Photo Booth Cupcake Toppers!

 Madi's Birthday Part 2

For Madi's Birthday since we did not do a big party this year, I thought of a fun idea that Madi could be apart of too in the celebrating of her birthday!  Photo Booths are such the rage right now for Celebrations and parties so I thought it would be fun for her class treat if we did Photo Booth Cupcake toppers!


Madi had so much fun doing this with me.  Madi's class LOVED them too!  She said her teacher kept having everyone show the different designs that they got on their cupcake!

Here are some more shots of the different styles we came up with...

So this is how we did the cupcake toppers:


We went through our costumes & went to the craft store and bought some more accessories to use.

During the photo shoot Aves joined in the Mustache fun...

So did Ivy, But she didn't think the Mustache was very funny...

 

Ok so I joined in the fun too...

next, we printed them off...

Cut them out...

glued lollipop sticks to the back of them and tied some ribbon around them to finish them off!
Voila the Toppers!

So this whole project gave me an idea I wanted to share with you, since it is the end of the school year and you might not be taking treats to school until next year, you could keep this as an idea or if you have a birthday coming up, Wouldn't this be such a fun idea for a whole Birthday Party theme?  Or just a Party in general???


1.You could dress up the birthday person like these toppers and that could be the invite.  
2. Gather a bunch of costumes and props to have a photo booth with the guests at the party.  
3. You could make actual mustaches and lips for the cupcake toppers at the party. 
4. You could give funky glasses for party favors.  


The possibilities are endless.  Just thought I'd give you an idea to grow on!

With Much Love & Gratitude,

F2TF Balloon Launch...

Our Community has been through a journey.  We recently lost a brave young man named Tyler Smith. He battled a rare form of Liver Cancer until it just recently took his life on May 20th, 2012. The Logo that was made for him and his battle with cancer is what you see on this sign above. 

 F2TF stands for Fight 2 The Finish 

 This young man touched many lives.  His family has been supported not only by friends and family and the community, but also by an organization called Anything for a Friend.  During Tyler's last days he expressed to Becky, a representative of Anything for a Friend, that for his funeral he would love to have a balloon launch!  

Tyler was a friend of my boys. He went to school with them. When the call came from my friend Aimee for the need for volunteers to help with this Balloon Launch, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to be apart of something neat like this!

It's Important to do good things!  This was important.  Several of us volunteers met early this morning at 6:30 am.  We helped get 500 balloons ready and were organized into sections.  The balloons were placed on each side of the road all along the route from Tyler's home to the Church where his service was held today. We did this early this morning so his family would ride along this balloon route on their way to the Church and see all the balloons.  His family did not know anything about this!  It was fun to set up the balloons so early this morning for the surprise.  

Here are a few shots of the set up...

Cancer affects us all.  Ryan and his family lost Ryan's amazing brother Kent to cancer two years after 

Ryan and I were first Married.  My beautiful & wonderful cousin Jackie just recently passed away from Cancer last December.  It is important to always remember these individuals and how they have touched our lives and cherish the time we've had to spend with them.  It is also important to support efforts to win the fight against cancer and support others who are fighting cancer and dealing with the loss of a loved one to cancer. I saw this saying on a Shirt, Friends don't let friends fight cancer alone and that is just what this community did. They supported Tyler & the Smith family.  

After the family went by, we needed to get the balloons back to the Church so they would be available for the launch. After an amazing service that Celebrated Tyler's life, we passed out balloons to the crowd and then in a sweet quiet silence, Tyler's mom said, "Let them go..."

If you would like to read more about Tyler and his journey,  his family has a blog: http://fight2thefinish.com/families-are-forever-2/

God Bless you Tyler Smith and the Smith Family.

If you would like to visit the Anything for a friend website, here is the link for that. http://www.anythingforafriend.com/

*On a lighter note, I promise I am still going to post a couple things about Madi's Birthday,  I just wanted to share with you this neat experience we got to participate in today.  It was an honor to be apart of the Celebration of Tyler's Life! 

With Much Love & Gratitude,

Madi's Birthday Part 1...

 Okay!  So this year for Madi's Birthday, we did a lighter birthday celebration.  I usually have parties for my kids every other year or so.  This year was Madi's off year, but I still wanted to do some things for her that made her feel special and let her know what an important part of our family she is.  


For each of the kids' Birthdays, I usually print off pictures of them and put them all over the house.  

I saw this idea on Pinterest and of course I had to try it out!  Instead of putting pictures of Madi all over the house,  I put them on Balloons!

This was sooo fun!  I loved that the pictures on the cardstock were just heavy enough to keep the balloons from floating away!  The Kids loved them too, they said things like, "it looks like a forest!"  and they loved walking through all the strings!


I took  some of  the pictures of madi through the years,  enlarged them to 5x7s, mounted them on cardstock, cut them, punched a hole in the cardstock and tied the balloons to them.  Easy!

Madi loved it too!  She liked looking at all of her shots through the years.

I love this idea.  I'm glad someone thought of it and put it on Pinterest, because it made my Madi feel special!  

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Birthday Celebration that I'm excited to share with you!  It's another fun thing we did for madi for her Birthday that she was able to help me with!  


Hope you feel lifted "UP"!


With Much Love & Gratitude,

What a Weekend!

 Our weekend Highlights: A Birthday for Madi  and a Hospital stay to hydrate a little sick one! 
But after some awesome Hospital care, much needed fluids, a cute blanket, Teddy Bear, and a fun wagon ride out to the car, we got to come home!

We are much much better now!  I have some fun things to share from Madi's Birthday, so once we are settled here, I will post about them!  Thanks so much!


With much Love & Gratitude,

If you Like Yellow...

 Then you'll LOVE this Pillow I just found!

Ok, so I was shopping at Target the other day with the two little ones and ran across this pillow. I'm normally not an impulse buyer, in fact when I first see something, this is my thought process... How much do I love that item? My next thought is... I bet I could make one cheaper  myself!  This pillow just seemed to scream out... Take me Home!  So we did and I love how it brings a fresh feel to every room I put it in!  I love to walk by it, it makes me smile!  

 I Loved it with  our Blue wall...

 And with our Board & Batton Wall too!

Hope you have a happier day now!

With Much Love & Gratitude,

The Winner Is...

 
Congratulations Kim Pedersen!  I will be in contact with you soon for you to claim the prize!  Thanks again to all of you for entering and for your awesome comments! 


With Much Love & Gratitude,

A Quick & Simple Gift Idea...

 So if you have someone you need to give a Spring Gift to, here is a real fast and simple Gift idea...

These are just Dahlia's purchased at Lowe's.  I took some burlap, cut it to a square that would cover the pot and have some left over for looks, cut some ribbon and wrapped them up!  Simple, Quick and Fun!


I've got some more posts to share this week.  I have so many projects and birthdays right now, I'm literally running from one project to the next, {And I LOVE it!}


Stay tuned tomorrow, I will announce the winner of the Chalkboard message center!  Yippie!
(If you haven't already entered, there is still time! ) 


Have a Beautiful Day!
With Much Love & Gratitude,

A HUGE THANK YOU & Happy Mother's Day!

 As I start this post, I have tears in my eyes.  I am absolutely in awe from  the amount of beautiful comments and amazing feedback I have heard from everyone that has stopped by my Blog, has a left a comment on the "ChalkBoard",  has sent me a heartfelt e-mail and has signed up as a Follower!  Thank you Thank you!  I appreciate and love each and every one of your comments!  I hope this can continue to be a fun and uplifting Blog for you to visit and follow!  So again, thank you thank you!


Now onto my Mother's Day Tribute!  For Mother's Day / Woman's Day Weekend, I thought it would be fun to also combine it with my Favorite Photo Find(s) this time.  I couldn't stop at just one photo!

Some years ago I did photography for clients.  Once I had our last two little babies, I had to rearrange things in my life and had to walk away from photography.  It still is a fun hobby/passion of mine!  Since it's Mother's Day Weekend and we are Celebrating our Mothers and ourselves if we happen to be a mom, I thought I would share with you a few pics... I'm just focusing on shots of expecting moms and tiny babies for this find... 


I love in this shot below how the hands frame the new little man that is about to arrive...

I Love being a Mom, I consider it to be such an Honor.  My kids totally fulfill my Life.  They make me laugh.   I Love this shot.  I love shots that are by a window.  I shot this in my family room next to the glass.  It was a rainy day and I felt it helped to make the shot more dramatic. Natural light can add such an effect to a shot...

Being a Mom is probably one of the most demanding and rewarding jobs and I'm glad it's mine.  I love this next shot.  I shot it in natural light.  I love how this mom is so taken with her new little arrival...

 
 I also love shots that aren't perfectly posed.  Love how this little one is just hanging around...

I love those new moments after a baby is born, the moment is kinda surreal and we realize the magnitude of what has just occurred.  I did a fun thing in the hospital when I had Ava. She still had her band on her ankle, so I took the white part of the little Hospital blanket to surround the foot to create a stronger focus and took her over by the Hospital Window, fixed it so our Last name showed in the shot and snapped away... still one of my favs...

I am not only grateful for being a Mom, but so grateful for the Mother I have.  She is Literally the most Beautiful person on the outside as well as within.  If I can only be half the Mom my Mom has been to me, then I'm going to do just fine.  I've said in the past my mom is crafty.  She crocheted this Blessing Dress for our Madi when she was born and we have Blessed all three of our girls in it.  The Dress hangs in the girls room now for display.  It's simply Beautiful.. This is a shot of Ava in the Dress.  I took an old chair I got from my Grandpa Barlow, fixed the light in my front room window and put her in front of the Board and Batton wall to get a textured look for this shot...

A close up of Aves in the Blessing Dress made by my Mom...

 
This next shot of Aves is also one of my favorites.  Ryan was holding her for the shot and  I love how she's slumped over and trying to open one eye... Again taken by the window for a little effect.

I know all of these shots are emotional ones and stir up those sweet moments we have as moms. If I listed everything we do as moms, I would be writing a novel and if I put pictures on about every thing we did as moms and women I would probably need another blog (hee hee).  I love every stage of my kids lives,  I love having teenagers (did i just say that???) all the way to toddlers.   When we are exhausted from chasing little ones, changing diapers, running from dance, to baseball, to karate, it's these sweet moments we think back on when we welcome that new little one into our home.  May you have a Wonderful Mother's Day/Woman's Day Weekend! 

                             (This shot I love of Ava in the Basket.  It again is just taken in our
                            family room, I backed up a bit to get a distance shot for more effect.)


Thanks again for reading,
With Much Love & Gratitude,