Mickey Mouse sun catcher

For the kids' birthday party we did a Mickey and Minnie Mouse theme.  One of the activities I had for the children to do was to make a sun catcher.

At the beginning of the party I almost scrapped the idea after watching all of the bigger kids running around and playing.  I grabbed my friend's daughter and helped her make one and then all of the other kids became curious and wanted to make one too.

They were a hit.  All of the kids enjoyed making them and some even made a couple.  The parents were even impressed with the creativity of it.  

So, how do you make one of these?  

Materials needed: 

Contact paper

tissue paper

construction paper

scissors 

Step 1. Cut out a border

             I cut out a Mickey Mouse head using my cricut.  You can use any shape though.  If you do not have a cricut simply cut out a shape and then cut that shape a little smaller, to give you the outline.  This can be as thin or thick as you want.

Step 2.  Cut contact paper slightly wider than your border and double the length

Step 3.  Peel back one side of the contact paper

Step 4.  Carefully lay your border on to the contact paper

Step 5.  Stick the contact paper back to the backing.
              This is where I stopped.  I prepped all of the pieces before the party.

Step 6.   Peel the contact paper away from the backing half way.  Then add tissue paper.

               I had some tissue paper cut for the kids, but mostly let them rip their own.   It is important to be careful at this step.  You do not want too much tissue paper on it to the point that when you peel the other half of the contact paper on to seal it that it sticks to a layer of tissue paper and not to the side that had the border.  

Step 7.  Adhere the other half of the contact paper to the side with the border.  Press heavily along the border to ensure it is completely adhered together.  

Step 8.  Cut around the border and hang in the window

Spray pal

This post is a little over due, but I LOVE the Spray Pal.  I did not buy a diaper sprayer when I first started cloth diapering with Owen.  It was easy to just knock the poo in the toilet with little mess.  However, newborns poop a lot, and it is not solid.  Before Charlotte was born I bought a sprayer and attached it to the toilet.  Owen gave me a diaper to try it out on.  What a mess, my first time spraying a diaper turned out to be a disaster.  I do not know how other people do it.  I tried several times to spray diapers without water splashing every where and soaking the toilet paper roll.  Upon further research I found the Spray Pal.

The spray pal is essentially a plastic clipboard that is enclosed.

Clip the diaper onto the spray pal and snap the sides together.

Spray diaper clean.  Make sure the bottom of the Spray pal is in the toilet so that the run off does not go on the toilet and floor.  The convenience of the Spray Pal allows you to turn the pressure all the way up and allowing to spray all parts of the diaper.  

The shape of the Spray-Pal allows me to easily reach my hand to spray thee bottom of the diaper.  It also allows me to be able to see all of the diaper and focus the spraying on the areas that need it the most. 

I love the spray pal and not sure how anyone sprays diapers without it! 

Here is a video made by Spray Pal that demonstrates use.  

The disadvantage of the Spray-Pal is that you need some where to store it.  It does fold up fairly flat and can easily fit behind my toilet.  I would recommend laying a towel down or putting the spray-pal into a bucket or pail so it does not drip onto the floor.  I typically put it in the tub, which is right beside the toilet, until it dries.  Then I fold it up and set it beside the toilet.  I love that the spray pal is enclosed around the front to protect from water splashing the walls and toilet.  The clip is strong and holds diapers and even wipes while I spray but doesn't hurt the diaper.

Other uses for the Spray-Pal?  Owen was sick the one day and we had a vomit mess.  I ended up lining the tub with towels and letting him sleep in the tub.  I put Owen's shirt in the Spray-Pal and quickly sprayed the vomit off of his shirt.  The wash cloths I used to clean the vomit off the floor, were also sprayed off using the Spray-Pal.

Click here to visit www.spray-pal.com

Diaper dawgs spray collar review

A couple of weeks ago there was a give away hosted by The Eco Chic, Dirty Diaper Laundry, The Eco-Friendly Family, The Cloth Diaper Report, Change-Diapers, and Cloth Diaper Geek.  The give away was themed around a cloth diaper baby shower.  The give away was huge, having over 60 prize winners.  I was lucky enough to be one of those winners.  I was fortunate enough to win a three pack of snappies and a Diaper Dawgs spray collar.  The spray collar I was really excited about.  I do not think I would have ever purchased one though, because I have and LOVE the Spray - Pal. I did want to try the spray collar to see how it compared, I just could not justify spending the money on it. 

The spray collar arrived in the mail fairly quick.  I also happened to receive it right after spraying three diapers and starting diaper laundry.  (Which should have been done yesterday but wasn't. ) I don't think I have ever hoped for a poopy diaper, until today.  Fortunately it wasn't long until Charlotte had given me one.  It was time to test out the sprayer. 

  

So how do I feel about the spray collar? I do not know that I am a fan. My first issue was trying to get the collar to fit on my sprayer.  Not sure that my sprayer really works with the collar.  It does not seem like it is on there to well.   I still managed to make a mess.  It is also kind of awkward to hold the diaper and spray it.  I tried putting the diaper in the toilet and spraying, I tried holding the diaper along the rim, and laying the diaper in the toilet and spraying.  Was not good at of that and still splashed water.  I also do not like that I can't see what I am spraying.  The collar blocks the .  If you pull the collar back away from the diaper you end up with a mess.  However, I love how little it is, how it can stay attached to the sprayer and not take up space.  I dislike that I would have to wipe it out every single time.  With the Spray-Pal I spray off the whole thing and set it aside.  I use a clorox wipe on the Spray-Pal about once a week.   Another disadvantage of the spray collar is that I cannot hang the sprayer back up with the collar on, so I would have to pull it off and put it back on every time as well.

I am going to keep trying to see if I can get the hang of it, but so far I am still a Spray Pal fan. 

Birthday Give away!

 Be prepared, starting September first I will be having a giveaway for some awesome prizes.  Next month is my birthday, September 17th.  In honor of my birthday I will be having a giveaway of over $100 worth of prizes.  September 1st I will post a link for you to enter for the prizes.  On September 17th I will close for new entries and announce the winners.

Comment below, what kind of prizes are you hoping to see?

We made it!

We have made it nursing for a year!  We are still going with no end in sight. 

I can't say how amazing it is to be able to nourish my baby/toddler on my own.  We only made it a little over for months with Owen.  I feared that the same would be true with Charlotte.  It is amazing how different these two are.

Through out the past year I have had mastitis four times.  The first time was the worst.  Each time after that I knew what was going on and how to ease it.  Which made it a little better. 

When Charlotte got her first tooth she got into the habit of biting.  Which we had to put an end to real quick.  Before we could she managed to break the skin. OUCH that hurt! Not to mention it took about two weeks to heal.  Nursing continued to break open the wound making it take longer to heal.  Right after it happened my husband asked if I was ready to quit.  Not this Momma. I had a baby who wanted the best milk possible, and I had a body that was producing that yummy goodness. 

This past week Charlotte had hand, foot, and mouth disease.  For those that do not know, it is a viral infection that causes blisters and sores on the hands, feet, and mouth.  Charlotte had many sores in her mouth.  This caused it to hurt when she nursed.  She went almost 29 hours without nursing.  I pumped when I felt like I was getting full. I managed to pump over 100 ounces in that time period.   When she finally latched on it was just for a let down.  I got the milk flowing before trying to get her to latch.  This way she didn't need to do anything but swallow.  After the let down was over she let go.  It wasn't until bed time until she was able to nurse without screaming in  pain. Last night she slept very well and  we are nursing regularly now. 

Charlotte nurses first thing in the morning right after waking.  Then she nurses again with lunch, before nap time, after dinner, and before bed. She also nurses two to three times at night.  Which neither of us really wake up for. 

I am really happy we made it this far and look forward to the time we have remaining. 

The only picture I have of Owen nursing.  A week old

Charlotte at a week old. 

Charlotte three months old.

It's Party Time!

July 19th we celebrated Owen and Charlotte's birthday.  The following weekend they got another birthday celebration.

Here are some pictures from their parties.