Sunday facials

Eris was sooo happy this past Sunday when I let her pull out the mint/cucumber mask stuff I had bought at Target while back for when we'd have a "girls night" at my house and do facials. She was very careful about putting it on ALL our faces and not our clothes or hair or earrings.....yep, Ehren included. He was NOT going to be left out of the fun!

Of course, I had to chase them thru the house all monster-like....couldn't miss out on THAT fun!

Good Times!

Showing your love

I was so happy to see my children using the Love Letter Envelopes right away (posted yesterday), it warmed my heart! Eris wrote everyone a love letter and drew them a picture. Mine says I love the way you always cook us dinner and something about getting her cute clothes! lol Cracked me up.

Ella Grace also jumped right on the band wagon and made Brad and I & Ethan coupon cards for her "Masache Services" (which is for a massage for anyone that doesn't read 3rd grader). We each get 1 free one, then 2 @ $.25 off, and 2 more @ $.50 off. Each 5 min a piece. What a bargain! I went to cash in yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised to see a hand written sign on her bedroom door that announced the Masache Salon hours, and it was closed on Sunday. I think she might have listened a little to some talks at church yesterday! woo hoo!

So, early this morning I got up and baked some cake mix cookies {recipe below} (cause at 5am when your eyes aren't exactly open, ya gotta go with easy). As they were cooling, I shoved a Valentine Candy Corn in 1/2 of them...the other half got a strawberry heart marshmallow crammed into the top. Yes, this cramming made the perfectly risen cookies fall, but I don't care. My 6am taste test revealed that it only impaired the aesthetic value of the cookie, but the added seasonal flair made up for it I thin!

Brad got to take a baggie of them as he left for Richmond for the week. And the kids each had one put in their Love Letter Envelopes - which they found while having breakfast. Made for a lot of smiles around the table this morning, and some extra hugs and kisses as they hopped out of the van for school. AND, they'll serve as Family Home Evening treats for tonight as well - we're combining with the Harp's for that this evening. These turned out to be multi-purpose to the max!

Cake Mix Cookies recipe:
1 boxed cake mix - any flavor. I buy several for pantry when they go on sale for $1.00
1/2 cup vegetable or canola or coconut oil - any oil but olive I'd imagine
2 eggs

That's it! Mix til combined. Drop by spoonful onto greased cookie sheet (or seasoned stone) and bake at 350 deg for 10-12 minutes. Cool on rack

** you can add anything you'd like to change these up - nuts, mini m&m's, choc chips, crushed or chopped candy bar pieces, chopped dried fruit

Please deposit love notes here.

Idea for these came from Pottery Barn Kids .... a personalized love note envelope to attach to your dining room chair for Valentine's or treats or whatever! Course, there's no way I'd buy 6 from PB even if they did still sell them, which I'm pretty sure they don't. Anyway, I'm just glad to have mine all finished to the point of putting them on ... just a couple quick embellishments I still need to add, but the 14th is sooo close, I had to get them up no matter what. The pressure's on! Those embellies might get put on before these babies hit storage on the 15th at this point! yikes! lol

Anyway, here's PB's version - of course, perfectly clean and wonderful.....

And, here's my 6 .... obviously homemade, imperfect - but made with love! Hope my fam appreciates!

Brad's - red with white trim and a pink heart. Needs some trim added around the envelope flap still. And maybe some starch and a good ironing? Just seems so droopy...not sure why or what the fix is. Any suggestions?


Ethan's - pink envelope with red scallop trim & hearts. Maybe I should trim down that scallop layer on the flap! Looks funny being so big, huh?


Ehren's - red, white, & pink. His nameplate came out a little crooked, I should fix that. *sigh*


mine - I didn't put my name on it. But the kids' figured it out fast....I rec'd 2 sweet notes the first day! Love those cute kiddos of mine!!


Eris' - All pink with red accents. She loves hers!


Ella: Also all pink with red accents. She loves how it's not totally "girlified" with the block letter name. Obviously need to cut back some of her red scallop layer as well - those got a little out of control I see! lol I'm still thinking an embellie needs added to the big blank space at the bottom! lol

I linked up to this Valentine's party:

Fun school surprises

Sometimes I get little surprises when I log onto our school's website....either to check out what the kids are having for lunch that day....see when someone's next keyboarding assignment is due...when that musical ensemble will be showcased that Ella Grace has been humming about, what have you. Yesterday was one of those days with Ethan's classes. And below that is a screen shot of what the school admissions page looked like a couple months ago. I should check things out more often - makes me smile every time!

Ethan looks a bit scared, doesn't he? Trepidatious would be my word for it. Wonder if he knows the meaning of that word just yet?


Eris was in Junior Kindergarten when this pic was taken, with Miss Lynn and Miss Marisa. This was Collegiate's inaugural JK class. :-)

Ehren's favorite weeknight.

Ehren doesn't care what day of the week it is....as long as it's game night. Could be Sat, could be Mon, could be Thurs - all the specifics are arbitrary. Our faves? Well, mine is Pictionary - which is what you see us trying to get thru in these pictures. (Ehren doesn't get to play really, but he draws everytime someone else is drawing. Then he makes us guess what it is. Usually, if you guess a swamp, an alien, or an alien in a swamp, you're golden. Sometimes he'll get on a spiderweb kick. Hard to know though, because spiderwebs and swaps sure do look alike.)

Other fave's right now?
Sorry
Clue (Ella's fave by far)
Pictureka

Happy game night to you!

Birthday Party!

Here's TONS of pics (seriously photo heavy here - and completely unedited ones at that, because who has time for editing when you're playing catch up?) of Eris's 7th b-day party we threw in mid November. The guests were Brad & I, Ella Grace, Ehren, Gammaw & Nanny, aunt Ellie, cousins Shaylyn & Lailah, Amy Kaelin's daughter Kaylin, Rhonda & Tom Speaker's daughter Savannah, from church Emma Kleinman, Linda Wach, Isabelle Kaul, Morgan Hunt, and Hadley & Jenna Harp, and from Eris's class Alice Lococo. Aunt Tina had to work and missed it. And a couple other friends from school had to miss as well. Ethan was with the boys, Jared & Triston - Sarra was sweet enough to take them all to the park and let the girlie party be just that. Thanks Sarra!!!

The theme: Little Red Riding Hood.

Ella Grace made the bunting that said Happy Birthday Eris and was on big scallop circles of Little Red Robin Hood patterned paper. Sorry the pic came out fuzzy. My friend Pam was kind enough to come and take pics of the party while I ran the show - she was using my camera and wasn't used to it in the beginning. My fault for not showing her! Thanks Pam for helping that day!!

We started out with a reading of the story.

Savannah & Ella Grace

Jenna, Ehren, Lailah, Emma

Lailah, Shaylyn, and Eris all listening to the story.

The story was a bit long, and somewhere along the line the kids began to clap each time Ella Grace would finish a page. It was pretty funny to the adults, kept the children listening, and kept Ella Grace motivated. Total win/win situation that cracked us up!

And the big bad wolf lay in waiting to scare us all at the proper time in the story...... he ran out and gave his big ROAR....the girls shrieked and giggled. It was pretty darn cute. And Ehren ate up that attention! lol

I goofed at the story reading thing and should have proofread....this version got a bit gory at the end and we had to cut it short before the ax took off another limb and shed more blood! lol OOPS! (Hope there weren't any nightmares!)

So we moved on to the SCAVENGER HUNT. Because we couldn't be Little Red Riding Hoods ourselves if we didn't each have capes and baskets, right? So the girls were given a clue, which led to a clue, to another clue, 5 in all I think, and ended up in Ehren's closet to a stack of baskets with their names on it and handmade hoods for each.

reading the next scavenger hunt clue.....ooooooh, the anticipation!

and then the group RUNS to the next room to look all together! In hindsight, I made those clues too easy! lol

that clue was in our fridge and I said Hey - WHAT are you doing in our fridge? Some acted like they got caught doing something they shouldn't! lol

And others obviously thought this was the most boring-est baby-like thing they'd ever done. I didn't see her and Ella Grace much after this.....about 5 minutes after they went upstairs to make some beaded bracelets and necklaces and no one saw them til the party was ovah. Fur realz.

Yep, this was it. They didn't get a red riding hood cape or a basket (which they knew ahead of time cause they are big girls and the dress up stuff was for the little girls [which means I only sewed 10 and had more kids come than anticipated]). So they were out fo sho. Oh, and that's Nanny, Brad's mom in the pic there. She came in during this scavenger hunt crazyness. Surprised the didn't turn right around and go back home!

My Mom helping Lailah tie on her hood.

Linda and Isabelle

Emma

And again enters the Big Bad Wolf chasing the Red Riding Hoods thru the living room and up the stairs and then back down and around again for 20 rounds. Please pass the Excedrin.

Lailah and Jenna getting chased back down the stairs.

Then we had birthday treats!

red velvet cake balls (recipe courtesy of Bakerella's blog)

peanut butter & strawberry jelly (to keep things red as much as possible)

twizzlers, red velvet cupcakes, smarties, and the kit kats were a hit!

marshmallows, marachino cherries, and oreos with red filling of course!

Shaylyn

Pam with her cute girls.

After a good sugar-fest, I sent them outdoors to run, swing, and jump it off. We also played a few rounds of Mother May I that they seemed to love. A couple of them REALLY wanted to be the next Mother so they could boss everyone around. That was pretty darn funny! lol













Then I guess we did more treats, open presents and play some more, and final pictures with all the guests that were still around and willing to pose.













If you read all of this and looked at all these pictures, I should pay you $1.00 Call me and tell me to give it to you.