The Thankful tree.

    I found this one on Pinterest and had to make one for our family. We loved it and still have it hanging on the door well into January now. The kids had fun telling us what they were thankful for. My four year old is still learning what it means to be thankful so he had some pretty interesting one. :) Thank you to  Bargain Bound for the great idea. You can find her instructions here.

 http://bargainbound.blogspot.com/2011/11/thankful-tree.html

Daisy Girl Scout Pinewood Derby Car Race

    Yesterday our Daisy troop participated in a Pinewood derby race. The key was to let your child help build the car. So we searched online and found a ton of great ideas. We saw one that my daughter loved. I think mostly because of the pet shop mouse that was on it. So here it is.  This what you start out with. Next they added a board that was similar in size on top and glued them together. After that dried they cut the wood at an angle so it had the cheese triangle shape. Made some holes and we had cheese. :) 

Safety first!

 Emelia helping daddy build her cheese... i mean car.

 It won a few races but not overall.... but she did take home an award

Meet Tippy our Red Footed Tortoise Two Story Tortoise Table.

  I thought I would introduce our newest family member. Tippy. She is a red footed tortoise and we are in love with her. I got her on my birthday as a present to myself. I have always been a lover of turtles, but when I became pregnant with my daughter 7 years ago I had to give away my red eared slider and russian box turtle. About a year and a half ago we adopted Tuck a red eared slider, and I knew it was time to get to expand and get a tortoise for our home. My husband doesn't quite understand my fascination with turtles but was sooooo incredibly kind to build this indoor tortoise table so she can live indoors during winter.  Here it is. 

Made with two old grape crates

Two story loft.

My husband is so AWESOME and I love my new tortoise table. It fits right in and looks great.

This is... Tuck our Red Eared Slider. I just love how he smiles. :) I had to share.

  we also have two dog's and three goldfish.

My Jack Skellington (Halloween and Christmas)

   

  I have always been a big fan of Tim Burton and Love the characters from The Nightmare before Christmas. So this year my wonderfully handy husband and I decided to make a big Jack Skellington for Halloween. Then I figured since I already had jack made I would do a Christmas version so he could stay out even longer.

JACK Skellington 
 We came up with the plan to use PVC Pipes, Connectors and a Styrofoam ball painted black. 

Halloween outfit I used my brother-in-laws Halloween costume (just the jacket) and mask from a previous year. (THANK YOU CHRIS)  I bought some cheap black leggings from Walmart. I also used my son's size 10 toddler shoes, and my husbands black dress socks.
 

Christmas Outfit I found a inexpensive red felt Santa costume at Joanns craft store. Originally $20.00 got it for $7.00 (i love a bargain!). I bought the jack skellington santa hat that has the beard attached to it from amazon. White fuzzy trim from joanns. Then I used the same black leggings, socks, shoes, mask, and white gloves from the halloween costume. 

 
 I made a diagram below of our sizes for the his body. After we made him we could have adjusted his sizes a bit but this is just an idea of size for you. 

My kids with jack.

 

 I thought I would be trustworthy this year and leave out the candy. Not sure if people were honest but the bowl was empty when we got home.

  

Here is my house with my Jack and Ghosts.

  CHRISTMAS (I thought I snapped more pictures of him in his big red suit but I guess not. here are two.)

I would LOVE to see if anyone else decideds to create one of these. Leave a comment below with a link to photos.     in the meantime....