Ruler of the Elves

The mice will play!

Father’s Day this year was pretty good for Chris, from what I understand. We had a pretty laid back day, going to our favorite restaurant and loading up on yummy food, then off to get his favorite treat, ice cream. He was also lucky enough to get a new lawn mower. (When it comes to my husband and anything with a motor, he is happier than a pig in, well, you know what.) But, all good things must come to an end, so when today came, he was off on a plane for a business trip, leaving me behind to tend to the kids and animals.

Of course, I had to take the opportunity to do something fun since we were one man short. So, Pinky and I decided to make Mouse Pizza for dinner. (Rodent haters beware!)

The little buggers were super easy to make and pretty good to eat too. As for the ingredients, they were also pretty simple and could be modified easily to fit anyone’s taste. We used corn tortillas, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, olives and bean sprouts for our mice.

Pinky used her hardest concentration face to add the tomato sauce and cheese to the cut tortillas.

After the “skin and fur” were added, she placed the eyes, ears, nose and whiskers on, completing the look and the mice were ready to head into the oven.

Want to make your own? Here is the easy peasy recipe:

Ingredients
Corn (or Flour Tortillas) cut into triangles
Tomato Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
Pepperoni for ears
Olives for eyes and nose
Bean Sprouts for whiskers

Heat oven to broil. Place tortillas on a greased baking sheet. Spoon on sauce and sprinkle on the cheese. Place the pepperoni, olives and bean sprouts in the proper locations. Broil for 2 minutes or until cheese is melted. Remove from oven and ENJOY!

Well, because I tend to be a procrastinator and also because Sweet Pea came a few weeks early, completely finishing up the nursery the way I would have liked it to be was somewhat of a challenge. So, I’ve decided to share what is finished so far, since it may be awhile until I actually get around to really completing it. (Sleep is a much more important job right now.) You may remember these drab photos of the nursery to be that I posted a little over 4 months ago.

Oh and did I mention that the room is only 7′ x 8′ with a 2′ x 4′ closet inside? It’s the tiniest room in the house besides the half bath. Working with such a small space presented us with a few challenges, including finding a crib smaller than standard size and searching out storage options. Here’s the floor plan for a better understanding of what we were working with…

Lucky for us, we were able to introduce the furniture pieces that we felt were necessary and some much needed storage areas. And we knew that we wanted needed a comfy rocking chair too, so that was a must. Without further ado, here is Sweet Pea’s nursery in it’s current condition.

You can see that the wall behind the chair is blank (I would like to add some sort of something) and that the hanging lantern’s cord needs to be concealed, but those are 2 of the items on the to-do list still. The pillow on the chair is one that I whipped up in a few minutes using some cheap Chipper fabric from Amazon and stitch witchery. The white blanket was mine when I was a baby and is wonderful for snuggling under.

This amazingly comfy rocker was purchased from Babies R Us and costs us a pretty penny, but since we were very frugal with the rest of the nursery (think Craigslist, Ikea and Target) we were able to splurge a bit more for this squishy wonder. We also got a free matching ottoman out of the deal too, which resides in the closet when not in use. I love rocking in gliders and my kids love to be rocked. It is great to be able to snuggle up with them and this amazing chair just the place to do that.

Here’s a shot of the Delta Riley Mini Crib tucked into the little nook between the closet and the wall. We scored it on the cheap from a Craigslist seller who only used it for a few weeks, but it is currently sold at both Target and Babies R Us I believe. The crib skirt is one that I also whipped up using stitch witchery. (Yay for no-sewing!) It currently hides the under bed storage bin for baby blankets and towels behind it.

Above the crib, there is a photo frame from Ikea that I filled with some name prints I made in Photoshop. The letters are Sweet Pea’s initials and I used fabric I had lying around to matte them on.

You may have noticed the dark brown, extremely loved teddy in the crib. That is my “Bear” from when I was a little girl. Pinky also has a teddy, appropriately named “Bear”. Maybe Sweet Pea will latch on to one of his when he gets a little bigger.

I’m not sure I really love the crinkle curtains that are hiding clothes and extra baby gear in the closet, but I had them on hand and they will work for now until I decided whether or not to replace them.

Here is the last photo I have and it is certainly a sorry one to end with. This is the Billy book case from Ikea and I still need to figure out some sort of basket situation. It currently houses books and toys, but definitely needs some help to get it looking decent. I would also love to put a small canvas art piece above it where the clock is located.

So, there you have it. The almost finished nursery reveal. After a few more tweaks, including decor items and window treatments, it will be finished and I will make sure to update when it is done!

Disclaimer: I would like to thank all concerned citizens who may worry about the lack of baby proofing in this room. However, the stuffed animals do not stay in the crib while Sweet Pea is sleeping, the frame above the bed is secured to the wall and we plan to move the crib away from the window once our little bundle of joy is big enough to pull himself up in the crib.

This pic from our weekly photo set is really not that great of quality, but I thought it was pretty funny looking. We were at a baseball game and Pinky was playing around with one of her best friends. The girls were being so cute and since I didn’t have my own camera with me, I asked to borrow Chris’ cell phone to snap a photo of the two. This one I thought was particualarly funny because Pinky has that “Cousin It” thing going on, since her head is turned to the side and it seems her face is covered with hair. Her friend, therefore, must be named “That.” 🙂

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You may remember my post about Mother’s Day this year and even though it is now closer to Father’s Day, I just received an awesome Mother’s Day gift that I had to share. Last fall, one of my best friends purchased a super cute necklace that had her kids names hand stamped on little charms. I really admired it and have talked about it several times since then with my hubby. When the big day came this year, Chris told me that I was getting my own, but he wanted to make sure to get me exactly what I wanted, so I got to pick out the particulars. And I knew exactly what I wanted. (I had been stalking the website for months and drooling over a specific design, but never actually got around to purchasing anything.) Here is what I chose…

It is just a simple chain with a pearl in the middle and each of my kids initials on charms on the sides. I love it so much!!

Want to buy your own? Check out The Vintage Pearl. The prices are great!

This past weekend, we took Sweet Pea on his first tide pooling trip. He didn’t really get his hands too dirty since he spent the majority of his time in the Baby Bjorn sleeping, but Pinky sure had fun searching for creatures in the watery puddles.

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In this particular location, when the tide goes out leaving the tiny tide pools, it also clears a semi dry path for us to walk over to an island.

The island has short walking trails,

pretty plants,

and amazing views.

Pinky was quite the comic on our little excursion.

She kept posing in quirky positions for the camera

or she would intentionally look down so I could not capture her face.

Finally, I tricked her into looking up at me and caught her pretty blue eyes with the camera.

After about 1.5 hours of hanging out, it was starting to get cool, so we decided to head back to the car. I found these pretty flowers on the way back.

And of course, once securely in his carseat, Sweet Pea decided to wake up, completely missing the entire experience, but well rested, nonetheless.