Melody is a girl who loves playing cars. For her birthday she wanted a race track and loved her remote control jeep. So I saw on Pinterest where you could cut up several different shapes and then glue them into random vehicles, so this was a perfect craft. We have actually done this numerous times, and she is always making different things. Her favorite things to make are trains and dump trucks, but the possibilities are endless!
The jellyfish paper plate craft was a good craft to keep a toddler busy for a while! Well at least the way I did it. You also don’t need much for this craft: a paper plate, colors/markers/paint, yarn, and either some googly eyes or a black sharpie.
One of the crafts Melody was able to do herself for her birthday party was a painting of Elsa. I had intended for this to be much, much bigger and on a larger canvas, but it did not work the way I planned. So I went with a smaller canvas, and it worked out perfectly.
Back before COVID-19 ruined a lot of our plans, I intended to sign Melody up for gymnastics this summer, and we were going to skip dance this summer. I know she loves dance, but we have struggled to get her to enjoy gymnastics. My assumption from the last two years of summer gymnastics is that she didn’t enjoy it because it was a mommy and me style class. This summer was the chance for her to do it alone. But we just didn’t feel entirely comfortable sending her with COVID still prevalent. Also, dance lasted through a good portion of June. So we actually figured we would not join anything this summer. Dance starts back early August. Then I read about a tumbling camp offered by her dance studio. It was a 3 day camp lasting 3 hours a day. I loved the idea of it being a longer day, and it offered tumbling and fun. And I really trusted their attention to detail when it came to COVID. So I jumped at the chance to sign her up!
Back in April, not long after the pandemic began, Disney released their infamous churro recipe. We decided to make them at home one afternoon, and they were a hit. They did not look anything like the ones I get at Disney, but they were still delicious. We also had them in a few different ways. Check it out below.
Just like last year, I made a Happy Everything attachment for Melody’s Frozen birthday party. I could not find a snowflake I loved and would stand out on the serving dish. So instead I bought a blue glitter wooden 4 from Hobby Lobby. Like last year, I hot glued velcro to the back of the 4. Then I attached it! Super easy to do with just about any occasion.
For my mom’s birthday I wanted to come up with a craft that didn’t require me to go into any stores to buy anything. I do have a lot of craft supplies at home, but we have used a lot of them over this quarantine, ha! So I decided to make this cute craft I have seen all over Pinterest, but used what we had at home to do it.
My original plan for Melody’s cake at her Frozen themed birthday party was to do an Elsa cake similar to the Snow White cake I did last year. However, she said she didn’t want that. She wanted a sheet cake from Publix, but they didn’t have the exact one she wanted, so I opted for cupcakes. I bought some snowflake edible toppers a while back that I did use on some of the cupcakes, but I did make a few toppers too using my Silhouette Cameo.
The paper plate bee was one of the easier crafts I have had Melody do. She was able to do the majority of this craft herself, and it requires very little supplies!
As you can likely tell from a lot of my previous blog posts, we have been to Disney World quite a bit. I have been an Annual Passholder for two years, and I hope to be one again once we feel comfortable enough to travel back to Orlando. Over the last four years, we have been taking Melody to Disney and still eating at nice sit down restaurants at Disney World. We also do quick service, but we have made sure we still continue to eat at our favorite places even though we have a baby or toddler in tow. Today I wanted to share how we handle this and some advice I have.
This is an other super easy instagram recipe I found. I kind of adjusted the recipe to suit my taste a bit more, but I will list the alternative too. AND this works best with an air fryer. I am sure you could do this in the oven, but the air fryer gives it the crispiness I love!
During all of our homeschooling due to COVID-19, we had to get creative with our crafts. Crafts are Melody’s favorite. I found this one on Crayola’s website. It was a really easy craft to make, and we continue to play with it even today. Melody doesn’t follow instructions 100%, but your child may, ha!
Like all parties, I made a banner for Melody’s Frozen birthday party. I used my Silhouette to make the banner and went a different route than usual. I opted for circles in a blue glitter cardstock for the background. Then I used a free Frozen font I found online and cut that using white glitter cardstock. I also included snowflakes on each side of Happy. I could not use regular glue for this project. It didn’t handle well to the glitter. Instead I used hot glue. It took some time, but it worked. Check it all out below!
This was our first July 4th at our new house! We live in a much smaller neighborhood now, so we don’t have a big firework spectacle like we had at our last house. However, we did get to see a lot of fireworks throughout the weekend, and we had a lot of fun doing it. Melody seemed to really enjoy it all this year too which was fun!
June was filled with lots of popsicles, yearly checkups, a visit to the dentist, Melody’s first trip back to Publix, pool time, visits with Nana and Grandpa, birthday parties, baking, and lots of playtime!
Back in March when school was closed, and we had to start homeschooling due to COVID-19, we had to get creative about learning at home. One of the things I wanted to continue while at home was calendar time. I decided to make my own calendar at home. I laminated everything so that I could use a dry erase marker on it and reuse it throughout the year.
I found this recipe on Instagram, and the blogger made it look oh so easy. And while I am sure I made it more difficult than necessary, it will not be a weeknight meal for us due to the length of time it takes, It was delicious, however, and I would make it on the weekends for sure!
What started out as very simple party favors turned into something a bit more elaborate in true Brittany fashion. As you can see, Melody had a Frozen themed 4th birthday party. The idea was to have snowflake wands for all the kids. While we did those (and you can see the how to below), since there were only 4 kids including Melody plus 2 babies, I also incorporated a bit more since I had the room to spend more. Check it out below.
If you are looking for a fairly easy craft to do to remind you of the outside while not suffering in the high humidity, this is it, ha! You can improvise with supplies if you don’t have what I used on hand, and it is easy for just about any age to do.
So way back in August of last year, Brad and I got really excited when we really put it together that we would have almost every other Friday together alone while Melody was at school. However, between his work travel, Friday holidays, and COVID-19, we had very few together. But we did get to go on a few, and I even took a few pictures along the way. We would spend Fridays going to a movie, furniture shopping, grocery shopping, and sometimes just relaxing at home! Maybe next year if things go back to normal we can do this again!
