First Time Mom and Losing It

We love celebrating every holiday in my home. Things are even more fun when you have a preschooler who can finally help with the festivities. When I celebrate a holiday I love to incorporate it into the breakfast, snack time and with something cute to wear.

The first thing I love to give my preschooler on Valentine's day are the most special (and easy) pancakes I can think of. It is so easy to just make your favorite pancake batter and put it into a condiment squeeze bottle. I like to cut the tip of the bottle so that the batter passes through a little easier. Then you can create a heart and the word love with the batter. Make sure when you are writing, that you write the letters in reverse.


I then love to make these easy Valentine's Day Berry Skewers as a healthy snack that is just as festive. They are so easy to make that your preschooler can make them by themselves.


For something festive to wear I created this Tutu adorned with hearts that my preschooler can dance around in. It is so easy sew a piece of elastic into a waistband and then to knot pink and white tulle all around. To make it extra special I sewed on the felt, glittery hearts.


We love creating our own Valentines so the "You are a Bowtiful Valentine" were perfect for my daughter to give to her friends. I made all of the print outs and bows and then had my preschooler help clip them onto the cards.


Valentine's Day would not be complete without a sweet treat. I created these super easy Valentine's Day doughnuts. I had my daughter help mix all of the ingredients and then she had fun watching them come out of the doughnut maker. I added the icing and then let her sprinkle on the sprinkles.


What do you do for Valentine's Day? 

We were invited to attend attend theMOMs JC Penny Okie Dokie and Good Dinosaur Screening Event. We received an article of clothing from Okie Dokie. All opinions are 100% my own.


"What if the asteroid that forever changed life on Earth missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct?" The Good Dinosaur movie answers that question with a story about the world of dinosaurs were an Apatosaurus named Arlo and a human named Spot meet. Spot helps Arlo face his fears and truly become the dinosaur he is meant to be.

Before we got to go see the movie we got to check out the newest additions of Okie Dokie kids clothes from JC Penny. My daughter quickly eyed the rack full of sparkly tutu's! They had two beautiful colors to choose from and the lights really brought out all of the glitter in the skirts. Also embellishing the skirt was a silver glittery elastic and glittery snowflakes. We also got to see some cute sweaters and pants for boys with the Good Dinosaur characters all over.


After she got to put on the tutu and model it in front of the big Arlo picture we went into the screening room. I was surprised that she sat and watched the whole thing! She is usually engaged and watching a movie only for the first half of it until we saw this one. As an adult I enjoyed it too. The sound effects and scenery were beautiful. The story was engaging for both a child and adult. I love the friendship that both Arlo and Spot have. Even though Spot doesn't talk in the movie it is great how he can still communicate with Arlo. In this stage of being a toddler they can be scared of many things so I love how this movie helps show that you can face your fears.

As soon as I found out how easy it is to make a tutu out of tulle I quickly starting working on one when I found out my sister was having a girl over three and a half years ago. It was so easy to make and extremely affordable compared to the prices in those little online boutiques and stores.


Making a tutu is super easy were you just take strips of tulle and knot them onto elastic. First I started by buying yards of tulle and cutting out the strips. If you have ever cut tulle before you know how long the process can be because it slips. My strips never came out even but it was OK because the fluffiness of the finished product hid all of that.

Then I came across another amazing method of cutting the tulle strips by buying the tulle in rolls and wrapping it around a piece of cardboard the length you want. Genius!


To make a tutu for my 2 1/2 year old I measured from waist to knee at  15 inches. I took a piece of cardboard that was just as long by 12 inches wide. Then I wrapped away until the roll was gone. Then I took a pair of sharp scissors and cut across the bottom loops of the wrapped tulle. I then took some pink tulle and repeated with about half of the roll. Set the strips of tulle aside.


Measure around the waist and add 1/2". Take the elastic, overlap the ends and sew with a sewing machine in 3 different spots with reinforced stitches.


Take the elastic loop and place it around the piece of cardboard you used to wrap the tulle. Fold the tulle strip in half and place the loop in the elastic like shown and thread the end pieces through the loop. Continue until you have filled the elastic loop with the tulle strips all around. I did a pattern of two white stripes and one pink strip.



Print out the Hearts Template and pin on top of the red glittery felt. Cut out all of the hearts.



 I placed the hearts randomly around the tulle skirt and pinned them in place. Using a sewing machine, stitch back and forth a couple of times on each heart.



I slipped it onto my sweet little cupid and around and around she twirled with it. She loved it so much that I let her wear it at dance class!