The Luau Party

A few weeks ago, my oldest had a birthday.  I have given up throwing big birthday parties.  We now have small parties with two best friends.  Simple and special is my new motto.  She requested a luau party because we had some luau items left from a wedding shower we hosted a few years ago.  That worked for me.

I may have gotten a bit excited when I found some pineapple water bottles at the dollar store.  Those paired with some free printables, became our invites.  We just rolled up the invitation and placed it in the water bottles.  She hand delivered the invites to her two best friends and we were set.

For the cake, she requested a rice krispie treat "cake" like the one pictured here.  This was so easy!!!  I made a triple batch of the rice krispie treats recipe.  Then I placed it in two different sized pots...a larger size for the base and a smaller sized pot, to create a stacked cake look. Next, I placed the pots in the fridge for a few hours.  When they were done I flipped them over and stacked them on our cake stand.  Finally, I placed little chocolates around the base of each layer and added a free printable banner.  The banner was printed, cut and tied to a string that was attached to two wooden skewers.

A photo booth was also on her party wishlist.  This one was easy too.  I just used some clips to attach some wrapping paper to the top of our our curtains.  Viola!  Photo booth :)  The girls had so much fun posing for pictures and being completely silly.  I laughed so hard!

We also did sand pails with their names on them.  Inside it contained the items needed for the two crafts and of course photo booth props.

The crafts were tie dying shirts and creating flip flops that had balloons tied to them.  I have to say that the balloon flip flops were a flop in my book.  I bought assorted balloons.  Which in my mind meant assorted colors, however it actually meant assorted sizes.  SO...it did not look that great with long animal balloon style balloons tied next to say water balloon sized ones.  If I were to do that craft again, I would definitely get all the same sized balloons.

 

Finally, the food...we had Hawaiian pizza, pineapple salsa, chips, and fruit and veggies.  

 It was such a fun night and I got two thumbs up from my birthday girl.  She didn't even get embarrassed when I tried my best hula dance in front of the girls.  That is a success in my book.

Teacher Thank You Notes

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week at our schools.  We LOVE our teachers.  Being a former teacher, I know how much time, dedication and love goes into being a teacher.  It is a hard job.  I am so grateful for wonderful teachers and we try our best to show our appreciation throughout the year.  However, I love that they have a week full of special days and surprises for our teachers because they absolutely deserve it.

One of the tokens of appreciation we sent in this week were some home-made thank you notes. I set-up a little photo studio in our home.

To create it, we used:

some wrapping paper taped to the wall with painters' tape

 a chalkboard frame

a chair

my kiddos

 

I took each of their pictures holding the chalkboard frame that says:  THANK YOU! .  

 Next, we had the pictures printed.  

To create the cards, we folded brown card-stock and used washi tape to tape on the pictures. 

The results were some super cute homemade thank you notes.

Inside the cards my kiddos wrote their favorite memories from this school year and personal notes of thanks to their teachers. 

Teachers, we love you!!!

Grace Upon Grace

Have you heard of a show called: Kids Say the Darndest Things?  Well, sometimes as an adoptive parent, I have been in the situation where I could look around for cameras wondering if it is a new version of the show titled: Adults Say the Darndest Things.  There have been times when strangers have asked me adoption questions where I can feel my jaw starting to drop.  My replies come with two options:  reply with grace or reply with flesh. 

To be honest there have been times my mind goes immediately to wanting to reply with the flesh.  However, then I am reminded of those who have walked before me.  Those who taught me to reply with grace, may never even know how much they have affected my life.  When I received my first job as a third grade teacher, it was at a public school that housed the only ESL (English Second Language) unit in the county.  Which meant that any child that entered the school district and who already had a first language other than English and had limited English, were sent to my school.  These students were placed in regular classes for mainstreaming, but also had many English classes with the ESL teacher throughout the day. 

To read the rest of this post, please visit:

MercyFound Ministries 

where my post is featured today.

This is the day

It has been raining for the last few days.  This rain brings such a reminder to my heart that despite the circumstances that we face each day, this is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.  I know many friends who are facing storms in their lives right now.  Two friends have lost spouses, two friends have lost children, and several friends are facing medical diagnosis', yet they rejoice.  They rejoice in His faithfulness, His strength and His love.  They choose to rejoice in the Lord through the rain and through the storm.  Such an incredible and powerful testimony.  This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.  Psalm 118:24 (ESV)

Capturing the Simple {April}

April is one of our busiest months of the year.  I am not one to glorify busy.  I truly prefer slow, easy-going family time at home.  However, when you have four beautiful blessings and they all have different activities, sometimes life just gets really busy.  This month has flown by.  Here is our April in photos...

Capturing the Simple{April}from top left:

the good news, he scored.  the bad news, it was for the other team :)

a trip with my crew to their natural habitat...the zoo

she smiles the entire time she is on the field

he was accepted into robotics summer camp

family night at a college baseball game

pre-school art show...how adorable is her self-portrait

standardized test prep bucket for my girl - snacks, #2 pencils and THE WORD

she requested a rice krispy birthday cake...it was seriously the easy cake I have ever made

She turned 11...happy birthday to my first born!

.........
There you have it!  

You take pictures from your month.  Put them into a collage, add a short description and post it.  

You are welcome to grab the button below and  link yours up.  I will keep the link up all week.  

<center> <a href="http://filledwithpraise.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Filled With Praise" border="0" src="http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/tt141/mommy02three/capturingthesimpleresized_zps6613c830.png" />

A Faithfulness Told {Series}

God is faithful.  I know that to be true in my life.  I can tell you a lot of stories of His faithfulness.  Big stories, life changing moments, blow your socks of times, but do I have stories of his faithfulness in day to day living?  That is something I have been seeking over the last two years, to see Him and His faithfulness in the day in and day out routines that can pass without a thought if we let them. 

Last fall, I had to meet with a vascular surgeon.  I had never been to this doctor before.  Upon sitting in the waiting room, a doctor came out to get his next patient.  He looked at me and smiled asking how I was doing today.  I answered with the usual, “Good, thank you!”.  I in turn asked how he was doing.  He responded in a way that blew me away.  He said, “This is the day that the Lord has made, so I am doing gloriously well.”  I had never heard anyone respond in that way before and I immediately started thinking, “Oh, I hope he is my doctor!”

A few minutes later, a nurse came to get me and walked me back to the room.  A while after that in walks my doctor…not the doctor I had just talked to in the lobby.  My doctor had no time for pleasantries.  He got right to the medical data.  During that medical quiz, he asked if I planned to have any additional children.  I told him that we were open to whatever God had planned for our family.  He then responded with a rather bold, “It shows in your chart that you have four children, why would you possibly want more???”  My heart sank and I responded with, “Because children are a blessing from God.”  He then shook his head and went on with the exam.  I left his office feeling so deflated.

To read the rest of the story, please hop over to my friend, Courtney's blog.  

My story is featured there today as part of her series on God's faithfulness:

A Faithfulness Told

{the kids' table}

I have been on the look-out for a kids' table for a long time.  I wanted a versatile table that looked good with our furnishings and would work for not only art projects, but also to seat a lot of kids when we have gatherings.  All the tables that I found were way out of my price range. 

Well, my sister in law took care of that item on my wish list, when she recently delivered this fabulous kids table to our home.  

SHE MADE IT!  Like made it with wood and tools and her own hands!  She is so talented and I am so thankful for her talents.  I just love it!  She used this tutorial from Shanty 2 Chic .  

It was my early birthday present and I could not be more thrilled with it.  

My four little artists are loving it too!  

Thank you, Leanne!  

You are such a wonderful sister-in-law.  

We love you!