I've had a bug...

...the crafty/creative bug! I'm pretty sure this is partly due to the fact that I joined Pinterest, a virtual bulletin board where people can share their own collections of ideas. Several of the people I follow have do-it-yourself boards, and the creative juices just got flowing in me!

A couple weeks ago I made a cake for our friend Noah's first birthday. His parents call him "monkey," and asked me to design it based on Noah's room decor. Here's a picture of the inspiration: and here is the cake: The cake was delicious, and it turned out just how I'd pictured it. I love it when that happens! Then last week I went to a baby shower and decided to give the honoree some homemade, embellished burp cloths (cloth diapers with fabric and ribbon attached). They turned out really well, so I made some for my friend Anne's baby Lucy! Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of that project, so you'll just have to take my word for it that they were precious! On to the next craft...last night we had a preseason "tailgate" party (in quotes because we weren't actually using a tailgate...just a tailgate-style party) for our fellow Michigan football fans, so I decided to make some fun treats: football-shaped Oreo balls and Michigan football helmet cake balls! They were a big hit, and I was really happy with the way they turned out. Here's what the helmet looks like, for those of you who may not know the iconic winged helmet: and here are the cake balls and Oreo balls: This morning Bryan had to go out of town for a meeting, so I thought it would be fun to do a project with the kids. We peeled our broken crayons, broke the into small pieces, put them in a mini-muffin tin and melted them down to make rainbow crayon discs! I'd seen these several times over the years, but never tried it myself. It was a huge success! Peeling the paper off the crayons occupied us for about an hour, and Andrew loved that he was actually given permission to break something, ha! Both kids were so excited to watch the crayons melt in the oven, and thought it was the coolest thing when the rainbow crayons were done. They are indeed pretty cool! It's fun to be creative! I wonder what my next project will be?!

Don't faint!!

I'm actually posting something!! I knew I'd been neglecting my blog this summer, but I didn't realize I hadn't posted anything in May, June or July! Yikes! Therefore, I'll do a quick update of what we've been up to for the last three months.

May

• Grandma and Grandpa came to visit! We took them to the Toledo Zoo so they could ride the infamous zoo train (Andrew always talks about it!) with us. We loved having them here!
  
• We celebrated our 10th anniversary! The whole family went on our biannual (every two years, right?) trip to Kauai, and Bryan and I had the treat of going to a different hotel for two nights to have a "real" getaway! The kids especially loved being in the pool this time.
• Andrew finished up his first year at Teddy Bear Daycare. We attended parent night, where each class does a little performance; Andrew's class "sang" and "danced" (intentional quotes, people) to Who Let the Dogs Out, which Andrew happens to LOVE...however, he must've been shell-shocked by the large audience, as he just stood there staring the whole time. He did look stinkin' cute in his accessories, though!

June

• Amelia finished Kindergarten! She had a wonderful school year and it's amazing to see how much she's grown physically and intellectually in the last nine months.
• I had a great time helping host (and make a cake for!) my dear friend Anne's baby shower. It was such a fun event, and the cake was a hit!
• We said a sad "see ya later" to our dear friends (and the kids' surrogate grandparents) Terry and Paula. We hate that we can't see them often anymore, but are so happy for them that they get to finally move back home, close to their kids, grands and great-grands!
• Anne and I went to see Taylor Swift live in concert. It was a fun, girly time (after we almost missed it because of the crazy traffic and parking!). The funniest thing to me was seeing how many dads were most likely dragged there with their daughers!
• Our cherry tree produced a gigantic load of cherries that we happily picked, used, and froze. Cherry preserves for Christmas!
  

July

• We had dear friends in town for 4th of July weekend and went to the Greenfield Village Celebration of America concert. It was fantastic music provided by the Detroit Symphony, beautiful fireworks, and wonderful fellowship! We also had friends over for dinner for the 4th and cooked up a delicious spread, including a homemade cherry pie made with the cherries from our tree!
• We had fun playing in the slip 'n' slide...Andrew's first time at it!
• Our area had the hottest July in 135 years; we had highs above 95 (including one day at 100 with a heat index of 114) for a whole week, which NEVER happens in Michigan. Of course, our air conditioner decided to go out near the end of that week and we couldn't have it fixed for a couple days, so our good friends the Stecks graciously took us in and kept us cool until we could go back home. Thank the Lord for good friends!
• My college roommate (and dear friend) Martha came to visit with her two kids while her husband and my husband were each working out of town for the week. The kids loved playing together, and it was so nice to have another mom to commiserate with! We try to make a point to see each other at least once a year, and we always treasure and look forward to those times.

So now (if you stuck with me) you're up to speed on our life. Not much earth-shattering has happened, but I can't believe the summer's almost over! The kids go back to school Sept. 6, so they've only got 4 1/2 more weeks of freedom, ha! Hope all is well with you and yours! Check out a slideshow of some pics of our summer below.

This digital slideshow generated with Smilebox

A Fancy Night

A couple months ago at our Life Group, some of the girls and I started talking about Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding and whether we were going to watch. I knew I was going to, and several others were as well, so I decided to throw a royal wedding-watching tea party! We had it last night (we recorded everything so we could pick and choose which parts we wanted to watch) and it was fabulous!! We had tea, scones, cake balls, English cookies, chocolate-covered strawberries, nuts, chocolate, and even had a champagne toast! We all enjoyed watching the beautiful ceremony and commenting on the unique and daring hats the spectators wore. We also had fun playing a trivia game to see who knew the most about the Royal family, and voted on which party attendee had the best hat. Most of all, though, we enjoyed getting to dress up (dress code was Sunday best and a hat!) and have some girl time! I think we may not wait for another royal wedding to have our next tea party!

the spread

tables

table close-up

me!

lovely ladies in their lovely attire: Emily and Amanda...

...Julie (winner of best hat!)...

...Wendy (who won the trivia game and the prize: a $5 replica of Kate's ring!)...

...Joy...

...Becky's crazy hat...

...and Becky's real hat!

Thanks, ladies, for a fancy, fabulous time!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from us! Even though Easter was really late this year, it seems like it kind of snuck up on me. Last Saturday we went to our church's egg hunt, which the kids LOVED, as you can see...

Cotton Candy

Egg roll! Amelia's broke...

But Andrew's didn't (well he did cheat a bit, ha)!

My purple bunny

Andrew only picked up blue eggs, for some reason. Hmmm.

Amelia had Friday off of school, so we dyed eggs! Both kids had a lot of fun watching the eggs change colors and decorating them with stickers.

lots of options for colors

Amelia's favorite...the purple one

Andrew's favorite...the "red" one

You know how when you're a kid, and even when you are an adult (before you have kids), there are things you say you'll never do to your kids? Well...one of those things for me was making my daughter sleep with her hair in sponge rollers. Every Saturday night (for church the next morning), my mom would roll my wet hair in sponge rollers while she watched M.A.S.H. and Fantasy Island. I hated sleeping in those things because they hurt!! The next morning my hair would be very cute and curly, but I decided that was something I wouldn't need to pass along. Fast forward to the present, and I have indeed sponge-rolled Amelia's hair. However, I think the few times I've done it, it's been in the morning for something later that day. So...guess what I ended up doing last night??

Ah...memories!! However, at least I participated in her pain (well, sort of):

But look at the results below...so cute! Oh, and Andrew's not bad himself. ;-)

Excited about the toys in their baskets

my beautiful girl

my handsome (goofy!) boy

I hope your Easter was as great as ours. We had a great day celebrating the resurrection! Blessings to you on this great day!

Signs of Spring

Well, I just noticed that all of March went by with no post. Such was March! There wasn't a whole lot exciting going on last month, just our day-to-day stuff, and after looking at my picture folder for March, it's pretty sad...almost no pictures last month! Oops! I guess a late return to the blog is better than never, no?

I've said many times that I really like the weather here in Michigan...until about the end of February. By then, I'm just DONE with cold and snow, and I know there are still a good two months or so where it's not only a possibility, it's the likely forecast. Well now it's April, and things are looking up! Sunday it was 83 here (practically summer!) and everyone was out. Our Life Group meets Sunday nights; all the kids were playing outside and the adults enjoyed hanging out on the deck. It was such a great reminder that it does eventually get warm here! Of course those warm temps didn't last long, but at least we're warming up. This week I noticed some sure signs of spring!

Rain gear: it's been very wet here! By the way...
doesn't Andrew look a bit like the Gorton's fisherman?

A little windy, but still a great day for the park!

Buds on the lilacs!

Buds on the hydrangeas!

Fletcher is SO enjoying going outside to wiggle around in the grass.

For some of you it's probably been springy for a while, but please accept our very heartfelt greeting: happy spring!!

Mandrew's birthday

Yes, you read correctly: Andrew's nickname (well at least what Bryan calls him) is "Mandrew." Mandrew just celebrated his third birthday this weekend. Time flies, and this little man is definitely no baby anymore! He is making great strides in potty training, doing very well staying in his big boy bed, and constantly amazes us with the things he says and does. We didn't do a "kid" birthday party for him (a bit overwhelming, I think) but we did our traditional family + friends birthday dinner at Red Robin. Andrew was SO excited to eat his ice cream! He also had a little celebration with his friends in his class at school. Here are some pictures!

Birthday treat: cupcake pops...my new favorite thing to make! Check out this book and this website for more info.

The finished product...cute and delicious! They were strawberry flavored, inside.

Andrew's party at school; his class painted the banner behind him!

Getting ready to sing, light and blow out the candles

Red Robin birthday sundae!

My valentines

These three are my valentines, the most important three people in my life.

This goofy little guy brightens my day with his sweet spirit and frequent hugs. He always makes us laugh!

This girl is super-smart, loves her some hot chocolate, and is always eager to help out. I'm so proud of her!

This handsome fellow (with his loving wife) is a fantastic dad, the best friend in the world, and I love him more every day.

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm thankful for you three, and thankful for you, my friendly readers!