Night Owl Pajama Party

The 8th birthday party was a success! With all of the snow and sickness going around, Olivia had six wonderful little girls show up for the party. Daniel was safely out of the house at Nanny's, to spare him from all of the "girlyness"!

We searched and searched until we found an idea for the party. A Night Owl Pajama Party. I'm not quite ready for a "slumber party", so the girls were here from 7 - 9, which worked out great.

The girls were invited to come in their pajamas. We set up the table like a bed, which we saw over at Hostess with the Mostess.
They started out the night dancing for a little "Kidz Bop" music, then played some Minute 2 Win It games. The biggest hit was probably playing pick up a bean with a straw and carry it across the room to your bowl OR eating the oreos after playing "chocolate unicorn".

It was a good thing we had a snow day on Friday, cause the owl cake pops took me all day. Bakerella certainly makes it look easier than I did! If you haven't ever heard of cake pops, you must check out this site. Basically you take a cake and crumble it up, add a can of frosting and mix it all up. Then you make balls of cake and pop them in the freezer for awhile. The difficult part for me was getting the pop to stay on the sucker stick while I dipped it in the chocolate. Luckily, I got enough owls made for the girls to enjoy at the party. They were very yummy!

The decorations were obviously lots of owls. We made our owls for the invitations and decorations on the cricut with the "hoot n holler" cartridge.

I found some cute owl Valentine felt stickers at Michael's. I turned those into barrettes for the girls. We used those as decorations on a tree limb until the girls choose one to take home.

The other gift for the girls was a sleep mask. Olivia and I luckily found enough "Dream" masks in the dollar bins at Michael's as well! These were a hit and most of the girls wore these out of the door when they went home. (It was my intention to wear them out so they would be ready for bed when they got home!)

Olivia claims to not be a big fan of cake, so we picked out 4 varieties of ice cream for the girls to enjoy. Of course, no ice cream is complete without sprinkles!
We rounded out the evening with a little nail painting and then all of the girls piled on Olivia's bed for a snippet of a movie.


Aren't they all cute with their sleep masks on their heads?

It was a fun party! I certainly learned that it is very difficult to be both the party hostess and photographer. Hope you enjoyed!

and more owls...

We're getting closer to Olivia's 8th Birthday Party. She's invited some of the girls in her 2nd grade class and Brownies.

Ready for some more sneak peaks?

I See Owls...

Olivia's birthday is 2 short weeks away. We spent some time this weekend preparing. Here's a sneak peek...

Happy New Year!

Happy 2011 to Everyone! We are ready to start the new year off great! Started the first weekend with a fun family night with Jeff's family and church today. Back to the grindstone tomorrow...

I was able to create some new hair accessories for Olivia over the weekend. She modeled them for us.


Daniel felt left out and had to have his picture taken too..

Three Christmas Peformances

Whew, we've been involved in three performances this Christmas season. Olivia was a cat in her school play. (She's over on the left side.)

Next, Olivia danced with her dance class in a little Christmas number for the parents. She is quite the poser! I can't hardly believe she has been taking dance for 5 years!
Last, both kids were involved in our children's church Christmas play. Olivia was one of the main characters with lots of lines and a solo, she did great! Daniel was a camel and had four lines, he did a wonderful job!
What a great way to celebrate the Christmas season!

2010 Christmas Cards

I love planning, taking, getting and sending my photo Christmas cards each year. I think my cards are some of the first many of my friends get. It is neat to share a little Christmas spirit with our family and friends.

One of the great options for anyone to use is Shutterfly. They have TONS of great options to choose from. Here is one I did on their easy to use website in a previous year:

We got lots of compliments on this card.

I've also made a couple of little photo albums of our summer activities.

This year I've had a hard time getting my thoughts around the Christmas picture. I had one from our trip to Florida, but Daniel has changed sooo much. I come up with ideas and the rest of the family votes me down. They'll have to get with it soon enough, as I need to get moving.

Check out some of the Christmas card ideas here.

I've also done calendars for grandparents. You can see them here.

Oh, and believe it or not, I'm also thinking of birthdays during the holiday season, as Olivia's is in January and Daniel is March. Check out invitations here.

So, my goal this weekend is to get the house decorated for Christmas, take a great photo and order my cards from Shutterfly!

**Shutterfly is supplying me with 50 free Christmas photo cards for helping them with this promotion.

We're Thankful For...

A - America, apples, Aiden, Amanda
B - Bob, balloons, bears, Ben
C - cats, Chloe, couches, church
D - dad, doctors, Daniel, dogs, Doug, Dianna
E - Erica, eyes, ears
F - fast food, family, friends
G - God, Greta, Granny Lucille
H - hospitals, Halloween, holidays
I - ice cream
J - Jesus, Jeff, Janet's, Jena, Jerry
K - Kendal, Kenny
L - Lisa, love, Levi
M - Maw, Memaw, mom, M&Ms, money, Melissa
N - Nanny, nuts, Niki
O - Olivia, octopus, Oreo
P - Pepaw, Paige, prayer
Q - Mrs. Q, quail
R - Ramage family, running, Ryan
S - Steven, Sydney, socks, school
T - teachers, tea cups, teddy bears
U - umbrellas, unicorns
V - violins, Vanessa
W - water, Wacker Inc.
X - xrays
Y - you
Z - zebras