who needs leprechauns when you have your own cute little shorties

On Valentine's Day I swore that I would stop putting so much energy into my holidays for awhile... the kids are probably too young to enjoy it and I am fairly sure my husband would survive if a day passed without decorations, themed desserts and craftiness.
aaaand here i sit on St. Patrick's day covered in icing and glue bits. In other words, I lied to myself :)

Not completely though- I have toned it down considerably. I didn't put up any decorations until this morning when N and I slapped a little banner together in 10 minutes. Since his little hands cut and glued and stickered, it was perfect.

and we made cupcakes and other green food and corned beef and cabbage. we slapped on our green and pinched and pinched and pinched but that is all. It was low-key but it felt nice.

Let's be honest, who can live up to a pinterest holiday these days anyway??
Happy St. Patty's Day!

it's been awhile blogger but i haven't been resting

i am still alive.
if anyone ever asks you to put your home on a Christmas tour, just turn around and run away laughing maniacally.
or you could appreciate a challenge and say yes. you will still be laughing maniacally, only it will be 4:00 am and you will be covered in pine sap and glitter, driven purely by caffeine and determination. you may or may not hem all of the curtains on your ground floor the night before the house shows and you certainly will not be able to afford groceries for two weeks. white lights and pine cones are expensive!
i went with option two.

let me point out quickly that i have a very normal house.
very.

she (my house is a girl) is not huge or new.
in fact, she is almost 100 years old.
she is storied and lived in. and she needs work like most old things.
we in contrast are quite young. and we have kids. that means that at least some of our furniture is broken, some of our carpet is stained and all of our bank accounts are an eensy bit strapped.
when they asked me to be on the tour, i asked if they knew where we lived.

they did. our house is old and storied, remember? historical, if you will.

anyway- that was a big digression. the point is that me and my house have a complex. we feel a little self-conscious around all these huge, new and beautiful homes and we didn't want to be the "crap" house on the tour so i got all stressed.
i think we did pretty good though. here are just a few pictures of a few rooms. we currently have five trees up though one is teetering on the brink of toddler destruction.

the pictures don't do her justice. they really don't, but i think you'll agree that the old girl cleaned up pretty nicely ;)
for an old broken down home with a young and broke family...

It was an exhausting weekend.

But it was good.



Hanging out in the bathroom around hour 4...



Who says crafting is hard??

It's a ten second project. How much could go wrong? ;)

Is that a trick question you ask? Of course it is.

Besides being cute, easy and festive, these little ghosts are a perfect example of how NOTHING is too user friendly when the monsters kiddos are involved!

Steps Involved:

1- Remove pants to decrease chances of paint accident (socks come off too obviously)

2- Paint thin layer of white paint on Thing 1's foot. Simultaneously ward off Thing 2 as she tries to plunge into paint. Retrieve her as she slips on the poster board that she is stomping on.

3- Pick up painted child and place foot firmly on paper- remind him not to slide it all the way across the poster board giving the appearance of a ghost smear. Stop unofficially painted child as she grabs the paintbrush and heads across the room.

4- Reprimand painted child as he WALKS ACROSS THE FLOOR. Remind self that although painted one is four years old, his reasoning skills are not quite there yet

4- Pick up posterboard and place on counter so it is "safe" while cleaning paint off the foot and floor

5- Breathe

6- Repeat foot painting, stamping and with second child. Note that she is remarkably easier to wield into the sink and that reasoning skills notwithstanding, Thing 1 is growing much much too fast

7- Dip q-tip into blue paint (because naturally my blue-eyed children would have blue-eyed ghosts)and demonstrate how to put eyes on the ghosts.

8- Hand q-tip to N who sneezes it onto the carpet with perfect timing. Blue paint 1 Carpet 0

9- Breathe Harder. Swear under my breath

10- Clean carpet. Wonder where Thing 2 went pantless

11- Watch as N successfully makes eyes (and arms?? a few of our ghosts had extra dots)

12- Praise excessively for a clean job well done.