Circus Themed Birthday Party

We got to celebrate the 1st birthday of a very special one year old this weekend!!  I thought the Circus Themed table my friend created was adorable...

There were pictures showing on the computer screen behind the table. It was a fun way to show off his first year!

Animal Crackers and Popcorn!  That just SCREAMS circus and they were displayed so cheerfully!

Peanuts and Rainbow Cotton Candy!  I haven't had these candy peanuts in YEARS.  Have you ever had them?  Orange, soft...my kids thought they taste like bubble gum.  What do you think?

She also has a chalkboard door in her house where she drew this....

So fun and cute!  Time for me to start planning a party for my "little" one!  Do you think I can convince my soon-to-be 11 year old to have a circus theme!!?? 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Breakfast at our house this morning!  The kids said, "It's like we're at Perkins!" HA!

Heartwarmers

I was looking for a Valentine's Craft for the kids when I came across some "heart-warmers". If you head on over to "lovesome", she has a great tutorial and a free download of the cute little card to go with it!   All you need is felt, rice, and a sewing machine (or you could handstitch).

My 10 year old daughter has recently learned to embroidery, so she handstitched this...

She has a special friend from church that she wants to give it to tomorrow, which means I need to get off the computer and start sewing!  Keep warm and have a blessed day!

What Valentine's Crafts will YOU be working on?

Pinterest

Like many of you, I've become slightly addicted to Pinterest!  It has so many GREAT ideas...ALL IN ONE PLACE!  Need turkey treats for school.  Check.  Christmas ornaments for kids to make at church. Check.  Inspirational Words.  Check.  A new dinner recipe.  Check.  It's heavenly. 

Found on pinterest.  Original source: http://www.thehighheeledhostess.com/2011/11/turkey-treats.html. I used store bought "cookie icing" to serve as the "glue" to hold everything together.  Worked really well and dried fast.  Even the kids helped.  The above picture is our final product...pretty cute!

Found on pinterest. Original source:  http://craftysisters-nc.blogspot.com/2010/12/baby-jesus-ornament.html.  We made these for Sunday School, so in order to keep the cost down decided not to add the wooden star. 

 Great question, isn't it!?  LOTS of wonderful, insightful quotes floating around on people's boards.

Found picture on pinterest.  Googled Pineapple Barbecue Bacon Burgers and found the recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pineapple-bacon-burgers/. 

Happy Pinning!

Tie Dye Cupcakes

I made these tie dye cupcakes for my daughter to take to school to celebrate her 10th birthday.  It's times like these that I'm thankful to live in a small town that lets you take in homemade goodies.  They were fun to make and she was so excited to take them to school. You can find the recipe here.

Oh, and for the frosting, I just bought the Duncan Hines Whipped Frosting.  It was easy...and sometimes, like when you are making cupcakes at 10pm the night before they are needed, mom's need easy!

Gold at the End of the Rainbow Treats

 

My friend, Michelle, made these "Gold at the End of the Rainbow" treats for her kiddos!  Aren't they adorable!?  She wanted something to surprise them after school and saw a similar idea here, but didn't have time to run to get long skinny cellophane bags and knew it might be difficult to find gold coins.  So she took the idea, tweeked it, and created her own!  

She started with sandwich baggies (the ones that have the fold over flap) and snipped the flap where it's connected to the bag so it looks like a bag with two slits in the top.

 

Then she dropped 3 Hershey's Nuggets and 4 individually wrapped Rolos into the bottom.  Next, taking one of each color Twizzlers Rainbow Twists she arranged them in order (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple) and bent them into a rainbow shape.  

 

She placed them carefully in the baggie so they didn't get too mixed up. Tied with a bit of green ribbon and voila!  I love how you can even stand them up!! 

 

FYI:  Each bag of Twizzlers made exactly 5 bags of Rainbow treats. These would make really cute goodie bags at a rainbow, unicorn, or candyland/candyshop themed party too!  Thanks for sharing your idea with us, Michelle!

Snowman Ornaments

This was such a fun craft for our family! All 5 of us made one. Yes, even my hubby sat down and created with the rest of us. Meg has a great tutorial here. She used colored balls, which turned out ADORABLE. I had these frosted ones tucked away in my craft room, so that's what we used. The are actually really pretty hanging on the tree with the light coming in from behind.

Melted Snowman Cookies

I saw these Melted Snowmen Cookies here and just had to make them. So fun!! She used Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix, but I used this recipe instead. I ran out of white flour, so mine ended up being 1/2 white and 1/2 wheat. The other adaption I made was to use mini chocolate chips for the buttons. Can you tell I wasn't prepared when I started!? :)

Reasons we LOVE you

My husband's Grandfather just turned 88. For his birthday, the kids made him a GIANT card filled with "88 reasons we LOVE Great Grandpa!!" It was fun to make and even more special to watch his reaction as he read them all. Some were sweet enough to make your heart melt ("Because he took me out for ice cream after my softball game was canceled so that I wouldn't feel sad."), while others made us laugh so hard ("Because he is old.")

"Because he gives great hugs."
"Because he comes to our soccer games."

"Because he is proud of us."
"Because he plays basketball in our driveway with us."

"Because he is flexible."
"Because he can do a headstand on top of a horse." (see picture that follows for proof!)

"Because he serves people at Thanksgiving."
"Because he delivers meals for Meals on Wheels."
"Because he takes good care of animals."
My favorite..."Because he loves us!"

I thought this idea might come in handy for Christmas...let someone know all the ways that you love them!!!

A walk down Memory Lane

Traditions. I love them. We started one with our kids involving Christmas ornaments. They get one each year that represents something they did during the year or a specific quality we have noticed. We make sure to write their name, the year, and what it represents on the back/bottom of each ornament.

For instance, my oldest has a LOVE of animals like I have never seen before...especially for our own yellow Lab. Both of these ornaments have been given to her to represent the pet she has grown up with and the absolute love she has for him.

This was given to my son the first year that he played soccer.

My youngest played Tball for the first time...yes, she's wearing a skirt and you have to admit she TOTALLY rocked it!! :) The back of this ornament says "Representing your first year of Tball", along with her name and year given.

My oldest daughter took a trip to Colorado for a family reunion. She got to ride in the RV with her Grandparents and Great Grandama to visit the original family homestead...back in the day when wagons ruled the road!

This just proves there is an ornament for everything. I mean REALLY...would YOU have bought this one!!!??

It was PERFECT to help us remember the year my son rode this float in the All School Days Parade.

What type of ornaments do you have on your tree? Any unique traditions revolving around them?

PUMPKINS

Pumpkin Carving...

Pumpkin Painting...

Pumpkin Pancakes...

Pumpkin Pizza...

Pumpkin Bracelets... I found the tutorial here.

I love FALL!!!