Maternity Pictures

 My brother is going to be a father. Seems like just yesterday I was taking their engagement pictures. Four years later I'm so excited to be capturing this new, exciting stage of their life together.

Family Room {Beadboard Ceiling}

Half the ceiling is hung! This might not look like much work, but...it is.

Each sheet of beadboard has to be primed and painted before we hang it. Steven built this super big easels for us to prop the boards onto. We put the girls to bed and paint most every evening.

Fun times...

Pumpkin Carving Party 2013 {The Invitation}

We are celebrating 10 years of pumpkin carving this year. Above is the invitation design. The painting was done by my brother-in-law Kevin. I love the painting because it reminds me of the very first year when we had a pumpkin pinata. The colors in the sky are so inviting with the contrasting, spooky black silhouette in the foreground.

In honor of celebrating 10 years we wanted to do something different, so we asked guests to help us GIVE to friends of ours who are adopting a baby. This year instead of asking guests to bring their pumpkins we bought 50 pumpkins (at wholesale) and asked guests to buy them from us for $10 each. We called it Pumpkins with Purpose and it was a big hit. By doing this we were able to give more and were able to bless our friends with a generous financial blessing. That made celebrating 10 years so much sweeter.

Pumpkins With Purpose

Psalm 68:5–6

“Father to the fatherless, defender of widows—this is God,

whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families;

he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.”

Tropical Honeymoon Shower {The Main Event}

I was asked to coordinate a shower for a couple at our church. The couple was blending two households and had more than enough "stuff." What they really wanted was money to go towards their honeymoon. So I created a tropical Honeymoon Shower. To help guest understand the concept the invitations read: "give the gift of memories made, not just things that will fade." 

Here is my initial sketch for the party. I think the final layout was just what I had in my head.

The menu included finger food type desserts that included Sand (or Beach) Cups, Fruit Skewers, White Powdered and Coconut Flaked Donuts skewered with paper straws resting in crushed graham crackers (sand) and the cake.

The cake was my design, but was created by Barbara Watts. I thought it turned out beautiful and made me smile to look at it. The origami money clothes were the same ones used to create the invitation. I just stuck a candy stick into the bottom of each one and Barbara added them to the top of the cake.

I created a "Money Palm Tree" out of toilet paper rolls, black paper and mini clothes pins. Guests could clip their money to the tree along with a slip of paper that offered wishes or advice. The couple loved the tree so much they asked to use it at the wedding reception as well.

Tropical Honeymoon Shower {The Invitation}

I designed this invitation for a tropical themed honeymoon shower. The couple was blending two households and had more than enough "stuff." What they really wanted was money to go towards their honeymoon. The phrase I came up with was "give the gift of memories made, not just things that will fade." I had seen origami money folded into clothing before and thought this would be a clever way to communicate that guests should bring CASH without blatantly saying that. I followed these instructions to fold the money and then scanned them into my computer along with the drink umbrella using sand colored paper as the background. I added the text and palm tree sun design using Adobe InDesign. I saved the money clothes and used them as a topper for the cake at the event. They were perfect. People responded well to the invitation and the couple had a nice wad of spending money for their trip.

Kindergarten {Our Final Six Weeks}

 June 24-August 2, 2013. Our Final Six Weeks of Kindergarten.

We spent more time outside studying nature and learning about bees at the library, adding to our nature books with each new discovery.

 And constructing legos.

 Daddy built these super cool water and sand tables and so the girls had tons of fun with sensory play.

 Marin completed The Beginner's Bible and we celebrated the completion of Kindergarten with Pizza. We met her grandparents at the local CiCi's Pizza and invited them over for desert so that Marin could show them everything she had learned this year. 

But the highlight of this six weeks for Marin was her week at Camp Invention.

 Marin's "Duck Stand" invention.

  Someone was REALLY proud of her gold medal. 

Knock, Knock Birthday {The Party}

"Knock, Knock,"

"Who's There?"

"Abby!"

"Abby who?"

"Abby Birthday Marin!"

 We celebrated Marin's sixth birthday poolside with a knock, knock theme birthday party. It was a simple menu of chips, crackers, cake, juice and watermelon.

Since turning six Marin's favorite color has changed from pink to blue.
So, she informed me that the party colors must include blue.

We had so much fun coming up with ideas for a knock, knock birthday party. One of the first ideas was to create a cake topper from a door. I'd seen these Tooth Fairy doors and immediately thought of them as a cake topper. It also served as a table decoration before and after the cake was served.

Another idea was to decorate with "knock out roses." These beauties were from my sister-n-laws garden. A simple talk bubble tag said "Knock out Roses."

Candy bags with a knock, knock joke:

"Knock, Knock,"

"Who's There?"

"Lettuce!"

"Lettuce who?"

"Lettuce eat candy!"

A simple "knock over the cans" game was made out of empty chili cans and a beach ball.

The knock, knock joke read:

"Knock, Knock,"

"Who's There?"

"Canoe!"

"Canoe who?"

"Canoe Knock these over?" 

The kids were all given inflatable microphones as a party favor.

The tub holding the favors had a sign that said: 

"Knock, Knock,"

"Who's There?"

"Yeti!"

"Yeti who?"

"Yeti Nother Knock, Knock Joke?" 

Grab a mic and keep em coming!

We made wraps for each one that said:

"Knock, Knock,"

"Who's There?"

"Hank!"

"Hank who?"

"Hank you for coming!" 

It was a great party. Filled with lots of love and laughter.