Our Weekend

This past weekend was full of fun and time with family and friends.  We were busy, but it was a good busy.  Lately I have felt such a sense of gratitude for the friends that God has placed in our lives!  We have a circle of people that love us, and we love them and their kids.  It’s an incredible blessing, and I do not take it for granted!

On Friday, Davis was a carpenter. :)  He put on his tool belt and safety glasses from our friends Ryan and Ashley.  I love this picture so much! 

On Friday night we watched Charlie Brown Christmas and ate popcorn on the couch. This was one of our advent activities! 

Another advent activity was to decorate Christmas cookies with our cousins!  Sarah, Jeremy, Bryleigh, Cam, and Ezra all came over on Saturday morning and we decorated cookies and played outside.  It was such a beautiful day that we were able to eat lunch outside, too.

I used the recipe that I posted about on Friday, and the cookies turned out really well.  They kept their shape, but were still soft.

P.S. I love how Ezra is looking at his Uncle Todd in this picture.  (heart eyes!)

Sarah and I, in our Christmas-colored baseball tees.  Apparently we think alike! 

Our sweet pup had to go to the vet on Saturday because of some joint pain.  If you have a lab or a golden, you’ve probably seen this happen in your dogs as they get older.  I hate that it’s affecting him already! 

On Saturday night we had a team dinner with our Honor Roll Designs partners and friends.  We always have fun with them, and it was great to celebrate!

After church on Sunday, we made nachos for lunch.  It was the perfect football-watching food!  It has been so exciting to watch the Panthers have an undefeated season so far!

I posted the how-to for the nachos on instagram. 

Our friends Adele and Jeremy invited us to a local parade on Sunday afternoon.  The weather was perfect to be outside.  The parade was quite a small-town experience ;), and we had a great time with our friends!  I wish we had taken a group shot!  

Have a great day!  Thank you for stopping by!

Five on Friday

Two weeks from Christmas!  I still have a few gifts to buy, and I haven’t wrapped a single thing.  I’m planning to drink extra coffee today and knock out some of my to-do list!

(p.s. If you have some more gifts to buy, I have 2 gift guides coming tomorrow!  These are for the foodie/home chef/hostess/bartender, etc.  Come back tomorrow to see those)

I am linking up with April, Natasha, and Christina; Karli; Erika, Narci, and Andrea for Five on Friday, Oh Hey Friday!, and Friday Favorites.

ONE: Star manger scene ornament perfect for preschoolers!

I volunteered to help with Davis’ preschool class Christmas party yesterday.  I was in charge of the craft (not exactly my strong suit), but I think it turned out well!  I found the original idea on Pinterest, but I couldn’t find a link to any directions, so I just did my best to figure out how to make them.

I started with yellow wooden stars, tiny little anchor hook/screws, gold pipe cleaners, light brown paint, American style moss, off white cardstock,  tan cardstock, and a brown marker.  I also used a ruler, foam paintbrush, a pencil, a glue stick, and Tacky Glue.  I painted on the brown marker 1/3 of the way from the bottom, screwed in 2 “hooks” at the top, and made a loop through those with the pipe cleaner.  For baby Jesus, I cut out 3/4″ circles from tan paper and gave him a simple smiley face with brown marker.  For his swaddling blanket, I cut strips of paper from cream-colored card stock.

I put the stars in a large ziplock bag, then the hay in one snack-sized bag, and baby Jesus plus some star stickers in another snack-sized bag so that the craft would be organized for Davis’ class.  We used craft glue sticks to glue on baby Jesus, the kids applied the star stickers, and after his teacher put some Tacky Glue over the brown paint, the kids glued on the straw.

TWO: These are a couple recent outfits from the week.  I had a really cute model helping me. :)

I bought these black legging pull-on jeans from Gap recently, and I have been loving them.  They are higher-waisted and stay put, which is perfect for us moms!  And this black faux leather jacket has become one of my top 5 favorite pieces in my closet! 

Leather jacket off, plaid scarf on. Mine is from Target last year (a gift from 2 of my best gals), but here is a similar one (under $20!) for this year. 

Nothing too new about this outfit!  I have posted about my military vest before.  But I did buy a new ring set from Forever 21 and I’ve had fun wearing them in different ways.

THREE: Tomorrow we are going to decorate cookies, and I am planning to use this cookie recipe!  I have made lots of decorated sugar cookies in the past, but I want these to be soft, and for the icing to not be too hard.  These have awesome reviews.  And aren’t they adorable?!

FOUR: We are quite behind with Christmas cards this year.  I should receive them some time next week, but by the time I get them mailed, I’m sure it will be cutting it close!  I do love this idea from Better Homes & Gardens of displaying Christmas cards on evergreen garland.  It would be fun to change it up from putting them on the fridge!

FIVE: This time of year is mostly full of joy and fun times with family and friends.  But it can also be hectic and stressful, or you may be experiencing a difficult situation.  If you need some encouragement today, you should listen to these songs!  Meredith Andrews “Soar” and Lauren Daigle “Light of the World” are two of my favorites.  “Light of the World” is also a perfect reminder of why we celebrate Christmas.  I could listen to them both on repeat (and I may do just that today!).

 

Happy Christmas season!  Thank you all for reading my little blog!  Have a wonderful weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

School Bus 2nd Birthday Party

Singing Happy Birthday

I can’t believe I’m even writing about my son’s SECOND birthday party!  How in the world do they grow so quickly?!  I kept looking at him and wondering how he could already be two years old.  He is pretty incredible, and I am one blessed mama!

Thank you to Todd and my mom for all of your help setting up this party.  To Abbie, thank you for helping take pictures!! And a huge thank you to all of our family and friends for coming!  It meant so much to us to have so many of our loved ones here to celebrate our little boy.  Both sets of his great-grandparents were there as well – I just felt so much joy that night!

Moving on to the party details!  Davis loves, loves any type of vehicle, so we were deciding between a tractor theme and a school bus theme.  We have a lot of school buses come through our neighborhood, and he is always excited to see them!  We went with a school bus/stoplight theme and I think it turned out really cute.

I ordered the invitations through Allison Powell Designs – I found them on their Etsy site.  Then they offered to send me a few other items that can coordinate with the invitations!  They sent me a “Happy 2nd Birthday” banner, food place cards, and a custom 8×10 welcome sign. I would recommend checking them out for any parties or showers you may have in the future.  Thank you for working with me on this, Kristy!

The wreath on the front door was inspired by my Mom’s design last year.  It was a team effort for us this year.  (By the way, I cannot express how thankful I am to have a husband who is willing and able to help me with painting and building and setting up things for parties.  I am spoiled for sure).

Typically for parties we move our island into the french doors into my husband’s office.  It is right inside the foyer, and works well for a favor/welcome table.  The favors included a ball, a wooden bus, and some stickers!  I also had bus and “2” sugar cookies on the favor table.

The road table runners were basic yellow fabric with a more narrow piece of black fabric on top.  My mom used bandage tape to add the dotted line to look like a road.  These were simple and inexpensive!

We incorporated the stoplight theme in the food, and in the decor.  The mantle was decorated with the welcome sign, as well as a large stoplight made from foam board, wooden circles (pre-cut from Hobby Lobby), and paint.  My mom used poster board to make the bus.

For the food, we had the “school lunch” theme in mind, and stuck with the basics.  For the kids we had bus-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and grilled cheese sandwiches.  I also had halved bananas, red/yellow/green vegetable tray with dip, and pretzels and Pirate’s Booty cheese puffs.  For the adults we ordered subs and cut them into smaller pieces.

 

Drinks were simple – water and juice.

Desserts were the most creative part of the food.  I made a school bus cake, school bus sugar cookies, “2” sugar cookies, and chocolate cake pops to look like a stoplight.  Todd made the cake pop stand, and I was so impressed!  Because the food fit the school bus and stoplight theme, and because the banner was hanging behind the table, I didn’t have to come up with a centerpiece for the food table.

For entertainment, we moved the furniture around in our den to give the kids plenty of room to play.  One of the activities was play-dough in stoplight colors, with a variety of cookie cutters.  The kids also ran around outside and played.  Todd did his best to organize a game of Red Light, Green Light, and it was hilarious!  Check out my instagram to see a video of the kids attempting to play.

If you have specific questions about the details, please feel free to ask me in the comments!  I’ll do my best to answer them.

Here are more pictures of everyone during the party.  Again, thank you to our friends and family for coming!

Thank you for reading!