All Aboard! The Polar Express (cookies!)

As I'm getting ready for the holidays, I promised my son that we'd have a Polar Express themed night...

you know...

Hot, Hot, - Hot Chocolate bar with all the toppings

Sleeping bags on the floor

Pjs on

and of course, you need snacks!

So I made...

Polar Express Cookies!!

Snowy, holiday steam trains

Silver sleigh bells

and of course,

a golden Polar Express ticket to ride

stamped "Believe"

 

Time to pop some popcorn and set up the hot chocolate!

 

 

 

Hand-decorated "PE" marshmallows with "Believe" flags...

 

Have a Wheelie Great Birthday!

Monster Truck Madness

6th Birthday!

Monster truck invitations and photo of my little guy

with a Monster truck for hire for the party!

Someone had a wheelie awesome 6th Birthday Party recently!

Front of the invitation envelopes

ready to roll!

His amazing cake!

I made custom Pit Crew passes

for each of the kids to wear....

Monster truck tire cupcakes!

My Route "6" cookie favors

turned out super cute!

Favor bags with custom tags,

Lots of cookie favors,

"Mud Juice" chocolate Yoohoo drinks,

and monster truck display boxes with custom labels

and color-coordinated gumballs!

The birthday boy

in his custom, personalized Birthday shirt from etsy!

Monster truck mylar balloons

checkered black and white balloons

black, white and red pearlized latex balloons

and mylar tire balloons made things coordinated and festive!

We printed out monster truck coloring pages

and had mini trophies at each place setting,

along with their Pit Crew pass!

This party was a blast to put together!

The only bummer was that the monster truck we hired

cancelled one hour before the party!

His trailer broke down en route to the party :(

The kids could've cared less!

They were so busy playing with all of their favors...

monster truck bouncy balls (a HUGE hit!)

flame pencils,

monster truck pull back racers,

racing car chocolates,

monster truck stickers,

monster truck and route sign cookies,

die cast cars,

and I don't even remember what else!

We like to load our guests up!! :)

I hope you enjoyed the pics!!



We have a winner of the Shabby Apple Giveaway!

Thank you to everyone that entered my first giveaway! 

I used Random.org to select the lucky winner. 

Congratulations to Cindy

at

http://hellcatvintage.blogspot.com/. 

She was the winner of the Shabby Apple gift card giveaway!  

Cindy, I'll be contacting you via email for your mailing address so you can receive your prize!

Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful spring so far!

Easter Loveliness

I wanted to share some images of our Easter with all of you.  We had a truly lovely holiday.  I love the freshness of spring ~ the return of color in the landscape.  The sounds of birds and children playing outdoors.  The hope of renewal ~ new leaves on the trees and beautiful, blossoming flowers.

April is one of my favorite months ~ which is why I chose April to get married.  It's such a beautiful time of year, and I'm always especially glad when Easter falls in April! 

I wanted to bring that beauty and joy indoors, with fresh, soft colors that are cheery and evoke happiness.

What could be sweeter than smiling bunnies?

My 5-year old son made me these painted, Easter suncatchers.

We bought them at the dollar store

 and painting them made for a fun and inexpensive holiday activity.

If you follow my blog,
you know how much I enjoy involving little ones
in the holiday spirit.

We always do holiday and seasonal crafts,
like making these painted egg window decorations...

We're HUGE book lovers, so of course holiday books are always on hand...

Another fun activity was baking Easter sugar cookies together
from a favorite recipe.

Mmmm smells so good!

Spring chicks,

Easter eggs,

smiling bunnies,

crunchy carrots,

and colorful spring tulips...

all individually packaged in cellophane bags,

with a variety of pretty spring ribbons.

And of course, dyeing Easter eggs...

And we had to bake traditional,
braided Easter egg bread...

that smells out-of-this world while baking!
and looks so pretty on the table for Easter dinner

...with sweet place settings for each special guest.

Just so sweet :)


There's nothing more lovely than Easter morning.

My little guy was so overjoyed finding his surprises!

And we had a blast on our backyard egg hunt...
with eggs of all sizes,
including mega, ginormous eggs

the eggs even had messages or his name written on them :)

Surprises were everywhere!

The hunt was as much fun as the goodies they held!

And we hadn't even opened his basket inside yet!

Such a blessed, and beautiful day...

Wishing all of you a joyous spring!

Oh, and don't forget to enter my giveway to win

a $50.00 gift card to

Shabby Apple!

deadline to enter is April 15th!

Good luck!!