How-To: "So Lucky" to have little hands in our home :)

Here's a fun St. Patty's day decoration to make with your kids! If your kids are old enough, they can even assemble them on their own. :)

Start with these supplies:

• Scissors
• green paper
• glue & glitter, glitter glue, or paint
• ribbon
• scrap piece of thin wood or dense cardboard (Optional - not in the picture below)
• tape (not in the picture below)
• marker (not in the picture below)
• metal brad
• and WIPES!! haha.. unless your kids are old enough to control their little sticky hands ;)

Start by cutting out 4 hearts big enough for your child's hand (or foot for really small babies) to fit on. Use the glue to make a handprint on each heart.

Then, sprinkle with glitter and let them dry.

Once they're dry, use a brad to connect them all at the points, and fan them out to make a shamrock.

Tape ribbon streamers to the back to make the stem, and tape a loop to the back on the top to hang it from.

You could always leave it at that, but since I have 2 little ones, I decided to make a sign the hang them both from. Using your scrap wood or cardboard and a marker, write something on the sign - mine said "So Lucky".

Then, tape the shamrock hanger to the back of the sign. *Why tape? This allows you to easily remove it and put it in a baby book or some other special place - I love little handprints. :)* Add a ribbon to hang the sign by, and you're done!

De-germing your kids' plastic toys

After a nasty stomach bug hit our whole family, I decided it was time to do some major cleaning in the toy room. As much as I hate Lysol smell, it became my best friend for all of Sadie's giant toys. As for the smaller, battery-free toys, here's an easy way to clean and sterilize them: load them in your dishwasher!!

Throw all the tiny toys (play silverware, mega blocks, shapes from a shape sorter, etc) into a laundry bag and toss it in. :) Just make sure the bag is out of the way of the dishwasher blade.

For toys big enough to not fall through the rack, but lightweight enough to still get blown around, pile them in the top rack, then flip your dish drainer on top of them. This will keep them in place while still letting water through.

Happy cleaning!

Handprint Pillows :)

I was looking for a fun way to keep Sadie's handprints on display at the house. :) This is what I came up with!

Cost: $10-15
Time: less than an hour
*Iron and Sewing Machine Required

You'll need:

• 2 different fabrics (one for the body of the pillow, one for the handprints)
• Heat 'n Bond (large roll - not the tape)
• scissors
• thread
• polyfil or batting

Start by tracing your little one's hands. Cut out their handprints and set them aside. Cut 2 pieces of fabric the same size to be the body of your pillow. The size of your pillow will depend on the size of your child's hands. Iron a piece of Heat 'n Bond to your handprint fabric - the piece should be just large enough to fit both handprints on. While the paper backing is still on, turn the handprint cutouts upside down and trace them onto the Heat 'n Bond paper backing. Cut them out. Remove the paper backing and iron them onto the pillow body fabric. Lay the pillow fabric pieces directly on top of one another, with the handprinted layer on top face down. Sew 3 sides to form a pillowcase. Flip the pillowcase rightside out, and stuff will polyfil or batting. Fold the egdes of the open end inward and sew across the edge. :) Ta-da!