The Game of Keys

I decided to change over my previous blog to this blog. You can still find me over a at twodaisiesandanelephant.blogspot.com. However, most of my blog posts from there will be transferred over to this one. So, at times you may see the "twodaisiesandanelephant" logo going across many of the photos. No worries, it is me. I promise.

Every time I go to open up my front door, I can never tell which key is which. It's almost like a game. I have to feel out the numbers and the letters to know which one goes to the back door and which one goes to the front door. Sadly, the only key that I know doesn't go to this house is the key to my mama's house which has a rubber thing around it.

So, since I was tired of playing the game every time I came home. I decided to paint my keys.

First, I tried it with nail polish as seen here on A Bubbly Life; I saw them on several boards on Pinterest. Now, I didn't quite like the way the keys were looking with the nail polish, so I decided to use my acrylic paint to paint them. The acrylic paint gave it a little bit more of a vibrant look.

Here's the first with the nail polish:

Then with the acrylic paint:

Alrighty, now that I can actually tell which key goes to which door. Let me explain to you how I did it.

It's pretty much like the directions with the nail polish. I had to clean my keys first since when my husband takes my keys they come back dirty. I've asked several times how and never get a straight answer. Who knows. Anyways...

* I grabbed some dried wipes from one of Baby E's wipe containers and wet them to re-moisture them (It mysteriously showed up upstairs... I guess it's from her days of sleeping in the bassinet?)

* I then dried them off with a paper towel and grabbed a few of my paints.

* I found that one paint brush worked WAY better than the others, so I stuck with this one as I painted each.

* The worse part was the drying. Having to wait for each side to dry felt like FOREVER!

* Once both sides dried I added them to my key chain.

Now I just have to go out before I can use them again! Hopefully the Game of Keys is over... but there again who knows? 

Simple Mac & Cheese

Several months ago right after a major winter storm and a several day power outage we came home to some spoiled milk and a few other items. Even though our house was like an icebox and we never opened the fridge it still happened. Unfortunately, we live about 30 minutes from the nearest store; so, we have to make do until we go into town.

Well, last night I wanted some mac & cheese and figured I could make it without the milk. My husband kept contesting that fact. I tried anyways. Since my idea didn't work, we went with his. He suggested using evaporated milk. All I could think of was great this is going to taste really funky.

Ha! I was completely wrong!! It actually gave it a nice sweet taste.

You want to know how to make it, right? Well, here's what you need...

12 ounces of Velveeta Block Cheese (or any other brand, even name brand, your choice)
1/3 cup of Evaporated Milk
2 cups of Elbow Macaroni

Directions:

1. I boiled the water at high and added the macaroni once it completely boiled
2. Once the macaroni was done, I drained it and placed it back in the pot with the burner on medium.
3. Now, I added the cheese 4 ounces at a time. This helped to melt it a little better.
4. As the cheese began to melt, I added the 1/3 cup of evaporated milk. Continuously stirring until it had combined.
5. Once it was all done we enjoyed it with a TON of leftovers! 

~*~ Also, it heats up very nicely in the microwave ~*~

Just a simple substitution with an item that we had lost and I must say it worked out very well. 

Oh Baby, We're Scrub a Dubbing Our Pool!

I decided to change over my previous blog to this blog. You can still find me over at twodaisiesandanelephant.blogspot.com. However, most of my blog posts from there will be transferred over to this one. So, at times you may see the "twodaisiesandanelephant" logo going across many of the photos. No worries, it is me. I promise.

Every day this summer, I've tried to get Baby E into the pool. It's something I've always enjoyed every summer and since she loves the water... I figured she would enjoy it.

We haven't been in the pool though lately because the rain has been never ending and then someday's it's just to hot for her. Overtime, even after wiping the pool down every couple of days. We seemed to gather a little gunk in the crevices. Plus, it didn't help that with the past few rains/winds... the tarp keeps getting blown off random crap has been falling off the trees and into the pool. Oh and let's not forget our little buggy friends.

<- Grandaddy Long Leg

Some ->
Random Caterpillar






The lovely grime with tree particles

Since, the weather gurus have forecasted rain for the next umpteen days. I figured now would be a great time to clean the pool.

So, since vinegar and baking soda are my favorite things. I started with that. It got quite a bit of grime up, but there was still quite a bit left. I added more water to it, rinsed it, dumped it, and added water again. This time I took the dish soap and scrubbed. This helped even more. Got a lot of the gunk off. However, there was just still quite a bit left.. plain ol' stubborn gunk.

As a last resort, I grabbed the bleach and poured it into the pool diluting it with a crap load of water. I then scrubbed the pool again. Of course, the bleach seemed to melt the gunk off. It even seemed like I had a completely brand new sparkly pool.

~*~ I didn't really want to use bleach cause of Baby E,

 but also because it breaks my hands out like nothing before... even with gloves. ~*~

I dumped that water, added more water, rinsed, and dumped again. Then hung it up to dry. Oh yeah, I hung my pool up to dry.

Now, all we need is for the rain to stop so we can get back into that sparkly pool. I'm beyond ready and I know Baby E is!

Do you guys have any great tips on cleaning a baby pool?

Em's 3rd and 4th Month Favorites

Here are a few of Baby E's favorite items from her 3rd and 4th months. At that point in time it was really hard to have her play with a lot of items since she was honestly having more fun with her fingers and her shoes/bar. Those were her favorite items at this point, but she did enjoy the items below.

     

   

Skip Hop Zoo Alphabet Mirror, Rhino Toys Oball, Cuddle U Infant Support/Breastfeeding Pillow, Bright Starts Pretty in Pink Rattle, Bright Starts Pretty in Pink Giggle Garden Activity Gym, Sassy Bumpy Ball

Does your little one have any favorite toys?

Em's Bed Time Favorites (The Almost One Year Old Version)

Baby E has had a pretty good bed time routine since she was about a month old. The girl LOVES to sleep... she's her daddy to a "T". Within her routine we have several items that we use to comfort her at night especially with her shoes.

At night, we usually give Baby E a bath prior to her bottle and bed. Then after her bath we usually will place a little lotion on her skin... it's so dry in our house and we want to make it absolutely comfortable for her. Hey, who likes having dry skin... I know we don't. Then we place her in her sleep and play and her shoes and it's off to a bottle before bed.

When we're done with her bottle we usually will check her and change her. Giving her lot's of kisses for night time. In her crib is her sleeper which she mostly sleeps in to ensure she's warm but also to ensure that she doesn't hit her self with her shoes ~ she's tried before. 

We then turn on everything else. Her elephant humidifier gets turned on, as well as her musical seahorse and light up bear. She absolutely loves each of them and is mesmerized by the seahorse. Thank goodness for Christmas presents!

Her favorite things are listed below:

      

 

Fisher Price Soothe & Glow Seahorse, Pillow Pet Bear, Cool Mist Humidifier, 

Johnson's Baby Lotion, Just One You Sleep Sack, Just One You Sleep & Play

She truly enjoys each of these and they have truly become lifesavers at night. We'll even take the the seahorse and the light up bear with us wherever we go when we know we'll be out late. 

Do your little ones have any bedtime favorites? Share them we'd LOVE to know!

Fixing The Cabinets

I decided to change over my previous blog to this blog. You can still find me over a at twodaisiesandanelephant.blogspot.com. However, most of my blog posts from there will be transferred over to this one. So, at times you may see the "twodaisiesandanelephant" logo going across many of the photos. No worries, it is me. I promise.

When my husband and I moved into this house 9 months ago one of the cabinet doors was slightly off. We ignored it and figured "hey, we can fix it once we get settled." Here we are 9 months later, still not settled, and it's still not fixed.

However, this go round we had a little motivation to fix the cabinets. Our daughter. She's figured out how to open/close each of them and that's the first thing she does every morning now. Unless she sees the dogs bowls.

So, I grabbed the drill and pulled out the screws. It was completely noticeable on why the cabinet was off. With this picture, I've pulled the screws out. But, just imagine that the gap is pretty much like this with the screws in.

I then just sat there and patiently placed it in several different positions. Holding it up with my foot each time. When I finally got it the way I liked it without any real noticeable gaps (the door clearly did not fit there)... I went ahead and drilled the screws back in. 

And it looks A THOUSAND TIMES better!!! See...

Now, onto the main project and motivation for this.... Baby E's Cabinet Safety Locks!!! 

Rainy Day Fun --- Flour Play Dough

Since it's been raining/thundering/lightening/hailing around our house these last few days I decided that we needed to do something different. Literally. Baby E was getting completely bored... exersaucer, walker, mama, toys, and pulling the doggies ears just wasn't cutting it anymore.

So, I grabbed a few items out of the cabinet and decided to concoct something. I mostly noticed that we had barely any flour left in one of our bags... so I thought "hey, why not use it up" and I did.

Here's what I used:

~ a cup of flour
~ 1/3 cup of water (started out with a 1/4, but that wasn't enough)

Then I just dumped the flour into a bowl added the water slowly, mixing while I went and VOILA a flour ball.

Once, I got the consistency that I liked; I gave the flour ball to Baby E and let her have at it :).

She wasn't quite sure at first and then....

We played and we lifted...

And squished and pulled it...

We even ate it. I don't have any pictures on that one cause I kept pulling it out of her mouth ;).

Do you guys have any other great ideas we can use on a rainy day?