Trying to be a bit creative and a new "love"....

Good evening everyone.  I hope all of you are doing well and getting ready for a good long holiday weekend.  We sure are.  We have no major plans, but it will be nice to officially kick off summer.  Although I am no longer teaching, the end of the school year still sends excitement thru me.  The library summer programs kick off and lots of fun summer activities are planned.  I am excited.  

We have been busy over the last few weeks.  Mostly fun activities but a few appointments that we are glad are over.  

First off, we have been a bit creative.  Darbee Rae LOVES Barbie dolls.  She has a million of them!  She wanted a Barbie house for Christmas and I was thrilled when I found a small one that would fold up and store. She was very excited, but you know...it's not really big enough for Barbie's to stand up in.  It's not the big Barbie mansion.  So....thanks to Pinterest...don't you just love that site????? I found a cool Barbie house that you can make.  So what do I do?  Of course...I get busy.  This required cleaning out my entire craft closet just to clean off one bookshelf that I could use to make it.  Just look at this...This is the one I found on Pinterest.....

Isn't that so neat?  Your very own Barbie house to personalize as you wish.  I had to make it for her.  We headed out to our nearest craft store to pick out the "wallpaper."  She chose all of it on her own. 

Then we got busy.  She even wanted to help me paste it on.

We started with a plain bookshelf.

And here is the beginning.

We are nearly done with the walls and need to start on the floors.  I am about as excited as she is.  I can't wait to add cute decorations to it.  And the good thing is...Santa brought a huge furniture set.  So....we are set for a living room, kitchen, dining room, bathroom and bedroom.  

Will update you soon on the progress!

Now on to more creativity.  I have a Cricut machine and I LOVE it!  It was a wonderful present I bought for myself when I was working.  I used it in my classroom and loved it and also made all kinds of personalized stuff for Darbee.  

Darbee was invited to a birthday this past Saturday for a little boy in her preschool class.  They haven't seen each other since I left work, so she was beyond excited to go.  What to buy for a little boy turning 4?  I had no clue.  So....I pulled out my handy dandy Cricut machine and got busy.

A sand pail with his name on it.....

A water bottle with his name and a wagon....

Personalized shovels and rakes....

A personalized box of sidewalk chalk...

and personalized bubbles.  

We also included an inflatable sprinkler.  We put it in a cool basket and headed to the party.  

It was a big hit!  It turned out so cute!

To say the two of them were glad to see each other is an understatement.  They were so cute.  Adorable.

Buddies...

They held hands everywhere they went.

At one point, she climbed out of the princess castle jumpy and she ran up to me and said, "Mommy, we are playing and Cooper is the prince and I am his princess."  So sweet.

They played together on everything!  

His mommy wrote me the next day and said all Cooper had talked about since the party was his and Darbee's wedding.  How funny!  You never know.  

While I was being creative with my Cricut, I had another request to fill.  The rodeo was in town on Friday and Saturday.  We love going to it.  Darbee Rae put in a special request.  "Mommy, I want a cool rockstar cowgirl shirt to wear to the rodeo."  Oh my...what a big request.  So..what's a mommy to do?  Get busy again of course!  I had to make the perfect shirt for my little girl.  

I am so thankful my Cricut will also cut fabric!  Here's what I came up with.

I went back and added sparkly jewels on the boots, hat and badge.  I also

bought sparkly letters and added her name at the bottom.  I was pleased with how it turned out and most of all, I had a VERY happy little girl.

Here she is at the rodeo sporting her girly cowgirl hat.

We had so much fun with Aunt Maudie and Leonard at the rodeo.  Some more family joined us and it was a fun evening.

Are you still with me?  Sorry for such a long post.  Can you tell we've been busy?  

Last, but not least...the bad part.  Darbee Rae has to have some dental work done.  She is allergic to milk and other than the calcium she gets from cheese and pudding, that's it.  We tried soy, almond, vanilla, strawberry...EVERYTHING! She wouldn't drink any of it.  She is healthy as a horse and her doctor has advised us not to worry.  She eats well.  

However, it has left her teeth pretty weak.  She is prone to cavities no matter what.  She had to have some work done yesterday.  I will just say...ugh.  I called my mama and told her...."I wish you were here.  This would be one of those times when I would lay on your shoulder and cry and say I didn't sign up for this when I asked to be a mother."  I wanted to curl up and cry.  I was a nervous wreck and Darbee Rae was fine.  She had one filling and one crown.  The dentist she goes to goes way above and beyond.  They are absolutely WONDERFUL! The entire time they were working, they were "drawing a princess on her tooth."  She chose Aurora.  The entire time the dentist was working, she was telling Darbee each step that she was taking to draw a beautiful Aurora.  The last step was to apply her "crown."  She explained to Darbee that she could not see Aurora if she went home and looked in the mirror, but the tooth fairy had special glasses so that she could see her.  All Darbee would be able to see was the shiny crown.  Now let me tell ya....I have one proud little girl of the "crown" in her mouth.  She can't believe she has a princess in her mouth that has been drawn on her tooth.  She did so good and was so brave.  She only whimpered once when she got the shot.  

I took this photo as soon as she was done...

She was breathing in oxygen to reverse the effects of the laughing gas.  

I love this one...she is giving me one thumbs up and one thumbs down...perfect.  

Her gums are a little sore, but she had done GREAT.  A toy afterward at her favorite candy store made things a lot better.  

Whew...that's a lot!  Sorry if I bored you.  

I promise to try and keep up with my blog and post more frequently.

Until next time.....