Bridal Shower & Bachelorette

As I mentioned in the last post, I was at a bridal shower this past weekend.  It was a luau theme because the couple is headed to Hawaii for their honeymoon!  It was a fun theme!  Here are some pictures from the fun day celebrating with the bride to be!

Here are the hosts and party planners.  The bride is in the middle in the pink.

Here she is with her soon to be mother in law and sister in law.

The food display fit the theme :)

The presents:

First we played a game - guess who would marry this celebrity, there were some good laughs :)

The answers were read off and the bride had to guess who picked that celebrity.

The next game was toilet paper dresses!  There were four "brides" to be dressed.

This was my team:

(the plan was to mock the dress she was already wearing)

She even had a nice simple veil: 

And we even made sure she had jewelry to add some final touches.

Another team designing their bride's dress:

The actual bride having her dress designed:

The fourth team's dress:

Here they all our, ready to be judged.  The "bride" on the left went for multicultural, it was quite hilarious.

The back view- one was becoming more revealing by the second!

I believe the placement went: (from left to right) 3rd, 3rd, 2nd, 1st

Then it was time for the gifts:

New luggage for the honeymoon!

Here she is opening my gift.  (More on the gift I gave can be found in a previous post.)

It's amazing how many new and cool things are out there even from 3 years ago when Eric and I were doing this!    

More luggage and a very neat wine and wine glass holder that sticks into the ground or sand on the beach.  Perfect for watching the sunset while they are on their honeymoon!

Later that night we went out on the town for her bachelorette party!

Here is Elton John the bride to be! :)

Cheers to a happy and wonderful marriage!

(Girls, if there are any pictures you want a digital copy of let me know and I can email it to you!)

It's officially SUMMER for me, so check back because I have a long list of things I want to do this summer and started one of the tasks today!  

- E  

Wedding Season!

It's that time of year again!  Surprisingly though, Eric and I only have 3 weddings this summer (I think).  So that isn't too many compared to the last few years.  This past weekend I went to a bridal shower for a long time friend who gets married in just a couple weeks!  I finally got to use a fun pinterest find and make a useful gift for her and her fiance!

If I had more time last week I would have made the tags over with my own creative touches, but I just used the template that was on the blog.  Here is how it turned out: 

The tag farthest to the right goes on the top - it says Marriage Survival Tool Kit

Each tool was labeled with a tag.  Here is the Jpeg:

I used card stock, cut them out, punched a hole and tied each card to its piece.  It ends up being a really great starter tool kit for newlyweds.  Good for hanging decorations/pictures and little fixes.

Packed it all in:

Here is the final product - with easy wrapping!

And here is the bride to be opening it up!  I think she enjoyed it and I bet her fiance enjoyed hearing of this gift.

She read them all off to everyone - and it even worked for the game we played.  Since they are honeymooning in Hawaii, they had a contest for the leis and if you said her fiance's name, love, church, or wedding then you had your lei taken away.  And as she read them, she said the word love.  Oops!  I was awful at the game and had my lei taken away right away and never got one back.  

Happy Wedding to them!

and Happy Memorial day to all!

E & E

Frisbee!

Ellie got a frisbee this week and is loving it! We are so thankful for our big yard for her to run in!



Erica is done with school tomorrow! Be on the look out for more posts soon! Summer break means more DIY, decorating, and crafting!

3 months!

Ellie is 3 months today!

And oh my is she growing!  She has had two puppy classes now!  It will be wonderful to see her grow and learn in her class.  She was very excited to play with all the other dogs and some of them were a little overwhelmed by her at first.  She has learned: heel, halt, leave it, and sit.  She also has been doing the agility courses- like the tunnel, shoot, seesaw and incline.  She loves them all!  We are working on stay and turning while walking.  And the biggest of all we are working on- her biting!  Puppy teeth are very sharp!  We are pretty sure we will have a celebration when she starts losing them!

Here are some fun shots of her growing!

This was her at 7 weeks right after we got her:

(Use the stuffed giraffe as a comparison)

This was at 10 weeks: 

This was at 12 weeks:

Here is another way she would like to show her growth.  This wasn't planned - this is from us laughing at her silly favorite spot!

This is at 9 weeks:

This is at 10 weeks:

This is at 13 weeks:

Hope you all have a great weekend!

E & E

Arbor Day Farm

Almost two months ago Eric and I visited Nebraska and went to the Arbor Day Foundation Park.  It was just about spring so flowers were blooming and trees had some buds.  It was a beautiful day!  I LOVE the outdoors as a teacher.  I have done something called "Trail Thursday" in my class where we ventured into the wood every other Thursday.  We would do various outdoor activities while out on the trail and the students loved it! 

Anyway, another great outdoor learning experiences are called outdoor classrooms.  A nearby school here has one and I was able to help plant, move dirt, and get the classroom created.  The Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska has a large outdoor classroom and I loved taking pictures of all the centers and wonderful areas for students to create.  Eric is ready to make something like this for our kids someday in our backyard.  I am all for it!

Welcome to the Nature Explore Classroom!

This area has fabric you can tie to all the branches to make a tent, hammock, or anything your creative heart desires!

This would be my favorite place!

They even have supplies from the area to use.

The music area is always a favorite - and obviously for the "big kids" too :)

This spider web climbing area was very neat!

This was something I hadn't seen before.  They have sections for all the senses.  This one was to help hear all the sounds around you.  It makes you look really cool.  :)

It was a fun trip!  Spring was showing all around us - it was beautiful!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

E & E