Oxley Nature Center...a great place to take your kiddo's!!

I recently took Presley to Oxley Nature Center. I had no idea this place existed until my photography teacher told us about it in class. They offer FREE activities for kids of all ages, They also have different walks each month. I really want to do the butterfly walk and the wildflower walk next month. You can check them out HERE. It's something fun and it's free, how can you beat it? 

Presley went to his first Natural Babies class and it's for kids ages 1-5. This class is $2 a person or you can buy a year membership for only $15! We went ahead and got the membership because we will be going to more of the fun activities. Your donation helps with not only the Nature Center but also all of the wonderful volunteers their so it's worth it. I had no idea we had such a gorgeous nature center so close to home. It's literally next to the zoo.

At the class we went to the instructor talked about Animal Homes and showed the kids all different types of animal homes. Presley got to pick a few out and bring them to me to "show me". It was so sticking' cute! Even though he's 19 months, I know he enjoyed it and he definitely loved when the teacher started reading her book. He sat in a chair like a big boy and did really good. He really loves reading these days. The kids also got to color a picture and find all of the animals living in their homes. I helped P with that, LOL. He did color though. He's quite the Picasso :) 

Here are some pictures from my horrible phone camera:

This was when he picked the wasp nest to show me LOL (it was in a clear case)

He was so excited when he brought me the the wasp nest!

He was such a BIG boy. He also loved the tree stump as you can tell...

Preshy :) Listening to the story!

He had enough and needed to get up, so he decided to go over to the teacher and point at all the animals she was reading about. 

After the story we got to go outside and feed the turtles! Presley threw turtle food and also some biscuits! 

He was SO excited when he saw the turtles. I love how he is really starting to understand things more. 

See he really was excited! Pointing at the turtles LOL

After that we headed towards Fox trail and found a real animal home!

It's not lived in anymore, but it used to be a gopher hole

Oh and he got to color a picture too! Momma helped him find all the animals hiding in their homes! :)

 Presley's masterpiece :)

Thanks for a great morning Oxley!

If you have kids, I highly recommend taking them here! It was a blast and we will be back next week!

Fun activities for kids to get you in the BOO-HA-HA spirit!

Halloween is my second favorite time of year to decorate, first being CHRISTMAS of course!
I have to say the $1 section at Target has been a weakness of mine...especially for fun Halloween decor.  I saw a random cute foot painted in candy corn colors on Pinterest and it gave me the idea for Presley's 2nd Halloween plate! If you're wondering what that is, it's just a plate that I use to capture parsley's foot prints each year. Eventually I'm going to have a fun plate wall above our piano but not until it gets moved. Who knows when that will ever happen because it's extremely heavy. Last year Presley's feet were little ghosts and this year we did candy corn.

Here is a before & after pic from my horrible phone camera ha ha:

Here is the finished product! So fun!

Okay now for the next activity that I am super excited about. Maybe it's because tonight I get to feel like a little kid again and go knock on 2 neighbors doors and RUN away. Seriously.

We love our neighborhood so much and everyone is always having little cookouts and we're all getting to know each other. There's kids outside playing all the time and P already has friends his age, it's just too cute. 

I decided to start a "You've Been Booed" this year in our neighborhood. What is it? Well it's super easy and fun! I found this adorable FREE printable online that I am using. You can find it HERE. Anna and Blue Paperie has adorable idea's all the time on their website!

It already has all the directions typed out and everything. Literally all you have to do is print 2 copies and get 2 "treat" bags ready! You pick 2 neighbors to start it and once it's getting dark you run to their houses, put the sign on their doors, leave the directions and treat bags by the door and RUN!!!!!!!!

They have 2 days to pick the next 2 neighbors and so on and so forth...

Everyone knows who has been booed because they will have a sign on their door or in their window.

I think this is a fun idea for anyone, kids or no kids. If you want to get to know your neighbors better, why not start something fun?! If kids do get involved they will LOVE it! Presley is still a little small to understand but his face lights up none the less :)

I know the houses I'm doing tonight and here's their treats! Thanks to the target $1 section ha ha. 

Who's gonna be the next person to start "You've Been Booed"?!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll...Yummo!

I am the first to admit I am NOT a baker. I usually do things wrong and whatever I'm making ends up tasting gross. This recipe actually made me feel like I can actually conquer baking! It was actually easy and tasted YUMMY! My husband loved it and so did his cosign Ricky and his wife Jessica! I found the recipe on Pinterest HERE. I promise if you even remotely like pumpkin, you will LOVE this recipe!

Here's what you need:

INGREDIENTS:

Cake:1 cup sugar, 3/4 cup flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 3 eggs, 2/3 cup mashed (canned) pumpkin, and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Filling:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 15 X 10-inch jelly roll pan. Cut wax paper to fit the bottom of the pan and leave an inch overhang on each of the short ends of the pan. Lightly grease the wax paper and sides of the jelly roll pan.

Mix the sugar, flour, salt, soda, cinnamon, eggs and pumpkin in a large bowl. Once mixed, pour mixture over the waxed paper. Sprinkle the walnuts, if using, on top of the mixture.

 Bake for 14-15 minutes until edges pull away from the sides of the pan and center is done. Lay a large dishtowel on the counter top (it is best to use a dishtowel without any texture – a tea towel or similar towel works best). Spread a thick dusting of powdered sugar all over the towel. 

When the cake comes out of the oven, turn the pan upside down on the powdered sugar-laden towel so the wax paper is on the top. Gently peel off the wax paper, being careful not to tear the roll. 

Starting at one of the short ends, roll the pumpkin cake up with the towel to cool. 

While the roll is cooling, mix the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar together until it is light and creamy. Once the roll is cool, unroll and with an offset spatula, carefully spread filling in an even layer over the cake. 

Roll it up without the towel and place in the refrigerator (covered with plastic wrap or wax paper) for about an hour before serving.

Enjoy!

My son's playroom! Pinterest isn't always the solution...

I'm the kind of girl who always has something creative going on in my mind. I can't help it, I'm just always thinking of stuff to create. Sorry hubs! When I had Presley and he started crawling around, I immediately started planning his playroom. I thought of several fun ideas and the only thing I knew I wanted was a teepee. Presley couldn't even walk BUT I just had to have one, LOL. Who would have thought that for Presley's FIRST Christmas, Santa would bring a teepee?? The best part was that Pres LOVED IT!!!!

The first 3 pictures were taken with my iPhone camera...

His favorite toy!

Okay so now to the super fun part...the actual decorating! I ended up looking on Pinterest and couldn't find a room that even remotely looked like what I was wanting. The only thing I found was the teepee and the wooden sign (that we ended up making). I wanted a rustic lodge feel and something slightly "cowboys and indians". It's one of the first rooms you see in our home so I wanted it to be super fun :) I won't go into great detail about how I decided on each thing but I will say that the fun wallpaper I found was a steal at only $30 a roll! It had colors I love in it, peach, light grey, charcoal grey and even a  little orange too! Here is the beginning of the transformation...

The piano was moved and a sweet lady came to hang the wallpaper. She's SO reasonable too! 

Welcome to Presley's Hideout!! 

I had so much fun putting stuff in the cubby holes. A few toys, an orange lamp and a few knick knacks :)

Of course a picture from Presley's Wild Wild One Cowboy Birthday! I found a cute skin of some animal (probably fake) at HobLob.

We found this neat antler chandelier at Home Depot online. I was surprised at myself that I actually wanted an antler light fixture but it made the room complete! Luckily Shane was on board with the idea :)

Nothing say's "lodge" like antlers, LOL

I made a cute flag garland for the top of the teepee in orange and brown burlap. I also used rope to connect it. Super easy!

I got some free scrap wood at Lowe's and used a wood carver to carve out Presley's Hideout! Just stain and then carve the name out! Only $3, just paid for the stain! What I love about the teepee is that when P is a little older he can paint on the canvas!

I made the sign below with another piece of scrap wood from Lowe's and used rope for the letters and also for the border. I think it's fun to display things Pres makes!

P has 2 pictures WOOT! If you haven't caught on yet, next time you're at Lowe's and need wood, ask if they have any scraps from that day first! 

I found this fake deer head online randomly and just spray painted it white. It now hangs above the closet door in the room :) 

I went to a lumber yard and got this free stump! I took all of the bark off the outside to give it the natural wood look. I love how it turned out! One of my favorite parts of the room are the cute wing back chairs GiGi and PawPaw got him for Christmas! The definitely help bring the lodge look into the room. 

Wood frames and some fun decor

I absolutely LOVE the sign that say's COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES

There's Sandy! She really only costs a nickel and still runs like a charm :) She's been mine since I was in 1st grade and now she's Presley's! 

Shane drew the letters below on the sign above the toy box:) The sign is one of my favorite parts of the room. Presley definitely is VERY VERY loved. I got the idea for this sign on Pinterest :) Get some wood from Lowe's, acrylic black paint and you're set. 

Well I hope you had fun in Presley's Lodge! :) 

Okay I have one last thing...I made a Pumpkin and Cream Cheese Roll and OMG. Sooooooooo yummy!!! I'm not a good baker normally and I surprised myself on this one. It's SO easy and delish. I won't bore you with all my pictures of how I made it right now. I will post about it another time :) Click HERE for the recipe! I promise you will be SO glad you did! 

Wrapping Station! DIY Factory Post!

This is one of my "DIY" Factory posts. If you read my blog much, you know that Shane call's it that because of my constant projects haha :) I saw a post on a blog I follow not long ago, and it gave me inspiration for my new WRAPPING STATION! I have a room upstairs that I have converted into my craft room but really since we moved in, it's been the junk room. This weekend with Shane's help we started cleaning it out so I can really have a craft room, lol. I had SO much wrapping paper, millions of bags, tape, bows...pretty much you name it and it's up there.

I headed off to Lowe's with P and got the most functional "closet" organizer and turned it into a wrapping station! For only $34.99 I was able to organize all of my wrapping stuff and it's all in one place! I'm VERY excited about it and it's so cute which doesn't hurt. It hangs on the inside of the door so you don't see it unless you're in the craft room :) If you have millions of birthdays and holidays with lot's of gifts like we do, this is a PERFECT solution! So so easy to do too...I did it during P's nap. Here's the finished product!!!!

I did bows on top

Three row's of ribbon and then a basket with 4 plastic glasses from Walmart .88cents a piece!

I put the following items in them.

Labels

Pens 

Tape

 Scissors

Last but not least, the fun, pretty wrapping paper!

This was a fun little project and I'm excited to wrap the next gift! 

Last night we helped Mark and Laurie with a wedding shower for Laurie's friend. It was fun and the food was delicious! Laurie is one of the best party planners around, and she always helps us throw super fun parties for our babies or any event that's going on in the fam! I got dressed up last night which I  don't do often these days and when Presley saw me he was so cute. I had a sparkly top on and he was in amazement, lol. It was precious. He was amazed at the sparkles really not me haha. I tried a new Pinterest hair-do last night and loved it. Looks complicated but only took about 5 minutes to do!

Back to organizing the craft room I go!

XOXO