Spy School Birthday Party

I would love to say it was super easy to put together C’s 5th Birthday party because I do this sort of thing all the time.  BUT when it came time to plan, I was buried in life and work and I had a hard time getting all the details in order.  To be honest, the only reason I did a big party was because it’s my business- and it’s good for my portfolio.  :-)

Here we go.  C is into spies and I decided on a “Spy School” theme.  The kids came and went through some basic training and earned their certificate at the end.  It turned out to be a lot of fun!

We had the party at the church so I had one sign downstairs to lead everyone up.

And this was the welcome sign for the door.  I had just gotten a new printer so I can now print 11”x17” signs! 

For the invitation- I made a little “folder” and had these pages cut apart and paper clipped in the folder.  I ran the envelopes through the printer and printed “top secret” on the outside. 

Banner above the present table at the entry

We had nametags for everyone to work on when they got there.  On the back, they got a sticker for every training mission they completed.

Here’s our nametag table setup.

We are about to get a bit out of order- because these pictures are seriously hard to re-arrange. 

I’m not type A so it doesn’t bother me…. hopefully it won’t bother you. 

  

So we had a series of missions they had to complete.  One of them was Language school (okay, so I needed another mission, I stretched it a bit)

We taught the kids how to say hello in a few languages and count and some other things.  I’ve watched Dora a few times so I know some Spanish and I almost failed French in college and I’ve been to Portugal twice so I’m pretty sure they learned a lot. 

Actually all they did was ask when dinner was.  #fail

       

Speaking of dinner, the spies in training came to the cafeteria at spy school for dinner. 

I found these adorable paper cafeteria trays online and HAD to have them so that actually determined the theme of the whole dinner. 

Here’s all the kids eating with their cute cafeteria trays. 

The kids are cute too.

 

Here’s some of the very simple food.  I usually like to do homemade food with new recipes and lots of ingredients… but I just didn’t have it in me this year.

 

 

The Cake!  I just got a simple cake at target with sprinkles on the edge and added the rest of the decorations myself. 

You should have heard the Target baker when she was taking my order- “is that all?” “would you like anything else on the cake?”  “anything at all…”

One of their missions was to dress up in disguises and we took some fun pictures. 

Disguise table.

The kiddos had fun!

C with his sweet aunt Caylin who came all the way from Houston for the party. 

Another mission- driving school!

 

I didn’t get any good pictures of this one.  They were moving too fast!

Everyone’s favorite mission- Laser training. 

 

I was hoping it would be everyone’s favorite activity because it looks just like an awesome spy movie and it took Mike an hour to put it together.  But it turns out it was their favorite because there was candy at the back and they just loved to go through the maze and grab candy. 

Over and over and over.

     

I even had a spot for the grown ups to relax since they work so hard. 

 

My family sure did enjoy it. 

It’s a good thing I didn’t PAY them to help. 

For the last mission of the day they had to pop balloons and find the secret message and it took them downstairs and look for the next clue and the next clue.

I just thought these pictures were funny.

 

Then they had to stay on the sidewalk and shoot out the dynamite before it exploded. 

And then they got goodie bags.

At the end everyone got a diploma in a very official ceremony. 

Happy 2014

 Happy 2014!  

Only a month late.  

I like to have a brunch on New Years Day.  Once we had kids it became really hard to get out on New Year's eve.  Finding a babysitter, affording a place, staying out late.  It's just too hard.  However, I don't like to miss an opportunity to have a party, so I do a party on New Years Day. 

It turned out so fun!

 I found this punch recipe on pinterest.  It's something like sprite, pina coloda frozen mix (no alcohol), banana orange pineapple juice, and maybe some other stuff.  (You can see all my oils in the background- love them!)

 These were pears with bacon on top sprinkled with paprika and cinnamon.  Delicious!

 Salad served in martini glasses = super fun salad.

The chalkboard in the kitchen.

 I love these snowflakes so I had to take a picture.  I got them a few years ago 1/2 off at pier one. 

 Super easy cardboard numbers sprayed with silver spraypaint!

 Yummy coffee cake made with those rolls that are frozen then rise when you set them out. 

I made some photo props because I thought it would be fun!  

Quick Pre-Portugal Update

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped with our trip- sending money, bringing food, praying... it wouldn't be possible without you!

Just wanted to give you a quick update before we leave... this afternoon!!!

 We collected a bunch of food to take then divided it into 5 piles so we could each take some food.  If we put it all together it would have been too heavy for the 50 lb weight limit per bag. 

Here's the bottom of my bag.  Lots of sweet potatoes and some marshmallows!

Just in case you are curious- here's some of the things we are cooking:
Turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy, rolls, sweet potatoes, stuffing, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, ambrosia, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, salad, brownies, cookies, apple pie, carrots, green beans... i can't even remember the rest!

Here's how you can pray when we are gone- copied from Cristi's facebook post this morning:

1. the team as they take off today and leave children and jobs and worries for a week. Pray that it will be a wonderful week for them here in Portugal.
2. Our friends here that we are passing out invitations to...pray that they'd be able to attend the meal.
3. Relationships to be deepened and/or formed and for opportunities to share the gospel with them over this long weekend...

Thurs. Night-dinner with our café inglês group
Fri. Night-dinner with our Bible study peeps and a few other random families we're inviting
Sat.-6 families from Calvin's class
Sun.-5 families from Lily's class
Mon. night-dinner with neighbors

Pray that by Monday night we'll still be able to force Turkey and Cranberry sauce down our throats 

 I will try and post updates along the way.  Hopefully we will have time to stop for a minute- I may be too tired at the end of the day!

 Thank you for your prayers!

Mission Trip to Portugal!

I'm excited to be going back to Portugal this year on a mission trip.  I went two years ago on a similar trip but this time Mike is going too as well as 3 cother people from our church.  We are leaving in just two weeks and staying a week and a half!  For some reason I feel much more behind this time.  We will be cooking 5 thanksgiving dinners for about 20 people each night!  At the dinners we get to visit with the guests and learn more about their culture and talk to them about ours.  Since it's Thanksgiving... we pray together and talk about what we are thankful for.  

We have to take some of the food with us because they don't have all the American Thanksgiving food there.  Pumpkin, cranberry sauce, chocolate chip cookies- these are things they don't have.  

 

This is one of the suitcases we were trying to pack two years ago.  Suitcases have to be 50 lbs are less and that can be hard when you have a bunch of canned food.  

 

Here's some of the wonderful food we prepared.  

 

We got to tour the city a little bit.  It was incredible.

 More beautiful food.  Does it look like a traditional Thanksgiving?

And here's one view of the beautiful city.  

We still need some help.  Help covering trip expenses and also help with the groceries we are taking and craft supplies for the kids.  If you want to help- we could use money for the trip as well as grocery gift cards or cash to purchase some of our groceries before we go.  We also purchase lots of groceries when we get there and money would help with that as well.  If you feel like shopping for a particular item- contact me and I can give you a list of what we still need to get.  

Here are some of the fun people we do this for.  There are lots of different areas of ministry going on in Coimbra right now with the Gereckes.  One is a college ministry where they get together with college students and help them practice speaking English.  They also have a small bible study they are getting started, they invite families into their home weekly from the kids schools and their neighborhood.  They are constantly looking for people to minister to and create community. 

If I could I would go on mission trips all the time.  I love learning about different cultures and sharing The Lord with others.  If you feel led to help out financially it would be a huge blessing.  This trip would not be possible without help from others and

Please send checks or gift cards made out to First Colleyville to:

5405 Pleasant Run
Colleyville, TX 76034

Please indicate "Portugal missions" in the memo line of the check and specify in a note if you would like the money to be used for grocery purchases or my personal trip expenses. 

We would also love your prayers!  Pray for the people of Portugal, that it will be easy to get the word out about the dinners and that everyone will be able to come, for trip safety and safety of our kids that we are leaving here, that there will be opportunities to talk about God and what He has done in our lives, for our energy and cooking skills... just about anything!
Our team is Michelle, Josh, Tracy, Mike & Catherine and we are meeting missionaries Michael and Cristi when we get there.  We will be traveling Nov. 5-13th.  Thank you for your prayers!

Life of a Foster Parent

I thought I would take this moment to put off cleaning a bit longer, and give you a glimpse into our life as foster parents.  This is just a part about our monthly visitors.

So every month- we have approx 5 different people coming over to the house to visit baby J.  Therapist (times 2), CASA worker, CPS caseworker and foster agency caseworker.  Oh, and someone comes by twice a month to pick her up for a visit with bio parents.

Mostly everyone comes in to play with J  and stays in one room or a couple of rooms.  Once a quarter we get to have someone come over and inspect all the rooms for safety and to make sure our kitchen soap is not sitting out.  Wouldn't want someone to drink it and then poop bubbles or something :-)

So I've kind of gotten over having my house clean for every visitor- I mean- who has time to clean their house 5 times a month?  Not going to happen.  But I do feel like I should have it clean for our quarterly inspection.  And that's today.  So I officially have 5 hours to clean.  For a normal person that would probably be perfectly acceptable.  However, I am very bad at cleaning. 

Maybe I will take a before an after picture.  And if I'm not too embarrassed I will post it. 

Painting Tips for Painting Your Own Artwork

Don't get your hopes up.  If you have ever taken art before, even if it was in jr. high, you probably know more about painting than me.  I do a lot of creative things but I'm not a great artist.  However, I believe anyone can make their own artwork and can paint beautiful things if they want to.  So here are a few easy tips to help.

 1) Pick your paints.  They don't have to be expensive or even from a special art store.  I usually use the apple barrel paints from Hobby Lobby that are like .50 a jar.  Today, I'm using some paint from Target that I got for Cason but I love it so much (because it shimmers) that I wanted to use it for this project.

 2) Pick your colors.  Paint your whole background.  

Don't try and paint detail and background at the same time.  

I choose 2 colors of blue for the background with a hint of green.

So that's part of tip 2.  Pick up more than one color of paint with your brush and use big strokes.  Solid even color- not good... at least not for this!

3) Once that dries.  Use chalk to draw your main image.  It doesn't have to be this simple but simple is easy!  Also, off center is better.  It is easier because you don't have to be perfect- plus it looks like you put extra thought into it.  You thought so much about it that you made it off center to make other people think more.  Awesome.

 4) Paint your main image- again using 2 different colors on your paintbrush at a time.  It really helps make the art look dimensional.  When it's dry you can wipe the chalk off as if it never existed.

 

5) I wanted to add another layer to the painting- text.  Text is hard because it's hard to get a smooth line with paint.  I wrote the words in chalk and used a tiny paintbrush and carefully wrote everything in.  It's not perfect but it's real.

And here's the finished piece.  It's personal and it's homemade and you can do it too!  

So if you make awesome things please pass on this tutorial.  Hopefully, it will inspire you just a little to start making your own artwork and saving a little $$ in the process.

First Day of Pre-K

 Here's our first day of school picture.  I think I'm the only person in America that didn't use a chalkboard or a cute printable to mark the occasion- which is kind of funny because that's the sort of thing I would make with my business but we barely made it to school on time- plus I don't make a lot of graphics for myself- I guess I have enough working on them for others.

This boy was in a silly mood because he looks like a goober in all of these but it's a good display of his personality!

 

I have back to school pictures for my other baby but I can't show them online :-(  hopefully soon.  You will just have to imagine how adorable she is!

What A Year!

I can't believe it's been over a year since I last blogged!  A lot has happened- though that's not really an excuse.

So lets rewind a year and I will give you a quick overview and then we can move on.

My sister got married at the beginning of September, two days later, we got our first foster kids!  We took in a 2 year old boy and a 9 month old girl bringing my total to a 3, 2, and almost one year old.  It was chaos almost instantly!  Having kids that close together is hard for almost anyone- at least I'm assuming- and having kids that have been raised in another home for a few years and then moved to ours made it extra challenging.  A challenge that comes with foster care and one of the reasons they need good foster homes!

These kids stayed with us for 4 months and then ended up going back home.  It was a hard 4 months.  Being foster parents can be fun and rewarding and challenging and frustrating and exhausting.  Sometimes all at the same time.

A few months later- we got a call for a little girl!  She came to us in March and we still have her.  She's a doll and a great addition to the family.

Unfortunately with foster care I can't give many details and can't show any pictures.  Trust me, she's cute!

Meanwhile I've been working hard building a business of Everything Design.  It's been a fun journey and I have seen so much growth this year- growth that I can't take much credit for because I haven't had time to advertise.  The Lord has helped me grow.

I really want to start writing about some changes we have been making in the family to our food and cleaning and just trying to live healthier overall.  So my goal is to add some tips and tricks to help you if you are looking to baby step your home to natural living!

Patiently Waiting

Many of you have asked for an update on our foster care and I really don't have much.  We have finished all our training and our paperwork and are officially on the list for our home study.  There really hasn't been an indication of how long that will take.  I was told we would get a call last week or this week and it's almost Friday and still nothing.  So I'm guessing that it will be next week or the next. 

I think because for so long we were trying to cram in classes around our usually busy schedule and now that we have nothing to do but wait it's really hard. 

We have prayed that the home study would happen in Gods timing and so I am assuming that this waiting period is for a reason.

My understanding is, once we have our home study and once it is approved (assuming it will be) we will just need to get TB tests and then we will be on the list to get a child at any time.  Exciting!

Meanwhile I work on this.

My garden!  We are getting a little tired of eating zucchini so if you want some, let me know.

Also I'm looking forward to our super awesome family vacation at the end of the month.  We are going to the beach in Alabama.  It should be a great time of family bonding.  I mean, we are not staying in the same room, or even in the same building... and we are taking 100 other people with us... and Mike is riding on a bus with half of them all the way there. 

Yes, our big vacation is youth camp.  It probably won't be much of a vacation for Mike but Cason and I are looking forward to it :-)

I'll keep you posed on everything!  Thanks for wanting to stay in the loop and keeping us in your prayers.

Semi-Final Home Inspection

We had our final home inspection today... well final inspection from Arrow- we still have another one.  Everything went great and I think there's only one more thing we need to do in the house.  Just wanted to show another picture of the girls room because I really like how it turned out.

Yea! 

I do want to ask for prayer though- we were supposed to have our last class (aside from CPR) last Thursday and it was cancelled at the last minute.  That means that we will have to find another time that works.  After scheduling a babysitter and getting excited to be finished, it's discouraging to have to wait longer.  Also, there's a waiting list to get your home study done.  We really want to be done with everything by June 1st because summer is crazy around here.  Pray that we can get the last class in and get on the home study wait list asap.  

Thanks so much!

Fire Extinguishers, Smoke Detectors and other reasons why my house is a safe place to be

I have to be honest, I’m watching MI3… or is it 4 with my husband right now and I desperately want to zone out and do nothing but if I have a blog I need to actually write something on it every once in awhile.  Since I am watching a movie, you will have to excuse spelling, grammar and any run on sentences, like the first sentence I wrote.  Whew, now that that’s out of the way let me give you an update.

James 1:27  …take care of widows and orphans…

This verse came up in BSF this week and it reminded me again what the Lord has told us to do.  And not just “us” either, you too.  I know it is not possible for everyone to take children into their house but the Lord calls you to take care of widows and orphans- that’s going to look different for every person so I encourage you to seek the Lord in what that looks like for you. 

Okay, so here’s what’s been going on with us. 
We have one more class on Thursday to finish up all our training.  We have CPR the next Monday.  We have 2 online classes we need to complete, FBI fingerprinting we need to have done, some paperwork we need to sign and a home study to complete.  As I type all that it sounds like a lot but we are actually at the end.  Crazy, right?

A couple of weeks ago the Hurst fire inspector came by and toured the house.  We had some things right… like the fire extinguisher pictured below, and some things wrong.

I wish fire extinguishers came in cooler colors that matched my kitchen.
So after our preparation, we still have to put a smoke detector in every sleeping room.  We had only put one in the hallway because that’s what I had read somewhere.  We need a safety gas can for our lawn mower gas too.  Apparently the plastic ones allow fumes out which can spontaneously combust at any moment causing a fire hazard.  We can either buy a safety can or build a shed in the back.  Which is the most safe.  It is also the most expensive. 

Let’s see.  I had to get a box that locks to put every last bit of our medication in.  Safety First!

After all of the above steps have been completed we can get on the waiting list to get our first child.  I’m still expecting us to be finished around June 1st- at least that’s my goal. 
As we get closer to the end of the process I wonder why anyone that isn’t truly committed to taking care of children would want to become a foster parent.  It’s hard work! 

I hope to have another update soon!

Catching Up

Whew, It’s been a whirlwind of a few weeks.  It’s Thursday and the adrenaline that’s kept me going is wearing off and I’m trying to piece my home back together.  Here’s some of the highlights.

Cason turned 3!  I’m still amazed that we made it this far.  I’m working on putting together all the party pics over on the Everything Design blog  but here’s a preview.

It was a carnival theme and we had so much fun!

He’s getting to be quite the basketball star!

Also I’ve been helping out with the new student building at our church.  It opened last weekend and it was a sprint to the finish.  Here’s the lobby-

Again, I’m working on a post on Everything Design to tell you all the details.  There’s a great story and theme that runs through the whole building including colors and materials.  There’s also a great story about how we got clearance to move into the building at 2:30 Friday afternoon and moved all the furniture before our 5:30 event start.  It was awesome to see everyone pull together to make it happen. 

This is our pastor and executive pastor helping arrange chairs… on a Friday… their day off. 

And on the foster front, we are down to our last 2 classes + we need CPR.  We had a fire inspection last week and had a few extra things to do at the house but for the most part that went well.  I feel like it’s taking forever to get through this process although it hasn’t been going on that long. 

I’m still trying to finish the nursery- in fact, I’m about to start working on it some more.

Hmmm, I have a better picture than this but I’ll have to go find it… Or better yet, take a picture after I work on it today. 

I’ll try and keep up with this blog better now that a few projects are finished up.