End of Year Gifts, Goodbye Party and Welcome to the Neighborhood Treats!

Man. What a range of emotions over here. We have been saying goodbye to teachers, good friends and welcoming new ones. Luckily all can be done better with a batch of Kristen's cookies.

I am proud to say that my cookie fluffiness has been pretty spot on lately. Kristen's chocolate chip cookies were my go to for teacher gifts this year and I'm pretty sure I gained 5 pounds in the last week of school from eating so many of them. They really are just the best. 

McKenna on her last day of school. Love that kid's style.

For McKenna's teacher I gave a beach towel and mason jar cup with her name on each one. I then filled up some brown paper sacks with cookies to give each helper.
I found this super cute printable that said, "thanks for making me one smart cookie." I printed them off on sticker paper and they were perfect for sealing the cookies up.

Ella loved the cookie idea and wanted to give some to pretty much every teacher she had in her school. Art, PE, Computer, Music, lunch ladies, janitors, office staff and principals. Makes my heart happy to see that her love language is gift giving. Since we had so many to make I put 3 cookies in smaller paper sacks that I found in the dollar bin at Michaels. The labels worked perfect on these too. 

For Ella's teacher and our favorite office ladies, I put together an orange themed gift. I feel in love with this printable and wanted to use it. I found these super cute orange summer scarfs from Charming Charlie's and added some fun orange nail polish with it. 

Ella also wanted to give a little something to her classmates so she made them these cute mini diplomas with smarties. I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought they were so cute! 

Ella wrote everyone a little message on each one and then we rolled them around the smarties. 

Ella received the most perfect Character Trait Award at her graduation. Creativity!

I am so proud of her! Her sweet teacher talked about how Ella is the one to count on to color, dance, design, add flare and beauty to anything. She said that Ella makes the world more colorful and fun. I couldn't agree more and it makes me so happy to see others recognize Ella's gifts and talents. Her teacher put a verse with each character award and the one she said with Ella's was Romans 12:6. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them...

I love watching Ella take the ordinary and turn it into the extraordinary. I can't wait to see how God uses her gifts for His glory. 

My sweet friend Suni is moving to Oklahoma in 9 days. Boo. Suni was my very first friend to meet when we moved here and we are so sad to see them leave. Suni has a love and talent for cooking and baking. She whips stuff up that is always incredible and makes it look so easy. A dessert for dinner farewell party seemed perfect for her! The theme was Don't Dessert Us! It was with our church and everyone was asked to bring a dessert. It was awesome. I wish I had taken pictures of all the tables full of yummy desserts. Wish I had some of the recipes too. 

I made the Don't Dessert Us banner using my silhouette and made some cupcake liner bunting to go along with the dessert theme.

Since they are moving to Oklahoma I thought it was perfect to make a sign that said "It's OK to eat dessert first!" 

It was a fun night celebrating such sweet friends with lots of yummy sweets. We will miss them so much! 

Residency life is crazy because people are always coming and going. We will be here for one more year and it's so sad thinking about that as we have and continue to make so many wonderful friends. We actually just got some new neighbors just yesterday that are part of the residency program. Jackie is about to start her first year of residency and she is married to our very good friend Andy! Kristen and I met Andy in college at ACU and he was always one of our favorites. Then when Bob was a dorm director after we were married, Andy was one too. Bob and Andy became best friends and we made some good Abilene memories with him. Andy and Jackie got married last summer and we are over the moon that they moved here and are only 12 houses down from us! This is going to be the best year ever! It takes us under 4 minutes to walk to their house! My girls love Andy and Jackie. They helped me make them a welcome sign to put in their yard and we even snuck in their backyard to add a little sidewalk chalk flare. 

We walked over yesterday to deliver some cookies and a list of some of our favorite spots in town. Mostly revolved around food but also the best places for haircuts, spray tans, and popcorn. Ya know, the important stuff. 

The girls and I walked back home to get dinner ready last night while Bob helped scrap some popcorn ceilings. Then we all ate dinner together and even watched a little of the Bachelorette. It was just the best day! 

Hope everyone is having a great start to summer! 

Valentines (way late)

Remember Valentine's Day? Well here is a way belated post of how we spent ours.

The girls woke up to a very hearty breakfast. You can't go wrong if you start your day with pink heart shaped pancakes, candy and a chocolate rose. They loved it.

Bob was actually off work for dinner so we were thrilled to all go eat together. We took it easy this year and didn't bust out the dance floor like last year. We ended the night at this cute little bakery in Georgetown with cupcakes and chocolate covered strawberries. It was perfect.

The girls got to take Valentines to their school friends and I had so much fun making these. For Ella's, I did the same thing as last year. Since she is in a different school they weren't a repeat for any of the kids.

I took a picture of her wearing a pair of sunglasses and then designed the Valentine on my silhouette.

After printing them off, I made two slits on the side of her face for the glasses to go through. I think they turned out so cute. It was the first day in a while that the sun actually came out so it was perfect timing.

McKenna is always with me when I drop Ella off to school so she has a special bond with Ella's teacher as well. McKenna was so excited to deliver her favorite coffee drink.

McKenna is still with a lot of the same classmates so she couldn't repeat the sunglasses one again. I love how her valentines turned out this year though! I saw this idea on this blog last year. It was so perfect for McKenna. That girl loves apple juice and we rarely drink a juice box without one of these holders. 

I bought the juice box holders from hobby lobby. I started buying them a while ago so I could use my coupon for each one. It's rare that I plan that far ahead but it was great getting 40% off each one.
Hope everyone had a great Valentines Day!

McKenna's First Day!

It still feels weird taking the girls to two different schools. I could tell that McKenna felt a little lost without her big sister there on her first day. She did great though and there were no tears!

She was very excited to give her teacher the card she made. 

She also gave her some yummy carmel dip that I made for the teachers last year too.

While the girls were both at school I finished putting together their room. (all that in the next post) I couldn't wait to pick them both up and let them see! Who doesn't love a good While You Where Out makeover?!

Last Week of Summer

We crammed it all in.  I think we only slept in our beds for one or two days of the entire week.  It was just one of those weeks where everything exciting happens back to back.  Just love those kind of weeks.

We started it off in Tyler for the day for Ryker's fantastic bday and spent the rest of the day having our first ever go cart experience with the neighbors.  The kids LOVED it.  I dont know why I have never taken them to putt putt or to ride go carts before, but it was genius.  They thought I was the best mom ever. (Dont tell them they could have been doing it for years.)

Then, we got up early and cleaned our rooms  and got ready to go visit Julie! We have a lot of friends in one place (which we love) but we kind of try and sort it out so we can see everyone for a little quality time.  Her husband was working and it was just a huge slumber party!

Then, we headed off to paradise at my uncle and aunts lake property.  We ate until we could not fit any more food in our bodies and laughed and fished and played. It was heavenly.


Jeff even got to meet us out there after work for a night.
We did a little back to school shopping when we got home at the mall.  (started the fun with a carousel ride, hoping that would keep their spirits up for all the walking that was ahead.)

Then, on sunday, we all made friendship bracelets to remind the kids we were all thinking and praying for each other on monday.


We ended the night with a super healthy dinner of cereal.

I stayed up way too late making cheesy teacher gifts and going to every store trying to scrounge up the remaining school supplies.  Annnd I just sent candy.  Who needs school supplies.


(Whew.  So, that was about it.  I know that is all so very exciting for everyone.)
Here's to the first day! They are there right now and I am just counting the minutes until I can go get them.  I can not wait to hear how it went!!