Pumpkins and some things I made

We carved pumpkins a few nights back and I forgot to post pictures of it. We let K draw on them first with (gasp!) permanent markers and she did REALLY good. We were very proud of her. I don't have any pictures of the completed pumpkins but believe me when I say, they are very crazy looking. They have black and red scribbles all over them and the face on A's has already caved in making it look a bit prune-y and mine is a cat that only really looks like a cat when the lights are off and there is a candle inside. Anyway, enough lead up, here are the pictures.

Coloring on the second pumpkin.

Proud Daddy looking on as she colors.

Mommy was there to supervise.

She definitely enjoyed coloring with markers.

She even did some carving with those 'safe' pumpkin cutting tools.

So I've had a bit of time these last two days to make/alter a few things around the house. I love having a calendar hanging somewhere conspicuous to remind me of important dates, appointments, etc. but this house didn't really seem to have that exact right spot to hang a paper calendar so I decided to make a dry erase one based off of one I had seen on the Target website.

This was my inspiration.

This is what I already had. I was using it as a hanging jewelry organizer but decided I'd rather have a place to hang my keys, store mail, and keep track of important dates.

And this is how it turned out. I may end up using my handy-dandy label maker for the days of the week since my handwriting got kind of messy at the top there.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and it seems to be doing the job. I'll still keep a small paper calendar somewhere so I can use it to transfer the info from year to year but for the day to day, this seems to work out quite nicely. However, you may be wondering what I did with my jewelry now that I no longer have an organizer for it all? Never fear, I came up with a solution for that as well!

New jewelry box from Target.

For my necklaces, which is what I have the most of, I got these brushed nickel robe hooks.

Two of these

and two of these.

The other thing I made is a Potty Chart for K. I've been telling her that when she goes pee pee and poopies in the potty all of the time and no more in her diapers then she'll get a Thomas Train Table. She does a really great job going at night before bed but I think she (and I) have a harder time remembering to try during the day while we're playing or out and about. This potty thing is as much on my shoulders as it is hers since I need to remind her and so far, I'm not doing such a great job at that. I know it will be easier and cheaper when she no longer needs diapers but I just don't have the super motivation that I need to be on top of it yet. I figure this chart (and the fact that she is now wearing Pull-Ups) might help remind me to ask her. Currently I have it hanging in her bathroom but I think I will move it and bring it with us to whichever room we are in to remind the both of us to try more often. And in case you are wondering, no, I'm not really going to get her an actual Thomas the Train table because those are incredibly expensive. I just call it that because she associates all trains with Thomas because of the Thomas table they have at the Barnes and Noble out here.

She will put a sticker (either a star or Toy Story) in each space whenever she goes on the potty. I found some cool Thomas stickers in the scrapbook section at Michael's. The Toy Story stickers came in the box of Pull Ups. I buy the "boy" version of Pull Ups because they are Toy Story and she is CRAZY about Buzz and Woody.