Fishy love…for our friends

Miss H is not in school so we don't really have a class to give out Valentine cards too.  However we do have yoga and music class.  Both have about 7 kiddos in them which makes it perfect for Miss H to pass out a little goodies!

Miss H and I were chatting about her choices for goodies and she picked gold fish crackers.  Of course a 2 year old would pick that.  But I was happy with her choice…way better than fruit snacks, aka candy if you ask H.  Again after searching good old pintrest we found a cute idea!  Here are Miss H's Valentine treat for her friends.  She loved passing them out today to her friends!  

Yes, its the teacher in me that loves to make these little goodies for her to share.  I am sure she will hate it when she is older so I have to take advantage now ;-)  What cute goodies did you make for your little ones to share? 

Welcome to the week of ME..

Whoo whoo do you know what week it is?  Okay I'll throw you a hint!! BIRTHDAY WEEK!!  I love birthday week no matter who it is for, but this week it is ME!!  Okay so Chris was not really aware of BIRTHDAY WEEK until he began dating me.  I will say the first year he didn't really get it, but now he is all in! (and thinks I'm crazy...but that is okay)

My birthday fun really began a week ago when I got my gift early!  IPHONE 5S 32 gig people!  I was so beat down with deleting pictures to download the updates...ah now I can take a million pictures and still have space!  Anyway needless to say I have been LOVING my present the past week!

Miss H enjoying the morning paper with me today!

Chris was out of town all weekend so it was wonderful having him back home tonight!  This was the FIRST time Miss H has really understood that he was gone.  She asked about him every day and multiple times a day.  I kept telling him he was on vacation but she would just say he's bye bye...guess vacation is to hard to say, ha.  Finally this afternoon when he came in the door she was screaming with joy.  She was so excited to have him home and play with him...it melted my heart!

She talked her daddy into watching videos of monkeys on the iPad. 

Then for dinner we kicked off BIRTHDAY week with one of my free meals.  Tonight we hit Genghis Grill for my free bowl.  Our waiter was super sweet and even added a free dessert.  Miss H was overjoyed with it because she loves ice cream, plus a brownie :-)  She then was hyped up for a bit! HA

Tomorrow the fun will keep on rolling as my best friend sine 5th grade will arrive!! I can't wait she and her 2 sweet boys are coming to visit for the whole week.  Miss H and I are super jazzed!  We love them and can't wait to take them EVERYWHERE...zoo, train, lunch, homecoming parade...oh the plans we have!  Did I mention my sweet mom is coming this week too!  What a great BIRTHDAY WEEK this will be... minus the whole getting OLDER part, YUCK! But I am ignoring that part for now, until Chris rubs it in that I am older than him (for a whole month, til his birthday!)  Hope yall's week is as wonderful as mine :-)

Changes...are happening

at our house that is!  Well should I begin, oh last Wednesday is when this GRAND CHANGE occurred.  Little did I know what an affect it would have on my life! Ha  Last Wednesday we had like 3 boxes on our front step.  I always love getting goodies...especially when I know nothing about them.   One of the boxes was full of some new cleaners for our house.  Chris' mom had sent us some samples a while back and we really enjoyed them.  She is so sweet because she let us get some more!!!  Yipee new cleaners and bubble bath for me!

The next box is when life changed at our house....this box was from Chris' family as well.  His dad sent us an amazing new TOY!  But first let's talk about me...they sent me a super cute tennis shirt and very glam pen!  I love them both and will use my tennis shirt a ton since we just won 3rd place at playoffs this weekend.  Oh sorry I got a little sidetracked..

What was that grand new toy that has TAKEN OVER MY HUSBAND!  I no longer can speak with the man he is so obsessed with it.  He comes home from work, greets the dog, throws a hello at me, changes clothes, and then is in the ZONE!  If I had only know that this is how I could get my peace and quite I would have done this many moons ago (kidding really, but he does get hooked).

We even go the super cute white one....I love the look! 

You guessed it folks the new IPAD!!  Holly cow do we LOVE, love, LOVE it! Chris is uber in love with it! However, I have gotten to use the IPAD I think um twice....one to Skype with my sister and brother in law who are in Jamaica (so jealous of them).  Then last night I stole it for just long enough to download a blog reader app so I can read my blogs when I do get my hands on the Ipad! HA, I am so not kidding about his addiction.  This weekend he carried it with him everywhere he went.  When he came to watch my tennis matches...he had it!  What a mess he is?

Thank you Steve for making my husband the happiest man on Earth!  We are now an official APPLE FAMILY over here, and well it is pretty stinking awesome! 

Could it be Happiness in a Box!!!

HELLZZZZZ YEAH!!!!  I absolutely love my blog swap partner Janna!!  She is so wonderful and really knows what I love!  I have enjoyed getting to know Janna...we are so similar!
Okay for the much awaited HAPPINESS!!!  Let's just say this box made quite a journey, but it finally arrived.  The funniest thing is that the 2nd package arrived only 2 days later than the first (which was sent 2 weeks ealier...or so we all thought!) Thank you Janna you are too much, really!!!

 Finally it has arrived! I couldn't wait to open it...but did wait for the hubby to watch! 

 Janna even added a super cute note! 

 Plus Reese sent Winston a treat...he couldn't resist! 

 Oh my heavens...this is everything!!!  Look at all the SPRING FUN!!! 

 I love all my new beverages and cups to enjoy them in...plus I love YELLOW!

 These were super too...I think the stickers are so amazing! I plan to use them soon for Chris to know JUST what I really want! HA

 HOLLY MOTHER, the most amazing thing ever! SHARPIES and a Life is Good shirt!  ROCK ON!!!

 How cute are these sticky notes too!  I have great uses for them as well. 

Just wanted you to have a close up of my new 80's glam and Caribbean SHARPIE love!

These goodies were sent in the 2nd package. It never fails that once you mail something you realize you FoRgOt a part! HA.

 Some wonderful OPI polish...love it! Can't wait to get my nails done!  Oh and the thing I covet more than anything in the world....the nice chrome SHARPIE!  I have wanted this Sharpie for the longest time, Janna you're my hero!

Oh and to top it off...another Life is Good Shirt, super cute head band, a bath "puff" and so much more!
I have loved doing this SPRING BLOG SWAP so much.  Meeting Janna has just brightened my past month.  I have great faith that we will be super snail mail buds (as well as more) for a long while!  Have a super weekend everyone.  I, well I will be enjoying all my goodies!

Spring Blog Swap

Okay so you have heard (or read about) me talk about the spring blog swap I am doing!!!  However, I have not really followed up on it.  Anyway long story short my swap partner is Janna!!! LOVE this girl.  I love how we match up so well.  Isn't it funny how you can become friends so quickly.  I feel like I have know Janna forever....yet it has only been 3 weeks.  We are very similar in so many ways.

I mailed out Janna's goodies at the very end of spring break.  She has finally gotten them!!  YIPPEE, I was so excited to hear they made it to her.  Plus I wanted to know if she liked it!  I love buying for others!  If you want to see what all I sent to her......click here!  She posted about her goodies yesterday.  Silly me, I didn't take pictures before I mailed it out.  I blame that on the "moving" phase I was in at the time.  Anyway, swing by and check it out.   I can't wait to post about my goodies when they arrive (we are having a few mail issues, but soon it should arrive).

Weekend Recap

Please ignore my awful sunburn!

WHEEEWWWW!!!  I think this is the first time all weekend I have actually sat down and relaxed!  We had yet another busy weekend on our hands.  For starters I was playing with Claire in a tennis tournament. Thankfully the draw was not too large....allowing me to find a way to leave Saturday night open.  Our first match was on Friday night...but let's not talk about it!  Um, it was not the best tennis either of us have ever played!  Enough said!!

Saturday morning, Chris went a head and finished up our flag stone walkway.  It looks SUPER!!!  I hope it will help sale our house too.  Then we (Winston too) ran to Lowes and picked up some other things.  Of course we had to eat a hotdog while we were there too!  We really love the Lowes hotdog guy, actually we prefer them over Home Depot.  (if you have not tired their hotdogs you should...mmmm...) Next we rushed home and I took off for match number 2.  The good news is that we got on court a bit earlier than scheduled, the bad news is we took forever to play!  Once our match was over I had to RUSH RUSH RUSH home and clean up.

Last night my school had their annual art auction.  For those of you who have no idea what this is....well let me enlighten you!  Basically our sweet art teacher works on projects with each grade level.  They start working on these projects around October besides the normal art class items.   Each grade level has a theme!  My second graders had Andy Worhol (he did many piece with silk screening)  and Charlotte's Web!  The kids made time capsules of items to be opened in 2015.  They placed their items in a screen printed box....it was so cute!

Okay back to the info...so there are a total of 12 "master pieces" that are student created you can bid on.  But also there is a HUGE HUGE HUGE silent auction.  The items in this area vary from food, house decorating, romantic getaways, and teacher parties.  There were a couple of things Chris and I wanted to win!  When you arrive you may begin bidding on the silent auction items.  That continues on through the meal and then ended around 8:30.  Of course you have to keep "stalking" the items you really want!  We bid on a cooking package where a chief came and cooked 5 meals at your house!  Also on a cooking party for up to 20 people.  Chris wanted a golf package.  Also we found something for our sweet little pup!!

Though out the night we got to mingle with all the parents and teachers that were there.  I really enjoyed getting to chat with many of my moms in a more informal setting.  You know I wasn't having to be the "teacher" telling them how good their child is or what they need to work on at home.  Once the silent auction ended the fun really began!  Now it was time for the bigger items...the art!!!

I am completely amazed at how much our parents were willing to spend for their child's class piece.  Now keep in mind all this money is going to improve our school...they want to build a running track around our play ground!  The first few pieces went for 300-400 dollars...then we hit a fourth grade piece!  Man that piece really got things going.....if I remember correctly it went for 2,500 dollars.  I love that our parents want the school to be amazing.  I love that they are willing to help out!  I also love that they enjoyed all the art pieces the kids have worked on....each piece was created with such love!!

The company was wonderful, the event was amazing, we raised tons of money, oh and we won one of the silent auction pieces.  What was it?  Well.....only the best for our pup!  We bid on a 100 dollar gift card to Winston groomer...and won it!  Winston will now get 2 hair cuts for the price of one! ROCK ON!!!

Our goodies for Winston! 

Oh yeah and did I mention...Claire and I got 2nd place today after our very LONG match this morning.  That's right folks it was a rough start but we pulled it off in the end.  Enjoy your Sunday!

Vote for our picture....

Hey blog friends I entered one of our wedding pictures in a Shutterfly contest.  Please help us win.  You just need to click the VOTE button below.  You can vote ONCE a DAY (so if you can vote every day from Dec 8 till the 21st)!!!  Really I appreciate your help in this, and keep voting till December 21st.  Thank you a million times over and over!!

Contest details

Wedding goodies and favors

Okay I did post about this but wanted to show all the items!  So Christi over at Needle Little Design Co. made all my super cute wedding items.  She is so wonderful…I kind of explained my ideas to her and she just RAN with them.  I love how everything turned out!  (incase you didn’t realize my wedding colors were aqua and yellow)

She made my:

• Flower Girl shirts

• Ring Bearer shirts

 

• Bubble girls shirts

• Blinged my swimsuit bottoms

• My married shirt (that I got tons of complements on!!)

• Embroidered our towel wraps

(sorry thought I had a picture and my wrap is in the wash…I’ll add one of me with it on!  The bottom has Mrs. Roberts embroidered)

• Made personalized key chains (from my bm with their initial and our location and wedding date)

• Embroidered Chris’ golf towel

Everyone looked so cute on Friday at our rehearsal.  I love that all the kids got to show off their specific job!  If you have any needs for shirts, towels, key chains….heck ANYTHING; Christi is your woman!  She can do anything you can imagine.  Send her an email and check out her blog here.

FAVORS!!!

Doesn’t everyone love favors?  I know I love to see the creative things that people can give for memories!!  We had a few things that were on the reception tables for our guest.  I kind of touched on this prior but here is a better look. 

Each guest received:

• an ornament

• a personalized SHARPIE (you who only know me from BLOG world have no idea how much I LOVE SHARPIES!!!  Therefore this is a perfect fit for me…)

 

• a memory coin

 

• a fan (which they used to keep cool with)

 

• a mug (given in the welcome bag)

 

What kind of items did you give for favors or personalization? Now I need to gear up for the Encore Celebration….to make some more welcome bags!!

WELCOME BAG GODDIES

As promised from my “lazy" post….here is a look into our welcome bag goodies.  First of all I think welcome bags are what you want to put in them.  I did much on-line research for some good ideas and tips.  I walked away with a few extra pointers.  Mostly mom and I just grabbed things we thought would help or work well in the Dominican.  Each couple, family, or single person got a bag of goodies.  That way if 2 singles were rooming together they still got their own goodies.

• BAG: First of all we began by looking into different bag options: a woven bag with monogramming, a cheap bag with no other purpose, or a reusable bag.  I opted for the reusable one that was not covered in our names or anything.  I mean I do want my friends to maybe use them again.  Mom and I both hit up Pier One and together found enough bags.  Another bonus was that the bag was plastic like material, thus allowing sand and water to stay off!
• 22 0z mug…. for each person, even kids!

Now this I did plaster our names and such on.  Since we were at a “hot” location with free beverages, I wanted our guest to have a larger insulated cup to use. The mug has both Chris and I’s first initial and then our last initial. Then we placed the shells from our wedding invitation on it too.  On the back is a little info on how we met…with our wedding date.  Just something fun for all.  Chris Wilson made our wonderful mugs….click here for his goodies.

• Flip Flop luggage tags: I picked this up at Michael’s with their coupon.  I used these to help name the bags…if you note from the picture above.  Then after the wedding the guest could use them for their luggage if they wanted to.
• Bride on the beach invitation: Luckily I have a great sister with super friends.  My sister and her friend found these at a shop going out of business so they were more of a normal price, ha.  I used these to put all the welcome info on.  Things they needed to know about the resort and such! Also these were tied on the bag so guest would see them first. (also they were in wedding colors, aqua and yellow…perfect)

•  Hand written note:  Chris found cute blue notes with a shell on them.  I used them to personally write each guest a note welcoming and thanking them for coming.  Chris and I really wanted everyone to understand how grateful we were.
• Food: each bag had food for all….we put in fruit snacks, granola bars, cheese and peanut butter crackers, m&m, animal crackers, and much more.  Basically we wanted to make sure there were some snacks around for the guest; the guys used them when golfing too!
• Body Scrub: everyone needs a scrub for their shower! Mom really insisted on this one because in the Dominican wash clothes are hard to find. 
• Water toys: everyone needs a water bomb to throw and play with in the pool or ocean.
• Water: Personalized water for each guest to enjoy. I used the Michael’s printable labels.  No we did not pack 50 bottles of water…we got those from the resort thankfully!

• Texas Pecan Praline:  these were a little piece of Texas.  Chris’ friend owns this amazing nut company so I couldn’t resist putting in a goodie. Check out his stuff here

  
• To much Funitis kit: I found this in a magazine and loved it….basically I made a little bag of individual Advil, Imodium, sanitizer wipes, band-aids, and alkazelser.  All things one may need if not feeling so well after a long night.
• Nail file: you never know when you will have a nail break or something else….plus they were cute!
• Bath fizzy: to help you relax and enjoy your vacation.
• Deep Aqua body lotion: I loved this one!!! Bath and Body has been having 1 dollar promotional lotions for their new scents.  I picked up 30 of these for my bags…I mean after all our wedding colors were AQUA and yellow.  Plus it smelled great and was in a travel size.

• Picture Card: This was a HOW TO card for all the guest.  I created a photo share site at shutterfly prior to the wedding.  This card gave the step by step directions on how to upload and view photos from all guest.  Now if guest want copies of these they can download them or click and print.  Everyone wins from this; and you don’t have to worry about those disposable cameras on your wedding tables.  (Thus far many guest have use this too….its super I love seeing all the pictures)

• Kid items: in the kid bags we put extras like….jump ropes, kites, water toys, pads to write on, sand toys, and other fun things to help keep them a little busy!

Here is a view of just part of one of the family bags with kids….they got 2 bags to hold all items.

Okay so I am sure there are some items I forgot to write about….but honestly I just can’t keep up with it all! Ha, I try!  If I forgot anything I will try and up date later. Okay now the wedding day post can be done……dun dun du dunnn dun dun du dunnn….