[celebrate] red, white and blue

Our family had an amazing July 4th holiday at Daniel Boone Campground.  Festivities included games, contests and the ever popular, golf cart parade.

Thanks to the rain, golf cart decorations didn't start until the morning of  but with some help of polka dot fabric and white duck tape, we rallied.  Of course super cute children escorted by two handsome drivers didn't hurt!

We feasted on all sorts smoked, grilled and baked dishes thanks to our resident chef aka dad.  Simple table decorations made the food the focal point with BBQ pork, smoked chicken and sausage, baked potato salad, grilled corn on the cob, grilled squash and zucchini, baked beans and creamy cole slaw.  Watermelon, peach cobbler and doughnut sundaes complete with vanilla ice cream, strawberries and blueberries  made the perfect desserts.  Fireworks and glow sticks wrapped up Saturday night with our little spot having one of the best views in the campground.

Now back to the real world and the realization that summer is halfway over!  Happy Independence Day!

[live] independence

It's been so long since I've taken care of this little blog.  Too long.  My apologies to those of you out there still keeping up with PlayPending.  I've sadly been missing since Halloween but life has a way of taking over.  Now it's July and our 4th celebration will hit this weekend.  Hopefully these inspirations will translate into realities that I can share in more detail.

In the meantime, Happy Independence Day!

[celebrate] your inspiration ...

Little. Red. Riding. Hood.  I mean how can you not base your whole Halloween off of that adorable costume? And the photo, oh my.  So what is your Halloween inspiration this year?

I think mine is pretty obvious. All the links to the photos can be found on my boards!

[celebrate] ladies and lemonade

In celebration of our new Etsy shop, CandyLand, the girls and I had a Ladies and Lemonade evening.  A little learning took place with the Lemonade Day learning pack but we were really all about the party.

The little ladies decided that we needed teddy bear guests.  Our menu was simple but perfect - party sandwiches, chips, fruit bowls and two varieties of pretty little cupcakes.

Maddie perfected sipping.

Kate perfected the pinky.

Despite the fact that Teddy got the first cupcake, we had a wonderful Ladies and Lemonade evening.

[celebrate] sadie priss soiree

I own invitations for parties that I'm yet to have, just because they are pretty and I've picked party themes based on invites alone. I love invitations. Now my sounding board and source for custom invites, Amy, has gone public - Sadie Priss Soiree.

For years I've sent her my own design projects for critiques and suggestions.  In fact this year, she hooked me up with a super sweet invitation based on my idea for a banner birthday festival for all three of my kiddies.   

Amy has some really cool designs for invitations, party packs and sweet little posters.  Check out her shop, her blog or even her boards on Pinterest.  You might want to be prepared to have a party for no good reason other than you really want to use the invitation.   

[celebrate] holiday house party

Our annual gingerbread-less house decorating party went great.  The decorating is the fun part, so we skip the mixing, cutting, baking and trying to get large pieces of gingerbread not to crack and end in disaster.  I use cardboard.  But not just any cardboard mind you, pouch juice cardboard.

My Jack renamed Capri-Suns pouch juices.  Our household goes through A LOT of pouch juice especially during the holidays when we are traveling a bunch.  The boxes that hold all of this pouch juice just happens to be a perfect size for a little house.  

1.  First open up then end flaps and side flap and flatten out the box.
2.  Using a case knife or craft knife cut the box in half so that you have two long rectangles.  You will cut through the side flap.  The end flaps that you generally open the box with will run along the top or bottom of your long rectangles.  
3.  Turn the rectangles inside out so that the printed part is on the inside and hot glue it at the long side flap that you opened up to get it flat in the first place.
4.  I used a large brownie box opened up and cut on the folds to make my roof.  You can use any cardboard of similar weight to your pouch juice box.  I just measured the end flaps (now the top) of the pouch juice square, cut the brownie box to size on either side of a fold and presto, roof.
5.  Now glue on the roof.  The side flaps are super helpful when it comes to gluing the roof in place.
6.  All that is left was to set the house on a square cake base and you are  ready for graham crackers, short bread cookies and lots and lots of candy.

The pouch juice boxes were recycled along with my brownie box and the cardboard cake bases were 4 for $2.50 at Hobby Lobby.  In years past I've used recycled cardboard for those too, but I love that they are nice a white.  Once you get the cutting done, assembly is a snap with some hot glue.  And you don't have to worry about these falling to pieces once the kids get to decorating.  

These were our finished products.  We may not end up winning any contests but I don't think anyone had more fun decorating them than we did.  

Caution:  Huge amounts of candy make it extremely difficult to get a picture of children sitting still.  Note Baby A is the only one remotely in focus thanks to the fact she is still only drinking milk.

[celebrate] holiday houses ...

It's time for our annual house party.

Now to pre-assemble houses and collect some candy! (Isn't the gnome so cute?  Thanks for the idea Amy!)

[celebrate] red wolf farms

Red Wolf Farms is a working family farm located in Maiden, North Carolina which opens once a year to the public in the fall.  It just happens to be sort of across the woods from our house.  So naturally, it's one of our favorite and by far the most convenient fall activities.

The farm has become one of our favorite pumpkin patches and they made lots of improvements this year.  The corn maze was bigger and better.  Not only were there chickens, but you were able to go in the enclosure this year.  And, they added the cutest little calves to the pigs and goats.

Two more giant tubs of grain added to the corn "pools" which my kids LOVED jumping around in.  I will make a suggestion here though, some of that grain is going to come home with you so you may want to double check pockets and socks before you stick their clothes in the washer!

A giant wooden pirate ship was added to the playground along with a neat helicopter and airplane.  Everyone thought the ship was awesome.

Of course we walked down the trail to the creek this year, too.  Oh, did I mention pumpkins?

We got some of those too with a ride up and back on a very nice trailer pulled by the nicest gentlemen.  It's a great place to visit and definitely something to add to your Fall to do list come October.

[learn] halloween fun

We kind of learned.  Does talking about the letter H count?  Okay, we probably celebrated a little more learned but we did cook and craft.  We started with snacks to eat while we watched It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

Trail mix is always super fun with the kids.  We used this mix from Munchkin Munchies as a starting point and put our own twist on it.  The key ingredients were Honey Nut Chex cereal, Honey Nut Cherrios, Cocoa Puffs, honey roasted peanuts, mini marshmallows, Cheeze-Its, and candy corn.  We threw some goldfish in there because we wanted to and they were orange.  It's a great mix and I was especially surprised at the Cocoa Puffs.  I'm not a big fan of the cereal but added to the trail mix, it was great!  Then came candy proper in the form of Hersheys chocolate mummies and Blow Pop ghosts that doubled as treats for the kids classmates.

We also made the ghost lights pinned earlier out of paper cups, google eyes, and some twinkle lights.  The idea is a great one from All You and you could make so many variations from ghosts with just a little more effort.  I think next time we will stick with one light per cup though because otherwise it makes the string of lights get very short, very quickly.  Then it was time for clay.  I stole the white clay and made some ghosties with black brads for eyes.

The kids were much more creative.  Jack's is a halloween gnome of some sort and I'm not honestly sure what the girls were.

Then it was time for Trick or Treating.  Jack was a tropical chimp and the twins were cowgirls.  Artic cowgirls thanks to the temperature dropping 40 degrees in less than two days.

Downtown Maiden and the churches on Main Street do a wonderful job on Halloween.  The streets close down and between Trunk or Treats and Halloween Festivals you will get all the candy you want.  Not to mention that you can go house to house too, almost all of which are decorated.

So maybe this lesson was as much of a lesson as it was a party, but we still have lots and lots of fun.  Happy Halloween!

Now onto the letter I.  I'm thinking ice cream although igloo may be more appropriate with our current weather conditions.

[celebrate] murrays mill harvest folk festival

The annual Harvest Folk Festival is held the last Saturday and Sunday of September every year.  It's one of the festivals we build our fall calendar around.  You park in a field, pay $5 per adult at the gate and get to step back in time for a bit on the site that holds the 1913 Murray's Mill.

Located on Balls Creek, it's a great site which comes alive during the Festival.   Sugar cane is milled and cooked down into molasses. Homemade butter churns next to the hominy cooked in a dutch over a fire. Bees are on display with beekeepers working them in a giant enclosure.  Apples are pressed for fresh cider.    The blacksmiths are busy while  kids get to hand dip candles.  That doesn't figure in all the antique tractors, cars, crafts and food vendor after food vendor.  There are horses and buggies and civil war re-enactors.  Add to that a whole list of musical acts singing gospel and bluegrass outside the old mill.  The list goes on and on.

As for our family highlights, the girls broke in the hay maze and loved running through the fields.

We saw a capybara up close and personal and Jack and I decided we want one for a pet, which is just a bad idea.  We did opt to eliminate the camel from our one day farm, it does in fact spit.

The girls checked out a very lazy cow.

Jack got to work at the boy scouts tent and help kids build wooden tool boxes, stools and birdhouses while the girls rode ponies for the first time.

There was a ranger who had a HUGE Smokey the Bear inflatable and gave the twins a very pink frisbee ring.  We ate fried fish and cheeseburgers made by a local church with a funnel cake for dessert.  All in all, it made for a great Saturday.

[celebrate] historic morganton festival

3My first trip to the Historic Morganton Festival was when my husband and I were dating which take it from me, was a WHILE ago.  It's a great festival.  Rides, crafts, music, and lots of festival food.  I've been to more than my fair share of festivals, on both side of the fence - vendor and visitor.  Morganton always does it well and it's I've never been disappointed.

This year I got a chance to shop the crafts a little bit more than I have in years past as it's also a great opportunity for JuJu to show off her grandbabies.

My first stop was a booth for Cranberry's and Lace located in Marion, North Carolina.

How cute is this snowman made out of an old chenille bedspread?

Then a few more handmade finds at some booths down the way with some neat and simple country patterns.

There were tons more but honestly, I got stuck on Cranberry's where I scored these cute little candy corn plushies ...

and these ohhhh so precious burlap mice and candy canes. I try to fight the country with mod, but it's a battle I'm currently losing. 

And while I perused crafts from red dirt shirts, garden hose wreaths, and hair bow after hair bow, the kiddies enjoyed the other side of the festival, the RIDES!

[celebrate] fall = football

Fall is officially here. College football has started and our first game was a great opener,  Appalachian State versus Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.  Even at an away game, tailgating is required.

Amy and I planned the tailgate together, but really she did most of the work.  I mean bacon jam? Oh my goodness is that stuff amazing.  Between the baked grits with bacon jam, country ham biscuits,  fruit and cupcakes, the poor oreos were ignored despite their cute little football shape.

Thanks to Amy and all her cooking and planning.  Want to see more?  For more photos of the tailgate, the game, and the trip in general visit Amy's blog, Sadie Priss.  She's much better at documentation than I am.  I was too busy enjoying the bacon jam.

[celebrate] a brunch for baby elijah

The shower was a huge success and it was one of my favorite that I've planned so far.

We served brunch which is SO the way to go.  Of course there was a cake, layered pound cake with chocolate icing and white chocolate stars.  The vinyl records saved the day and with a simple sticker to match the colors, they were a hit.  We even borrowed the dad-to-be's guitar case and stuffed it full of cd's loaded with "baby" songs for favors along with white chocolate star pops.  It takes more paper stars than you think to cover that sort of space even sparingly, but it was worth the scissor blisters in the end.  Brandon and Wendy had a HUGE turnout and got lots of amazing things for the little boy on his way.  Congrats again and I can't wait to see Baby E in person!

[make] starry centerpieces

So what do you do for a centerpiece that doesn't include cutting a huge guitar out of cardboard when your theme is "future rocker"?  The guitar wasn't going to cut it (figuratively and literally), so I hung my hopes on the "star" part of rock star.

The key is LOTS of paper stars.  It takes more than you think so get to printing and cutting.  I used Martha's star templates.  Pulled them in and changed the background colors to match my theme. Printed.  Cut.  Cut some more.  Printed some more and then cut again!

For the centerpieces, I sandwiched a skewer between two (or four in some cases) stars until I had about 50 skewers.  I divided them between four Ikea white vases.  Then set the vases on records with simple round labels over the existing titles.

The banners over the doors and windows were quick too.  Some grosgrain ribbon, records and stars were all there was to it.  The day of the shower I took extra stars and my glue gun and covered my push pins once I got them hung.  The same thing for the little gathering of records over the gift table.  I just hung the records from ribbon, put the end of the ribbon in the wall with the push pins and then covered my pins with stars and more stars.

The cost?  The records we got for $17 for almost 30. (Note: The titles were all messed up and even if I had a record player I wouldn't have been listening to those things, so don't think I damaged priceless musical history.)  The skewers were $1 for 100 along with $10 worth of white grosgrain courtesy of the Dollar Store. I had the vases thanks to Sadie and the table cloths thanks to my insane love of all things fabric. Even figuring the card stock, round labels and printing I would guess I had less than $40 in all of the decorations. Not too shabby.

Thanks to Rachel at One Pretty Thing for featuring this post!

[celebrate] rock-a-bye baby

He'll be here soon and he's going to rock.  Didn't the invite turn out cool?

Party posts soon!

[pin] ruffles and roses

I posted a while back ideas for some Belated Birthday Fun.  It definitely turned out to be fun, just not quite as detailed.  The whole thing started because of Pinterest.  Yes, it's your fault (AGAIN) Pinterest.  Enter cake ...

Exit a whole idea board full of sweets ...

Conclude with a partial list of beautiful desserts filled with pink deliciousness.  And a pretty vintage sheet.

Our desserts included coconut cupcakes, nutella and raspberry mini pies, ooey goey bars, strawberry yogurt parfaits, pink chocolate oreos, sparkle popcorn and pretzel mix, salted caramel bars courtesy of Sadie, and last but not lease a hybrid ruffle and rose cake.

[celebrate] a little christmas in july

I want this for Christmas ... okay so maybe I need to make this for Christmas.

images: holly skirt, pillows, peaceful mantle, paper bag packages, poinsettia throw, acorn ring, pinecone runner, deer album, card drawer

[celebrate] happy red, white and blue

I can't believe it's almost July. Time for the red, white and blue!

Okay, so my version is a tomato sandwich via Martha with cute little ribbon picks.  I'll be honest, I'm not going to the trouble of the mozzarella or the grill either.  White bread, home-grown tomatoes and Duke's mayonnaise is all I'm really going to need.

I hope you find your red, white and blue happiness this weekend!

[celebrate] meet the animals

After quite a bit of deliberation, we chose the Catawba Science Center for Jack's birthday party this year.  We are huge fans of the Science Center as it is and this party just made us love it even more.  We opted for the larger special events room in the new Aquarium and Planetarium addition.  We weren't sure how many people we would end up with so this room, although a bit more expensive, had room to spare if we needed it.

The theme Jack chose was "Meet the Animals". Jonathan was our presenter.   He was great with the kids and super helpful.  First were activities.  There were three stations, animals tracks with cool stamps,

masks that the kids could decorate,and a giant map showing where animals came from.

And then Jonathan introduced the animals: a blue tongued skink

a rose-haired tarantula, hissing cockroaches from Madagascar and a very cool corn snake.

We learned all about all four animals including that insects had 4 or 6 legs which meant spiders were not insects, they were arachnids.  And a whole bunch of other cool stuff.  We all got to touch the animals  and Jack even got to hold the corn snake.

The next thing we knew it was cake and present time.  And if that wasn't enough, the party came with free admission to the Science Center for all of the guests. It just so happened right after we finished up the presents that they were feeding the sharks and rays in the aquarium so the kids got the see that, too! (This was definitely a benefit of having the party in the special events room which is located in the new addition - the smaller birthday rooms are in another building separate from the Aquarium.)

I'm sure there are lots of awesome places to have birthday parties, but the Science Center has got to be one of the best.