What's on my Happy List Today?

Last Day of School- This day always comes with mixed emotions for me. We are all excited for the break from the school routine, the possibility of sleeping in and the lazy summer days that await us. On the other hand, I wonder where the time has gone and how the school year could possibly go by so quickly. For some reason on this day, it hits me extra hard how fast the kids are growing up. In many ways I want things to stay the same but knowing they can't, nor should they, I get a little sentimental and feel like shedding a tear or two. Here are the girls on the first day of school last August (above) and 9 months later on the last day of school. (below)

The girls received some great awards today in the school assembly..two were awarded a certificate in recognition of scoring in the top ten percent nationally in the Iowa testing..one high academic award...one outstanding citizenship award and one for story writing. Way to go girls! To celebrate we went to Mimi's Cafe for lunch. Grandma C. and daddy joined us in the fun. We've been collecting several of these Mimi Cafe certificates throughout the school year which are valid for a complimentary kid's meal. So all the kids ate free. Pretty good deal I'd say.

I love going to Mimi's! Gee, I wonder why? I love the French decor as you can imagine and wanted to take this menu and Paris sign off the wall and take it home with me.

We took the girls to B & N after we ate to use their $10 gift cards that Kyleigh and Emma received with their school awards. Back to back visits to Barnes and Noble was great, as I was just there yesterday, but going with Brie is another experience altogether. She was the nosiest customer of the day I'm sure and when she announced she wanted to take her dress and shoes off.... we bailed! This child would run around in her diaper all day long without a care in the world. I'll leave that though for another blog on learning to pick your battles. Here is little Brie Olivia at the restaurant and at B & N.

Visiting Teaching- I have the best Visiting Teachers! They are so faithful at coming to visit or making contact with me each month. (It helps that one of them is a very good friend of mine.) Last week she brought her favorite General Conference talk to share with me which was by Elder David A. Bednar...Ye Must Be Born Again...He talked about the process of personal spiritual rebirth and likened it to the process that a pickle goes through to become a cucumber...calling it the pickle parable. My visiting teacher brought me a jar of pickles to go along with the message. How cute was that? I'm a sucker for these creative visual teaching aides and wanted to do the same message for my visiting teachers this month. She willingly agreed that I could copy her idea. I dressed up these jars of pickles and gave them to the three ladies that I visit, along with the copied off conference report that they can read at their leisure. I really try to be a faithful visiting teacher and I could honestly say that if I would have been taking pictures of all the things that I've given my Visiting Teachers over the years I could have my own Visiting Teaching Gallery. Maybe I'll start one now.

Graduation Gifts- I am the proud aunt to TWENTY nieces and nephews, several niece and nephew-in-laws and a great aunt to two with two more on the way. It makes me sound old putting it out there like that but I'm really only 34 so some of these kids were more like brothers and sisters to me. Anyway, I have two nieces and one nephew graduating from high school so tis is the season for buying graduation gifts...I sent this ivory/clear bead jewelry set to my niece in Ohio. It looks like just something that she would wear. I love it and wouldn't mind one for myself actually. Don't even ask though how I got a picture of this when I didn't take one before I sent it to her. (You'll think I'm a nut ball knowing the effort I went through to get this and no, she didn't send the pic to me!)


The other niece is graduating next week. I have something up my sleeve to put together for her but will have to post later on that.

And now to my nephew who graduated tonight. I had a little more trouble deciding what to do for him. What do you get a 18 yr. old boy?!?!? I know he loves nachos so I did a little Mexican theme gift....all the things necessary to make his own yummy nachos as well as giving him a Cafe Rio gift certificate so that he can take his girlfriend out to dinner. I added fresh peppers tied with twine for an added touch.

and finally....the quote of the day....I want to get into your brain....said to me today by one of my girlfriends.

What's on my Happy List today?

End of School Year Thank You's

Aren't these cute? I got this idea at one of my favorite scrapbook stores. They make great little thank you's. The fun part is that you can do the card in any color scheme and they have jars and jars of any kind of succor you can imagine to match your paper colors. You can also write a personalized note on the back. We plan on giving these to the school secretary and to the two crossing guards at the school. They are there day in and day out, quietly doing their job.... We love to wave at them when we pass in our car. We made a different one for the principal. He is turbo about M&M's. You should see his office filled with M&M memorabilia...So we obviously couldn't put anything in the bag but those for him! We used them to also put in two teacher's Barnes and Noble gift cards....more on that down below....

Barnes and Noble and Teacher Gifts- Can I tell you how much I love Barnes and Noble.....seriously, if I were to be accidentally locked in a store somewhere for the night...this is the place I would want to be. Not only would I have a plethora of books, magazines and music at my fingertips but yummy desserts as well. The B & N cafe has one of my favorite treats that can certainly be found on my happy list. They are the coffee-free blended cremes in different flavors that are so yummy that I can't help treat myself when I get a chance to go to this, my favorite bookstore. (Especially in the fall when they have Pumpkin flavor.)

They also carry delicious Cheesecake Factory goodies such as cheesecake (of course), cupcakes and other sinful treats. But the main reason I love B & N is that I enjoy reading and have an absolute love for children's books. It's borderline obsession really, as I get as excited as my kids do when the scholastic book order fliers come home with them from school. (Another item on my happy list for sure.) Collecting children's books is a serious hobby around here. Not only do I, of course, read adult books but I have found in the last few months to have found much enjoyment in reading some of these children's literature finds....

With the end of the school year approaching, I found myself at B & N today looking for a children's book to add to my daughter's first grade teacher's enormous book collection. In the past we have loved finding her books that have a coordinating stuffed animal or book character that goes with the book. She is THE queen of children's book and puppet collecting. Go to one of her infamous "Reading Hours" throughout the year and you'll see why.

This is the book I found to give Hannah's teacher for her end of the year teacher gift. It's called "PINKALICIOUS" and it's about a little girl who turned the color pink from eating too many PINK cupcakes. I obviously had to add a PINK Cheesecake Factory Cupcake to go with. As my older girls are in the upper grades I thought it would be safer to just give a B & N gift card to their teachers this year and hold off on the cutesy stuff. Sometimes gift cards are boring for me to give but if I can be creative with the packaging then I'm okay with it. Plus what teacher wouldn't like to be able to pick out any book she needed or wanted?!?! However, if I know the teacher well enough and know what makes them tick or know certain subjects that my child has studied throughout that year in their class; than we will pick out a book that the teacher can keep in their classroom and have for future students to utilize. For instance, last year in the fourth grade, Kyleigh played the role of Helen Keller during American Hero week as well as studied a unit on Native Americans, which is a subject her teacher is passionate about. So picking out books for her teacher was easy, we found a biography on Helen Keller to give to her so she would remember Kyleigh playing in that role and added another bio on a famous Indian. One year a teacher gave my daughter Emma, a book called "Only Emma". So to return that kind gesture, at the end of the year, we gave that teacher the classic "Emma" by Jane Austen. It really was sorta touching.....I love books, and they make great gifts!!!

What's in my Wallet?

Self Portrait Tuesday Challenge- Okay, I simply couldn't pass the opportunity up to talk about what is in my wallet BECAUSE that ultimately leads me to talk about what is in my PURSE. But which one?!?

My Vegas purse.....

My summer white bling...

My winter red Prada....

Okay, I'll stop but you know me and purses.... They are high on my list as one of my favorite things! I'd have a ton more if I didn't have to answer to my daughter's (and husband's) inquiries as to why I possibly need another purse! Well, in my defense, depending on mood and/or outfit coordination issues, purses should and can be subject to change on a daily basis... so can one really have too many of them? It's more about the actual purse itself for me, rather than what's in it but in honor of the SPT challenge, here is what you would most likely find in one my purses on any given day....and this pinkity-striped Kate Spade purse is my current choice of use...

My cell phone, keys, my "keep me organized book"that I write all my "to do" lists, grocery lists etc...gum, shout pads, elementary school visitor pin, sippy cup and granola bar if needed for the kids, an assortment of pens and lip gloss (if Brie hasn't gotten to them and hid them) hand sanitizer, Curel lotion, and my wallet of course....filled with all the normal stuff..license, insurance cards, debit card, ( I rarely carry cash), a couple of c.c.'s, a checkbook, a work check I haven't cashed yet, temple recommend, membership cards to places such as Barnes and Noble, the Park Center, Costco, Blockbuster, Albertson's and Smith's preferred Savings Card, kids school pictures, Ident-a-kid cards, stamps, some receipts, punch cards for one of the scrapbook stores I frequent, business cards for the girl's hairdresser, orthodontist etc. and a gift card to McDonald's with a few cents left. (Now since I've divulged all that...hopefully no one will come steal my wallet!!) Of course I can't forget the crumbs, paper scraps and assortment of misc. stuff that seems to find its way to the bottom of the purse. Which leads me to my sometimes purse dilemma...if you can call it that...What is the perfect size purse? Large or small? I'd be FORCED to carry less stuff (which actually might be a good thing) if I used this....

"touch of Italia purse" that my husband and girls picked out for me several years ago... However, as much as I love this thing, I can't possibly fit all my necessities in it to function properly on a daily basis. On the flip side, I don't want to lug this honk'in thing around every day either... as cute as it is....

This Morgan Ashleigh bag, designed by a girlfriend, was given to me after my fourth baby was born. I love this thing, and use it for church each Sunday. It is very functional and can carry around everything but the kitchen sink...which ward members on any given Sunday can attest to. Our church pew buddies have affectionately dubbed it the "Mary Poppins Bag" as they are amazed at what I pull out of that thing...

So really my preference in a purse or bag lies somewhere in the middle of these two, not too big and not too small. Although in all truthfulness, I've decided it really doesn't matter, because I'm quite partial to ANY SIZE of a fashionable, cute purse... regardless if it's functional or not!

What's on our Happy List Today?

IT'S A PIRATE PARTY - The family went to see the new Pirates of the Carribean movie yesterday. We loved it but we knew we would..we are quite the Pirate fans. Here are some of our favorite Pirate memories...

Pirate Pictures-

With Captain Jack at Disneyland- Pirates of

the Carribean is, of course, one of our favorite

rides!

Halloween '05 at Grandma's House

Pirate books

Pirate jewelry

Pirate cereal

Pirate musical birthday card

Pirate posters

pirate sweatshirt- my personal

favorite

Pirate calendar

To cap off our Pirate celebration, I sent the girls on a treasure hunt through the house and neighborhood after school today...they loved it!

Here are my pirate princesses...

all geared up and ready to go treasure

hunting in their pirate attire...

Kyleigh at the church trying

to figure out one of the clues...

Aboard our ship at the park

with their pirate telescopes...

This pirate skull marked the spot where

they had to dig and unearth this chest

for one of their clues...

They were happy with their treasure-

Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake- holy yum!

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me!!!

SUNDAY FASHION BLOG



I'm afraid I might disappoint you, shoe obsessed one, with our Sunday Fashion Blog this week. We sluffed church today because of our weekend getaway to the mountains...so these dirty, smelly outdoor shoes will have to do as my fashion statement this week.

Our Memorial Day Weekend

A little bit of work...

And a whole lotta play....

OH THE HILLS ARE ALIVE.....the infamous
Scofield pose for the guys. (Hoping for Dori's
sake that we didn't scare off her boyfriend by
making him do this...it's tradition ya know!)
Zeek scored big points with me by joining in!

SCOFIELD HAPPY LIST-

HANG'IN IN THE WOODS






Song, Song where art thou Song....



ATV riding...




Stuck ATV's and those that come to the rescue...


Water fights...



Campfires and smores...

Uncle Ry's delicious

flank steak... even without EVOO!

Emma fishing with Dad...

Making sand castles with the girls down by the lake...

The overall memories this place holds

for our family...

little Kyleigh's footprints...10 yrs. old to the day!