Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

A few weeks ago I ran to the store for our christmas essentials ie cidar, and ventures into the basement for our christmas decor extraveganza. Call me crazy, but I actually love our fake tree. The real ones are messy, and my super hero loves putting our fake one together. I throw some scented pine cones in it and bam holiday cheer from a box.

Now our tree would never make the cover of a magazine. It is full of hand me downs, and handmade ornaments. Someday I will maybe do two and have one of those magazine cover trees as I mentioned here. I even went to the store this year and purchased some of my own holiday decor here. Anywho. One of my favorite coworkers brought it to my attention that she has been stalking my blog waiting to see my christmas tree. She has very high hopes for this tree BTW.

Here are the “kids” helping. It is a full on event in our house. I think my poor husband was overwhelmed, as this was his first full Cassie Christmas decorating experience. We crank the christmas music, boil cidar, and cheerfully sing with the tunes, completely off key! The princess was clearly worried, she burried herself in the pillows on the couch, and continuously gave me this, “what the H are you doing to our house” look.

OH CHRISTMAS TREE OH CHRISTMAS TREE

Lights on

Lights off

Joy to the World ornament nestled next to poinsettia (These started as a pitiful bouqet I cut apart to fill in the tree…ps from the dollar store)

Sleigh bells ring next to another poinsettia

Put your cheesy pants on…I made this ornament to my husband last year, it has a key hanging down the center. It is supposed to be the key to my heart…aaaaaaahhhhh

Happy Holidays!!!

God Bless,

Cassie

John Deer Birthday

 My best friend is super creative! She is always great about throwing a party together, and coming up with great activities for the kiddos. This year was John Deer themed!

 Check it out:

Here are some snapshots of the decorations! The bottom photo is the cookie bar!!

Sugar Cookies

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Popcorn Balls

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Chocolate Chip

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Milk

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YUMMMMMMMM!

 Activities:

Top: We filled balloons with toys and candy (two person task btw!) then blew them up. The kiddos got to pop them with a BBQ stick. Great substitute for a pinata

Middle: She got these great foam “hats” and farm stickers. All the kiddos decorated their own hat.

Bottom: She made a John Deer tractor and the kiddos played pin the wheel on the tractor

Here are some great pics of the party guest:

 Top Left: Family picture before the birthday boy made his wish

Top Right: He is in love with John deer tractors

Bottom Left:The birthday boy giving his auntie Love

Bottom Right: At the end of the night we made it through the party……We both were working on no sleep

Getting ready to open presents….Isn’t this chair adorable! She found it and tons of other adorable things on overstock.com

These boys were far too cool to smile….So I decided to tell them I was going to smooch them both if they didn’t…Love their reaction

Future prom date?

God Bless!

Cassie

Turkey Day Traditions

I have a number of families, literally five or six groups. What can I say our little trio is super loved! One of my families has a great Thanksgiving tradition. Instead of celebrating the holiday on Thursday, they get together on Friday. This allows everyone to get together with the in-laws, without running to six houses in one day. The other thing they do is a themed dinner.

For Example:

Chinese

German (the worst of them all)

Italian

Mexican

Indian

Japanese

Swedish

and the list could go on….

We tend to go for cultures, but the theme could really be anything; colors, appetizers, Luau, Western, Southern, and classic american dishes. Everyone brings a dish, which takes the work off of one person. Then you can take a picture of each dish as it arrives. Everyone has to bring their recipe. Then our ooober organized aunt makes a recipe book from that thanksgiving. You could even add pictures from the days events, and have everyone record what they were thankful for that year. Fun huh!! What are your Turkey day traditions?

God Bless! C

Party Poms

 My nephew had his 4th birthday this weekend, and my best friend (aka sister God sent later in life ;)) is the party queen. She has always been amazing at decorating, and organizing the day with activities. Anyway she made these great poms for her fall festival party last month and decided to do it again for the John Deer party. They are super inexpensive, approximetly 50 cents a piece. Meanwhile the big party stores sell them for 3 for $7. I loved them so much I think I may do some christmas ones as decor for the holidays! The best part is she posted party pictures on facebook, and someone sent her a message asking to buy all of the decor, how awesome is that!!

Supplies

Tissue paper

small Scissors

ribbon, string, or fishing line.

push pins or tape

Step one: Lay out tissue paper, we used 10 pieces, but you could use more or less depending on the size.

Step two: Bifold the paper accordian style, we had the best luck folding in approximetly 1-2 inch sections

Step three: tie with a ribbon, leave a long tail this is what you will use to hang it, and we had teh best luck tieing tightly

Step 4: using a small siccors cut one layer at at time from side to side to make a point like this

Step 5: fan each side out, seperate each sheet, and fluff