Katrina's Cowgirl Party

Hope you're ready for a picture-heavy post...'cause that's what you're gonna get!  :) 
  Katrina is REALLY into horses and the story of Black Beauty.  Her current love of horses and her favorite color- purple, set the tone for her party.

Gammy did an incredible job making Katrina her "Black Beauty" cake, including the white diamond on the horses forehead.  Katrina LOVED it, but didn't quite understand why it wasn't a full horse body?!  I tried to explain to her that would just be too much cake! HA

I made the little banner for over the food table, using burlap and purple gingham.  Now that the party is over, I have plans to use the penant banner in her bedroom decor.
  Our menu consisted of  coleslaw, chips, grape jello jigglers, cheese and crackers (put this on the table real quick when I realized I had completely forgotten about buying veggies for the veggie platter I planned on, oops!),  Pulled Pork Sandwiches and cake.  Everyone seemed to like the pulled pork.  It is very tangy and I added quite a bit more sugar than the recipe called for.  It also didn't seemed to be a big hit with the kids, I think because of the vinegar content.  I would definitely recommend trying the sandwich with the coleslaw in it, like the recipe says to - it's really good that way :)

The kids goodie bags had a small plastic horse, cowgirl stickers and a mini cowgirl coloring book with crayons.  The stickers and coloring book came from Oriental Trading and was discounted very low! *bonus*  :)  The white nametags I've had in my scrapbooking stash for a long time!

The purple flatware I found at Dollar General and then used a coupon for some nicer dinner napkins; bundled them up with twine I've had on hand forever!  love that twine, seems like you can use it so many ways!
  The purple stripey straws and the gingham goodie bags were my "party splurge items."  They were ordered from here along with the gingham cupcake liners.
  We have a farmer's stand not too far from us that had lemons for a great price.  Our family loves the Anne of Green Gables Lemonade recipe - it seemed a good fit for the rest of the menu! and the beverage dispenser was borrowed from my Mom :)

Mom and I - she was a huge help doing the cake and coleslaw.  and the cake tasted just as good as it looks! Thanks Mom!

Aunt Angela was the party photographer - she took most of these pictures so I could do whatever.  Thanks Sis!

and a different view of the cake, showcasing that white diamond that was EXTREMELY important to Katrina :)  It was a little bit weird asking our guests whether they wanted a cupcake or horse for dessert!  HA

Party friends....

After eating the kids painted horse themed suncatchers, again from Oriental Trading.

While the adults chatted....

Cake time!

Time for gifts....Stick Horse with horsey trotting and neighing sounds from Gammy and Grampa.  She wanted a REAL horse!  That was just a tad bit out of the budget!  :)

I admit I bought these perler beads strictly because of the two horse options pictured on the box.  :)  It turned out to be so much fun for her and her sisters.  They have played with these for hours!  I'm already eyeing a pink princessy kit of perler beads I saw at Hobby Lobby :)

A horse t-shirt (bought on sale)

trying on her new cowgirl boots...they fit!  She's had quite a bit of fun wearing them around.

Gammy and Grampa Haynes...

and a silly picture with her friends :)

Chase drew a cute birthday picture, complete with balloons!

Katrina, we are thankful you are part of our family! 

A little 7 year old...

lives at our house now.  Somehow, another year has gone by and for Katrina being 6 is a thing of the past.

Nana and PopPop sent her gifts ....

toy pots and pans, science-type books and some animal audio books - all things she loves!

For supper, the birthday girl requested Cucumbers with ranch dip, mac N cheese, watermelon and pigs-in-the-blanket.

Later in the evening; Gammy and Grampa and Aunt Angela came up to give her more gifts.  A horse - which she is loving!

and Gammy made this horse skirt for her to wear....

Little sis was loving that balloon :)

and she got the cutest owl purse from Aunt Angela, along with some books and 3 old-fashioned candy sticks.  Which she promptly and of-her-own-choice handed the other two to her sisters so they could each have one!  She is very good about sharing, almost always :)

In lieu of  a birthday cake, we took her to get some ice-cream - chocolate with rainbow sprinkles!

 We have a party planned for a few days from now...stay tuned!

Finished Object Friday - Heather Bailey scraps

Happy beginning-of-a-3-day-weekend to you!  It's been so long since I've posted a FOF I'm not sure if I still remember how this is done!  HA
  Back in March, my MIL had a birthday!  So, I thought I would pretty up some dish towels for her to use in her kitchen.  I also wanted to incorporate something that would remind (not that she would ever forget!) her of three of her 'grands' who moved so very far away. 
 

Hopefully you're not too tired of seeing these same fabrics being used in a bajillion ways here in my little web space!   I originally bought these fabrics to make Katrina's K graduation dress.  Then, I love seeing siblings dressed alike or coordinating; so I made Katie and Courtney dresses out of the same fabrics.  I still had enough of the starburst print for two little twin outfits!!  Finally I'm down to smallish sized scraps :)

I thought they turned out really cute...and I have more scraps to hopefully make myself a set soon :)  Realistically?  probably not til the end of summer ;)

Don't tell the other two towels, but I'm partial to the blue/yellow combo, but then again...always have had a soft spot for ruffles!!

 Chari Tree's Finished Object Friday

Party Pics and Technical Difficulties

Yesterday, we had a great time wishing my beautiful sister, Angela Happy Birthday! Just a few pictures to share....

Some Willow Tree items were given as gifts to add to her collection...

Angela, I just want you to know how much I love you! You are so special and beautiful! Not just on the outside, but the inside as well!!

On another note...computers can be really great or really frustrating! Charity (thanks friend) let me know my photos are showing up with the posts, I've tried working on it, but to no avail! Not sure if it's me or blogger....hopefully I can get it fixed in the next few days...thanks for understanding :)

little bits of lately

Just wanted to share some little snippets of our life, lately...nothing grand and glorious...just us.
  We entered the Skype world (!)  It's been really helpful for the girls to still 'see' Nana and PopPop and vice versa!  and now I feel bad we never got around to skype(ing) with my parents when we lived in PA!  If you have long distance family this is THE way to go!

  Weekends ago, my famous author-friend and I went thrifting.  I was on the lookout for picture frames and I did pretty well.  I paid a grand total of $7 for the painting, the two frames and the silvery bowl - score!  One of the wood frames was FREE the lady didn't feel like digging out change :)  and I paid $5 for the painting instead of the $8 they were asking!

  This led to some spray painting :)  I hung the painting as soon as it was dry enough to mount back together.  The two smaller frames I hung today in the master bedroom and did a little re-staging of my dresser.  I love the way it looks now!  Hopefully I can do a post soon on that!  I'm still needing some more frames before that can happen though.  Having "decor patience" can be hard!

While I painted the girls were poppin' wheelies in the backyard ;)  They love being outside!!

On Saturday the girls went to their first "FL" party.  They were very excited about playing with their little friends and wishing Billie a Happy 4th Birthday!  and I still think they are on a sugar rush!  HA

 And now, I'm signing off to do some sewing - some for me and some for the girls :)

The Almost-Surprise Birthday Party

I knew that I wanted to do something special to celebrate Jaron's 30th birthday.  Tossed a few ideas around, but the one that made the most sense for our schedule and to ensure an element of surprise was an after church party.  Just a few families and couples were invited....and the ingredients for a DIY Banana Split Bar were bought....

I admit I got lots of fun out of planning this for him ;)  All was going according to plan until Katie became sick over the course of Sunday.  She wasn't running a fever, you could just tell she didn't feel good and her color was off.  We even tried to get her to stay home from the evening service, but she insisted on going.  Right before the service was done, she lost the contents of her stomach :(  So, we quickly made our exit and I began texting those who were invited.  It was only fair to give them the option of bowing out.  Which I totally understand!!  and some did.

We had my family, Tim and Sharron and Jason and Jenness come over and we still had a great time!  Although, we didn't even try to sneak the balloons in the house, he never saw them.  I made the cake, which he saw, but said that it never even registered with him.   Except for Katie getting sick and me texting everyone, I think it would have been a successful Surprise Party!  He was pretty happy about it!  Mission accomplished!

We've enjoyed having our good friends, Tim and Sharron here -  they are always LOADS of fun to be around!  They even taught us how to play our first game of Catan, they have a high-success-rate of getting people addicted :)

Love you Sweetie!