Wilton Halloween Crafts Part 1 ~ Candy Necklace Kits

Wilton has many easy to create craft kits for you to make with your children.  From candy necklaces to gingerbread houses to cookie pops.  I do attempt to make a lot of things from scratch, but sometimes having a kit comes in handy.  Besides, sometimes purchasing the kits makes it cheaper than trying to create them yourself.

If you are looking for a quick and easy project to do with your children, Wilton offers a wide selection of Candy Necklace Kits.  They have themes for just about every holiday, as well as many Disney characters.  I wrote about how we create these (and some quick tips for making them easy to make for little ones) in my post Wilton Easter Candy Necklaces and Crafts with the Girls. I am sharing this today because I found several kits on clearance at our local Michael's store for $1.99!  You can also purchase them at Wal-Mart for $3.24.  Joann Fabrics has them at regular price for $3.99, but you can always find a 40% off coupon online, which make them just $2.39.

A Virtual Tea Party for Rapunzel ~ Projects and Treats

Some of my friends and I have come together to celebrate Rapunzel's induction as a princess.  If you are looking for a way to celebrate her big day, head over to my friend Jackie's site, Delightfully Disney.  She is the host and has a list of everyone who is participating.  We each chose a princess and shared a project to represent that princess.

To join in the fun, start over at 

Delightfully Disney

with Ariel's Seashell Centerpiece

More Retired Disney Cricut Cartridges

In August, Cricut has retired two more Disney cartridges.  I did a quick search on eBay and both still have plenty of availability, though if you want to make sure you have them before they disappear, or before the prices for them skyrocket, you may want to consider purchasing them soon.

The first is Disney's Dreams Come True cartridge.  This includes images and sayings from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin/Jasmine and Pocahontas.  I wrote a review of it back in January in my post Cricut Cartridge Review ~ Disney Dreams Come True.

Feelin' Fab Friday Blog Hop

I was so excited to see this blog hop being hosted by Lynn at My Pixie Dust Diary because I am about to burst with the great thing that has happened at our house this week!

Today is the end of one of the best weeks in a long time. Of course, I am speaking in terms of a medical issue we have been dealing with with my daughter for almost three years.  I will spare you all the details, but let's just say on a trip to Walt Disney World back in 2008, my daughter was so scared of how loud the toilets were in one of the bathrooms, that she refused to go to the bathroom and physically stopped going.  What began as a behavioral issue soon turned into a physical one. 

After almost three years of struggling with this, and plenty of "advice" from just about every person we know, something has clicked with Hayley and this week, she has conquered the physical issue and behavioral issue all in one.  It couldn't have come at a better time because at her 5 year check up, just a week ago and a half ago, I broke down crying telling our pediatrician how frustrated I was and how Hayley's behavior was getting worse (she would have flair ups and the tantrums were out of control - the only way to describe them was to say it was like she was possessed).  There were days I really felt like my little girl wasn't in there anymore. 

Before all this started she was a happy go lucky kid.  At the age of two she could put a show on that would make you smile for days.  Once this nightmare began she slowly started losing that.  We have been one week of things "working" correctly and that little sparkle in her eye has returned after so many years of missing it.  I don't know what was different about how we treated this over the last week, but I am thankful something has worked.

"Feelin' Fab" cannot even begin to describe how I am feeling right now, but let's just say, after three years of stress, this is quite a weight lifted from my shoulders.  I can hardly put into words how great it is to have my sparkly-eyed little girl back!


Just a note, my daughter was diagnosed with encopresis, which occurs in only 1-2% of all children with less than 20% being girls.  If you have a child who has struggled with this, feel free to leave me a comment.  At this point, I feel like I am the only person who has gone through this and most people haven't believed me over the years that Hayley could not control what was happening.

Things I've Been Meaning to Do Blog Hop

Well isn't it fitting that I head over to Jenn at Disney Babies Blog and see she joined the Things I Have Been Meaning To Do Blog Hop.  Then, I see that Diane over at Can Do It Mom also joined in the fun.  The reason I say that is that today is the day that I am getting my life back to at least a little bit about me.  Here are the things I have been meaning to do and am putting systems in place today to get started:

1. Run:  I love to run, I really do.  Before kids, I would run 5 miles a day at least 5 days a week.  I loved it!  It was a stretch of quiet time that I could turn on my favorite music and just go.  Today, I am starting to get back into a routine of running.  Since now that I have three kids, I probably won't have time to run 5 miles 5 times a week, but I definitely will be running.

2. Scrapbooking: One of the things I really enjoy doing in my spare time is scrapbooking our family's life moments, particularly our Disney trips.  I am so far behind that I am embarrassed to say that I am still working on our 2006 trip scrapbook, even though we have been in 2008, 2010 and about to go this fall.  I am so far behind.  I just haven't taken the time to work on them but I am going to try to get back to my New Year's Resolution of one 2-page scrapbook layout per week.  As of today, that resolution has been an epic fail, though I plan to change that. (You can see what little I have accomplished on that goal at Scrapbook Layouts Resolution.)

3. Family: Whenever my husband has time off, we usually spend it working on things around the house.  With my grandmother passing away this past week, I realize that I need to make more time to do things with family.  The things around the house aren't necessities, and we can certainly take more time to make sure we get together with aunts, uncles, cousins and anyone else in the family tree.  I have always said I want to have a family dinner/potluck once a month.  I plan on starting that in September.

4. Photo Montages: I love creating photo montages for the family of all our different events throughout the year.  Normally I create one "yearbook" type montage for the grandparents.  I have fallen significantly behind on those too.  The last one I created was 2008.  Seriously, I need to get it together.  The kids love watching them and I love making them.  I just need to make sure I take the time to do it.  (You can find my 2008 montage on my You Tube Channel - 2008 ~ A Year in Pictures.)

5. Trying new recipes: When it comes to cooking, I love trying new recipes. I get bored very easily, which I have with cooking lately, since I haven't tried a new recipe in months.  I already bought the ingredients today to create a new dessert.  For the first time in a while, I am excited to cook!

6. My Cricut: Now I should say that I think the Cricut is one of the greatest creations ever.  Really!  I have used this for cards, scrapbooking, wall hangings and labelling.  I purchased all the materials to work on a glass etching project using the Cricut I saw on You Tube 6 months ago.  All the materials are still sitting in the same spot as they were when I brought them home.  I really need to test this out because it could potentially make some great holiday gifts! (You can check out some of my Cricut creations on my tab Creations of a Cricut Rookie)

Well, there is my list.  The great thing is that even though I haven't taken the time to do any of these things I love, I have certainly been busy playing with my kids and enjoying every moment I have with them.  But even though I love Candyland, Chutes and Ladders and all that, I have reached that point that I need to start doing a few things for myself here and there.  Seeing that this blog hop will be the first Monday of each month, I am hoping all these items will be checked of my list because I am sure there is long list of things waiting behind them!  Which brings me to my final and most recent revelation - to do lists are created to complete things, but in my experience as a mom, my to do lists just get longer, never shorter, even though I am constantly crossing things off them.

Celebrating a Birthday and Remembering My Grammie

Today is a very exciting and sad day all in one.  It is hard to believe that my "little" Hayley is turning five.  It seems like just yesterday, I was bringing her home from the hospital in the take home outfit I wore home from the hospital!  While we celebrate, we are also sad to say good-bye to my grandmother.  She passed away yesterday afternoon.  I knew this day was coming because we were told she wouldn't recover from the pneumonia, but it is still hard.  I thought I would share a few of my favorite pictures I have of her.

My brother, my grandmother and I at Storybook Forest
This was taken some time in the 80s