Preschool Graduation

I can't believe my baby Ella is going to Kindergarten next year?! 

She had her Preschool graduation this morning and it was so cute!

They all walked in to The Graduation Song looking so grown up in their cap and gown. They sang a few songs on stage as a class and were then called up one by one to get their diploma.

 They were all asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. There were a few astronauts, vets, police officers, one artist, and then Ella. She proudly said into the microphone, "Hair Stylist." I loved it! It really does fit her perfectly. Aunt Anna is her role model. 

I love my Preschool Graduate so much!

Love you so much Ella Reese!

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belated Mother's Day post

I feel like all my posts have been belated lately. 

Bob is on a not so fun rotation this month so he was on call for Mother's Day. Boo. 

The girls and I went to my parents for the weekend, bearing homemade gifts of course.

I put each grandmother and great grandmother's name on a canvas with vinyl. The girls painted them with water colors (Kristen's genius idea) and they looked so pretty.

The only bummer about the water colors is that it bled through the vinyl. I ended up just painting over it with white paint and it looked great.

No craft would be complete without some bedazzling.

We loved getting to see lots of family over the weekend and enjoyed lots of time outside.

Ella and Jo Jo love water fights.  9 times out of 10 my mom ends up in the pool.

Have you guys heard of the app Heads Up? It's fantastic and so much fun! What makes it even better is that Ellen created it! We had some good laughs and the girls even joined in the fun. Seriously, go buy the app. It's just the best.

One of my very favorite things about Mother's Day was an All About Mom note that Ella made for me at school. I just love it so much! So funny to see what a 5 year old thinks about you. They are all pretty close to being right too! She might have been off a few years on my age. Love that kid!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day too!

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We Stick Together Invites

This year we are pretty low profile with the twins bday with moving and all.  They wanted suckers or popsicles and couldnt decide, so we just combined them.  Its kind of a party on a stick!  (I had so many fun ideas for the rhyme, but, you know... I tried to play down the stick references.  And everything that rhymes with stick...like lick, etc...  too many 'thats what she said' jokes in this party idea).
So, we will have kabobs and corndogs and popsicles and the twins are pumped.

And I just saw this fabulous DIY on Oh Happy Day after I made these.  She was pretty much reading my mind...

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DIY Ombre Marquee Letters

We had a birthday party for my neighbor, Mary, this weekend and it was so much fun.  We had everyone dress in thrifted clothes and called it '35 and Thrifty' since she was turning 35 and always has the best thrifted finds.  She looked incredible in an old prom dress and allie, our host, rocked it in a mexican style jacket, since it was on cinco de mayo.  

For the party I wanted to bring some marquee lights and I decided to try to give them an ombre look.

First I made the letters out of foam board and poster board and poked holes for the lights.

Then, I bought spray paint that looked like they were similar colors and that they would give me an ombre affect.

Then I started painting.  I did the red first, then the tangerine, and then the coral.  Then I went back and added some red to the tangerine and tangerine to the red and both to the coral to make them blend.  For the last letter, I just lightly sprayed it with the pink and added a little tangerine to it, but super light.


Then I added the lights to test them out.

and then they were party ready!

The party was a hit and the bday girl killed it.  Thanks hilltop for coming out and always making everything so much fun!

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9

Bob and I celebrated our wedding anniversary yesterday. Did you know that the traditional gift for 9 years is pottery? I didn't until I looked it up a few days ago. I love any kind of theme so I jumped on pottery. We had already agreed to no gifts but I sure did wake up to a fantastic picnic basket with the sweetest note laying on top. That Bob is a keeper.

Did you know that the modern gift for 9 years is willow. As in a willow wood picnic basket?! Well turns out Bob didn't know either and it was just the biggest coincidence that he had gotten me a picnic basket for our anniversary. He loves a theme without even knowing it! The girls and I sure did enjoy it during lunch time. 

I wanted to make some pottery for Bob but there's no pottery making place where we live so I had to revert to DIY. I ended up buying a small package of this clay from Hobby Lobby that came in multi color. I had envisioned making a bowl or coffee mug, but the clay was so small that it ended up being a bowl for someone like Polly Pocket. Ella loved the clay and had so many great ideas. She is a pro at stealing all of Bob's pocket change so we decided on making him his own "Ella change" bowl. What ever change is in the money bowl is up for grabs for Ella. Everything else is off limits. We will see how this works out.

For dinner I made one of Bob's favorite, French Dip Sliders and Blue Cheese Wedge. Of course we couldn't eat dinner without watching our wedding video.

Dessert was everyone's favorite. Chocolate covered strawberries and mini chocolate carmel apples. I made 35 apples and there was 10 leftover. Enough said. 

After dinner Ella announced that she and McKenna were going to put on some music for Bob and I to dance. She said that they were going to make our anniversary special. I love her celebrate always outlook on life. The song she chose for us to have our special  dance to was "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People. Love that kid.

My mom sent us the best surprise yesterday. It was two cigar boxes full of all the love letters Bob and I wrote each other while we dated. It was so fun going through them and seeing some old pictures. Love reminiscing.

I love you so much babe and can't wait for the next 9+ years.

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Tie Dye Scarves

Lets start with a slow round of applause, while we all slowly rise out of our seats, getting a little bit louder with each passing second, as we congratulate al on her amazingness that is fluffy cookies.  I have been trying to tell her that if you do everything half hearted and without paying very much attention, then you can really achieve amazing results :) I am SO PROUD OF YOU AL!  This is a day for the books!!
Also, I have been dying everything I can get my hands on lately.  And luckily I found some jersey sheets under the bed.  and a roll of this gauzy white fabric from who knows when.  So, scarves have been abounding over here.

I started off with the gauzy fabric and mixed some teal and blue RIT dye together in a shibori technique and it was SO FUN.  I followed these instructions but I used RIT instead of onions to dye it.
Then I made like 10.

It was so much fun to mix the colors of the dye to make different colors.  I dont know why I havent thought of that before.  Allison and I have dyed a million different times, but we really never made our own colors.  I think it just makes it so much more personal feeling.  I mixed the pink with tan and the denim with gray and did one blue and then let it dry and did gray over it.  so fun.

Then, I did a few two toned.  I mixed the pink with a lot of tan so it was more nude and did it half yellow.  Then I mixed green and navy and did it with half pink and a little tan.  I folded them up in the shibori pattern and then put them in tubs right next to each other.  I let them stay in there for a few hours and then rinsed them completely, let them dry and then washed them.  I like the rough edges of the gauzy fabric, but I love the soft of the jersey too.
Julie has tried so many more types of folding techniques and I am so excited to try those out and keep mixing colors.
Tie Dye is back! (Right??)

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Victory!

If you have been reading this blog for a while then you know how many times I have attempted Kristen's famous chocolate chip cookies. A lot. 

When Kristen makes them they are huge and fluffy with the perfect amount of softness in the middle. Every single time I have made them they are flat as a board. Sometimes so flat that the chocolate chips sink to the bottom. I have tried every trick in the book and every tip I've heard.
Well….the other night, the girls and I decided to make some cookies. I pulled out Kristen's recipe. Trying to create the perfect cookie wasn't even on my mind this night. It was more of a fun activity to do with the girls. Before pouring the flour in, they had a little fun with it.
I don't know what made the girls want to cover their noses in flour but it then led to McKenna covering her entire face and body. (and floor)

I wasn't even measuring things out too perfect. (which is very unlike me, I am a crazy recipe follower) Once I began to mix the batter I could tell something was different. I kept saying to Bob, somethings not right, these might not be edible cookies. Little did I know that there wasn't anything wrong at all. Everything was right about them!
The girls watched as the cookies baked and when the timer went off I was beyond shocked at how fluffy and huge the cookies were!

Could this be real life?! Did I really just make the famous cookie the right way?! It's true folks. I really did and I can't tell you how happy it made me. I immediately texted Kristen and then ate myself sick with cookies.

The only bummer is that I'm not exactly sure how I did it. Was it the whateverness of my measuring, the germs help from my children? Who knows? Even if it never happens again though, I am still so happy that it did at least once.

Here is the recipe if you guys want to give it a shot. Let me know how yours turn out!

Kristen's Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 1/2 cups butter (salted)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups of flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups of milk chocolate chips
Bake for 9-12 minutes at 350

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