DIY Lego Tray

My oldest is OBSESSED with Legos! He has so many and they were all over his room (we told him they had to stay in his room because they were getting everywhere in our house) and all over his floor!

So for his 7th birthday I decided to get creative: I love going to Antique stores with my parents and they always have handmade "Lego Trays" but they are always over $20 at the very least. There had to be a cheaper, better way for me to get this gift of my son. So we went to our local Goodwill and luckily they had an array trays there! I found a breakfast-in-bed type of tray where there were legs that extended and it was clean-ish and functioning. Bonus was the price: $3!

So then we went to our local Walmart and bought 2 Lego base plates for about $8 each. Now if you are adding up the numbers, yes it was over the $20 I didn't want to spend at an Antique store but those trays didn't stand up like this one does so I was willing to pay a little more for it.

So after cleaning the tray with multi-surface Windex, I followed the directions to use Gorilla Glue for the Lego bases.

And then used Lego pieces to make sure the bases were together the right way because putting them side by side would have left it impossible to build in the middle where they meet. There was a very small amount of space in between needed to make it smooth and build-able. Then I placed 2 huge glasses on top and allowed it to dry for 24 hours! 

Now our son has a Lego Tray of his own that he can keep his current project on and free from the cats, his little brother and the evil vacuum that loves eating Legos. 

Happy Mommy-ing!

DIY Play Stove, Play Grill and Storage

While we were visiting family across country a few weeks ago, both my boys highly enjoyed playing in my mom's classroom - especially the play kitchen she had. The last year for both of their birthdays, my mom got them Melissa and Doug Wooden play food sets that they both love! One set even came with the box doubling as a grill top with Velcro strips on it so the food stays on it.

This is so cool that the box doubles but I had an issue with my youngest standing on top of the box since he had to play with it either on our couch or the floor. There had to be a better way where he could play with it and I didn't have to watch him to make sure he wasn't standing on it. Play kitchens are really cool but on the pricey side - enter Pinterest to the rescue! As per norm, there were a ton of ideas! Most of them were made out of nightstands or small dressers and that was a little bigger and more money than I was wanting. Then I came across this one and it seemed perfect! Link Here This lady used a normal, plastic 3 drawer storage cart that you can get just about anywhere, took vinyl cutouts and made it into a play stove! I don't have a vinyl machine, so I decided to use good old felt and hot glue!

I traced and cut out grey circle, then straight black strips and glued them together. Once they were dry, I glued them on top of the storage drawers like a stove-top. Done! My kids now have a place to put the play food they already had within the 3 drawers and a play stove on top. We took a trip to our local Dollar Tree and found some play food and cooking utensils to had to their collection. 

And a basket that I had another idea for but my kids like it more for their play food, I can always buy myself another one for what I was going to use this one for. 

Now to re-use that box that has a grill on it. I decided to just buy PVC pipe and elbow connectors to make a stand for the box to sit on. My husband actually helped me out with this project by cutting all the PVC piping for me and he made my vision come to life! It is perfect! I also decided not to glue the pipes together so when/if I need to break it down to store it, I can. It turned out great! And now my kids have 2 play kitchen sets for under $35! 

Happy Mommy-ing!

DIY Toddler Family Photo Album

We are going home a little over 30 days. I am going to be flying, by myself, with a 5 year old and a 2 year old... boy am I crazy! So in preparation for my journey home on at 6 hour plus, by myself with two young kids, I have been doing multiple posts on what I'm taking in my carry on (post coming later), and my "Busy Bag" items that I am doing for my kids. This idea came to me when I saw a Pin where a lady took a photo album and had alphabet letters like roads for her kids to trace with cars (link here). There's also tons of ideas on Pinterest making family photo albums that are kid-friendly [again link here].
Both of my sons have those Sassy books of "Who Loves Baby?". It's squishy, and you can put photos in but it only holds 7 pictures.

My mom made me a photo album of me with my grandparents and uncles when I was about five or six and I still have it to this day. I love it so I decided to make a version of it for my kids for on the airplane.
I found pictures on Facebook, Instagram and my phone of all are different family members from both sides of the family and even some pets, used my photo editor on my phone to put labels on it to say who the person was in the picture:

Uploaded them to Sam's Club to have a printed (cheapest thing $0.17 a picture):

I found a photo album for a dollar:

Filled it:

Added Scrapbook Paper to the front cover: 

Done! Plain and simple!
Now I can quiz my kids on who everybody is, especially our two-year-old. He kind of knows everybody but it takes him a little bit to get comfortable with everybody. He seemed to love it! And he learned a few new faces 😁

MORE Felt "Busy Bags"

So if you followed my previous post on felt busy bags (link here) you might have been asking, "I got 7 sheets of felt left...what do I do now?" I personally do not like having extra supplies of anything laying around, it makes me feel lazy and like I need to do something with them. 

1. Fish Game: My mom (like I said in the previous post) already did several busy bags for me. Had she not I would definitely do the fish game cut up fish with the felt, glue a paperclip in between, find magnet for rope and pencil - got yourself a pond with fish in it.

2. Build-able Racetrack: Another felt idea is to make roads that the kids can build. I had black felt and yellow felt so I took the black and cut up for curve pieces and several straight pieces so they can make a track Then I cut out tiny yellow pieces to put in the middle of the road pieces and hot glued them together (careful it's super hot and tricky because the yellow pieces are tiny!) I picked through the hundreds of Hot wheels my boys have for some flat race cars for them to race (plus the flatter the car, the easier they stay in the bag). And that bag is done!

3. Shape/Color Matching: I could not figure out what other projects I wanted to do. You can cut little pieces and have it make a picture but I thought that would be too many little pieces for the airplane and my youngest . I also wanted something both my 2 year old and my 5 year old could benefit from. So I decided to trace the same 5 shapes (triangle, rectangle, square, circle & star) on each leftover felt square. I cut them out and now I can teach both boys different things...For my youngest: same color & same shape. For my oldest: same as my youngest & same or different (put like a square and circle together and ask him are they the same color, are they the same shape, which one is bigger, which one is smaller, which one is taller, which one is shorter, etc= basic opposites). Both my boys enjoyed these felt pieces. They sorted them and stacked them. Perfect!

That project used up most of my extra felt! I kept the yellow so I could make more street pieces for that busy bag. So for under 15$ you have yourself 4 or 5 "Busy Bags" completed!

1. Felt Shapes

2. Felt Fishing Game

3. Felt Crazy Straw Beading

4. Felt Race Car Track

5. Felt Button Snake (I did not do this, below is the one my mom made me but I cut up more than enough felt for the Crazy Straws that I could have done this as well)

Happy Mommy-ing! 

To See The Mother Load of all the Busy Bags I have, Check out this post here

What's In My Purse?

This is my current purse: it is a Thirty One Retro Metro tote that I bought through Ebay. I love how spacious it is! On the outside you can see I have my hand sanitize from Bath and Body Works in Stress Relief (being a mom I need clean hands and a clear head) and my Peter Pan Pin.

Inside I have a purse organizer that I saw on Pinterest and just had to have! It holds everything I need! I will admit that it doesn't work as well as I envisioned it would but for now it works okay.

Here is the insert out of my bag. As you can see it has a large middle pocket, 2 zipper pockets and mesh pockets on the sides. 

On this side I have (from left to right) my tissue, my breath mints, my Victoria Secret Bombshell roll on perfume, Bath and Body Works Georgia Peach travel body lotion, Baby Lips in Peach tinted lip balm and orange tic-tacs.

On the flip side I have only my store loyal cards on a key ring (Pin from Pinterest!) and my Belle notepad.

From the middle I have my pill case that houses 6 different medicines I might need when I'm out and about (pepto bismol tablets for both me and my kids, Aleve, off brand of Sudafed, Dramamine, Imodium and Allergy medicine) my Dave's Ramsey Financial Peace Envelope system (I have my grocery money, money for diapers and wipes, money for going out as a family and money to spend when family is visiting)  and my Perfect Cents Wallet from Thirty One. 

Inside my Perfect Cent Wallet I have a pen, my gift cards, bank cards, zoo membership card, and a few loyal cards that I use often. It has 4 pockets I can put money and I often separate my money on the left: top has my money to spend freely and underneath it goes the money I use for gas. On the right hand side has pictures of my family. 

These are the contents of my "Just in Case" bag. I have two compact mirrors (not sure why I have two but I do and the Peter Pan one doesn't stay in this bag, it lives in one of the side pockets on the outside of my purse), sunscreen, a Peter Pan Power Bank with cord, Tide 2 Go Pen, a mini lighter, 3 extra lip care items (2 are lipstick and one is chap-stick but not the shimmery one I have in my purse, in case I don't want the color or my husband needs some), a tiny tube of tinted moisturizer, a tiny tube of fountain, a travel sized mascara in black and a small thing of cream blush that I can use as eye shadow as well, travel sized finger nail clippers, extra hair ties and bobby pins and a small safety pin (which yes I actually have used this a few times when I needed to keep my dress from showing too much in the front 😉). 

This is one of the zipper pockets and it just has my headphones wrapped around a clip and a small USB charger that I can use to charge my phone (with that small cable from the "Just In Case" bag), I can charge my power bank or charge my Ipod (that cable is in the car unless I'm not driving then I take it with me). 

This Retired Metro Retro Tote has the key holder on the inside. My car is key-less and we always go in through the garage so I don't need to have my keys out and ready but having them on this hook makes sure they don't fall into the purse and get lost)

Hiding way in there is my Ipod and normally my phone in the outer pocket closest to me. 

I like that this Metro Retro Tote has a tag thing on the outside, I hook my sunglasses to it when they are not on my head. That way they don't get lost or broken!

And that's what I have in my purse with me at all times! You never know what you will need or when so I have always thought it best to be prepared for anything!