Cupcake Party

For her 7th birthday, my youngest decided on a cupcake party. I would make the cupcakes, the girls would decorate. This was the easiest, happiest party we've ever done! The girls had a great time, they stayed busy the entire time, and everyone got along beautifully. I limited the number of kids to the number of chairs we had around the table--six. That was the perfect number. I think that's going to be my standard rule for kids' parties from here on out.

These are the invitations that we made. I just used some pretty scrapbooking paper in the colors that she liked. I traced around a large lid for circles that I cut in two for the icing, traced around a coke bottle top for the "cherry", and used the hole punch on some trimmings from the scrapbook paper for the sprinkles. We then drew a number seven with a glue stick and added glitter. The party information was on the back.

Hobby Lobby's Christmas ribbon includes lots of colors besides green and red. Check it when they have their after-Christmas markdown and stock up on colors for the year. That's where I got the pink ribbon I added to the back of the chairs.





I found cupcake stickers that I added to plain bags and wrote their names on each one. I added another sticker to each napkin. Snacks were served in mini cupcake wrappers. Also at Hobby Lobby, I picked up these little wooden cupcake ornaments that were in their Valentines Day merchandise for the girls to decorate. I also found kits to make your own candy necklaces.

Here is one of the brooches we made for each girl. She got to design each one. We used large and small cupcake wrappers, old buttons and trim.

The table was set with different types of sprinkles and toppings. We also made cupcake bracelets out of craft foam. Hope this gives you some inspiration for your next party. Super simple makes it super fun.


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Another Verse, Just Like the First

I thought I'd better report in. Patient #2 is home from the hospital. His surgery went well this morning. I was afraid his surgery would be worse than his sister's, but he has really surprised me with how well he's done.

At this rate, he'll be all well by tomorrow. Probably not. It took his sister a full two weeks to recover. I'm just waiting for the anesthesia to wear off and the real work to begin. My cousin Sharon gave Meredith a stuffed animal that had a squeaker in it when she had her surgery. That toy turned out to be a life saver. Every time she needed something she just squeaked the toy dog. Ry is now using it for his turn. They have the comfort of a toy and a built-in calling device. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone else who has to play nurse to little ones (and not so little ones) that can't talk.

Monday, Monday

I thought I'd share a few more pictures with you today. Everything's really blooming, despite the heat. My poor grass is dying. I really should be watering the yard, but I haven't gotten that far. I keep hoping for a good shower or two, I've yet to get my wish. My yard needs the kind of soaking we get when there's a tropical storm off the coast. Isn't that first one supposed to be named Arlene? Arlene, where are you? I could use a good sprinking.

Jack told me he didn't think I should've planted those black-eyed susan seeds a couple of years ago. We keep having them pop up all over. He said they're getting to be like weeds. If these are my weeds, I'm happy to have them.



This rose bush only puts out a few at a time. The ones that do bloom are very big and last long. I'm not sure of its name.




I don't have a clue what this one is either. It's one of my pretty rescue plants. Lowe's always has a rack with $1.00 plants that are about dead and out of season. I take that as a personal challenge. I've found losts of great stuff on that rack. And 9 times out of 10 the plants bounce back with just a little attention.

I was taking a picture of one of my butterfly bushes for you. This particular bush is right next to a pink seven sisters rose and they kind of twirl together in a pretty display (a.k.a a wild jumble). I was going to take a picture so you could see it, but the butterfly bush's flower looked so pretty up close I thought I'd share that instead. Each blossom is like a little field of flowers. No wonder the butterflies and bees love it so much.

We went for a ride yesterday to a farmstand in a nearby town for some of their homemade peach ice cream. Peaches are coming into season here. I picked a few other vegetables too. Tonight I'm making a peach cobbler. Yum.

Monday--Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Sauteed Squash, Rice, Stewed Tomatoes, Rolls, Peach Cobbler

Tuesday--Cheeseburger Pie, Corn, Salad

Wednesday--Grilled Pork Chops, Creamed Peas and Potatoes, Rolls, Sliced Tomatoes

Thursday--Spaghetti, Garlic Bread, Homemade Bruscetta

Friday--Turkey Salad, Croissants, Southern Cucumbers

Saturday--Homemade Pizza

Sunday--Leftovers

Finally Back Where I Belong

It seems that in the couple of weeks that I was out of commission in blog land I managed to miss two major holidays and loads of great stuff. There were so many things I wanted to share, I just didn't have the time...or the brain power. We got a different computer and I couldn't get my pictures to load onto the blog. The pace is slower this week and I was able to slow down long enough to work the kinks out on the computer. Sweet, sweet normalcy.

The major cause of my busy-ness was with the school. I am president of the parent volunteer group at our elementary school and last week was Teacher Appreciation Week. We had something different planned for each day and we made a couple of the gifts for the week.



Here are the cakes from Thursday's Cake and Coffee time. One of the moms sells cakes and did them for us. Didn't she do a great job?

We've misplaced the cord to our industrial size coffee pot, so I had to make many, many little pots of coffee that day. Do you have any idea how long it takes a pot of coffee to brew when you've got a line of ladies waiting? FOREVER!

This is the outside of one of the boxes we made. They were waiting for the teachers on Monday. Each one was a little different. We used those clear plastic crafting boxes with all the compartments. Each compartment was filled with a teacher necessity--rubber bands, paper clips, hand sanitizer, chocolate... We purchased one big book of scrapbook paper and used it to cover the boxes.

The infamous candles. We made over 90. When I went to Meredith's Mother's Day Brunch on Friday each child had drawn of their mom and told what their job was. What did Meredith say? "My mom makes candles." And there was a picture of me surrounded by lots and lots of monagrammed candles.


The leftover paper from our scrapbooking box tops got shredded to make the straw in the bags. (We volunteer moms are thrifty.) The little tag on the bag says, "Thank you for letting your light shine in the hearts of our children."

I'll show you how to make the candles later in the week--super easy. Except when you're doing 93.


Other things we did during the week--

Monday--breakfast from Chick-Fil-A, survival boxes pictured above

Tuesday--salad luncheon (that was a big success, a definite thing to do again)

Wednesday--monogrammed candles

Thursday--cake and coffee

Friday--gift cards and notes from students

We also had daily drawings for teachers and staff of things we'd collected from area businesses. One of the big prizes on Friday was a 1/2 day sub (time off) for two of the teachers. When I went in the class and told the first grade teacher she'd won a 1/2 day sub she got so excited she jumped up and down and squealed. One of the little boys in her class asked, "Why is she so excited about a sandwich?"

That's a little of my time away. I'll share some more later. Have a wonderful Monday. It's great to be back, I've missed you all!

At the Grocery Store

Here's a question I've gotten several times, so we'll just talk it over together today and see if you've got some thoughts on it too--"How do you grocery shop?"

I'm not a rigid 'This is the formula and it must always be obeyed' kind of girl, but I do have a vague plan that guides me. Let's face it, a great deal of life is spent preparing food, shopping for food, sitting in the restaurant eating the food, or just thinking about the food. (I'm getting a little hungry.) Anything that takes a chunk of our time deserves a little planning on our part. It's no scientifically proven method, but it's what works for me.

• Know what you're eating the day, or even week, before. That's where the menu planning comes in. Some people will tell you to plan around grocery store sales and make your menus for the week according to what they're offering. That is probably best if you don't have much freezer space. She who purchased the great white whale of freezers has plenty of room. I look in my freezer and plan menus around what needs using.


• Know what you're paying. What's a good price for the things you like? When something is on sale, I'll stock up. When I'm looking at a sale paper, I'm checking prices on staples I keep on hand (like Birds Eye Steam Fresh veggies, when they hit $1 each I buy a lot...they're the closest tasting to fresh I've found) or things that are our personal favorites (like cereal...I'm not paying over $2.50 for a box of any cereal, so I watch carefully and stock up on sales since everyone has a different one they like...I'm a Blueberry Mini Wheat girl).


• On-line ease. Grocery stores almost always have a website that gives their weekly ad. You can compare stores from home, most even have a list feature that lets you click on the things you want and print out a grocery list. You can see what you're getting and often how much the items cost. Drug stores also offer groceries and can sometimes be the cheapest ticket in town on things like milk. A great place to check out for every conceivable weekly flyer is http://www.sundaysavers.com/ There are some great websites that help you save tons on groceries. I will admit, I often forget to use them, but those who are faithful at doing so say they make a tremendous difference. One that is particularly helpful for my area is http://southernsavers.com/ I know there are probably many more out there and is probably one for your part of the world as well.


• Buy it big. I don't like to make zillions of trips to the store, the fewer the better. The things I use most, like flour and sugar, toilet paper, dishwasher detergent, I like to buy in bulk. In our area we have Sam's, some of you have Costco. I have found them to be a great resource for some things. You just have to know what you would normally pay, like we've said before, and if it's the same or less, it's worth your time and gas not to keep making trips. We built a wall of shelves in our laundry room to house these sorts of things. I buy flour in 25 lb bags and giant bags of rice. To keep them fresh I purchased those big containers you can get at home improvement stores that contractors use for paint. It holds them both perfectly. One day I'll get around to painting them or covering them so they're not bright orange, but for now I'll take practicality over prettiness. I've also found these places to be best for prices on milk and spices. Amish groceries are wonderful resources for bulk items if you have access to them. They carry just about everything in bulk. I get to one about twice a year and stock up on big bags of pudding mix, shaped pasta, and chocolate chips.


• Buy it fresh. Eat it or 'put it up'. If possible, fresh is best. And the best in fresh is straight from the farmer. I really don't buy much produce from the grocery store. The best resources are farmers markets, flea markets (that's right), and the farmers themselves. Look in your phone book under farming or produce and give them a call. Many will sell to the public after they've shipped orders or offer culls (those not "pretty" enough for the store). Remember the 50 lbs of carrots I got last summer? There are all kinds of great places waiting to be discovered right around you.

Those are a few of the tips that I can think of. What about you, do you have any great grocery shopping ideas?