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.

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!