Salad Bar for Teacher Appreciation Week

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week and as a former preschool teacher I know how hard the teachers in Alexa's preschool work. Alexa has attended the same school since she was 6 months old and while she has one particular teacher she spends every day with, every teacher has made an impact in her life. Jim and I wanted to thank all of them for their dedication and hard work so we put together all the fix-ins for a salad bar. 

I created this thank you note giving them the run down on everything that was available for them to choose from. They could choose between iceberg and romaine lettuce; baby spinach and spring mix. The toppings were celery, cucumber, onion, tomatoes, carrots, blue cheese, bell peppers, mushrooms, kidney and garbanzo beans, shredded cheese, almonds, walnuts, bacon bits and dried cranberries. They had four dressings to choose from Ranch, Blue cheese, Thousand Island and Italian.

I found a beautiful poem titled I Am A Teacher from the blog Five Heart Home. Check out the blog to find the 8x10 printable and also a printable for note cards. 

Alexa was so excited to help me put everything together and to sneak a few handfuls of cheese when I wasn't looking. 

What are you doing for Teacher Appreciation Week?

Until next time,

Karri

Passport to Paradise Auction

This month our church hosted their annual dinner auction. Proceeds of the auction benefit youth and young adult ministry, religious education programs and our school. 

Since I'm the coordinator of youth and young adult ministry I have a very active role in this event. Each year I am honored to be in charge of decorating. I love throwing parties especially theme parties so this is right up my alley. 

Over the years we have hosted a Mardi Gras night, a western event, back to the 50's, St. Patrick's Day, Hollywood, medival times and last year was Disney.

This year's theme was Passport to Paradise. 

An overview of the room 

We had two sets of tables - the long rectangle for general seating and the round for premium seating. Premium seating included table linens, real plates and silverware and each table had their own server. 

My Mom with the help of some awesome parents volunteers created all the table centerpieces. Thanks Mom! 

The centerpieces on the premium tables each had a beautiful tropical flower. 

Here is a closeup of the centerpieces from the other tables

In addition to the amazing items for auction we always have a secret gift table. Guests could pay $10.00 and pick an umbrella. Each umbrella has a number attached to it that matches a gift on the table. Each gift is valued at $10 or more. The main draw is always a beautiful piece of jewelry that you can win. 

I have to say this is my favorite . I just loved my hula trash cans.

I found this fun Keep Calm sign at  The Keep Calm-o-matic   it fit nicely with this display at the bar.

I think the night turned out wonderful and several children, teens and young adults are going to reap the benefits. 

I am so looking forward to our auction next. I will truly get to play with decorating on this one. Our theme is Vintage Circus. 

Until next time, 

Karri

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Sofia the First Birthday Party

 

Back in November our little Princess turned 3 and what better way to celebrate then with a Sofia the First Princess Party. For those who may not know, Sofia the First is a cartoon on Disney Jr. She is adorable and Alexa loves her TV show and really enjoyed meeting her at our recent vacation to Disneyland. 

Rather then having the party at home, we decided to move the party closer to most of our family members, namely both sets of Grandparents who still live in the city, Jim & I grew up in. Thanks to Nanny (that's my mom) we were able to reserve the back room at a local pizza parlor. This allowed us to keep the party simple and I had zero mess in my home when we were done. 

Safeway made our cupcakes with purple frosting. I know the picture looks like it was blue but trust me they matched Sofia's dress perfectly. I found the cupcake toppers on the blog Seven Thirty Three. 

I absolutely love this Sofia inspired "Keep Calm and Princess On" printable I found from The Suburban Mom blog. 

Since most of the party guests were teens and adults a chocolate bar favor was perfect. I created this fun candy wrapper printable to thank everyone for such a wonderful afternoon.

 Hope you enjoyed Alexa's Sofia the First party. If you are planning a Sofia party I suggest you search Sofia the First on Pinterest. There are so many wonderful ideas and great printables to help make your party a success. 

Until next time,

Karri 

Happy Easter & an Easter Edition Link Party

We had a wonderful Easter weekend, I hope all of you did also.  

We began on Friday with the annual cross walk held by the Youth & Young Adult Ministry at church. On Good Friday the ministry host a Stations of the Cross walk at a local park. This is one of my favorite events to put together and I was so excited that this year we had the largest turn out ever.  (I'm sorry that I can't share any pictures since they all have teens in them and I don't have permission from their parents but trust me there were a lot of teens.) 

Saturday we decorated eggs. Jacob was available for the first picture then he had to leave. As we are setting up he showed me what he thought was a bite on his arm. It was huge, red and hard as a rock so we decided to take him to emergency. Jim and my Dad took him and all ended well, he has an infection in the tissue of his arm due to a scrape he had received earlier. The doctor gave him antibiotics and by the end of the evening the swelling was down considerably. 

Now back to the egg decorating, Alexa had a blast. I loved watching her get so excited as the eggs became a new color. She really loved adding stickers to them after they dried.

Jim and I attended the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening. Since my Mom & Dad stayed home with the kids it was just Jim & I. A friend of ours called it "Date Night at the Easter Vigil". At first is seemed funny but as mass went on I thought, this is really a perfect date for Jim & I. It has been so long since we have been able to enjoy mass as a couple without kids. I especially valued our time after communion when we could kneel and pray together for our kids, family and friends. It was just the three of us - me, Jim & God. It was perfect!

Alleluia! Alleluia! He is Risen! 
Easter Sunday we hosted a wonderful lunch at our home with both sides of the family but first Jacob and Alexa posed for the mandatory annual Easter photo by the tree!

Here are a few pictures from the Easter decorations. 

Egg Hunt Time!!! Our family has a no age limit egg hunt every year. We fill eggs with money, candy and prize tickets. Everyone brings prizes for all age levels. We let the little ones have first crack at the eggs and then it's a free full all for everyone else. 

Thank you for visiting our Easter Celebration! 

Now let's make this a link party - I would love to see how you celebrated your Easter!! Link Away!!!

Until next time,

Karri

Starting the Season with the Annual Ladies Dinner

Each year my church has a Ladies Dinner on the first weekend of Advent. It's always a beautiful night and a perfect way to begin the Advent Season. Each year women sign up to host a table, hostesses are in charge of inviting guests for their table, all the decorations, the tableware, appetizers, beverages, and a favor to give her table guests as a reminder of the night. The hostesses are also responsible for finding waiters for their table and selling raffle tickets to the ladies. It's really fun to see how each of the hostesses decorates their tables. I have hosted a table for about 5 years but it wasn't until last year that I began hosting with my wonderful friend Karen. We have so much fun that we have decided to never host a table by ourselves again. Last year our table was a snowman theme. When we were decorating that table we came up with the theme for this years table. On Friday as we were decorating this table we decided on our theme for next year. It's a secret though. This year we choose the theme: Poinsettias enjoy!

Until next time,
Karri




Linking to these great link parties

Alexa's Sesame Street Party Part 3

Today I'm sharing the last part in my series featuring Alexa's 2nd birthday party. If you happened to miss the first 2 parts check them out at Part 1 and Part 2.

Putting together Alexa's party was super easy because I used of my favorite computer tools - Springpad and Scrapbook Max.

Springpad is like Pinterest with the exception that you can keep all of your information hidden and you can create your own list and notes.

Here is my board for Alexa's party. I was able to keep my decorating, favors and recipe ideas together and also create my menu, to do lists and shopping lists. Since I have Springpad on my phone, ipod touch and Nook, I was able to access my lists from anywhere. 

Scrapbook Max was also my lifesaver this party. I was able to create all of my food table signs, the invitation and sign decorations. I used Walgreens photo to print everything because of the reasonable price. 

For my food table: Each of these was cute in half and placed on a photo holder stand. 

Each of these was printed as a  4 x 6 photo and placed in acrylic picture frame.

I had this printed in 8 x 10 and I used a white wooden picture frame. I placed it near the favor table for guests to read as they were getting ready to leave the party. 

So there you have it, Alexa's 2nd Birthday! It's still crazy to think she is now 2. Since 2 came up so quick, I'm already thinking of party #3. Thank goodness for Springpad to keep my organized.

What are your favorite tools and tricks when planning a party? 

Until next time,

Karri

Linking to:
Monday:  
Craft-o-Matic, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Skip to My Lou, The Gunny Sack,

Tuesday:
 Lil Luna, Sugar Bee Crafts, The Blackberry Vine, Today's Creative Blog, Not Just a Housewife,  Clean and Scentsible, Natural Nesters, Crystal & Co, The Well Crafted Home

Wednesday:
 Polkadots on Parade, Fireflies and Jellybeans, The Trendy Treehouse, Somewhat Simple, Ginger Snap Crafts, Practically Functional, DIY Crafty Projects

Thursday:
 Delightful Order, Suzy’s Artsy Craftsy Sitcom, My Turn (for us), The Shabby Chic Cottage, The Crafty Blog Stalker, The Frugal Girls , The Mandatory Mooch

Friday
It’s a Hodgepodge Life, Blissful and Domestic, Chic on a Shoestring, Craft Envy, Just Us Four

Saturday: 
Tatertots and Jello, Craft Envy, While He Was Napping, Six Sisters Stuff, Just Us Four; Cheerios and Lattes, Or so she says

Sunday:
 I Heart Naptime, Flamingo Toes, Blissful and Domestic, 

Alexa's Sesame Street Party Part 2

It's part 2 of Alexa's 2nd birthday party. Yesterday I shared the Sesame Street decorations I used. Today I'm going to share the food I served.

Jim and I decided to make life easy and serve a variety of sandwich spreads for our guests to choose from-
Our menu included
E is for Egg Salad - Simple recipe of hard boiled eggs, Best Foods Mayonnaise and a little salt.
C is for Chicken Salad - I took frozen chicken thighs and cooked them in my crock pots and shredded it the day before the party. Our salad mixture was chicken, parsley, onion, celery and ceasar salad dressing.   
T is for Tuna Salad - my mother in law was kind enough to provide the tuna salad for the party.
H is for Ham Spread - this is from a recipe of my best friends. It's my favorite lunch item she makes. Thank you Jackie for sharing your recipe with me. One day with her permission I will share the recipe.
P is for Pasta Salad - my Mom made this and she used my Nana's Macaroni Salad recipe you can find it by clicking the link.
V is for Vegetable - Carrots, celery, cucumbers and zucchini with ranch dressing of course.
F is for Fruit - Pineapple, melons. raspberries, grape and blackberries served with mixed berry yogurt.

The drinks were simple - ice tea, sodas and juice boxes. I also made a sherbet punch and added blue Koolaid  to make it look like water and added Ernie's favorite rubber duckies.

Finally we had desserts  They were put on the main table after everyone was done eating lunch. I had Dorthy Goldfish crackers, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and Cookie Monster's chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies.. Everyone's favorite seemed to be Oscar's dirt pudding. Each cup had a layer of chocolate pudding, and a crushed brownie. I then topped each with crushed chocolate fudge cookies. A gummy Slimy worm was added to each cup.

I had so much fun coming up with the menu for the party. I really enjoyed making up the names of the menu items for the signs I placed around the table.

Come back tomorrow to see the tools I used to help keep the party planning organized.

Until next time,
Karri


Monday:  
Craft-o-Matic, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Skip to My Lou, The Gunny Sack,

Tuesday:
 Lil Luna, Sugar Bee Crafts, The Blackberry Vine, Today's Creative Blog, Not Just a Housewife,  Clean and Scentsible, Natural Nesters, Crystal & Co, The Well Crafted Home

Wednesday:
 Polkadots on Parade, Fireflies and Jellybeans, The Trendy Treehouse, Somewhat Simple, Ginger Snap Crafts, Practically Functional, DIY Crafty Projects

Thursday:
 Delightful Order, Suzy’s Artsy Craftsy Sitcom, My Turn (for us), The Shabby Chic Cottage, The Crafty Blog Stalker, The Frugal Girls , The Mandatory Mooch

Friday
It’s a Hodgepodge Life, Blissful and Domestic, Chic on a Shoestring, Craft Envy, Just Us Four

Saturday: 
Tatertots and Jello, Craft Envy, While He Was Napping, Six Sisters Stuff, Just Us Four; Cheerios and Lattes, Or so she says

Sunday:
 I Heart Naptime, Flamingo Toes, Blissful and Domestic, 

Alexa's Sesame Street Party Part 1

Our Little Boo turned 2 last week and we had a fun Sesame Street themed birthday party over the weekend. Alexa loves Sesame Street, her favorites characters are Elmo, Abby Cadabby and Ernie. I love that she enjoys everything Sesame Street, it was my favorite show growing up also.

I've written several posts about Alexa love of Sesame Street. Be sure to check out our trip to see Sesame Street Live,, this year's Halloween were Alexa was Abby Cadabby and finally my recent post about Alexa turning 2. Please take a look at them when you can.

I will be sharing Alexa's party in 3 parts - today I will share the decorations; tomorrow the food and finally I will share the various apps, websites and computer programs I used to keep my sanity through the planning process. I hope you find inspiration when planning your parties though our. Enjoy!

I created this fun back drop using plastic tablecloths. I had first used a double stick adhesive from 3M to attach it to the wall but it kept falling down. Those plastic table cloths are really slick. I finally had to use packing tape, it seemed to be the only way it would work. Alexa's banner was made with my Cricut using the Art Philosophy and the Elmo's Party cartridges. I also purchased 2 yards of Sesame Street fabric from my local JoAnn's for the food table and bright colored plastic bowls and trays from Party City.

 My favorite part of the party was the Abby Cadabby Fairy Treats table. Each guest was to take a box and fill it with candy as they left the party and eat candy throughout the day. It was a huge hit with all the guests. I had purchased the sand pails from Party City and the glass containers from various stores. I hit the clearance aisles of Home Goods, TJ Maxx and Target to find the jars at reasonable prices. In town we have a grocery store called Winco that sells lots of items in bulk including candy. I was able to purchase most of my candy for less then $2.00 a pound.  The Abby Cadabby sign is one of many signs I made for the food table. (I found out after the party that I spelled Abby's name wrong, but since everyone at the party was an adult with either no children or had children to old for Sesame Street no one seemed to notice. Thank goodness!!!)   I will be sharing the food tomorrow, so please be sure to stop by again.

Until next time,
Karri


Monday:  
Craft-o-Matic, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Skip to My Lou, The Gunny Sack,

Tuesday:
 Lil Luna, Sugar Bee Crafts, The Blackberry Vine, Today's Creative Blog, Not Just a Housewife,  Clean and Scentsible, Natural Nesters, Crystal & Co, The Well Crafted Home

Wednesday:
 Polkadots on Parade, Fireflies and Jellybeans, The Trendy Treehouse, Somewhat Simple, Ginger Snap Crafts, Practically Functional, DIY Crafty Projects

Thursday:
 Delightful Order, Suzy’s Artsy Craftsy Sitcom, My Turn (for us), The Shabby Chic Cottage, The Crafty Blog Stalker, The Frugal Girls , The Mandatory Mooch

Friday
It’s a Hodgepodge Life, Blissful and Domestic, Chic on a Shoestring, Craft Envy, Just Us Four

Saturday: 
Tatertots and Jello, Craft Envy, While He Was Napping, Six Sisters Stuff, Just Us Four; Cheerios and Lattes, Or so she says

Sunday:
 I Heart Naptime, Flamingo Toes, Blissful and Domestic, 

It's a Baby Shower

A few weeks ago I was honored to be able to throw a baby shower for my wonderful friend Natalie. From the moment she shared her good news, I knew I was throwing the shower. Natalie has been an amazing friend and I wanted to give her the best baby shower I could. I immediately began searching all over Pinterest for ideas for her shower. I found the perfect idea at Hostess with the Mostess. It was a French Inspired Garden theme that was perfect for Natalie. You see Natalie is a High School French teacher and her little one will be named Rosalie. So France and Roses were my muse!

I made all the signs using my Scrapbook Max Software. To decorate the main table I used silk roses and my favorite vase set from Partylite. I also had a french inspired hat box which I used for to create some height. For the dining tables which were set in my backyard, I cut fresh rosemary from my garden and used pieces from my teacup collection as centerpieces. For favors I painted small wooden flower pots with Martha Stewart Paint - I used a pink pearl color and filled them with a silk rose and some moss. As you can see everything was white and pink.

For the food table I used pieces of my Grandmother china set. It was perfect white with pink roses. For lunch I served chicken salad sandwiches, berry jello salad, strawberry spinach salad, cut melons and grapes; and crepes with blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. 

Every shower needs games. I had each of the ladies play a word scramble game first then I had them get creative. Each guest was given some Play-Doh, they needed to sculpt a little baby. Natalie then picked her two favorites to win a prize. Let me share how perfect this them was, I headed to Bath and Body Works to pick up a few shower prize gifts. I was so excited to find that they had a whole collection of French Inspired shower gels and lotions. I grabbed every scent they carried in the collection. I had never been so excited about a purchase in my life. 

For even more creative fun each of the guests was given a chance to make a headband for Rosalie. Rosalie is going to be one stylish little baby, the headbands are so cute. My favorite activity was during the gift opening portion of the day. I gave each guest a piece of paper with My Wish for Rosalie written on the top. Before Natalie began opening her presents everyone spent some time writing their wishes. As Natalie opened each gift the giver shared their wishes for Rosalie. Everyone wrote so beautifully and when both grandma's shared their wishes there was not a dry eye in the house. 

Natalie and Matt are due to have Rosalie in November. Please keep their growing family in your prayers. 

Until next time,

Karri

Linking to:
Monday:  
Craft-o-Matic, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Skip to My Lou, The Gunny Sack, For Love of Cupcakes, How to Nest for Less,  Between Naps on the Porch 

Tuesday:
 Lil Luna, Sugar Bee Crafts, The Blackberry Vine, Today's Creative Blog, Mommy by Day, Crafter by Night; Not Just a Housewife, Snap, Clean and Scentsible, Jillify it, Natural Nesters, Crystal & Co

Wednesday:
 Polkadots on Parade, Fireflies and Jellybeans, The Trendy Treehouse, Somewhat Simple, Ginger Snap Crafts, 

Thursday:
 Delightful Order, Suzy’s Artsy Craftsy Sitcom, My Turn (for us), The Shabby Chic Cottage, The Crafty Blog Stalker, The Frugal Girls 

Friday
It’s a Hodgepodge Life, Blissful and Domestic, Chic on a Shoestring, Craft Envy, 

Saturday: 
Tatertots and Jello, Craft Envy, While He Was Napping, Six Sisters Stuff 

Sunday:
 I Heart Naptime, Flamingo Toes, Blissful and Domestic,