Printable family subway art

I hope you're all enjoying your Memorial Day weekend!
I'm back from vacation and spending (lots) of time unpacking today, but I wanted to share a quick and easy printable with you in the meantime.

I'm sure you've noticed how popular subway art is. I've seen tons of really cute projects people have done using wood and vinyl to make decorative subway art for their homes.

Like this oversized subway art from Tatertots and Jello

Or this resolution plaque from Little Blue Boo

Or this vintage-style typography art from Lee La La

But what about those of us who are without a Silhouette cutter (which I'm excitedly waiting to be delivered!) or want something a bit smaller? The next best thing is printable subway art!

I wanted to make a printable subway art piece for my hallway where I'm currently attempting to put together a gallery. I am so blessed to have a wonderful family, and I thought "family" would be a perfect theme. I sat down and made a list of words that represented family to me. Then using Picnik, I then put together this simple family-themed subway art printable.

If you want to print one for yourself, just right click and save to your computer then print off the size you want! This one was made for an 8 1/2 x 11 frame.

Linking up!

Show and Tell Wednesday at Blue Cricket Design

On the road again

Today, we're off to visit family in Pittsburgh and celebrate the 80th birthday of Pat's grandma, so posts may be a little spotty until I get back.

Not gonna lie, I hate that 12 hour drive. It's a lot to take with 2 small children. But it's worth it. Because I plan on sleeping in, rummaging through my sister-in-laws hand-me-downs for "new" clothes, and eating my way through Pittsburgh.

Including Primanti Brothers, DeLuca's, Campiti's Pizza (best subs I've ever had), Tessaro's, Quaker Steak and Lube, and enough fried fair food to increase my blood pressure a decent amount. Oh, and I also plan on eating a lot of this:

(Clem's - BEST ribs I've ever had. And yes, I'm aware I live in a major BBQ city and these are from Pennsylvania. I still stand on my claim.)

Maybe I need to pack my old maternity pants?

3 years

Today is my 3rd anniversary! I still can't believe it's been 3 years since I stood at the altar and said "I do" (actually, I said "I will" on accident).

I can honestly say I couldn't have found a better match.For those of you who don't know, we met through mutual friends and bonded after a friend's birthday party when Patrick broke out in a chorus of "Afternoon Delight" Anchorman-style, and I harmonized along with him. Obviously meant to be, right? 4 months later, we were engaged and Afternoon Delight consequently was the song we walked down the aisle to after we were pronounced husband and wife.

Not sure if many people knew the story behind the song, we got a lot of strange looks. We're a little strange though, so it fit.

Sense of humor has always been very important to me, and it's one of the things that attracted me to Patrick. It's not often you can find someone just as weird as you. We laugh together every day. And I love that.

(Connor looks a little worried that he's related to us. I'm sure I'll totally regret posting this picture later.)

It's true what everyone says, time drags and drags until your wedding day arrives, then it flies by in an instant. 3 years later, we are still just as in love, if not more, and we have 2 wonderful children (and plans for 1 more in the future.) I'm so grateful that we have each other and that one day, we can be that cute old couple holding hands on the porch - harmonizing to "Afternoon Delight" no doubt.

Here's to you, Mom's!

I love my kids. They're my world and I can't imagine life without them.

However, becoming a mother makes you realize that there are a lot of things that change when you have kids.

Sleeping in is non-existent (why can't they learn that 6 AM is not an acceptable hour to wake up??). You trade in your TV shows for Wonder Pets and Dora the Explorer. Your favorite lipstick becomes your daughter's new favorite marker. Of course, these things don't make you regret being a mother, they're simply the "other side" of motherhood - the side that people don't see when they look at your perfectly preened, rosy faced child. (You know, the one who covered the cat in applesauce right before family portrait time?)

I've had many of these moments as a mother. I think it's most difficult with your first child because you haven't experienced the true ins and outs of parenthood before. I mean sure, you've changed a diaper here and there and babysat for the neighbor kids but now, you can't just give the kid back to their parents. You ARE the parent.

Now, your days go something like this:

Yes, I am wearing pj's while I grocery shop.
Um yes, I DO have a Cheerio stuck in my hair. That's not a fashion now?
Yes, that's my kid eating your potted plant. That's the most vegetables he's had in 2 weeks.
Oh wait, I'm not supposed to discuss poop at a dinner meeting?

There have definitely been some hard times. My daughter once managed to take the cap off of my bottle of chondroitin/glucosamine supplements and eat a couple of them. That was the first day I called Poison Control - and hopefully my last. (The supplements aren't harmful in case you're wondering.) Poison Control is now on speed dial. And of course my least favorite times when my daughter has gotten sick in the car and my husband and I have had to scrub down everything. Ugh, no matter how much throw up I've dealt with in the past 2 years, it still bothers me the most.

All the hard times make me appreciate the funny times the most though. Like the challenge of working out with a toddler, or most memorably, when I put one of my daughter's boogers in my mouth. My son is still too young to wreak any big time mischief yet, but I know the minute he can crawl I'll have some stories for you.

I polled some of my friends and readers to ask them for their stories. Surely I wasn't the only one who has ridden home in the back of the car holding a handful of throw up? I wasn't disappointed.

We go through a lot of crap for our kids. Literally.

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My daughter was only 4 days old. It was the middle of the night. We were concerned because she hadn't pooped for 2 days and only once while in the hospital. That night I prayed that she would poop! (Something I never thought I would be praying about!)


Around 4 am she was sitting in her bounce chair and she opened her eyes and was wide awake. I was happy to see her awake,since she was only days old, but was wondering why it had to be at 4 am! All of a sudden my husband screams, "Oh my gosh! She pooped!" And he runs into the bathroom to get a wet towel. I was confused because I didn't see anything. (After all it was 4 am and dark). He replied, "You are not looking up high enough."


I look at her shoulder and there it was, green/black poop. (You moms know what I am talking about too, those first poops newborns have). It made it all the way up her back, sides and shoulders and starting to come down the front of her shoulders. Her brand new bounce chair is covered too. I pick her up and take her to her changing table. At that point I said to my husband, let's just cut this onesie off of her! So that's what we did. Then my husband looked at me and said, "You prayed she would poop!"

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A few days ago, my daughter came running up to me in the backyard - she had something in her hand. It was dried dog poop. And she had something in her mouth, which she told me was grass.


So...we're in the public restroom at a local restaurant, every stall full with people waiting,and she decides she needs to poop.


She says, "Eewww, that tastes bad." I said, "You mean it smells bad. You smell with your nose."


Then she said..."Mom, I did eat the poopie. I'm sorry I lied to you.

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And here's a sweet (non-poo related) reminder from one reader that God is always looking out for our kids when we can't:

I was a young mom of 23 with my first born. I had to work so I was working a a snack bar at the pier. I took the playpen and placed my son in it where I could watch him and play with him, during the times I was not busy behind the counter.

One day I was very busy and I heard a voice (which I know was God ) telling me "look at your son." I responded in my head "I am too busy right now" the voice more sternly but at the same time lovingly said "LOOK AT YOUR SON!" so I did.

Somehow he had grabbed a cap from a baby juice bottle and had placed it in his mouth and was choking. I jumped over the counter took the cap out of his mouth grabbed my baby and went outside.

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Thank you all for sharing your stories, and thank you for all that you do as mothers.

Happy Mother's Day

Fresh Beat Band Birthday: The Big Day!

My daughter turned 2 yesterday, and if you've been reading along, we celebrated by throwing her a Fresh Beat Band-themed birthday. If you don't know who the Fresh Beat Band is, imagine High School Musical meets The Wiggles and there you have it. They're happy, they're colorful, and if they ever get in a bind, their problems can always be solved by a song or two. If only life was that simple right?



In any case, my daughter LOVES the Fresh Beat Band. If they ever go on tour, you better believe we'll have front row seats. She calls them "my Ba Beats," and if she's ever upset about anything, we can turn on an episode of Fresh Beat Band and it cheers her right up. After a year of watching Fresh Beat Band, I know every song, episode, and catch phrase of each band member. They've practically become members of the family. Like second cousins who show up to entertain our kid then leave after eating all the good snacks.

For Haley's second birthday, I wanted everything to be Fresh Beat Band themed from the decorations to the goody bags and the food. Considering there are no Fresh Beat Band party supplies out there yet, I think I did pretty well with what I could find or create. I was rushing around to do so much so I ran out of time and I unfortunately didn't get as many pictures of the table as I had wanted.

It was all about color color color. All of the partyware and decorations were bright and colorful (since everything and everyone in the show is colorful.) Rather than choosing one color, I thought it would be more appropriate to use a variety of colors based on those used in the show.

The musical notes I cut out were hung from the living room fan as well as over the table - which I didn't get pictures of , grr.

The Food

The food was my favorite part of the party. Everything was themed around the show. I even made individual tags for each food item with catchy names like "Hip, Hop, and Popcorn" and "Groovy Orange Smoothie." Call me corny, but I thought it was a fun touch.

Everyone's favorite part was the Oreo Truffle Pops (I've got to come up with a better name). There was only one left after the party was over! I make Oreo Truffles pretty regularly for my hubby who is obsessed with them, but for the party I decided I wanted to make them kind of like cake pops. I made the truffles as usual, then added some sprinkles on top and stuck them on popsicle sticks. I then made some  tags for the pops, which I modified from these cake pop tags on Bakerella.com. Using Photoshop, I just changed the colors and wording to fit the theme. They turned out so cute!

 

I think they were Haley's favorite too :)

The Cake

Of course we had to have a Fresh Beat Band cake. I made the cake myself with the Funfetti cake mix, then my husband made the icing (I gotta give the man credit, the frosting was awesome!) We used a recipe for Cream Cheese Frosting from MarthaStewart.com and added a little more confectioner's sugar because it needed a little more sweetness.

For the topper, we ordered an edible sugar screen print of the image that I made for Haley's birthday invites from a local baker. All we had to do was peel the topper off and place it on the cake. It looked great, and it was super easy. I used more of the frosting to decorate the edges and that was it!

I had to help her blow out her candle. She was a little confused as to why we would want her to get near a flame when we've continually told her that fire is bad.

Goody Bags

I went the simple route and used clear cellophane bags and ribbon for the goody bags. Each one is filled with crayons and the coloring pages I made in this post, plastic musical instruments, and bubbles shaped like guitars. They also each got a "Backstage Pass" that I printed off from the Fresh Beat Band printables on NickJr.com.

Since the show is centered around music, the little instruments were perfect for the kids. Their parents might not agree with me though :)

To quote the Fresh Beat Band, it was a great day. Haley had a ton of fun at her party playing with all of her friends and eating nothing but sugar all day. It's just hard to believe she's already another year older. Every day she seems like she's doing or saying something new. When we ask her how old she is now, she'll even tell you "two!" ... and hold out five fingers.

We're working on it.

I'm linking up here:

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