Cooking Circus

How is this for an End-of-the-year celebration?! My FB friend, Britta, hosted this adorable party for her daughter Kelsey and her friends. They went to a local Hy-Vee store and had a cooking class. Britta also supplied the guests with these adorable outfits.

Britta decorated the table like a circus...so cute!

She puts so much thought and love into every detail.

The girls had a great time making healthy snacks...

... and eating not so healthy ones as well. Britta owns a tea house in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area that hosts amazing tea parties for girls and adults alike. Check out her website.

Bridging

They other night, my Brownie troop bridged to Junior Girl Scouts. I picked a beautiful area a few blocks from our home that had an amazing bridge over a lake with ducks, geese and turtles.

For the ceremony, the girls recited the Girl Scout promise, sang Yogi Bear and told what their favorite part of scouting was. My daughter said "I really enjoyed learning how to sew and embroider and I really appreciate it". That made me so happy since that has always been a goal of mine to teach other girls how to sew and embroider like my grandmother taught me.

I gave them each a bag with some goodies in it. It contained a packet of Daisy seeds to remind them of where they have been (as Daisy Girl Scouts), a brownie to remind them of where they are and a giant box of Junior Mints to get them to think about where they are going.

Sheridan was so proud to become a Junior. She was just beaming as she crossed the bridge in her new green vest to get her new Jr. pin put on by me.

I had such a great time being her leader for the last 4 years but it is now time for me to pass the torch to someone else. My business has gotten very busy and I need to keep what little sanity I have left. That is a picture of my hubby and Sheridan. I know you never see pictures of him. He is a bit camera shy but he does exist. :)

Women in History

This year, I was the chairwoman for Woman in History at our elementary school. (That's me on the far right). We perform over 2 days introducing 3 women at a time. Each show is performed 4 times over the course of the day in front of a total of 1000 people. I have been a performer the last 2 years but this year was very challenging. In January, we meet at the area coodinator's home to discuss this year's famous women. Since she has held this job for the last 23 years she wanted to "mix it up" a little and decided to have iconic women represented such as Mother Nature, Lady Liberty, Rosie Riveter, Barbie, Wonder Woman and Betty Crocker.

To say this idea didn't go over well at our school was an understatement! Parents wrote nasty letters to the principal, teachers and superintendent protesting the choices.

What really hurt was that 2 of the parents were from my Brownie troop! I offered to show them scripts and explain our choices but they wouldn't have any of it! They wrote the letters anyway.

I had to re-work the entire program because of people's ignorance. Then our program got bumped because of District testing.

Since the schedule had changed, the mom playing Clara Barton couldn't do it and the performance was only 1 week away!

Thankfully, the 6th grader who was going to be a reporter for the performance offered to be Clara and a friend of mine offered to be the reporter.

I enjoy acting but this was way too much drama for me! I hope you can see why my posting has been a bit sporatic. In addition to all of this, I am planning my Brownie troop's bridging ceremony, redecorating my family room and kitchen (I'm painting EVERYTHING and sewing all of the curtains and pillows.), planning Chasen's birthday celebration, (he is also graduating 6th grade) taking him for x-rays and casts for his arm and also packing for scout trips. Not to mention my many Party Wishes parties!

If you ever have objections to a school function, PLEASE get the facts! It truly is unfair to a lot of people when you show your ignorance.

The women portrayed at this year's performance was Lucille Ball, Deborah Sampson Gannett, Clara Barton, Marian Anderson, Annie Oakley and Grace O'Malley. I was Grace- the Irish Pirate Queen! I performed with an Irish accent and kids LOVED it! I would walk around campus and they asked me to say things in my accent-too funny!

Thanks for reading this post. I'm sorry if I was a bit harsh but it has been really weighing on me and created so much unnessasary work and stress on me. Thanks again for your support (Wow, that sounded very Bartles and James!)

Babe's Dessert Bar

The owner of Babe's Dessert Bar, Denise, asked me if I could decorate her booth for the Jewish Food Festival here in Santa Clarita on Sunday.

Her business' colors are pink and black which fit perfectly with my French Poodle party.

I used a plastic frame from IKEA to showcase one of her cake designs.

I draped pink feather boas all over the booth to catch people's eyes. She had some amazing desserts for sale such as Espresso brownies, lemon bars, cream puffs, caramel apples and cake balls in many different flavors (I loved the Strawberry Shortcake ones!) She even offered some delicious savory potato knishes. For my decorating trade, she offered my business cards and gave me an amazing sampling of her desserts. I love to barter!

Do you do any bartering?

Sea World Adventure

Here is a video put together by my co-leader's husband of my Brownie Girl Scout troop's overnight at Sea World San Diego.

Shoot out Leukemia

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to have 4 different professional photographers take pictures of my children.

They have not had a professional photo shoot in 6 years, so I thought they had changed enough to get some updated shots. LOL

My friend, Jennifer Wilson, was one of the photographers. She is training for a Hawaiian triathlon in June. It is a fundraiser for the Leukemia Foundation. In turn, this photo shoot was a fundraiser for her trip. She is doing this in honor of a child who attends our elementary school who is fighting this terrible disease.

The photo shoot was held at a gorgeous Quarter horse ranch in Agoura Hills. I took some of my own shots as well.

We get 5-8 shots from each photographer to make as many prints as we would like all for a small donation of $385.00. If you would like to donate for Jen's journey, please click here. Any amount would be appreciated.