Firefighter Turkey

My second grader came home this week with a fun turkey project!  He was given a turkey printed on a piece of paper and had to find a way to disguise him without just coloring him with crayons.  So of course, we decided to make him into a firefighter!  (Although, I must be honest that he did ask about making it a minion at first...)

We used scrap book paper for his gear, some firefighter stickers that were on clearance for accessories, pipe cleaners for the hose, glittery blue paper for the water, and topped him off by coloring his feathers like fire.  It was a fun project to work on with him!

Simple Fall Mantle

There is nothing like the beautiful fall leaves and refreshing crisp air after the long hot and humid summers we have! 

About this time of year I spend lots of time drooling over everyone's beautiful fall decorations.   And while I love going all out this time of year, I have gone with a less is more approach this year and am really loving it!  So, I thought I would share some pics of how I dressed my mantle up just a bit for this change in seasons. 

I'm in love with these little light up pumpkins that I found!  They are on a timer and pop on every night just as the sun is going down, leaving a beautiful pattern on the walls.  Perfection!

I also added a new lantern to the right of the fireplace.  Thinking that I may add some pretty fall leaves in the side of it just to give it a little pop.

Love this view after a long day :)

Minion Cupcakes

If you have been around here for even a short amount of time, I am sure you have come to know the love of Minions in our family!  My third kiddo especially has a great obsession love of them.  I was recently looking back through some old photos and found these pictures of the cupcakes I made for his birthday 2 years ago.  I figured with the renewed excitement over Minions right now that I would share them with you! They were a big hit for sure ;)

How can you not love these cute little guys?! 

50th Anniversary Party

Last weekend we had a fantastic time celebrating my parents' 50th wedding anniversary!  I have been working on this since January and felt like I was planning an entirely new wedding!  Even with the hours and hours of work (and 4:00am text messages from my mother along with about 500 phone calls a week!), it was totally worth it in the end!  We had such a fun time! 

I don't quite have permission from the approximately 100 people that attended to display their lovely faces here, so I will just share with you some of the decorations we had for our fun day :)

Our cake table, complete with a replica of the shoes my dad wore on his wedding day...his groomsmen had written "Help Me" on the bottom of his shoes so when he knelt down for the prayer everyone would see it!! 

Gold boxes filled with candies all in gold wrappers for favors at each spot.

Head table complete with flowers. 

 And of course, what's a party without a pouting three year old?!  Yep, that would be mine ;) 

We had such a wonderful time!  We were blessed to have so many people come to celebrate with us; including many who drove lots of hours for a quick up and down weekend trip!  Thanks for helping us create memories that will last a lifetime. 

Command Center Fix

I have showed you the Command Center we have in our house.  (If you have not seen it you can check it out here)  We have made several changes to it since then, but the most drastic change came just recently.  We started to get stains on the sheet metal we have hanging up.  It looked horrible!  It just made the whole room look dirty! We had some chalk board paint laying around so decided that we would use that to cover the stains, even though I have no intention of really using it as a chalk board. 

Here's what it looked like...BAD I know!!

We primed the metal with a latex primer just as the chalk paint recommended.  

Then we put 2 coats of the chalk paint on.

I love how it turned out!! Makes the room feel so much nicer :)

Homework Supply Drawer

After school can seem to get a little crazy around our house.  I have tried to put some routines in to place to help make things run a little smoother, but definitely the most helpful thing for us is to have everything needed to get homework done in one location.  In our old house I actually had a homework station set up in our basement, but found that having it down stairs away from the rest of the house was not very functional for us.  So now we have the space to let the kids do their work on the main floor of the house so I have a drawer in our kitchen buffet that is dedicated to homework supplies. 

No one ever has to ask where a pencil is or go searching for a ruler.  Everything they need is right here.  I still have young kiddos going through school so crayons are still a part of our homework routine, and I also keep extra erasers, glue sticks, tape, and scissors.  In the back of the drawer I also stash some flash cards and a set of pretend money to help kiddos as they are learning about that.  

It certainly is not a fancy set up, but it sure does make things run a little easier at time to study!  Now, speaking of homework, I am off to make sure these kiddos are getting theirs done! 

Antique Window

About a year ago my sweet friend, Brandi, offered me an antique window that she had picked up at a flea market.  I was so excited to find the perfect spot for it, but as life often goes, things were busy and I never seemed to find the time to clean it up and find a place for it.  So out in the garage it sat.  And sat.  And I looked at it all the time dreaming about where I should put it.  I finally decided that I wanted it hang it in my dining room.  I thought it would go perfectly with the antique china cabinet that Brandi painted and distressed for me a few months ago!  (I'm starting to think we need to rename this the Brandi Room!) 

The frame was a little rough looking, so while I wanted to keep the old look of it, I also knew that with our bright white board and batten in the room, that the window would need to be cleaned up and brightened up a bit.  (You can see how we did our board and batten here.)  I did a very thin layer of flat white paint to brighten up the frame, but also to allow the character of the wood to still show through.

It worked perfectly!  The paint did just enough to tie it into the brightness of the room but maintained the character of the old wood.  I love how it turned out!  And to finish it off, I hung a birchwood wreath on it.

BEFORE

AFTER

Minion Valentine Box

I have mentioned before that my 7 year old son has an unhealthy addiction to minions!  So, when it came time to decorate his Valentine box for school this year, I knew what I had to do for his.  This was actually easier than I thought it would be, and he was SO excited with how it turned out.  He couldn't wait to show all of his friends at school today!

I think he turned out quite cute if I do say so myself :)

New Cabinet

We said good-bye to our fish tank this weekend.  We have had it for over 9 years and I am sort of sad to see it go, but I was never really happy with the location of it in our house, and just have felt like it was time for a change.  Our last fish died a few weeks ago and we have been looking at an empty tank while trying to decide what to do-keep the tank or get rid of it. 

I had been eyeing this little cabinet for a while and when I saw it marked down 50% I knew I had to go ahead and make the switch!  So out came the fish tank. 

As much as I will miss watching the fish, I absolutely love how this cabinet looks!  It was definitely worth the switch in my eyes :)