The Sweet Life

Ahhh the kids are in bed, the house is cleaned, and my husband is not home!  It amazes me how when he leaves & I know I am on my own for the night how my laziness turns off & I jump into this crazy mommy mode!  I mean all of a sudden the door shuts & I am cleaning the house, doing laundry, bathing kids, getting snacks, reading bible stories, threatening them one more time if they don't go to bed I am turning off the light!  Maybe it's like a challenge.  How much I can get done before he gets home.  I was home all day today,while Lily was at school & I didn't have that same motivation, weird!

My favorite part of tonight-besides going to bed with a clean house-and getting to read the bible story before bed (usually daddy's job)-was that I leave Gabe notes in his lunch box every day.  I actually printed off these fun cards that I can just cut & toss in his lunch.  Tonight while doing laundry I found it inside his shorts pocket...along with his napkin  :-)  It just touched my heart.  To think that he saved my little love note & carried it with him in his pocket for the rest of the day.  It made me smile...maybe even a little tear to my eye.  So what if he's a slight hoarder & wanted to add it to one of his many collections.  I will dwell in the fact that he didn't just dump it in the trash when cleaning up from lunch.  He took the time to fold up his napkin & put his note in his pocket.  Precious!

I am so glad that I send him little notes in his lunch every day.  I know one day sooner than I am hoping he will out grow it & won't want momma to send him notes anymore in his lunch.  Tonight my heart rejoices-I am blessed beyond measure!

Dreaming of A Reading Area....

So, Gabe has to read every night for school and gets bonus credit for reading over the weekend.  I have come across several reading tents and I love them.  I have wanted to create a special reading area in our house for a long time.  A little retreat space where my kids can snuggle down into some soft, plush pillows and look at books.

Tatertots & Jello

Ana White

Grograin

Somethings Hiding Here

They are all so dreamy!  I think the first one would take up less space in my house and would fit nicely in a corner.  But, we shall see what I come up with! 

Back to School Dinner

I was too anxious to post first day of school pictures that I never posted our back to school dinner pictures.   Let me just say I was SO excited to have a back to school family dinner.  We talked about expectations, new responsibilities, schedule, breakfast and lunch ideas, hear about Gabe's excitement, fears about the upcoming year.  Such a good idea.  Here's what we did....

I decorated our table with school supplies that I already had on hand.

Used library card pockets to hold our utensils and napkins...

My sweet 1st grader!

 My little display in my FABULOUS tray that has SO many possabilities...

I even printed off a free banner on-line and hung it up...

Our menu was Gabe's pick which was ultimate nachos!  Fun night, can't wait to do it again next year!

Lily's First Week of MDO

As school kicked off last week Lily was VERY disappointed that she wasn't going to be able to go to school.  I have tried to get her into MDO last year but the one we wanted filled up so quick and she never got in.  I just decided to keep her home-which I loved-most days.  :-)  I tried that same school again and still no luck-boo.  So, last Monday I started to call around and finally was successful with Cornerstone!  So, she started last Wednesday!  One of the things she needed was a napmat.  Well, I wasn't going to send her with a cold, plastic nap mat.  So, I went that night & bought all the supplies to create her a cover for it.  Let me just say it is SUPER fabulous!  I followed this tutorial and whipped this up for her.

I mean I want to lay down and nap on it.  I LOVE that it rolls up!  Lily calls this her knock knock-translated into nap mat, lol.  

Here's a little snap shot of what it is like to get a decent picture of Lily.

Well, there she is all dressed in her new Hello Kitty shirt, pig tails, backpack (a.k.a. pack pack), and dora sneakers!  She is READY for her first day of school-maybe a little too ready.

She went right in, put her stuff away, and waved bye Mom, bye Gea, climbed up in her chair and started coloring.

She was so confident, so independent, so secure, she was fine, she did fine, she did great.  Well, except she didn't take a nap.  She laid down but never fell asleep.  :-)

I cried all the way to Sam's club thinking how big my sweet baby girl already is.  It hurt that she didn't need me, she knew she was going to be fine.  Gabe would drag it out, hang on me, need one more hug, one more kiss, a little more reassurance...but not Lily.  It was a bittersweet kind of day.  I was so proud of her, and how brave she was carrying all her own things in, walking into her room, saying hi, and going right over to her table to color.  So bitter-sweet!  We survived our first day at MDO!  I am glad she only goes 2 days a week.  :-)

First Day of 1st Grade

Today we went back to school and entered the first grade!  I can't even believe summer is done and over with!  Gabe did such a great job getting up this morning, taking on all of his new responsibilities and schedule.  He did a great job!  We shall see how day #2 goes.  

He rocked his Super Mario backpack, lunchbox & pencil bag!  He even thought about his teacher and brought her a water bottle with a "P" on it for the first day of school.  He was so excited to get to his class...always a little apprehensive to have me leave though.  I waited a little while until he got settled.

He was so excited about his new DESK this year.  He went right in like a pro and hung his backpack up & his lunch box and learned where his cubbie was.  We found his desk, put on his name tag & said hi to all his old friends from Kindergarten!

I was so proud of Gabe this morning and I didn't even cry!  This year was much smoother & easier than last year.  Gabe's teacher seems so sweet!  I'm looking forward to a great year!  

Gabe's 6th Birthday

We celebrated Gabe's 6th birthday at night since it is so hot here so early we thought it would be better at night.  Well, I don't know if we were or not but at least we had some water misters on our patio that helped keep us cool.  I appreciate everyone who came out & sweat with us to celebrate Gabe's 6th birthday!  It really means a lot to us!

We kicked it Phineas & Ferb Style

I thought a rainbow theme would go good with the Phineas & Ferb theme-so I guess it's like a theme in a theme-kind of over the top but I like to make things complicated!  :-)  The show is so bright & fun and rainbows can be so girly and I loved them so I just tied the two together and I think it turned out just great! 

I made him a phineas & ferb birthday banner of course!  I also made some fun felt bunting to hang up on the patio and on the gift table!

We scored big this year with the theme because Target had a bunch of items in the dollar section where we scored lots of locker posters which dressed up the pati & yard.  We also got most of our favors for the boxes there as well.

We served pizza, salad, fruit kabobs (in a rainbow pattern), and beverages.

For dessert we had oreo pops, chocolate covered marshmallows and a cookie cake made by my sweet & talented friend Melissa!  Isn't it amazing??  I LOVED it!

 We played games like pin the tail on Perry and You're so Busted (balloon pop).  What would a Phineas & Ferb party be without making something, right?  So everyone got to create a marshmallow shoot-inator!  How fun!  While in Colorado my wonderful husband cut all the pvc & spray painted them so when I got home I just had to bag them up, throw in some marshmallows & we were good to go!  Everyone got a bag and were told how to construct them.  Then the REAL fun began!

Needless to say...it was HOT HOT HOT out but we had a GREAT party & LOTS of fun!

Colorado Trip

Here's a few pictures from our Colorado trip!

 Lily playing in Gea's makeup-getting ready for the day!

 AMAZING bagels!

Hiking Horsetooth Falls

The City Pool

(wish our pool looked like that)

A FUN, & YUMMY Italian Restaurant we went to.

Playing in the back yard!

Took a visit down town.

Driving Home!

 It was a fabulous trip!  A long drive but we did it!  I survived, ha!  We can't wait to go back when there is some snow on the ground!

Home Sweet Home-Past Few Weeks

Once we finally got back home to Texas-my house seemed just perfect!  It seemed so much bigger, spacious...maybe it was because it was all cleaned I don't know.  :-)  That was shorted lived-the cleanliness part!  We unloaded all of our stuff and I swear it took a few weeks days to get things unpacked!  Check out some of the fun things we did when we got home!

I learned this trick from my friend Darea & I LOVE it!  Give your juice box "wings" and the little ones can hold the "wings" while they drink so they don't squeeze the juice everywhere!  Perfect!

We ate out almost every meal (except 2) the whole time in NY!  I didn't want to see another french fry for a LOONNNGGGG time!  So, I made fish!  Yummy, yummy tilapia!  You should give it a try!

Fresh peaches & necterines with fresh squeezed lime juice & a dallop of honey greek yogurt for dessert!

I also made this fabulous pasta salad.  On a different night!  It makes a TON so fix it for a crowd!  You could even throw in a little protein like chicken and call it dinner!  

I was very anxious to get my craft on!  It had been weeks since I picked up any double stick tape and a paper trimmer.  I got to workin' on some new things for Papercutz and filling some orders for some local people.  I also made a few things for my craft room & my house.

I made this quick & easy rag wreath for my door.  Papercutz will be creating more of these but a little fancier :-)  This is the quick & easy method-your kids could even do it for you.  Gabe loved helping tear the fabric strips!  This is what you need to do.....

Pick up a wreath at the dollar tree, craft store, or even use a metal coat hanger and bend into a circle.

Purchase some fabulous fabric you love about 1/4-1/2 yard of each depending on how many patterns you have.  I did 3 patterns.

Cut your fabric into 1" strips-make 1" marks and tear it to get a frayed edge or use a cutter/scissors to have a clean edge.  I like the frayed edge better.

Get tying!  Just double knot around the wreath (this is where the kids come in) and voila!  A new wreath for your door, or grandmada, sister, auntie, me.... :-)

 Bill hung up my new shelf we picked up at the Christmas Tree Shop in NY!

We had a baby shower for my friend Becky!

We kicked off Gabe's birthday weekend with going to see the Smurf's!

We celebrated Gabe's birthday on the 31st by going to Chuck E Cheese's.  

We also gave him a "ticket" to Colorado to go visit his good friends!  

For our Colorado trip we decided to make our friends some Oreo Pops!  

Chocolate Covered Oreo's

Needed:

Cute Assistants

Double Stuff Oreos

Lollipop Sticks

Melting Chocolate (I prefer 1/2 milk & 1/2 semi sweet)

Wax Paper

Cookie Sheet

Sprinkles**Optional**

Melt the chocolate on the stove or in the microwave.  Once melted I would dip the stick in the melted chocolate and then stick into the oreo and place in the fridge for about 5 minutes.  This will hold the cookie onto the stick better-we've done it both ways now.

Once cooled remove cookies and dip into melted chocolate and lay flat on a wax paper lined cookie sheet.  Once finished dipping, place in the fridge to harden.  Optional: Add sprinkles, white chocolate drizzles...etc. before putting in the fridge to cool.  Once harden remove from tray & put in a plastic storage bag or container.  They are SOOO YUMMY!  A big hit!