Our Little Herd

For those of you who have a Chick-Fil-A, you may be aware that yesterday was Cow Appreciation Day. I have never gotten into the bovine spirit before, mostly because I usually forget until the day of. This year wasn't much different, except that I was able to throw some costumes together for the kids during nap time. Not. too. shabby.


Bryan and I were going out for a "Big People Dinner" later that night, so we dressed the kids up and let them get their free Chick-Fil-A entrees. I think they're pretty cute, but I am partial.

The Arrival: Becton won't look at the camera because he is afraid the Chick-Fil-A cow he saw standing out at the road is coming to get him. 

 Still on the lookout...

 I mean really... so cute!

 Extra felt and fabric glue= cow jerseys (Not to be confused with Jersey cows ;)

Happy Cow Appreciation Day!

Summer Get-It-Done List... first mission accomplished!

I decided to tackle the easiest project on my list first.  Not Jane Eyre, but the seriously dated $1 yard sale frame.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Here she is in all her 1970's glory before:

 I loved the detailing, even though it looked like someone tried to fix her with caulk at one point. 

After a quick trip to Lowes for spray paint, I got cracking. 

 At first I thought the color was too blue, but it dried perfectly. 

Note the toes of Bryan's new Vibram shoes... they are a pretty color but he looks like Aquaman when he has them on.  


I was going to buy some antiquing glaze but since the frame was already white underneath, I just took some sand paper to the edges. 


Did I mention I have never done this before?

I still wasn't sure what I was going to do with her.  I was either going to hang her on the wall or prop her on the mantle.  Our mantle looked like it hadn't been changed in four years... and that's because it hadn't.


Finally, I went with this:

 I tested it out on the mantle first, but liked it much more on the wall.  I still don't know if I'm going to add anything inside it; I like to test things out for a little while. 

Not too bad for $1 frame and $3 spray paint. 


Love, 
The Johnsons


I linked this to:

Fourth of July Fun

Our little Bec is a Yankee Doodle baby, in that he was born on the 4th ofJuly.  This is the first year he's been able to really understand what his birthday is and how old he will be.  We've never decorated for the Independence Day, but this year I thought it would be fun to start teaching him about how special his birthday is, so we started with an American flag wind sock. (I confess I called it a wind puppet for a few days... I was getting confused with sock puppets... having children really does diminish your brain cell count.)

I got this idea from the Brilliant Beginnings Preschool blog and modified it. Here's what you need to make one like ours:


Empty canister (we used a grits canister... gotta love the South!)
Blue Felt 
White Ribbon
Crepe Streamers in Red and White 
Aluminum Foil
Thin Cardboard (we used a Cheerios box)
Twine or String
Tape
Glue Gun or other strong glue


1. Make sure your canister has both ends open.  We had to cut the bottom off of ours. 


2. Wrap blue felt around canister and secure with hot glue.  Then use the glue to secure a strip of white ribbon around the top.  You could put ribbon on the top and bottom. 

 3. Cut long strips of red and white crepe paper streamers and tape them to the inside of the canister. Alternate the red and white. 

 If you're brave and/or crazy, let your preschooler cut them himself. 

4. Draw stars on your piece of cardboard; cut them out and wrap them in aluminum foil.  Your foil only needs to be slightly larger than the star itself. Glue them onto your blue felt. 

Notice the triangle? That was Becton's star!


5. Punch three holes under the ribbon trim and use twine/string to hang it. 


6.  Hang it on a hook outside or on a tree limb and then sit back and feel patriotic!

 We want YOU to make a wind sock!

(I promise he did the Uncle Sam finger point on his own!)

Happy Fourth of July!!
Love, 
The Johnsons