Stitch-A-Long

I'm gettin' my groove back. I read this blog all the time, I just love her style. A while back she started this stitching project and I followed along with it on this blog. I just love her stitch sampler - so adorable and I wished the whole time that I had done it too. Then I read that she's starting a new one! Oooooh I'm so psyched! I rounded up my supplies - had to run to Hobby Lobby to get a hoop - and got a jump start on the project! I've already stitched out my grid, each little square is going to represent one of my blessings. I've got lots of ideas, i'm going to keep it bright and colorful. Hopefully when it is done I will love it enough to frame and hang up. The best part is that Kolbi was watching me and wants to do one of her own right along with me. So it is now a mother & daughter project *yay*!

The Pancake Pen

During some pre-Easter shopping I decided to get myself this pancake pen to add to my basket.

Everyone was like 'oh a pancake pen...' *yawn* But let me just tell you this thing is AWESOME!

I fit an entire batch of batter in the pen at 1 time. You can re-load it from the bottom so if I had made more I could have refilled with no mess. Then on Easter morning, I made adorable heart shaped pancakes in a snap.

I even busted out all of my artistic talent to create the pancakes below....

behold...Spongebob and Patrick! Riley was psyched :)

This Blog Has Been Interrupted...

... by the school carnival. That's what all my focus has been on for weeks. Now that it is over I can take a breath and get caught up with everything else! A ton of stuff has gone on,

I made Riley's class some cupcakes for Dr. Seuss week - candy melt hats!

Then Riley had his first basketball game. I like this sport way better than football. I hope this is the one that sticks.

Preston had a birthday - he is 4! Can you believe it???

I got together with the PTO girls and we made hundreds of cupcakes for the Seuss week winners at the school. We used some awesome sugar crystal sprinkles that I know I will use on everything now!

We passed out books & characters to those winners too.
Riley played his second basketball game - it was more fun than the first!

And in the middle of all this mess we got a new puppy.

After much debate his name is Gilbert. At first Riley & I called him Bolt and Justin & Kolbi called him Millhouse. I had to put my foot down and insist we come up with a name we would all call him because it was getting confusing! I'm not sure how we came up with Gilbert but it was the one that stuck. The school carnival turned out awesome and I will be sure to post those pics soon!

It's Dr. Seuss Week!

I just love Dr. Seuss and all things Seussian - so this is my fave time! Kolbi is kinda out growing it but at least Seuss Week is still a big deal at Riley's school. One of my PTO duties is to decorate a bulletin board. I've been kind of lax on it but thought I'd spiffy it up with some Seuss week decor. So I've been printing, cutting and drawing all weekend for my board re-do. Since I had all the stuff I decided to decorate our window tonight as a kick off to Seuss week.

Riley pitched in and rounded up all his Dr. Seuss books to decorate the ledge. Then we decided to make a Seuss dinner! I went for green spaghetti since I had promised Kolbi we would have spaghetti, her favorite, for dinner tonight.

How crazy is that?

Make no mistake, Riley would NOT eat anything green. He had a plain 'ol hotdog but he did look at our green spaghetti dinner and appreciate it.

A Little This...A Little That

I decided it was time for my Valentine wreath to come down and my front door looked very lonely. So I made this burlap wreath that everyone in blog-land has been making. I got my idea from this blog but I've seen them on a ton of blogs so the inspiration is out there. I made a burlap banner too (so cute - thanks Tatertots & Jello) but I think I'm going to add a few more pieces to it before posting the pics.

Last weekend we were at the mall and I let Riley talk me into getting him one of those Zhu Zhu pets that are everywhere! I was buying jewelry for Kolbi at Claires and he was so bummed that there was nothing for him there until he saw those little hamsters. He did insist for about 10 minutes that they were guinea pigs until I pointed out where it said hamster on the box. Anyway, I have to admit they are kinda cute - and fake, so no pet mess!

Also last week, Justin took Kolbi to get her ears stretched. She actually didn't even have to go thru any pain since she wears big 'ol dang-ly earrings and her ears holes were already big. They just popped the bigger size in. She has been wanting this for a while though and was so excited!

Last but so not least, I shot this pic when I got back from CHA. They are showing off the chef hats and suckers that I brought back for them - but more importantly - they are hugging!

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope everyone had a great Valentine day. It seemed like it lasted for two weeks at my house!

I made cupcakes and cookies and joined Riley's class for their party on Thursday. Then the kids had a 4 day weekend - whew!

Then Kolbi rounded up a bunch of her friends and they went to see Valentine's Day at the movies. That was Sunday so, I spent a large part of my day picking up and dropping off kids. I made them all pose for a pic outside of the theater.

I made these yummy brownie ice cream sandwiches for our special dessert and let me just say that they ARE yummy! I seriously could eat 10!

Finally, here's a few shots of Nichole, Chris, Justin & I on Saturday night. We went bowling and then out for ice cream after (I'm sensing an ice cream addiction here).

Several Weeks Later...

Well, in case you thought I'd been abducted - I did come back from Anaheim! As usual, I take way too many pictures at CHA and come back wishing I could just lock myself in a room and scrapbook for days. But of course, no luck on that - it was back to the real world. I made a heart collage of my favorite CHA pictures below.

and it wouldn't be a trade show without getting my picture with TIM! :)