Fun Stuff

We had Amanda's graduation party Saturday. 

(I made this bunting with the school colors - blue & gold)

Family, Friends & Fun

(my twin brother Charlie with his wife Amy and daughter Paige)

It lasted all day...2 p.m. to well past midnight

People came and went all day long.

She and her friends started a bonfire and made s'mores, after it got dark

They had "Just Dance" competitions

The little ones had Nerf gun battles (inside and outside)

And hide -n- seek

(I didn't say they were very successful, did I?)

(Amanda wanted lots of blue and gold, since her college colors are now blue and gold too)

And we had Cupcakes!!

I'm still exhausted......

Busy

I've been busy this week....decluttering. 

I have been a tossing, bagging fool!

I loaded up 9 bags of clothes for Goodwill

Made 3 trips to unload

*

Every.Single.One of our trash cans (and we have like 10 of them) is filled to the max and waiting on the curb for the garbage men to haul away.

*

I have washed and washed and washed laundry...almost caught up with it all too.

*

I've been preparing for Amanda's graduation party

*

Planting the garden, it's finally stopped raining enough to plant it

*

I've been wearing my black & white referee shirt ;)

*

Touching up paint

*

Making some decorations for the party

*

The boys are finishing up their baseball games

*

We've had sleep overs, gone to sleep overs

*

I've gone through almost every storage box of junk in the garage and reduced it and then re-labeled them

......and sadly, there is still tons of stuff to be done around here, maybe I can come out and play next summer?

She Did It. . . .

Amanda GRADUATED high school!!

Her future plans are to attend college and major in pharmacy.

She won several scholarships and grants (including one that only 2 students received at the graduation ceremony).

We couldn't be prouder!

*******************************************************************

Just for fun.........

Congratulations Manda...We hope you achieve all your dreams and more!

Love, Daddy, Mom, Anth, Sis, Zach, Nicky and Nate

Painted Kitchen Table & Chairs

After painting the kitchen white and grey, it looked really fresh and bright.  Our old kitchen table and chairs looked sorta sad and boring in comparison.  Not to mention that they took years of abuse from the kids...paint splatters, dirt and grime, koolaid stains.  I always had to use a table cloth to cover the table because it looked so nasty.

(Before)

I suggested to Rich that we paint them....never in a million years did I think he would say yes.  Not only did he say okay, but he was willing to run out and buy the paint that day LOL.  I knew I wanted something bright and fun, but I didn't think just plain white would look right, when there was already so much white in there. 

(After)

So I chose a bright sunny yellow with white trim. They look so beautiful now....fresh and new. I'm super happy with the results. 

CUPCAKES ~ Red, White & Blue style

To celebrate Memorial Day, even though I had to work, I baked up some super awesome red, white and blue cupcakes. 

I used white cake mix and divided it into three portions, white, red and blue.  I put one spoonful of each batter into the paper liners and baked according to the package directions.

Sooooo Pretty!!

I took some to work to share.

What goodies did you make for the holiday?

Linking to.....

My Ice Cream Kings

Our book this week was called The Ice Cream King by Steve Metzger.  It's about a little boy who LOVES his ice cream and dreams about living in a world of such creamy delight.  In the end, he thinks the best thing about ice cream is sharing it with someone he loves.  We LOVE ice cream too and this was a super cute book with fun and bright illustrations by Julie Downing.

For our craft project, we made some puffy paint (you can find the recipe here) and used food coloring to make the paint pink, mint green, chocolate brown and left some white for vanilla.  I used a paper bag and cut out some triangles to use as cones, which we glued to construction paper and then used the puffy paint to make some super cute ice cream paintings.

(they also used some foam ice cream shaped stickers and made a collage with them).

We made some homemade ice cream in a bag (you can find the recipe here).  I would recommend using a little more sugar than what the recipe calls for, because our's was a wee bit bitter.  I'd also do this outside, because the boys went a little wild shaking their bags and I had water (melted ice) flying everywhere....but they had a BLAST making this....a fun little science experiment and something we will definitely try again this summer.

You will need ice, storage and sandwich ziploc bags, sugar, vanilla, milk and rock salt (our's was "Morton's ice cream salt" in a red box).

Later, Nicholas, Nathan, Zachary, Anthony and I (the girls were off doing other things) had some fun making our own SUNDAES.

Fun Times......we are SO Ready for SUMMER to begin - only one more week left of school!

*Disclosure: I received this book from Tiger Tales for review purposes and was not compensated in anyway.  The opinions and projects herein are my own.

Linking to.....

A Mommy's Adventures

Red Ted's Art - Kids Get Crafty

Read Explore Learn

The Head's Office