Happy Friday, y'all! 

Today I'm really excited to show you guys our vintage comic book decor for our boys' playroom! It was realllllly inexpensive and super awesome! 

We found these old comic books in storage. They belonged to my Dad and uncle when they were kids! So, most of them are from the 70's. They aren't really worth much, since two little boys read/played with them as they should! But, they make for some really cool art! 

Check it out!

These were extremely simple. 

All you need is:
• Black Document Frames from the Dollar Store (when you are doing so many, anything more than $1 starts getting pr
• Black cardstock
• Comic Books 

We simply cut the cardstock to fit perfectly in the frame. Then, we sprayed the cardstock with adhesive and placed the comic book in the very center of the page. Let it dry for a bit, and then place your comic book page into the frame!

The best part?! This project cost about $15! Pretty inexpensive, and covers a whole wall with awesome art! 
Here's the breakdown:
$12 for the frames
~$3 for the black cardstock

Hey y'all! 

I've decided to start a new series called "What I Learned" since overwhelmingly my most popular blog post is the What I Learned From 3 C-Sections. Obviously, pregnancy and new parenthood seems so daunting. My goal is to share my experiences in the hope that I can help some other mama out! We all need it, right?! 

So, today, I am going to share the top 5 helpful books to read when you're pregnant.

My biggest piece of advice for new Mamas is to listen to all of the wisdom you can get. (And if this is your first, I guarantee there will be no shortage of advice coming your way!) Listen to other people, listen to what they have to say and why they say it. And then, decide what works for YOU! Not all of it will... You are going to know your baby better than anyone, so trust yourself, do the very best you can and be proud of yourself for it! :) 

Okay, so the books... Ready? 


Note: these do contain Amazon affiliate links, so if you click through and buy it I'll get a small percentage from the purchase. But, as always, I will only recommend things that I love. :)

I hope y'all find this list helpful! 

What other books have you found and loved? Let me know in the comments below!

I've known for a while that I really wanted to make an "All Seasons" wreath for our front door, just a little something that would say, "Hello and welcome!!" :) Honestly, I thought it would cost $20-$30 to get everything, and I just had not wanted to spend the money on it until now.

When I finished my front porch dresser, I felt like it was definitely time to get the wreath done as well! I knew I wanted a grapevine wreath, and some kind of burlap. I wanted something neutral, so that it would work all year long. 

So we took a Hobby Lobby trip, and found just the right stuff! 

I think it definitely says, "Hello and Welcome!!!" Now, I just need to find some decorations for my front porch dresser... :)

What do y'all think? Let me know in the comments below!

The kids every now and then like to watch Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood on PBS. It's a cute little show, it teaches them things like, "If gotta go potty, Stop! And Go Right Away..." (If you don't know, that's a song. And it's now stuck in my head... :/) 

Anyway, a while back, they had Banana Swirl on Daniel Tiger, and since then, the kids have been asking to make it. Every time they have asked, we either are super busy that moment, or don't have bananas, or all of the bananas we have are old, brown, and nasty. 

So, yesterday morning, Micaiah woke up and said, "Mom, we still haven't made banana swirl. Can we do that today, please?" With that adorable baby face that he totally knows how to sucker me in with. :)

Well, my goodness, with such a polite, sweet request like that I was not going to tell him no. And, it just so happened that we had some bananas sitting in the freezer, so the banana swirl was all ready to be made! 

All it takes is one or two frozen bananas and some milk. Or, like we had, almond milk. 
I cut up 1  1/2 frozen bananas and let Micaiah put that and about 1 cup of almond milk into the blender, and turned it on high. After a minute or so, voila! Banana swirl! 

Or as Colton said, "It tastes like ice cream!!!!" 

Let me tell ya, they were super excited to be having "ice cream" for breakfast! And, ice cream that they can totally have whenever their little hearts desire? Sure, I can fly with that! :) 

Happy Monday, y'all!

So, like I said the other day, it has been madness in the Bennett house lately! I have gotten a lot of stuff done, and just haven't found the time to share it yet.

But today I'm going to show y'all one of my favorite before & after projects of all time: my front porch dresser!

When I first told my love that I wanted to put a dresser on our front porch, he was like, "A what on the porch?! That's weird. :/"

And I said, "Honey, I saw it on PINTEREST! Trust me, it's going to be AWESOME!"

And it totally is! :)

Wanna see??

The best thing about this dresser?

If y'all know anything about me, then you totally already know... It was super cheap! :) I got this awesome dresser on Craigslist for $25! And it is heavy... solid wood.

It was missing a couple of handles and had tiny smiley face stickers all over it. I sanded it down, and thankfully we had a couple of knobs that matched perfectly. So, I drilled new holes, filled the old ones, and painted it up! When it dried, I distressed the edges and it was done! This took me about 3 hours or so, from start to finish.

Want to see it again?! Me too...

I still need to get some decorations for it... I'm thinking about painting one of our cabinet door chalkboards to sit on top, and then change out the decorations seasonally to make it a big, friendly, seasonal front porch greeting! :)

What do y'all think? Let me know in the comments below!

Hey guys! 

So, this week is VBS! It has been totally crazy, but so much fun! I have not done VBS in a few years, and I definitely haven't taught little ones in probably 8. 

Obviously, I have 3 lil men so I'm around kids all the time. But, of course, this is a totally different and crazy animal! 

Another sweet lady and I have about 16 three year olds in our class. Thankfully, we have had two teenage helpers as well! Going from one place to another is definitely the most stressful part, counting and re-counting and every now and then chasing down a runner. :) 

Seriously, though, these kids are completely adorable and I'm having a ton of fun! 

The main thing I wanted to show y'all is our crafts for the week! These are so cute, and would be super easy to make at home with your own kiddos to talk about the ocean! 

My awesome friend found all of these ideas on Pinterest, and we just followed through with them in our classrooms.

Check it out! 

Handprint Fish:
Of course, anything with their sweet little handprint is just adorable. My lil man was the only one in the class who was not cool with sticking his hand in a plate of paint. So, I just traced his and painted the colors on. They decorated their "ocean" on the blue sheet, and then we added eyeballs and a smiley face to their handprint to make a fish. Cute, right?!

Ocean in a Bag:
Easiest project of all time! We gave them a bag to put stickers on. Then we added some water, blue food coloring, and glitter to the inside of the bag. Close it up, put it on the table for them to play with, and you're done. The kids seriously loved this. 

Jellyfish Bags:
We used watercolors, but crayons would be just as great and less messy. They colored their bags, then we drew on eyeballs (Gluing on googly eyes would be really fun too!) and cut strips for the tentacles. Voila! Jellyfish! 

Fun, right?! And so easy! The kids were all so proud of their projects and really excited to show their parents.

Have fun creating!

What do y'all think? What other projects do you do with your kiddos? 

Hey y'all! 

The last month in the Bennett household has been in. sane. It became two words... THAT insane. 

Of course, we've just been as crazy as ever. We are constantly going and doing and creating and changing things around, etc. etc. And on top of all of that, last month we got to go with my Nana to Mexico City!!! 

My sweet MIL came down from Oregon for a week, and spent some time with us. Then, she stayed with our crazy lil men for the weekend so we could go. 

Y'all, we were only gone for about 72 hours, but it was amazing! So much fun! We got to practice Spanish (My awesome husband got us around everywhere because I can totally pass for a Mexican, but as soon as people start talking to me, I'm clueless. :/ Definitely wanna work on that....) Anyway, we ate DELICIOUS food, Oh man, it was so good... saw a lot of cool stuff, and just had a super fun weekend in the biggest city in the world!

Look, aren't we cute?! ;)

We went to a CASTLE, conquered the subway system, found a panaderia! It was so great! :)

And then, we came home.... 

And, I had the LONGEST three weeks of my entire life. 

Y'all, here's the deal: You go on a great trip, have a super fun time, and the tiny devils inside of your sweet angel children come out. They come out to haunt you like never before. 

You know that 5 o'clock fit-pitching that happens? The fighting and fussing that starts up the hour or two before Daddy comes home? The kind that completely wears you out right at the end of the day? Yeah, imagine THAT for three. whole. weeks.

They were terrible. Seriously, terrible. 

I guess it has to do with separation anxiety... I don't know. I mean, I am a stay-at-home mom, and I am hardly ever away from them. (Seriously, like Sunday mornings is usually about it.) We have our hard days, just like anyone else. But, honestly, there have been very few days in my life of mamahood that I would actually say my kids were terrible. 

By the end of week 2, I told my husband I was ready to give our youngest two up for adoption. :/ Obviously, I didn't mean that, but girl... we were losing it fast. 

This was definitely the one aspect of our trip that I did not even consider. I was worried about them while we are gone, how they would sleep, if they would do okay. I knew that we might have a day of fussy, wanting to be held and not put down by our youngest lil man. But, THREE weeks of whiny, fighting, fussy children from our 1 year old AND our 3 year old. No ma'am, I did not expect that one. 

We made it through, obviously. And life seems to be back to normal. But, I'll tell y'all something, I'm not ready to leave my lil angels again any time soon, because I'm totally not ready to pay the price once I get back... 

What is y'all's experience with this? Let me know in the comments below! 

So, we just got a "new to us" dining room table from my parents. You know, one of the old, round oak persuasion. We painted it. It looks awesome. You'll see it soon. ;)

But, while I liked the chairs that came with it, I didn't love them. And, I didn't feel like they really fit in our space. So, we went searching Craigslist for cheap chairs. 

Guess what we found?! 

6 chairs for $20. That's what I'm talkin' about, y'all! 

Check it out! 

Now, I know I probably should have gone with a simple cream for the chair cushions, but I just love that chevron pattern. So, I went a little crazy in the dining room. :) 

I think it works, though! 

I also covered the fabric in a clear vinyl so that any nasty spills from the 3 lil men will easily wipe off. 

So much better than before, right?! 

Wanna see it one more time?

What do y'all think? Let me know in the comments below! 

Y'all, about a week and a half ago, I registered our oldest lil man for KINDERGARTEN! 

Now, I'm both happy and sad for this experience. 

On one hand, I just know that he is going to LOVE school! He gets so excited to learn new things, he loves to see his friends, and he loves feeling older and more independent. (On our way there, he said, "Kids go without their grown-ups to school, right? Moms and Dads aren't at school." :) He is definitely excited about this new identity as a really big kid.) And I'm totally excited for him to have this new experience! 

But, on the other hand, I feel like the years are now officially numbered until my baby grows up, becomes a man, and begins his own life! I know, I can be a tad dramatic. ;)

Obviously, we are a ways off from that, and I try my hardest to enjoy every single precious day I have with my lil men. But, days like this, where he officially becomes older just tug at my heart a little bit heavier. 

I'm constantly reminded that, "The days are long, but the years are short." And, it's so true. 

Have y'all had moments like this? Let me know in the comments below! 

Y'all, I'm so disappointed in myself on this one. I put a lot of effort into this party, and got almost ZERO pictures. :( 

By party number 3, we were totally exhausted, but since the other two had big, handmade, fun decoration parties and since Colton is the middle child we had to have one more big party to finish out the Bennett party season! 


(Next year, I'm totally going back to one big party per year, and the other two get a special family dinner. ha!) 

Here's a few pictures that I did get...

Here is the cake! The cake itself was not so great... but the TOOLS on the cake were super cute! Handmade, fondant, smiling tools! :)

Like I said, that's all the pictures I got. :( None of the table itself. I made some Handy Manny stuffed tools out of felt, and a felt toolbox for them to go in! And, of course, we decorated with the surplus of toy tools that we already had! 

The good news is that even without the pictures to prove it, Colton had a great time and absolutely loved being "the birthday boy" which he called himself for the following 5 days or so. :)

If you are interested, you can take a look at Micaiah's Lego Party or Elijah's Airplane party too!