Wednesday, June 13, 2012

A Rustic Colorado Bridal Shower

We recently had a young man in our church propose to the love of his life. The happy couple is getting married next month and so we held a bridal shower for his fiancée at our church. I will share the recipes we used in another post but for right now you guys can enjoy the pictures. There was much burlap, pine cones, moss, tissue paper pom poms and love. =) (oh and yummy food!)
Here are some pictures that my hubby took of the couple for their engagement.


Ok...enough of them. ;) Here are some of the pictures of Heather's bridal shower.


Homemade cupcake stand (thanks to Dave B. for putting it together!)


I LOVE using mason jars!


Delicious recipe I found on Pinterest and my friend Angela made the chocolate H's


Simply Lemonade


Marriage Advice Tree



Coffee Punch


Hooray for dishes that won't come out of the packaging ;)

Recipes for:

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Sausage Wonton's

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Coffee Punch

...coming soon. =)

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Granny


My husband's Granny went to be home with the Lord tonight after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. She was the sweetest lady! I never heard her complain and she always had a word of encouragement when you needed it most. She was loving, caring, always thinking of other people's needs above her own and the most generous person I've known. My kids loved their Gigi (Great Granny) ;)... we'll always love you and miss you. What a sweet thought to know we'll be reunited one day in heaven again.





Finally Home

"When surrounded by blackness of the darkest night, 
O how lonely death can be;
At the end of this long tunnel is a shining light,
For death is swallowed up in victory!

But just think of stepping on shore
and finding it heaven!
Of touching a hand and finding it God's!
Of breathing new air and finding it celestial!
Of waking up in glory
and finding it home. 

L.E Singer


Saturday, May 12, 2012

Pirate party and lessons learned

The birthday boy was happy with his party and that's what counts. I personally learned some lessons with this pirate party.

Everything doesn't have to be perfect.
Accidents will happen.
The birthday boy is perfectly happy with any cake.
High altitude matters when baking a cake.
Don't plan a bday party in the middle of a crazy, busy week. =)

All that being said...I don't have 'perfect' birthday pictures of all the decorations and such but I will share what I have. I found the cutest pirate ship cake recipe via www.familyfun.com and it was really easy to make but I didn't account for the high altitude in Colorado. I haven't had a problem with any of my other baking but cakes that require shaping and height require extra tlc here. I had the cake all frosted and decorated and I went upstairs to get ready for my son's party and my hubby snapped the one and only picture I had of that cake before it split down the middle. There was no saving the ship.


So, 30 minutes before the party was going to start, I ran to the store and bought a round chocolate cake and put all my pirate decorations on top of it... and guess what?!!! My son loved it just the same. ;) I probably complicate things way too much when it comes to birthdays and I have to remember that my kids are perfectly content with a simple cake and a party with friends planned with love for them.


I found some free cute pirate printables at the Cottage Industrialist. She has free invitations, thank you notes, pirate hats and eye patches, cupcake liners and banners available. No need to buy any!


I used little 99cent beach buckets for favors and filled them with chocolate gold coins, compasses, play doh and candy. You can see them in the background of the photo below. I did blue buckets for the boys and pink for the girls.


It was easy to decorate the table. I just got some black material and black plates with red knapkins. I used empty Starbucks frappuccino bottles instead of paper cups. I started collecting them a while back and then just peeled off the labels and washed them out. They are adorable to use for parties and reusable. I bought some red and white striped straws and you can find some at Amazon. I also had a lot of shells and sea decorations in my basement so I just dug them out of boxes and used those at the party.


A friend of ours built an awesome 'plank' for the kids to pretend with and they really enjoyed it!




We played walk the plank, hunted for hidden treasure and played pass the bomb. (pass the bomb was an inflated black balloon and it was basically played like the game 'hot potato') We also had a pirate ship piñata.


Free printable


All in all we celebrated Luke's 3rd birthday...and had fun! ;)



Happy Birthday, Lukester!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Disney on Ice

Several weeks ago we went to Disney on Ice here in Loveland. It certainly was an experience and the kids loved it. I've always enjoyed watching couple's figure skating during the Olympics and all the Disney princesses and princes that skated together reminded me of that. =) Luke's favorite skaters were the Toy Story characters and Emma loved all the royal couples. If you ever hear of a Disney on Ice production coming near your town, you won't be disappointed if you go.

The Genie of the laaaaaaamp =)
Dory and Nemo
Beauty and the Beast
Snow White
Toy Story army men
Pinnochio and the whale that swallowed them up

The dragon costume from Mulan
I will defend you with my Buzz sword, Mommy! =)