Picture This!

While May was unseasonably cool in northern Illinois this year, the girls and I found plenty of fun activities indoors.  We had an exceptionally crafty month.

From September through May the girls and I have taken part in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF; http://bsfinternational.org).  We have been so truly blessed by this program and all of the wonderful ladies and children that we have met along the way.  It takes a very special person along with much dedication to be a children's leader.  The children's leaders have an important role: to shepherd Jesus' little lambs.  During class, the children would often sing a song entitled, I Am Jesus' Little Lamb.  I thought it would be fitting to take photos of each of my girls with their lambs.  They loved decorating the foam frames for their teachers.

Foam Frames for BSF Teachers

We always try to create something handmade for the grandmas for Mother's Day.  You know how grandmas love that sort of thing.  The girls picked out some fun flower embellishments and adhered them nicely to the frames.  I had fun editing the photos to give them an antique look and then matting them.

Mother's Day Gifts for some very special grandmas

What do you get for a teacher as an end-of-the-year gift?  A framed photo and a poem?  Teachers, especially preschool teachers, have such a huge, all-encompassing job.  It is hard to find a gift that really expresses adequate appreciation and gratitude for all that they are and all that they do.  My 3-year-old had an EXTRAordinary teacher this year.  Thanks to Mrs. Scheffers, school is a wonderful and inviting place.  What a fun year it has been!  It is hard to believe the end is here.

End-of-the-year gift for a truly Admired Teacher

Tangled Party Favors

I have two lovely nieces and they both turned three this spring.  One just recently had a May birthday and chose to have a Tangled themed party.  When I heard this I immediately volunteered to help with favors and/or decorations.  After all, Tangled is one of my favorite Disney movies.  I am such a kid at heart (can you tell I used to be a kindergarten teacher).  I had the privilege of gathering and assembling the favors.  I always try to start off by finding a cute container to hold the goodies.  This time I really got lucky.  Thank you Super $ Store.

Girl Favors

The girl guests received a round, purple foam container filled with:  a purple glittery brush, hair clippie, notepad, stampers, and candy all of which were Tangled themed except for the hairbrush.  I think we can all agree that the hairbrush is very fitting.

Boy Favors

And now for the boy guests:  a good sized yellow storage container, Glow-In-The-Dark adhesive stars, notepad, multi-colored pen, squishy lizards, and candy.

The above is proof that once again girl and boy favors can be tied to a single theme even if it revolves around one very girly princess:)   

Big Girl Room

It feels good to be back blogging again.  It had really been too long.  Where does time go?  Time has really been flying by in our household.  My baby just turned two.  I can't believe this!  Do you know what this means?  I got to design a big girl room, I got to design a big girl room, lalala!!!!  Can you tell how excited I am.  I love designing rooms, especially bedrooms for little girls.  I started buying items to decorate this room the end of last summer when I fell hard for the Target's Love and Nature Collection for girls.  I am not one to purchase a bedroom collection, because I usually love to design the theme and decorations myself.  However, this theme was so cute that I couldn't resist.  This weekend was a very happy weekend for me because I finally got to decorate the room.  Thanks to my very patient and handy husband for all his help.  I have these beautiful dreams of what a room could be and he helps to make it happen.
Such suspense, I know you cannot wait to see the room.  This room that was once an office decorated with diplomas and John Deere is now sweet and girly.  Take a peek...

                                                                        

Not bad for a day's work:)  To view additional photos of this room check out my Flicker photostream.

Make A Splash

My youngest daughter recently celebrated her 2nd birthday.  She has always loved the water and been fond of Ariel, so I thought The Little Mermaid would be an appropriate theme for her party.

Invitation

My favorite part of planning this party was picking out the party favors.  There were both boy and girl guests, which made things a bit tricky.  However, after visiting Party City and some other fav stores,  I was pretty satisfied.  The girls received a cup of goodies including: Ariel socks, necklace/bracelet set, purple flower clippie, stickers, aquatic life gummies, purple tiara, and Ariel activity pack.  The boys received a beach pail filled with: sunglasses or goggles, fish bubbles, sand castle mold, stickers, under the sea dry-erase placemat, inflatable fish and aquatic life gummies.  All young guest also took home a Little Mermaid audio cd complete with music and story.

Being that this was a March birthday party and we could not go outside to play, I thought it would be fun to do an art activity.  All the kids made their own sand art creation.  It was neat to see each child's design and they seemed to enjoy showing off their artwork as well.  Needless to say, the birthday girl had a blast at her 2nd birthday party.