Your Special MVP

Calling all sport mommas!!! Calling all sport mommas!!!

My son began playing T-Ball when he was 4 and at that time I had no idea what a cute idea I would come up with. My hubs and I were so excited to begin this new phase in our lives, and the excitement began with picture day. That first day when you see your little player in full gear. You begin to imagine what the future has in store for your little player. And of course as eager and new parents we were ready to purchase all pictures necessary to share with the entire family ... but then as I am looking at the order form I see trading cards. I thought ... "what a cute idea, that is so much better than a regular wallet". So I splurged and got them. Next came fall, my son decided he wanted to give soccer  a chance since baseball season was over we decided to sign him up. Picture day arrives and again there is nothing more exciting to me than picture day! It is so great to see the kids all geared up, plus the team pictures are super adorable. Anyway, I look at the order form and see trading cards again! I immediately got excited and purchased them. Once my soccer pictures arrived I really didn't know what I was going to do, so I had some card/Coupon organizers and figured to put them there while I decided if I ever was going to begin filling his scrapbook or just stash them in a box. Well another season of baseball arrived and I decided to just purchase the trading card and two years later here is where I am at...

I accidentally came up with this and I didn't do much!LOL When I tell other moms they are in love with this idea so I figured it should be shared. My plan is to continue to fill them in and at some point I will put them in a 3 ring binder like the boys do with their collectible trading cards. I think I will give it to him once he has "finished" playing sports or his son begins to play sports.

If you don't have these at home you can purchase them at Staples (or any office supplies store) for $4 for a 10 pack.

Sugar Cookie Work

I have dabbled in a little bit of everything and my latest and favorite has been sugar cookie decorating.  Now the trick to the sugar cookie work is practice, practice, practice!!! I was ready to give up after the first day I tried but kept with it and now I understand the consistencies. I have read blogs about the thickness of the outline icing needing to be like toothpaste, for some reason that didn't register! but after almost a year and a half of working on it I have managed to figure out what that means...In my opinion I think the thickness of the consistency varies on the baker!!!  Also, there are many great recipes out there for the sugar cookies and I have tried many of them!!! Again don't keep trying something that just doesn't work for you ... my favorite way to make sugar cookies is ... betty crocker sugar cookie mix! But it has to be the the small packs from the dollar tree! I really dont know why its different but the dough stays thick and easy to work with, compared to the big bag from a grocery store that gets too soft and impossible to work with. Anyways another great little trick is that once you cut the cookies out, place them in the freezer for 5 minutes then bake them. This will stop the cookies from stretching and will hold their shape!!!!!  This is what I have learned in my short life as a baker. Hope it helps and saves you some headaches. Here are Pictures of some of the cookies I have made! 

FIRST COOKIES EVER!!! 4/25/12

6/22/12

7/4/12

9/24/12

1/30/13

6/22/13
These Minnie ones were made by placing them in the freezer before putting them in the oven! Can you see what a huge difference it made!!

Well the Minnie ones are my latest and favorite, and in my opinion my best work thus far! I have a couple requests for pink dresses, minion and halloween cookies! I will post them and please share your tricks and pictures because I'm just a beginner like you!!!

Back to school supply box

A couple weeks ago I was debating on either reusing the container I made my son last year or buying/making him a new one for the new school year. Here is the link from the first one: http://emsmom611.blogspot.com/2012/09/cheap-and-easy-back-to-school-present.html

(please let me know if my links work).

So, I made my mind up and decided to reuse the same box from last year (since its big enough to fit all his school supplies. I did add some stickers to the lid to make it look less like a diaper box. So besides reusing the wipes container I also reused the following supplies: 
(not really reuse since the pencils are new) 

So here's the box:: 

 

And here is what I bought ... I spent a little less than $3.

And here is how I set it up...

And this is what he came to... He was so excited!

Hope you like it!!!

50's themed birthday party!

I have no new posts... I have been extremely busy finalizing all my plans for my wedding. Now that its over I wanna post something I haven't shared before. So for my little ones first birthday I went a little crazy and here's what I came up with ...

Here are the invitations I made. They took a while to make but they turned out just how I envisioned it. 

The initial set up...

 

I made these sugar cookies ! Overall I was pretty happy with it. 

 We had soooo many treats! 

This is what the gift bags had in them. Everything was purchased from Oriental Trading Co.

My baby girls birthday outfit! My mother in law bedazzled her shoes! 

 We all had a great time!!

Dom's Space Themed 5th Birthday Party

Last September my son decided he wanted to do a space themed party! So I looked all over Pinterest and here is what I came up with ! This was before my blog so, here it is ! 

I have been dabbling in the art of sugar cookies  and I am by far no pro but I thought they came out pretty cute and they were really yummy (or so I was told). I tried to make them as cute as possible with my beginner skills and probably not all the tools necessary here is what they came to look like.

These bottom 2 were my favorites. They came out just how I wanted, for the earth one, I let the icing dry a bit and then with my finger I dabbed it, I think it added a little something to it :)

I thought this was a really cute way to display the cupcakes (since we decided not to do a big cake), I found these at a closeout craft sale! 

 Now I like to do a little activity, so I found these ceramic robots on Oriental Trading Co. and purchased enough for all the kids, then I went to the dollar Tree and found the paint and bought enough for the kids. This was a little pricey but I really like the outcome. This is my sons. 

The house was decorated in informational posters, a lot of stuff was bought on Oriental Trading Co. We bought the inflatable solar system, glow in the dark galaxies, it was great! We had different sized rockets (Hobby Lobby) that we shot off throughout the party, a rocket bouncer! It all came together perfectly and my son ran up to us at the end of the day and couldn't stop thanking us for the awesome party, and has been asking to do it again this year !! 

Hope all is well! 

Back to school gift year 2

So that time of year is approaching soon ... school starts in 20 days!! Where did the summer go? 

Last year my son came home to a small present (http://emsmom611.blogspot.com/2012/09/cheap-and-easy-back-to-school-present.html) all new school supplies in a wipe container to keep it all in. I have looked for a cooler pencil box but nothing is quite as big and can fit all supplies. Again my goal is for my son to be able to sit with his box and not need to get up in search for a glue stick, or sciccors. Its all there. So my great debate with myself this is year is wether I should redo the box or just restock with all new supplies. I have been leaning to just restocking it ... hmmm dilemmas.... 

** Take advantage of those back to school sales! I went to Staples today and with some rewards bucks and their sales ... I payed .25 for a pack of Crayola Crayons. $1 for a 12pk of Crayola colored pencils and so much more!!! 

Check out my blog for the way I presented the wipe container to my son! The link is above ... my son loved it and knew where his box was, just grabbed it and was ready to go! 

Thanks ! Constructive criticism is always welcomed. 

Happy 2nd Birthday Emily! (minnie theme)

My Baby girl turned 2!

I cannot believe my baby girl is 2 years old! I have been planning her birthday party and really tried to make a lot of stuff myself. But I got so excited that I got a little carried away! (Can you blame me?) 

So, I had a great idea to use a local business as a location for my daughter's birthday party. The place is Classicakes, and they teach classes on decorating. They also sell all supplies necessary when baking anything! They do cupcake tower parties and thought this is a great idea and something that's not done daily! I decided to do a Minnie Mouse theme. It's age appropriate and so many cute ideas on pinterest! So out of all the ideas here is what I came up with! 

This is my baby girl's birthday outfit!  I had the outfit made by a local business lady and brought my ideas to life! 

 
I wanted to do an all girls birthday party! For all the little girls that attended I wanted to give them all Minnie Ears and an apron. I found an inexpensive way to do this by having my sister in law make the ears and I ironed on the Minnie silhouette using the Circut and Cricut craftroom. I also had (what I think is an ingenious) idea of making the bow on the minnie ears removable for daily use! We put a loop using the felt material in the middle and putting the bows on alligator clips! 

I also made the banner using my Cricut! I know it may look like I am crafty do it all mom but I started making stuff 6 months ago. I worked at a slow pace, making sure I didn't overwhelm myself. I made the sugar cookies and used disco dust to give them that sparkly look! I used an used damp makeup brushed to paint the dust on! 

The girls decorated cupcakes and melted candy into molds. Once they finished the cupcakes they would put it on the tower, making a cupcake tower. NO NEED FOR CAKE! 

For party favors I bought the chinese take out boxes at the dollar tree 3 for $1. I used some ribbon as handles which added a nice touch (I think). And again using my computer I made the inner circle label and had it printed at kinkos for that nice shine. I cut out the pink outer circle with the cricut.

Inside I filled it with all things from the dollar tree and most minnie theme::

1. bubbles (bought stickers and put minnie on all of them)
2. pencils (the ones with pull out lead)  
3. stickers
4. flying discs
5. tons of stamps
6.  a ring pop
7. And a notebook 

If you have any questions on anything please ask. I can give a step by step on how I made it! 

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