DIY: Freezer Paper Stencil Custom Shirt

Well.  Hey there.

Just popping in to show this cute and easy shirt I made for Gavin last weekend.  (Wish I could stay and chat longer, but my report cards are due.  It's that time of year!)

We had a Sing-a-Long birthday party for the twins on Sunday.  They're going to be five on Thursday.  FIVE!  In my head, I still picture this all of the time, and count my innumerable blessings:

Thankfully, they fattened up pretty fast those first weeks in the NICU, and there's no end in sight.  (For those new to this blog, you can read old posts dating back to the early days to get a glimpse of what life was like with preemie twins.)

Back to the shirt.  Since it was a sing-a-long theme, and since a talented friend of mine was singing her original children's songs to entertain the kids, I wanted Gavin to have a cool shirt to go with the theme of the day.

I started with a cheap navy t-shirt from Old Navy and this free stencil from the Acire Adventures blog.

I photocopied the stencil to scale it down a little and traced it onto the flat (not shiny) side of good ol' freezer paper.  Then I used an exacto knife to cut it out, placed it shiny-side down on the t-shirt, and ironed for about 30 seconds until the paper stuck to the shirt.  Please excuse the iPhone photo.  I was charging my Nikon battery!

Originally, I was just going to use light blue fabric paint to stencil the design, but I went with a bleach pen instead.

I waited about 10 minutes, and then peeled the paper off like a big sticker.  To get the smaller, peskier parts of the stencil off, I had to use the tip of the exacto knife.

I immediately rinsed the bleach off of the shirt, and then washed it in cold water by itself.  I always worry about "stray" bleach getting on other clothes.

I think my birthday boy looked adorable.  And tall.

As always, thanks for reading!

Countdown to Noon NYE Party

My little bonus baby turned three on December 30.

This blog was born back in 2007, when my twins were born prematurely.  (Blog was "born" -- har har! Hilarious!)  Tulip & Turnip was a way of chronicling for friends and family our journey with premature twins, but has grown into so much more than that.  I have been very open about our struggle with infertility.  It took several years, lots of dough, and eventually IVF to conceive Charlotte and Gavin, who are now four and perfectly healthy.

When they were about 13 months old, Michael and I went out for Chinese food.  I saved the fortune from my cookie that night because I was intrigued:  The love of your life will appear unexpectedly.  A week later, we found out that Nathan was on his way, with no intervention at all (other than the divine kind).  One of the FOUR loves of my life.  I'm a lucky lady.

Since his birthday is so close to New Year's Eve, we decided to have a "Countdown to Noon" birthday party.  I knew there was no way that I was staying up until midnight, so the kids weren't either.  This was their chance to experience the festivities.  Here are a few photos of the celebration.

The giant purple monstrosity hanging from my ceiling is a balloon drop, i.e  two Dollar Store tablecloths "sewn" together with yarn.  It worked!

I made the little memo book and crayon favor based on something I found here via Pinterest.

The Simple Things

Yesterday was Michael's birthday, so we decided to have a birthday picnic.  The weather was beautiful.  We ate homemade potato salad, chicken salad, and angel food cake.  The kids were happy and well-behaved.  Charlotte wore her tutu.  What could be better?

We pretended we were Harry Potter and played with wands.  This is Charlotte practicing her "swish and flick."

We played a little Frisbee, because that's what you do on a picnic.

A good time was had by one and all.  See how happy the kids are to be with the birthday boy?

See how bored the kids are to be with me?

Never fails.  Hope you had a great weekend!  Linking up here:

Happy 4th Birthday, Twinkies!

**Don't forget to enter my leather cuff bracelet giveaway!**

Charlotte and Gavin turn four today.  Four.  How is that possible?  I can't believe I have two little four-year-olds.

The photo above was taken by their Aunt Sarah at our bowling birthday party last weekend.  I love it because it totally encapsulates their little personalities.  These two are such good buddies; they would do anything for each other.  As you can see, Charlotte often talks Gavin into things that wouldn't otherwise be his idea of a good time:

Doesn't Gavin look thrilled to be dressed as Tinkerbell?  What a good sport.

We've come a long, long way from our NICU days:

My little guys are fighters.  And I count my blessings every day for the spunk and the spirit that they have shown since the day they were born.  Little miracles, they are.  Four-year-old miracles!

Here they are preparing to blow out some candles.  Please ignore my terribly ugly bowling lane cake.  A baker, I am not.

Happy Birthday, Charlotte and Gavin! xoxoxo

My Birthday Boy

I can't believe this little guy is 2 already.  Such a blessing, this kid is.  He's almost always this happy.  Even when he's mad (and he does have quite a temper), he's so ridiculously funny.  I just know he's going to be that kid in school that everyone likes.  Even though Charlotte and Gavin beat up on him a little, there's a whole lot of hugs and kisses in there as well.  They think he's pretty neat, too.

His party is on Sunday, but we still wanted to celebrate with some birthday cake!

Last week, on my hunt for stocking stuffers, I found these in 5 Below:

I didn't know what I was going to use them for, but I bought them anyway because I thought they were so cute!  And then the stars aligned, and I read this post from Serena, and I knew exactly what to do with them! (Okay, so her cake was WAY cuter....whatever!)

I started with a yellow cake from a box.  Short on time, you know?

Here's the yummy buttercream icing recipe I used, except I halved it:

Buttercream Icing (yields 5-6 cups)
1 cup butter
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup milk
2 tsps. vanilla
8 cups confectioners sugar

Cream the butter and shortening together until smooth.  (I had my mixer going for about 10  minutes).  Gradually add sugar, milk, and vanilla.  Mix until smooth.

Then I added all of the chocolate cones and mushrooms for the winter-wonderland vibe.

Okay, it's not nearly as pretty as Serena's.  But Nathan liked it! And that's what counts!

Nathan's Fire Truck Party

Even though it's going to be a small gathering, we still decided to have a "theme" for Nathan's second birthday.  Since he's starting to get into trucks, particularly fire trucks, we decided that would be easy enough.

I designed the invitation using a fire truck graphic from  JW Illustrations. Jessica does terrific clip art. It only cost $1.00 to download, bringing the total cost of the invitation to a whopping: $1.00.

More details are coming!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Charlotte and Gavin!

Let Them Eat Cake!

I've got the first birthday party under my belt. It went well, I think. My cats were only moderately terrorized, and just one child puked due to accidentally ingesting Rice Krispie Treats made with fluff, which apparently contain egg whites. (Mia Culpa, Jakob!)

We stuck with The Cat in the Hat theme, which was pretty easy and I was pleased with the overall effect. I'm no Keri, but I tried. Here are a few of the highlights: