Daddy/Daughter Tea Party

Last night was a very blessed night for my husband and daughters. Some of my most precious friends planned a Daddy/Daughter Valentine Themed Tea Party at our church. I had the pleasure of helping decorate beforehand so I got a sneak peek at all of the plans ahead of time. To say that these ladies put a lot of work into it is putting it mildly. Each of them have prayed over this event and as a result it was a huge success! I believe that 50 little girls and 36 daddies showed up to enjoy the fun.

The Tea Party has been on Campbell's mind all week and to say that she was excited does not even begin to describe how she felt. In order to get the girls ready I took them to the store after school yesterday and let them pick out their own dresses and shoes. I thought they chose wonderfully! Once we got home they could not wait to get dressed up for their Daddy.

Once they arrived at the church they were greeted by our new children's minister who made each one feel special for being there. They immediately got to pick out their own tea cup for them to use for the evening. Some of our sweet mentors and friends walked around the room serving our family while they got to gather from many trays of treats so many people had made.

I love the look on Kaylee's face in this picture, she has so much fun where ever she goes.

I love the placement of Campbell's pinkie in this picture, she is such a girly-girl.

The rest of the evening was spent dancing, making outlines of them while the Dads wrote a prayer for their child on them and the children colored themselves, taking pictures to be placed in a handmade frame that they got to make, watching a skit and just celebrating the Daddy/Daughter bond with our earthly father as well as our heavenly one. To top it all off they got to have a wonderful time with so many of our precious friends too.

I guess my family was not ready for the evening to end so they enjoyed frostys before heading home.

When my sweet girls got home they filled me in on all of the evenings events and could not wait to show me their frames, teacups they picked out and the beautiful flowers. Campbell said, "It was the best night ever!" then later she also told Kaylee that they will need to take their picture frames with the picture of them with Daddy to college with them one day. I am glad that we have a while to think about that but I know the time will be here before we know it. What a blessing this evening was to our family.

Thank you to our God for making us a family and to the Family Ties planners for all of the prayers and hard work to make last night a huge success!

Busy week around Here!

Wow! It has been a busy week.

I started the week with Kaylee's Valentine's Day Party at school. She is having such a great year and I can honestly say she has the best group of friends who have the best parents. As Room Mom this year it has been a pleasure to organize things because the parents have continued to step up all year when asked to help. A girl could not ask for more;-)

All the students had a blast so each moment was worth the planning and time. Just look at the smile on Kaylee's face= all worth it.

On Wednesday it was Kaylee's turn to have her music program at school. The title was Rockin the Jukebox and it was great! All of the students have been working so hard on all the music and movements since January according to Kaylee. There were about 14 50's style songs. I was so impressed with they way they sounded as well as all the hand movements. Kaylee is going to be a huge asset to Siggie Sing Song one day if Wednesday was any indication of her talent.

Happy Valentine's Day Through the Years...

Kaylee, February 2003

Kaylee, February 2004

Kaylee, February 2005

Kaylee & Campbell, February 2006

Kaylee & Campbell, February 2007

Kaylee & Campbell, February 2008

Kaylee & Campbell, February 2009

Kaylee & Campbell, February 2010

Kaylee & Campbell, February 2011

A Valentine's /Birthday Celebration

This weekend we got to celebrate my birthday a little more with my family. It is always nice to have a birthday that lasts as long as possible. I did not cook a meal all weekend and we even managed to have a date night to Rancho Loma to celebrate my Birthday/Valentine's Day with some precious friends. My only complaint was that they could not accommodate more of us. (We will definitely call way ahead next time so we can take an even bigger group.) For those of us that were able to go we had a blast. The company of good friends is such a blessing. As we drove home I could not help but think of how great our God is to place just the right people in our lives. My cup overfloweth this year with all the wonderful friends and family I have near and far. Thanks to my parents and Papaw for being such great sitters while we enjoyed our evening.

Snow Day #4

Yeah! I could finally put on these and actually go play in the snow. Since the temperature yesterday was @25* and the sun was out we decided to see if the consistency of the snow had changed enough to really play. To our delight it had, (well at least in the sunny spots), I do not know who was more excited me or the girls to be able to finally have a snowball fight and build a snowman.

Of course none of the fun could start with out a picture first. Then it was time for the real fun to begin. We spent the rest of our time outside running and gathering snow from the sunny spots for our snowman, making snow angels and having snowball fights. I was so glad that Cary was home to make the snowman with us this time. The girls have had so much fun with daddy home the past few days and I have too. It is going to feel very weird to go back to our regular schedule.

Here are all my hard workers placing snow on our snowman. Don't worry I help too, just taking a break for photos.

Here is Campbell running to gather a handful of snow to help daddy out.

Kaylee stopping for a quick picture.

The whole family with our snow princess. In the end the girls decided our snowman needed to be a Snow Princess. Poor Cary cannot catch a break around our house;-)

After all our hard work we ventured out of the house for a quick trip to Chili's, Target and to get more firewood. It was so nice to get out but when the time came to return home I was ready for the nice warm fire and more family time.

Thank you Lord for the past few days of time as a family. In our busy world it is nice to be reminded that a Time Out can be a wonderful thing. We will have such magical memories of the Blizzard of 2011 and it made for a wonderful Birthday Week too.

Friday Favorites

Here are a few things that have made the past four days of being snowed/iced in more bearable...

First of all, a roaring fire to read a great book by.

Secondly, the beautiful Kitchen Aid mixer I got for Christmas that makes baking so much easier.

And last but definitely not least the Wonderful Keurig coffee maker so that I have hot coffee, tea or hot chocolate at my fingertips any time I want.

I would love to see some cold weather favorites from my fellow bloggers;-)

Snow Day #3

Well here we are on an unheard of Snow Day #3 for Abilene, TX!! Why you ask? The snow is still out there because of the temperature still being in the teens with a -8 wind chill and this picture shows the layer of ice covering the road. Since we do not have a vehicle with four-wheel drive and we have not needed anything we have stayed put. In other words we are not crazy or stir crazy yet either;-) However, Chili's sounds really good right now.

I have to say that our family is still having a great time just being together. We never get to see Daddy this much especially at this time of year. Thanks to the roaring fire in the fireplace we have stayed nice and toasty.Today has been filled with movie time, some Wii family fun, eating yummy food and a little quiet/reading time by the fire. While Cary has worked from the home computer with a few breaks built in to join the fun.

These yummy chocolate chip cookies were all the baking that we did today. They were the Snow Day Snack for Day #3. Too bad we do not have any friends close by to share them with, at this rate we are all going to gain 5 pounds this week;-) Oh well, I suppose we would survive if that is the worst thing that happened.

Currently the girls are in the playroom playing Bingo with Daddy while Mommy has her opportunity to use the computer. It is getting so crazy around here that Campbell asked Daddy to put her hair in ponytails and he did. I thought he did better than me, she definitely whined less. (Or at least that is what I am going to tell her next time she asks;-)

Well we already got the news that Snow Day #4 will be happening tomorrow so I had better get busy planning some activities to keep everyone happy. (Maybe I will be extra happy if Fedex and UPS will get my birthday presents to me tomorrow since their arrival date was Tuesday which just happened to be the day the blizzard hit town. It is not looking hopeful but a girl can dream.)

Snow Day Take 2!

Well early in the morning we found out there would be no school in session today so my plans started forming for the day ahead. Since the high for today was predicted to be 15* with a wind chill of -10 we had a pretty good idea last night that there would be no school since all the snow and ice were not going to melt at that temperature. Once again we filled the day with some wonderful family time together. We have watched movies, played games, roasted smores and had our very own Throwdown minus Bobby Flay of course.

I searched the web last night and printed a recipe for The Best Banana Bread Ever and a recipe for Paula Dean's Banana Bread. My plan was to use one of my favorite things I got for Christmas too...

That's right I have not known what I was missing for the past 15 years of my life. Well I have had an idea;-) Isn't she a beauty? She matches my kitchen perfectly.

As soon as we ate breakfast and watched a short movie together we got busy with the Throwdown. Campbell went first and chose The Best Banana Bread Recipe Ever for her choice to help bake.

We added all the ingredients and poured it into the muffin pans for baking.

Here are my two cute little helpers.

Kaylee chose to go second and of course picked Paula Dean's Banana Bread recipe. She was so excited to be having our own tasting challenge since she is my Food Network groupie. I think she was happy that her recipe required cracking 4 eggs, you know how much fun that was as a child.

Here is one of the muffin pans after baking. Can you smell the deliciousness?

We all got a plate like the one below and I was the only one who knew which muffin was which. The decisions were made after a little deliberation and Muffin A was the clear winner 3 to 1.

It was The Best Banana Bread Ever recipe. Are you shocked? I was since I am such a huge Paula Dean fan and also a fan of butter. The winning recipe did not even have butter in it. All that to say Paula's is still great just not the winner. The worst part is having all that banana bread around to eat, just kidding. I would take some to the neighbors but it is way too cold today. Maybe tomorrow?

Happy Birthday Snow Day!!

Well today was My Birthday and thanks to God (and Cary too or so he says) I got a snow day with my family! I loved waking up to a blanket of beautiful snow covering our neighborhood. Everything looks so much prettier when covered in snow. I think the only other time I got snow on my birthday was when I was in fifth grade and my BFF was Claire. She spent the night and the next day we played in the snow all day and had a blast! Good memories!!

Lucky for me I fought the crazies at Sam's Club on Monday afternoon to make sure we had plenty of bread, milk, snacks toilet paper, you know all the necessities. Along with that also came a trip to Target for Eagle Brand milk (necessary for snow ice cream), rain/snow boots for the girls, marshmallows & chocolate bars (smores) and a trip to fill the car up with gas just in case.

Today we got to make our own memories by having french toast cooked by my sweet husband, playing in the snow, sledding, eating chicken and dumplings and celebrating my special day. The playing in the snow part did not last very long since it was in the teens with a wind chill below zero.

Look at my sweet girls and our pretty new fence in the background!

Here they are sledding on the ice in the street being pulled by Daddy. Glad he is in good shape. The snow was not wet enough to sled down the driveway so we had to go to Plan B. They had a blast!

Here is a view of the golf course covered in snow.

The day ended with some game time and snuggling on the couch watching a movie.

Thank you Lord for all the wonderful memories we were able to make together today by stepping away from our daily schedule. It was a fabulous birthday, wish I could order up a snow day every year on February 1st.