A Valentine Themed Bridal Shower

                               

                               

My niece got married last weekend! This was the first of the children of my siblings to be married so it was a whole new adventure for my sister and her family. My girls and I with the help of the rest of the lovely ladies in our extended family had the privilege of throwing her a bridal shower.

Each of the bridesmaids contributed a food item within our finger food theme. There were many tasty morsels thanks to the creative bridal party.

Brie and Crackers with a creative heart cutout.

This was the first bridal shower I had been involved in for many years. There have been many baby celebrations but this was a whole new party realm, and with the advent of Pinterest, party throwing has been ramped up a notch.

The shower was just after Valentines Day, so I was able to score some lovely heart accessories at the Dollar store. To get the guests mingling, we wrote the names of famous romantic characters from books and movies on foam heart stickers and then stuck them on the back of guests as they came in. We then instructed the guests to ask other guests yes or no questions about their character. 

We also used heart shaped cutouts for guests to write love and marriage advice on, which they could then insert into our jar of sweet hearts. This made for a fun keepsake for the bride and stood in the place of a guestbook.

My niece Amanda, made this gorgeous pink ombré layer cake as well as 50 more yummy cupcakes.

                         

For beverages we made a sparkling citrus punch and purchased bottles of pink champagne and moscato, all chosen for their pretty labels. Thankfully, they tasted good also!

   























My crafty sister made the gorgeous banner with her Stampin Up tools.

                         

The happy bride was showered with wonderful gifts to furnish her new kitchen, along with a few other fun things for the sweet couple. It was a wonderful celebration with all the amazing ladies of our family.

           

Medieval Studies

We just had another history get together for our study of the Middle Ages. This time we were talking about the Crusades and life in a castle so our projects were focused on those themes.
The girls and I made lovely princess hats. We found the idea from the Usborne book
Princess Things to Make and Do.
First we cut a piece of poster board into two semi circles.
Next we pulled one semi circle together to form a cone shape. We taped this together.
Then we ripped up pieces of glittery tissue paper and glued them all over the cone.
The last step was to tape three peices of long paper streamers to the hat.
Voila, medieval princess hat!
We could have made it even fancier by gluing pretty fabric to the cone and using real ribbon for the streamers but this budget version was pretty and fun.

My boys also brought string and sticks to make bows and arrows. The children then had an archery tournament.

We also pretended to have a plague and the children were able to use Thieves essential oil scented hankies to prevent contamination. Marla brought a tapestry making activity and the children were able to make up their own storyboard for a tapestry.
And of course we had good food! Marla brought fruit ala Saladin, Heather made lamb stew and we brought bread to use as trenchers and some biscuits for the gluten free crowd.
As always our history day was fun and inspiring for our young students. It is such a blessing to have creative friends to do these projects with.

 

 

Summer Fun

Although I have my 180 days for the school year (about 5 more than the schools in my district do) we kind of just fell into summer break, rather than a big end of the year hurrah. My oldest daughter came home for a few weeks from the camp she works at and we took a break from school to clean up the yard for a baby shower.

 We found pretty pink Chinese lanterns at Michaels, strung pink beads on bracelets to play the, "Don't Say Baby" game, and served pink lemonade and a pink strawberries and cream cake. Yes, the guest of honor is having a girl.

After the baby shower excitement, and in part because a link from Ann Voskamp led me to a series of very organized homes (Beware, after viewing these tidy houses you will not feel comfy until you have organized something), I spent the next free day organizing a few kitchen cupboards. I think the real key is that I also instructed my children that here is where the salt goes and over there is where the vitamins belong. Instructing is so important. We cannot expect what we have not explained.

How did you start your summer holidays?