TAKING A BREAK. . . AGAIN!!

Dear Friends:

So much has happened in the past month. . . our oldest daughter is now living in Texas finishing her Bachelor's of Nursing Degree with plans to continue on with her MBA. Our youngest is gearing up to finish the 9th grade - which is Junior High in our school district. She'll be starting High School in the fall. And boys, those pesky boys are now on her radar. They are calling her cell, texting her, walking her to classes, waiting at her locker. She's having fun. Me. . . I'm not sure I'm ready for all this with my baby girl. Where or where has time gone?

. . . and I am behind on about 5 million projects that I have on my "To-Do" list. So, I'm taking a break. I'll be back. . . someday. . . I think. When I began this blog it was for fun. Now it seems to be hanging over my head as another "To-Do!' - Take pictures, oh yeah, remember to take pictures of my before, not just after my projects are finished, etc., etc.!! Ever feel like that?

This is such an opportune time for me to bond with our youngest daughter and this past week has been amazing. She, being on the only child at home now, is opening up to me like never before. I don't want to be preoccupied with photographing things, thinking of needing to post again. And. . . I need to get my 5 millions things done.

I'll post when I can. Take photos of my projects (when I remember) and still try to check in with you all from time to time.

This weekend we are heading up to the cottage for some family of three bonding time. Oh heaven on earth if I do say so myself!

See you all soon,

Blessings. . . until next time,

I'M BACK - TEEN PARTY IDEAS!!

Our Daughter's Birthday Party (she's the sweetie on the right). . . and . . . All I can say is "thank God for antibiotics!!"

My sinuses have returned to normal and I'm back rolling again. . . :)

I wanted to share with you the idea I had for our youngest daughter's 15th birthday party. So many of you e-mailed and asked me the "details" of how we pulled this off so I just thought I'd post it for everyone.

I'm telling you. . . it was a huge, huge HIT!!!! I even had mothers telling me the following week what a great time their daughters had and what a neat idea it was. So my daughter thinks her mom is pretty cool right now. Neat huh?

We had an updated Scavenger Hunt party for the technical savvy kids of this generation. Long gone are the envelopes with the clues and the next hints, neighborhood door knocking or road rallies with this generation.

Oh no, this generation is a cell phone, texting generation. So that's what we used. We had two teams with 4 girls on each team. Each team used one cell phone, per team. Not a problem, all the girls had one. We just picked one to use.

This is what we did. My daughter picked her (and her friend's) favorite outdoor mall (you could pick an indoor one too, same difference). I obtained in advance a directory of the stores so I would know all the store names.

I then came up with clues to help the girls determine which store we were referring to. I'll give you a few examples later in this post.

The morning of the party, I texted these clues to my husband's and my phones. Hint: I'm not a fast texter so I got on-line with AT&T, our cell phone provider, got into our account and texted (typed) the clues this way. (Did you all know that you could do this? I just found it out by chance myself.) Since I'm a way faster typer than a texter, this was a breeze. This was our daughter's only concern. . . "Mom, Dad, you're soooo slow texting we'll be waiting forever for our next clues!" She's right. So I solved that little problem by doing it in advanced and on-line. Then all we did was hit forward on our already typed in clue to the team's cell phone.

Next issue, how could we be sure one group of girls would not just find a seat, figure out the clues, without running around the mall???? We needed proof. So, I purchased two disposal cameras. One for each team. A clue would be sent out and they would text back an answer. Either "No" would be texted back with an little cheat added help clue so they would have to brainstorm again, or the next clue if they had guessed correctly. But, they had to take a picture of the correct store on the camera, with 3 out of 4 girls in it. The 4th one would be taking the picture so 3 would have to be in the picture . . . with the store sign in the background. They rotated who took the pictures each time so we have photos of everyone.

My husband started at the bottom of the list of clues. I started at the top so they would not be running to the same stores at the same time. We had 15 clues in total.

The girls arrived at our house, we had pizza, pop, etc. Then I explained the rules. I had each girl write her name on a piece of paper, fold it and place it in a bowl. I didn't want any of "I want so and so on my team," "Can I be with. . .?" to make anyone feel slighted, ya know??? I had my husband draw one name at a time and divide them into two piles.

Two groups formed; passed out cameras; secured their cell numbers; assigned one group to me, one to hubs; gave them our cell numbers. My husband drove his group, I drove mine and away we went to the mall. We parked next to each other, got our groups to the entrance and sent them their first text at the exact same time. Fair is fair.

And away they went.

Hubs and I found a Starbucks and sent out clues.

This went seamlessly, effortlessly. It was so much fun for the girls. The first team done, of course won. We came back to our house for waffle bowl ice cream sundaes and cupcakes. Gift bags were passed out and our daughter opened her presents from her friends. I had gone to Bath & Body Works and got items for two sets of gift bags. The winner's bags had a little nicer items. I also dipped 5 pretzel rods each in white chocolate and sprinkles for their bags. I think these were gone before anyone left our house!!

I stopped at Walgreen's on the way home from the mall to drop off the cameras. I had the 1-hour photos developed and ordered a CD of each group of pictures. I have Roxio software (legal and available at Walmart) and copied a CD for each of the girls to take home in their gift bags.

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Here's a sampling of our clues for you: bold font is the answer/store

If you're taking a test and you don't know an answer to a question you would: GUESS

A resident of Paris would be called a: Parisian

A space between some one's two front teeth is called a: GAP

You must be this age to legally have an alcoholic drink: Forever 21

This is where you would go to see your favorite Hollywood stars: MJR Movies

If you want to fly in an airplane, but don't fly first class . . . you fly: Coach

"Make that a double shot of espresso with extra whipped cream - grande size!" : Starbucks

You wouldn't eat using normal silverware here: P.F. Changs

Shhh!! You can't tell anyone: Victoria's Secret

This is so much fun for a teen birthday party. Our daughter and her friends are all 15 and thought this party rocked. It is soooo much better than a dreaded sleepover moms. Yes, they all went home at 11:00 pm. Heaven. I slept well ;)

If you have any questions, just e-mail me.

Blessings. . . until next time,

Blogging BREAK!!

I'm must take a little break here people!!

Just too much going on for me right now.

Our oldest is packing up and preparing to move to Texas on Saturday. I'm still recovering from the past week of having my garage sale (very successful by the way), our youngest turning 15 and having her birthday on Thursday, her teen party on Friday and the grandparent's birthday celebration with her on Saturday. My parents came down for the celebration from up-north and stayed until Monday morning.

And. . . as luck would have it. . . I'm sick, sick again with a sinus infection which has taken me to bed for the past two days. I don't think I ever completely got over the one I had last month. It just came back more evil than ever. I'm telling you this one has knocked me on my fanny. From head to toe I am aching. I did get into my doctor yesterday. . .so I have new meds, and, hopefully, will be able to have a proper send off for our oldest on Saturday AM.

So, for now, I'll be back when I can be back. . .

Blessings. . . until next time,

TOO BUSY TO POST MUCH THIS WEEK!!

Too much going on around here this week. . . .

Today I pick up our youngest from school for her hair appointment. A fresh cut and freshening up those highlights are on the agenda. Girls are EXPENSIVE!!

Thursday and Friday I am having a garage sale.

Thursday is also our youngest daughter's 15th birthday. I can't believe my baby is turning 15!!! My husband will be in New York on Thursday so our oldest daughter and I will be taking Janelle out for her birthday dinner (after cheer practice, of course!).

Friday is Janelle's birthday party. Eight girls total will be coming over, pizza, pop and then we will be going to the mall to do a "texting type" scavenger hunt. The girls will be broken into two different groups and we will give them "text" messages for clues. After they figure out the clue they will have to go to that store and take a picture with the disposable camera I will supply. After they text my hubby, or I, the correct answer, we will text the next clue to them. It's an update of the envelope for the clue I guess. The winner group will get a little nicer gift bag and the non-winner group will also get a gift bag. (We are still making up the game/rules/details). Then back to our home for cupcakes and ice cream sundaes in waffle bowls.

Saturday my parents will be driving down 2 1/2 hours from their home up north and my hub's parents will be coming over for dinner and celebrating Janelle's birthday AGAIN!!

Also, this will be the last time the grandparents will see our oldest daughter, Lindsay until Thanksgiving. Lindsay will be moving to Texas on the 23rd of this month to finish her degree!!

So, I'm probably not going to be on-line much this month. . . at. . . all!!

Blessings. . . until next time,

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

I hope all of of you moms out there have a wonderful Mother's Day. Let your family take you out to breakfast. . . lunch. . . or dinner. . . or make YOU a meal for a change.

After church, we'll be going out to eat and then coming home, sitting on our back patio and enjoying the yard!

Blessings. . . until next time,

SHOPPING THERAPY!!!

Sometimes. . . a girl's gotta do. . . what a girl's gotta do :)

A little shopping therapy, know what I mean?

Blessings. . .until next time,