A Minnie Mouse Hat for a Sweet Little Girl

My dear friend from high school, Emily had contacted me recently. She told me that her sweet little darling Gianna loved all things Minnie Mouse and was wondering if I could make her a cute custom Minnie Mouse hat. I most certainly could not say no to this fun request. Here is the hat I came up with.

Emily and Gianna both love it. :)

Back to School For These Two

We have a middle schooler and a 2nd grader! Xiera's started 5th grade and rides the school bus with the big middle and high schoolers. She was VERY excited while I was a bit nervous!

She wanted a spikey Mad Max book bag this year because she is a super cool middle schooler now.

Zella is a 2nd grader now and this is her first year riding the bus all by herself without her big sis. She was equally excited!

She didn't get her book bag and lunch box until the following week so she borrowed her sister's old beach bag for the first day which worked out good while waiting patiently for her brand new Frozen book bag with matching lunch box.

Now she is officially all set for this year.

Summer Fun With the Family

This summer has been lazy, crazy, and fun for us so far. Some of our lazy moments included me kicking back on the porch looking at my latest crochet magazine I received in the mail while daydreaming of what to crochet next.

Getting our nails done by my cousin Mandy.


Going outside to just fly a kite.

And picking mulberries off of our tree to make homemade mulberry pudding cake.


Our fun moments included going swimming,


putt putt golfing,

birthday parties with friends,

riding elephants and camels at Idle Hour Ranch,

and visiting King's Island on daddy's birthday.


And last, but certainly not least our crazy home improvement moments... staining the front porch...

painting...

installing new carpet...



And resealing the long driveway.

Every day is an adventure over here.

Donut-Mustache Party

Xiera turns 10 years old on June 3rd so we celebrated with an early birthday party for her over the weekend. I can't believe my baby will be turning a decade old. It just doesn't seem possible. Time sure does fly! She had a random themed party of Donuts and Mustaches. I made three different flavored donut cakes using a donut cake mold I purchased off of Amazon. One was jelly filled with powered sugar,another was a Boston Creme flavored using vanilla pudding for the inside and topped with chocolate icing and sprinkles, and last but not least a plain strawberry glazed with sprinkles and no filling.


I set up an outdoor photo booth using an old quilt for the backdrop and cut out mustaches and glued them onto wooden sticks to use as props.


For a fun game we had everyone bob for donuts. I hung donuts from the tree and had them hold their hands behind their backs. They then used only their mouths to try and eat the donuts. Whoever ate their donut first was the winner.


Xiera and her cousin Kailyn tied.

We then did a bit of chalk art.

The party was simple, fun, and a major success!

Last Day of School

Both Xiera and Zella's last day of school was today. They wanted to go out in style with Frozen hairstyles. Xiera's hair was reminiscent of Elsa's while Zella's was very similar to Anna's.

They have grown so much since their first day of school.

Xiera will be going into the 5th grade in the fall and Zella will be a second grader. They both did very well this year. Zella received all plus's on her report card which is equivalent to all A's in the first grade.

Xiera got honor roll 4 quarters in a row and raised her B in Math to an A.

We are so proud of the both of them.

Latest Milestone Achieved

Last Friday after school, Zella told us she was ready to take her training wheels off of her bike and ride without them. After dinner, we went outside and did just that and helped her ride up and down our driveway for about a half an hour.

Then we began letting go, spotting her here and there especially during those turns and then, just like magic.....She was riding all on her own!

We are so proud of you Zella! Congratulations!:)

Teacher Appreciation Tissue Box Cozy Gifts

Today is National Teacher Appreciation Day!

I made these adorable cake tissue box cozies for my daughters' teachers, to show them how thankful I am for all of their hard work and dedication bettering their education. I used Twinkie Chan's FREE pattern as a base pattern to create all of these.
The chocolate cake was created from the original pattern. Instead of mini 5mm pom pom balls, I used mini buttons as sprinkles.

The party cake was created using the the same pattern; with the exception of the strawberry pink icing, and white icing piping along the edges. I also added a few cherries on top.

The rainbow layered cake was slightly different from the rest. I used the original pattern for the white icing and icing piping along the edges but did something a bit different for the cake part. I crocheted rainbow layers with white icing in between each layer. I hot glued mini pom pom balls on the top to resemble sprinkles.

These were so much fun to make! I know the teachers will love them.