Gift Idea (nothing crafty here)

Growing up with a little sister isn't always rainbows and butterflies.  Especially from a child's point of view.  She always had to tag along, play with my toys and it seemed one of her favorite past times was getting me in trouble.  I was a very shy child and for the most part did as I was told.  Jaime on the other hand was loud and hungry for attention.  We laugh about it now but I remember getting sent to my room on numerous occasions for "biting".  What my Mother didn't know was that her 3 year old was actually biting herself (while smiling and staring me in the eye) then screaming and crying that I had bit her! 

We've had our ups and downs as all sisters go through I'm sure.  What we've learned through the years however is no matter how obnoxious we were to each other, we were always there for one another when it really mattered.  If it wasn't for my Sister I don't know how I would have survived our childhood and I appreciate her for who she has become and all that she has done for me.  She has become my best friend and I love that arm biting brat to the death. 

Six years ago, I moved to Arizona which was a very difficult adjustment for everyone.  I try to make it back as often as possible and she takes me in every time. I even have a room waiting for me! 


To show my appreciation I wanted to do something special so I created this Sister photobook from Shutterfly.  I'm extremely happy with how it turned out and I see these books as being great gifts in the future.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Turn your favorite photos into a photo book at Shutterfly.com.

Kids say the funniest things

Sisters of DesignDNA - Corie age 3, Jaime age 1

I'm not a parent myself but have been exposed to many miniature versions of ourselves over the years.  


Lately my interaction with children, usually at Walmart or the grocery store, has been less then pleasant.  I get lemon face at the sound of shrieking little ones running rabid at my feet and I'd imagine my discomfort has very little to do with my lack of experience.  


I mean, you parents can't be completely numb to the sound of screaming children right?  


I have a lot of Mom friends who love their mini mes more then anything on this earth but are very vocal about not liking other people's kids.  I get that.  The closest thing I have to human children are my younger sister's kids.  I was there when they were born (thank you for the best form of birth control - that's another blog post all together!) I lived with them for the first few years of their lives and maintain a pretty close relationship with them even 2000 miles away.  They are fun, beautiful little creatures who drive me absolutely bonkers.  They too hold the shrieking gene.  In fact, I make money off of this obnoxious talent.  I set the expectation that every time that blood curdling noise comes from their sweet faces, they owe me a quarter.  Let's just say I've made a buck or two in a weekend.  

I'm trailing from the initial purpose of this post.  Each day I giggle at the Facebook updates left by all of the Moms and Dads describing how completely hilarious their children are.  

First, I'd like share a few child hood stories of my own before getting into the real good stuff.

Me, age 6 - Jaime, age 3

• 8 year old (Me) : "Jaime, if you don't hurry you are going to be tardy!" (In reference to us being late to school)
• 5 year old Jaime (younger sister): "Oh yeah, well you have testicles in your head!"
• 8 year old (Me): "MOM! JAIME SAID I HAVE TESTICLES IN MY HEAD!!"
• 5 year old Jaime: "MOM! CORIE CALLED ME RETARDED!!"

This is something Jaime and I still reference to this day.  I can see where a child might get tardy and retarded confused but where my 5 year old sister first heard the word testicle is beyond us!

Me (3) and Jaime (1)

I also remember being a child and saying "Mom" so many times that she finally told me to stop and call her Sherri.  


I'll alwasy remember learning where babies came from.  From the neighbor kids.  For a few hours I was convinced that a MAN grew a baby in his head.  His head would open up and the baby would come out.  My Dad suffers from migraine headaches so I thought for sure he was having a baby!

 

Funny Facebook Posts and Random Quotes

Audrey, age 7

• "I always fee like I'm being watched.  By a duck or something."
•  "Audrey gave me a hint of what she made me for my birthday.  She said it's made with toilet paper and love.  LOL!"
• Audrey was 4 years old. I asked her if she wanted some cheese. She said " I don't like American Cheese" I said "since when?" She said "since the 80's"
• I made a healthy pasta dinner one day and the kids didn't like it. Audrey told me it tasted like drain pipe.

It's What's For Dinner...

• There was this picture of Obama in the paper. He had his hand raised in the air kind of like he was waving. Audrey at 3 years old said "He wants a five dollar foot long". This was back when Subway had a ton of 5 dollar foot long commercials on TV. Not sure if you remember or not...

Olivia, age 4

• My daughter describing what she thinks a crush is that she has on a boy. "It means you love them and don't want them to know."

Barb, age 4 (Audrey's Mother when she was a kid)

• "Boys have a pinochle and girls have a bagina"

Braden, age6

• "So my uncle Adam is the one with less hair because when you are bald, you are just bald you know!"

Garrett, age...

• After getting a bad spider bite, he looked at his Mother and flicked his wrist, doing the Spider Man web blast and said "it's not working!" he was so upset he didn't become Spider Man. 

 

I wanted to take it step further and interview these fine young Americans.  Here are some of the answers.

Why do you like being a kid?

• "I get to play with friends and eat more sweets." - Jaida, age 10
• "Because i don't have to work." - Kylee, age 10
• "Because it's the best thing ever and I get to play soccer, it's the best thing in my life, it's like never being here but it's like you care about it." - Sel, age 5
• "Because I'm alive." - Audrey, age 7
• "When you get older, you can't do as much stuff and you have to pay people to do things for you." - Kendahl, age 10

 What advise would you give your parents?

• "Don’t be so dorky! My mom spends all of her time on the internet- doing her homework.  Parents should let their kids have fun.” - Ella, age 8
• "Don't eat until dinner." - Javi, age 6
• "Instead of being stressed, relax and have fun like kids do." -Jaida, age 10

Tell me about a funny time in your life.

• "When I went on a roller coaster and I threw up a little bit and swallowed it." - Olivia, age 8
• "I ran into a wall." - Javi, age 6
• "Today for example, we were playing hide and go seek with Jason and he kept making pit farts!" - Karsyn, age 7
• “When I was at school we were practicing writing cursive and when we got to the letter “P” this kid Jonathan started yelling “Pee!”  Everyone laughed so hard that apple juice came out our nose.” - Ella, age 8

What do you want to be when you grow up ?

What do you think makes a person pretty?
 

At what age would you consider someone to be old?

What is the hardest thing about being a kid?

Why do you think the sky is blue?

• "Because God made it that way."  When asked why it's not green or purple - " Because, that is not how the sky exists.  It's got to be blue, we asked him to make it blue, and God painted it because he likes blue.  It is his favorite color!"- Sel, age 4
• "It just is." - Ryleigh, age 11
• "So you can see the sun." - Javi, age 6
• "I have no idea, really." - Karsyn, age 7

Does anyone else have funny kid stories?  They sure say the darnedest things.  Pure, honest and no shame.  Sometimes that can be a formula for embarrassment if they over-share in public.   

Thanks to the friends who helped me with interviewing their children and sharing these hilarious stories!


P.S.
I recently stumbled upon a pretty hilarious site called Not Safe For The Fridge.  Here you will find rogue artwork created by your imaginative children.  Audrey's Mom, sent me a great piece her daughter's friend constructed.  

If you have unsafe art you want displayed for the blog world to see, submit at notsafeforthefridge@gmail.com


Those dogs play funny...

Barbie Doll Costume

A few months back I made a trip to Savers in hopes to find the perfect costume.  My main objective this year was to find something inexpensive, comfortable and creative.  So, I tried on brides maid dresses, cocktail dresses and everything in between before I finally found "the one".  Well, really the "two".  These dresses couldn't have been more perfect and I knew that this was the year I was going to be Barbie.  I've wanted to dress up like Barbie since before I can remember.  I'm an avid Barbie collector and darn it I wanted a "pretty" costume.

Not-so-pretty-me on Halloween

Anatomy of a Barbie Costume

Dress:  I found 2 black dresses at Savers around $12 each (one was floor length with feather detail - reminded me of a Holiday Barbie I had as a kid and the other was a strapless knee length dress - more on the retro side).  I bought both dresses because they fit like a glove and I figured I could re-use them in the future.

Accessories:  Blonde wig, costume jewelry (ring, bracelet and necklace), handmade Mattel purse, feather boa, handmade Barbie wrist tag, black gloves, eyelashes and endless amounts of makeup.

DIY Barbie wrist tag:  I made a template out of scrap paper - I wanted the tag to be over exaggerated in size and big enough to fit around my wrist. Once I came up with my desired shape I traced the form onto pink poster board.  I printed 2 Barbie logos on regular printer paper and glued them on either side of the pink label.  I wanted the tag to last (I'm big on re using costumes) so I laminated the tag and added Velcro (the Velcro didn't really work so I ended up stapling it instead).

DIY Mattel logo purse: I don't exactly scream Barbie so I didn't want anyone to question who I was trying to portray.  If the Barbie tag and blonde wig wasn't enough, I figured the Mattel logo had to seal the deal.  I printed 2 logos on white paper, glued them to squares of red poster board and had them laminated.  I adhered them to either side of a clutch I already had (using Velcro) then rimmed the purse with red duct tap.

This was such a fun costume and I felt like a million bucks!! 

Link Parties:  Becoming Martha / Whipperberry / Happy Hour Projects / Craft Junkie Too / The Answer is Chocolate /  Its a Hodgepodge Life  /  High Heels & Grills / The Crafty blog Stalker / House of Hepworths / Momnivores Dilemma / I Gotta Create / Southern Lovely / Someday Crafts / 733 / Chic on a Shoestring Decorating 

4th Annual Halloween Party

The little Sister's annual Halloween party was a hit as always!  She's beginning to make a name for herself as kids and parents start asking for details mid summer.   With the children getting older, we have to adapt so the "entertainment" varies each year - she can't disappoint and this party was no exception.

The basement was transformed into a teen night club with professional lighting, fog machines and a live DJ.  As a person with no children and someone who likes kids in small doses, this was the perfect set up.  Candy crazed kids danced their energy away while I attempted to match their every dance move...well, for a good 45 minutes at least.  Apparently my legs don't bend as low as they use to - I can only do the Cha Cha slide so many times. As a result of my awesome dancing, I neglected to take pictures.  Thankfully, my niece loves my camera and snapped a few shots for me.

Food:  This year my sister opted to have the party catered to save time and sanity.  It was a success and ended up saving her a few bucks in the long run. (the main dishes were catered but we still managed to make desserts and appetizers).

I made my Husband's smoked salmon dip - I found this is not for everyone.  Especially kids.  I'm a fan though and it's simple to make.

Smoked Salmon Dip

• 1 (15 1/2 oz.) can pink salmon, drained well
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 2 tbsp. onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp. liquid smoke

The brain dip on the right is made of cream cheese and finely chopped onions - topped with jalapeno jelly.

Nutter Butter 'Witch Toes' covered in white chocolate.  Served with Jam - "Toes & Jam"

We used Pam to bartend my Sister's Summer Solstice party back in June and it was a great move.  She made a return appearance and we couldn't have been happier.  When having a party as large as we did, it's a good idea to have someone regulating the bar.  Some people don't know their limits and we didn't want that liability - especially with so many underage guests.

I wish I had more pictures to share - maybe next year we'll hire a photographer.  I hope to upload costume pictures soon.  Stay tuned.