DIY Lego Table!

If you kids are anything like mine, I'm sure they love building with Legos. It's good for their brain development, it teaches them math, architecture, and science, and it also helps build their imagination, social skills, and fine motor skills. Legos are great for girls and boys, and really all ages!

With that being said, my kids are pretty much in love with Legos. My son is obsessed. He has all the books, all the video games, knows all the videos on Netflix, and just started playing with real Legos (not Duplo). We saw the Lego Movie a couple weeks ago-- he just can't get enough. Which is awesome, because his birthday is this weekend.

While my husband and I were talking about what we wanted to get him for his birthday presents this year, he brought up the idea of a Lego table. I thought it was a great idea! Gives him a place to sit and play without having them strewn about all over the floor (hey, a mom can dream, right?), and a level place to build. I looked into them, and they go for anywhere between $40 and $300! You've got to be kidding me. That's when it hit me... I could totally do something like this. Or I could at least try! It might turn out pretty cool, ya never know.

I talked to my husband about me making him a Lego table, and he was totally into it. It's cool, I could make it custom, just for him, and know that no one else has one like it!

I decided to modify or "hack" the LATT Children's Table from Ikea, because it's $20, and comes with two chairs. I stuck with the primary colors, and used spray paint.

Photo step-by-step:

Ikea children's table comes with two chairs, $20

Lay down a plastic sheet (to protect your ground!), lay out your items, and group them how you'd like to paint them. It helps to keep it separated.

Sand all the pieces! I promise, it makes a big deal. There was one spot on one where I didn't sand very well, and the paint kept sliding off. I had to let it dry and re-sand that area. Don't go crazy, just take off all the "smooth" areas, and make it slightly gritty, so the paint will stick.

yellow, red, blue (and green, soon!)

It was so easy, and fun!

This is the paint I used. I got it at Michael's craft stores, but I ended up needing 2 cans of red, and 2 of the blue. The surface area was larger on those pieces.

I got the seats and table top painted green.

4 flat base plates from the Lego store. This was the perfect amount... the guy tried telling me to only buy 3, but I got 4 "just in case" ...I ended up using all but a couple strips and one tiny square!

***MOST IMPORTANT STEP***
MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS! Don't just line up the sheets and stick them together. There's a very small space in between each sheet, and it makes the difference of that area being playable or not! DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!!! If you attach Legos at the 'joints' it will line it up perfectly for you and keep everything attached.

Next, make a straight line of Legos where you will be cutting it, and use them as your guide. You will need a box cutter ($10 at a craft store, but probably WAY cheaper at Home Depot or Lowe's.), and to go over  the same area with a strong arm twice. That's all I needed to do, and it was VERY easy. Just be mindful and don't try to 1) cut it in one swipe, and 2) do it fast. Just take your time!

You can see the line I made above (the horizontal line) and that's what it will look like.

Then bend the sheet, right at the line. Bend it a couple times and it will come right apart.

The two lines and square I mentioned before. That's all that was left from the 4 sheets of base plates! 

This is how the chair turned out!

I sprayed the whole thing with a glossy clear coat spray paint, to help protect the paint. Then, I used some flat orange letters to spell out my son's name on the side, his Lego Table! After that, I sprayed the whole thing again, over the letters, with the clear coat... that way the letters stay put.

The guy at the Lego store suggested I used double sided tape, as opposed to adhesive spray or mod podge. He said the tape helps allow it to bend a little when the legos come off, and the adhesive tends to not work and crack off when it dries. The double sided tape was a great idea. HOWEVER, make sure you put Legos down the entire length of the joint, to help keep it attached when you flip it over, otherwise it will keep breaking apart and drive you crazy! It sounds funny, but I basically applied the tape in the "shape/outline" of the british flag. A few lines around the border, pay attention to each sheet (don't treat it like one), then put a few diagonal pieces in the middle. Flip it over carefully, center it, and press down firmly. Test it by attaching and removing Legos :)

Here's what it looks like up on it's legs!

And here is the entire table, finished, and set up!

All things considered, this was an incredibly easy and FUN project to do. It took a day for me to gather supplies, and a day for me to complete the project. And I'm so happy with how it turned out! I know he's going to love it.

If you have any questions, please let me know!

Pin this to pinterest, share it on facebook, instagram, and G+, and tweet it on twitter! @itslikemusic #itslikemusic #ILMlegotable I'd love to see your finished products!!

Parking Lot Rage

Is there anything as dumb as Parking Lot Rage? I mean, we all have experienced, or have come in contact with someone experiencing Road Rage, but Parking Lot Rage? How is this even a thing?

I get my kids in the car and drive to the US Post Office a couple miles away from my house. I needed to mail a few photo CDs out to my clients. I get in the parking lot, it's full. (little did I know I'd be waiting for almost an hour inside! oh well!)

I see a lady get in her car near the front door of the post office, and naturally assume she's leaving. It was the first available spot, so I drove up to wait for it.

I knew it was near the exit, but it was the first spot, so I went for it. I put on my blinker and waited for a full 60 second count... she never even turned her car on, just sat there (annoying, much?!). As it turned out, there was another person leaving, two spots down from this one, so I had to back up maybe 2 feet. There was a guy in a very large truck behind me, waiting to leave.

Now, I understand wanting to leave, but if I have to back up to get out of your way, you might want to back up just a smidge to let me get by, right? Well not this guy!!

I put my car in reverse, and wait a second so he can see my reverse lights. I see him. I see him see the lights. I see him look at me, and stare at me blankly. We made eye contact, and he shrugged. Didn't move his truck an inch. So I just verbally say, "THANK YOU." and back up, best I can, so I can get out of his way. I came within inches of his truck, and he didn't care, didn't move.

When I get to where I need to be to park, my passenger window is even with the front driver's side of his truck. I said, "Sorry, THANK YOU." one more time, and he gave me the meanest look and flipped me off. He looked at my kids in the back seat, buckled safely in their car seats, and flipped me off even stronger, waving it around.

I found the image at DavisBodyShop.com via google image search.

His window was already down, so I rolled mine down and said, "Really? Flip me off in front of my kids, while I'm trying my best to move out of your way. THANK YOU!!!"

He responded with, "There is a whole fucking parking lot back there! Get the FUCK out of my WAY!" (There isn't. It's completely full.)

I was shocked, and said, "Woah, please don't talk like that--" at which point he cuts me off and starts blaring his horn at me while flipping me off, still.

It shocks me, it startled my children, and they both started sobbing in the back seat. Keep in mind, my window is still open, I'm in a tiny little Nissan Sentra, and he is in an enormous TRUCK. That horn is loud and scary, especially when it's less than 3 feet away from you!

As that happened, I said, "OK, I'M CALLING THE COPS!" and pulled out my cell phone. I enunciated it very clearly so he could read my lips, since I'm sure he couldn't hear me over the blare of his horn.

When I said that, he took off, still blaring his horn and giving me the bird. My one-year-old daughter had passed out from being scared and sobbing so hard. I parked in the spot, and just told my three-year-old son, "Everything is ok, that man was very mean. He's gone now, don't worry." He calmed down.

I could see people in the parking lot, laughing and pointing, telling other's about what had just happened. Pointing at me, making what appeared to be off-color remarks. What bothers me is that no one said or did anything to help. There were people watching this unfold.

Hey everyone, guess what? You can stick up for others. If you see something bad happening, do something about it! That was your PSA for the day.

It took me a good 10 minutes to gather myself. I was so shaken and rattled from what had just happened, but I was trying to hold it together for the kids. I really didn't want to break down in front of them, after I just told them it would be ok.

My son asked me if I was ready to go into the Post Office. I said, "No buddy, not yet. That guy was really mean, and I'm still a little sad about it. I just need to calm down a little more."

That's when my son said the sweetest, kindest, most caring and adorable thing he's ever said to me.

"It's ok, Mommy. That guy was really mean, but you're not mean. You just have to breathe. I will count to 5, ok? You take a big breath every time I say a number. Are you ready?" Then he started counting: 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... I took a breath after each number, just like he said to. Then he said, "Do you feel better now? Are we ready to go in to the post office?"

My little man... he gave me the strength and courage I needed to pull myself together. It's times like that... he reminded me that my husband and I are really doing a good job raising these babies!!

When we left the post office, he asked if that mean man was going to honk at us again. :( I told him no, and said he was all gone and far away now.

I just can't believe people can be that way to other people! To a mother in front of her children?! Why? And the saddest thing about all of this? This isn't even the first time it's happened. *sigh* Let's be good to each other! Life is too short, people!


Have you ever experienced parking lot rage? Tell me about it in the comments below! Or tweet about it, @itslikemusic, #ParkingLotRage.

Scribble Monsters!

Here we are, October 1st! Did the year fly by for you like it did for me?

October is here, and it means I can start doing some fun and simple crafts with my little ones! My favorite of our Autumn crafts are what I like to call Scribble Monsters.

I started doing these a couple years ago. My oldest was just a year old, and I was pregnant with his little sister. I love decorating for Halloween, but I didn't want to do anything too scary, since he was so little. I also wanted to find something he could have a big part in, but that wasn't easy.

I started by drawing a pumpkin jack-o-lantern, then gave him all the orange-colored crayons from the box. He had a blast, colored everywhere, didn't matter if he colored outside the lines or not, because I was planning on cutting out the pumpkin and putting it in the window. Then I thought, how about monsters??

We had watched Disney/Pixar's Monsters Inc. already (he loved it, but what kid doesn't?!), and we had been on the rides and seen the attractions at Disney's California Adventure Park at The Disneyland Resort, so I knew some fun monsters wouldn't be too scary for him.

What you see below is the very first monster I drew for my son to scribble all over. He asked me to help, so I colored the horns; can you tell? :) He had SO. MUCH. FUN. with the monsters! We made and colored scribble monsters all day until our windows were full of them! We did them again the next year (which is the other photos you'll see in this post) with as much fun as before. This year, I thought I would share it with you, so you can make the Scribble Monsters with your children!

Scribble Monsters are SO easy. Anyone, any age, can make a Scribble Monster! Read on, and I will show you how! :)

What you will need:

• Blank white paper
• Dark black marker
• Crayons
• Scissors
• Tape

I start by drawing a monster, using the black marker. Just use your imagination! It can be as silly or simple as you want it to be. Once you draw one, more will come to you. You can ask your kids for input, too. It is so much fun!

Next tape down the sides of your paper. This is so the paper doesn't move around, if you have little ones, it's difficult for them to hold the paper while they color.

Give your kids the crayons and let them go crazy (on the monster!). They can do anything they feel like and they don't even have to stay in the lines! Not gonna lie, it's fun for adults, too :)

Once they are done coloring, cut out the monster from the page! You can tape it to the window, hang it on the fridge, or tape it to a blank piece of paper and put it in a scrapbook.

That's it! Awesome craft, awesome Halloween decoration, and so much fun with the kids!

I would LOVE to see your Scribble Monsters, comment with them below, share them on facebook and repin them on pinterest, and #ScribbleMonsters on Instagram & twitter, @itslikemusic! 

What A Stressful Day... (Has Taught Me)

I'm sitting here in front of the computer in a Melatonin-induced calm after vocally exploding for the (exaggerated) 100th time today. My 3-year-old told me no, again, whined and cried "for no reason," and my 1-year-old bit me while I was nursing her to sleep, after she tried to practically scalp me. After a day like the day I just had, these were the last straws. I freaked out. I cried. I lost my proverbial shit. I was done. Done with the Mommy-job, done with the kids, done with the day. Really, done with the last two weeks. I stormed out in a hot mess of angry tears, and ended up here. And here I go...

Who knew a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old could cause so much stress and frustration to a relatively patient and calm, 27-year-old woman? My babies, my hearts, my all and my everything... they're the source of my inevitable destruction.

I'm not a bad mom. I'm not a perfect mom, and I don't even think I'm a great mom... but I'm a good mom. My kids are taken care of. They are loved. They KNOW they are loved, and they love me. We smile, we laugh, we have tickle fights. We go to Disneyland pretty regularly. We really do have a good time together. I get to stay home with my babies, and I get to teach them and watch them grow every single day. Every single day they amaze me with something new. Even today, one of the worst days I've had in a while, I watched my 3-year-old play a game on my husband's phone that I'm pretty sure I couldn't figure out (and I'm pretty good with video games!). I saw my 1-year-old make up a new little dance sequence. They're adorable, and they're killing me.

I don't know where I went "wrong" in all this. Not a friggin' clue. Back when I said I'm a good mom, I meant it. That means I tell them "no" and I exercise patience, as well as teach it to them. There is discipline in this family. I'm not afraid of them hating me for 5 seconds when I tell them they can't have this or that. I love them and they are really good kids, but somewhere in the last, oh, I don't know... month or so? Somewhere they found a loophole and, together, have figured out how to walk all over me.

I don't want to have an explosive personality. I don't want to yell or scream. I don't want them to expect that from me. I don't want that at all. So how do I keep it from happening?

You know when you're out in a restaurant and that one kid just goes ballistic? Just completely inconsolable, and their parents are sitting there mortified, either paralyzed from embarrassment or doing everything they can to calm their kid down before inevitably making the rounds outside, leaving the other parent to sit there looking around, going, "I swear my kid has never done this before! S/he's usually so great, I have no idea what's going on!" While every other patron is sitting there thinking, "yeah, RIGHT." I totally get that. I completely, 100% understand that. I am that mom now. Me and my husband, we're those parents. That kid, those are my babies. It's literally like a switch just flipped, and I can't for the life of me figure out how to switch it back.

Since I'm with my babies 24/7, I've figured out a sequence in their learning. First, they learn to eat and then they learn very basic communication (waaaaahhh!). Then they learn that different sounds mean different things. Sounds get more complex. They learn to control their arms and legs and head, and they learn to get around. Wiggle, crawl, stand, walk, run... They push themselves past their boundaries to the next milestone. We, as parents, cheer them on, encourage them, teach them, and keep them moving forward. They hurl themselves to the next boundary, the next milestone... "Mama, Dada, Hi, ByeBye!" and we're there throwing mini parties. Then they locate their independence... "No, don't touch that." "No, put that back." "No, come over here." "No, don't do that." "Here, take this." "Look at this!" Distractions. Tell them no. Play keep away. They want to get to the next boundary and push past it. They don't understand limits. There are no limits. It is literally their job, their only job, to find their boundaries, push their boundaries, and discover their limits. And it is our job, as parents, to put those boundaries in place and be there to enforce the limits. It is our job to tell them no and point them, coach them, in the right direction. My kids might only be 1 and 3, but I *know* that this sequence and these jobs will really never stop. Ever. You don't ever stop being a parent. I'm a married, 27-year-old mother of two, homeowner, and I still get coached in the right direction by my parents. (Mom, Dad, I appreciate the hell out of you guys. Thank you for always being there for me.)

Here's the thing, I want my kids to WANT to do the right thing. I don't want to have to sit here going, no, no, no, No, NO, NO! That sucks. I just want them to know not to do whatever it is they are thinking of doing. How do I make that happen? I have to enforce rules and boundaries. I have to teach them. I have to coach them.

Everyone needs a reminder now and then. Even I need reminders... They don't know what I know. I can't expect them to know what I know. But I can teach them what I know, and I can be there when they don't listen. I will be there when they experience the things I know. I know what it's like to be told no. I know what it's like to get burnt by the stove. I know what it's like to taste cocoa powder (I really wish I listened to my mom when she told me not to taste it...). 

So, this stressful day of stress and frustration and stress and STRESS has actually been beneficial to my career choice, and I guess somewhat therapeutic for me. I need to remember that my babies are just that... my babies. I love them more than anything I have ever loved in my entire life. There are no words to describe the love I have for them. I want the best for them, and right now, I am the best for them. I need to keep being the best for them, so I need to be the best me I can be. I need to remember that they are little. They are learning. They are learning more now than they'll ever learn in the future. They can push my buttons and they can (try!) to walk all over me, so I have to get ready. And anyways, who am I trying to kid? If I can't handle them now, what the hell am I going to do when they're teenagers?! 

Babies, Mommy is back. With patience, kindness, and unwavering love.

Mommy is here. 

I'm ready.

A Couple Lovies

These are my babies... Bug and Squidge. I love them to the moon and back.

I can't handle the cute...

Bug is 2 years old. He is hilarious, he loves his baby sister, and is also the sweetest child I've ever met. He has such an amazing heart and cares so much. He loves to play, dance, and sing. He's a rock star. ...and Bug is a mama's boy.

Squidge is 2 months old. She is my princess. She adores her big brother. She sleeps a lot, and smiles even more. She doesn't do much on the entertainment scale, because she doesn't know how to work those pesky hands. Squidge is definitely already a daddy's girl.

1. I am 100% biased.
2. My babies are perfect and are the cutest children on the entire face of the planet.

I will more than likely be talking about them a LOT on this blog, because Bug makes me legitimately laugh multiple times a day, and Squidge is growing non-stop.

Squidge

Bug

New Beginnings

Starting a new blog, for a few reasons.

• I want to be able to remember specifics!
• I want to be able to vent.
• I have some opinions, damnit!
• I enjoy cooking and sharing new recipes.
• I'm a photographer.
• I have two amazing children and a wonderful husband, and I think our lives are changing, so clearly I need a way to document!
• Facebook is not a blog.

Blogging is important, right?