adventures in pinksugarland

double duty decorations to help us celebrate both of our family’s special occasions on the 14th :)

the kids and i watercoloured our little hearts out this year, which made this mantel extra special — it’s so fun to involve them in the process as they get older and more interested!

hope everyone had a love-filled weekend (as every weekend should be)!

teeny tiny heart balloons, a wee bit of washi tape (because i can never help myself) and a clever little note thanks to a bit of pinterest inspiration.

a little late for this year, but if you want to try these yourself next february 14th, you can download a free printable here :)

we didn’t bring many of our own christmas gifts on our holiday road trip — a combination of knowing that lila and cole would have plenty of goodies to open between two sets of grandparents and their various aunts/uncles/cousins, and the fact that we decided at the very last minute to head out and there was no way any of them were getting wrapped before we left — so we had our third (and final!) little christmas celebration this morning with the wee ones! it’s been such fun spreading the joy of the holidays out over the last week and a bit, and getting to share it with so many of our friends and family :)

now it’s time to pack everything up until next year, when we’ll have three little hankis to spend the holidays with!

we made some gak last night. stretchy, bouncy, slimy fun — it entertained three kids and four adults for hours. you should try it :)

candy corn, candy corn and more candy corn.

a burglar and fantastic mr. fox.

a party complete with spooky snacks, cute costumed kiddos and a pinata.

a remote control car and a paper doll.

we already can’t wait for next year!

the paper doll and the remote control car :)

happy halloween!

a number of people on instagram have requested the ‘recipe’, so here it goes:

1. prepare your favourite white cake recipe per the instructions (we just used a boxed mix!)
2. divide batter into three bowls, tint one bowl each orange and yellow and leave the third
3. layer batter in cupcake cups
4. bake according to your recipe
5. top with your favourite frosting (we use the recipe on the back of the roger’s icing sugar bag — never fails!) and a piece of candy corn
6. peel papers off when ready to serve

ridiculously easy and crazy cute. just the way i like it :)

individual pizzas, pinata making, cupcake baking, a quick movie and bedtime stories.

i’d say it was a success :)

ps. technically their second sleepover, but the first time the moms had a sleepover too, so that doesn’t really count ;)

inspired by this pin (i wish i knew the original source!), we collected some leaves from the lone tree in our front yard and got to work :)

two quick tips: if you’re having your kiddos do the punching, i’d recommend using small punches — it was quite tricky getting the leaves all the way into the larger heart punch. also, if you want the art to look good for more than a day, try preserving the leaves with glycerin. (we didn’t and our hearts are looking rather crinkly now!)

i stumbled upon some pretty awesome painted leaves the other day and we decided to give it a go ourselves. lots of fun and we got to add some seasonal decor to the playroom. win win :)

happy painting!