Schools BACK from Summer!

Oh my. I haven't blogged on here or my family blog since the end of the school year. That about sums up my summer, go go go.

I wanted to share some of my favorite ideas and crafts I did for Back to School for my Preschoolers.

For Administration at the school, I thought little pick me up (Mocha Fraps!) in their favorite football team cups is a great way to start the first day of school.

Each of the kids 2 teachers got a back to school survival kit in a Thirty One carry all caddy!  Filled with Anti-bac soap, nail files, pencils, note pads, and a frap or green tea. Of course, I put in a cute questionnaire for each teacher. I love this idea. Thanks Pinterest & Life- Sweet - Life. It's so great to not have to guess on what to get your teachers and to know little things like a Dr. Pepper in the morning, etc.

Of course my kids were visited by the Back to School Fairy! They love this idea and they get a few little things to get them ready for school. Including new shoes! I loved the certificate on Happy Home Fairy.

We had a lot of fun taking different questionnaires and pictures for school.  Here are some of my favorites!

  

Here is the link to the Chalkboard questionnaire, it turned out super cute for pictures. Thank you Grant Ave.

I'm looking forward to getting back into the groove of school and back to blogging too. Here is my School Pinterest board for more of my favorite ideas.

A little bit of love... a little late!

I've been meaning to post pics of all the Valentine's we handed out this year at our many Vday events but I've switched modes right from Valentine's Day to getting ready for Trevor's birthday. Although we are just having a small family thing with a few close friends, I can't have a party without putting a ton of effort and creativity in it. It's not my style! ;)

Inside the bags that the kids handed out to their friends at school includes bubbles, blow pops and Hershey kisses, get it.. "Blowing kisses...". :) I thought all my little ideas came out cute this year! I can't imagine doing these things for a Kindergarten class of  24 kids so I'll enjoy it while the kids are in small class sizes.

All you need is L-O-V-E...

So, for me after we take down the Christmas decorations, the house just looks boring... and plain. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to pack the Christmas stuff up for another year and get back to normal but I'm ready and waiting for another holiday to decorate for... and that's VALENTINE's Day! Once it hits January 14th, I feel like I'm within appropriate time limits to start crafting and decorating. Here is what we've been working on so far this year!

The banner was just burlap, no sewing or gluing necessary. So easy and I did it with stuff I already had on hand at home. Woo hoo! Free (well, previously paid for) decor! It was a great fun craft for Lily to help with too.

The vertical "XOXO" banner cost me all of $.50 for the 2 sheets of scrapbook paper (which were on sale) and a little bit of time on the Cricut. The wooden hearts were only $2 each, I used a 40% on the large one making it about $1.50.

With my new fancy camera I got for Christmas, I'm excited and ready to do some Valentine's day photo shoots with my kiddos!

Football Season might almost be over...

Yeah, so maybe I should have made these months and month ago but I got some playoff fever and walked into MY Hobby Lobby here in Texas to find Broncos fabric so I felt it was a calling from God that I needed to make my kids some Broncos apparel for the play offs. Of course, little did I know that the outfits would be bad luck and that the Broncos (everyone's Super Bowl pick!) would lose. Lucky for me, I made the outfits a little big so they will be ready for football season next year! We love our Peyton Manning.

Christmas Mantel!

I really wanted to do something new & fresh for my mantel so with a few decoupage letters and some cheap wrapping paper I have a new look. What do you think? If only my IPhone could capture my fun blinking lights. Christmas time is upon us!! Noel! ;)

Time for Tea?? Lily's Tea Party Birthday!

Lily had a fantastic tea party! We've all seen the Princess tea parties and the Alice in Wonderland teas but I wanted a formal tea. Girls in pretty floral dresses and boys in ties. I bought bonnets & top hats and Lily (and me too!) had white gloves. We went all out!  Sipping real tea out of real china. I'm so lucky that my Mom has saved so many china sets that were her Moms and her Mom's Mom, etc. so I had some beautiful pieces to decorate with and use. Of course I had to add some bright colors to make it 4 year appropriate. With scones and mini muffins, chocolate dipped sugar wafers and age appropriate finger foods like pepperoni rolls, all the kids had a great time! Here are some of my decorations, thanks to the fabulous Sara Buskirk for being my photographer. Someone needs to push her to start a business!

Craft Fairs make me crafty!

I had so much fun at First United Methodist's Gift Alley this morning that it made me come home & feel like being crafty so I whipped out the sewing machine to conquer a few projects. I've been meaning to make an election dress for Lily for months but I finally got it done, like 4 days to spare. Haa. I forgot how relaxing it is to sew. It is definitely a stress release, maybe I need to get it out more often!! It had been so long since I made a dress that I had to remind myself a little bit. That's bad. I might have to give up sleep so I have more time. Ha.

Fall Artwork!

I needed some fall artwork so Lily & Trevor put some fingerprint leaves on their hand trees today. Trevor's tree is a late fall tree with some blowing leaves apparently. It held his attention for about 10 seconds but Lily really enjoyed the activity! Nothing like fall crafts on a 90 degree day! Ha.

T-Ball Snacks!!

Let's just hope the T ball games don't get rained out tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about our snacks! The parents all rotate snack weeks & tomorrow is our Saturday. Our team, Team #8, we named the Ochos. Their snack bags include temporary tattoos & yoyos too. That's motivation!

Update: The games did get rained out! Bummer! Luckily nothing will go bad so I'll save them for our rain make up day!!

Ready for the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

I know most of you have already started school, and we start on Thursday and I am more than excited! Both my kids will be attending Preschool which also means that I have to do teacher gifts for 4 teachers this year, eekk. I'm definitely going to have to plan ahead and start early!

I wanted to do something little for each of my kid's teachers for the first day to put a smile on their face. I also think I'm going to need to suck up in order for Trevor's teachers to deal with him! He'll be climbing on the walls before the end of his first day!

I thought a FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL SURVIVAL KIT was what all their teachers needed!

What the card says :

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL SURVIVAL KIT

Here’s a little something to help you through the first day of school. There is something to pick you up (caffeine!), keep you hydrated (water!), to keep you clean (hand sanitizer & kleenex!) and to indulge after the long day (candy & goodies!). 

                                                            Have a GREAT DAY!! 

 We meet the teacher tomorrow! Wish us luck!

Rosie's Wine Tasting Bridal Shower!

I am so honored to be apart of Rosie & Michael's special day! Rosie will be such a beautiful Bride and I was so honored when she and Michael asked me (and my family!) to be apart of their wedding. When Rosie's bridesmaids and myself started thinking about what kind of shower we wanted to throw for Rosie, the main thing she wanted was something FUN! We of course wanted to keep it a classy affair but why not turn a wine tasting into a bridal shower, or a bridal shower into a wine tasting. It all depends on how you look at it!

For a couple of months now, I've been having all of my friends save me their wine bottles. A special thanks to everyone who brought me the 22 bottles I collected, Amanda, April, Chrystal, Kelly... everyone! They made for such great decorations and vases. For the pretty wine bottles, I left the original label on but for the unattractive labels, I made a custom label (super easy!) and added a special touch to the decorations.

I even made small custom labels for mini wine bottles to give as favors!

I used clothespins (cause what wife doesn't do laundry? Oh, that would be me, haa) to hang pictures of her and the groom and made poms in all the colors of the wine palette.

I had a lot of fun making wine glasses for each guest to use and take home. For my first time using chalkboard spray paint, it was so easy and turned out so cute! My bestie Jenn helped me glass etch an "R" on all the glasses and then we used paint pens to make it stand out. I think they were a big hit.

I made my favorite Jalapeno Popper dip, so just in case you were one of the 20 party guests asking me for the recipe, here it is! It is definitely my new favorite party dip, and so easy.

I also improvised and made up a new wine spritzer recipe! I used Strawberry Daquiri frozen concentrate, a bottle of moscato and some sprite with frozen tropical fruit. Yummmmmmmy! I was looking for a Raspberry Lemonade frozen concentrate and could never find it so I made something up and everyone loved it, whew.

Check out my Pinterest board, I dyed the lemon slices and they turned out super cute in the wine spritzer punch and the pink lemonade!  A pinterest success!

Rosie is going to such a beautiful Bride! I can't wait for your big day!! 

Poolside Snacks! Pudding + Cool Whip = YUM!

So, in a Better Home & Gardens magazine a few months back I found a recipe for a poolside treat that sounded amazing, I am horrible about ripping things out and remembering them so I took a picture of the recipe and pinned it. Have I mentioned how much I love Pinterest? Well, when I was thinking of a treat to take to a morning playdate I was so happy to reference the recipe I took a picture of a few months back. These turned out AMAZING, they had the texture of ice cream but didn't melt like ice cream and were a hit with the kids. I used vanilla this time and I can't wait to try different pudding flavors in the future.

Source: via Julie on Pinterest