About Me

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I am a twenty-something second year teacher living in the midwest. I am a Christian woman and proud of it! I am the middle child of three girls. I am the proud aunt of the very beautiful Lil E and Lil C!! I love TV, movies, reading, and baseball. I am in my second year of teaching , but my first year teaching kindergarten. It has been quite the journey!
Showing posts with label big sis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label big sis. Show all posts

03 May 2013

I'm Grateful For... A Fantastic Shower

Last weekend was Lil Sis' wedding shower!!! It was a lot of planning, but such a joy. I had so much fun planning all of the little details. The theme was Up, as it is such a sweet, romantic story that Lil Sis and Kev saw together. Here are some pics from the planning and the shower.

Since their wedding colors are pool (Tiffany Blue) and yellow, I decided to go with those colors for the shower, too. I spent a lot of time wandering Party City to get paper products.
I got blue food and cake plates, yellow bowls and adorable blue and yellow popcorn containers. They were in the candy bar aisle, but they worked so well as popcorn holders! 

I was so excited when I found this decorative suitcase at Michaels. I was trying to play up the travel theme from Up and this was perfect! At the shower we used it to hold all of the popcorn containers. I swear I took a picture, but it is not on my camera :(

I had seen on pinterest someone who wrapped their silverware in doilies instead of napkins, which I thought was really cute. But you still need to have a napkin, so I did both :) I bought yellow silverware (Dollar Tree, people), blue napkins, white doilies and yellow curly ribbon. I wrapped them in the napkin first and then the doily. I put them in a light blue Easter Basket I found a Goodwill.


We covered the tables in plain colored plastic tablecloths. We set the favors and silverware out on the tables, mostly because at Big Sis's shower we totally forgot to give out the favors until half the guests had already left. We were left with far too many chocolate covered pretzels.
Momma made the candy covered Oreos in yellow and blue to look like Up's iconic balloons :) They are delish!

The centerpieces were a piece of travel-theme scrapbook paper, a double picture frame with a pic from Up and one of Lil Sis and Kev's engagement photos. We also tied a single blue or yellow balloon to it.



Kev's sister made wonderful banner with alternating pictures from Up and Lil Sis and Kev's engagement pictures. It looked awesome! (Their engagement pics were taken by another one of the bridesmaids).



So cute!

For food we had a variety of subs from Subway, Caesar salad, and popcorn. It was all so yummy and a great combo! For dessert we had chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with Dum-Dum suckers to look like balloons (another pinterest find). Lil E helped put in the blue polka-dot and silver cupcake liners, unwrap the suckers and stick the suckers into the cupcakes. They looked so cute and tasted yummy!

The shower was a big success! We had a great crowd, all of the female members of the wedding party, both moms, three grandmas, lots of aunts, cousins and their kids as well as our childhood babysitter. There were lots of little girls (and a couple of baby boys) who had a lot of fun playing together.

Our childhood babysitter, Jeanne, and Lil C. She was our second mom growing up and seeing her and seeing her play with Lil E and Lil C was one of the highlights of the shower!

Bridesmaids!

Grandmas!


After we ate we played a couple of games. We also had all of the guests write anniversary/well wishes for Lil Sis and Kev to read in the future. I had printed out travel scenes from Up as postcards. Big Sis had this awesome idea!
I wrote their names and wedding date on the back where you would put the address. 





We played two games, Bridal Bingo while she opened her gifts and a Disney Couples matching game :)

Sorry these pics are sideways, Kodak is not letting me rotate them and I can't find a way to do it on Blogger...
Game prizes brought by the bridesmaids. It was fun to see the different ideas everyone had. Everyone loved their prizes!

People were super generous and they got lots of wonderful gifts!!! And had quite the entourage of little girls to "help" her open them :)





Here's the card I got her: It has flaps that you open, which I thought was pretty awesome. I also got her a High School Musical Cookbook, because every new bride needs one :)



It was a great shower and I can't wait to celebrate the big day later this summer!


Big shot-out to all of the awesome ladies who helped make this day so special. My Aunt who offered her home and helped plan and took care of getting all of the food!! Momma who spent hours perfecting her candy-coated Oreo making technique. My lovely fellow brides/groomsmaids who offered planning tips, designed invites, made an adorable banner, brought awesome game prizes, helped set up and helped the party run smoothly. Lil E who helped with the cupcakes :) This shower would not have been possible without you!!!

02 January 2013

2012 in a Nutshell

Soooooooooo... Long time,  no blog. To be honest I haven't even thought about my blog in months. Life got busy in 2012 and my time was being taken up by many things. But over the holidays a family member asked if I was still blogging, which made me head on over and check out some of my old posts. I like looking back and having this blog as a sort of chronicle of major events and musings of my life. So, here I am, back and hopefully I'll stick with it this time ;)

Here is a rundown of 2012 (during which I didn't post even a single blog...)
- Went with Lil Sis to New York for 2 days in January. We stood in lines in the freezing cold a lot, but enjoyed riding the Ferris Wheel in the giant Toys R Us, seeing Sister Act on Broadway, seeing the Statue of Liberty and the 9/11 memorial, shopping in Times Square and of course the reason for our visit- the Broadway debut of our favoritest favorite Warbler Darren Criss in How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. It was truly an adventure and I am so very grateful that Lil Sis was able to convince me to go.

-Finished my first year of teaching! I got to attend a teaching conference with one of my teaching partners and we had a blast road-tripping, eating out and hanging out together outside of school.

- Found out that Big Sis and Bro-in-Law were expecting again! A little boy, who was born in August and dubbed Lil C. He is an adorable little guy, just like his big sister.

- Lil sis got engaged!!! I have not chosen a blog nickname for him yet, but I will think on it. I am so very excited for them and to be a part of their special day next July!!

-Spent the summer in employment limbo, which is a long story, but ended well with me back at the same district.

- Tutored some of my former kiddos over the summer and spent as much time as possible at the beach!


- Went to Florida with Momma, Daddy and Lil Sis. We spent four whirlwind days at Disney World and one magical day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was a fantabulous trip!!


- Spent 2 weeks learning to become a kindergarten teacher. Fell in love with both the colleagues at my new school and my 23 little sweetie pies.

- Watched the Tigers win the Central Division for the second year in a row. Made it to as many playoff games as humanly possible, including the incredible game when we won the ALCS and became American League Champs. It was a super special moment that Momma, Daddy, Lil Sis and I shared together.


- Went to my first ever World Series game! Which we lost, meaning we lost the Series, but Lil Sis and her fiance and I tried to focus on the amazing fact that we were witnessing the World Series!!

- Attended my Grandma C's 90th birthday party. There were roughly 75 people there and it was truly a tribute to her and the beautiful family she and Papa created.

- Became StarKid fans. Lil Sis and I have  been fans of A Very Potter Musical for years, but this year our Starkid love (fueled by our love for D-Criss) hit new highs. We attended Apocalyptour in May, had a truly amazing experience at Leaky Con in Chicago in August watching all of the old gang (including Darren) in A Very Potter Senior Year, the conclusion to their Harry Potter trilogy, spent way too much money on powder blue sweatbands, t-shirts, CDs and DVDs, etc. and way too much (or just enough) time watching their shows/livestream chats and listening to their awesome music!

That's 2012 in a nutshell. I may try to go back and post a longer blog about some of these events, but for now this will suffice to sum up the year :)

08 January 2011

The Chronic- What? -cles of Narnia!

For our annual New Year's Girls Movie Day while Daddy Watches Football, this year we chose to see The Dawn Treader, the third movie in the Chronicles of Narnia. We, three girls, had all seen the previous two and loved them, but Momma hadn't seen either. She was fine with us just telling her about them, but I wanted her to see them first. (Plus I wanted to see them again, so I remembered everything.)

So, the night of Dec. 30th we all watched The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Love this movie! Lil Sis and I originally saw it in theaters with our friends Lauren and Katlyn who just happen to be sisters as well. We had such fun, goofy time. We went to Pizza Hut afterwards and could not stop giggling :)

Also I love James McAvoy as Mr. Tumnus. The best!

And I love the names the kids are crowned with at the end. High Queen Susan of the Southern Sea and all that. Good times.

We were all off doing different things New Year's Eve, so we couldn't watch Prince Caspian then. After a long search for Prince Caspian at the local video store (I searched under practically every category in the Ps (children, family, Disney, New Releases... nothing) until finally I realized that since Eclipse was under the Ts for the Twilight Saga: Eclipse that Prince Caspian was probably in the Cs for the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Momma and I somehow managed to squeeze in a viewing of Prince Caspian just before we left for the 5:45 showing of the Dawn Treader.


I love this movie too. Prince Caspian is the bombdotcom. Love his accent, such a cutie! Yes please!

I love going to the movies, the popcorn, the ICEES, the huge screen. Good times. I really liked Dawn Treader.

The kid who played Eustace was so good at being annoying. The special effects were good. I would have liked more of the older kids, but I know that is following the books, so I can't complain. And of course I like me some Prince Caspian.

There was this five-ish year old boy sitting on the other side of Momma who kept asking his mom questions throughout the movie. Lil Sis and I thought he was adorable (the first time a faun came on scream, he said, "Mr. Tumnus!) and he knew a lot of the characters for being five. But Momma was really annoyed by him because I guess his Mom kept answering his questions and threatening to make him leave and stuff, that we couldn't hear... oops.

I love watching these movies and looking for the Christian influence and symbolism. I wrote a paper in college about the Christian perspectives in The L, The W, and the W and it is really interesting to me. Very good stuff.


Check out this video from SNL about the Chronicles of Narnia, which inspired this blog's title

31 December 2010

Highlights of 2010

The highlights of my wonderfully blessed year!

Teacher Assisting Winter Semester



Attending President's Ball 2010



Naked Pilates aka Naked Plates pottery painting with my fab small group girls




Opening Day Trip with Momma and Daddy to KC



Fab roomie nights with these lovely girls



Big Sis's Baby Shower



Lots of Tigers baseball, including my bf Porch



Rockin' BSB Concert with Lil Sis



Celebrated my 22nd b-day


Two of my college roomies got engaged (and one got married!!)



Lil E is born!!


Went back to my job at the daycare with some amazing kids!


Student teaching


Went on my first date :)


Momma finished my Belle Halloween costume



Met Lil R, my bff from elementary school's baby daughter.


Celebrated Thanksgiving with Momma's family and Lil E


Got a long term subbing job in first grade.



Graduated!!!!!!!!!!