Painted Wooden Balls turned Garland and some Glittered Pumpkins

So, this was supposed to be a fall garland for the fire place, and well, I may have gone too fairytale pumpkin colors on it to be called "fall", but it was fun anyway.

We just painted some wooden balls from Michaels and then Jeff drilled holes in them and I strung them up.  Super complicated and I am sure you guys would never have figured any of that out :) But it was fun and did add some color to the house.
(and pay no attention to the clutter beside the fire place...We are still moving in.  5 months later...)
And we painted and glittered some pumpkins the other day and it was a hit.  We just painted them first and added whatever color or kind of glitter was first available.  Ben made a lot of his to resemble the earth.  So there was all kinds of learning going on.


So, thats about the most of our halloween decor.  We sprinkled some of the pumpkins around the house and on the fireplace.  Suffice it to say, we are going for a very colored theme this year.
And if I dont stop eating the halloween candy that I have out I am never going to be able to get out the door again.  This stuff is killing me.  And possiblyyyyy (I mean, there may or may not be a direct correlation) making me fail my diabetes test.  I had to do the  long three hour one on friday and it literarily took everything out of me.  It was a nightmare.  Who knew a little sunkist and fasting combo could ruin a day??!   Ugh.  SO, wish me luck.  Results come today.  We know I am not going to be the best at monitoring my sugar intake levels...

Dinosaur Museum

We went to the Heard Museum in Mckinney the other day.  They have life sized dinosaurs, which, in Ben world, is like heaven.  He raced through it so fast you would have thought he didnt care-  but I think he gets so excited that he can not contain himself.  He has to see what dinosaur is next and that kind of excitement can not be contained.

It's Jurassic Park over here, guys.

BYOP

This last Friday was early dismissal for Ella's school so I thought it would be fun to have all the girls in her class over for pizza and pumpkin decorating! BYOP. (bring your own pumpkin) It was a house full but so much fun!
I had ordered a bunch of different pumpkin sticker faces from oriental trading company.

The girls loved it! They all covered their pumpkins with multiple faces and then topped it off with some jewels of course. I bought some of the glue dots from Hobby Lobby and they held the jewels on perfectly.


After pumpkins we made some tissue paper mason jars too. Or whatever you call them. We did them last year with pumpkin faces and when you put a candle inside they glow. Kinda like a lantern. Maybe thats what they are called, mason jar lanterns. Most of the girls went with a pink polka dot tissue.

This was my first "drop-off" playdate so I was a little nervous but it ended up going great! Maybe I'll be ready to host a sleepover next...

Yard Sale!

I had my first yard sale two weekends ago and it was so fun! 

Every time I have cleaned out toys or clothes during this last year I always put them in a garbage bag and just set it to the side in our garage thinking that someday I will sell them. I have sold a few things through consignment stores but I still had bags and bags of stuff. One of the things on Ella's summer bucket list was a lemonade stand. We talked about doing it so many times but just never got around to it. So basically, Ella's dream of selling lemonade is what inspired me to do the yard sale.

A few weeks ago I mentioned to my friend Julie that I was thinking about having a yard sale and if she had anything she wanted to sell to bring it on over. Between Julie and I, we filled up the yard with so much stuff that even at the end of a successful yard sale day, the yard still looked full of stuff. The number one thing I learned from all this is to start preparing WAY earlier next time. I didn't start pulling stuff out and pricing until 2 days before and it was crazy. Who am I kidding though, next time and the next, I will still wait till the last minute again.
We did it on the weekend my mom and sister were here visiting so we could have help. We honestly couldn't have done it without them! Bob was working so it was just us girls. It was hilarious and we had a lot of laughs! Since my mom is still healing from her ACL surgery she was great just sitting all day so we put her in charge of the money. Anna helped the little girls sell cookies and lemonade. She would also make an occasional new friend that always had a very funny and entertaining story behind it.

We sold a tv and Bob had the great idea to have it set up playing a movie to show that it worked. Until it sold, it was so fun having a lawn movie too!

We started setting up before 7 and even though our signs said 8-11am, we had buyers ready by 7:30. Julie and I were in full sweat trying to hurry and bring everything to the yard by 8. Having a garage in the ally makes a yard sell harder to set up when it's all in the front yard. The weather ended up being perfect. We had 60% chance of rain the night before so we were a little nervous.
One of our first customers was a very nice man who handed the girls 2 dollars and told them that the next 8 kids got a free cookie and lemonade. I thought that was so sweet!
As it started getting closer to 11:00 we realized that we should have made the signs say noon so I went and changed a few. Then once noon rolled around we realized we still had so much to sell and we were having so much fun that we didn't want it to end. So I drove to all of the signs we put out and changed the time to 8-3. Julie had the genius idea to make some new signs that said yard sale from noon-3 and to put those on other end of neighborhood. That way we would get some new traffic thinking it had just started. We had so many great things still for sale.
It was a long day for the little girls but they did awesome! McKenna and Lily only had a couple of meltdowns and Anna tried to work out any other issues between Ella and Katelyn. They would change clothes and come out to entertain us every now and then. They even set up their own version of a yard sale inside the house. This was creative but not so much fun to clean up. They tied rope all around the house and then hung every hanger and headband in Ella's room on the rope. I wish I would have taken a pic before we started taking stuff down. These pictures are halfway through cleanup.


So we ended up selling for 8 hours and we loved it! I'm still so surprised at what sold and what didn't. I guess you just never know. My local Goodwill sure did get a great load after the yard sale. I hope it all goes to great use. I am a huge yard sale fan now! I want to make it a yearly tradition. 

Theme Days at School

Every time there is a home football game, Ella's school has a pep rally that Friday. The best thing about pep rally days is you get to dress up in theme! We were made for these days. The first theme was Hawaiian. I of course jumped all over it and made Ella an outfit. I found these cute Hawaiian print bandanas at the party store. At first I had a dress in mind and just sewed the two together with elastic thread at the top. Here is a good tutorial for it.

 Once Ella got home from school we realized it was much too small for a dress so I turned it into a skirt. I then heat pressed a flower onto a tank top and Ella loved it! 

This was over a month ago (way behind on blogging once again) but the girls had the best time during the first football game! How cute are those cheerleaders?!

I wish I would have video taped Ella as I told her what the theme dress up day was for the second home game. She for real almost cried. It is kinda her worst nightmare. I laugh every time I say it. "Crazy Hair and Mis-matched clothes." She was not into it. I wanted her to go all out though. But I didn't want to force anything on her. But I also didn't want her to not do it just because she thinks it looks silly. Not everything needs to be pretty and perfect. This would be good for her. I googled some images of kids with crazy hair and I think seeing someone else helped her out. She became excited about it and jumped all in. The mismatched clothes wasn't too hard for her. That girl loves a pattern on pattern.


This last week was PINK OUT and we all know she didn't have any issues with that one. We are never short on pink in this house. Ella did a cheer clinic at the school and they got to perform during the pep rally and game. It was pretty cute to watch. My mom and sister came too so Ella had her own little fan club.

This Friday is BLACKOUT. Too bad Ella can't share Aunt Anna's wardrobe. 

37

Do y'all have a favorite number? Or one that just sticks out to you all the time? 37 is Bob's. Ever since I have known him, I remember him saying 37 was his number and that when he turned 37, it would be his year. I have always known that 37 would be like Bob's 40. Or 50. (whatever the big year is for bdays.) I knew 37 had to be extra special. 35 and 36 were so fun to celebrate so I was racking my brain to come up with something for the big 37.
I started the day off with a special breakfast. If any of you are breaking bad fans then you will get the meaning behind the bacon shaped in 37.

You can't have a big birthday without Marquee lights! I made them the same way I did the arrow here.

Of course there were shirts too...


I decided to focus on the "year of 37" for his gift.

About a month ago, Bob and I went to a meeting at the hospital where they had a very talented friend of ours teach everyone some basic painting tips. She gave everyone a 12x12 canvas paper and taught us two different methods to painting. Bob combined a little of both and went at it. It was really a night full of giggles more than anything but somehow Bob's painting turned into something very meaningful to him. I don't think he intended on it happening but it was cool how it became such a special piece to him. He told me about the spiritual meaning behind each color and I thought it was awesome. I could tell he held back from telling others but I knew how much it meant to him. Especially since I got a glimpse of his phone and saw that he had taken a pic of his painting and set it as the home screen. Thats when my head starting spinning of great ideas for his 37th birthday. First I got his artwork framed.

Then I made a journal on Minted and used his painting as the front cover. On the inside of the journal I wrote the lyrics to a song that he loves. Oceans, by Hillsong. It is a great song, you should totally go check it out.


I wanted this journal to be how he documented his big year of 37. I filled 12 envelopes with all kinds of surprises that he will open each month during his 37th year. Each one is a little different but they all have some kind of verse, saying, note or quote for the month. I have written little notes in each one and tell him some things to reflect on and write about in his journal that month. I was so excited about this gift and had so much fun putting it all together. It is so so hard for me to keep my mouth shut though. I wanted to tell him what was inside every single one! Bob has so much better self control than I do so he has no problem at all with waiting till each month. I will do a post about each envelope as the months go by.

Bob has been interested in starting crossfit for a while now. I know he held back and never did it because of cost, time and just not really having extra time to jump into it. I figured if I started him off during the first month with it, maybe it would become part of his normal schedule. 37 should be the year to become buff. (I mean more buff) I picked Proverbs 10:4 because his birthday is October 4th. I thought the verse went along with a crossfit membership perfectly.


The night of his birthday we went out to eat with some friends. I made a cake to bring to the restaurant. I had seen the pinata cakes on pinterest and thought that could be fun. I had originally wanted to have 37 little trinkets or gifts inside but that was near impossible to come up with so I stuck with the candy. All the tutorials had m&m's coming out of the middle of the cakes. I decided to do all of Bob's favorite sour candies instead. I baked two boxes of cake mix into two round pans. Hollowed out the bottom one and filled it up with candy.

I took a little cake out of the bottom of top layer and then placed it on top.

Then I iced it, laid some cookie cutters on top and poured sprinkles in them to make BOB and then put A LOT of candles on it.


Turns out there is a reason you should do m&m's. Chocolate candy covered in chocolate cake tastes WAY better than sour gummy candy. Duh. I don't know what I was thinking. When I cut it open, the candy didn't spill out like in the tutorials. That's because all my candy just stuck together. It was kind of a fail but the kids didn't seem to mind. At least now I know.


Happy Birthday to the man that lights up my world. To the dad that blow dries his daughter's hair, reads a bible story to them every night, teaches them how to cook, makes sure they are well, and is a constant source of fun and laughter. We love you Bob!

It was a great birthday and I can't wait to see what God has in store for my Bob this year!

Shea's Quilt

So, I have kind of had a vision of making the crib sheets for the baby's bed for a while now with his/her  name on it.  My middle name is Shea and I knew that I wanted to use it for a first name if I had another kid, and since it is a gender neutral name we can use it for a boy or a girl!  I love a gender neutral name. I dont really know why. I really love a gender neutral anything.  Especially clothes.  I told Jeff I am buying Ben's entire outfit for myself the other day and he told me he really took a chance marrying someone who dresses so much like boy.  I know.  Give me a flannel and jeans any day of the week.  Do most people go off on tangents about crossdressing as a lifestyle choice.  I dont know.
 Anyway, so, Shea is the name for our baby and I thought it would be great if I could have the sheets on his/her bed that say that.
I went to spoonflower.com to make my dreams come true,

which I just LOVE, and made some different options with different fonts and spacing. I ordered lots of samples to see which ones I liked and which fabric I liked best.  They come in little 8X8 squares, and I ordered a ton of different ones.  I also made some with stars and arrows and triangles and dinosaurs, etc.  Since I had so many different samples, I thought it would be fun to put them all together to make a quilt.

I dont love that the back is two different fabrics, but I only had a yard of the back fabric and I had made that one too, so there was no way around it.

Sassy was a big help and she made a mini quilt of her own with some left over fabric.

It is def the very definiton of ghetto and the binding is-whew!-bad, but I am pretty excited that it happened and that its done.  I still haven't made the crib sheets yet, and if I know my inability to measure anything well, I do know they are going to be a big mess.  But hopefully they will fit on the bed.  Thats really all that matters, right?