Be My Valentine

We had fun making lots of things for Valentine's Day this year.

We made and sent these cards to our family.

After I took this picture, I added a speech bubble that said, "Whooo loves you?".

I put this picture of the kids inside.

I made these chalk boards for the kids' teachers.

Zac made these dinosaurs. We got the idea here.

We cut out paper hearts, stuffed them with M&Ms and sewed them together for Abigail to take to her class.

We had a great time celebrating Valentine's Day!

Sondra

Fall Playdate with Friends

We had been missing spending time with all of our play date friends since we started school, so I decided to invite some friends over for some fall fun.  I got a little carried away with decorations and food, thank you very much to Pinterest!  I love scrolling through all the pins but there is just not enough time to do all the fun things that I pin to my boards.  I totally love Pinterest!  But, back to the play date...

Zachary and Abigail helped me make the leaf banners for the sweets table by practicing making patterns.

We made cupcakes with orange sprinkles in the batter and orange icing with sprinkles, orange rice crispy treats shaped like pumpkins with peanut butter cup stems, and marshmallows.  We found pumpkin spice flavored marshmallows in the shape of pumpkins and ghost shaped marshmallows in white, orange and gray.

Our other snacks included chips and queso, chocolate and cheddar goldfish mixed in a bowl, a mix of almonds and candy corn, and orange koolaide.

Our friend, Becky, made these super cute and yummy acorns to share with everyone.  They were a hit!

We had two crafts to choose from.  The paper strip pumpkins hanging from the chandelier was one choice.

Decorating a foam pumpkin with your name and glittery leaf stickers was the other choice.

I think that the kids enjoyed the games best. 

This "Pin the Nose on the Scarecrow" is the only one that I have a picture of. 

We also had "Candy Corn Bowling", which was simply coffee cans, covered with paper to make them look like candy corn, stacked like a pyramid and the kids rolled a ball to knock them down. 

There was also a "Pumpkin Toss", which was just throwing orange

loofah sponges into three different buckets.

The weather was nice so we headed to the park for a picnic lunch before everyone went home.

I enjoy planning fun things for my sweet kids.  They get so excited to help.  I love spending time with my friends and I know that Zac and Abigail love playing with their friends.

Sondra

Decorating a Car for a Homecoming Parade

After helping my nieces plan and decorate for their birthday party this summer, Bailey asked me to help her decorate her car for the homecoming parade.  She was the Swim Team Sweetheart.  I sure was wishing that I had a Sihouette or a Cricut to help me with this project but I came up with some ideas following the instructions Bailey was given and some of the things she wanted to use.

I cut out a 'scrolly' border around the poster board and painted it black to look like a frame and then painted some waves and added her mascot floating in the water.  I printed off the words and mod podged them to the poster and then covered the whole poster with mod podge.  I am so glad I did because it sprinkled for most of the time that we were getting everything on the car.

Of course I had to make some tissue paper pompoms to attach to the side mirrors.  They matched her dress, which I don't have a full length picture of for some reason, but it was gorgeous!

She looked so pretty, it stopped raining and we enjoyed watching the parade!

Sondra

Abigail's Butterfly Garden Birthday Party

Well, Abigail turned three back in September and we had a fun Butterfly Garden party but I am just now getting around to sharing it here.

The colors were a mix of bright and muted pinks and greens, with some purple, blue and yellow.

The dessert table included cupcakes, punch, and a mini-cake.

I used the same fabric from the pennant banner to make a ruffle ribbon for the cupcake tower.  The cupcakes were so yummy, I love how our "cake lady", Connie, sprinkles sugar crystals on top for an extra bit of bling.

The mini-cake with a mini-banner that says Abigail.

The birthday girl in her butterfly dress and her "3" crown made from the same fabric as the banner.

This crown turned out pretty large but she kept it on for almost the entire party.

This was the centerpiece on the island where the other food was. 

We served her favorites:  marshmallows, goldfish, and grapes.  I made a yummy dip called Mississippi Sin. 

We decorated plant pots with foamie stickers for our craft and it seemed to take a good bit of time.  I had some games planned but somehow we never got to them.  We had a coloring table set up with butterfly and flower coloring sheets and lots of the kids spent time there too.

Abigail had fun opening her gifts.

Sondra

Baby Shower Gift

I have a friend who is having a baby in late September. I decided that rather than buying her something I would make her some unique, one-of-a-kind pieces for her and her little one. I made this oh so tiny onesie. I cute a design from the fabric, ironed it down with Steam n' Bond, then sewed about a 1/4 inch in from the edge. This creates a great frayed look after washing.
I then made a great nursing cover for mom with the same fabric from the onesie. I had a hard time deciding on the fabric to use but am really happy with what I got. This picture does not do it justice, it turned out so nice. This is a super easy sewing project and you can find many tutorials on the internet with step by step instructions and pictures!
Lastly, I sewed the same fabric on a burp cloth. What could be better than coordinating mom and baby?

Soccer Pillowcase

Recently we were invited to a soccer themed birthday party.  The little boy really likes playing soccer so I decided to make him a pillowcase with soccer fabric.  I found this cute red print and the accent fabrics at one of our local quilt shops, The Quilt Asylum.

I tried a new pattern.  It was confusing to read but simple to sew.

My super sweet neighbor used her embroidery machine to put his name on the cuff.  (Thanks Billie!)

It turned out just like I hoped!

Sondra

Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

We went blueberry picking in late June and didn't get many berries at all, it was a disappointing trip to the patch. :(
Well, I had found this recipe in the Texas Co-Op Power monthly magazine and really wanted to try it so I used some blueberries we picked and some from the store.
Here is how it went...

Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream  Phyllis Kitten
2 cups fresh blueberries
11/2 cups sugar
2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese
2 pints heavy cream
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
Whole milk as needed


Cook blueberries and sugar until mixture reaches consistency of preserves, stirring constantly (about 30 minutes).  

Add cream cheese, heavy cream and condensed milk and cook until creamy.

 Pour mixture into prepared ice cream freeze and add whole milk as needed to fill line.

 Process until freezer stops.

 All the cousins had fun adding ice and rock salt while we waited!

Process until freezer stops. Remove dasher, pack and freeze one hour.

I didn't follow this recipe exactly.  I only had one brick of cream cheese and I think I only used one cup of sugar.  It was still very yummy!  We didn't pack and freeze it either, we ate is as soon as the ice cream maker stopped turning, it was creamy and smooth.