Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

* a CHEERIOS birthday party *

8.29.2013

My sister and brother-in-law threw a fantastic party for their new one-year-old last weekend. (My baby nephew is one!?!) It was way too fun not to share.


They hunted all around for just the right touches - yellow ribbon with white polka dots, napkins, etc. Above: a cheerio box banner, cheerio hearts (strung on pipe cleaners) and also strung cheerios for a table swag.


Above: Asa's SMASH CAKE! (see recipe below). 


Cake (and cupcake) recipe found HERE! (She subbed half the veggie oil for applesauce.)
Topped with a yummy buttercream frosting:
1/2 c crisco
1/2 c butter
5 c powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla 


Punch (found on Pinterest):
1 c. lemonade mix (like country time)
2 c. water
46 oz pineapple juice
24 oz Sprite

She said, "We froze ice cubes of the lemonade and pineapple juice to keep it cool and cut lemons for decoration. It got so many compliments!"


Above: the birthday boy cheesin' it! And with Mimi and Papa, there to celebrate.


My brother-in-law (a.k.a. the amazing spray painter, painter and artist) spent some time making this photo prop - hand-drawn and painted on yellow foam board.


And they used the heart cut-out as the "guest book". Talk about using what you have!


They also put together a banner of pictures from months 1-11 with "cheerio" like labels for the month numbers. So cute!










We love you Asa!! Happy birthday!

Theme colors: red, yellow
Food shown: cupcakes, chocolate covered cheerio bars, cheerio/white chocolate covered pretzel/M&M mix, lemonade/pineapple punch
Decor: red, yellow and white polka dot balloons, cheerio box pennant banner, cheerio hearts from pipe cleaners, and a cheerio table swag.

happy *DAD* day!

6.18.2013

Father's day was spent pretty low-key at our house.

It included silly glasses...


... sweet girls



... burgers, ice cream, Skype dates and lots of love.

Happy Father's day to all the special dads in my life!! We love you SO much.

*rose garden*

5.29.2013

Part of our Loose Park adventure last Friday was its infamous Rose Garden. Absolutely stunningly beautiful and sweet smelling roses in so many colors. Here are just a few.








anniversary (family) outing.

5.28.2013

Friday was our 5th anniversary - we celebrated family-style with a picnic in the park. Loose Park in Kansas City to be exact. Complete with anniversary cheesecake, a sweet, swinging 2 year old, lots of green grass and a vintage romper.


Lovely, relaxing and completely enjoyable. I love having no agenda but to be together.

cutest boy ever! sock monkey inspired.

3.11.2013

I can be biased, right? There are no baby boys in the family (or boys at all for that matter!) and this little dude is the only one. My nephew. (Aren't I lucky?)

And we LOOOVE him, along with those long eyelashes and squeezy cheeks.

J, S Hodges

My sister dug out his Christmas present and tried it on him (the tummy buttons are popping - love it!) and it was perfect. Little Mister is 6 months old and this sock monkey inspired outfit started with the onesie. I picked it up and it immediately reminded me of a sock monkey - so I searched on Etsy to find the perfect sock monkey hat and ...

J, S Hodges


...tada!! Here he is.

Engaged!

11.29.2012

My brother got engaged to his amazing girl while we were at the lake this summer.

A few months later ... his fiancee asked me to take some engagement shots of them for a "Save the Date". I said yes, of course! Not that I consider myself a super great photographer, but I can try. (And this I told her...)

We tried before the weather got cold on Thanksgiving weekend but the wind was blowing 90 miles per hour! (Okay, 40.) That kind of wind isn't good for a girl's hair.

Anyway, this was the best shot from that day, but she wasn't a fan of the sun placement, so we decided to try again another day.


...another COLD day. It was 20 some degrees! But we braved it and got some great shots. (A certain cheeser was more cooperative based on the fact that once we got a good shot he could go back inside! Hehe.)

I liked this one.


But this one was the winner.


Should I set up my own photography business?! My first engagement shoot!

Just kidding...

We are SO psyched for Aunt Erin to join our family in June. Wedding in Kansas - woot! If you run across any completely adorable 24 month dress in shades of green, let me know! :-)

our Labor Day

9.10.2012

Last weekend we had a full holiday. The Shunks came to visit and to bring me lots and lots and lots of stuff - everything we couldn't fit into the back of our car when we left a few weeks ago! Most of it was from thrifting and then lots from their basement. An old barn door, chunky wooden spindles, old piano keys and more corn crib wood (to be specific).

Grandma came to help around the house and to enjoy the girl.

Pretty sure she did.


"Pap" came to help with some muscle work and enjoy her.

Pretty sure he did.


Ladybug couldn't get enough of Grandpa last weekend! It was hilarious. Every minute she couldn't see him she was calling his name or finding his belly. She was so excited with extra energy. Loved it.

We celebrated Grandpa's upcoming birthday with another apple pie. And lemme tell you folks, it was beautiful! (And yummy, a la mode.) Thanks to my best friend's suggestion to freeze and grate the butter into the flour for the crust, I'm pretty sure my pie crust has never been better. (Thanks, E!) I won't be looking back from my crisco days, it's 2 sticks of real butter crust all the way.

 ********

Okay, okay, besides food, this birthday man gave me so much of his time to help with my upcoming Christmas market - I'm so grateful. He had much patience with my only-in-my-head ideas and spent a couple of hours on his knees hammering frames together for my corn crib slat signs. He cut the barn door, piano pieces, and nine 8-feet long boards into 8", 10", 12", etc pieces and helped drive alotta nails. We (well, he with my "support") washed and put hinges on their (turned MY!) antique house shutters to make a decorative screen. Can't wait to set it up!

Here is a sample of the corn crib slat signs (still to be painted). Some will be red and some will be aged plain wood.

front:

back:



Most of the muscle work is over ... now I need to get painting, distressing, staining, waxing, shellacking, gluing, sewing ... so much to do! But I never would've been in this spot without them.

Happy!

Thanks Janet for spending so much quality time with the girl - having her occupied and happy was as important as the muscle work! And thanks George for all your hard work helping me put together my frames, shutters and other little things!! I am really, really happy and really, really grateful.

Asa's nursery fixin's (sneak peek)

6.19.2012

Remember my inspiration post for little Asa's nursery linens?


I'll do a full nursery guest post after everything is finished in August, but for now, here's a sneak peek at the skirt and one sheet so far! The yellow is more golden, but it's bright and so fun.


The curtain is also finished - it's basically a replica of the tailored skirt. 

We'll be working on the bumper and pillows next week when there will be four family seamstresses (using that term lightly, at least for myself) together to get the rest done.

His crib looks a little lonely without it - don't you think?  Time to dress it up!


(Can't wait for this little guy to arrive!)

Anniversary Celebrations - 4 years!

5.28.2012

Jeremy and I celebrated four years together last Thursday. We try to go with the traditional gifts list for ideas, gifts and fun. Last year (3) was leather. Jeremy got me some inscribed leather luggage tags from Etsy and I got him a very needed leather belt.

This year was "fruit and flowers".

Yeah.

What do you get a guy that's fruit and flowers? I thought about this and thought about it and just didn't come up with anything too wonderful. I did, however, leave two tiny strawberries from our garden on his dinner plate and came up with a silly card with the theme. Maybe next year will be easier?

Getting it for a wife might be easier, however we were on quite the tight budget. So, Jeremy made me an awesome, completely homemade banana cream pie (fruit), which tasted incredible (and which we gobbled up between us in a few days).

YUM.


And, he brought me home a single red rose (flower). So lovely.


Some friends gave us a chance to get away with some anniversary money we received ... they watched the girl for four hours! We ended up getting dinner and going to see The Hunger Games, which was pretty good in our opinion. No movie ever lives up to the book, but this one was pretty accurate. 

We rarely get to go out alone or see movies in the theater, so it was a treat.

Happy 4th anniversary, Jeremy. Only at least 48 more.