Teacher Appreciation

School's Out! Can't believe it. It's been quite a year. We let them finish out the year at Wright Elementary, but next year they'll be attending their new school. I wanted to make subway art for their teacher's gifts, but Siope didn't seemed too thrilled about it. I asked him what he thought we should give their teachers and he said, "Mommy, if I were a teacher I would want my students to give me soda." Mote chimed in and exclaimed, "Yeah Mommy, my teacher is always drinking Diet Coke." So it was settled, we ended up giving my subway art AND the boys soda.

Cut out some personalized tags

and added them to 1 liter sodas

bought some inexpensive frames and painted them red

memo to self: remove jewelry BEFORE painting

added subway art

and voila!

Gingerbread Builders

Does anyone else love World Market as much as I do?! They are running specials every day for the holiday season. Last week their gingerbread house kits were 50% off and I had a 15% off coupon that I got to use on top of that! I should've known that they would go quick. Me and Ti got there at around 1pm and we got the last 2 kits. When we picked up the boys from school they were so excited to find out we would be making gingerbread houses. We've made them before in Salt Lake, but never here in Vegas. The cashier at World Market said that she learned from experience that if you glue the house parts together and let them dry overnight, then it's easier to decorate the next day. So we followed her advice. The kids weren't too happy about that part, because they were antsy to decorate their homes with colorful sweets. But our patience paid off. The home was sturdy enough the next day to where we could focus on embellishing without shingles or walls sliding off. Instead of us spending more money on extra candy for the homes, we whipped out the Halloween candy that hadn't been eaten and used those treats for added detail on our homes. We split up into 2 teams. Ti was in charge of Siope and Nic's house and I was in charge of Mote's house. We let the kids choose exactly how they wanted to decorate them. We mainly did all the piping and they put all the candy in place. It was so much fun to spend time with the boys and continue another holiday tradition. Merry Christmas!

 

Back in School & Personalized Bins

The boys went back to school on the 29th of August. I still can't believe that all 3 of them are in full day! The house is so quiet now, it's kinda creepy. We put away all their new clothes in their closets and drawers, but there wasn't really anywhere for all their school supplies. The pencil boxes just aren't big enough anymore and the kitchen drawer where we were storing them is just getting way too cluttered. So I bought these inexpensive bins and decided to spruce them up so that A. we could tell which one belongs to which kid, and B. so that the boys would be excited about keeping their homework supplies organized.

Goosie's bin. The face didn't turn out as big as I wanted, but I was too lazy to redo it.

This is how big I wanted the face on the front, but it got cut off on my vinyl sheet. So I just threw it on the back of the bin.

Angry Birds for the 2 angry birds :)

So far so good with school. Everyone seems to be adjusting ok and surprisingly both mine and Ti's work schedules have been working out well with the kid's.

Craft Night

This year, due to work, I was not able to make it to our ward's Super Saturday :( I was talking to my sis-in-law Toa about it and we came up with an idea to have our own craft night. So last night we had our "Terrific Tuesday". Toa came over with Moli and Ini and together we chit chatted, ate, and made crafts. Toa and I each came up with 2 crafts to share.

Toa helped us make framed monograms and personalized CD holders.
(I totally forgot to snap pics of the monograms before everyone left).


My 2 crafts were these Christmas countdown blocks

and these simple Holiday plates
With each trip to the craft store I had to fight the urge to come home and set up the Christmas tree. Why does Christmas decor have to be so cute and tempting?! I am resisting until Thanksgiving- which is exactly 1 week from tomorrow. I can do this!

July Birthday Board

We have a birthday committee at work that designs a board spotlighting those who celebrate birthdays within the current month. Last month my manager Brian asked if I would help him with the Birthday board for July. When I saw Brian's sketch of what he had in mind I was super excited to be on board. He came up with a whole Independence Day theme and wanted to create a sky scape with fireworks and rockets shooting off. We decided that instead of giving the usual candy filled goodie bags we would fill ours with sparklers, party poppers, and super snaps. I was in charge of making the rockets and this is what I came up with. July is the first board to go 3D... thank goodness there were only 6 birthdays this month! Last month we had a ton.

Personalized Scriptures + Tote

Sila finally sent me the pics of Lisi's gift that we made. I thought this would be a perfect baptism gift for Lisi. I think they turned out pretty cute for it being our first attempt. The next time we make these we know from trial and error what not to do. We made a personalized cover for her Book Of Mormon and a cute little tote for her to carry them in. Along with the scriptures I filled the tote with bubbles, hair accessories, lip gloss, and nail polish because Lisi is a total girly girl.