Big 'Ol Catch-up!

How about a catch-up?
The last post was in January (dang life is just so busy!) so I guess I'll have to start with February.

So here goes...

This February the girls got right to work on their custom homemade Valentine's. Deni chose a simple "flower" sucker made from dumdums, cardstock and floral tape. We got the idea from the Martha Stewart website and it was easy enough for her to make almost by herself!

Sage and True wanted to bake something for their classes. I told them they needed to agree on something to do together because I just wasn't up to making two different kinds of goodies. Well, I think in the long run it would have been easier to just let them make the cookies and brownies they suggested, because my brilliant idea was donut holes. And, of coarse I didn't just do the "cheater" donut holes using refrigerator dough, naw, I actually made yeast dough.
Which doesn't sound too bad until you throw in the fact that you can't just give them one, you have to give them at least a dozen, right? Now times that dozen by the sixteen kids in True's class and the thirty three kids in Sage's class.... yeah, needless to say, we made just about 600 of those little suckers!
When I say WE, I of coarse mean my wonderful husband who bailed me out because I waited to make these things the night before Valentine's Day. I mean, who wants stale donut holes right? AND you can't just make one kind because that would be boring! So we made sugar, powdered sugar, chocolate and chocolate with sprinkles and when Aunt Kathy heard what we were doing, she thought for sure I’d need bailing out so she made some cheater cinnamon sugar ones too!
Dennis and I were up way past our bedtime that night!
But the girls were happy with them and the kids seemed to enjoy them.

Sage is a genius and thought of bag clips for the top of the bags of donut-holes. Then we made it even better by making them usable as magnets as well. So they each picked a theme and designed their own bag clips using clothes pins and magnets.
I talked True into trying a Chinese theme. I love the way Chinese characters look and have always wanted to try something using them. So we found the character for “Love” and printed it off the internet. Then True said “too bad we can’t make fortune cookies”, and I thought “yes we can!” See, I’ve been playing around with making felt food (see the cookies on my Christmas blog) and I had plenty of felt and I knew it would be super easy to do. So True helped me make sixteen little felt fortune cookies to put on her magnet/bag clips. We even printed off little fortunes that said "You are a "True" friend" and on the back they said “Love, True”. I think they turned out super cute! Sage was a little trickier this year. She wanted her theme to be “Love sucks” or something to that effect. She is in fourth grade and thinks all this “Love” business is “super lame”. So she was going through my scrap booking stuff and found my Indie Art Cricut cartridge and loved all the skulls and weapons and icons of destruction and what not. She especially loved the grenade cut-out so I suggested “Love is a Battlefield”. She was like “where did you come up with that?” So I had to play her the Pat Benatar song and she though it was perfect.
So, after tons of hard work (cutting, printing, gluing, stamping, antiquing)….this is her final result! She worked super hard and managed to make thirty out of thirty three of these bad boys all by herself!
At the end of the day I think they were pretty proud of themselves for all their hard work. I know I was pretty proud of them!

February also brought something I've been waiting to do for a while. I got to finally meet up with my friend Dorian and his lovely wife Shelly. They were vacationing in Palm Springs with some friends, who happened to be some pretty cool people themselves.

D and Shell live across the country and this was an opportunity to catch them somewhat close to home. So it was every bit worth the six hour drive!











They were staying in a fancy house on a hill with awesome views.

Palm Springs was pretty nice all around and Dennis and I would like to go back someday when we have more time to sight see.

On the way home we did get to stop and get the girls some Alien souvenirs at this place.

I know it will likely be a long time away but I look forward to seeing D and Shelly again!

The next thing in February was the Birthdays! For those of you that don’t know, my hubby and I happen to share the same Birthday. Well, same day but he’s three years older! Talk about kindred spirits eh!? He was turning thirty four and I thirty one. We never do anything for ourselves because it’s kind of a wash. I mean, I can’t really be like “hey, I’m having a surprise birthday for Dennis” when all our friends know it’s my birthday too!
So some of our best friends talked about getting together for the occasion to Vegas to see a show and stay the night but that didn’t pan out. And since my friend Sara and I are always talking about how fun it is to dress up and make geeks of ourselves, I thought it was a perfect occasion for…..80’s NIGHT!
Let me tell ya, these ladies know how to get into a theme! They went all out! We spent a good hour just laughing at each other! Then we ate Navajo tacos and reminisced about the 80’s and school and stuff, lots of laughs!
But the real fun began when Dennis got out the 80’s music and started busting the moves to Footloose! I had no idea he knew all the moves it was scary! Then he did Flash dance and Sara joined in with all the popular moves like the Roger Rabbit, the Cabbage Patch, and the Running Man! It was so hilarious my guts hurt from laughing all the next day! The ladies were such great sports and they made our Birthday awesome! They even got us some pretty sweet gifts!
It was definitely the most fun Birthday we’ve had in a long time!

Not much worth noting happened in March, but the girls did decide at the last minute to put something in the fair. We do a lot of arts and crafts in our home, painting, sewing, drawing, scrap booking, chalking, sculpting etc. Every year we talk about putting something in the fair but we never do. So this year they asked me about a week before and we got busy on it.

They all thought they wanted to enter a painting, but True decided after a long day of not getting her painting the way she wanted it, that she would enter some of her favorite drawings that she colored instead. It turned out to be a good choice because she won the judges choice and a blue ribbon. They judge them on design, theme, technique and skill and I believe there were a possible thirty points of which she got a twenty eight.

Deni painted a flower and also got a blue ribbon. She didn’t score as high as True but she was also one of the youngest entries there!

Sage went with her instincts and found her inner painter! She usually prefers chalking and sketching but remained patient and followed through with her painting and it really paid off! She also won the judges choice and first place and got a perfect thirty out of thirty on her judge’s score!

The best part of the fair was going to see their art work being displayed! Too bad I wasn’t up for lugging the big camera around, and unfortunately, the small camera was dead! So I didn’t get a pick of the art being displayed at the fair. Oh well, maybe next year!

Next we have Easter!
This year, instead of using one of those PAAS or other store bought egg coloring kits that don’t work; we decided to go the old fashioned way and use food coloring, hot water and vinegar. This worked very nicely; especially the first one’s when the water was hot! The girls did an awesome job coloring their eggs this year. They are learning patience gets you far!

We had Aunt Kathy over for Easter dinner. I made a ham, homemade scalloped potatoes, asparagus, rolls and sweet potato casserole.
The following weekend we got together with Dennis’ parents and his sister’s family and had a picnic lunch and Easter egg hunt at the park. It was kind of nice stretching the Holiday out into two weekends!

Now it’s May and we’re planning two more Birthdays!
My friend Amy and I promised our girls that when they turned ten we would take them to Disneyland… and the girls are going to be ten at the end of this month!
Sage & Kinzi are only two days apart and so they both have the opportunity to get in to Disneyland free on their Birthdays. How cool is that!? We have the hotel booked and the days planned out, now for the count down!

I am also planning True’s Birthday now because we will be having it the weekend after we get back from Disneyland. Her birthday falls on a Wednesday this year and another cousin has already called dibs on the weekend following her Birthday, so we decided to have it on the weekend before.
We are doing a super hero theme. I can’t wait to tell you all about it but it’s a surprise!

So there’s your catch up for now! Hope you’ve all been well!