February in Review

The weeks and months are flying by. So much so, that I didn't blog much during the month of February.
Here is a little recap of our month, in no particular order.

Brody and friends celebrated the 100th day of  kindergarten. He came home sporting this headband.

Our San Francisco 49ers made it to the Superbowl. They lost. My boys were bummed. This photo was taken before the game started so there were still happy smiles.

The boys Kaepernick-ing it! This was right after the quarter back(Kaepernick) scored a touch down. Our boys are so funny!

We have attended ALOT of basketball games this month. All 4 boys played Hot Shots this season! They all had amazing seasons!

What do you do on Valentine's Day when you have a fever and don't feel well? You eat donuts in the bath tub with your brother, of course!!! Poor Brody had a  high fever and a horrible  cough. He had to miss his Valentine party at school and was so bummed about it!

 Valentine's party for the 3rd graders. I am the Room Mom in Garrett's classroom this year. We decorated cupcakes, played pin the heart on the giraffes, made Valentine cards and enjoyed a LOVE themed word search.

I love this photo of John, Carter and some of his Tar Heel players. John loves coaching basketball. He sure enjoyed  his team this season. They were undefeated and won the play off game for the title. SO MUCH FUN!

Can't let February pass by without mentioning Girl Scout Cookies. We bought some of our favorites from our friend/neighbor Susie! I love that she came to our door to sell them! Not to mention that I love her receipt and thank you note that we receive each year with our order. So cute!!

The boys started receiving happy mail from their Great Grandma Shore this month. She was calling it the Mercury draw. She decided to cancel her subscription to her local newspaper, the San Jose Mercury News. Hence the Mercury draw title. She put all of her Great Grand kids names into a drawing and is randomly sending them a note with $10.00. She has divided the money she would have spent on the  subscription and sharing it with the Great Grand kids. She is so fun, loving  and kind. We LOVE her!

Carter received his his 2nd class rank at the Court of Honor this month!

We are still working on our bedroom make over. It has been  such a S-L-O-W process. Things like time, $ and finding the right pieces/accents have played a little part in the slowness.  Despite the slowness, I am loving how it is coming together!

Ahhhhh! I love February for the simple fact that it is Valentine's Day. I love the colors. I love the crafting and baking that accompanies it! I love the extra chance I have to tell and show the ones I love just how much I really do love them! I made John this heart attack jar. It was filled with his favorite dark chocolate See's candy and little hearts that had notes/phrases attached to them.

This is one of the little details I worked on for Garrett's class party! I found these fun black and white paper straws. I used my favorite heart punch and attached them to the straws. Made there water bottles a little more fun and festive.

I decorated these fun little fry boxes that I found online. I filled them with a Strawberry Muddy Buddy type treat(recipe coming soon). We shared them with the boys teachers and friends. Fun, festive and yummy!

Time  is flying by! We attended some orientation and registration nights at the high school for Tanner! CRAZY!!! Our first born will be heading to high school in the next few months! Still trying to wrap my brain around it!

Garrett earned his Wolf badge at the Blue and Gold dinner this month. John is still the Cub Master and had a Survivor theme for this months Blue and Gold dinner! The boys had a blast completing Survivor type activities. FUN!

I enjoyed a super fun weekend at the beach with girlfriends!This weekend was at the end of Feb./ beginning of March. I will have create a separate post about it!

I am sure that I am forgetting a few things.Our 2013 is off to a great start. We are happy, healthy(for the most part) and are enjoying the many blessings in our life. 

Happy Father's Day

Our mission today was to spoil John rotten. We wanted the day to be all about him. We made him breakfast in bed. Spoiled him with handmade cards and fun gifts. We supplied him with his favorite beverage. We baked him yummy treats. We let him relax all day long...he didn't lift a finger. I was a a little nervous about the menu that I had planned for the day. All of the recipes/meals(from start to finish) were new to our family and I wasn't sure if that had been a good idea on my part. I am happy to report that everything was a hit. I will share those recipes over the next few days.

We are so thankful for John and the Daddy/Husband that he is. He is our provider. He is our comedian. He is our best friend. He is our rock. He is our protector. He is our cheer leader. He is our soft place to land at the end of our days. We are so lucky to have him in our lives.























Happy Father's Day, John. Thanks for all you do! We love you!

Celebrating 60

My Mama turned 60 on February 20th(last Sunday). We hosted a birthday party/dinner for her on her actual birthday. I have made banners for just about every holiday(that I decorate for) and I thought it would be fun to create a special birthday banner for my Mama. This banner matched the invites I made for her special day. I used lots of new yummy pattern papers from Echo Park, Ellison die cut letters, pop dots and ribbon. The creating didn't stop there, I decided to make little flags out of ribbon. I saw this idea on Elizabeth Kartchner's blog. Scrap ribbon from my stash, buttons, bling and lollipop sticks helped me create these fun little flags. We put them in little vases, on the table and mantle...very fun and festive.








Wishing my sweet Mama a very Happy Birthday! We hope her 60th year of life is filled with love, happiness and lots of fun! It should be off to a great start since my siblings gave her two tickets to see GLEE in concert. It should be a blast.

crafting

I enjoyed a super fun craft night with the girls this weekend. Camie and I decided that we needed to get together and craft. When we saw these darling heart wreaths on the eighteen25 blog, we knew what we'd be making. It was fun to sit and cut circles (and more circles) while visiting with fun friends.






{thanks to Camie for this photo. We are missing Jan in this one. She was so speedy that she had already headed out to Wal*Mart to get her shopping done)

Some of us also made cute Valentine banners. I will post mine when it is completed. It involves some sewing so it may take me a while(wink-wink)to finish. What are you busy creating right now?

Halloween countdown

I saw this Halloween countdown calendar over on the Jillibean Soup blog. I knew the boys would love it. I headed down to my favorite local scrapbook store,Green Tangerines to gather all the supplies I needed. The next step was to find the perfect frame. It only took me two tries at our local Goodwill stores. $5.00 later, and I was out of there with my perfect frame. A stop at Home Depot for black spray paint and I was on my way home.









Only 17 more days until Halloween!

I have been in the mood to craft. I love Fall. It just screams all things comfy, cozy and Halloween. It makes me want to stay inside and hunker down. The weather is driving me crazy. One day it is nice and cool & I am sure Fall is here to stay. Then BAM,the heat is back. I guess when you have AC, it can feel like Fall all year long :-).


Early last week, I found these perfect white pumpkins. They are not too small(like those tiny orange ones) and not too large...they are just right. With a circle foam stamp, black paint,a circle punch, Modge Podge and some ribbon, this is what I created.



















Since this photo was taken, I have painted about 8 more of these fun pumpkins. I have them on a table in our entry way!

I didn't stop there. I saw a darling Halloween countdown frame that I knew I had to make. The hardest part was finding the perfect frame. After two Goodwill runs, I was successful! I will share that little project with you tomorrow!

Happy Crafting!

darling Etsy find

I just have to share this darling Etsy shop with you! I was blog hopping one evening and entered a give away. The prize that evening happened to be a Happy List Taker from knitty bitties. Guess what??? I won!!! Can you believe that??? I am on a roll! I was so excited. I love little handmade items & this darling Etsy shop is right up my alley.

My prize arrived in yesterdays mail. Before I even got to my my list taker, this is what I pulled out of the envelope!



Even the packaging of my prize was cute. It is all about the little details for me!

Check out my darling list taker.





I LOVE it! I am already putting it to good use. I have my grocery list going. A list of scrapbook supplies that I need to pick up and my To Do list. I am a busy girl. I figure if I have to make lists, I might as well do it in a cute notebook :-). My Happy List Taker came with a note pad and a fun little green pen. I love that I can replace my notepad when I've used the original one up.

Please stop by and check out Andrea's wonderful work at Knitty Bitties. I have decided I want one of each item. I am thinking I need to wait until after Father's Day to shop for myself :-).

Thanks again, Andrea! I love my Happy List Taker.

Here are a few more teacher appreciation ideas. We printed another fun saying from my favorite, super fun craft blog. We wrapped up some yummy {Summer}Lemon-Vanilla lotion, polka dot socks and lip gloss {all found at Bath & Body}.














I am the room Mom for Tanner's class this year. In honor of Teacher Appreciation week, I sent an email out to the entire class, giving them some ideas of simple things that could be done for Ms. H. during Teacher Appreciation week. Here is the list.
Monday: a flower from your garden. I brought a vase and we made a nice bouquet.
Tuesday: children's note, expressing what they liked about Ms. H
Wednesday: children's hand drawn picture of Ms. H.
Thursday: a treat for the teacher, not necessarily candy.
Friday: a note from the parents to the teacher, expressing their thanks.

As an optional gift, I made this flower pot and asked anyone who would like to contribute a gift card to one of Ms. H.'s favorite stores to please do so.















I then, used a glue dot to secure the each gift card to a flower. This was the finished project that we presented to Ms. H. this morning.








Again, I am so grateful for wonderful teachers who love my boys,love their jobs and do those jobs so well on a daily basis. Happy Teacher Appreciation week.

"sew" much fun!

I have been in the mood to sew! I am pretty sure my Mom fell off her chair when I asked to borrow her sewing machine :-). Lets just say that the last time I touched a sewing machine, I was in 6th grade & it was in my Home EC class. All I remember about that class was the 4 out 10(with a frowny face) I received on the "sew a button to your piece of fabric" lesson. The note attached from Mrs. Forbes read "I know your Mom, you can do better than this." She was right, my Mom is super talented with her sewing machine. I, on the other hand, was not blessed with that talent. I didn't enjoy sewing back then & am not sure what got into me last week! Here is what I have been making.





















I saw these cute Halloween banners online & thought I could whip one up! After the struggle with the bobbin thing, I figured it all out. I have been a banner making fool :-). I strung ours across the top of our armoire(sp?)...kind of fun & festive.

I really am having "sew" much fun! Who knew???