Last Days of Summer

The last few weeks of summer where lots of fun and lots going on.  here are just a few of the things we did.

Ella's best friend moved away in them middle of august.  We were so sad to say good-bye.  These two girls spent a lot of time together and were the best of friends.  Ella always tells me "mom, i am going to Elle's birthday party!"  It isn't a question it is a proclamation!  No doubt about it in her mind.  Too bad Elle now lives 2 states away.

To say good bye to her best friend, we did a craft where the girls put there fingerprints on clay and we baked them and made them into these cute necklaces.  So, each girl got to keep the fingerprint necklace of each other, so they could remember each other.

I got the instructions for the necklaces here.

Then to get ready for school, I made these cute pencil packs for the preschool teachers.  I bought my usual Rocky Mountain Caramel Apples for the elementary kids. But thought these goodies would be fun for Jake's teachers.

I got the idea for the pencil packs here (with their cute tag freebie) and here is what I do every year for the elementary teachers.

This is just a fraction of the beautiful creations my girls made this summer.  Every day they would spend an hour or two making Perler Bead creations.  I loved it!  It kept them busy, creative and look at the fun designs we have.  They would give a lot of them away as gifts to loved ones and friends.  The perfect summer project for my girls!

Then we had to get school supplies.  Hannah needed a binder, so I thought it would be fun to dress it up a bit and make it uniquely hers.  

We had a couple of outdoor neighborhood movie nights this summer.  And we had our last one, the weekend before school started.  I love doing this, because it reminds me of what neighborhoods are supposed to be.  All hanging out together, enjoying the outdoors and each other.  The kids love it and it is so easy and so much fun!

We have started a new tradition, the weekend before school starts, the girls and I go and get our nails done.  The girls love picking out sparkly purple and teals colors for their toes and traditional red and pink for their hands.  They love it and so do I!  Such a fun mommy and daughter tradition! 

Then to help get life organized, I spent three days and 4 containers getting all our Lego Friends organized and categorized.  It was quite the project, but now the girls can find everything, so they will play with them more.  And I feel like I accomplished something great :-)

There you have it, the end of our summer.  Now on to schedules, being in the car all the time, practices and lunches and homework and running around like crazy!  Gotta love school.  Not only if it would stop being 100 degrees!  I am ready for fall!

New Favorite clothes site

So, I accidently came across this clothes site  LIKE TWICE and I am so glad I did!  It is the greatest thing for two reasons.

FIRST - you can buys cute, stylish, brand name clothes for a fraction of the price.  I got the cutest J Crew pencil skirt for $18 instead of $70!  It is one of my favorite skirts.

SECOND - you can give them your old brand name clothes and they will sell them for you and you'll get money in return.  

It works like this:

It is so easy, you just go to the site and click on the sell button.  you request a "bag".  They will send you a bag that is all ready pre-paid to be shipped back to them.  No cost to you.  

Follow their directions as far as what they accept in clothes and brand, etc.  Just mail the clothes back.  They will sort through them and give you a quote on how much you get for your clothes and an itemized list for what they accepted and what they didn't.  You can either take cash back for the clothes or if you decide you can use it as store credit on their site (and get %10 more in credit).

it is so easy and no risk.  you don't pay for anything to get rid of your clothes and you can some money in return.    And the clothes they don't end up using.. either goes to Goodwill or they will send them back to you for a fee of $5.

It is nice, because i just give my clothes to goodwill, because it is so much easier.  But this is just as easy and I get a little clothes money in return.

I just sent them my clothes and I got $55 in store credit in return.  This is what I just bought today!

So cute for the fall and riding boots, right?

So dang adorable.. I can't wait to wear it this fall and winter.

Who can't use some nice name brand jeans.  I love J.Crew.

I have the cutest cardigan to go with this shirt.  Purple/Plum is my new favorite color for my closet!

With my store credit and a $10 voucher they gave me, I ended up paying only $18 for all these cute clothes.   I saved 70% of what I would have spent in the stores (and believe me I would have bought them in the store!)

This company isn't asking me to write them up on my blog.  I just had to share this site with you because i think it is so great and really quite the deal.  So, if you are so inclined and end up using them.... if you want to you can use my link and I will get some extra store credit.

liketwice.com/IBVoy 

You don't have to, but if you remember and you don't mind!  

enjoy and happy shopping!  

Now if they would only add jewelry and shoes and purses to this site!

Family Reunion - Home Base Day again

On Friday, we were supposed to go to the reservoir for a day on the lake.  But there was some infestation on the shoreline (some kind of itch epidemic), so we decided to stay around the houses again.  We took it easy in the morning with a big breakfast and the kids got to play.  Then after lunch, we went swimming (which is always a favorite for the kids).

Later that afternoon we had a fashion show with the t-shirts we all designed for each other.  A person would get up and show their shirt and then the person that made it was announced as the designer and then they would be the next person up to show their shirt.

Our last night there, the kids finally got to have a movie night (which we had been promising them all night).  While the kids watched a movie, the adults got to talk and catch up on life together as a big group.

And then the next day it was farewell.  It was a great reunion and full of bonding, catching up, memories and BIG FUN!