So is This Mad Hostess Any Better??????

The answer to the question, "Is this Mad Hostess any Better?".....

Yes, I think.

I mean I am still a work in progress.

I love having company and it doesn't terrify me anymore. I don't freak out when people knock on the door any more. I am getting a little better at the cooking thing, although I could use some new recipes!

I know a lot of my "getting better" is because of God and to my family. God because He has answered my prayers over and over again, to please forgive me for being a knucklehead, perfectionist and selfish introvert. Also, God has blessed me with a new found joy in having my house full of people. I really have learned to like it and hope to have many, many, many years of laughter and joy fill my family's home.

Then my family has encouraged me and really pitched in. My girls are getting a little older now, so it isn't so hard to work around them and they love to help. Most of all, they've fallen in love with having folks over. That I believe is one of the greatest gifts of all. Don't you think kids should remember a home full of friends and laughter. Silly games and serious discussions? What about when church folks come and they hear prayers to God beign lifted up...and later how they hear they are answered. This is one benefit of having folks over I would have never imagined...the blessing it has been to my kids.

I still struggle, don't get me wrong...I am who I am. But with God's help...maybe one day this blog will be tittled "The Joyful Hostess". :)

How to take care of a Wood Floor

New house, new wood floors to take care of... so I posted on my Facebook status, how do you take care of your wood floors?

Here are some of the things suggested to me:

Swiffer
Bona
Bruce's Hardwood Floor Cleaner and Dustmop

Tried the swiffer wet, but my husband doesn't like the scent. Swiffer dry works miracles in corners. For some reason hair collects there. My 5 year old is a swiffer working machine!

Bona--I haven't tried yet. Highly recommended to me by our Texas cousins and I trust their judgement. But haven't been able to afford it just yet and I just saw someone returning one to Bed, Bath and Beyond...so little nervous.

Bruce's Hardwood Floor Cleaner and Dustmop- $19.99 for the starter kit at Home Depot. $8.00 for a spray bottle refill. Had it for almost 8 weeks, cleaning the floor two times a week and it is just now needing to be refilled. (SPECIAL NOTE: I do not clean floors this much normally, BUT we have seeded our lawn in from just dirt and it has been a little dusty at our house)

This stuff WORKS.

It is a little more time consuming b/c you have to hold the spray bottle and mop at the same time and can do a 4x4 space. I think the slower process helps me to do a better job. Insert 5 year old...5 year old is great at mopping floors too! :) This stuff really works! I give it a two thumbs up for works well. Mixed reviews on the easy to use part.

New Beginnings...

2010 has been full of blessingsand full of moments of anxiety too! That's part of the reason that I haven't been blogging as much.

We put our house on the market and if you know about doing this work, you know it is hard work. I remember having to apologize to my family and to God several times for my bad behaviour. If you are a perfectionist it is this very kind of thing that can make you crazy. At some point you have to realize that you are on someone else's time table (a buyer) and ultimately God's timetable for you. Our house sold in 8 days, but it came at a time when my husband, Ty, and I couldn't have been busier with his job(s), our family and the committments we have to our community.

After we got our house repaired, packed up, sold and signed a short apartment lease, we realized that the home we were hoping to build had run into some delays. Although we loved the house and really enjoyed the building team that we were going to work with, we realized that this wasn't going to work for us. We spent several weeks feeling pretty unsettled.

So what did we do when we felt really unsettled? I probably behaved badly again and was a complete stress case, but I did manage to pray and ask God for direction. Wouldn't you know it, within two weeks we had money down on another house, being built by great builders and it is a better layout for us than the first house. (The first house is still great though!) Like I said, God's timetable. His better for us, is often better than we can often hope for or imagine for ourselves.

Now our family is stepping out and doing something that we have been hoping to do and praying about for several years. We love Jesus and we hope to start a church (from scratch!) in our community. Exciting days and new beginnings...

This is for you Angie! :)

Well, I've been thinking about writing on this little ole blog for a few weeks now..but with the prodding of a friend, I decided it was time to write it again.

So, in honor of this friend...I thought I would repost my .....

Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

One of our favorite meals to share with others when they need a meal for a new baby, illness in their family, just because they need a night off or they are missing a loved one that has died.

1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, cubed
1 1/2 cans cream of celery soup (low sodium is fine)
1 can of mixed veggies
1 box pillsbury pie crust
dash of salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl mix together chicken, soup, veggies. Place bottom of pie dish. Pour ingredients in pie crust, adding a little salt and pepper to taste. Place top of pie crust on top, be sure to cut a small vent in the pie crust pastry. I like to make design a flower or initial or something.

Love to serve this with fresh fruit.

It is very easy to make two of these at one time, make one for your family and take one to another family or freeze it.

Getting a house ready to sell.

No one is ever ready to sell their house. As far as I can tell, making improvements on your home, especially to sell, is a never ending process. In some cases it is because we haven't kept up with maintaining things as we been homeowners, but it is also because you have to convince someone to buy the place you live in. Which means, clean walls, clean carpets, decluttering and depersonalizing. Honestly, for this perfectionist, I may have met a the task that has taught me more about myself that I care to know.

First of all, I can't stop messing with perfecting things. It's ridiculous. I get up early, I got to bed late...I do and redo. While the perks of having a neat and tidy home are nice, our house doesn't feel lived in. Which makes me sort of sad.

I've spent a great deal of time talking with folks that have sold their homes and this is the conclusion I've come to:

We can prep and plan and perfect all we want, but ultimately, the right buyer is going to walk in and take the house regardless of all our perfecting. For me this is really what I would call "a God thing". He just knows what we need.

I have had to spend a lot of time apologizing to God just lately for my bad form and perfecting nonsense. This is ultimately about Him and what he wants for our family. And we have to believe that what He wants for us, is better for us. than we can imagine.

These are delicious.

Kraft Oreo Truffles

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/kf/recipes/easy-oreo-truffles-95085.aspx?cm_mmc=eml-_-rbe-_-bst_rcps_2009-_-NA&pf=true


I haven't made them myself yet. But they are delicious. Try them out!

Paula Deen's Italian Chicken and Vegetable Soup

My friend, Kathryn, recommend this soup to me. Here is the thing, my husband absolutely loves soup. It makes his heart sing. So the smell of this soup simmering on the stove made for a very happy husband! Anyway, it tasted as good as it smelled and was delicious with a loaf of bread from the local grocery store bakery. We had snow this weekend, so it was perfect for dinner last night and leftovers for lunch today.

Thanks Kathryn for a great recipe!

Paula Dean's Italian Chicken and Vegetable Soup
from Foodnetwork.comIngredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces (about 1 3/4 pounds)
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup sliced carrots (about 3 small)
2 1/2 cups sliced zucchini (about 2 medium)
2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano
2 (14.5-ounce) cans chicken broth
Grated Parmesan, optional
Directions
In a large Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add onion and carrot, and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in zucchini, diced tomatoes, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Top each serving with grated Parmesan, if desired.

January Card Swap!

Our card group has grown to over 20 ladies. Here are the results of our latest card swap. Please forgive my photography, it was late when I took the pictures.

I love all the cards. It shows all of our different personalities.

Yummy Ham and Potato Soup

When I saw it had over 3,000 reviews and 5 stars, I figured it was really worth a try!

Follow the link below....

It was yummy!

Enjoy


http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Delicious-Ham-and-Potato-Soup/Detail.aspx

Lollipop Garden Cake

Sweet can't even begin to describe the cute little girl who had a candy themed birthday party. We played lifesize Candyland, had a lollipop garden cake, prizes were gigantic lollipops, lollipop flowers in big and small flowerpots were decorations, for the games lollipops were the prizes and party favors were hand made chocolates!

Chicken Prep. Safety

Consumer Reports:

Overall, air-chilled organic broilers were among the cleanest. No matter what chicken you buy, you need to take precautions:

•Buy chicken that's well wrapped.
•Pick from the bottom of the case, where it should be the coolest.
•Put it in a produce bag so you don't cross-contaminate other foods.
•Once home, use a cutting board that's just for raw poultry and meat.
•After prepping chicken, use hot, soapy water and paper towels to wash and dry anything you and the raw chicken might have touched.
•Cook chicken to at least 165 degrees.
•If you're not going to prepare chicken within one to two days, freeze it.

Parmesan Chicken

My daughter's favorite chicken dish is this Parmesan Chicken.

Parmesan Chicken
Boneless Chicken Breasts or Chicken Tenders
Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing (Blue Bag, dry dressing..that's how I remember it!)
Butter
Parmesan Cheese
Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl combine stuffing,parmesan cheese and pinch of pepper. Melt butter. Take chicken dip it in butter and then roll it in stuffing mixture. Place in casserole dish. You can bread the chicken as much as you want, but if you add more, be sure to pour the excess butter on top of it, to keep it moist. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

If you'd like estimates on what I use...it is something like 1/2 stick of butter, 2 cups stuffing (there is always some left in the bowl), 1/4 parmesan cheese. I would suggest always pouring on excess butter... b/c I figure you can scrape off the breading you don't want to eat, but dried breading would make it taste yucky.

Oh, my poor lonely blog!

It's been nearly a month since my last post! Sorry, dear readers! The last month has been a flurry of activity. Right now I am getting a crash course in home improvement, coupon clipping and trying out new recipes.

So, here is the thing...I've got some things that I have learned over the last few weeks.

1) When people have suffered great losses in their lives, such as that of a loved one, put it on your calendar to remind you in a month, 6 months or a year...so you can send them a note to remind them that you haven't forgotten about their loss. After talking several times with people that have lost dear ones, sometimes they are afraid people will forget their loved one. Plus, they just miss them. So, mark that date down on your calendar, so that you don't forget and pray for the family. They need it.

2) Fresh Fruit when taking a meal to a family with small children is always a good idea. Don't forget seedless green grapes! Kids are more likely to eat grapes than pineapple and cantelope.

3) Painting trim and doors in your house. Oh, my goodness...I had no idea what a difference it makes. Everything seems brighter and crisper. We've only been in our house for 4 years, but the baseboards and trim really needed work!

Lap Top Lunch Box

Going on our 5th year using this lunchbox. I don't use ziploc bags, which is good for my budget and the enviroment. I can pack all sorts of things in it and it makes me very aware of the portion sizes I am giving my daughter.

She still likes it, even though she's had it awhile now.

Biscuits

Mary B.'s Buttermilk Biscuits. I did not look at the calorie count. I just wanted something I could throw in the oven and serve with eggs for my kids. It's easier than making something from scratch!

They are in the frozen section. Cost around $2.75.

Purse Invites

Made these invitations for a regular get together for some very special friends of mine. We took a template off the internet and found some fun scrapbook paper, sticky jewel and ribbon. Then on the inside we glued a piece of paper with the invite details.

Cheapest invitations I've ever done and I really like them!

More Cards!

(Click on picture to see them up close)

Love these! I've already used half of them and I've only had them for about 5 days! Cardmaking has saved me a bunch of money and time.

Snap Beans

This summer my family has been blessed with the opportunity to teach our kids about gardens. My husband took them to plant the garden, check on it and pick from it. I've gotten to teach them how to wash veggies, snap "snap beans", shell butter beans, etc.

It's been really fun. And it has reminded me a lot of hanging out with my grandparents and their garden. Snapping green beans, shelling butterbeans and silking the corn. Riding our big wheels and bikes up and down dusty dirt roads. Driving my Papa's white two door car, with red velty interior through a creek to get to his garden patch.

Fun to remember, fun to teach and fun just to enjoy.

We're enjoying our green beans cooked for about 5-10 minutes and then add a dab of butter.

Ratatouille

My husband recently cooked us ratatouille for a date night. It was pretty good. Great way to use all those summer vegetables in from the garden. He researched how to make it a lot. Several websites suggested you serve ratatouille with mashed poatatoes. We tried it without and with and I have to tell you it was best with the mashed taters.

Of course, isn't everything good with mashed potatoes? ;-)

Sweet Reunions

Okay, so if you've been watching the news at all over the last several months, you know that the North Korean Government has been holding two US reporters for crossing illegally into their country and they were sentenced to Hard Labor in a work camp.

Over the past 24 hours, they were released by the head of the North Korean government into the care of Former President, Bill Clinton.

I was in tears, sobbing, as I scrolled through the pictures of these women being reunited with their families today. I just showed the video to my husband and started crying again! I look at these pictures of these two accomplished women and their families, who have been seperated for months, not knowing what the future held for them. To see them fall into each others arms, embrace, cry tears of joy and let loose the anguish they felt, just hit my heart.


This picture of reunion that I saw for these families today, the relief I felt for them, the joy, happiness and urgency to wrap there arms around those that love them, is for me, just really impacted me.

When I die, and got to be with Jesus, there will be no more anguish. Pure joy. No more tears. Jesus will be there to greet me and wrap His arms around me. And I'll get hugs from Grandparents that doted on me as a little girl, a little baby I didn't get to meet, a tigger like hug from a soldier, hear the joyous laugh of an African friend and see the graceful twirl of a little friend, who loved my husband's laugh.

Reunion.

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4

Been a Busy Summer

So, I am taking the remainder of my summer, the hot, humid days in August, to declutter inside my house and study up on how to improve my yard with fall planting.

That and getting a kiddo read for school, has kept me very busy.

I am going to post some pictures of summer later to do.

A Bridal Shower

Check out the detail on this cake made by Esther. She's amazing. It tasted even better. It was delicious.

A small gathering of ladies, a soon to be bride, a silly game of pictionary where all rounds were played team vs. team and every drawing was a "could cause tension in the marriage situation" (aka...hair shavings in the sink, backseat driver, farting issues, etc.)

The hostess, asked us to go around the room and if we felt like it, we could share just a brief statement of lessons learned in marriage. I could think of things to say, but most of the other guests had much more experience at being married than I did. I've been married 10 years and I walked away with some good reminders.

One was-- even if you are only 10% in the wrong when there has been a disagreement between you and your loved one, still say you are sorry and ask for their forgiveness.

Another one was, when you are having a hard time understanding, pray and ask God to give you understanding of what's going on with your spouse. You'll be surprised how God answers you.

Go to bed at the same time.

CARDS!!!

Every month I am fortunate enough to get to spend and evening out with other girls/moms/friends in my community, making greeting cards and just hanging out. Anyway, last night we tried something a little different. Over the last month we've all met individually, with our fearless leader and Stampin' Up representative, Tracy. We all picked out a card design and made 14 cards of this design we picked out. We kept our card choices a secret, knowing we'd all get together at a yummy local restaurant for dinner and drinks and exchange cards. It was really fun!

Tracy gave us the cutest Ladybug Card holder, with a matching card. Then, she gave us all cards that had "people" stamped on the front, that represented the members of our family. The the exchange began. It was really fun, taking a card and passing it around our table.

Here is what we got....(You can click on the pictures to enlarge them)

A Father's Day Feast

For Father's Day, my father in law, fixed us dinner. He fixed food he enjoys and shared it with us. The menu: Lemonade, cornbread, molasses, cucumbers, fried squash, sauted peppers and onions, boiled potatoes and coldcuts with french bread.



Cucumbers tossed with milk, vinegar, salt and pepper. Don't judge too quickly...it is very yummy.



Fried Squash. Yummy.

Happy 1st Birthday to a Sweet Girl

Baby B's First Birthday was July 1. As a celebration of her birthday, we decided to gather as a family on July 4th, to celebrate her birthday and the Independence Day Weekend.

Check out this yummy cake from Blue Moon Bakery....YUM.

ABC's of Disney Scrapbook Page

A friend recently took a trip to Disney and she made these two scrapbook pages called the ABC's of Disney for the first two pages in her scrapbook for the trip.

An End of Year Present

Well, my daughter and I wanted to do something for the teacher she had for 3rd grade as the end of the year approached. My daughter wanted to do something thoughtful.

I called up my friend, Tracy, and asked her if she'd help me with some designs for blank cards or a stack of cards to give as an End of Year gift for a teacher. She was going to do that for her son's teacher anyway, so this is what she came up with. My daughter helped me assemble the cards. It was a nice Mommy/Daughter project.



Then my daughter, designed her very own card to give to her teacher.



She did a great job didn't she? I think she'll have her own version of Hallmark one day.

I made dinner recently for some friends. I picked up two watermelons at the store and when I went to cut the first one, I was astonished to find it yellow on the inside instead of red. I have never seen a yellow watermelon!!! At first I thought something was terribly wrong, so I called my husband, who works with a plant breeding company, and he assured me that it was okay. It's just a variety of watermelons. A plant breeder just decided it would be fun to have yellow watermelons. My family tasted it, and it tasted exactly the same as a regular watermelon.

This brought me to a question, when preparing a meal...do you stick with the oridnary or do you offer something new??? I voted not to share the yellow watermelon. It was just a little too weird for me.

More Cards...

I really love making cards. These are some of the latest we made at Tracy's card group. For an end of the year gift for my daughter's teacher, we made her a stack of cards she can keep in her desk. My 3rd grader (almost 4th grader!) has decided she'd like to take a stab at making cards. It is a good activity for us to do together.

Okay, okay...

Life has been a flurry of activity and I haven't slowed down enough over the last few weeks to do any blogging. I am so sorry about that!

I am going to get up to speed on my writing tonight! So stay tuned...

Laura's Baby Shower

The Table.

The Menu:

Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Spinach Dip
Chocolate covered strawberries
Brownies
Fruit kabobs

The Cake: Carvel Ice Cream Cake

The games a lot of fun! Time with the mom-to-be the best part of course!

Pig Cake

Yes, you read that right...Pig Cake.

This is apparently what you eat after a Pig Pickin'. It is soooo yummy too.

I'll get the recipe for this one too!

Um, are you going to have cereal with your strawberries?

This is what I caught my husband doing with some strawberries last week. May is strawberry month around North Carolina! My mom in law says, there is nothing like the month of May, until July rolls around and it is time for Watermelon!

Angie's Fruit Pizza

I'll get the recipe soon! Doesn't it look great? Check back in a day or two.

New BBQ Sauce

If you don't have time to make a yummy BBQ sauce or don't live in the same culdesac as the grillmaster, Jason, then you can buy BBQ sauce from Tastefully Simple. It was pretty good!

Paula Deen's Corn Casserole

My friend and neighbor, Melanie brought this to our Memorial Day Weekend Picnic. It was yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmy. And you could taste that stick of butta!

Paula Deen's Corn CasseroleIngredients
1 (15 1/4-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn
1 (8-ounce) package corn muffin mix (recommended: Jiffy)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, stir together the 2 cans of corn, corn muffin mix, sour cream, and melted butter. Pour into a greased 9 by 13-inch casserole dish. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and top with Cheddar. Return to oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Let stand for at least 5 minutes and then serve warm.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/corn-casserole-recipe/index.html

Posting Marathon!

I've been so busy the last few weeks, I haven't had a chance to blog. So I am going on a posting marathon!

This is a picture that I ran across when I was looking for my diaper cake picture from a shower I attended.

This is a set up from a baby shower I helped host a couple of years ago. The guest of honor/mom-to-be sat in the blue chair, draped on it was the mom-to-be's blanket when she was a baby. To the left was a gift table and to the right a small table for the guest of honor to rest a cup of water or plate of food. Behind her, a clothes line filled with new clothes and clothes that were hers as a baby and ones that belonged to her nieces were strung across the fireplace and on the mantle was a collection of baby themed stuffed animals.

Diaper Cake

I was at a Baby Shower today and it reminded me of how cute diaper cakes are. I think they are a little work to get done, but they do add a really nice touch to the shower.

Here is a diaper cake that my friend, Veronica, made a couple of years ago.

New Cleaning Strategy: 30 min. Speed Clean

I call my brother in law, Mr. Clean. That dude can tidy up a place in a heartbeat. His mom was the queen of clean. She taught me to take blinds off your windows and dunk them in the bath tub to get them clean. Honestly, I had no idea blinds in apartments could be so dirty. They are. They may look clean, but the water I saw that day was black. Ugh.

Anyway, I dropped in on my sis the other day and she had her timer going and she was running around tidying up. She said she was "speed cleaning". Apparently they clean in 15 to 30 minute bursts, during the day. That way they aren't bored with the monotony of chores and are keeping the place in check.

I've been giving it a try. It works! Don't come to my house right now, b/c I haven't been home long enough the last 24 hours to do squat-o-la...but on days when I am around. I feel like this is a pretty worthy method of tidying up.

Um, technically I am suppose to be doing said "speed cleaning" right now, but I decided to get on the blog and tell you about it instead...so I better get back to work!

Draw your Own Placemat

Drawn by an aspiring artist. Cody, age 5.

I may have written about this before, but we were at a Kid's birthday party, where the hostess had a long role of brown paper stretched out on the table, with large rectangles drawn at each place setting.

Sitting center of the table in colorful little tin buckets, were art supplies.

Each child was given the opportunity to draw their own placemat. It was super cute!

Pretty Table

This is a table setting from my friend's engagement dinner, when the families of the Bride and Groom met each other. Dishes were turned upside down b/c the dinner was held outside!

Ronald McDonald House

Did you know that you can volunteer your time fixing meals for families that are staying at Ronald McDonald House? Did you know that you can also contribute groceries to their houses, for people that need to stay there while their child is being treated for a serious illness at a children's hospital?

Did you know that you can save the tab off the top of your soda cans, and turn the tabs into Ronald McDonald house? Then they can send the tabs to a recycling companies that will turn those tabs into $$. So, you are doing good for the environment and helping a home that offers a place to sleep/rest for families who are caring for sick kids.

I have friends that served brunch to a Ronald McDonald House about 40 minutes from my home last Saturday. They made breakfast casseroles, muffins, made to order omelets and pancakes hot off the griddle. They had so much fun cooking together and meeting the families, they are going back next month!

Bobbie's Strawberry Pie

My friend, Bobbie, sent me this recipe for strawberry pie. Can't wait to try it out!


Bobbie's Strawberry Pie
1-8oz package Cream cheese (Philly)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
Dash of nutmeg
1 cup strawberry slices
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
9" inch ready pie crust (easy) graham cracker taste good with this

TO MAKE:
Combine softened cream cheese, granulated sugar, vanilla, and nutmeg, mix until
well blended.
Mash 3/4 cup strawberry slices; stir into the cream cheese mixture. Whip cream with the confectioners' sugar until stiff peaks forms; fold into cream cheese mixture. Fold remaining strawberries into cream cheese mixture. Spoon into crust. Chill for several hours or over night. Garnish with additional strawberries if desired.

Flowers for a Friend

Vase from the $1 store.

Flowers from my garden. Well, my four rose bushes. If you know me, you know I clearly have no idea what I am doing! :-)

Here is where this gets funny. The flowers were actually for my daughter's teacher during Teacher Appreciation week. Children were asked to bring in a flower for their teacher, and I was asked to bring the vase in for the flowers that the kids would be bringing in. So I went to Wal-mart, got a tall vase. I knew we would pick our flowers from our rose bushes, but didn't take in to account that our stems would be super short. So, said tall vase that I got, didn't work with my short stemmed roses! I felt like a real dufus. The only short vase I had was square shaped. So I had to shear my rose bushes, so to fill the vase. It turned out cute for a really big mistake.

BUT, it made other kids feel bad. Which I didn't take into account as I was shearing bushes, so that my child wouldn't get upset about her contribution to the flowers.

What does this say? To me it says, give from the heart...don't worry about what others think. But am I teaching this to my children? Something for me to think about.

More Cards!

Laura's Baby Shower

First let me say, this was sooooo much fun to plan with my other 3 co-hostesses! I have pictures, but I am having computer problems...so as soon as my computer is behaving I'll upload pictures.

We had the best, the BEST baby shower games ever. It also helps when your game leader, aka cruise ship director, is bubbling with personality!

Games
Purse Scavenger Hunt- points awarded for things like grocery store receipts, voter registration cards, ponytail holder, baby shower invite, etc.!

Baby Gift Scavenger Hunt- You are given a blank board and you predict what gifts the mom-to-be might get. She opens a gift, you check your board, first one to bingo...gets the prize!

Put a sock in it! Our game leader, Jaime, put baby socks on a safety pin, and then pinned the socks to a ribbon that was sort of a necklace. Everytime someone said baby, they lost their sock.

Baby Pictionary

Baby Songs- divide into two teams come up with songs that either had baby in the title or in the song and paired with the artist name.

I cannot take credit for any of these games! Jaime did it all and it was really fun!

Carvel Ice Cream cake was our cake. Sweet baby bear napkins and blue plates.

Rachel's 9th B-day Party

Recently, my daughter was invited to her friend, Rachel's 9th birthday party. First, I loved that they had the party in their backyard. They had a luau theme. 4 long tables decorated with luau themed decorations, bright colors. Each girl received a lei when they arrived. They played limbo. Each girl was given flip-flops to decorate and take home. They were also given tiki cups with lemonade or fruit punch. And then they were given these super cute party favors. Plastic cone shaped bags, lined with scrapbook paper, filled with layers of skittles, swedish fish and gumballs.

Really fun!

Having computer problems!

I haven't given up on the blog, just given up on my computer!

I have oodles of pictures and ideas I've gotten over the last several weeks and I can't wait to share them with you! In the mean time, please pardon my neglect of the blog. Life has been crazy, but mostly I am suffering from serious computer issues.

I'll get back to work soon! Promise!

More Cards!

Aren't they cool? My friend, Tracy, designs them and has a bunch of girls over to her house to make them. We talk, we eat and we make cards. It is great! Tracy is a Stampin' Up Representative, so if you like what you see and you are local, let me know, and I'll put you in touch with her!