It's a Campout Party!

O.k., so I finally have a minute to sit down and catch up just a little. Man, this has been quite the whirlwind month! Before I could recoup from Brooklyn's party, it was time to party again. Fortunately for me, Brynn is so easy going with this stuff that it doesn't take much to make her happy (as far as parties go anyway). And I guess I have to say that Brooklyn would have been happy with a more simple party also, but I just felt the need to go all out with hers. No, it's not favorites, it just happened to be her turn this time.

So anyway, she chose an indoor camp out theme since she wasn't able to go on the daddy/daughter camp out the week before because Dane had to work. Of course, you have to start with invitations...

I can't take credit for the cute poem. My mom is always the go-to gal for poems around here. She never fails me. Yeah, I love her!

I found this cute digital scrapbooking template online and just thought it was cute. That's all the explanation I have for that.

The Party Details:

Dinner: roasted hot dogs, chips, olives, watermelon, crackers, & cheese cubes all on Toy Story 3 plates and napkins, naturally.

***little side note*** I wanted to include Brynn in all the party details so while we were at the store, rather than getting the "camping" type plates, etc. I let her pick out whatever she wanted. So that's why we have Toy Story plates. She originally chose Phineas and Ferb napkins to go with them, but I had to draw the line somewhere. I mean, there had to be SOME cohesiveness to this stuff, right? Well, the next day I was feeling guilty about making her settle on Toy Story napkins so I went and bought Phineas & Ferb napkins to use for the dessert. Here's our conversation when I got home and showed them to her:

Brynn: "Why'd you get those?"

Me: "Because you wanted them."

Brynn: "I was o.k. with what we got. I didn't really care."

Oh well, at least I tried, right?

Dessert: a campfire brownie with Twix for logs and fruit roll-ups for flames, s'mores, a chocolate fountain, and lots of candy junk

The girls were so full of candy and junk after dinner that they didn't even want to do the whole blow-out-the-candles-on-the-cake thing. Mental note: DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT have that much candy and junk for them to eat at a slumber party again. It sours their stomaches and also makes for a VERY LONG sugar high.

Activities: Singing songs around the campire (which I think only the adults actually liked), opening presents, random playing, watching a movie, playing with Mad Libs (you know, the game where you fill in the blanks with nouns, verbs, adjectives, and so forth and then read the story), and giggling ALL NIGHT long.

It was so funny to watch how quickly the Mad Libs caught on. It started with a couple of girls who were trying to figure them out while the others were watching a movie. They were doing them all wrong so I had to show them how it was done. When I read it back to them they were laughing so loud that the other girls all gathered around to see what was going on. Then, after explaining it to the rest of the group, they started working on them in pairs, groups, and individuals for the next 1 1/2 to 2 hours. By then it was the middle of the night and they were getting really slap-happy. Every other blank spot was turning into something either poop or fart related. Their moms will probably never let them come back again.

Goodie Bags: I found some canvas backpacks on clearance at Michaels and ironed on their initial to the front. Then I filled them with a pillowcase with their initial on it, flashlight, Mad Libs game, pen & candy bracelet.

It was a really fun and really LONG night. I finally crashed around 2 a.m. and told the last three die-hards to talk quietly until they fell asleep. I think everyone had a good time and we finally got around to doing the blow-out-the-candles-on-the-cake thing the next morning after breakfast. Good times, good times!

(As always, you can click on the photos to see them larger.)

The Long Awaited Princess Party Has Arrived!

Brooklyn has been wanting a princess birthday party for almost a year now. And since there's a bit of princess still in me and I never really got a "princess party" when I was little, I kinda went crazy with my planning of this party. I know, some people would say "crazy" is putting it mildly. Anywho, let's just say I had a lot of fun getting this all together. And since I've known about it for almost a year, I was able to get quite a few accessories and things on clearance after the different holidays (I LOVE clearance!).

To start off, we sent out the invitations (the scans aren't great, but you get the idea).

***You can click on any of the images to see them larger.

Then came the decorating. I know this will come as no surprise to anyone who really knows me, but I'm a bit of a procrastinator. I had big plans for a lot more decorating but got so busy with everything else that I had to start throwing some of those plans out the window when it came right down to it. As it was, I was up until about 4:30am two days before the party baking layers of cake and sewing tablecloths and a dragon cape for Brynn (which she wore for about the first 5 minutes and then took off...GRRR...). And then the next day I cleaned all day, taught a Cricut class that night in my home, went to my friend's (Jamie Dial) house afterward to decorate the cake until about midnight and then came home to start decorating and so forth. No sleep for me that night. I think the adrenaline was what kept me going (at least until after the party).

Before I can go on any further about the party, I first have to say how truly blessed I am to have such AWESOME friends. I don't know how I could have functioned this day without the help of my sister, Carrie, who pretty much stayed in the kitchen keeping up with the food the whole time and then stayed after (for several hours) to clean up and then watch my kids while I took a nap. And for my friend, Jamie Dial, who always listened to me ramble about party plans and kept me grounded on what I could and couldn't get done in the amount of time I had left...and also stayed up until the wee hours decorating the cake and cutting fruit and also spending lots of time with Carrie in the kitchen during the party, along with cleaning up afterward. I know, that was the longest run-on sentence in the history of grammar. Oh well. And I'm also very thankful for my friend Jamie Harper who came out here from the other side of town, along with her daughters, Taylor and Madisann, to take all the AMAZING photographs of our party and do the make-up and nails for all of our little princesses. They turned out so great! Thank you all for being so great and helping me so much!

Now on to the pics:

Here are the princess tables with their centerpieces and chair covers that I made.

And Brooklyn's "Princess of Honor" chair.

Here's the dessert table. I made the canopy with a hula hoop and some curtain panels I picked up on clearance about 2 years ago, along with some other odds and ends. You can't see it functioning in this photo, but we had a chocolate fountain going during the party on the right side that had pink chocolate flowing.

I made these labels to go on all the little water bottles. I also had labels on little purple and pink bags at the dessert table for the guests to fill with candy and goodies to take home.

For lunch, we had heart shaped watermelon (thanks, Jamie!), grapes, olives, carrots & dip, heart shaped Nutella & peanut butter sandwiches, heart shaped turkey and cheese sandwiches and raspberry lemonade.

All the princesses got the royal treatment in the Royal Salon where they got their nails polished, make-up done and picked out a tiara, gloves, earrings, rings, bracelets and necklaces. Even Brynn got in on the action. I know! Surprising, isn't it?!

After lunch the girls went upstairs to Brynn's room where we had a fabric backdrop set up and a frame I picked up at a yard sale and pinkified.

This princess' expression was just too funny!

No princess party would be complete without a castle, right? We got this one just in time for the party. It used to be parked in my brother's backyard for years but his kids have outgrown it and they asked if I wanted it about 2 weeks ago. Hello?! Perfect timing!! Dane was less than excited about taking it home, much less bringing it into the house, but I couldn't resist it. I had big plans to drape swags of pink tulle all around it, but again, some things just had to go. It was still cute and fun none-the-less.

And another truly awesome friend is Tammi, who volunteered to come as Snow White to the party and visit with the girls and read a princess story. She was amazing! Brooklyn was the only girl to know that she was coming so when she walked in the door, the girls were mesmerized. She was so good with them and I know they thought she was the "real" Snow White. My niece was waving her arms to my sister to have her come closer and she whispered, "Mom, Mom, Mom, that's Snow White!". And when Snow White was walking out the door, one of the princesses ran out after her and yelled, "No! Snow White!". So, so cute!


It was really a fun party and so much fun to plan. I hope Brooklyn will remember it for years to come... I know I will!

If you want to see more of the pictures from the party, my friend, Jamie, has some collages posted on her website here.

Still SEW fun!

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I've been on a sewing kick lately, right? Well, I just finished a skirt for Brynn and matching dress for Brooklyn the other day and decided that I wanted real "models" to display them this time instead of just hanging them on hangers and taking pictures of them. So after church today we swung by the house so I could grab my camera and then went back to the grand entrance of a local neighborhood nearby so I could get some pics of the kids in their outfits. I realized that it wasn't the best time of day (heat, lighting, hungry kids, hungry husband, etc.) to be doing this but knew that as soon as we walked through the door Brynn's skirt would be off and into the laundry basket and I most likely wouldn't get any pics done today. So, here we go...

Of course, as usual, Brooklyn was not at all interested in sitting where we wanted her to sit and there was no changing her mind about it. Not to mention that she was not at all interested in looking at me either. Oh well.

Here's my handsome boy. No, I didn't make his outfit. But I can't leave him out of the pics, can I? Of course not! And just a funny little side note about this pic... he positioned himself for this one. He did a pretty good job, don't you think?

Here's Brooklyn's dress and matching barrette I made for her. She thought she was sooo big and also posed herself for this pic after watching Brynn do the same thing just a minute before that.

Here's Brynn looking all Vogue-ish with a look she came up with. Do you like her skirt and barrette? And, yes, she did take the skirt off the moment we walked into the house. So predictable (just like her dad!).

And here's the funner side of Brynn.

Now we're getting to the tail end of our photo shoot and obviously someone is less than happy to be here. So I decided to get creative to try and get just one more shot of all of them before we leave. And just what is that creative thing I tried to do, you ask? What every good mom does when she wants her kids to do something they don't want to... BRIBERY! I told them that whoever smiled (or laughed) for the next picture would get some candy when we get home.

Not exactly what I was looking for, but I'll take it. You can't really see it in this pic, but Brooklyn really was trying to laugh through her tears. Let's just say she was D U N, done!

And yet somehow I squeezed just one. more. pic. out of her.

It's been really fun to sew for the girls and I know that Brooklyn will continue to enjoy me sewing dresses and skirts for her. Brynn, on the other hand, would be quite content if I never made her another dress/skirt again. In fact, when I was getting close to finishing up on her skirt over at grandma's house, grandma asked her what she thought about it. Her response? Wow. If only I could type it with the tone of voice she actually said it in. This was not a "WOW! I'm so excited you made me another skirt and I'm so grateful you spent ALL DAY working on it for me!". This was more of a "wow. (insert rolling eyes here) I can't believe you haven't stopped making me these stupid dresses/skirts yet. When will this ever end?!". Oh yeah, it was definitely like that. So I guess I'll just stick to the dressy, girly clothes for Brooklyn and maybe start making some shorts/pants for Brynn. Then maybe, just maybe, I'll get a response from her that makes me feel like she appreciates all the work that goes into the things I make for her. We'll see. I do love that tomboy girl of mine, though!

Thanks, Easter Bunny...bok, bok!

O.k. so I totally don't know how to spell bok, bok but surely it reminds you of a familiar commercial from years gone by of a tasty treat at easter time. Anywho, I wanted to show you what we did today.

I have an awesome friend on the other side of town who happens to be an AMAZING photographer. We benefitted many times from her talents when we lived over there and couldn't possibly turn down an opportunity to go out and benefit from it again today. She has such a unique style and I love to see the work she does. I told Dane after we left that even though it's been a few years since we last saw each other it was so nice and comfortable to visit with them again like it was just last week.

Here are just a few of the many AWESOME photos she took while we were there. It was really hard to pick just a few because we love them all so much. By the way, her name is Jamie Harper and you can find her here if you're interested in having her do some photos for you as well. I highly recommend it!

Porter really was enjoying the duckies at first, but after a little while he was no longer interested in photos and definitely DID NOT want a duckie on his head. Can you tell? But how could I pass up this opportunity to have a cute little fluffy, furry thing on my son's head? How?! I ask you!

Such cute pics and such a fun day! Thank you, Jamie!

Happy April Fools!

I was in the mood today to make a fun April Fools Day dinner so I found an idea online and had Dane pick up the ingredients on his way home tonight. The menu: fish sticks and peas. What was it really? Sugar wafer cookies, coated in peanut butter and frosted flakes. The peas were laffy taffy that I softened in the microwave and then rolled into little balls. The kids were curious and confused by it at first until Brynn tried one of the "peas" and said, "This tastes like laffy taffy!". Naturally, they asked for seconds of this yummy, green "veggie". We did have a more filling dinner prepared and ready to go as soon as they figured everything out...bean burritos. It was a fun little trick.

Wow! Three posts in one day!

I'm on a roll now! I guess I'm just trying to make up for lost time. I've finally realized that I haven't been posting as much lately because deep down I think I can't possibly post anything unless it's cute and interesting. And since the only things cute and interesting about me are the crafty things I make, I shouldn't post anything else. Well, the first step is recognizing the problem, right? So this post is neither cute, nor interesting, but is vital in my process of blog recovery.

Hi. I'm Jen. And I'm a recovering blog-slacker-aholic.

It's a Rainbow of Fruit Flavors

Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly... Doesn't this cake just scream happiness?! A month or so ago I found this cake on a fabulous blog I was reading and sent a link to my friend, Jamie, because she's kind of a rainbow order freak (I love you, Jamie!). It looked so sunny and bright and happy but I couldn't think of a reason to make it so it just got tucked away in the cobwebs of my noggin. That is until this week when they were asking for volunteers to bring cakes in for the Relief Society birthday celebration tonight. How could I NOT bring this cake?! So late last night I got to work and put it together. Why late last night, you ask? Because that seems to be the only way I know how to do things. I guess that's my creative hour (or hours). Who knows? But I couldn't tell you how many times I smiled and squealed with glee as I was basking in all the radiant sunshine of color. Yeah, it was late. And I can't even tell you how full my "love tank" is from all the kind words the ladies were saying. I guess that's secretly my love language. You'd have to read the book or at least have someone give you a brief summary of what it's about to know what I'm talking about. Oh, and the site that I got the actual recipe for the cake and frosting was here. I love the white chocolate in the frosting... so yummy!

And don't you just love this cute cake plate that I borrowed from Jamie? It is so adorable! Now I'm thinking I'll have to borrow it again and make something else for another celebration and change out the ribbon with a wider ribbon and have it all fluffy and everything. Oh, what did I just start?