Dare to Share #7 Features

I am sorry to be posting the features so late.  If you read my Overfull Week post, you will understand how tired I am this week and will forgive me.   After the appointment Kara started walking around a bit without her boot.  It is so nice to seeing her walking again. WOOHOO!  It has been a slow process,  but I think she will be back to 100% soon.  

Now on to the features from last weeks  Dare to Share Party.



I really like this T shirt rag rug by Phaedra's Adventure.  You can customize this rug to whatever colors you like depending on the T shirts.  Now that it is garage sale time, you could probably find some pretty inexpensive Ts to use.



Everyone can use the Photo Hanging Tips from We Like to Learn as We Go.  A lot of times I put off hanging pictures because they can be a pain.  I admit to being a new user of Tip #1.  I hung up all of my photo canvas pictures using that method.



These flower pens from Love Bug Living would make such a nice end of the year teacher gift.  Kara is already planning on make a few of her own.



Kara the Craft Diva chose the pull string Angry Bird pinata.  She loves Angry Birds.   I love how great this homemade pinata turned out.  Be sure to check out how on Moments with the Montanos

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Dare to Share #8

As you know I have had a pretty busy week.  Tonight I am kind of taking it easy and hopefully going to get some really needed rest.   Before I got to bed though, I wanted to post the latest Dare to Share.

I don't  really have any a lot of rules.  Link up anything that you would like to share.  It could be a recipe, craft, tip or just a fun post.   Link up as many things as you would like.

I would like it if you would become a follower and post my button somewhere on your blog.  


<center><a href="http://pamspartyplanning.blogspot.com"><img border="0" src=" http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/Kristisma3/button2.png " style="border: none;"/></a></center> I will be sharing many features on the blog, Facebook and Pinterest. Please link up and have fun!

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The Overfull Week

Do you ever feel that your life is a bit overfull?  Sometimes I feel like that.  Sometimes I feel like I don't have time to get everyday things done, because I am taking care of all the extra  things.   This week was one of those weeks.

On Monday, a really unusual GOOD thing happened.   I helped at Kara's girl scout meeting and then dropped off a couple of her friends.  I was just about to stop at the pet store when my phone rang.  I found out that a local gardener we had asked for a quote on helping with weeding  was waiting for me at the house.  I rush home and met a really sweet woman named Denise.  While talking we found out we had so much in common, and ended up talking for a good 45 minutes. It was like talking to an old friend, even though I had not met her before.

I actually don't remember Tuesday, and nothing is on the calendar.  Hmm.. I will consider that a good thing.

On Wednesday, I received a letter in the mail from Denise, the gardener.  She told me that she was really touched by our conversation on Monday, and that she was led to do our weeding in the front yard free of charge.  WOW!  I know without a doubt that God had a hand in that, and brought us together to meet for a reason.   We had bonded over some things that we were going through in each of our families. A few more extras happened, but nothing significant enough to blog about.

On Thursday several things happened.  It was to be my last woman's group meeting of the school year.  Just a few minutes before I was to leave, Kara calls from school.   She is not feeling well, and wants to be picked up.  I knew she was very tired the last few days and felt a little warm when I got her up that morning, so I agreed she could come home. She was basically just really run down and needed some extra rest.  I was able to go to my meeting 20 minutes late.  As soon as I got there, Kara called, her new pet frog was missing out of his froggy house.  We never did find the frog. Somewhere in my house or possibly a cat's belly there is a baby tree frog.
We also  had another visit to the E.R.  This time luckily it was a short visit, and NOT Kara..  One of my other  children recently started a  new medicine.  Because they can be sensitive to some meds, we were told by the Dr. to go to the E.R. if that child ever developed a rash because it could be a bad side effect.  Last night around 6:30 (these things always seem to happen after regular office hours)  this child noticed a mild rash in three different areas.  It looked really minor, but to be on the safe side, we did go in to have it looked a.   When one of the nurses came in she was confused on why we came in on something so minor.  After an hour, we saw the Dr. who said that the rash was most likely a mild allergic reaction but that it didn't appear to be from the new medicine.  We were given some Benedryl and released.  I was grateful this was a relatively quick visit considering how many times we had been there lately.

Today was another one of those days.  Kara had a follow up Orthopedist appt today at 11.  I was a few minutes late because I was taking care of something with one of my other children.  I arrive to her school 5 minutes late only to find out she is not waiting in the office like she was supposed to be.  She was located by the secretary, and I waited several more minutes for her to leave the library, turn in her pass and get to the office. We leave the school at 10:55 (15 minutes later than planned).  Luckily the Drs. office was not that far away.  Then on one of the busier roads in town, I noticed several cars had come to a stop. I was thinking, why do these things always happen when we are running late?    I then see a family of geese,  2 parents and 3 babies, walking across the street in front of me. They were so cute!   I would have taken a picture had I not been really late, and had thought about it in  time.   As soon as they were safely across the road, we were on our way again.  Luckily we got to the office only a few minutes late.   I took the picture of her foot  above while in the office today. The bruising is better, but still quite purple in that one area. Notice how it matches Kara's nail polish.   We found out that she is healing, but because the area is still hyper sensitive, she might have some nerve damage.  He wants her to have a few physical therapy sessions to help keep her main nerve in her foot from becoming to stiff.  That will start next week.  He thinks she should be able to dance in her dance recital in late June.  She is also hoping to dance in a song during her choir concert in early June. I guess time will tell.  She is to start walking on it some more at home, but was told  she could  wear the boot to school for extra protection if needed.   It has now been 4 weeks since it happened.   Who knew that standing still would be so dangerous.?!

I look forward to a few days without an extras. I look forward to a day when I can find the time to craft and bake again.  

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Our Growing Experiment.. One Month Later

A month ago, I share a post about our growing experiment where we were going to plant seedlings in milk jugs

  we recycled 15 milk jugs and planted our seeds.

I am happy to say that our experiment was a huge success.     The seeds that did the best were our peas, beans, cauliflower and Cosmos.  The peas are already so tall they are starting to come out of the top of the jug.

Our carrots, Zinnas, and Sweet William are also doing well, though not quite as big as the plants in the picture above.

 Every single type of seed has at least one seedling.  The seedlings that are still small, but growing are the tomato, eggplant, cantaloupe and daisy.

The smallest seedling is the eggplant.  You can see it just beneath the blue arrow.  It might be small, but I am sure it will grow a bit more over time.

In Michigan it is usually safe to plant your gardens toward the end of the month, after the risk of hard frost.  Mine will hopefully get done some day.  First I need someone to clear the garden.  My least favorite part of gardening.

At least this part is started..

Once they make it to the garden,  I will update the progress of our seedlings.

It was such a beautiful day, Kara had some fun with chalk.  I am glad I took a picture, because it rained last night and everything was washed away.

A possible new pet!

Her foot is getting better..  She is walking pretty well in her boot the last few days.  We will be going in for our recheck on Friday!

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More boy party ideas

We are now down  to the last 3 boy themed  parties.  Year 7 and year 8, were two of our very favorite.  When he was 7,  Kyle wanted to have a safari party.  See the monkey in the picture.  It has actually come in handy at 4 parties.  Who would have thought it when I bought it. Mr  monkey has been  present at 2 luaus, a zoo party and a  safari.

The kids had a blast posing with Mr. Monkey

For our keepsake from this party, I hung a Safari Sign Up sheet for all the kids to sign.   The pictures were taken on a trip to the zoo that you might see in an actual safari.

Kyle had so much fun leading his friends on a safari through the house and backyard.  I loved this picture because off all the kids in hats..

Having 3 kids with a ton of stuffed animals helped to set up the safari.  Above is where the tigers live.

The lions and an elephant were found outside.

Watch out for the snakes

We set up a jungle obstacle course where the kids had to do all sort of animal stunts

We carried circus peanuts on spoons at  the end of the course to  feed the baby elephant.

Decorations were vines that were both store bought and homemade.  To make vines,  use brown kraft paper and attach yarn and leaves.

He requested a cake that looked like a real banana.  I remember thinking, how in the world am I going to make that.  I ended up baking the cake in a long, skinny Wilton pan and frosting it  yellow.  I then added yellow fondant for the peel.  He loved it.

I asked Kyle recently which was his favorite party of all, and he answered his Pokemon party.  He has always loved Pokemon since he was real little.  The year he asked for a Pokemon party there was no party supplies to be found.  I had to make up everything my own.  The color scheme was red, yellow and blue.

The cake was easy to make.  I used 2 cake mixes in a giant circle pan, and then used red and white frosting.

That year each of the guests posed with a Pokemon, or Pokeball  wearing a hat bought from Oriental Trading company.

We played Pokemon Bingo using printable bingo cards from dltk-kids.com

I had Kyle chose 20 of his favorite Pokemon.  I then gave a lesson on each of the characters he had chosen.

We then played Pass the Pokeball.  I had to make them from clear plastic ornaments painted white and red.

When the music stopped and you were holding a Pokeball, there was a printable picture of a Pokemon inside.

Once everyone had a Pokeball, it was time to "Find Them All".  All around the backyard, each child had to find 3 more printables matching the Pokemon in their Pokeball.

We planned Pin the Tail on Pikachu

We don't always do a pinata, but that year we did.  We had some trouble breaking it though.

Kyle ended up having to put his stick through the 8 and pull.  To be fair the smaller kids got a headstart.  I also had extra candy on hand so everyone had a good amount of candy.

I am a little disappointed that I cant find many pictures from his 9th birthday.  That year he came up with his most difficult theme.  He wanted a "Honey, I Shrank the Kids" type party but he refused to call it that.  He wanted all the props and food to be really big.    The husband of a friend of mine is a blinds distributor, and he gave me several long skinny boxes.

At this party the kids posted with the giant toothbrush.

It is not the best picture, but at the front door the guests were greeted by a giant dragonfly.  I can't find my inside pics at the moment, but I hung green streamers all over the house to feel like we were really small and lost in the grass.   

I made a large sheet cake and made it look like an old school Ipod.  Wow have they changed since then.  

The food was all big.   Here I made one pizza in the shape of a giant slice.   

I really hope I can find the rest of my pictures from this party.   One thing fun about this kind of party is you can easily use your imagination when thinking of "big" items.  

I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane and find there are some ideas you can use.  If you missed years 1-3, you can see them here.  Years 4-6 can be found here.

I will be linking my party ideas up on these amazing blogs here.  Be sure to give them a look.  

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My Mothers Day

I hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day.   Mine started out a bit late. My girls said they wanted to make breakfast for everyone, but both tend to be late sleepers.  Once they were woken up and the food was made, breakfast was actually brunch.  

Kara wrote me a very nice poem..

Mom thanks for taking care of me.
Other mother's are nothing compared to you
The Earth isn't as big as your heart!
Helpful, amazing, mom.
Every thing you do I LOVE!
Reach for the stars because you are one of them!

The shiny thing in the picture is a mirror compact that my oldest found in her room. She doesn't remember when she got it, but she thought I would like it.

I love my beautiful tulips! 

The day ended with a nice dinner at Fridays.  I had another appetizer coupon that was going to expire this week.  LOL!  I also wanted to get another Strawberry Field salad.  

Thank you family for a wonderful day!

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