WFMW - birthday favors at after Christmas sales

In the middle of a Wal-Mart aisle yesterday Olivia and I changed her birthday party theme from "ladybugs" to "cupcakes"!

Having a birthday exactly 4 weeks after Christmas can be challenging. However, now Olivia and I have a plan for a great party. We stumbled upon some great cupcake themed party favors in the 50% off aisle. These definitely Work for Us!
I also found some stuff to fill the gigantic apothecary jar my sis got me! It will be so fun to change it out throughout the seasons. Thanks, Paige! So keep your options open when visiting those after Christmas sales! You might find some things to use at other times of the year.

Does anybody else have trouble with font sizes in blogger?

Christmas 2009

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas! We all got what we wished for, plus more!

Christmas Crafts

Whew, today is our last day before Christmas break. The kids are excited about their parties at school/babysitter. Olivia has all the gifts for her teacher, aides and bus drivers. Daniel has gifts for the babysitter and his friends.

I'll give three more mid-terms today. A downside of being a high school teacher, instead of elementary, is the lack of Christmas gifts. High schoolers just don't get into bringing gifts for their teachers! Oh well!

I wanted to share the crafts I did this year before they head out the door.These are some candles I got at Michael's big Thanksgiving sale - about $1.70 each and they smell great! I added vinyl initials and some cute ribbon. These are going to teacher aides, teachers and church children's choir leaders.
Mom and I had the idea for these since the ice storm in January! I made decoupaged mini-clipboards for several of her friends and mine as well. I found some matching magnets and notepads at Michael's and rolled up the scrapbook paper to fit inside the pen.
I love ribbon keyfobs, I'm on my second right now. The ones on the right I made with D-rings and webbing I could find around here. My friend, RaAnn, hooked me up with wider webbing and cool hardware for the larger ones. My teacher friend, Rita, helped the kids monogram them at school. These are going to mom, Paige and bingo gifts at the family get togethers. Remember the letter punches I bought at Harbor Freight back in the summer? Here is my end result. I made these for several mommy friends, and myself. Punching those letters (while outside in the garage this summer) really helped work off some stress!

I enjoyed putting my time and love into these gifts. I hope they are enjoyed by family and friends.

PB Inspired Photo Ornament

Who doesn't love all things Pottery Barn? I love to look through their catalogs and get inspired. I searched my local Dollar Tree for a miniature photo frame to turn into a PB photo frame and came home with this. It needed a little red paint.
I got out some scrapbook paper and printed "2009" in Algerian Font. Cut to size with my trusty Creative Memories trimmer and used an exacto knife to cut out the photo hole. I asked my wonderful husband to insert an eye hook in the top and I found a great ribbon to hand it with.
Voila! What do you think?
I have to leave you with a photo of Olivia (dead center) at her school's Christmas program. We are so blessed to live in a country where our kids can sing about Christmas!

I'm linking this to DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land and Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog!

Jeff surprised us last night with a trip to Patti's 1880s to see Santa AND to have a wonderful meal. It is a tradition for us to go see Santa there, but we've never tackled eating with the kids. So, the kids got their very first grown up meal out!They did pretty good!

Then we got to go visit with "the big guy" himself. Daniel didn't want to visit with him at first, then warmed up okay. This truly is Santa as he knew what the kids wanted, knew they had kitties and dogs, and even their teacher and babysitter's names!
Olivia practiced more of her photography skills - pretty good! We enjoyed looking at all of the fabulous lights and decorations. Thanks, Jeff!

Thanksgiving thru Olivia's Eyes (and a cricut project)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal at Jeff's sister's house. Olivia took a turn with my camera and got some interesting (but good) photos!
We didn't make it anywhere else that afternoon, Daniel's fever went back up. Turns out he has an infection in one ear. We just rested around the house instead.

I got a new Cricut cartridge at Michael's sale Thursday night - while everyone else was resting. It is called "A Child's Year" and I can see lots of gift possibilities. Paige, here are some ideas - there is a design for just about anything you can think of. Let me know if you want some!

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving seems to get lost between Halloween and Christmas. I'm trying to focus some attention on this important holiday before the BIG one hits.

A friend of mine gave me this canvas tree for Christmas last year. It is for our family tree, but I haven't found the time to fill out the leaves yet. So, one night the kids and I made thankful leaves and hung it in the kitchen. I remind them of the things we are thankful for by reading the leaves to them (or Olivia does).
Yesterday morning the kids looked so cute I had to take a picture!

Happy Fall!

A Bracelet Makeover

Mod Podge is a little addicting...

Last night I was making some clipboards for Christmas gifts. I thought about altering an old bangle bracelet. I dug through my old jewelry and found this faux gold bracelet.
I simply cut little scraps of toile scrapbook paper and layered them on the bracelet one at a time. The pieces were about a half inch wide by 1 1/2 inches long. I used a couple of coats of Mod Podge on the top.Then let it sit on a jar to dry.Now, it's ready to wear!

Halloween 2008 vs Halloween 2009

There is no comparison with this year's Halloween and last year.

The kids were sick the entire month of October 2008! We didn't get to do any of the fun October activities. This picture was taken well into November so that I could remember how cute their costumes were, that they never got to Trick Or Treat in!

This year went so much better. We made both of their costumes and they looked so cute! Even though we've been a little sick, my little Jellyfish and little Lego Dude got to do all of the activities.

They loved every minute of it! Olivia cried herself to sleep last night. She wants to be a jellyfish again next year and is afraid she will forget!

Whew...we've been busy...

A beautiful fall day before the fun starts...

A busy church weekend, women's conference, children's party and

a hayride at a beautiful farm!

Daniel's pumpkin

Olivia's "Fancy Nancy" pumpkin for the book character contest.

Jeff hard at work designing the pumpkin.

The kids getting the goo out.

the final product.

Our "monster" cupcakes for a chili supper at Olivia's school tonight!

A Fall Break Vacation

It seems like forever since I last blogged. We've had phone/internet problems, a couple of sick kids and went on a wonderful, fun fall vacation to St Louis.

Of course we stayed with Aunt Paige & Uncle Steven - in their new house! They have done lots of work, it really looks cute. It has tons of potential and know they will continue to work on it for a long time, til it is just right.

We got to do a couple of fun things while in St Louis. Our most fun was at The City Museum in downtown S.L. We had no idea what to expect, which probably added to the fun. The museum is 3 stories, plus an outside area, of all of these crazy, recycled things to do. You just kind of find your way around as no maps are provided. When you first walk in, this is part of what you see...


These were huge fish and a whale you could walk through. If you look close, you see Paige in the first photo. The floors and everything was gorgeous - the ceilings had a white, silky material hanging from them that looked like fish scales.

We wondered around here exploring then went upstairs to find a big hamster wheel.



Daniel, Jeff and Steven decided to give it a whirl. Daniel couldn't keep up, and just kind of flopped on the wheel. Bless his heart, I was laughing so hard I cried.

Paige and Steven had a little bit better luck.

The man at the front door told us to be sure and check out the 3rd floor for the kids. Oh my! They had a blast running and sliding! Ummm, some of the adults did too - I just couldn't get photos as I was busy...


Around the corner some kids were getting circus training - no kidding! I thought the tie decorations were cool. Jeff thinks he wore some of the ties at one time.



Another area had kind of a circus/carnival theme. There were old pinball and video games, plus a photo opportunity or two.



Paige and I thought the gigantic underwear were cool!

There were lots of things to climb and do that the kids will have to grow into. I don't think we'll have a problem visiting again! The plane photo is an outside climb area - look closely and you will see tiny people!

One of our most favorite things were the slides. Kids of ALL ages were participating! The adults each took turns watching the kids so that we could climb up 7 stories of swirly stairs to slide down 7 stories of a swirly slide! We were dizzy at the end.



Thanks Paige and Steven for helping us have an awesome fall trip!