Crazy Carnival

The Carnival was a success!!! (for the most part) Other than a downpour of icky rain that dampened our spirits just a bit and forced us under a pavilion instead of out in the field we had a great time! The turnout was great, we enlisted the neighbor kids to help run carnival game booths and we had a blast!

By far the most popular game was the "Cookie Walk" My Mother and I made cookies (she made PB&J and Snicker doodles and I made chocolate chip cookies!) My Sister In Law ran the booth which involved playing Disney music while the kids walked around numbered plates. When the music stopped a number was drawn at random and the kid who was standing on that number got a bag of 3 cookies! I'm tellin ya, some kids left there with several bags of cookies, THEY RACKED UP!!!






Next we had face painting, My Mother ran that booth and did an AWESOME JOB!. The kids loved it. We even had sparkles to put on for the little girls.



My Oldest Daughter Alaina ran the tattoo parlor, kids love tattoos so that was another big hit at the party!



The oldest of the neighbor kids ran the popcorn booth because what is a carnival party without POPCORN!!!



The youngest neighbor ran the bean bag toss.



PJ (Hubby) had the task of running the ladder ball game! This game of course involved throwing balls attached by rope over ladder rungs so we needed a competent adult for that one lol.



We also had a ping pong ball toss which my Mother In Law ran!



I think that is it! .... no Wait you may be wondering what I did? Well I was the "clown" for the day! I did balloon animals. That was another big hit! I was not able to do WHATEVER they wanted but I was able to do a handful of things including: crazy hats, flowers, dogs, cats, monkeys, swords and butterflies. I will have to learn how to do more next time but the kids loved it and that is all that mattered. I had a steady stream of kids the whole time and managed to "kill" (pop) like 5 animals as I was making them (R.I.P. little guys, you never had a chance!)





Lastly was the cake! I made their carnival cakes and stacked them on top of balloons to fit the theme. They were a big hit! Each cake had a layer of chocolate chip fudge cake and moist white cake and in between that was Oreo cookie buttercream filling. Everyone loved the cake, and Ethan's top tier was left over and I actually had one parent want to take the whole thing home with him YAY! I hate taking cake home because I WILL EAT IT!!! So when A parent requests a slice of cake (or better yet THE WHOLE THING ..... THEY CAN HAVE IT!)







On a more serious note before I let you stop reading I want to ask for prayers for a sweet little girl. Kylie's friend Sydney has been in and out of the hospital for a month with a temporary form of Lupus (not sure the name) and has been on lots of steroids and just feeling crappy all together. After her 3rd hospital stay lasting a week she got to go home on Saturday (the day before the party) Because her birthday was that Monday (2 days later) we told her that if she was feeling up to it she could share the party because she is not able to have one of her own right now. I made her a cake only to find out that after she got home she caught a NASTY stomach virus and had been throwing up all night Saturday and all morning Sunday. The poor girl just got home from the hospital and then got sick AGAIN making her miss the party. We delivered her cake to her to try and cheer her up and hopefully she will feel good enough to eat the cake in a couple days. With that being said PLEASE pray for her healing and that she recovers quickly and does not have to go back to the hospital for a 4th stay.

Bring on the FUN!

As the much anticipated carnival birthday party gets closer I am scrambling to get things in order and to finish making these games! I FINALLY got off my rear and made the first of many games, that one is the turtle bean bag toss! I think it turned out pretty cute myself! I got the awesome colored bean bag turtles from The Oriental Trading Company and I made a toss game with them as the inspiration. I still have to make the signs and the fish pond. Then I am making cookies for a cookie walk and lastly is the cake. So since it is 1:25am and I am TIRED I think I will skip on trying to elaborate any more. I will update as more of my carnival projects are finished!

Easter Eggs and Tornadoes!

Well This has been a very eventful weekend! It started with Good Friday tornadoes here in Murfreesboro. I am used to hearing tornado sirens go off because of growing up in Nebraska so severe weather really does not scare me, it more like excites me. I love storms. But this storm hit way too close to home. The tornado lasted 26 minutes and traveled 15 miles destroying about 100 of homes and damaging hundreds more. It claimed the life of a mother and her 9 week old baby and severely injured at least 30 people. The damage is just devastating. I have to admit. I get excited I the thought of tornadoes, I love to see them and they just amaze me. But when they get this close to home it just makes me sick. The devastation is right in the path to Ethan's preschool and I catch myself tearing up the entire ride there just thinking of what our city is going through right now and what those who were affected have to go through.

I heard the most AMAZING survival story though today when I dropped Ethan off a preschool. One of the little girls in his class was with her mother driving through the neighborhood where the tornado formed. The tornado formed almost right over their van. She told of how she drove and drove trying to get away until the wind was just too much and she decided it would be better just to stop the van and take cover. She unbuckled her little girl from her car seat, threw her over her lap and ducked on top of her to keep any flying projectile from crashing through the car window and killing her daughter. As she looked out her window she could see the tornado directly above her, debris flying EVERYWHERE. She saw an AC unit literally 25 feet from her car sucked up and thrown and a truck was overturned in the lawn to her right. Her car rocked so violently that she prepared to roll at any moment. Then it was all over! They were ok. Amazingly that tornado ripped up AC units, flipped over cars just FEET away from her yet she and her daughter were spared with only a bumpy ride. A tree had also fallen just feet behind their car just missing them. I thank God that their lives were spared and they walked away without a scratch. What a horrific experience to have to go through.

Here are some photos of just a TINY bit of the devastation that took place here in Murfreesboro on the afternoon of April 10, 2009. These are just the photos that I took while driving. I am also attaching a YouTube photo montage of the devastation and photos of the actual tornado. It is just heart wrenching to watch this and know what hundreds of people are having to overcome at this time. See the YouTube video HERE.






WELL On a happier note. The day after that We decorated eggs and tried to get back to a normal life. We know that other families were not as fortunate as us to be able to have a normal Easter though. We did show the kids the damage and remind them of those who need our support right now but tried to keep our life as normal s possible. We also invited one of Kylie's friends over who has never decorated eggs before because her Mother is from Mexico and has never celebrated an "American" Easter. It was a great/fun experience for the kids.

A Lot To Update! and HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETHAN!! 5 Years Today!

Boy it has been CRAZY around here ... I mean just NUTS! The kids have been out of school for spring break for 2 weeks. I have been in and out of the doctors for an ongoing issue (no worries it is getting better) and our fridge broke down last week!!!

With that being said, I did have some extra time to craft. After all what is life without art? Art/Crafts=my sanity! I got my first PAID leotard Order for a girl that does gymnastics with Kylie. She LOVES it and wears it often. And now I am getting MORE orders from parents because the kids get to see how other girls have customized their OWN leotards and they want that too. YAY!




Lets see... Then I am planning Ethan and Kylie's birthday parties. They want a carnival party filled with games and prizes. My first order of business was making invitations which you can see below. In the next week to come I will have updates of the games I am making and then will come photos of the event! I will be making balloon animals and my bestest will doing the face painting!




Now comes the not so fun part. Our Fridge broke down a week ago and we had to shop around for a new one (well not new, but new to us) and have had to store our food in the neighbor's fridge which has put a strain on EVERYTHING around here. BUT the good news is that we got a fridge yesterday!!! YAY! So things are getting back to normal ... well except for the fact that my old broken down unrepairable fridge is STILL IN MY KITCHEN!!! Why you may ask? .... Well .... my husband seems to have some crazy "emotional attachment" to this fridge ... his words, not mine! He doesn't want to let the thing go and wants to try and repair it (which the repair was so expensive that is the reason we got a different one in the first place!) So not to go on a rant, if the thing isn't gone in 2 weeks he doesn't get a choice, I am placing it on craigslist for FREE and the first one to come get it can HAVE IT! In the below Photo, the fridge on the right is our "new" working on, the left fridge is the one that is just so amazing it has made my husband form an emotional attachment to it.




Last order of business for the day. TODAY IS ETHAN'S BIRTHDAY!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG MAN! He i 5 years old and for his class I have made root beer float cupcakes YUM!

"Home Work"

Yes, you see it right. The craft-a-holic was in the news paper! Thanks to Nancy Degennaro for interviewing me for an article she was to write about moms who work at home! I think it is awesome that the word about work at home moms is getting out. We work harder than I think most people will ever realize!

Nancy also decided that she was going to use me for the photo to go along with the article and it turned out great! Ethan was so stinkin excited that he was going to be in the paper! The photographer came over to take a photo of what a normal (actually very busy and hectic) day at my house looks like and that involves Ethan! He has been waiting all week for the paper to be printed. When we picked up a copy we were very surprised to see we were on the FRONT PAGE of the Lifestyles section and the photo was HUGE! It was exciting to see though in print! Oh and not only is it a HUGE photo but my face is covered in flour from baking which Ethan also thought was the funniest thing ever!

Above is a scanned copy of the paper and you can read the full article HERE!

A Future Craft-Aholic???? I think so!!!!!

So my BESTEST came over this morning to learn how to sew! I have to say, I was ALMOST as proud of her as I was of my own children when they want to learn my crafty ways!! We have done many crafty things together in the past like scrapbooking and jewelry making but sewing was new to her, and I have to say ... for a first timer (heck even not for a first timer) she did GREAT! The curtains she made for her baby's nursery turned out amazing and I can't wait to see what they look like when they are hung up! She is also an AWEWOME painter too and maybe one day she can teach me her tricks as well. You can see her work HERE.

HORRAY FOR BABIES AND NEW NURSERY CRAFTS!!!!

Spring Art At It's Finest!

Ah yes, I am a proud mother of one of the artsiest kids around! My little boy Ethan spent weeks at preschool preparing for their annual spring art show! Parents, grandparents, siblings and friends get to walk through the colorful hallways filled with paintings, photos, sculptures and other various works of art made by 1-5 year olds! It is such a joy to see what these kids can do.

Ethan was proud as a peacock to show us what he made and I was one proud mama seeing everything he has done! Here are just a few of the amazing pieces of Art that we got to view!







Aren't his creations Wonderful?!?! Here are some photo of the wall displays as you walk through the preschool. All the kids worked so hard on this and we just loved being able to be there so that the kids could show off to everyone all their hard work and creativity!

Rainbow Cuppies!

Well tomorrow is my birthday (well technically today since it is after midnight) and since I am the cake baker around these parts I normally don't get a cake unless I make it myself. Instead of making myself a cake this year I decided to treat my kids classes to rainbow cuppies with green frosting! The kids got to help decorate as well which they always enjoy doing! Normally I am an all natural no artificial colors sort of girl but seeing that tomorrow is a special day (my birthday and St. Patrick's Day) I decided to go all out with a rainbow (literally) of colors added to cake batter and baked up into adorable multi-colored cuppies to celebrate my favorite day of the year DUH!


After tomorrow is over there will be about 50 kids with artificial colors running through their veins. Kids bouncing off the walls and giggling from the sugar high. So right now I just want to say "sorry" to the teachers that have to deal with these little monsters after they eat these cupcakes!

On a side note a good friend of mine (Mandy-Bona Fide Mama) had a friend contact me about an article in the local paper about work at home moms which I will be featured. I am super excited about it and get to do a fun photo shoot on wednesday for the paper! I will update on that as it happens. Hopefully we will get a cute photo out of it and educate everyone out there on the trend of work at home moms that has been catching on quickly!