My Trunk or Treat Princess Palace

 As an education major, I'm a member of my college's chapter of SPSEA

(Student Pennsylvania State Education Association).

I enjoy it because it gives me a creative outlet and since

I've been so incredibly busy lately, I don't have much time for the creative stuff (booo!).

At any rate, our organization volunteered to participate at a local daycare/pre-school's

Trunk or Treat.  We decided to do a princess theme, which prompted me

to make a super awesome castle - complete with a draw bridge, trees, and a "stone" pathway.

I started out just making the initial tower and then ended up adding the sides later.

I used a huge cardboard box and painted it light grey.

I cut out some cardboard to look like stone or rocks

to make a cute path to the castle.

I painted them grey and then sprinkled some

silver glitter on them....what princess doesn't want a glittery stone path?

Next, I used darker grey paint to make it look like the castle was made of stone.

I used tri-board display boards for the side "wings" of the castle

and painted them the same as the tower.

Originally, I had cut the top of the middle board to look like towers.

Then, for the draw bridge, I cut a door shape out of cardboard and painted it grey.

I cut a door frame out of black poster board for the door.

I used huge plastic chains that looked old.  A friend and I found them in the

Halloween section at Walmart.  They were the last ones.

We quickly scooped them up for my project.

I cut the chain in half and used pipe cleaners to attach them to the

tower and the draw bridge.

isn't that path super cute?

and the castle is adorable so far, right?

But, I wasn't done yet....

Oh no, you know me!

Next I painted some grass and flowers all along the bottom of the castle.

I added some pink caps to the towers and sprinkled some pink glitter on them

I also took a long piece of cardboard and cut it to look like a door header.

For the door header, I painted it with the darker grey and sprinkled tons

of silver glitter on it.

This castle was totally BLINGED out!!

I made some tree cut outs too.

At the trunk or treat we added balloons, little danglers with princesses hanging on them, and some pink and purple glittery tulle to hang from the trunk.

We taped a long green table cloth to the ground and placed balloons along the path

and added my stone pathway.

A friend of mine (also a member) made a super sweet sign

with our organization name on it to display

My friend dressed up as Snow White and I dressed up as an old, fat Cinderella (hahah)

and each of the girls who participated wore crowns as we passed out our treats.

And guess what......

WE WON!!!

for

Most Bootiful Trunk

It was so much fun.

and totally worth the weekend that I lost designing the palace

which now sits on a shelf in my garage with the rest of my projects

anyone remember this gem?

My club won last year too...

it was epic

CandyLand!

I made all those game pieces and gingerbread boys

and yeah that's me in the middle with the crazy pink tinsel wig...hahaha

So many things have been happening around here that's been so hard trying to keep up

but I'll keep trying, because I know some of you out there love reading and hearing

about our fun family adventures.

Sarah and Zach's Graduation

Again, I'm late with the news, events and such...school has me crazy busy.

It's been hard to keep up, but I'm trying.

Here are some pics of Sarah and Zach's high school graduation

(better late than never...)

here they come....

(they were a bit sad that they couldn't walk in together).

diploma time

who are these kids...and where did my itty bitty babies go?

I admit...I cried.

Just so proud of these two and the journey of our life together.

Proud Dad Moment....

Granny came all the way from Georgia to see this momentous event.

my mother in law is marvelous!

This is one of my best friends, Terri.

We became friends shortly after I had the twins.  They are like her babies too,

so we just had to include her on this special day.

They love their "aunt" Terri!

My sister in law and mother in law with our family.

That's a whole lot of Juliani's right there!!

I may be biased, but my kids are totally gorgeous - and they clean up rather well - haha!

we're outta here!!!

Just a little side note -

Sarah is a college freshmen - she chose to study general course as she is  undecided,

and she doesn't quite know what she wants to do as of yet.

She also passed her EMT certification.

Zach chose to take a year off from college and focus on working.  He's saving up to buy his own car and putting money aside for school.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm so thankful to my sweet sister in law, who took all the pictures.

I was so overcome by emotions that almost every picture I took came out blurry. 

Several times, I thought I was taking a picture and actually forgot to click the button. 

It just goes to show that sometimes, you just need to witness special moments with your own two eyes and not through a camera lens. 

I know how weird that must sound coming from someone

who pretty much documents just about every moment of their life. 

But it's true.

My babies just keep growing.....

Nathan recently graduated fifth grade....where has the time gone....seriously!

He will be moving up to the middle high school this coming year.

Part of me is excited for him and for me.

and part of me just wants my baby, my cuddle bug, my little guy back....

you know as a mom, how difficult these growing days can be.

It's not easy, that's for sure.

These last few months have been super busy and also flying by faster then I can keep up

Not only did Nathan graduate, but so did the twins (I'll be sharing that soon enough).

My sweet mother in law and sister in law traveled from Georgia to help us celebrate

these very special, momentous occasions.

Thank goodness for my sister in law, because I was so excited by watching my baby walk across 

the stage that I forgot to take pictures.

So thankful, she was able to capture it on her phone.

Nathan with the school superintendent, the middle school and the elementary principals

Nathan with his fifth grade teacher

Nathan and one of his best friends doing the dab thing...whatever that is

and here,I thought I was hip - but I just don't get the dab thing...

oh well

Nathan with my mother in law and Rich

Nathan with Granny 

Nathan with Aunt Christine

We celebrated at Pizza Hut...Nathan's choice.

selfies with mom...

I wish I could just bottle up those memories and place them on a shelf and when the desire hits me,

that I could just open a bottle and replay those memories right before my eyes....and I don't mean in

 video form...I mean as if I were and we were still at that stage in life.

in real time - someone needs to invent a machine that can do this...

you know, kind of like a star trek holodeck type thing.