A Look Back at 2022
Before we get too far into 2023, we wanted to take a look back at 2022.
This past year was filled with special travel experiences, gardening galore, and of course, lots of projects. Here are some of our favorites from 2022:
Capturing Memories in our DIY Disney Autograph Book with Photos
This Fall marked our second trip to Disney World. We had so much fun exploring the Parks, visiting our favorite characters, and making lots of memories. The kiddos love looking through our DIY autograph books; we combined autographs with photos of the kids with the characters.
Celebrating Sisu and Encanto
My daughter fell in love with Sisu, the dragon from Raya and the Last Dragon, before even seeing the movie. The funny and adorable dragon inspired her birthday party, including homemade hats with horns and mane, a Sisu-shaped cake using melted candy, and diamond gem piñata.
She also wanted a Sisu-inspired dress, so used a store-bought dress as a base and added a tulle skirt reminiscent of Sisu’s mane. The Sisu dress not only served as her birthday party dress, it’s in everyday rotation and was also her first-choice for Halloween.
We couldn’t pass up re-creating our other favorite Disney movie this year – Encanto. The kids had a blast making a DIY Casita from foam board.
My daughter was drawn to Isabela – most likely because of their shared love of flowers. We used the same store bought dress from the Sisu dress as the base, then added layers of tulle and satin to recreate Isabela’s dress (but with much less work).
Enjoying the Fruits (and Vegetables) of Our Garden
My husband Dean is our garden maestro and was off to a great start with his solid garden plan.
He also created a wonderfully handy mounted garden tool storage box using leftover fence pickets.
With a plentiful zucchini crop, we enjoyed lots of zucchini bread and delicious grilled stuffed zucchini boats.
Putting the garden to bed for the winter was almost as much fun as planting.
Trying to Organize Our Ever Expanding LEGOs
The kiddos’ love for LEGOs started early and continues to grow. With the innumerable benefits of LEGO (from problem-solving to creativity to motor-skills), we’re embracing this hobby. As LEGOs slowly take over our house, we’re embarking on an ever-evolving LEGO organization saga. In Episode 1, we started with LEGO instruction books in 3-ring binders and plastic sheet protectors.
Episode 2 moved on to storing LEGO models. Next up – organizing our bricks.
Creating Art
Last year, we revisted a project we first tackled when the kids were 1 1/2 and 3 – creating a paint-by-color base for the kiddos to add detail. As they got older, they continued to enjoy the process, adding more detail to the solid base.
We explored lots of ways to use Mala squeeze paint from Ikea. From “marbled” paper, to stamping with bubble wrap, to painting with cars, the kids loved creating hangable art and thank you cards.
Using Branches For Random Projects
Somehow we ended up with a bunch of logs, which ended up being very useful for a variety of projects. Our reversible snowman pumpkin stack is a fun and easy holiday craft.
The kiddos had a great time clipping and using winter greens to decorate a Yule log stack.
We created a family of tree branch reindeer to decorate our yard and create company for our neighborhood deer.
Revisiting all our fun and work over the last year is so fun and rewarding. We look forward to more projects ahead.
