Smell like a princess.

 A friend's daughter came up to me while I was visiting, and our conversation went like this...

"Auntie Jen, daddy gave me these pretty roses. See!"

"Wow, those are pretty, that was nice of him."

"Yeah, but he says they will die. I want to keep them forever."

"Well, your daddy's right, they will die. That's just how it works."

"But I want to keep them. I love them, they smell so pretty. Can you fix them?"

"I'm sorry honey, I can't. But if you want, I can make you some perfume out of them."

"Ok! Yeah yeah!!!"

"But they won't be flowers anymore. You won't be able to see them, just smell them."

"That's ok! I love perfume. I'll smell pretty like my pretty mommy."

So after a little while, and after saying goodbye to her pretty red roses, we made it into some perfume. Which was as easy as plucking off all the petals, and putting them in a glass jar. We filled the jar with enough water to submerge the petals.

She then had a messy blast squishing and stirring it. After a little while, I told her that it needed to set, so we put the lid on and watched a movie. (It would smell so much stronger if it set overnight, but with an impatient little girl, we couldn't wait.)

We found a vase, and strained the water into it, taking out the petals. I added a little red food coloring to give it a "rosy red" color, and labeled it for her.

She loves it, and the fact that she can smell like her pretty roses from daddy.

And it's safe for her. I have no doubt it will end up on her dollies, and who knows  where else, but her mommy let me. ;)

I wish I would have done it at home, because I have better jars and things to decorate with, but we made due with what we had, and she could care less.

I love getting the change to do something girly. How could I say no to this face??

Recycled pirate booty.

 I have SO many diaper boxes lying around, so I took two and made a treasure chest during our little storm the other day.

I cut off the flaps from the top except one of the longer back sides. I then cut out two semi-circularish shapes from the other box, and stuck them to either end of the flap using tape like crazy. They stayed up pretty well.

 I then cut out a lid using thinner cardboard from cereal boxes so that it would bend over to make the rounded top.

A little tricky, but I finally got it all taped down.

Then I covered the entire thing in white paper, ready to decorate.

 It's not very pretty. Partly because I didn't feel like pulling out the paint mess and doing a much better job like I could have. I knew it would get destroyed. :)

So instead, Parker and I just took to it with markers and crayons.

I stuffed the inside with some left over shiny wrapping paper and tinsel, and a few chocolate gold coins.

Then went on a treasure hunt to find fun things to fill it with. Which in Parker's opinion, were things like, dvd's, stuffed animals, blocks, and cooking utensils. :)

"Here is the treasure chest.

What does it hold?

Rubies and emeralds,

silver and gold.

Sparkling diamonds,

Spanish doubloons.

Perfect to play with,

On grey afternoons."