Merry Christmas!

speechless

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago how much I love musicals. One of my favorites is Les Miserables. The music & the story are amazing.

In June, PBS aired the 25th Anniversary Concert and I have watched it countless times. The actor who plays Jean Valjean, Alfie Boe, is unbelievable; I've never heard anyone sing like him. Every time he sings "Bring Him Home", I hold my breath through the entire thing. After watching it {again} last night, I decided I wanted needed to share it with you guys.

Enjoy.

where i've been

1,084 miles. 18 hours 24 mins {approx} over three days. That's where I've been.

What is it?

A little sneak peek of something I'm working on. Can you guess what it is?

Wicked

I love musicals! A couple of my favorites are Les Miserables and Miss Saigon. I've seen them both multiple times at the Fox Theatre in downtown Atlanta.

Thanks to my friend, Mae, I now have a new favorite to add to the list: Wicked, which is the "untold story of the Witches of Oz". Probably the most well known song from the show is "Defying Gravity" which I had become familiar with (and fell in love with) thanks to Glee.

Because she's amazing, Mae gave me tickets for my birthday for she & I to see the show at the Fox in September. {is that a really awkward sentence, or is it just me?} Anyway, the day finally arrived and can I just say... the show was AMAZING! I loved every minute of it. Seriously, the music is unbelievable and some parts of the story are so unexpected. I'll never think of The Wizard of Oz in the same way again.

Here are a couple of pics of Mae & I on our night on the town. {thanks, Mae for sharing your phone pics.}

Do you like musicals? Have you seen Wicked?

11.11.11

I couldn't really come up with anything to post today {or yesterday either, obviously}, so I decided to steal Becky Jo's idea and tell you 11 random things about myself in honor of 11/11/11.

1. I'm kind of obsessed with the TV show C.O.P.S. If it's on, I'm watching it. Love it!

2. My favorite book of all time is Pretense by Lori Wick. I've read it who knows how many times & could pick it up again right now & be caught up in it immediately.

3. In my 35 years on this earth I've lived in no less than 18 homes. I think there are more, but those are the ones I can come up with off the top of my head.

4. It's really hard to come up with 11 things and I'm only on #4. That's sad.

5. In Junior High everyone had to take band & play an instrument. I really wanted to play the flute because it was the instrument the pretty, popular girls played. I got stuck with the trumpet.

6. I have never been out of the country & don't even have a passport. One day I hope to change that. I'd love to visit Ireland, England, Italy, Greece... the list goes on.

7. If I could have any superpower, I would choose invisibility. No question. I'll be the first to tell you that I'm super nosy, so I'd love to be able to just go around & see what people are doing & talking about.

8. For some reason I used to think that if I slept with socks on, or on my back that I'd have nightmares. I have no idea where this came from, but I still have a hard time going to sleep on my back.

9. I'm really bad at math. Really bad. Yet somehow I worked in the accounting department of a large power tool company.

10. I've never really been one to use foul language. {Other than a period in Jr. High when I thought it was "cool" to do so.} However, when I was about three years old I said the grand-daddy of all bad words. My dad was in the Navy, and we were having Easter dinner with a bunch of my parents' friends when I, in my pretty little Easter dress, piped up and said, "Would please pass the effing ribs?". Except, you know, I didn't say "effing". I would be mortified if Jonathan did that!

11. I have never been able to do a cartwheel. I've tried countless times {not any time recently, mind you} but have never succeeded.

So. There you have it. 11 random things about me you probably didn't care to know. ;)

wordless wednesday - kinda

I just came across this picture from July 2008. I have no idea what's going on here, but isn't he just the cutest?!

the toothless wonder

As if I needed any more reminders that my baby is growing up, the little stinker lost his first tooth yesterday. It had been loose for several days and it finally gave up the fight.

I had started making a “Tooth Fairy Pillow” when he first showed us it was loose and, needless to say, I went into high gear yesterday. 

If you look closely, you can see the space on the bottom.
 
This, by the way, is the look you get when a certain red-head is tired of you taking his picture. ;)

I’m well aware of how fast time is passing, I don’t need any more reminders for a while. Thank you very much.

a little DIY goodness

I just sort of assume by now that everyone has heard of Pinterest. I seriously spend entirely too much time there every day. The ideas, pictures & funny quotes are just so much fun! {If you want to check out my boards & follow me you can click the "Follow My Pins" button in my sidebar.}

A couple of weeks ago I came across this super cute idea for a DIY message board. I couldn't resist making one to put on the door that leads to our garage. I'm notorious for being forgetful, so any little thing helps. Especially when it's pretty. ;)

I didn't take any step-by-step pics as it's pretty self explanatory. I bought a frame at the Dollar Tree and painted it white. Then I made a pretty background in Photoshop Elements, but you could certainly use fabric, scrapbook paper, or whatever you'd like. Slip the background in the frame & viola! A pretty message board. The glass acts as a dry erase board!

I used my new favorite thing Command Picture Hanging Strips to hang it on the door. It's also cute to use for messages to loved ones. ;)

If you've made something like this or... well anything... send me a link! I'd love to see!

{flashback friday}

Halloween through the years:

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Oh my heart hurts. He’s growing up so fast.

Fall Festival 2011

Last week, Jboy’s school held their annual Fall Festival. I love that they encourage the parents to come & walk around with the kids.

The kids go around to different “stations” to play games & do crafts. It’s always a lot of fun.

Lego Birthday Party!!!

Since Jonathan has been into playing & building with Legos lately, we decided to have a Lego theme for his 5th birthday.

Let me just say, the internet is such an amazing tool when trying to come up with ideas for any kind of themed birthday party. I only wish I could’ve used every idea I found! {I’m going to put a list of links at the bottom of the post to show where I got these ideas.}

I’ll start with the decorations:

Welcome to the party!

Lego “blocks” hanging from the ceiling in the kitchen.

Banner on the mantle. I made the “blocks” in Photoshop & just printed them & cut them out. The little Lego guy I found on a blog & there was a free download! I thought he was so cute!!!

We also put Legos in jars, and lying around as decorations for the mantle. The jar on the right was a “Guess How Many” game for the grown-ups mostly. The winner won a restaurant gift card.

After a traumatic cake decorating situation at Jboy’s 3rd birthday, I’ve done cupcakes for the last two parties. Saves my sanity for sure! I downloaded pictures of several Lego Minifigures and used them as cupcake toppers. We also made candy minifigs to decorate some of the cupcakes. Apparently they were quite tasty.

Games! In addition to the “Guess How Many” game, the kids played a variation of “Hot Potato”. I built a little block for them to pass around. Whoever was holding it when the music stopped was out & got to choose a Mystery Minifigure out of a bucket.

Goodie bags! I loved this idea for goodie bags. And they were cheap too! I found the bags at the Dollar Tree & used a circle punch to cut out cardstock to put on the front.
 
I found these minifigure masks to download on the Lego website & put them in the goodie bags. The kids loved them. I also downloaded some coloring pages to put in there as well.

I can’t seem to find a picture of the finished product, but we also made Lego shaped crayons with a mold I bought online. They turned out really cute.

I really enjoyed having a theme for the party. To me, it made everything easier as I had something to work with. I wonder what he’ll want for next year?…

Links:
Lego Minifigure download at Winks & Daisies {the download link is in the comments, a few comments from the top}
Goodie bag idea {and lots more!} at Homemaking Fun
Party Games at Best Birthday Ideas
Minifigure Mask download at Lego website
Lego Brick Mold at Amazon
Minifigure Mold at Lego {I bought mine at the Lego store}
Lego font is Legothick & can be downloaded here

If you have done, or are planning a Lego themed {or really any themed} party, I’d love to see it! Leave me a link in the comments so I can check it out!

Playing catch up

I’ve been a terrible blogger of late. No real reason, just in a slump I guess. But I miss it, so I’m going to try to jump back in with both feet.

First of all – I want to say Hi! to all of you who have come by thanks to Kelly’s Show Us Your Life – Mom’s of Only Children. Welcome! I haven’t talked at all on here about why Jonathan is {and likely will always be} an only child. I’ll work on posting that soon.

Okay… on to the catching up. I haven’t really posted anything since Jboy started back to school in August, so here are a few things that have gone on since then:

September:

We painted the spare bathroom. {Jonathan’s bathroom}

Jboy had snack at school & the letter of the week was “H”. I made “hamburgers” & “fries”. {Really ‘Nilla wafers with peppermint patties in between and block cheese cut into “fries”.}

October:

Chris turned 37 on October 2nd. Unfortunately we didn’t have a “7” candle so we had to improvise.

Jboy helped me make pancakes for dinner. He loves helping out in the kitchen & always wants to put on his “cooking hat” & apron. This apron is one that came from Publix’s Kid’s Club, but my mom made him a super cute robot one he can wear from now on.

Jboy turned 5{!!!} on the 12th and we had a Lego party to celebrate. It was so much fun & we all had a great time. {I’m planning a separate post on that soon.}
Lego party = crazy amounts of Legos that Daddy & Jboy {mainly Daddy} spent all day putting together. I don’t think any of these are completely put together anymore. Ha!

Jonathan also got a bike for his birthday from my parents {who flew in from Oklahoma for the party & week after}. He loves riding it & is really pretty good at it.

Whew. Well, that gets me through up until the last couple of weeks. Hopefully I’ll be a posting fool from now on. :)

Stay tuned…

Happy Halloween!

Here are a couple of pics of our "Ginger Ninger". I hope to have a "catch-up" post up in the next day or so to get back in the blogging groove. I miss it.

{flashback friday}

10.27.06