Movie Night Birthday Party

Here are all the details to my daughter's 6th birthday party. We decided to do an outdoor movie night. The decorations and theme were based on popcorn and movies. Because it was mostly outdoors, I told her she could invite 20 kids (which I know is crazy, but when you have school, church and neighborhood kids, the number adds up).

The invitations (see here) included a movie ticket. They were told they had to bring the movie ticket with them to get into the party and mostly because there was going to be a raffle that night. Everyone brought there tickets!

The party goers arrived and went straight outdoors to set up their pillows and blankets for the movie. They all played on the jungle gym as the rest of the kids arrived. Then we had the kids eat dinner. I had hotdogs and chips, grapes and strawberries.

I bought these nice trays so that the kids could just grab and go and since they were all the same there were no decisions to be made. I also went to my local pizza place and bought $5 worth of cups with lids. I was going to buy these to be like a real movie theater, but I ran out of time to have them shipped.

Then we had the raffle. I choose four names to win the prizes. We had a gift card for 1) one movie rental at Blockbuster and popcorn. 2) a $5 DVD from Target and popcorn, 3) another $5 DVD from Target and popcorn and 4) a popcorn bucket full of movie concessions. The kids loved this! I also went to our local Blockbuster and tried to get a window poster as a prize. They throw away all their posters, so if you can time it right (before they throw them away), your can get posters from Blockbuster. I didn't time it right :-)

Then we opened presents and started the movie. We had to start it a bit early, so it was still a little light out, but not to worry within 7 mins it started to get dark. We watched Monsters vs. Aliens. We had 20 chairs set up and some blankets at the front, but the chairs weren't used by any of the kids (only adults). All the kids brought their pillows and blankets and only sat on the grass. I thought they would have used the chairs, but not at all. I was worried no one would watch the movie, but a lot of kids did and most of them took turns going back and forth between the movie and the jungle gym. They had free reign of the backyard and they took advantage of it and just played like crazy.

We had fun concession candy and an old fashioned popcorn machine. I bought candy from the dollar store (that looks like the boxes at the movie theater), but forgot to put them out for the kids Can you believe it, 20 boxes of candy and I forgot!

And the cake... okay, this was the thing I was most nervous about and the thing that turned out so great. I love how the cake turned out. I baked a normal 9X13 cake and frosted it and then used fruit by the foot for the red part of the cake and giant marshmallows for the popcorn. I sliced a marshmallow into thirds and placed them together like a flower and then cut another marshmallow in half and placed in on top using frosting to hold it together. Then sprayed them with water mixed with yellow food coloring (in a spray bottle) and waa-laa.... butter popcorn! I am not a cake maker or decorator (I do cupcakes), but this little "masterpiece" made me think twice about cakes. I loved how it turned out. (Can you tell I am proud of myself).

When it got dark, we passed out glow in the dark necklaces and bracelets and sang happy birthday to the birthday girl.

It really was a great birthday party and fun for everyone... Hannah, me and the kids.

Hannah's 6th Birthday Party

Hannah turns six years old today. I can't believe how fast she is growing up. We had her big Movie night birthday party this weekend and what a great party it was. I have to admit that I slightly coaxed her into this Movie Night theme party. She originally wanted a Cinderella party, but after discussing how it would be hard to invite boys and that a movie night party would be more fun, she decided to go along with mom (does that make me a bad mom?)

Well, after all is said and done, she too agrees it was the best party ever. The guest arrived and she was so excited for them to come. She opened the door every time the doorbell rang and told the guest what to do (where to put the presents, tickets, pillows, etc). Then the kids went straight for the outdoors. They set up their place on the blankets for the movie and then they all played on the jungle gym.

Then we had dinner and opened up presents. Hannah had to read every card out loud (because she loves learning to read). Then it was time for the movie to begin. She choose Monsters Vs. Aliens (weeks ago and would not budge), so that is what we watched and the kids loved it. Hannah sat and watched the movie the whole time, but most of the other kids were back and forth from the movie and jungle gym all night. And once, we passed out the glow in the dark necklaces it was pure chaos.

The party was a huge hit and it really was so much fun. The kids were so happy and sweet and Hannah was so happy to have all of them over to play with her and celebrate her birthday.

More details of the party to come soon.

San Diego Part II

The next day we headed to Sea World. We met up with our friends the Schewbachs and had a blast. Sea World has added a Sesame Street "fun land" and it was the highlight for the kids. It had rides, water fun and a big climbing structure.

The bummer part was that they are re-doing the dolphin show, so there was no dolphin show to watch (which is one of our favorites). But we did catch them training the dolphins, so it was almost as good. The trainers aren't allowed to go in the water anymore with shamu, so that was a little sad, but I think they added more jumps and splashes to make up for it, so we think the shamu show was a little bit better than last time. And probably the best show was the pre-show to the seal lion show. That guy was hilarious!

Ella loved seeing the whales, dolphins and sea lions. She talked about them constantly and was captivated when she saw them. It was hard to pull her away. Later that night, we headed back to the hotel with our friends and the kids had a sleepover. All of them conked out in the main room (while the parents stayed up and talked). Fun for everyone!

San Diego Weekend

This last weekend we bypassed the "Mouse" and headed to San Diego. It had been awhile since we had been to San Diego and thought we would go to Legoland and Sea World.

We have been to Legoland in its Mother Land of Denmark and so we wanted to go to the one here to see how it compared. It isn't as good as the one in Denmark, but it was fun nonetheless. It was the perfect place for our 6 year old and 3 year old. The rides are geared just for the age group. Hannah loved going on the rides all on her own. And Ella loved going on rides with her mom and dad.

And for adults, it really is quite amazing to see all their mini-monuments and cities all built out of legos. The hours put into building the structures and characters in that park is unbelievable. If you have kids between the ages of 3 and 7 years old, it is a great place to visit while in southern california.

NOTE: The city of San Fran and the dragon are completely made out of legos. Look at the pictures, it is amazing! Part Two of our trip coming next: Sea World.

Photography Logos

I have been working on several client's logos and business cards. Here are just a few logo projects I have just completed.

Movie NIght Birthday Invites

Hannah is turning six years old next week and it has been party planning central in our house again. This year her theme is Movie NIght. The main focus being on movies and popcorn.

We are having an outdoor movie party and here are the invitations we are sending out for her party.

I found these great popcorn bag invitations at OTC. And then added a bit of my own touch to it. The ticket is going to be a main element for the party guests and the party. Again, I used Martha Stewart glitter to make it a bit more fancy.

More to come next week after the big night!

To Quench and Love

I haven't been posting lately and I feel bad, so I wanted to share this yummy drink recipe with you.

Okay, I am a sucker for anything with Sweetened Condensed Milk in it. You honestly can't go wrong with that ingredient. As soon as it stops raining and the spring-like temperatures come back... I am making this drink!

Brazilian Lemonade (but really limeade)

2 bottles Simply Limeaid
1 can sweetened condensed milk
4 sliced limes for serving
1 bag crushed ice

In a very large pitcher, pour about a cup of the Limeaid in then pour in the sweetened condensed milk. Pour in the rest of the Limeaid, mix well.

Fill desired glasses to the brim with ice, pour Brazilian lemonade over top with lime and serve immediately.

The photo and recipe are courtesy of Meikel Reece.

Activity Day - Delivering Truffles to Widows

Our girls had a stake activity day mini camp last Saturday, it was so cute and the stake did a fantastic job. They had four classes:

1) Choosing the Right
2) Little Miss Popular (talking about having important characteristics that truly make you popular. i.e. honesty, kindness, respect, etc)
3) Truffle making and service
4) Journal writing and they made journals

As mentioned, one of the classes was to teach the girls how to make these Oreo Truffles. During the class, the girls made extra, big truffles to be delivered to all the widows in our stake. So, last night for our Activity Day activity, we delivered the truffles to the widows/single women in our ward. The girls had a blast and it was nice to visit and get to know these wonderful woman.

The truffle images and recipe can be found here.

Easter Morning Pics

I am not doing well with the blogging these days. It isn't that I don't want to blog, i just have nothing to blog about. Weird. I am in the middle of planning my daughter's 6th birthday party, so there will be posts in the next few weeks and then the whole party recap, but until then I am catching up on Easter pictures.

Here are the kiddos easter morning. Hannah was so excited when she saw the easter baskets full of goodies through the baby gate. She said "the easter bunny came. He really did. He really did." Ella ate most of the candy for breakfast but not after she lined up all her chocolate eggs in a row. (She does that with things). Jake just loved putting things in his mouth.

The the girls went on an easter egg hunt. They loved it so much that we repeated the easter egg hunt six times. Again for the girls, then for mommy to hide them, then daddy to him them, then for mommy to find them and then for daddy to find them. Hours of entertainment for the whole family!

Waiting Patiently

I can tell I am getting older. I never really liked Eddie Bauer clothes. Every once in a while I liked something like a nice down jacket or something wintery, but not usually where I went to for clothes. But now that I am older-ish, I am excited when the Eddie Bauer catalog comes in the mail. Love their clothes and especially their shoes. And here is one reason why. I love these sandals. I am looking for some new summer sandals and these fit the bill (well not the literal bill.... they are a bit more than I like to spend on shoes). So I am patiently waiting for EB to have a sale and then I am going to buy these cute little things.

Love them! Check out their other shoes... so many to love.

Spring Cleaning

I figured I couldn't have those fall dark colors on my blog anymore, so I did some cleaning up on my blog and changed my fall decor to spring! My apple bushels to strawberry bushels. My fall tree to a spring blossoming tree. browns to pinks. Nothing like a little spring cleaning to feel all new again. Now if I could only keep up on posting. I must be doing less and less because i have less and less to share. so sorry.

Happy Meal Forever! Literally!

I came across this study/article and had to share. This lady (Joann Bruso author of Baby Bites - Transforming A Picky Eater Into A Healthy Eater Book did a little "scientific study" on the famous McDonald's Happy Meal.

She has been blogging about the shelf-life of a McDonald's Happy Meal that she bought a year ago. After a year, the happy meal (no not the box, but the actually meal) showed no decay.

"NOPE, no worries at all. My Happy Meal is one year old today and it looks pretty good. It NEVER smelled bad. The food did NOT decompose. It did NOT get moldy, at all."

I have to admit, this little study causes me to pause and think a bit about buying one of these meals again.Click Here to read more.

More logos to Show off :-)

I wanted to show some of the recent logos I have completed in the last month or so. Most of them are photography logos, but I do have one for an assisted living center. I have to say I love this job. I say it over and over again, but it is so much for to be creative and work with clients to create a logo they love. Thanks again clients!

Jakeity Jake

A little update on my little guy. How cute is he? He is a very happy baby. The only time he isn't happy is when he has an ear ache (which he has had 4 in the last 6 months). But every single time he gets fussy and grumpy, I know there is something going on with his ears and we go to the doctor and yep... ear infections.

This boy loves his hands. He has since he was little (well, younger). He always has his hands above his head and he just turns them around and looks at them, almost mesmerized by them. Then when he learned to clap, it was all over. He claps all the time. When he is happy. When mommy says "clap". When we is crying. He just claps. Today we were driving in the car and the song "Tonight's going to be a good night" by Black Eyed Peas and I turned it up loud in the car (the girls like it) and I could hear Jake just clapping away in back of me.

He likes baby food, but not a fan of regular food. I can't get him to eat anything other than grains (sounds like Ella...oh, no). I am pretty sure it is the texture of things like noodles, cheese, eggs, fruit, etc. We are going to have to nip this one into bud. I am not having two kids that eat like that.

He army crawls everywhere. He has been doing it for a month. He hasn't figure out that if he lifted his belly off the ground, it would be so much easier.

He definitely loves his mom (me :-) Every time he is with dad and I am not around he is perfectly fine and happy. And then the second I walk into the room, Jake starts to cry and get fussy. It happens every time. And once I hold him, everything is okay again. It is nice to have someone love you that much that the sight of them reminds them that they need you and want you :-)

He is really complete joy!

GO. FIGHT. WIN!

I had a wonderful opportunity to help (in a very small way) this courageous woman in her fight over cancer. Her sister emailed me asking if I would create a logo for her sister's fundraising events and create a blog banner for their blog. Of course I didn't think twice about it and this is what we created together. They liked the idea of cherry blossoms because the cherry blossom is an omen of good fortune and is also an emblem of love and affection.

This is her story..... but go to her blog to read more of her miraculous story.

Sarah is 34 years old. She has two beautiful children and was first diagnosed at age 19 with cancer. After removing her stomach, she was cancer free. Her cancer came back when she was 31 and has been living with cancer ever since. At a recent appointment with her oncologist they found out the cancer is growing and that no one with Sarah's type of cancer has lived as long as she has.

Everyone is praying and hoping for the best outcome for her and more miracles. But with all this fighting, her medical bills have been mounting and are obviously becoming difficult to pay. So, her sister and family are going to have a fundraising 5K run in April through their father's farm when all the blossoms are blooming a beautiful.

I can only imagine what it is like to have to fight cancer and have two small children. I think about it quite a bit, what would i do. How much would I fight? Where would i get the strength and will to win? So brave women like Sarah show us that fighting is the greatest act of love. I pray for her and her fight. May she GO. FIGHT. WIN!

Baking Goodness

I found this cheesecake recipe and said... I want to make that. I have never made one before and I am not sure why I wanted to now, but it just seemed like a great dessert to make! Not that I need a whole (or even a half) of a cheesecake in the house. So, when I had a girl night out with friends, I thought "I will make that cheesecake recipe" and I did.

Here is a picture of all 6 blocks of cream cheese goodness baked into a pretty round mound.

Here is the link to the recipe and directions (which I did following word for word).

Bravo me! It really was soooo good. Also, I used oreos for the cookie crust (that was pretty great too).

Popcorn Popping Trees

The other day in class, Hannah's teacher taught them a poem titled "popcorn tree". As soon as Hannah heard it, she said "that's popcorn popping". And she sang the song for her teacher. Her teacher emailed me for the song. Hannah taught her class the song all week. She was so excited to be the song leader.

The girls have been loving the springtime blossoms. Ella rides in the car and points out all the "popcorn trees" or asks "where is a popcorn tree, mommy?" It is so pretty here when the blossoms are out. Two bad they only last about 3 weeks. And those 3 weeks are almost up. So, yesterday we decided to go for a drive and quickly get some photos of the girls with the blossoms.

We had a hard time getting Ella to look at the camera and for Hannah to keep her eyes open, so this is what we got.

My Latest Sewing Project

It has been awhile since i have taken out my sewing machine to work on anything. But the other day Hannah kept talking about how much she wanted a stage for her puppets (that she had just made). I mean I heard about it for days and when I told her I would work on one for her, she made me commit to a day it would be finished and then proceeded to tell everyone her puppet stage would be ready to use on Saturday. So, I figured I better get on it. I talked about an adorable and easy Puppet Stage awhile back on my blog, so I thought, I better sit down and make it.

It really wasn't hard and the best part is I already had most of it done since they were drapes for a closet we had at our old house. I love when you save things and you don't know why, but then you find the perfect use for them.

So, here is our puppet stage. I loved how it turned out. Now for the sad part. The girls hardly use it. Oh, well. Someday they will.

Activity Day - Articles of Faith Egg Hunt

Tonight I had my girls go on an Easter Egg Hunt. They were hunting for candy eggs and Articles of Faith eggs. I have six girls and so I got 36 plastic eggs. I printed out the articles of faith and cut them up into "somewhat short" segments. I stuck several segments into half of the eggs and put candy in the other half of the eggs and then hid them around the church building.

I told there girls to go find all the eggs and when they got back, we would go and split into two teams. We placed all the AofF segment strips into a pile (and then they got to keep the candy to eat) and which ever team could put together the most AofF the quickest would win.

the girls had a blast on the hunt and really enjoyed the competition of putting together the Articles of Faith. And they did a great job.

The Thrill of the Leprechaun

This year, I decided to do something cute for St. Patricks Day since Hannah came home from school and told me that leprechauns leave green milk and footprints.

So, this morning when the girls came downstairs it was like Santa himself had visited. They were so excited to see the little green footprints. Hannah yelled "the leprechaun came to our house. She followed the footprints to the fridge and found green milk. She ran around the whole house to see if he went anywhere else (I kinda wished I had done more, but next year). She kept saying "we have to find that little rascal."

Ella loved the footprints and kept saying "two green footprints".

Next year, I will have to do more. I didn't think it would get the response it did. Thank heavens I did a little something. Holidays are always more fun when you have kids (and even more fun when they are in school, because you feel like you have to do things since they talk to their friends about it).

Great Meal

Last night I made a surprisingly great meal. First off... I have wanted to make homemade bread for some time now, but have always been nervous, since I have never done it. But then I found this recipe and let me tell you. it is awesome and awesomely easy.

All you need is water, flour, salt and yeast. And it is just as easy to make (and my hands hardly got dirty too).
Here is the recipe and seriously it is a super asy way to bake bread.

Also, I love soup. So I wanted to make a minestrone soup for the first time too. I took this recipe from Tyler Florence and adapted it a bit to make my own recipe. Here is it and it too is great.

Ingredients

2 cans vegetable stock
3 tablespoons crushed garlic
1 cup salad pasta noodles (the mini-mini rigatoni noodles, the kind you can use to make necklaces)
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp sage
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
3/4 pound sweet Italian pork sausage
2 medium carrots, roughly chopped
2 celery ribs, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 zucchini chopped
1 bunch of green chard, chopped
mushrooms chopped
1 potato, chopped
1 (28-ounce) can crushed plum tomatoes
1 bay leaf
2 (28-ounce) cans cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 bunch fresh parsley leaves, finely minced

Parmesan cheese for sprinkling on top
and bread

Preparation

Brown the sausage, add garlic. When completely cooked through add all the vegetables and spices and cook for 15 mins on medium heat until softened.

Then stir in the crushed tomatoes, bay leaf, cannelloni beans, and vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes stirring occasionally.

Then pour in the salad noodle pasta and cook until the noodles are done. If you need it to add more water add about a cup more or until the desired consistency.

Garnish with parmesan cheese.

NOTE: I cooked the soup for a long time mostly because I was trying to keep it warm. I don't think it mattered how long it simmered, but definitely don't put the pasta noodles in until about 15 mins before you are ready to serve (so they don't cook too long and get mushy).

the image and bread recipe came from Artisan bread in 5 mins