Shameless Plea. And a Give Away...

Hi Friend.
It isn't often that I ask for a favor here. But I'm pulling out all the stops today.

As you may know, I'm a former teacher.  I love helping out at schools, volunteering, and doing what I can.  This past year, I sold all my past WIP Kits and donated the proceeds to our local elementary school's Facelift Fund.  You can read about what I did with the money here.

Target is doing a wonderful thing for schools, called the Give with Target Program.  They're giving away $25 for every 25 votes for a school on Facebook.  I would LOVE it if you would click on this link and click like for me.  I promise, it is going to a great school with an exceptional staff, and one that NEEDS it.  You can vote once per week, and encourage your friends to do the same. 

And in the spirit of giving, I'm going to do the same.  I'm going to give away 3 WIP Kits to random bloggers today who VOTE for our school, and leave a comment in the comment section.  Simple enough, right?

Again, here is the link to vote.  And don't forget to post a comment (preferably with your email address if you win!)  I'll post the winner tomorrow.

Thanks so much for your support.  TRULY. 

More Olympic Party Ideas

Great ideas can be found here at Gigmaster's blog.

Miss CandiQwik's blog has a few more...

And Bird's Party has even more! 

And if those weren't enough to put you over the edge, Buzzfeed has yet a few more foodie ideas. 

Closing Ceremonies, anyone????

Awesome Olympic Party

Good Monday Morning! This is going to be a long blog post. Filled with tons of pictures, too. So bear with me...

My dear friend is FUN. Fun as in, crazy-fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants, fun.  I love her to bits.  I'm wound pretty tight, and being around her makes me happy.  She's also wildly creative.  Soon, you will see what I mean...

Last week, Jen's 15 year old son hand-delivered invitations to a party at their house (that would be a toga he's wearing) to celebrate the Opening Ceremonies to the Olympics.  Ethan, I love you for cooperating...

This party was over-the-top.  Seriously.

Our family was instructed to represent a nation, come to the party representing that country, and bring some sort of food from said place.  We chose Mexico.  Here's my daughter...

And one of my sons...

We arrived to Jen's house, and immediately I noticed crafty art everywhere.  Don't you just love these rings covered in Duct tape hanging from her porch?  And they were water-proof, too!

She made Olympic banners using her Cameo and vinyl and dictionary pages. 

She printed out lots and lots of Olympic stuff.  She and her daugher McKenzie were working overtime...

Gumballs in Olympic colors.  Of course!

Fruit in Olympic colors.  Why, yes!

Yes, there were Olympic Minute to Win It games, complete with prizes...

She used the printables from Skip to My Lou for this cake and cupcakes...

Here's the Lamb Family.  So cool that they found these shirts at Dick's Sporting goods!  Russia holds a special place in their hearts for this family, because both of their sons were born there.

And the food.  THE FOOD...

The Sharer Family represented Sweden.  They yodelled a lot.

Here's McKenzie in her cute Gap shirt.  She's her mother's daughter, this one...

Here's a photo of some of the Parade of Nations, right before the Lighting of the Torch (bonfire outside)...

And here's about 40 people stuffed into her family room, watching the real opening ceremony...

Our whole family had a blast.  The creativity and laugher, the food and the games, the friends and the ceremony itself--it made for a nearly perfect evening.

I sure hope someone reads this and is inspired to have their own party.  Take these ideas, make your own--and feel free to share your ideas with me if you do!  Special thanks to Jen and her family for always blowing my mind...

For more ideas, stay tuned for tomorrow...

Enjoy your day!

Random Stuff

1.  If you have a daughter and you haven't seen this movie with her yet, please do yourself a favor, and go see it with her.  I liked Katy Perry before I saw the flick.  But now, we both LOVE her.  Great girl power stuff--you won't be sorry.

2.  Took my son out for breakfast at First Watch recently.  Big thumbs up for their blueberry pancakes that were bigger than his head.

3.  Editing photos of a newborn session I did last week.  Man, I miss the smell of babies!  She was precious, indeed...

4.  Geering up for a bridal shower in the family.  Coffee filter flowers, giant pinwheels and rosettes--and garlands.  Oh, yes.  Garlands...

5.  Christmas in July with this local brew.  And now, Applebees has it on tap.  Life is good!

Enjoy your weekend!!

This Pooch...

I got an email last week, asking about our dog. I thought it was so sweet, to inquire about our sweet pooch. And it got me thinking...

We've spent 10 months with him now.  And I'm not sure what I did before he joined our family.  It seems as though he fit in from the very start, and there wasn't much of an adjustment at all.  We still fuss over him.  It's quite riduculous, actually.  Jami and I double-team him and scratch his belly until he can barely stand the excitement.  He follows me wherever I go in the house, and he knows if I'm in the bathroom putting make up on, there's a good chance he's going for a ride in the van. 

I love that he is older, and calm.  Last week, during a particularly "bad mom day,"  he sat right next to me on the couch and I swear, he comforted me.  He doesn't expect a lot, and gives so much.  And sometimes, when he looks at me with those greying floppy ears, I swear, I could kiss his face right off.

To think, I never knew this kind of unconditional love from a non-human before.  Wow.  I know you pet owners out there get it.  I'm happy to have joined the ranks with you. 

 For the record, Dennis the turtle and our 18 fish in the pond are also doing well.  I plan on doing a layout featuring our wild kingdom soon...

Hope all is well in your world...

Sugared Pecans

I enjoy sugared pecans on a salad.  How about you?  I tried this crockpot recipe (found on Pinterest, of course), and wanted to share today.  SO easy, and not a lot of ingredients!  You can check the recipe out here.  Enjoy your day!

Treehouse Salad & Sweet Cornbread

I had lunch with a friend last week, and it was completely delish.  I asked her for the recipes, and she was kind enough to share. She frequently visits a local restaurant, and became obsessed with one of their salads there.  So she calls it the "Treehouse Salad" after the restaurant.   Thank you, Shari.  You're the BEST!!

Treehouse Salad & Cornbread

Dressing:  equal parts

sour cream

honey

brown sugar

vanilla yogurt

vanilla (1 tsp)

Top over a bead of a bed of greens, strawberries, peaches, raspberries, and blueberries.  Add roasted chicken and dressing on top!

Sweet Cornbread

1C. Cornmeal

2C. flour

1 1/2C Sugar

3/4 C melted butter

4 eggs, separated

1 C. Milk

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

Combine egg yolks, milk, vanilla  butter.  Stir in dry ingredients.  Beat egg whites until a stiff peek forms, and fold into the batter.

Bake in a greased 13x9 pan at 350 for 25-27 minutes.  Be careful to not overbake!

Enjoy your day!

App of the Week

My favorite app of the week is CAMERA AWESOME.  You can check it out here.

This amazing camera app allows you to take a photo, edit them, and add tons of filters before you ever upload it to your computer, from the convenience of your iPhone.  How cool is that??

Enjoy your day!

Weekend Lens

I sure hope you had a great weekend. Here's a peek at mine...

Snuggled with the dog.  Man, he's the best.

Helped my little guy respond to an awesome letter from his teacher.  He's so looking forward to 1st Grade in about 5 weeks...

Bought flowers from my favorite roadside stand...

Attended a fun mother/daughter gathering over a neighbor's house...

Listened to these two giggle for hours...

Installed 3 boxes of outdoor lights by myself.  Even I'm shocked by this one...

Made two garbage bags filled with coffee filter flowers for an upcoming bridal shower for a cousin...

Hung out with neighbors and made smores with the kiddos.  We are so blessed to love where we live...

Loved on him a bit more.

Grabbed the kids and headed up by the lake.

Took about 200 photos of our kids, the park, and each other...

Headed to Bergman's Orchard on the way home.  Can't drive by a place like this one...

Took in the perfect weather, summer breeze, and each other's company.

Went to breakfast with the family, just like every other Sunday...

And stopped by to visit with my Dad, who is doing really well.  (Thanks so much for the kind emails and comments asking about him.)

Hope yours was just as wonderful.

Enjoy your Monday!!