Sunday, August 29, 2010

Yosemite for A Day


While my sister was in town, we decided to take her to Yosemite for the day. I hadn't been there for some time and forgot how amazing it is there. It was definitely worth the car-sickness that was experienced on the way there. The weather was perfect and the crowds weren't too bad.

We stopped at one of the bridges ( I think it was Swinging Bridge) and the kids had a blast playing in the water. I wish we had brought our swimsuits, but it didn't matter to the kids, they were in waist deep and loving every minute of it. It was perfect because there was no current and the water was so shallow the kids couldn't get into trouble. Seriously, so much fun!

Here are a ton of pictures that we took to capture the day.










Friday, August 27, 2010

Craft Club - Monsters


We had our last craft club last week and with school starting, I forgot to get our crafts up on the blog. The last craft theme was all about Monsters! I cheated this week and got the craft from OTC.... paper plate monsters. Sometimes letting someone else do the work is better (okay, it is most of the time, right?)

This was such a fun summer activity and it will definitely be a yearly summer tradition.

BOOK: TIckle Monster
Craft: Monster Plate Faces (I can't find them on OTC, but they have plenty of other fun monster crafts)
TREAT: Monster Cookies

Thursday, August 26, 2010

First Day



This week was the start of school. Hannah started 1st Grade and Ella started preschool. After six yeas, our lives have all changed. No more lazy mornings, no more having all the kids home, no more easy schedule. We are official. We get up early, everyone is out of the door by 8:45 am and mom is now in the car more than she would like to be.

But back to my girls. Hannah seemed excited for the first day of school. When asked if she was excited, she would tell people she was nervous about making friends, but I am pretty sure she heard me say that once and decided that was the response to have. I think the first day was a bit overwhelming. New classroom, new friends, sitting in desks, more rules than play, no toys, recess with the big kids and lunch in a big cafeteria. Each day seems to get better, but I can tell it is still a new thing that she is still figuring out.

Ella on the other hand, loves school and can't wait to get to her class. It is hard for me to get her attention to say good-bye. Definitely no school-shook there. I worried about putting her in 3 days a week, but after this first week, there is nothing to worry about. She loves it!

As for mom. I miss Hannah! I didn't think I would, but I miss have her around all day. I miss her playing with Ella. I miss her spirit and voice and creativity. This will take some getting used to, but i know in a few weeks, this new life will be normal and just what we do! Here is to a new school year and new changes and new learning and fun!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

A Great "young" woman I Know!


I have this cousin who is about the coolest, smartest, most inspiring and wittiest woman I know. Every time we are together (which isn't often enough) we laugh, have insightful conversations, laugh and laugh. Along with her great qualities, she also has one of the cooler jobs (and when I say Jobs, i literally mean plural jobs)! She (let me see if I get this right, Laurel correct me where i am wrong).... she is director (or some up-there title) for Time Out For Woman, she works (or worked) directly with Sheri Dew, she speaks at multiple young women events on a monthly basis and writes books for Deseret Book.

Well, that is why I am writing about here. She is releasing her latest book title "He Love Us and We Love Him....You've Memorized It, Now Live It". She just has a way about her with the young women and she knows how to write and tell stories that touch hearts, inspires change all while being fun, hip and approachable.

This new books is coming out soon and when it does, she has promised me a copy of it and when I get that copy, I will have a little giveaway on my blog to pass that book on to one of you (or should I say a YW you know). I can't wait for it to come out. It really will be worth reading!

Oh, and if you don't win the book, go and buy it anyway! It is only $10 and well worth the money. She is using the money she makes to help pay for all her guest speaking travels to various girls camps, youth conference, etc. She doesn't let people pay for her travel, she pays for it out of the kindness of her heart... Isn't she awesome! But she gets more and more busy each year speaking and the costs are starting to add up! So, if you are looking for a great stocking stuffer for Christmas... this would be a great gift!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Activity Days - Hair Clips


For Activity Days we took the summer off. I only had one girl any given week, so we decided we would start back up when school started, so we could all be together and have fun together. So last week, we had our first activity (again) and we made hair clips. I found this idea here and the tutorial here. The girls really enjoyed picking out their material and making these clips. And the best part was the girls learned a little bit about sewing.
I told the girls I hope to see these clips in the hair on Sunday!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Getting Ready for School


We start school this coming Monday. My oldest is going into 1st grade and my middle child starts preschool. It is going to be an interesting year for me. So many big changes and now with Hannah going to school with the "big kids", I hope I can handle it.

But to get started, I decided to create some magnets that have a few "school schedules" to help me get started on the right foot this school year. I wanted to make sure i remember who drives what days for our carpool and what to pack each day for lunch. That is the biggest one to remember, so I am not trying to figure it out each morning.

I also made magnets for each of the parents I carpool with, so they too can have a little help the first few weeks.

I decided to made blank versions for you my readers, just in case you wanted to use them. And I figured out, how to add links for you to download them yourselves, without having to email me. So here they are: download the carpool here and the lunch menu here.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Calculating Success


I found this idea here and thought how easy and fun to give to my kids teachers this year. The calculators are from Target's dollar Spot, but I couldn't find any red (so sad), but I did find these fun colors. Then I created my own tag to match the colors and packaged them up.

Cheap, easy, cute and practical! What more can you ask for?! Here is to starting the school year out on a fun note!

You can download the tag here

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Favorite Things Party


This weekend I had a Favorite Things party with my friends on my street. Our street has a party every few months and I felt it was my time to throw the party and when I saw this party idea, I had do to it. Immediately!

Here is the jist of the party: Each person brings their favorite thing (anything you like.. lotion, baking item, decorating item, treat, etc). It can't cost more than $6, and each person brings five of the same thing. At the party you write your name on five slips of paper and throw them in a bowl. One at a time each person introduces their favorite thing and then picks five names from the bowl (making sure you don't pick your own.. or two of the same name) and then passes out their gift to those five guests.

After everyone at the party has presented their favorite thing, each person should end up with five gifts to take home.
The theme was of course from the Sound of Music and the Sound "A Few of my favorite things", so the color scheme had to match. As stated in my invitation post found here.

It was really a great party and so much fun to socialize, learn about each other and of course take home gifts!

Here are the details and if you click on the image, you will be able to see the details a bit better.


THE DRINKS: my favorite drinks are Italian sodas! They are so fun and out of the ordinary, so they were perfect. I bought these cute mason jar lids where you can put straws through them. They are so darn cute! If you haven't had Italian sodas, here is the recipe! most of the girls hadn't had one before that night, so that was fun too!


THE FOOD: On the invitation, I asked the guests to bring their favorite dessert or appetizer. I made one of each. I made "fancy" rice krispie treat lollipops! Since I love rice krispies. I saw these krispie treats here and had to make them. And a Caprese salad. On my salad, i added cucumbers and avocados. The cucumbers add crunch and what isn't better with an avocado on it! I meant to take a picture of the table with everyone's food on it. It was beautiful and so yummy! Seriously, it was a sight to behold!

For the rice krispie treats, I used the melting chips from Wilton, instead of real chocolate. It melts so much better and is so much easier to work with. And I could get the chips in the Tiffany blue, so they were perfect.


THE TABLE: I made food tags to match the invitations. I had the girls email me what they were going to bring and then I made tags for their food. I also bought cream silverware, brown napkins and wrapped them in blue satin ribbon.


MY FAVORITE THING: For my favorite thing I gave the girls bottles filled up with flavored syrup. Since I served Italian Ice for the drinks, I thought it would be fun to send them home with the syrups to do it themselves. I bought these cute glass bottles from Ikea. I decided to etch (here is a great link on how to etch glass) their initials onto the bottles to personalize them. You can't see the etching on the bottle with the syrup in them, but the small image in the collage shows the etched bottles. I loved how they turned out. Then I poured the flavored syrups into the bottle and attached a tag with the recipe for italian ice and wa-laa.

I also decided to make personalized bags for the ladies to put their stash in afterwards, so they could take it all home easily. I used my other favorite thing Martha Stewart glitter.

I didn't take a picture, but for the piece of paper to write the names on.... I cut out strips of paper and hole punched a circle in the corner and then tied thin tiffany blue ribbon into a knot and placed them all in a basket.


THE LOOT: Here are a few of our favorite things that I and my sister ended up with. Some of the things were: Bath and Body soap, Starbucks gift card, stationery, a fall pumpkin, socks and cookie cutters.

It was a great night enjoyed with great friends. I am pretty sure this will become a yearly tradition!

Friday, August 13, 2010

A Favorite Party


I am throwing a Favorite Things party tonight. I came across this idea here and thought! Genius! I knew I had to throw this party. So, tonight I am with my neighborhood ladies! I can't wait to show you all the details of this party.

You might notice the color scheme is tiffany blue, kraft brown, dark brown and cream. That is to go along with: Blue satin sashes, brown paper packages, and cream colored ponies.

So, here are to all things good!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Can't Wait to Share...


I have something fun to post about next week. HINT: it has something to do with this image.

Monday, August 9, 2010

not uncommon


Living in the middle of an agricultural town, we get lots and lots of bugs and spiders. So, it is not uncommon to see this little girl around the outside of our house. (Luckily we haven't seen her in the house yet). My husband took this picture of this little girl in our garage. It is a great picture of her signature "hourglass" design.

Here's hoping we don't see another one for awhile, now that we cleaned out the garage!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Craft Club - Green Eggs and Ham




This week's craft club theme was good ol' Green Eggs and Ham.

Of course we read the story. I am always amazed how reading books can capture kids attention. They all sit so still and quiet while I read them stories. I love the power of books and reading! But back to the craft....

The kids made their own place setting of green eggs while spelling out their names! I got the idea from Katherine Marie, again!

Then we made treats that looked like green eggs and bacon. I forgot to get a picture of all of them before the kids got to them, so these are the last two! The kids loved them.

BOOK: Green Eggs and Ham
CRAFT: a place setting of green eggs
TREAT: pretzels, melting chocolate and green M&M's (green eggs and bacon)

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

A chocolate Cobbler


My kids favorite place to eat is Sweet Tomatoes. I like it because I can get a good salad made my way. My husband loves it because of their chocolate lava cake! Well, I came across this chocolate cobbler recipe and made it the other day. It is almost identical to Sweet Tomatoes' chocolate dessert.

It is so super easy and really so super yummy when served with vanilla ice cream! The dinner guest I made it for couldn't stop raving about it. Another recipe to add to my cookbook!

The long version of the recipe with picture can be found here.
the short version can be found here.
and the photo comes from here.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Craft Club - Popcorn


This last week for craft club our theme was popcorn. We made corn and used popcorn for the kernels. It was the perfect craft for my kids because they literally can not get enough popcorn. It is evident by their craft. The popcorn cobs should have a lot more popcorn on them, but Ella got to them and ate the popcorn directly off the cob.... glue and all!

I used this corn template and got the idea from here. We then had caramel popcorn for the treat.

BOOK: The Popcorn Book
CRAFT: Corn Cob with popcorn
TREAT: caramel popcorn