Magnetic Memo Board

Wow!  Welcome to all of our new blogger friends!  I hope that now the big giveaway is over you'll stick around and play! :

Since we've been turning the office into a nursery, my boys kept asking me when I was going to "paint their room". Well. I wasn't going to paint their room (it really doesn't need it!), but I did decide to freshen it up a little bit. After all, it was still pretty babyish, and it didn't seem fair that baby sister was getting all the new stuff!

So, out went all the zoo animals and in came the dinosaurs! One thing I wanted to add to their room was a memo board to hang pictures on. Off  I went and bought 2 14x14" magnetic dry erase boards and 2 14x14" cork boards (just like the ones shown below via Amazon).  And, after perusing Fabric.com for quite awhile, I found some super cute dinosaur fabric that I not only loved, but matched the boys room as well. 

 For all of you non-sewers - there was no sewing whatsoever involved in this project AND it took me less than an hour. Here's what I did:

First, I cut my fabric.  Since my boards were 14" square, I cut my fabric 17" square so that I would have enough edging to wrap around the sides and to the back.

Then, using spray adhesive, I glued the fabric on to the boards. 

Had I had an ounce of patience and/or forethought, I would have marked my fabric before gluing it on the boards to ensure it was on straight and even.  It all turned out okay; I just realized that taking that extra step would have made my life a tad easier.

Smoothing out the fabric was an excellent job for my little helper!

I didn't take photos of the last step, but all I did was use Okay To Wash It fabric glue to glue the fabric to the edges and the back of the boards.  If you haven't tried this glue already, it's awesome!! It's what I use to "sew" my husband's scouting patches on his uniform.

The very, very last step was adhering the fabric trim to the front of the boards.  Yes, I do kind of wish I had just sewn those on, but again, it really turned out fine just using the fabric glue.  The strips are 1" wide by 17" long.

And there you go!  A super cute memo "board" with two magnetic sections and two cork board sections waiting for photos of 2 very cute little boys to be hung on them.

Dinosaur Party

This weekend was my son's very first birthday party, which he has been "patiently" waiting for all week! He was allowed to invite 4 friends for his 4th birthday, and he knew exactly which four he wanted to invite.

We had a bit of a "Dino-bration" with dinosaur foot prints

Dinosaur cupcakes

(the cupcake toppers I bought from {Paper Clever})

And decorate your own dinosaur goodie bags.

We also had dinosaur party hats

And dinosaur eggs to hunt.
(I found that idea {here}.  She also has an {Etsy shop} which is where I purchased my invites, some tags and a banner.  In all fairness to her, she does sell some super cute dino party hats like the ones above.  However, I already had those in the works before stumbling upon her shop - so I promise I didn't rip her off! :) )

We also had a "dino dig" in the dirt pile in the back, complete with shovels, magnifying glasses and lots of mini dinos to be found.

Brychan was super excited and stood by the front door for 15-20 minutes waiting for his friends to arrive.

The one thing Brychan really wanted for his birthday party was a pinata.  I had no clue he even knew what a pinata was, but when I asked him, he told me right away "it's a pinata you hit with a stick and candy falls out of it".  Yep!  So, we had a T-Rex pinata, which Daddy ultimately had to hit to break open.

 Why is he only willing to sit and say "cheese" so perfectly when his mouth is covered in chocolate?

I think all the kids had a blast, but phew!!  Throwing a birthday party is hard work!!!   There were several things about the party that weren't perfect or that I wanted to be different, but in the end, I just had to tell myself that "they're 4 and they really don't care about that".  I think sometimes as moms, we get caught up in all the fun of planning and decorating that we get carried away in perfection.  My four year old isn't going to remember that the hats were imperfect, or that there weren't as many decorations as I had wanted.  He's going to remember that he had the Dinosaur party he asked for with a pinata and his best friends.  And that's whats most important!