Hand Wall

    A few months ago my mom came to visit us. She brought me a box full of pictures from my childhood, and in that box she had placed a round piece of plaster.  On that plaster was my hand print from preschool.  We had made them as Christmas ornaments for our parents.  It is a vivid memory for me, and I always loved being able to hang it on our tree.
    It was always a very heavy ornament, and now that my mom's floors are brick she was worried it might fall of their tree and break so she brought it to me.  As soon as I was holding that piece of plaster, I immediately thought of the hand print Bubs made for me last year at preschool for a Mother's Day gift.  I also thought of the hand print Ferocious had made at the same age.  I asked the hubby if he had made a hand print when he was little.  He said he had and called his mom to ask if she might be willing to part ways with his hand print.  She said yes.  I now had four hand prints.  One from each person in our family.  All of which had been imprinted between the ages of 4 and 6.  When I saw that my husband's hand print was square, I knew I needed something to even up the fact that the other three were round. Well it just so happens that our dog, Woody Bear, is 4 years old.  I got some plaster and cast his adorable paw print.
    I got 5 plate hangers from Hobby Lobby at $1.99 each.  These are hanging in between two windows in the corner of my breakfast nook.  They look adorable and add personal character to our kitchen.  From top to bottom in photo 1: Mine (1988), Bubs (2012), Hubby (1988), Ferocious (2013), and Woody Bear (2013).

Mayfield Park-Austin, Texas

The weather in South Central, Texas has been just lovely all spring break.  So the girls and I ventured outside of our little town today, and headed up the road to Austin. Austin is an awesome city with amazing hidden treasures.  We went to Mayfield Park and Nature Preserve.  It was spectacular!  The park is surrounded by a stone wall with little wrought iron gates.  When you go in through the gates there are stone lined ponds, little pathways surrounded by flowers, and peacocks.  Absolutely breathtaking peacocks.  The girls and I had such an amazing time watching the birds.  Some were up high in trees and others were just beautifully walking around their little home.  In the back of the park there were additional gates and each one lead to a different trail through the nature preserve.  We had some much fun exploring, climbing rock formations, crossing creeks on over sized rocks, and listening for wildlife.  The temperature outside was just perfect.  We could not have asked for a more lovely day.

For more information on Mayfield Park you can go to http://mayfieldpark.org/

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope everyone gets to smile at least once today.  Yesterday I spent the day making cookies with Bubs, and today I spent the day at the school with Ferocious. My husband made dinner for us, and my mom sent us a box of Mrs. Prindable's apples. Needless to say, I have definitely been smiling today.

Christmas 2012

This year Christmas was very different.  We just moved 4 hours away from home about a month ago.  Our house back home sold in only two days, so we are stuck in a tiny little apartment while we house hunt.  Because of the hubby's work schedule we did not get to go home for Christmas.  At first I was excited that we wouldn't have to drive to 100 different houses on Christmas day, but once it was finally here I missed my family terribly.  At the same time, we made some nice memories this year and I got to share some of my family's Christmas Eve traditions with my kids.  This year we went to a local tree farm and cut down our own tree, Griswold family Christmas style!

Cowgirls & Indians

A few weekends ago my girls were invited to an adorable Cowgirls and Indians birthday party.  The cowgirl part was easy, but Bubs wanted to be an Indian.  I was not aware that a lot of people dress up for Thanksgiving, so you can imagine my surprise when I went into Party City two days after Thanksgiving and they looked at me like I am a crazy person.  So this Mama had to get a little creative on the costume, but both the girls looked adorable and we had a blast! 

Sunflowers

Over the weekend I took my girls to a farm a few miles north of us that farms sunflowers.  There are acres of sunflowers.  Huge, beautiful sunflowers.

Cowgirl Party