Kindergarten Graduation!

I can’t believe Gabe graduated from kindergarten today! The year went by unbelievably fast – and I realize we always talk about how much time flies, but I mean, this is just crazy. How can my little baby boy be ready for first grade? But he is. He has grown up and learned so much in the past year! Below is a photo of him from his first day of kindergarten. To the left is a photo of him today, as he walked to the stage for graduation! It is a rare photo of his genuine smile, not his “cheesy” fake smile (you know what I mean). The photo may not be technically perfect, to me it is priceless and I love it! Today was also Julia’s last day of “school”! Because of the graduation, I had to miss her special party with a moon bounce, fire trucks with a special puppet show and other fun activities. Luckily, friends were there to take lots of pics. Looks like a blast! She has changed even more than Gabe this year!

You can see how much Julia has changed between the first day of school and today in the comparison below.

What a blessing these kids are to me!!

The Parable of the Lily – a Wonderful Easter Story for Kids

After school today, the kids and I made some “hand-crafted” lilies for our breakfast table Easter centerpiece. I based my ideas on a few tutorials I had seen here and here, but improvised with the supplies we had on hand (hehe, sorry – I can help all the handy puns!). Later, after baths and before bed, I read them a wonderful Easter book called The Parable of the Lily. My mom saved this book over the years, then passed it along for me to read to my own kids. It is such a blessing! Here’s and excerpt from the back of the book:

“The gentle farmer…lovingly helps His young daughter, Maggie, understand the power of grace and forgiveness and the true meaning of Easter”

I love this story, and the best part is that there are Bible verses included to help teach your kids about Jesus and the Easter story :)!

Have you been up to any fun Easter crafts or preparations?

Happy Valentine’s Day!

We thought these cute T-shirts were perfect for our Valentine’s Day family photo :). Thanks to Uncle Michael (ST) and Auntie Tanya, for sending them this past Christmas! P.S. Yes, this is the best photo we got lol!

On Saturday we had a nice Valentine’s party with the family. Grandma gave the kids stickers, which is why everyone ended up wearing them by the end of the night, especially Julia and Gabe! I made cupcakes as usual, but this year, thanks to Family Fun Magazine, I knew how to make heart-shaped cupcakes, by putting a little ball of foil between the cupcake liner and pan :)! We also tried many Valentine’s activities and crafts I saw on Pinterest. Here’s one fun and easy Valentine’s Day treat we tried: heart-shaped whipped cream for our hot chocolate!

To make the Valentine’s hearts for your cocoa, you just need to spread some whipped cream on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, then freeze it. Once frozen, the whipped cream can be cut into heart shapes with a cookie cutter :)!

If you’re interested in seeing some of the paper crafts we made for Valentines Day this year, check out this post at Jess Gordon Design.

Besides the ones I already blogged about in this post and this one, here are of some of the other fun Valentine’s Day crafts we made:

Heart shaped Valentine card that folds into an envelope for Papa

“Long Distance Hugs” for Nina

“I love you because…” dry-erase sign

“I love you this much” Valentines for Grandma and Auntie

And the day is still young ;).  Have a great Valentine’s Day, my friends!

My Cuties!

When I was looking through the wedding photos from June, I came across these pics. I love my sweet kids!

Handmade Touches for a Vintage Style Wedding

This is the message I found in a fortune cookie last June: “You will soon be involved in many gatherings and parties”. I’m not superstitious, but this statement was certainly true - later that month, I was headed up to Gloucester, MA for my little sister’s wedding! It was a beautiful, vintage inspired affair to remember :).

I was so thrilled to be able to contribute some  handmade touches for the ring bearer and the flower girl. My niece, Lila, was the flower girl. I made a flower hair band for her using fabric flowers, felt and some frilly ribbon. I was inspired by the beautiful flower hair crowns you can see on Etsy, like this one.  To make the flower halo, I just removed some fabric flowers from their stems and hot glued them to an oval piece of felt, then I sandwiched a long, ruffled length of ribbon between that and a matching piece of felt. It is easy to wear a floral headband like this one: you just secure it with bobby pins, then tie the ribbon at the nape of your neck.

Our son, Gabe was the ring bearer, and he got to wear the most adorable outfit with a newsboy hat, bow-tie and suspenders. Instead of carrying the wedding rings on a pillow, we wrapped vintage poetry and music books together with some more of the flowers from the flower girl’s hair crown and some vintage lace and twine. The books were to represent the happy couple, whose college majors were Music and English  . Mom contributed the vintage poetry books and I had the old 1930′s children’s song book and vintage lace. This unique ring bearer “pillow” idea also came from Etsy :)!

I shared some more photos from the wedding at Scrapbook Ideas, from the photo book I made everyone for Christmas. I keep meaning to ask my sister and her new husband if they mind if I post some pictures of them too :)!