Girls Just Want to Have Fun

One of "M's" sweet friends took her to the circus yesterday. She hadn't been since she was about two years old - I know, I'm a bad mommy ;-(  They had a blast getting their face painted, eating cotton candy and watching all the acts. She said her favorite thing was watching the elephants.

Here's some of the pics she took while there...

After the circus they found a neat place downtown to take pictures & had their own little photo shoot. Then they had pizza at Joe Mama's.

Here's more pics from their fun day...

(Photos by Jennifer Palmer)

DBF Girls Choir: Children of God

The Girl's Choir sang during the service yesterday morning. They have such beautiful voices - especially when paired up with Bill Bush, who sings on the Worship Team at our church...

(My eleven year-old, "M", is on the front right in black and white.) I love to watch these girls grow up and I look forward to seeing how God will use them in their future!

Reunion With Friends From the Past

As I mentioned in the posting before this one, the girlz and I went to OKC for the day and I got to hook up with some old friends I hadn't seen in a long time...

Debbie, me, Tracie & Kristi

Love those girls! Tracie, Kristi and I grew up together from about kindergarten to 6th grade then they moved away and we lost touch. We've recently found each other again on facebook and it's been so fun catching up with them and seeing pics of their sweet families on-line. Kinda makes me feel like we've never lost touch! 

Here's some of my favorite pictures from when we were kids. Granted, they didn't have digital cameras back then, so the quality isn't that great ;-)

Here we are in kindergarten together...

Playing Little House on the Prairie (funny now that my girlz like to play Little House, too!)

Modeling the new dresses my mom sewed for us...

Here we are playing in our tree house with our siblings.  The three of us are on the bottom right sitting down.

Not sure who's birthday we are celebrating here. Love my Holly Hobby dress my mom made for me ;-)

And here we are playing with my Donnie and Marie Osmond dolls. Guess that kinda ages us, huh?!

Oh yes, the clown that gave me nightmares for days!

We were in Bluebirds together. Love my red pant suit ;-)

Debbie and I became good friends in junior high and we've always kept in touch, although not as often as we'd like. We also went to church camp together and even sang together at a few events - which is quite hilarious because I can NOT sing!

I think this was the last day of 9th grade. We got "dressed up" and rented a limo to celebrate. We were also way into Duran Duran and we thought our "fashions" that day reflected our love for how they dressed. Not sure how - but that's what we thought back in the day ;-)

Debbie was a bride's maid in my wedding. Poor girl had to wear that hideous floral dress. At least they didn't have to wear the wide-brimmed straw hats with a great big flower on the front that I originally bought to go with the dresses ;-)

Here we are at our 20th high school reunion...

It was such a fun evening to reunite, reminisce, and catch up on how everyone's doing today. Looking forward to our next visit together! 

Capitol Day 2011

Our homeschool co-op attended the Homeschool Day at the Capitol this past week. It was a great time - and especially fun to attend with friends! We went last year for the first time so now we look forward to going again every year.

My friend, Rusti, has a brother, Rick Brinkley, who was recently elected Senator and represents the Owasso area. I also know Rick because he was our pastor when we first moved here and he dedicated Mackenzie when she was a baby. He's a great guy and I know he's going to do an amazing job in politics because he's such a servant of the people. I remember several years ago, Steve had to have an emergency appendectomy and he met us at the hospital with tooth brushes, tooth paste, snacks and anything else we might have needed for our stay at the hospital. Such a thoughtful guy!

I digress! So Rusti's daughter got to actually sit with Rick at his desk during their morning legislative meeting. I thought that was such a neat experience for her! Rick's personal assistant then took us on a tour of the Capitol building.

Here's pics from our fun day...

After our visit to the Capitol, we went to the OKC Science Museum...

Then we went to see my dad and step-mom's family. The girlz had dinner with them...

and cake...

while I went to dinner with some old friends I hadn't seen in a long time...

Debbie, me, Tracie & Kristi

Love those girls! Tracie, Kristi and I grew up together from about kindergarten to 6th grade then they moved away and we lost touch. We've recently found each other again on facebook and it's been so fun catching up with them and seeing pics of their sweet families on-line. Kinda makes me feel like we've never lost touch! 

It was such a fun day! I look forward to doing it all over again next year!

Valentine's Day 2011

We had a great Valentine's week this year. The girlz attended a Kids Workshop at Lowe's and made sweet little music boxes for Steve and me...

These were taken the day before Valentine's Day. Cheezy - yes, I know.

On Valentine's night, the girls decorated our dining room table with some inexpensive finds in the dollar section at Target. We cut wrapping paper and made a table runner and place mats. Then they added sweet heart candies, pink heart doilies, family photos, cute napkins, tea lite candles, our Country Roses china, tulips and voile!

Then the girls helped me make dinner - 

Chicken Bruschetta...

Crescent rolls filled with marshmallows and topped with cinnamon...

and brownies - again, more marshmallows...

We also had baked sweet potatoes and green beans. Here's my place setting the girlz put together for me ;-)

Our homeschool co-op's Valentine's Day party was so fun! I especially loved the decorated boxes - some were very clever!

And lastly, the girlz went to a Daddy/Daughter Dance with Steve last night. They attended the dance last year and had so much fun! This time, I let them get their hair done beforehand for the fun of it. I thought they looked so pretty and grown up. Of course, they always love Date Night with Daddy...

Winter Storm to Remember

February 1st, a winter storm hit Oklahoma like no other! Owasso received the most snow with 21 inches and snow drifts over my head! We received about four more inches yesterday and are supposed to get more this week. Unbelievable! Will we ever see grass again?! ;-)



Here's a few pics of the girls and a neighbor friend playing in the snow...

Steve took the girls sledding at their favorite "secret" place. Steve's sister's family joined them. They had so much fun! Here's pics and videos that Steve & "M" took...

It Is Finished!

Hooray! I am finally done entering my journal entries from my trip to Africa on my "Uganda Blog". It was such a great experience and I'm so glad I recorded everything so I can look back and remember all the great (and not-so-great) memories! Here's a few of my favorite pictures from the trip...

So... which of my friends will be the next to go to a third world country?!?! If I can do it, ANYBODY can! :-)

Craft Night With Friends

I recently had another fun Craft Night with some of my girlfriends. It's so fun to get together to chat, create and eat! Here's a few of our finished projects...

My friend, Brandi, created this super fun altered tool box. She said she got her inspiration from her friend, Sarah (a.k.a. the Silhouette Girl), because she also created a box similar to the one Brandi created. It's such a great box, not just because of it's cute-ness, but it's also very functional with lots of great compartments to store things. Brandi plans on using hers to house her beads for making jewelry. My favorite touch is the extra "bling" she glued on the fleur de lis & crowns :-)

My friend, Christine, Mod Podged these super cute hearts for Valentine's Day...

I love this "L-O-V-E" banner my Fab Friend, Jess, made. I especially like the vintage paper she used and the ribbons are a fun touch!

My friend, Kelly, made this adorable scrapbook page of her new daughter, Kate. I love the color choices and the cute border she used...

My friend, Jennifer, crocheted these cute facial scrubbers. I love the bright, fun colors!

And I made this Meal Planner Board. I'm hoping after 18 years of marriage, it will encourage me to Menu Plan! I got inspiration for this project on the "all things beautiful" blog. I love to take other people's ideas and tweak them ;-)

I have a few friends that have asked how I made this so here's a short tutorial...

Supplies needed:

* Mod Podge
* Bulletin Board (mine is about 1 1/2 ' x 2')
* Decorative Corner Wood Pieces
* 3 Wooden Boxes
* 7 Flat 1" Glass Beads and thumb tacks
* Scrapbook Paper
* Wooden Letters
* Paint
* Hot Glue Gun
* Meal and Recipe Cards (printed on cardstock and laminated)
* Scissors
* Foam Brush
* Paint Brush

First, I painted my bulletin board black and the frame an off-white. After it dried, I hot glued my painted decorative corner pieces on to the board. I also painted my wooden letters cream colored, as well. Then I distressed all the off-white paint with a dry-brush technique using black paint.

Next, I traced around the boxes on scrapbook paper. I cut them out and Mod Podged the paper to the boxes, covering all the sides. Ahead of time, I printed labels for my boxes from my computer. After the boxes were covered, I Mod Podged the labels to the front of them.

Next, I made thumbtacks to hang the meal cards from. I made 1" red circles with a black fleur de lis' on the computer. After I printed them off, I punched them out with a 1" hole punch. Then I Mod Podged them to the backs of flat glass beads and hot glued thumbtacks to the backs of the beads. Simple and fun!

Last, I laid everything out to make sure the placement was where I wanted everything.

Then I hot glued the letters and boxes in place.

I printed off my meal and recipe cards (using Print Artist software) from the computer and laminated them with clear Contact Paper - just because I had some and it saved me a trip to the store & laminating costs!

Voila! It is finished! I think I'm the last of my friends to Menu Plan so hopefully this will encourage me to be better organized! (Plus, I'm sure my girlz will keep me on my toes, too, now that it's hanging in our kitchen!)

And here's a few great Meal Planning websites I found that can save you time and money...

Dinner Planner (about $5 p/month)

e-Mealz (about $5 p/month)

Family Meal Planning

Free Tips and Printable Calendars

Meals Matter

Menu Planning: Save Time in the Kitchen

Successful Meal Planning

The Meal Planner