The Royal Wedding... Keep Calm

I have a serious obsession with....


The man always teases me about it. Give me a movie that is a costume drama with English accents and I'M ALL IN. With the royal wedding within mere hours, I can't think about anything else. I couldn't even teach today. I threw on some movie today about the human genome project and just started making my lists of things to do to get ready for the wedding of the century. As I was helping my daughter with her spelling words today, every sentence had something to do with the royals or the wedding. She finally looked and me and said, "Please. STOP."


I have been scouring the web all week for ideas and here are some cute ideas that I have come across:

The invitations:



I saw these on THIS CUTE WEBSITE and knew I had to do something like this.... here are some others I found too:









This one perhaps is my favorite:


(So true... I actually think he is the cuter one of the two!)

I found some really cute downloads for wedding bunting at this website:


There are also some really cute ideas for a wedding party so check it out!

I thought this would be a really cute table cloth and spread:


There is a cute tutorial at this website on how to make it!

There are some really cute printables here:



and here:



For the food, I found some really cute wedding recipes on Pillsbury, like this Union Jack Fruit Pizza:



People magazine (click here) also published a great article on wedding recipes that I think we are going to try!


Cheerio!

A beautiful day...

I woke up this morning to this at our cabin...



It's not often in Arizona that we get snow in April and it was so nice to actually be cold again.






It's been such a crazy few months with work and family stuff, it was so nice to sit outside and do nothing except catch snowflakes. Made me think of this...

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."
— Henry David Thoreau

Kids Thanksgiving Table Ideas

I miss working at PBK especially around the Holidays since it was part of my job to do all the setting and decorating with my other team members. It just fed my little neurotic tendencies so much! I asked my mom if I could be in charge of the kids table again this year and I'm trying to decide what exactly to do.

I know I'm pretty sold on this:



I saw this on my SIL blog last week and I think it's about the cutest thing I've seen!

In the past, I've done this:


This was a fun little turkey kabob and it ended up being a huge hit with the kids (and parents!) We are having a smaller Thanksgiving though because my brother's family (sniff, sniff) won't be able to come so this might be too much for a few kids to eat. Maybe I could scale it down and make a mini one though.


I've decorated with the felt food which is so fun for the kids to play with but I'm hoping to do something different.

Martha has some cute ideas like this:



Disney Family Fun always has really cute stuff too like this:



and seriously, how do you beat this from PBK:



If anyone has cute ideas, email me!

Graveyard Cupcakes

I wanted to make some cupcakes for my family and I saw this cute idea HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE


So I took out the Gourmet pens and some Halloween marshmallows...


Used the Target sprinkles again...


Crumbled up some Oreos for the "dirt", made some yellow cake cupcakes and frosted them with chocolate and then used the Milanos for the tombstone....


and thoroughly enjoyed eating them with the girls and watching the chocolate go all over their faces!

Frankenstein Pops

My MIL asked us to bring over a "spooky" dessert and Weezy was all too excited so we decided to do these Betty Crocker Frankenstein pops! I have to say that they were pretty easy to make but we did make some substitutions...

Click HERE for the Betty Crocker recipe:



We found these Halloween sprinkles at Target and decided to use these for the eyes instead of the chocolate icing.


I couldn't find almond bark at the grocery store so we made a substitution with Toll House White Morsels and just double boiled it. We added about 12 drops of green food coloring.


We went to "Sweet Factory" at Scottsdale Mall and picked out a bunch of green "Mike & Ikes" for the bolts on the side of the head...


Here's how they turned out... Weezy was so proud! I wish you could have seen her face when she showed everyone what she did!

Fall Update

Wow, it's been a while since I blogged! I know it's supposed to be Fall here in Arizona but there is no sign of it anywhere. It's still so hot and I miss seeing the leaves change color... Here's what we have been up to...


Trying to spend as much time as possible at the cabin since it is usually 20-30 degrees cooler! Weezy caught her first fish this summer at Black Canyon Lake!


I started back at work at the same school but we moved campuses so I've been constantly unpacking microscopes, test tubes, beakers, flasks, models, etc... The fam came to see me at open house and the girls were completely taken by the microscopes!


We snuck a visit to Disneyland last week before the October Break and had a great time! This is me and the girls in the Tiki Room trying to get warm inside! Weezy told me this is her new favorite "ride"... go figure.


We have been in election mode for the past few months and I'm happy to say that "the man" won his primary election so we are so excited about that! This was taken on the primary election day which happened to be the hottest day on record!


Weezy started 1st grade and is loving it!


Knocky started all day pre-K at a Montessori school and is also loving it!

Hope all is well with you!
E

Playing Hookie...

It's that time of the year when the teachers get "Senioritis" just as bad as the students--I've caught a real bad case. Almost there...I can't believe it's almost time for summer.

In the meantime, I've managed to play hookie a few days and weekends:


Went to Las Vegas with my sisters and my mom for a spa & skin convention--Thank you Stef for the facial product HOOK UP!


Ate way too much at Serendipity's!! This might be my new favorite restaurant--I have always tried to go in New York but the wait has always been way too long--now I know why!


This is a horrible pic but we caught the Beatles LOVE show and LOVED IT--been listening to the Beatles constantly the past few weeks!


Couldn't resist one more trip to Disneyland before the hot summer!


The girls loved swimming and playing around the hotel.


The MOST SINCERE try I have ever seen! I think someone at school told her something amazing would happen if she could pull the sword from the stone!


Second most sincere try-- (mainly to try to one up the big sister!)


Is there anything better than a tigger tail? I tried to be a "good mom" and only let her eat a little bit, but no such luck... There was no way she was going to give it up.


Nothing better than hearing her laugh on her favorite ride!


Other than that we've had fun going to museums...


Ran Pat's Run with my dad, brother-in-law, and the girls...


Had Dad's 60th Birthday party, including a race and picnic in his honor!


Before his birthday, I spent Easter weekend cutting and bonding all of these...



Meanwhile, attempting to teach Knocky how to put the egg in the dye without getting it everywhere (yep, that didn't work out)...


Took a break from sewing to play out in the last of the snow at the cabin...


Eventually, I put it all together to make this quilt with my dad's favorite races for his birthday. Forgot to take a picture of the final project but I was a little cross-eyed by then. This quilt was a little more challenging that I thought it was going to be...but all worth it in the end!

Did I mention school is almost over???? Is it Friday yet?