Magnet Board

We have all stainless steel appliances in our house. They look beautiful, but the one thing {besides the fingerprints} I have always hated was that my boys never had anywhere to play with magnets. When Henry and Grant were younger I would give them a cookie sheet and some magnets to play with, but that just was never as much fun as playing with them on the wall or on the refrigerator.So, I made my own magnet board for the kitchen {with a little TON of help from my hubby}.

SUPPLIES:

Sheet of metal

wood trim

spray paint

buffing compound

adhesive

I picked up the supplies for this project for around $20 at Lowes. The sheet of metal was around $10, the trim was around $6, the spray paint was $3, and Jason already had the buffing compound and the adhesive.First, we had to decide how big we wanted our magnet board to be. Ours was only going to be a little bit smaller than the precut pieces of metal at Lowes, so Jason brought it home and trimmed it down. I'm pretty sure that they will also cut it to size for you at the store.

Then, Jason cut the frame and I spray painted them with at least three coats of black. I knew there would be lots of little hands on this, so I wanted it to be as durable as possible.

Jason also used some buffing compound to polish the metal so it would be shiny. We used some spray adhesive to attach the metal to the side of the kitchen cabinet, and then we attached the frame to the metal piece using the same adhesive. You could also use screws or nails to hold the metal and frame into place depending on where you put it. Now the boys have a fun place to play with magnets, and because it is in the kitchen {but not close to the stove} they can play in the kitchen more while I am cooking dinner. Now maybe I can get my tupperware cabinet organized:)

A Whole Bunch of Not Much

Today, all I have the energy for is a random post of basically nothing. So here it goes.
We had a good Easter weekend. We stayed SUPER busy and ate way too much junk food and candy. Jason got a ton of stuff done around the house and in the yard. And I spent most of the day Saturday working on Eli's Easter suit. It turned out really cute, and my sewing skills have gotten so much better than the first time I made Henry a suit 5 years ago:) We went to the early church service, came home, and took a few pictures:


Then we ate breakfast, went to visit Jason's family, went to visit my family, and finally back home to take a nap. After a few hours on the couch, I got up and started cleaning my TOTAL wreck of a house. It is sort of cleaned up now...but I still have a lot to do. Mainly, fold the laundry from last week that is still living on the couch!

I did finish up a few other crafty things this weekend. I will post more about this really fun project tomorrow, when I have more energy:) Here is a little hint until then:

My bloggy friend Amanda is having a SUPER giveaway gala all this week, and today she is giving away one of my SUPER cute personalized towels! Go check out her blog and enter to win one of my towels today, and ton of other cute stuff the rest of the week!

I shared this on twitter one day last week, but I won an iPOD Shuffle this week!?! I was so excited! I have won some great stuff from blogs lately, but this is by far my biggest win! I have thought about getting an iPOD before, but just couldn't make myself spend the money on it because it wasn't something I just had to have! But now I am going to have one! YAY! Winning stuff always makes me want to give stuff away too, so be watching for a possible giveaway on my blog soon...maybe when I get to 300 followers:)

I also wanted to link up to this fun meme...just because I have some great pictures to go with her optional prompt of "Your kiddo's first big owie"!

This is Henry when he was almost one year old. I don't really remember exactly what happened, but I think it involved him running on the concrete and then falling head first. It was a huge raw spot on his head, so we coated it with Neosporin and covered it with a bandage.
This picture was taken a week after he first hurt his head, and there is still a pretty big mark {and a bunch of chocolate on his face from his Easter bunny}!

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Okay, I think I have been random enough for one day! Tomorrow I will be back to my normal stick to the subject blogging....I hope I didn't bore you too badly with my whole bunch of not much:)

Easter Baskets and Bunny Cake

I decided that after five years of using the same small {and SUPER cute} Easter baskets, that I need to upgrade the boys' baskets to something that will hold more than 3 eggs a little bigger.

I found some cute fruit baskets at Hobby Lobby for $3.99 each, and I decided that they were just the right size for Easter baskets. I also picked up some polka dot ribbon and some wooden tags while I was there. With a little bit of spray paint and hot glue, I knew I could make some SUPER cute Easter baskets! I painted the baskets and let them dry over night.
I used my hot glue gun to attach a strip of ribbon around the basket.
I followed the brace in the center of the basket, but you could really put the ribbon anywhere you want.
Then I tied a cute little bow on one side of the basket for a little more color.
I used some wooden tags {4/$1 at Hobby Lobby} and Mod Podged each of the boys' names on them in colors that coordinated with the ribbon. {In case you haven't noticed before, Henry's color is always blue, Grant is always green, and Eli is always orange} Then, I used my Cropodile to add the grommet, but you could just make a hole and pull the ribbon through without it.
I tied the name tag on with another piece of polka dot ribbon, and filled the basket up with green paper Easter grass.

Now my boys have baskets big enough for a SUPER Easter egg hunt:)

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BUNNY CAKE
Henry's class had an Easter party yesterday, so I decided to make a Bunny Cake.

You need two round cakes, icing, and candy to decorate with.

Leave one of the round cakes whole and cut bunny ears out of the other. {You can also make the extra piece from the ears into a bow tie, but I didn't have room for it on my baking pan.}
Cover the cake in icing.
And then decorate away. I usually cover the whole cake in coconut, but I figured the Kindergartners might turn their noses up at it:)
A simple and easy Bunny Cake perfect for an Easter party!
I hope everyone has a great Easter weekend!

(46) and Jesus said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, (47) and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Luke 24:46-47