Teacher Appreciation Week (redo)

This gift was for the teacher's assistant along with the fish gift and some A&W rootbeer).


I used my circut to do the vinyl work on this glass container. It was my first time using vinyl and I loved how it turned out).



I used a picture of Hannah with her teacher from the first day of school. I thought that would be cute.

I used swedish fish as the treat inside the take-out box.



Our school district's teach appreciation week is this week. I know for many of you it was probably last week, so this post is a little too late. But maybe it will help for next year :-)

I was on top of this year (yeah me!) and put together a little something for Hannah's teacher for each day of the week. Here is a little preview of some of the gifts her teacher will be getting this week as a big thank you for all she does for my daughter.

The total cost of all these gifts was $25. Which is doable when you have only one teacher to give to. I realize if I had 3 teachers, I might not have done so much, but for one, it was fun.

The red paper clip picture holder I got at Target for $5.00.
The water bottle I got at Target for $5.00. I also attached two on-the-go Crystal Light drink mixes.
The A&W was $2.40 at the grocery store.
The class container was $5 at Target and the pencils were $1 a box (I got 4 boxes) and used the leftovers for the TA's gift.
The fish and takeout containers were approx. $4 (and I used the leftovers for the TA's gift).

I am also uploading the tags I made for the gifts if you want to use them. Just click on the image and then drag it to your computer and you can print them and enjoy!

Birthday Donuts

Last birthday post for Hannah. For class, we decided to make it easy so we brought donuts with sprinkles. How more festive does it get with sprinkles. And for good birthday measure, I added colorful flags with Hannah's name on them. Just wanted to share as a conclusion to her birthday festivities. (how do you spell the noise of someone wiping off sweat from their forehead? However you spell it, inject that word here :-)

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!