stick

4)after eggs are full place in a basket to make it easy to carry around

5) hide eggs throughout house  or yard if doing it outside

6) after they are all hidden let child back into house or out into yard

7)let them search for the eggs 

8)you can have your child yell something every time they find one or tell you where they found them to make it even more fun for them

9) another thing you can do is have your child say colour of egg they found and the colour f glow-stick in it or the design on the egg

10) have fun and enjoy the excitement 

Sensory Easter Eggs

  This is a fun sensory exploration  activity for toddlers. I made these eggs for a Easter discovery basket for Eloise to play with as one of her many  Easter activity's . I also made a second set for work. this keeps her occupied so that I can get stuff done around the house but it also is a great learning and discovery activity that includes sensory to help increase speech and language skills this also can be used in a therapy setting.

        Different ways to use these eggs is hide them around the house and as your child finds one have them describe the egg to you make sure to correct your child's  speech sounds for accurate pronunciation. If your child is not speaking you can explain how the eggs looks and feels and  make sure to repeat the same words each time when describing  that egg it will help expand on your child words.

 If your using them for therapy hide the eggs and  have the child explain where they found the egg to work on  prepositions is another way to use these eggs. Another way to use these eggs is have your child hide the eggs and you find them Eloise loved hiding them and cheering when I found one. we also used them to help her follow directions I had asked her to put each one I described into the basket or beside the basket for precipitation others were on under basket

   You can also take a picture of the eggs and print them out and have child match egg to the picture if your child speaks you could place eggs in a bag have them feel the egg in the bag and tell you by showing you the picture of what egg they think it is.

What you will need to make these sensory eggs:

plastic Easter eggs 
glue
buttons
pipe cleaners
sequins
pom poms
jewels
feathers
yarn
rice / macaroni noodles tablespoon  of each
 
Instructions:

1)  if wanted to you can put noodles or rice in to make the eggs noisey

2) glue eggs shut

3) cover one egg in glue and place buttons to cover the egg

4) cover another egg in glue and place sequins to cover the egg

5) cover a egg in glue and place pom poms all over to cover egg

6)cover egg in glue and cover with feathers 

7) next nicely place glue on one side of pipe cleaner and wrap around the egg

8)nicely cover a egg  in glue then nicely glue yarn by wrapping around the egg

9) add a table spoon of rice to one of the eggs or in its own egg glue shut

10) add a table spoon of macaroni noodle to a egg or its own egg and glue shut

Sensory Easter Egg Dying

    We all know Easter is this coming Sunday and with that being said I had to dye some eggs as my yearly tradition but this year I wanted Eloise to join me in this activity. So I searched the web and found this awesome idea to dye eggs with shaving cream. I knew Eloise loves to play with shaving cream so what better way to dye eggs with her then to use it.  its a fun activity to do with toddlers or older kids. here is how and some pics of us doing our mommy and daughter Easter egg dying. you can use whip cream so that its edible for younger kids if they like to mouth things.







What you will need:

eggs 

shaving cream

food colouring

a disposable baking sheet

toothpicks or bamboo skewers









Instructions:

1)hard boil your eggs and let cool or poke hole in top of egg and a bit bigger in bottom with a tack then blow through the hole on top to drain egg from shell if done properly you can cook with your eggs a meal after 



2)spread shaving cream in the baking sheet

3)apply drops of food colouring around the shaving cream

4)use skewers or tooth picks to swirl around the colours



5)roll the died, cooled eggs in the colourful cream

6)allow to set for 15 minutes on a paper plate or paper towel

7)wipe off shaving cream with paper towel

8)rinse eggs with water

9) if you want  you can decorate the eggs with stickers to make it even funner for toddlers

10) display your eggs

Easter rocky road brownies

what you will need:



1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

1 cup chocolate chips (toll house coloured chips)

1/2 cup  chopped walnuts


1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup (Hershey's) cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 pkg peeps




Directions:

1) heat oven to 350 f . grease 9 inch baking pan

2)stir together mini marshmallows, chocolate chips and walnuts then set aside

3)place butter in a microwave safe bowl and melt

4)add vanilla , sugar and eggs stir until well blended 

5) add flour cocoa,baking powder and salt. stir well

6)spread batter in pan

7)bake for 22 minutes

8)take out and place peeps where desired 

9)sprinkle topping mixture over top 

10)then bake another 8 minutes


11)or until marshmallows have softened and puffed slightly and chocolate chips melted

12)cool completely. then cut into squares 

13) serve and enjoy

    
 ( pic above was taken after a few pieces were taken out when it wasn't fully cooled )