celebration ice cream cake

We recently returned from a ten day trip to California. Before we left, we had a little birthday celebration for Ella with some of her giggly, silly, darling schoolmates. I hadn't planned on a "friends" party, but Ella must have caught me on a good day and I agreed, even though it was quite late in the game.

a simple treat: rice krispie pops

My Ella Bella turned SEVEN years old this week. I'm amazed at how quickly she's growing up. She's certainly grown-up enough to make the big decisions in life, like what she wants for a classroom treat on her birthday.

RS birthday celebration 2013

Our annual Relief Society birthday celebration was last week and I would chock it up as a great success. Our theme was "Small and Simple Things."

valentine's in a box

I love, love, love everything about Valentine's Day--the colors pink & red together, chocolate, ribbon, flowers, chocolate, smooches, and having the opportunity to let my awesome hubs and family know how much I love and adore them. And chocolate. :)

This year, I really wanted to put together something sweet and simple for my daughter Kate, daughters-in-law Ashlee, Daniela, and Tayler, and a couple of my favorite girlfriends.

celebrate: meeting Ella's birth parents

I've shared just a small portion of our adoption story in past posts. I am so grateful to those who have responded. Your comments have given us such hope and encouragement. Thank you!

Our story continues.

About six months ago, we realized that Ella was "stuck" in her play therapy. I remember telling her therapist, Erin, "If I have to play out that story one more time I'm going to freak!" (At that time I was also in the playroom with Ella during therapy.)

Erin just laughed. She asked if I was really ready for a change. I knew what that meant. With change comes emotion. Not just a little emotion, A LOT of emotion from our Ella--spewing everywhere, especially in my face.

Erin could see that Ella had parts of her story that were missing, and suggested we fill in the blanks. We all met together and with a stack of pictures and photos, unfolded Ella's story before her eyes. Erin explained each part so Ella could understand. It was hard to listen to all she had been through when she was so little. Ella was pretty quiet--and then hyper--as she took it all in.

Yes, there was a fall-out--as expected--but it was also very helpful. Ella had very strong, painful emotions associated with her mother, but I was the only mother she remembered. Now she could see, that it wasn't me who hurt her so deeply.

Fast forward, and Ella starts asking more questions about her birth parents. Why did they make bad choices? Do they still make bad choices? She wondered if she wasn't with them because "she wasn't born right." That seriously broke my heart. I could see the little wheels turning in her head and her self-worth being impaired.

We thought perhaps it was time for Ella to "meet" her birth parents. I say meet, only because she didn't remember them. She had pictures and had actually talked to her birth father, Sean, a couple of times, but was still struggling with whether they were "real".

The big day.

For days, Ella shared her feelings as excited, but also nervous. I'd tell her, "Me too!" and we'd giggle. We explained to Ella that she could change her mind at any time and cancel the meeting.

Ella chose to meet at the Family Support and Treatment Center. I was hesitant, but Erin explained it was a very understandable choice, because she feels safe there and it's where she deals with hard things. (Yep, my issue again. :))

Boy, I was pretty serious about getting this right! :)

celebrate | madilyn's fairy party

My granddaughter, Madi, turned four a few weeks ago. Her party was at our house, since she just moved to Idaho and hasn't made many friends there yet. It won't take long though, she's a little jabber jaws and makes friends very easily. :)

celebrate: family festival at Cedar Hills, UT

Our weekend was crazy. Crazy fun. Not only was it Father's Day, but our little city has the Family Festival every year and both happened to fall on the same weekend. The Family Festival has a carnival, movie and dinner in the park, band night, a fun run, a baking contest, parade and great fireworks. The fire department also shoots off their hoses for the kids to play in--always a favorite--but we didn't make it this year. (Don't tell the girls.) It's small town fun. Here's a little peek at our festivities. (*Heads up: lots of photos.)

Heading out for the parade.

a simple teacher appreciation gift

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week at our school. Ella's teacher, Debbie Reiber, is one of those exceptional, amazing and gifted teachers. She's been a huge blessing to all of us. She's loving yet firm, consistent, and her classroom is very structured. These qualities are so important to help children feel safe. But she's also fun and creative, which makes learning a joy for her students. We couldn't appreciate her more.

cooking club: Oreo cake bites

I had a bunch of friends ask where they could order the cake bites we served at Patrick and Ashlee's reception. Apparently they were amazingly delicious. I wouldn't know, I never got the time to taste one. Even more surprising, neither did Ashlee. And she helped make all 350 of them! She confessed she was on the LGN (look good naked) diet at the time. :) She cracks me up.

celebrate: look who's three!

Our sweet little granddaughter, Madilyn, turned three last week. She loves to have her nails done, so Kate decided to give her a nail spa party. She made arrangements with the nail place she has her own nails done to have each of the party guests get a manicure and pedicure.

father's day fun

I told Lynn he couldn't read my blog until after Father's Day so I could share some fun ways to celebrate his special day. There are so many great ideas out in blogland for Father's Day, but these two are my favorite:

1. Lynn really wants an iPad and has been saving for one. He's close. Instead of giving him gifts, we're all pitching in to get him closer to his goal. He would be there, but Elles played with Grammy's iPad in California--for hours!--and now Lynn needs to get the more expensive one (at his MIL's insistance) so Ella and Grammy can talk together. Yes, we're all sad for him! :)

high five!

Our Ella Bella turned five on Friday.

We may have to try the "five" photo again. :) But this is so her.

We kept things pretty low key, but here's the run-down.

We woke her up by singing "Happy Birthday." She moaned and rolled over. Then we reminded her there were gifts to open.

I re-purposed the banner from Ella's adoption party...

and added this one I'd made for a class display for Super Saturday.

a cupcake day

Daddy,
You are the sprinkles on my cupcake. Happy Birthday!
Love, Ella-Bella

made by Ella

our madi moo just turned two!

We had a delightful party for Madilyn's second birthday this weekend. She's growing up way too fast!

The birthday girl.

father's day celebration

I think I have the greatest husband in the world. I also think he's a wonderful father.

I'm so grateful to be doing this parenting thing all over again with him. I couldn't do it otherwise. Ella loves and adores him. They have so much fun together. She was excited to give him his gifts in the morning. (Check out her bed head.)

I asked Ella what she wanted to give Lynn for Father's Day. Her first suggestion was a sprinkler. (She loves to run through the sprinklers.) I told her he already had one. She said, "Okay, a trampoline then." I suggested that maybe it was her who wanted a trampoline. She assured me she and Dad would share. Well, he received a gift card, a movie he wanted and a new outdoor George Foreman grill. Ella picked out a cute card for him.

One of our traditions is that we get to choose what we want for dinner and dessert on our special day. Lynn chose Monterey Chicken. (I almost forgot to take a photo again, but yelled, "Stop!" as everyone was eating so I could. Kate had the biggest piece so I used hers. Check it out here. You're going to want to make it!

For dessert Lynn asked for Homemade Oreo Cookies. One word--addictive!

Here's the recipe:

(Click to enlarge) Just kidding. It doesn't work, so here's the recipe big. I'm still leaving the photo and recipe together because I love the way it looks.

HOMEMADE OREO COOKIES

1 box deluxe devil's food cake mix (I like Betty Crocker brand)
3/4 c. Crisco butter-flavored shortening, melted
2 eggs
cream cheese frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients until they pull away from sides of bowl. Roll dough into 1" balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake on top rack for 4 minutes and bottom rack another 4 minutes. Allow to cool. Scoop cream cheese frosting on flat side of one cookie; top with another and press together to spread frosting.

A few tips for making these delish cookies:
Use the small Pampered Chef scoop filled right to the rim with dough to get perfectly even-sized cookies. (You'll also get exactly 42 single cookies.) Also use it for the frosting. I scoop it just a little over the top and plop it in the middle of the cookie, then work it around with the other half to get it evenly spread. Lynn bought the whipped frosting by accident and I actually like it much better.

When the boys were young, I made a jumbo-sized version of these cookies once for all the scouts and leaders when they went on a camp out. It became a tradition and I ended up making them every time. Good memories.

Happy Father's Day, Hon. I love you more than chocolate!

***Photo Club girls: These are my "food" photo submissions from last month.

last of the pinkalicious fun: game and goodie bags

I posted the bingo game I created for the party in an earlier post. It was a mini version so the girls could win quickly. I gave them their goodie bags as the prizes.

Ella loves games, as long as she's winning. :)

Dad was the official bingo card caller. I couldn't have done the party without his help. He's awesome.

The goodie bags.

Elle showing off her goodies. The girls couldn't wait to get their hands on them. Sienna put a marker on every single square of her bingo card just to make sure she won. So cute!

Because some of my girlfriends want to know all the details of the party, here's what was in the bag: a matching pink pearl necklace and bracelet (Target dollar spot before Easter), a fairy wand, a pink ring pop and cotton candy Lip Smackers. I put everything in cellophane bags and tied them with sheer pink ribbon. A lot of the girls wore their jewelry to church on Sunday.

I know there are a lot of posts, but overall, it was a pretty simple party. It was planned for one and a half hours, but we were done with everything after an hour. The girls just played the rest of the time.

Sweet little memories.

Ella's self-portrait that greeted her guests. Thanks to all her friends who made it such a pinkalicious day!

pinkalicious fun: craft

There's a part in the Pinkalicious story where the little girl who has turned pink blends in with a patch of pink peonies at the park. Soon she's surrounded by bees, butterflies and birds.

I was trying to come up with a simple and doable craft for 3-4 year olds and found white chipboard butterflies at Scrapbook USA for 10 cents each. That's not a typo. They're from Making Memories too. I punched out dots from pink sparkly paper and bought some clear gems at Micheal's in the dollar section. We made these:

Ella loves crafts. I'm sure you can imagine how happy that makes me. She was so excited when she saw the sample I made up, she kept wanting to create one right away.

I ran the sparkly dots through my Xyron to make them stickers. That took some time but made things so much easier in the end.

The girls enjoyed making them even more than I thought they would.

pinkalicious fun: cupcakes

It wouldn't be a true Pinkalicious party without the pink cupcakes. We ordered these from Dippidee in American Fork. They're the fun-size so they're perfect for little ones.

They were white cake with pink frosting and pink sparkly sprinkles.

Love these little plates and napkins. I bought them on clearance at Target months ago. Couldn't resist the pink and the polka dots and knew I'd use them for some occasion.
                            

Ella goes straight for the frosting.

Mykel is going to love this. Kate misses the cupcake all together! :)

Sweet little Lizzy.

Our adorable granddaughter, Madi. Ella has started calling her Mads.

more pinkalicious fun: balloon flowers

I saw these balloon flowers on another blog and fell in love with them! I knew I had to have them for Ella's party. There were no instructions, so I asked my friend, Mr. Google, for help. As usual he came through. I did change one thing on the instructions. Design-wise it makes more sense to have an odd number of petals, so I did five instead of six like on the original instructions. (I know, once a designer, always a designer!)

I hung these puffy ones along the porch.

And had a few more daisy-style inside.

I like the second style much better. The difference is the balloon size. The puffy style uses all 12" and the daisy style uses 7". I didn't realize I'd purchased a different size until I started blowing them up. And I could only find packages of all pink balloons at the two stores I went to in the 12" size. If I had more time I might have searched out the 7".

I had so many people ask where I got the flowers and even had a lady stop to inquire. One neighbor said she and her daughters drove by the house twice to check them out. They are so simple to make. Here are the directions:

Step 1: Cut two circle templates from chipboard, one approximately 6" across and the other 4" across.

Step 2: Blow up five pink balloons (or the flower petal color of your choice), making sure they fit through the 6" hole template. (This assures they're all the same size. Cool, huh?) Blow up two yellow balloons (or the flower center color of your choice), making sure they fit through the 4" template. (Hint: Husbands make great balloon-blower-uppers.)

Step 3: Tie one set of two balloon petals together.

Step 4: Tie another set of three balloon petals together.

Step 5: Tie the two balloon centers together.

Step 6: Wrap the two balloon petals around the three balloon petals once at the center. Spread out petals so they lay flat. (On the puffy flower, they didn't stay flat until I added the center.)

Step 7: Wrap the balloon centers around the five balloon petals once, so there's one on each side.

I used fishing line to hang the flowers. I found the balloons lose their shine after a couple of days, so it's best to make them the day before or day of the party or occasion. Be sure to send me a photo if you end up making them.

pinkalicious fun: banners

I love making banners for special occasions. I made one for Kate's baby shower in pink and green to match her colors and a pink and orange one for Ella's adoption celebration. They've become very popular now. I made two for Ella's pinkalicious party. The first one was just simple flags.

My favorite part is choosing the coordinating papers to use. I tried using only pink and white patterns, but it was very boring. I ended up adding some other patterns that each had pink in them.

I love adding a rectangular flag to the mix to break things up. I had Ella draw a picture of herself and sign her name, then added a sparkly crown. I'll use it later in her scrapbook.

I added a large, layered silk flowers with a big gem in the center to one of the flags on Ella's adoption celebration banner. Loved it!

The second banner was a little more fancy schmancy, but still very simple.

I love the white scallops and mix of squares and circles.

My friend Michelle, has this cupcake shape on one of her Cricut cartridges. It worked perfectly. The pink frosting is sparkly paper and I added a gem for the flame.

I die cut the scalloped squares, circles, letters and number at Pebbles in my Pocket. They measure about 5 1/2" each. Pebbles also has the center circle die cut, but I didn't have my paper with me so I cut my own at home. After I assembled each piece, I punched  holes on each side and tied them together using grosgrain ribbon.

Ella thought it was wonderful (especially the cupcake, of course.) and it was darling as a backdrop for photos while opening gifts.