The Longest Post Ever

That's because it has been forever since I've updated! What can I say, it's summer and I'm a busy lady. Lots of stuff to re-cap. Since pics uploaded in reverse I am explaining in revers too. One of my favorite little girls just had a birthday and I helped a little for her party. Like this super cute-sy banner. She is all about peace signs so the peace shape on my Slice machine was perfect! I also made itty, bitty peace signs to put on the cupcakes. So cute!

I also made birthday buttons with my Imaginisce I-top tool, they just came out with a button backer so I can do more than just custom brads - I gotta say, this thing R.O.C.K.S. How fun to make my own buttons?! Way cheaper than buying a button machine.

And here are two of my favorite girlies posing at Tori's party. (Tori on the right)

I've been making some hair clips too. They are so fun to put together and even more fun to shop for the pieces! I probably have a million things in my craft room that I can use but I just love to go looking for something new and inspiring.

A set all ready to give :)

Some bobby pin versions

Super cute button clips - these when to my Fogle girls, waiting for pics of them in action ;)

I just had to post this pic of me & my crazy friends. We decided that we couldn't let our hubbies think that Twilight's Edward and Jacob were the only boys in our hearts. We unveiled these on UFC fight night, the boys were like...um, what are you girls doing?!

And going back to the 4th of July...

Kolbi spent the 4th in California with her friend Savanna so it was a weird, family shot of 3 for us this holiday. We had a blast at the parade downtown and then an awesome BBQ hosted by friends.

Here's the kids posing on Justin's hot rod for the 4th :)

There's no way this post would be complete without a few shots of our Eclipse premier preparations! Yeah, that's the button maker in action again...

Since Team Edward is the only way to be in my opinion, the only other option I gave was Team Jakeward (for those who can't choose).

We made bottle cap necklaces with Edward's sparkling face. Also, dangled little Fimo apples and a silver leaf from the red velvet ribbon. I'm pretty sure our necklaces were the best in the theater!

Finally, 'you brought a snack?' care packages for the flick!

Now, what about Father's day??? We made a little 'our Dad is a Hero' care package for Justin with all his favorite snacks in it.

Then spent the weekend at car shows cause that's one of Justin's favorite things to do.

Not just looking at cars this year, the Hot Rod was IN the show!

My brother came to visit from Phoenix and we went rafting. This was my 3rd time out with Cascade Raft & Kayak, seriously, this is the fun-nest thing to do. I don't even like water that much but the river is just beautiful and it is a blast.

Here's our group shot after we got off the river.

And here is me & my long, lost brother in front of the McCall lake. He stayed with us for a week and it was awesome getting to know him :)

Check out Kolbi's blue hair! Nichole snapped this pic and it turned out awesome! Her hair is already back to blond because as cute as the blue was it did not hold it's bright-ness for long.

The LEGO Birthday Party

I have to say that this might have been my favorite birthday party to prepare for. The LEGO theme is just so fun - primary, bright colors, fun crafts and a built in project - a recipe for success. The party turned out awesome. This first pic is just the set up (before anything got messed up! ha ha)

I did a ballon wreath that was so fun and turned out awesome. I got the directions from here.

My wreath was complimented by a welcome to the LEGO party sign that has the tiny-est banner hanging one it! I just love the little banner, it's a Maya Road set if anyone is interested. I am so lucky because my friend, Angel, sent me a huge box of LEGO party stuff to use and the contest sign came out of that box. So did the big LEGO Pinata - that was a hit and held a ton of candy. Riley's grandma, Carol, made the cake for us - the little LEGO guys are 'building' a 7. We had a make your own LEGO ring station, that was a hit! I ordered the ring bases from Artchix Studio and then ordered the little flat red pieces to glue to the top from Lego.com. Then we had a 'guess how many LEGO's' game, the answer was 377 ;). The most popular guess was 50 but the winning little girl, Tori, guessed 300 - good job Tori! I set up the table with mini water bottles covered with strips of LEGO paper that I bought from my work, collectedmemories.com. I also used that paper to make the little LEGO guy thank you's. Months ago, I let Riley 'design' a lego guy and we ordered enough pieces to make 30 of them. I turned these into the party favors. We ordered all the little guy parts from the pick-a-brick section of the Lego website. I put my cool old suitcase to use holding the favors. I ordered paper straws from etsy and built a little LEGO holder for them. Finally I put together a Happy Birthday Riley banner with the lego paper and some crepe paper. I also made some super easy LEGO banners that you can only see in some of the photo's below - just some squares, circles and a little ink on the edges - voila!

We had a great turn out for it being almost a month after school was out. The LEGO contest table was the most popular spot. I had the kids build creations and then gave out little certificates for what was most unique about each one. The boys & girls hung out at this table just building and building and building. The rings were a hit too - at one point Preston had a ring on every finger of both hands! It was so cute and I can't believe we didn't take a picture of it :( So it was just an awesome day - my Riley had a great 7th birthday and I'm so happy!

I have lots to post about, including an Oscar Mayer sponsored BBQ from this past weekend. But I do have a busy schedule the next few weeks. My brother is coming in to town this week so hopefully I get my other posts up first otherwise it will be a while!!

Take A Guess...

...at what I'm up to...

It requires lots of cutting of squares and rectangles and punching out circles. It might look like a rainbow but if you look closely, it is pretty much just the primary colors.

This should give it away! Preparations for Riley's LEGO birthday party. The big day is this Saturday so I'm winding down all the crafting and getting in the mood to do actual decorating.

I 're-did' this old suitcase to match the theme...best $2 I ever spent!! (I don't really have to count the money I paid for fabric or ribbon, right?)

Now, this is a sneak peak for a little later...

I've got some plans for these ladies. Those plans include some of the favorite little girlies in my life :)

They Just Keep Growing Up

It was the last day of school today. Riley will start the 2nd grade next year and Kolbi goes on to her Sophomore year. Wow. I have been so active in Riley's school this year and it was really sad to see it end. I was there pretty much all day today with treats, parties and a teacher luncheon. It was totally an emotional day - it caught me off guard because I've been counting down the days 'till summer! I think it was emotional for Riley too. This morning Riley told me he just wished he could see his librarian one more time because he will miss her and wants to give her another good bye hug. It got me all choked up. Then he told his teacher that he wished she could teach him 2nd grade next year. He's so dang sweet!

I was in the class delivering these, Lego cupcakes

and I was able to snap a pic of the last lesson.. :(

Here's the candy bouquet that we put together for Mrs. Tomlinson. All year I thought she didn't eat sugar because Riley TOLD me that she didn't eat sugar. Then I find out that she totally eats sugar. So we made up for not sending candy all year with this.

We went ahead and passed out Riley's birthday invitations today. His party isn't until June 12th but I figured this was a good chance to invite all of his friends from school. Angel sent me these invitations all printed up and ready to go - can we say AWESOME-EST FRIEND EVER?!

Last week we went to Boise for a Kolbi photo shoot. She is anti-school pictures so I found that I had a ton of Riley pics and none of Kolbi to send out to family and friends. We just went out and took our own. They came out so cute too!

It's hard to pick a favorite - these are my top 3. She took a ton of really great shots though and it was a fun day.

We also took several candids:

Riley thought he was in National Treasure - had us walking around, searching for 'clues'.

I even convinced them to take a pic....TOGETHER!

...and the cutest pic of Kolbi and Savanna :)

I Love This Stitching Project

I am having so much fun stitching. I am by no means an expert, but I just figure it out as I go. I've gotten lots of inspiration from the other ladies who are doing this project too, over at the Counting My Blessings blog. I took these pics about 2 days ago and I already have 3 more squares done :) Kolbi decided not to do one, she said maybe next time. For now, she will just watch me.

This last one was not complete when I took pics but now it is! I'll update with more squares soon.

O, and check out the cool new cup I got at Starbucks! I love this thing - it's a re-useable cup that looks like their throw away cups! The littlest things make me soooo happy!

Appreciate A Teacher

Do you know it's teacher appreciation week? I do :) We are keeping busy at my house with all the preparations for teacher thank you's.

We made signs for all the teacher's doors for first thing Monday morning. My PTO group is awesome, we are a small group but no project is too big for us! We have so much fun hanging out at coming up with crazy ideas together.

We gave all the teachers and staff a flower.

We rounded up a small army of teeny, tiny donkeys...

...and attached an invitation to the teacher fiesta lunch we are throwing tomorrow!

So fun!! We have more ideas for the rest of the week too :)

I Can't Even Find My To Do List...

I just can't keep up with the days lately! It must be that end of the school year hurricane approaching. I have a million little projects that I was hoping to get done before school is out but that is not looking too probable right now. I've just got to get the list down somewhere so that I know it will be waiting for me when I am ready.

What I have been working on is lots of top secret Teacher Appreciation Week projects. I can share the one below because it is for a teacher in the next town over and chances are good that no one will see it who might squeal.

I probably shouldn't admit it but we put A.L.O.T. of thought in to that 3D cupcake. Tried several different ideas and ended up loving simple tissue paper (Betsy, you are a genious).

I've been working on helping out at the school too - cotton candy pictured above. I'm like a cotton candy expert now. It takes hours and hours to make hundreds of bags of this stuff and when you are done you are covered in sugar. This is how we are sending the kids at Riley's school on field trips this year though so a little sugar coating is worth it.

Alright, so back to my list:

Freezer paper stencils - have you seen this? I have plans for this one and it will be AWESOME!

Flower pins/headbands - 1st step is find that adorable blog that inspired me to do these...

Get to stitching - I'm already feeling behind but will get at least one square done this weekend!

Open that soldering kit I got for *Christmas* - seriously, how can I ask for something and then not touch it for months?!

Make a little, tiny, scrappy thing to go in this empty jar...

*I started putting my albums into my apothecary jars and I don't have anything small enough to fit through the little hole on this one :( *

Order some awesome stuff (maybe for Riley's Bday party) from Garnish - this could be my new favorite store.

Print some freakin' photos - I am so behind it is not even funny, we are talking hundreds and hundreds of photos.

Decorate my camera strap - Like these here. Maybe I just ask for one for Mother's Day?

Plant Magic Jelly Beans - this is just the cutest idea ever.

Make Bakerella's marcaron pops

I'm sure there is more swimming around in my head. I'm happy to start with these first.