Life According to Jenn

So, I love, love, LOVE Tip Junkie! I visit the site almost on a daily basis to get creative ideas. Last year, she had a birthday bash and I entered her giveaway and I won! You can read about it here.
This year, since I subscribe to her email, knew about the different categories of birthday parties she was going to feature. I had blogged about Caitlyn’s Purplicious Party and decided to submit it. A week later, I receive an email from Laurie (the Tip Junkie herself) that she was going to feature my blog post and she gave me the button code to display on my blog which is to the right ——->

I also decided that I would try my luck on the giveaways again…and I won! The prize this year was a $50 GC to www.wellofwords.com! I went to their website and it was so difficult to decide what I wanted. I finally made a decision and I received them yesterday in the mail. Want to see them? I knew you would:

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Well, summer is off to a rockin’ start! I got out of school on a Friday and went to a scrapbook convention with my BFF, Brooke. We didn’t get to meet Cricut Dan this time, but we still saw lots of goodies and ideas. Our trip last year can be read here
There was a major difference between last year and this year…Brooke was pregnant with little Liam. The walking may have kickstarted something….I’ll get that THAT in a minute.

My father-in-law had been begging, pleading, asking me to make him a red velvet cake. Seeing as how his birthday was June 9th, I thought the perfect thing would be to surprise him and make him one for a birthday present. It was a typical day…first week off from school…took my girls to the store to get the ingredients…got back home…let the dogs out and began the cake making process….when I got a phone call….from Ryan….Brooke was in labor! Why was this unexpected? Because she wasn’t due until the end of the month! As I awaited the call that little Liam had in fact entered the world, I continued on with the red velvet cake.
Now I ask you, what happens to your red velvet cake if you decide that you need to get it out of the pan as quickly as possible so you can go to the hospital? This:

You see…the cake was NOT ready to come out of the pan so I decided that I could fix, patch, destroy this cake. I had decided that I would just make him something different…but Jonathan put on his Superman cape, went to the store on the way home from school, got MORE ingredients, and I made another cake. Picture NOT included. As the cake cooled properly this time, I proceeded to the hospital. I was super excited!

I let the girls stay with Jonathan during Liam’s first evening in the world. The next evening (after driving me crazy asking , asking me to go visit Liam), Jonathan, the girls, and I went to visit little Liam. The girls fell in love…and Jonathan did, too:

So our start to summer was very eventful. Jonathan is attending school…almost done with Summer I…and he goes straight into the next summer session. It’s finals week for him…so I will be pushing food under the office door while he studies

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Okay…this is like the most overdue post I can think of! I realized I never blogged about the Purplicious party I threw for our daughter, Caitlyn. I had found blogs with Pinkalicious parties, but never found any on Purplicious parties, so I hope this helps people out there! It all started off with this book:

Caitlyn absolutely LOVES purple, so her party was going to be ALL purple!
First the invitation:

Then we had to figure out what decorations we were going to use. I went to marthastewart.com and got instructions to make these wonderful tissue paper pom poms:

Then, I decided to make a picture line starting from baby to seven years old:

Then I decided to put purple tulle ribbon around all the chairs:

And finally, I had to use my wonderful apotocary jars that my BFF got me and fill them each with purple stuff…which is NOT easy to do. It was Christmas time and lo and behold I found some purple Christmas balls and purple garland:

For the best part, the FOOD!!!
Purple Kool-Aid

Purple Chocolate Popcorn with Purple M&M’s:

Instead of a cake, we had cupcakes with purple sanding sugar:

Then, we had fluffernutter sandwiches: marshmallow creme + grape jelly(it HAD to be purple, duh!):

And of COURSE CAKE POPS!!!!

All of our guests were asked to wear their purple and the best (and funniest) part was Mr. Webster reading the book “Purplicious”:

And finally, each girl was sent home with Purple Play Doh!

It was such a fun party to plan and execute and perfect for any girl who adores purple as their favorite color. They also have “Pinkalicious”

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Wow! My last post was Caitlyn’s birthday in November! What have I been thinking!?! Let me try to catch you up:
We have been super busy around here…Jonathan is going to school and has just started his spring semester with three classes. His classes are at night so I try to spend time with him when he gets home, but sometimes that may consist of me sleeping on the couch next to him HA!
We also moved in the beginning of November. Umm…would love to say it’s great. I love the neighborhood and all…but it is so far away from our friends and family. It takes about 15 minutes to get to the nearest Walmart. The torture? JoAnns is even FURTHER! What’s up with that!?!
Caitlyn is still loving first grade, while Faith is preparing herself for kinder. It seems like yesterday she was giving Mr. Ryan “knuckles”.
As for me, some exciting things are happening. I’m making lots of cake balls…and selling them…which is awesome! At the beginning of December, I was honored with Employee of the Month. I was surprised. I got a sewing machine for Christmas…so that has been my new adventure. I have made one curtain and some burp cloths (thanks for teaching me, Ms. Brooke). I will say…I do not have to watch the DVD or read the book to thread my machine. That’s progress!
The most exciting thing for me right now happened at this week’s faculty meeting. I sat there and listened to the TEacher of the Year nominees names, thinking “Wow! It’s going to be a tough decision” until they read the last name…my name! I don’t know if I have won, but I do know that no matter what the outcome, I am on a ballot with some outstanding teachers and it is an honor to have my name with theirs.
So now that I have caught you up, I hope to get more pictures on here and not be a stranger to my blog. I am really bad about charging my batteries for my camera, but I will be better.

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All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten

Posted using ShareThis

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When I was in elementary school, the biggest thing for girls was Sanrio Surprises. It was a store in the mall that had Hello Kitty along with other cute Sanrio characters. I loved this store SO much that when I broke my ankle in fifth grade, Sanrio was the FIRST place I wanted to go when I got my cast cut off. It was that awesome (at the time).
So when I wanted to make some cake pops for a friend’s birthday, I came upon an idea and went with it. Introducing Keroppi cake pops:

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Okay…I HATE sushi…my husband and best friends LOVE it. I have tried it so settle down. Even my picky daughter tried it and my daughter who will try almost anything absolutely refused. So here is my question. What do you give someone for their birthday who likes sushi? DUH! A gift certificate to a sushi place. I wanted to jazz up the concept a bit, though. I totally used my friend’s picture because…well…to be honest…my pictures are on my laptop that Jonathan is using to “fix” the Wii and I’m on my school laptop, so sorry
I decided that I would like to make cake pops that look like sushi. As soon as I get my laptop back, i’ll post pictures of the process, but in the meantime, enjoy this pic of the finished product.

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So, everytime we spend the night at Hotel O’Toole, we are so excited about having coffee in the morning from their Keurig. We have asked for the past two years at Christmas, but no such luck. So I’m going to enter a giveaway and cross my fingers that we will finally have one of our own!!!

http://twoofakindworkingonafullhouse.blogspot.com/2009/08/keurig-review-and-giveaway.html

Don’t know what a Keurig is? You fool! J/K…Go here

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There will lots of giveaways!

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