There is no greater love
than to lay down one's life for one's friends.
John 15:13 (NLT)
May 27, 2013
May 21, 2013
Praying for Oklahoma
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:18 (NIV)
May 15, 2013
The Luau Party
A few weeks ago, my oldest had a birthday. I have given up throwing big birthday parties. We now have small parties with two best friends. Simple and special is my new motto. She requested a luau party because we had some luau items left from a wedding shower we hosted a few years ago. That worked for me.
I may have gotten a bit excited when I found some pineapple water bottles at the dollar store. Those paired with some free printables, became our invites. We just rolled up the invitation and placed it in the water bottles. She hand delivered the invites to her two best friends and we were set.
For the cake, she requested a rice krispie treat "cake" like the one pictured here. This was so easy!!! I made a triple batch of the rice krispie treats recipe. Then I placed it in two different sized pots...a larger size for the base and a smaller sized pot, to create a stacked cake look. Next, I placed the pots in the fridge for a few hours. When they were done I flipped them over and stacked them on our cake stand. Finally, I placed little chocolates around the base of each layer and added a free printable banner. The banner was printed, cut and tied to a string that was attached to two wooden skewers.
A photo booth was also on her party wishlist. This one was easy too. I just used some clips to attach some wrapping paper to the top of our our curtains. Viola! Photo booth :) The girls had so much fun posing for pictures and being completely silly. I laughed so hard!
We also did sand pails with their names on them. Inside it contained the items needed for the two crafts and of course photo booth props.
The crafts were tie dying shirts and creating flip flops that had balloons tied to them. I have to say that the balloon flip flops were a flop in my book. I bought assorted balloons. Which in my mind meant assorted colors, however it actually meant assorted sizes. SO...it did not look that great with long animal balloon style balloons tied next to say water balloon sized ones. If I were to do that craft again, I would definitely get all the same sized balloons.
It was such a fun night and I got two thumbs up from my birthday girl. She didn't even get embarrassed when I tried my best hula dance in front of the girls. That is a success in my book.
I may have gotten a bit excited when I found some pineapple water bottles at the dollar store. Those paired with some free printables, became our invites. We just rolled up the invitation and placed it in the water bottles. She hand delivered the invites to her two best friends and we were set.
Finally, the food...we had Hawaiian pizza, pineapple salsa, chips, and fruit and veggies.
May 10, 2013
Teacher Thank You Notes
This week is Teacher Appreciation Week at our schools. We LOVE our teachers. Being a former teacher, I know how much time, dedication and love goes into being a teacher. It is a hard job. I am so grateful for wonderful teachers and we try our best to show our appreciation throughout the year. However, I love that they have a week full of special days and surprises for our teachers because they absolutely deserve it.
One of the tokens of appreciation we sent in this week were some home-made thank you notes. I set-up a little photo studio in our home.
One of the tokens of appreciation we sent in this week were some home-made thank you notes. I set-up a little photo studio in our home.
To create it, we used:
some wrapping paper taped to the wall with painters' tape
a chalkboard frame
a chair
my kiddos
I took each of their pictures holding the chalkboard frame that says: THANK YOU! .
Next, we had the pictures printed.
To create the cards, we folded brown card-stock and used washi tape to tape on the pictures.
The results were some super cute homemade thank you notes.
Inside the cards my kiddos wrote their favorite memories from this school year and personal notes of thanks to their teachers.
Teachers, we love you!!!
May 8, 2013
Grace Upon Grace
Have you heard of a show called: Kids Say the Darndest
Things? Well, sometimes as an
adoptive parent, I have been in the situation where I could look around for
cameras wondering if it is a new version of the show titled: Adults Say the
Darndest Things. There have been
times when strangers have asked me adoption questions where I can feel my jaw
starting to drop. My replies come with two
options: reply with grace or reply with
flesh.
To be honest there have been times my mind goes immediately
to wanting to reply with the flesh.
However, then I am reminded of those who have walked before me. Those who taught me to reply with grace, may
never even know how much they have affected my life. When I received my first job as a third grade
teacher, it was at a public school that housed the only ESL (English Second
Language) unit in the county. Which
meant that any child that entered the school district and who already had a
first language other than English and had limited English, were sent to my
school. These students were placed in
regular classes for mainstreaming, but also had many English classes with the
ESL teacher throughout the day.
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May 6, 2013
This is the day
May 1, 2013
Capturing the Simple {April}
April is one of our busiest months of the year. I am not one to glorify busy. I truly prefer slow, easy-going family time at home. However, when you have four beautiful blessings and they all have different activities, sometimes life just gets really busy. This month has flown by. Here is our April in photos...
.........
There you have it!
Capturing the Simple{April}from top left:
the good news, he scored. the bad news, it was for the other team :)
a trip with my crew to their natural habitat...the zoo
she smiles the entire time she is on the field
he was accepted into robotics summer camp
family night at a college baseball game
pre-school art show...how adorable is her self-portrait
standardized test prep bucket for my girl - snacks, #2 pencils and THE WORD
she requested a rice krispy birthday cake...it was seriously the easy cake I have ever made
She turned 11...happy birthday to my first born!
.........
There you have it!
You take pictures from your month. Put them into a collage, add a short description and post it.
You are welcome to grab the button below and link yours up. I will keep the link up all week.
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