My house is sort of a disaster right now. There’s a two foot tall turkey made from a paper bag left over from Thanksgiving that I can’t throw away because Caroline is in love with it. There’s a bright orange toddler slide the kids keep dragging in from the porch. There’s a broken camera in five pieces on the kitchen island. And the dining room (a.k.a. Party Central) looks like a winter candy cane forest wonderland threw up on it.

But Mandy posted some adorable pictures of her adorable home decorated for Christmas and I wanted to play along. I love seeing people’s decorations in real life versus the ones in the Pottery Barn catalog, which basically just makes me want to give up on life.  My decor this year is a mix of stuff I put up every Christmas and stuff that’s already up for Caroline’s birthday. The party stuff will probably be up until February because I hate putting so much effort into decorating for just ONE DAY. I realize the solution to that problem is to just not put so much effort into decorating, but I am not entirely rational when it comes to holidays/birthdays.

This is Mr. Bear. I won him one year when I worked at Target for getting the most customer compliment cards. I used to think he was hideous and tacky but I sort of love him now.

What do you think? Are my halls thoroughly decked?

I was transferring photos off my phone for this week’s round up and I couldn’t believe it was THIS WEEK that Caroline broke her chin. It feels like a million years ago. Well, except for the part where she had the stitches out on Friday, because the screaming is still echoing in my ears.

Sunday:

Goldfish crackers – Pretty much the same as lidocaine when it comes to relieving chin pain in toddlers

Waitress, this coffee is TERRIBLE.

Get in my face.

Monday:

Wall painters

This pizza place had a bin of toys for the kids. And also really good pizza.

No filter

Tuesday:

Does my fancy hair distract you from my exhausted, dirty face?

Dashing through the family room

Magical winter scene, complete with giant jingle bells and pine cones? Sure!

Wednesday:

No words.

Hanging twinsies

Evan is making that face because Caroline is SCREAMING her head off. The grocery store is torture.

Thursday:

Weirdos.

My favorite and my best cookies

Glow-y

Friday:

Pantsless emergency!!

See my beluga, Mom? DO YOU SEE IT???

Evan acted as photographer while Caroline had her stitches out. There was video too, but I deleted it because OMG WHO WANTS TO RELIVE THAT?!

 Saturday:

Too early for life.

I mean, yeah, it’s gorgeous. But who’s kid could wear that without RUINING it?!

Last of the party prep. NEXT WEEK!!

I have three weeks worth of stuff and three days to do it before my parents get here so the next week is going to be crazy-full. And with E on shift work (AGAIN) I’m doing it all while solo-parenting. I really hope the kids are ready for Elf on repeat. I love smiling, smiling’s my favorite.

Did you take iPhone photos of your week? Link up with one or several below! Please consider joining, even if you haven’t done it before – it’s really fun!

Robots, sunflowers and running – oh my! This feels like the last week of summer to me. Not because it’s going to suddenly get cold but because this week I have BlogHer (THIS WEEK) and then adjusting to a new life with E on shift work (7 days a week, 12 hours a day, no days off). So there won’t be very many more boat trips or family zoo days or…well jeez, now I’m depressed. I guess I’ll have to just spend as much time at the lake as possible before the gorgeous New England fall hits. (And you know I’ve had a pretty good summer if I’m thinking about fall in a pleasant way.)

Sunday:

Robot Evan is fueled by milk and hummus

Caroline didn’t really understand the concept of all the presents being for someone else

The pink ones were the best, but the salted caramel weren’t bath either

Monday:

New favorite way to get 15 minutes of silence

Scoping out the frozen desserts at BJ’s

Still recovering from the weekend

Tuesday:

Library play time

Sunflowers

The track has lights but isn’t lit. I don’t know where I’m going to run once it gets dark at 5 pm.

Wednesday:

Too cool for school

Improvised dinner ended up being a hit

Turns out Caroline is perfectly happy to look at her OWN face on my phone, she doesn’t need to see other babies

Thursday:

We discovered Imagination Movers and she is obsesssssed

For today’s episode of musical beds, Caroline chose Evan’s

I dropped my kids off at a friend’s house which meant she was babysitting SIX KIDS all afternoon (ONE was hers). I owe her a bottle of wine.

Friday:

Zoo navigator

Pretending to be a penguin at the penguin exhibit

Evening run

Saturday:

Buckets are so hot right now

She’s so fashionable she wears my heels to bed

Couch naps for everyone!

Tomorrow we’re going out on the boat, Monday is packing and cleaning, Tuesday I pick up my mother-in-law and then Wenesday is NYC! I’m sorry sorry sorry that I can’t stop talking about it. I realize almost no one cares, unless they are going too. I also realize BlogHer is not the be-all end-all of blogging, or conferences, or anything at all, but it’s hard not to get caught up in the excitement and hype. Bear with me one more week and I promise it will be all gingers all the time.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!

This is an easy tutorial for robot shaped crayons only because we were having a robot-themed birthday. It’s really for any kind of shaped crayons – the possibilities are endless. All you need is a few boxes of regular crayons, a silicone mold and an oven.

Step 1: Peel all the wrappers off the crayons. It’s tedious, but put on a movie, grab a glass of wine and get to work.

Step 2: Break the crayons into pieces. For the 1 inch molds we broke each crayon into 3 or 4 pieces.

Step 3: Put broken pieces directly into the silicone mold.

Step 4: Put the mold in an oven or toaster oven set at 350 degrees for approximately 5-7 minutes, or until the wax has melted.

Step 5: Carefully transfer the mold to a shallow dish filled with ice water. Once the wax cools and hardens, pop out the crayons and repeat!

Lots of colors! Erin made a whole rainbow – each kid got at least 8 crayons.

Tips:

• We were looking for a way to melt the wax to pour into the molds when I suggested just melting the wax IN the mold. It worked perfectly, and all the details on the crayons showed up really well.
• This is the silicone robot mold we used for the crayons. It’s technically for chocolate, but any silicone mold would work for crayons.
• Wax DOES burn, so keep an eye on your crayons and don’t try to rush them by turning the oven up too high.
• If you set your mold on a piece of tin foil (see below) the foil cools almost instantly and it’s easy to transfer to the cold water without tipping or sloshing the wax.
• We only filled the molds about half way – it kept the crayons easy for little hands to grab.

Crayons in action!

Robot birthday post coming soon!