What little girl wouldn't love this playspace?

Room Tent Marrakesh from Haba found at Landbridge Toys

Oompa Loompa

I adore toy companies that make toys that actually keep a child interested for more than 10 minutes. There are some things that have this ability, but they are not usually actually toys... ya know- cardboard boxes, packing bubbles, wooden spoons. One toy company that has caught my eye is Oompa Toys. I love that none of their toys require batteries, are not cartoon themed, and are meant to be passed down for generation to generation. Love love love them... especially these things:

Surf's Up Saturday- Happy Sweetest Day!

Today is Sweetest Day and for those of you who do not know what this is here is what Wikipedia defines it as!

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Sweetest Day (From Wikipedia)
Observed by: Mostly Midwestern United States
Type: Local
Date: Third Saturday in October
2008 date: October 18th
Celebrations: Giving small presents such as greeting cards, candy, and flowers to loved ones

Sweetest Day is an observance celebrated primarily in the Great Lakes region and parts of the Northeast United States on the third Saturday in October[1]. It is described by Retail Confectioners International as an "occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember not only the sick, aged and orphaned, but also friends, relatives and associates whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed."[2] Sweetest Day has also been referred to as a "concocted promotion"[3] created by the candy industry solely to increase sales of candy.

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Here are my pick's of love to celebrate Sweetest day, which we do celebrate at our house. Why complain about another reason to get chocolate and give presents?

Wordless Wednesday

Who needs carving when you can have a Mr.Pumpkinhead? )

Surf's Up Saturday- Think Pink!!!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and everywhere you look you see pink ribbons. I have not only lost my grandmother to breast cancer but already have had a lumpectomy that was pre-cancerous. Luckily my sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha, is a huge contributor to the Susan G. Koman foundation and I had been doing my self checks and caught the lump in time. There are so many ways that you can help fight breast cancer and aid the effort to find a cure from donating money to women who need mammograms to just buying products that donate. Here are my finds of the week while surfing, just click on the pick!!

This is one of my favorite finds! I love the fact that there is a calendar that you check off when you do your exam and how to do it properly!

And don't forget to go to www.thebreastcancersite.com and click every day to help low income women get mammograms. No registration, just know that you are helping the cause!!!

Dog Gone Happy

We have had Spooky for about 5 days now and she is really coming out of her shell! She is still behaving really well which leads me to believe that she was someone's pet and was cared for before ending up in the pound. She is starting to get it that the cats do not enjoy being pawed or chased and always lets us know that she has to go out. My favorite things about her is that she knows basic commands plus a few extras like "spin" and that she isn't a barker. When you adopt a dog that belonged to someone else you have no clue what happened before, but we definitely lucked out and found ourself a fabulous dog! Here are some new pics (notice that she has already gained a little bit of weight!)

Picture Fun

So I love getting pics of my girls done.... love love love it. Here are AJ's new pics for the fall, wearing her new birthday cords. They turned out so well that we already planning for more pics to be taken next month for the holiday season!

and......I am addicted to using this technique for creating poloroid composites!! I am designing an 8x10 using pics from this summer to hand on the wall. (If anyone wants one done let me know and I will hook you up!)

Facelift

Everywhere I look blog and websites are gettig facelifts so I think now would be a good time for one for Creative Bubbles. Be sure to grab a new button to go along with the new look! Let me know what you think and remember that I can make you a custom banner to match a background for your blog with ease!
(Blog background is courtesy of The Cutest Blog on the Block- see top left corner for the link!)

Ciao!

A Walk in the Park

After naptime and the festival fun I decided to take the girls and Spooky to the Metroparks for some nature fun and exercise. It was great to see Spooky get excited over all the smells and when we went down by the river everyone had fun playing with the rocks (or chewing them if you are AJ)... it was a very beautiful serene setting! What a great end to my perfect day!

A Perfect Day

What is a perfect day in my world? A day that is sunny but a cool enough to call for jeans, a sweater, and some cute boots. A day where my kids are well behaved, my hubby and I are in total sync, and I don't feel frazzled. Oh, and there is some fair food and craftiness involved.

Well today was a day just like that! We went to the Woolybear Festival, the biggest one day festival in OH, which was sooo much fun. I have never even heard of a woolybear, it is a funny caterpillar, but hey- it is a good reason to have a festival! This is what one looks like:

We got there nice and early (we heard that it can get quite crowded) and didn't have to walk far at all. We also decided to bring Spooky with us to help her get comfortable around lots of people and meet dogs, which turned out to be a total success. I have never seen so many dogs dressed up for the occasion (not to mention all the weiner dogs that looked like woolybears!). Spooky did awesome, only was scared of one guy who was HUGE and only had one dog snap at her. She was a little timid at first but by the end she was taking it all in and enjoying life. We will definitely come back next year. (If you are scared of snakes or spiders though avoid Jungle Terry, there were snakes there big enough to eat many of the dogs!) Here are some pics of our fun:

yes, that is my child touching a HUGE snake!