Oh Man...it's been almost 2 months!!!

Oh man!  I can't believe that it has been almost 2 months since I posted!  Guess I am not keeping up

with this the way I envisioned!  I have had this blog for one full year but not nearly enough posts!

Seriously going to try and fix that!

Sooooo much has happened since I last wrote....

School started for the boys in late Oct.....JP is in 7th grade now....and well lets just say that is not

going exactly as we hoped....some of the fault is his and some of

it is the teachers....working on fixing it.  JR is in 5th grade and as usual

he is going awesome.  Miss E started her first year of nursery and she LOVES it

Here she is on day one!

The boys started on a rainy day but smiles none the less

JP made the school soccer team, which has been his ultimate goal...here he is in the teams second game last Thursday....so far they are 2-0 for the season:

Miss E also started ballet class....this is a dream come true for me....

We spent the last weekend of the summer at the beach, where I did a

senior portrait session for a girl who was on my first ever

cheerleading squad.....I am trying to start a little business doing

portraits and have so far been doing senior pics, newborn and baby pics and

have a few family shoots to schedule...someone who saw the senior pics I did

wants me to shoot her WEDDING!!! No pressure there!  Yikes!  I don't know if I am ready for that yet!

Working on a name for this now...will let you know when I figure that out!

Below are a few shots that same day that I took of my kids after I finished the session....

Other then that I have been trying to get into hair accessory making for an upcoming

craft fair....so far I have made these:

I realize that last set of cuppy cake bows are ....um...rather large!  LOL  But

I LOVE them none the less!  I however have them on alligator clips and must switch them over to

french barrettes as they will not stay in Miss E's hair....they are....yeah too heavy!  LOL

Well I feel you are all caught up now!  Going to try and be good and post more often...

Off to view the many blogs that I have been missing during this busy time!

Have a great week everyone!

Fairy Fun...

Well I like to start early on my kids parties....Em will turn 4 in April and I have been thinking

on her party for a while now...of course kids change the things they like, but for now we are going to have

a Purple Pixie Party....or a Woodland Fairy theme...

I decided on this and then ran across this post on Face Book

A woman named Kate Landers has a blog and she is a party stylist....and her Fairy theme is out of this world!  Right now she is having a giveaway to win one of two prizes that were featured at the party.

Here is a link if you want to enter...and even if you don't you MUST check out her stuff....it is

so inspiring!

Kate Lander Events: Tuesday Giveaway

I am really hoping to win the little fairy outfit for my Emma!  She would look amazing and since she

wants to be a fairy for Halloween we would get great use out of it!

So today what really got me going on this fairy kick was that Em and I and the boys went into our woods and made a little fairy house.

Here is a picture of the house....I think it looks better in person, but I will try to get a better shot later

She really had a load of fun making this and so did I....we are going to make more...hopefully stronger ones that will stay....I fear this one is a bit rickety and may fall overnight.  The boys even helped by getting up the moss...Here are my love bugs with the house:

I have been crafting up a storm lately....more posts to come on that soon!  I also need to post pictures of my lovely swap from Kathy!  Need to figure out how to make a smile box!

Finally here is one last fairy themed party that is SUPER inspiring to me!  I am SO going to make that tree centerpiece...with my hubby's help of course!  LOL

Celebrations At Home Woodland Fairy Theme

Happy 4th and an Update on my Swap

I am happy to report that my swap has arrived safely with Kathy of

Cottage Garden Quilter

I am so glad that she liked all the things that I picked for her.  She has

posted a sweet little smile box video of the things I sent if you are interestedd in seeing them.  Just click the link to her blog to check that out.  It was only my second online swap

and it was very fun!  I am tempted to join another one for Christmas ornaments in July???

Happy 4th of July!!!  What are your plans for this coming weekend?

We have been invited to a friends house on the lake for a block party type shindig.....there will be boating, tubing, water skiing, BBQ and fireworks over the lake.  I am baking some cute patriotic cupcakes which I will share later when they are done.  Then on Sunday my oldest goes off to Scout camp for a week.....it will be very quiet around here without him.

And I will of course be worried sick the whole time.  He is a good, kind smart kid who makes

good choices...but he is small in stature and I do worry about the kids who are

bullies.....

I have several fun things coming up soon.  We are going to Mystic and I am working on a dress for Miss Em to wear...then my niece is coming to "Camp" here and then it's my dad 75th birthday celebration!  Alot to look forward to this summer!

Again have a wonderful and save 4th no matter where you are!

Cooking somethin up!

Well it has been rainy and cold all this week so I decided to make some soup...

Butternut Bisque to be exact.  I see how bloggers show the things they make

so this is my first attempt

Here are all the ingredients!

And this is my very loved recipe from a friend....it is a copy

of a recipe from Taste of Home magazine....don't you love that one!

Here is is simmering in the pan....this really does not take long to make, the

most time is spent chopping the veggies up.

I like to chop everything as small as possible

this way it is easier at the end when you blend it all together

And finally the finished product

YUM!  I have to say that I like it blended smooth in the blender.  That

is how I usually make it.  However this time I got a deal

for $5 on a large food processor ( I have a mini one that is no lie 16 years old and still kicking) so I

thought I would go all Food Network and use the new one to blend it.  

Have to say it was too gritty for my liking....so if you want it nice and smooth use,a blender.

I know I promised to blog more and I haven't done that.  I do want to get

into the habit so I will be trying harder.  Now that school is almost out

I will have more free time not worrying about homework, scouts, and such.

Last a little story of my girl.  As I was on the phone with my sister in law Jaime, my little girl asked me:

"Where does Aunt Jaime live?"

"NY" I say

" Where does Abby (my niece) live?"

"NY" I say....

" Where does Uncle James live?"

" Ummmm... yeah, NY" I say...

" Where do I live?" she asks

"New England" I say

" Awwww! I want to live in NY!"

Very cute!  She misses her cousins so much and wants to see them all the time, but

they all live out of state.  Thankfully this summer we will be seeing all of them

to celebrate my dads 75th birthday!

Summer is coming can you feel it?

Spring Fling!

Well here we are! 

 I am so bad about posting on this blog but I am conflicted on exactly what it should be about???  I don't do enough crafts to make it a craft blog.....so I have decided that I will just post every Sunday or more often if the inspiration strikes!  I have met so many wonderful woman on blogs and learned so many new and wonderful things....so I will be sharing that as well....

So things here have been good but super busy.

  The hubby started a new job about 7 weeks ago and while he loves it, it's taking getting used to the new hours for all of us!  My oldest son James got braces!  The first few days were miserable and he cried at night time with the pain but I am happy to report he is over the hump and feeling well.  I will post a pic of that soon....no pics on this laptop!   We celebrated Em's 3rd birthday twice!  One with a Perfectly Purple-tastic Party and then again with 3 of her little friends at Chuckie Cheese ( for those who don't know what that it is....it is a place with a giant mouse, pizza and arcade games and rides....parents hate it....kids love it!).  We are now in the planning stages for the boys parties...more on that later! 

I am trying to gather things to start crafting.....since having the boys and then Em, I have fallen off the crafty wagon and would dearly love to get back on.  I recently participated in a lovely swap with some ladies from the UK and it got me super motivated to do this again.  I am planning to join another of Pixiedust's swaps...this time all things strawberry!  NO idea what I am going to make yet but am going to start looking into things this week.  If you are interested in receiving some strawberry lovelies click HERE to learn more!

I also read another lovely blog called Lolly Chops....she had a whole week where she showed tutorials on how to make different colored and different material flowers......SO inspiring!  My favorite flower required that I get a die cut machine.....after buying/opening and not being about to return the first cutter because it was too small for the dies I needed........I finally bought the Sizzix Big Shot on ebay and the die at Michael's and made these lovelies!

Isn't that flower just so wonderful!  If you are interested in learning how to make these.....and many others for yourself or as gifts.....click HERE

Lastly I would love some ideas on my sons upcoming parties.  Jack is turning 10 so we are having a:

Double Digit Sports Spectacular

I found this amazing candy table HERE  and I MUST have this for the party!  I will be doing it the same rainbow colors.....other then that I have no ideas....we are planning to have things set up for soccer.....basketball......flag football....and street hockey.....I need idea on decorations other then this table and what food to serve????

Then we will be have James 12th Birthday in July

Wacky Water Wars!

Where we will have the same candy table set up....there will be two teams of kids in matching colored bandannas, making a team flag that they must protect.  Each child will be asked to bring a water gun....we will have slip and slide, water balloons, box forts to hide in, a safe sprinkler zone and possibly a giant inflatable water slide if I can locate one!  So I need again decoration ideas, a cake theme? and snacks to eat for real!  Forgot to add that I am also looking for ideas for both parties for good, inexpensive favor bags!

Well I guess that is all for this week.  I will try and post this week to show you the lovelies I got in pixie's swap....lucky me SHE was my partner and she made me the most beautiful doll!  Totally spoiled me!  We have decided to become across the pond pen pals.....Have a lovely Monday all!

Shoes, Science Camp and SHREK......Oh My.....

Happy Belated Easter Everyone!!

We had the most wonderful weather this past weekend and the temp was up to 80 on Wednesday.....CRAZY!  It has snowed at this time of year in the past...global warming anyone?

Shoes Shoes Shoes......my little darling girl did the funniest, cutest thing yesterday while we were shopping with a friend at Kohls...we were in the shoe dept and she wanted to try on some heels.....I am not a heel wearer....never really was, but now that I am at home almost 100% of the time heels just don't work....and the heels I wear when going fancy are a chunky heel that works with slacks.  Anyway, I let her try on three pairs....Her first selection was black patent leather below:

Got to love it right!  Well she quickly moved on to the snakeskin and man can the girl work it!

Hysterical!  My mother used to call me Imelda Marcos because I had soooo many shoes....looks like I have a mini Imelda in the making no?  LOVE it!

So this week is very quiet in our house as James is off at a science camp with the whole 6th grade.  I am a very nervous mother so even though he does go to Scout camp every summer I am still a nervous wreck that I can't even chat with him while he is gone.  He is back tomorrow afternoon and while I have enjoyed spending more time with Jack I am looking forward to him being home safe and sound.....I hope he had an amazing time and took loads of photos!

And lastly SHREK!  Have any of you heard of houseparty.com???  It is a place where you apply to host a party to introduce you and your friends to new and exciting products and companies.....I don't know if they do this in the UK but they should.  You get to sample products, have a nice get together with friends with no pressure to buy anything...great fun!~  Anyway I just applied to host a Shrek/McDonalds movie night!  I REALLY hope that I get picked....we love SHREK and Mickey D's as we call it.  I would set up a big screen in the yard to show the DVD and all the kids get Mc Nuggets and tons of other Shrek goodies....the kids and all their friends would go nuts for this!  Then we could plan to go and see the new Shrek movie....how awesome is THAT going to be!  We love these movies so much!  Jack even had a Shrek party when he was 3...back then there was no product so I had to make him a costume....I will add that photo later when I am on the other computer....needless to say he was ADORABLE in it!  Anyway, go and check it out you can sign up to host all sorts of different parties and they will give you everything you need to make it a success!

Photo added: Jack as SHREK!

That picture of SHREK I drew so they could play a game....I forget what now?  I think it was his helmet? 

My Unplugged Staycation

Ok so last Sunday we decided that we were going to be pretty much electronics free for the week. We would check email, as that is the main way several people contact us, and we would watch a movie here and there but other then that, no TV, no computers and no video games. Following is the brief journal that I kept druing our little experiment!

Monday July 20th 2009

Well it’s day one of the no electronics and already Jack is driving me MAD! He is the main reason I felt we had to do this. The child spends way too much time indoors and while I don’t want to force him to go outside….he really needs to. So the morning started off with us running late, as usual, for the first day of Vacation Bible School. We had never done this before but heard great things about it from friends and since it was free we thought why not. Well as soon as we dropped the boys off I told my husband….”Jack is going to quit this the second he gets home…he will say they make us sing and dance and there is NO WAY I am doing that!” Well guess what I was right and he does not want to go back. Oh well at least he tried. James thought it was fun and his friend is there so he will go back. While they were at camp I got to work on ridding Emma of TV time….we played dolls, did puzzles, read 5 books several times each, made block towers that she kicked down, she helped daddy stack wood in the yard, and she rooted out toys from the depths of the basement, that had not seen the light of day since the boys were little….Fisher Price Farm house…. The boys home we all had lunch and it was off to bed for Miss EmmaAnnie B called and invited the boys up to swim….and now they are back playing wiffle ball in the yard…so far Jack is doing ok without his plugged-in entertainment….hopefully the rest of the week is this easy….though I doubt it will be.....

Wednesday July 22, 2009

Day 3 of our little experiment and things are looking up. For the first time ever, Jack said to James instead of the other way around “ James want to play outside?” OUTSIDE!!!! OMG we are making progress. They stayed outside all day and into the dark of the night catching fireflies for their baby sister and playing wiffle ball. I could not be more thrilled. James continues on with VBS (vacation bible school) and actually asks to listen to the CD of Christian music they handed out on the first day. They will have a little show at the end where they will sing several of these songs, and he actually LIKES them. He has always been a very spiritual boy and this makes me happy.I went out tonight to see a show and the kids went with hubby for a bike ride. I saw “Anything Goes”….and it should have gone…far far away!…nuff said….the only good part was my friend the tap dancing/ singer who was amazing as always. Had a nice night out afterward despite the fact that when I got back to my car the battery was dead. These two really nice older men ( who were with their wives ;) helped me jump the battery and we were on our way to some delicious food at UNO!! YUM!!!

Thursday July 23, 2009

So today we decided that in addition to swimming at the lake we would take our bike riding on a high adventure and do the bike paths at Ordiorne Point in Rye, NH. Ok, so to say this was one of the worst days of my life would NOT be an exaggeration! OMG we took a wrong turn off the cement bike path and ended up in HELL!!! Yes HELL!! We got onto a hiking trail, not a bike trail, which was littered with very large bumpy roots, huge rocks, overhanging branches that slap you in the face and head as you try to ride by, sloggy mud rivers and sand….oh the sand….have you ever tried to pedal a bike in deep sand? Well let me tell you, it SUCKS!!! What should have taken us 30 minutes had us out in the woods for over and hour…did I mention that it was getting darker and darker the farther into the woods we went? I haven’t cursed that much in a looooong time! We eventually found the correct path back to our car…I have never been happier to see a minivan in my life! The only good part was when we came out on the beach and got to rest in the breeze free of the horrible bugs and collect shells. After my torture ice cream was in order~! I should have gone with my gut and stayed home with book 2 of the Twilight series in my flannel jammies with a cup of tea…..I will not make that mistake again!

Friday July 24, 2009

Well it is the last day of our little experiment and it has been great. I realized that I do not need to be connected at all times. I read 3 books ( including Twilight, which I thought I would hate but LOVED) and countless magazines and newspaper articles this week. We played too many games to count including but not limited to: Jenga, Battleship, Picture Link, Poker, Memory, 20 Questions…..the list is endless. We went on countless bike rides, swam at the lake, built branch shelters in our yard, hunted snakes ( ok I didn’t do this but the boys did), played wiffle ball ( the boys were amazed at my batting skill), painting, playdohing, reading and spending a lot of time just being together. I loved this week, and despite their initial resistance so did the boys. We are all determined to spend less time plugged in and more time doing creative things together. All in all this has been a wonderful week and I highly recommend unplugging your family and taking an electronics free staycation!