Anniversary Gift

This year, both sets of our parents (John's parents and my parents) celebrated their 40th anniversaries. The traditional 40th anniversary gift is Ruby. For a simple yet sentimental gift for them, I opted for a more modern route and created these anniversary prints for them. It highlights how many days they've been married (wow!), how many addresses they've lived at, how many children and grandchildren they have, and their 40th anniversary date on the bottom.

I typed up the milestones in a Word doc and played with different fonts and sizes. I trimmed some beautiful scrapbook paper to standard 8.5 x 11 paper size and printed them out on it. Then I matted and framed them and they loved them.

Be sure to "practice" print on plain paper to check your spacing/sizing before printing on your pretty paper!

Here is my parents' frame displayed on a buffet table with some Christmas decor. John's parents will find a place for theirs very soon, they just got their gift for Christmas.

 

You could use this idea for lots of special occasions, changing the dates and highlights however you want. It's a great way to display important milestones. It is similar to the framed dates I made for our entryway:

It is a great gift idea you can create for a friend or family member, but it's also something you can make for yourself! Start it early in your marriage, and just update the numbers every 5-10 years. Now I'm thinking of making something for our own home that includes pictures of our 5 year and 10 year anniversary dates.

Whatever you frame, be sure it includes important dates and milestones that you want to cherish, that's what makes it special!

Girl Scouts Fall Meetings

I am just going to lump our last 2 meetings into 1 post since I am a little behind on my blogging.

November meeting
One of our Girl Scouts traveled south for vacation over the summer and stopped in Savannah, Georgia to visit the home of Juliette Gordon Low. She made a poster and shared the things she saw and did, and gave each of us a postcard with a portrait of her. The girls earned the Playing the Past badge by talking about this.

Our craft was a Girl Scout law craft. I bought small colored Popsicle sticks at a Dollar Tree (100 for $1). They wrote out the law on the sticks, then I helped them hot glue the sticks together with ribbon. Now they can hang them in their rooms, or wherever they want, to remind them of the virtues that Girl Scouts should aim to hold.

For an activity, we went to the corn maze. I don't have a picture. The first time we went, we got rained out right when we arrived, but the weather cooperated the second time. Half of our troop earned badges for this outing.

December meeting
We made ornaments for our craft. I bought clear plastic ornaments at Walmart for .88cents each. I painted their names on using puffy paint prior to the meeting. I wanted them decorate their own, but when I tried it out, it was crazy messy and took a long time to dry, so I knew we wouldn't be able to paint during the meeting. So during the meeting, they cut strips of paper, wrote out the Girl Scout law (yes! The law again) on them (silver and gold sharpies really make it pretty!), curled the strips, and put them inside the ornaments. We used red and green ribbon to add a little Christmas color to them.

 

 

 

 

 

They also earned Early Bird Badges for registering in the spring.

And Bridging to Juniors bridges.

(I really need to find Emma's daisy and brownie pins so I can add them to her Junior vest!)

A few of the girls are involved in Lego Robotics and so we showed the troop how the robot works and did a little demo. More on that coming soon!

 

 

 

 

Badges:

In lieu of Christmas caroling this year, We plan to support our community by ringing bells for the Salvation Army next week. Hoping for decent weather!

Kitty Cat Tea Party Birthday

Laila turned 5 this fall and wanted a kitty cat birthday party. I found plates, napkins, and decor at our local party store.

I found a kitty cat cake on Betty Crockers website. Click HEREfor the link.
It is just 2 round cake pans cut into a few shapes and pieced together using frosting. I used m & m's for the eyes and nose, and black licorice for the whiskers and front paws.

 

 

 

This cake was for our "family" party. And I also really wanted to give her a miniature tea party with a few friends to celebrate her turning 5. She invited 5 little girls who dressed up and came over to our home for tea, lemonade, tea sandwiches, fruit kabobs, and mini marshmallows. The dishes they used were Laila's great-great grandmothers! It was her china and was passed down to me, which I am very thankful for!

 

 

My 5 year old!

Monster University Birthday

Emma is obsessed with Monsters University! We took the kids to see it opening weekend (way back in June). It was a great family movie. And she hasn't stopped talking about it. On vacation, she bought a stuffed Sulley and has wanted a Mike Wazowski ever since. She mentions it every. Single. Day. Here is a picture after our Disney store trip. Thank goodness her Grandma ordered him and she got him for her birthday! Laila picked out Sophia the First princess figurines and tea set.

 

Naturally, she asked for a Monsters University birthday this year. So for her party, she invited a bunch of girls from her softball team. We chose to have it at a frozen yogurt place. Since she was bringing store bought cupcakes (with Monsters U rings on top, of course!) to school for her birthday, we decided to make our own cake for her big party. After googling, "pinteresting", and "you-tubing" Monster U cakes, I came up with a simple plan of action. I saw a you tube video of someone frosting Sulley cupcakes where they made the frosting look like his fur. So I used that idea for a cake.

Sulley cakes out of the oven...

I used 6", 8", and 9" round cake pans. I used white cake mix and dyed the mix teal and purple to create a tyedye cake effect. However, to my sheer disappointment, the cake fell apart when I removed them from the pans, even though they were cooled. I have no idea what happened but I wonder if it has something to do with all the food coloring changing the chemistry of the batter. Anyway, they went straight to the trash :(



Luckily I had batter leftover so I used it to make cupcakes, which turned out perfect.  Then I made buttercream frosting and also dyed it teal and purple. I used my Wilton frosting tool with the star tip to create the furry effect.

The cupcakes were not enough for everyone, so I did have to run to the store for 2 chocolate chip cookie cakes, which kids love!

She loved it, which is all that matters!

This frozen yogurt place puts whipped cream mustaches on the birthday kid, which is a hoot!