Firework Centerpiece

This project was quite learning experience for me!

Spray glue and glitter don't go together well, at least for me.
Tape works so much better than glue.
Stickers don't stick on glitter, go figure.

With that said I am thrilled with how our fireworks came out!
This would be a fantastic project for the 4th of July!

Start with a toilet paper tube - we sprayed it with glue and added glitter. Ugh. If you are going to go the glitter route I would suggest just painting on good ole' Elmer's White School Glue. Then your fingers probably won't have glitter permanently stuck to them. Or you could use markers, crayons or paint and decorate away!

Next step - construction paper strips and star stickers! Of course you could skip the stickers and go straight for the glitter!

Now things got a bit tricky for me. I started off gluing each strip inside the tube and that wasn't working very well so I decided to line all the strips up a little wonky and tape them all together. Then I added a bit of glue to the tape, rolled it up and stuck it in the tube!

I am sure you will be much smarter than me on this one too and not roll it so all the stickers are facing down. Ugh. So we had to go back and add stickers to the other side of the strips too!

The USA letter stickers aren't really sticking but they still look great!

Red, White & Blue Swirls

Remember those tye-dye-riffic cookies we made... LAST YEAR. Well it was time to break out the recipe again but go for a bit more of a patriotic look.

Can I state for the record I LOVE the 4th of July. Sure maybe it has a lot to due with my birthday being the 2nd and possibly me thinking for my entire childhood that the parades and fireworks were in my honor. Whatever. But I do truly love red, white and blue. So pretty. So festive. I ♥ it!

Okay back to the cookies. This time Madison was much more involved and excited to be working in the kitchen with mommy.

She added ingredients.

She colored the dough.

She stacked it all in the fridge.

And then she chose to do nothing until the cookies were ready to eat. So I rolled the balls.

And formed the cookies.

Miss Maddie came back for the eating part.

You can find the original recipe at The Secret is in the Sauce.

CSN.com Winner!

Is it you?

The winner of a $50 gift card to CSN.com is.....

#24! Colleen from FortySomething Bride is our winner!
Congratulations Colleen!

Last Day Giveaway

Today is the last day to enter my $50 CSN.com giveaway. If you haven't yet click HERE.
Quick! Go now! No time to waste!

And looky, look my darling hubby has decided he was bored and started his own blog.

Be prepared. It will be techy, and manly, and video gamey and Star Warsy.

That's the guy I love and married. Hop on over and show him some bloggy love! And if you have a hubby in love with all things video games, Star Wars and gadgets we can set them up on a virtual man date!

Or not. You know cause that's certainly not manly. My bad.

Curly Girl

I have been waiting and hoping with my fingers crossed that my beautiful baby girl would eventually get her momma's curls.

Her hair may not be growing but look at these pretty little curls she has now!


And now it shall begin.
Mooommmyyyyyy I want straight hair! I don't want frizzy yucky hair! Who wants curls?!?
I am sure I NEVER said those things when I was younger....or last week...

Splash Park

We had fun knocking another to-do off of our Summer list this week with a trip to the local splash park. We brought some friends along this time too! Maddie had a ball and I had a chance to play with the black and white setting on my camera!

Wordless Wednesday: Snow Cones

A Sweet Treat

A few weeks ago Madison and I took a trip to Olde Mistick Village to feed the ducks, browse the shops and maybe have an ice cream treat before 10am. What? We are calling it special day =) There happens to be a Munsons in the village so Maddie enjoyed a hand dipped ice cream bar while I delighted in the deliciousness of there ice cream cookie sandwich. Munsons also happens to have frozen chocolate dipped bananas...one my ultimate favorites!

Due to my over whelming desire for chocolate this week and the fact that I happened to have bananas and chocolate chips in the house I decided it was a fantastic time to make some at home!

Really it doesn't get easier than these. Bananas sliced in half with a popsicle stick. Easy.

Melted chocolate chips. Easy.

I had milk chocolate chips in the house but semi-sweet and dark work just as well too! I like to add just a tiny bit of shortening when I melt the chocolate to thin it out a bit and keep it nice and glossy.
Smooth the chocolate on and then lay them out on wax or parchment paper.

Time for the freezer!

Feel free to sprinkle on nuts, candies, sprinkles, anything! I am a plain Jane kinda gal but we tossed some sprinkles on one for Maddie.

She seemed to like it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don't forget! You have until Sunday to enter to win a $50 gift card to CSN.com!

CSN.com Giveaway! CLOSED

***This giveaway is now CLOSED***

Have you stopped by CSN.com lately? You know that totally awesome one stop shopping site that lets to purchase everything from bathroom vanities, to baby furniture, to the perfect outdoor dining set! No? You should! I can easily get lost searching for the perfect decor and furniture pieces for our new house. Yeah, yeah I know we aren't technically at the new house yet but a girl can still dream!

Well I am sure with the summer here you are looking for some fantastic ways to entertain your kiddos!

Like maybe a Bilibo play shell - which can I just say I REALLY want to get for Madison!


Or this adorable ALEX Toys Jungle Croquet set. How about a cute Little Tikes Island Adventures Watertable. We bought an older version a few years ago and it was a big hit!


*GIVEAWAY*

CSN.com has very generously offered one $50 one-time-use gift certificate for me to giveaway to one of my wonderful readers!

Entry #1 [mandatory] Leave a comment telling me what you would spend the $50 on at CSN.com! I am sure it will be hard to choose, they have everything!

Additional Entries:
~be sure to leave a comment for EACH entry~

Entry #2 Become a Google Friend Connect Follower of Funny Days with Mommy and Maddie. If you are already a follower let me know!

Entry #3 Snag the Funny Days with Mommy and Maddie button and leave me a link to your site!

Entry #4 Blog about and link back to this giveaway! Don't forget to leave a link for me!

Entry #5 Tweet this giveaway! You can use your own or tweet this {Win a $50 gift certificate to CSN.com at Funny Days With Mommy and Maddie! http://tinyurl.com/337oygu }
**You can tweet once a day, but be sure to leave a link and comment for each one**

This giveaway will be open until Sunday June 27th. The Winner will be announced on Monday June 28th.

{This giveaway is sponsored by CSN.com}

Father's Day

I few weeks ago Tiffany at Mommy Guru posted some questions to ask your little one about daddy and I jumped at the chance to write down Madison's answers. So in honor of Father's Day here you go!

All About my Daddy
Madison
Father's Day 2010

How old is Daddy? Hmmm, I don't know. Five?

What makes Daddy happy? When I hug him!

What is Daddy's favorite thing to do? Play Star Wars!

What is Daddy really good at? Playing Mario!

What does Daddy do for his job? He works with the guys on a table.
( I have no clue what that means!)

Where is Daddy's favorite play to eat? McDonalds!
(that would actually be Madison's favorite)

What is something Daddy teaches you? To build stuff.

What makes Daddy sad? When I don't kiss him.

What do Daddy's do? They play with their kids!

What does Daddy want for Father's Day? Star Wars Chocolate!

A Piece of Home

The movers come in exactly 24 days, which means I am officially in a total state of stress. Yikes!

We are trying our hardest though to make this move easy on Maddie. It's technically not her first move but it will be the first one she remembers. Of course she has had all the usual questions about the move like "will we bring my bed? And what about the bathtub?". After reassuring her that yes her bed will come with us but she will have a new bathtub in the new house we decided that we should bring a little piece of Connecticut to Virginia with us.

After picking out the perfect rock from the backyard Madison spent a few days this week painting her perfect masterpiece. I took a Sharpie to it when she was done to add our city, state and years we have been here. After a quick coat of glossy Mod Podge we now have a piece of home to bring with us to our new home!

stART: A Brave Spaceboy

We are officially at less than a month now before the movers come and pack everything up, YIKES! With the impending move sneaking up awfully quickly it has been a topic of discussion in our house and we have been trying to ease any reservations Maddie has about it.

I stumbled upon A Brave Spaceboy: Moving Is An Adventure at the library yesterday and thought it would be a great book to help Maddie with our transition. The book doesn't overtly talk about moving but we did talk about the pictures of packed boxes and a new house. Madison's new desire is to use our moving boxes to make a rocket ship at the new house!

With lots of our crafting materials packed up we went for a non-messy crafting session to go along with the book! I printed off a magnet printable from Making Learning Fun to keep Maddie busy while I cut out a few rocket ship shapes.

Next up Madison set to work coloring her own personal rocket ships. We added a few small squares of tissue paper to complete the look! One rocket ship got attached to a craft stick to use as a puppet,

and the other accompanied star stickers on a piece of black construction paper. Nothing fancy here today but Maddie was still happy!

Stop by A Mommy's Adventures for some other fantastic stART, or Story Art projects!

Wordless Wednesday

Her father's daughter

Rumba Winners!

It's time to announce the winners of the two Glitter Rumba watches!

Winner #1 with the choice between the medium and large watch is....#28 AshHadAns from Singing Louder Than the Rain!


And our second winner is #15 Kim from Life of a Modern Mom!

Congratulations!
I will e-mail you both today!

Muffin Tin Monday

Two weeks in a row!

I am on a roll....until next week at least! That's right it's Monday and that means Muffin Tin Monday! Despite today being a no theme day I felt a bit ambitious and decided to go a little all American and red, white and blue for Flag Day!

For lunch today we have a mini grilled chicken sandwich with a cheese star. Strawberry, watermelon, blueberry and mini marshmallows for a little red, white and blue mix! Blue raspberry yogurt in a tube and a few red and blue pretzel M&Ms!

We didn't have a chance to do any great flag day crafts BUT I did want to mention the fantastic ideas and printables at Making Learning Fun. I printed out this great flag magnet page and let Madison loose with some appropriately colored star stickers. The magnet pages are great with stickers, dotters, magnets or even pom poms! I have a few different sets of star and dot stickers that I picked up for about $1 each at Walmart and break them out whenever I need to keep Madison occupied for a bit!

Be sure to stop by Muffin Tin Mom's for some more fantastic muffin tin meals!

Strawberries and Submarines

We had big plans for this weekend but unfortunately the weather was less than cooperative. Blerg. Madison has been waiting, and waiting, and WAITING for the Strawberry Festival to come and of course it rained!

We still managed to have a little bit of fun though. Madison enjoyed her first pony ride

and of course she had her much anticipated strawberry sundae!

The downpour didn't come until we were safely in the car with a big bag of kettle corn for the ride home.

Not willing to call it a day yet we set off for the USS Nautilus which happens to be right down the street from our house.

Madison enjoyed wandering around looking at the exhibits and it was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Even better.... we were able to cross TWO things off of our summer to do list!

Paper Towel Art

Maddie had her big dance recital last week and she did wonderfully! Of course we had to get her flowers for her big performance along with every other family member that attended! She ended up with a huge bouquet in her room but we also ended up with a few floral tubes...

hmm... what to do? What to do?

I while back I saw a post about turning floral tubes into paint dotters and thought that would be perfect! If it was on your blog please let me know, I would love to give you credit!

Materials: floral tubes, food coloring, paper towels, cookie sheet/tray

Add a few drops of food coloring to the tubes and fill them up with water.

Time to let the kiddo loose! Madison had a great time dotting away on the paper towels. She loved watching the colors mix together and make cool designs.

I set the paper towels out on cookie racks to dry and we ended up with these great tie dye effects!

We did this project inside but I think it would be fabulous OUTDOOR project...you know so there aren't any food coloring stains on your table...