Like A Kid In A Craft Store...

This morning Towns woke up with one thing on her mind...Hobby Lobby. If you know her, you know that craft stores rank up there with Disney World, birthdays, and everything else she holds near and dear to her heart. The other day she, Cate and I were playing a game where if we could pick one place in the world to go, where would it be. Her pick? Hobby Lobby. And for some reason she felt that today was the day we needed to "stop in and see if they have any Christmas decorations or crafts out yet". To see the excitement in her sweet little face as she was talking about it was the very reason I agreed that we'd waited long enough to start getting in the Christmas spirit. :)

Turns out that she was dead on...the aisles were filled with Christmas crafts and decorations! And as we went up and down and every last one of them, she'd find something that would make her squeal so loud I had to ask her several times to take it down a few notches. She oohed and aahed over all of it. After today, J and I have come to the conclusion that she couldn't be any more like me and Cate couldn't be any more like him. It's wild! We settled on a few Christmas ornament projects, glitter, fun colors of paint and new brushes. I mean, she's so into this that I'm thinking that a subscription to the Martha Stewart mag should be the first thing she gets for her next birthday. {I've asked for it for myself for the last couple of years, but no one ever thinks I'm serious.} If you need more evidence of her love for all things crafty, here's proof. The other day at Target, the girls wanted to go off with Bethany by themselves and when I found them this was what Towns had in hand and was dead set on getting...

Not a toy. No new outfit. But a craft magazine?!
Do you see that pine cone tree? We're all over that. Oh, and the best part about the magazine is the holiday owl garland. Towns and I decided that it's the cutest thing we've ever seen and is #1 on our list.

Before we ventured out to Hobby Lobby we spotted something pretty neat...

A perfectly in tact bird nest that had fallen from the tree in our front yard!
Cate couldn't figure out why there were no eggs in it...

It didn't take long to divert their attention back to crafting, so they safely put the nest away and hopped in the car. We stayed in Hobby Lobby for at least an hour and a half before we finally made it back home for a little of this...

The girls declared the egg carton/paint pallet trick the coolest thing they'd seen in their entire lives...


Towns with her pumpkin...

I gave them plenty of time to create what they wanted to, but I couldn't resist having them make this little treat me...

Next they painted wooden Christmas tree picture frame ornaments...

Nothing says Christmas like a little glitter and glue!

We eventually ran out of things to paint, so we resorted to painting kitty faces...


Raise your hand if you never ever want to grow up and will stay little forever just to keep your Mommy happy...

You know how to make a mama proud! :)

A few weeks ago I was talking to my mom about my grandmother selling her house and downsizing. My first question was where her front porch swing would go if that happened. It didn't take long for her to figure out where I was going with that, and a week later it had a new home. It's the swing I fell asleep on every night of my childhood. I'd get my pillow, blanket, and my Pop and he'd swing me to sleep. It brings back such sweet memories, and I'm both shocked and grateful that my mother's sisters haven't swiped it from my house yet. It's probably because they don't know it's here. Those women have sticky fingers when it comes to pictures and keepsakes of my grandparents. It's a bit of a running joke that started with my aunt Melissa stealing a picture from my mom's house of my Granny and Pop from when they were "courting". In the picture they're sitting in front of my old elementary school - where my mom and aunts went to school and where my grandparents first met. Ever since then, we know to put those valuables away when we have family gatherings. Obviously my mother forgot that rule of thumb when we were there back in July. I'm really enjoying lots of old pictures she hasn't figured out are missing from her house.
The girls on the infamous swing that's soon going to be sanded and painted black...


We painted, glittered, glued, and swung our hearts out until the only thing left to do was this...

What are we going to do with ourselves when everyone is back in school and we can't do this all day, every day?! We're soaking up the last few days we have left!