Momma

The other day, I went out to plant flowers in my flower box and look at what I found.

She did not move when I opened my door. She actually didn't move until I got really close--I just wanted to see if she had built a nest.

She has (although it's not much of one) and there are 2 eggs inside. The kids are excited to see what happens in the coming weeks--apparently it takes 12-14 days for a mourning dove egg to hatch.

Guess what I just found out? Male mourning doves incubate the eggs during the day and the females incubate the eggs at night. Who knew? Guess this is a picture of poppa!

Lindsey's Shower

On Saturday, my sister-in-law, Dayna, and I hosted a shower for my sister-in-law, Lindsey. I had a lot of fun searching the internet for bridal shower ideas--it's been a long time since I've attended a shower and I wanted to make it fun for everyone.

I came across this towel wedding cake and decided that I would try to make it. I love the way it turned out.

The tutorial here is pretty good and there are step-by-step photos to help you out. Some thoughts to make your life easier if you try this. Get really large safety pins. The towels are pretty thick and it is hard to stick the pins through. Put the cake on a platter of some sort--it makes it really easy to move. I used corsage pins that I found in the bridal section of Michaels to hold the layers together. Then I wrapped the ribbon around the layer and tied it in a bow. (the bows became the back of the cake) Then I placed corsage pins around the ribbon. This cake takes a lot of flowers--I happened to hit a sale at for buy one stem get one stem for free...choose a stem with a lot of buds!

The back of the cake.

Have you ever seen Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade magazine? She had a tutorial in her latest magazine for this strawberry topiary. It was really cute and super easy to make.

Gather your supplies:
pot
foam to put in your pot
3 12" dowels
6" green foam ball
moss or stones
ribbon
hot glue

I placed the foam down inside the pot and stuck the dowels down inside the foam. Hot-glue was a must here to keep the dowels in the foam. Then I stuck the green foam ball on top of the dowels and used hot glue again. Once it was together, I started sticking strawberries into the foam ball. Use toothpicks and place the strawberries close together. Place the strawberries all over the entire ball. Then I wound a ribbon around the dowels and added a bow. Super easy!

Here are a few variations I found out on the internet while looking for Sandra Lee's tutorial: strawberry and wheatgrass topiary and Tammy's strawberry topiary.

We decided to play two games at the shower. The first was Bridal Bingo. We made up these buckets to use as prizes. Each bucket contained some of Lindsey and Frankie's favorite things. I used my xyron machine to laminate and create a photo sticker to put on the bucket.

The other game we played was Wedding Night Preview. Lindsey did not know that her maid of honor, Jackie, was writing down all the things that she said while she opened her gifts. After Lindsey finished opening her gifts, Jackie presented us with a list of things one might hear on Lindsey's wedding night.

Sorry the video is so shaky--I was laughing while I took it!



I am linking up to other blog parties today. Check them out and get your craft on.

Lindsey

This is my sister-in-law, Lindsey.

She is marrying Frankie, the rocker, in June.

They watch my kids for me when I go out of town.

My kids love them and they are a lot of fun to be around.

I am hosting Lindsey's bridal shower this weekend and I needed a picture of the two of them together for one of the favors. (More on that later)

I love this picture of the two of them because they were obviously having fun together. Note Kellen's shoe in the top right of the photo. He was in the tree above them!

Thanks for coming over yesterday! We love you guys!

Go Vote!

As many of you know, I love service work.

One of my favorite things about the school that my three oldest attend is their focus on service and helping those in need. My kids have participated in many projects since they have been in Kindergarten: they have made sandwiches for shelters, provided Christmas presents for families each year, raised funds to build wells in third world countries, raised money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, raced for the cure and much, much more.

Howard Johnson's Give Happy Challenge has recognized the community service work of eight finalists from the U.S. and Canada, including a classroom of first graders from McDonogh! This class has picked bushels of apples and delivered them to a shelter, collected well over a thousand cans of food, made blankets and hygiene kits for the homeless and made and sold friendship pins to raise money for a school in India to provide healthy snacks.

The first graders need you to vote for them daily between now and May 16 at HoJo's Give Happy Challenge. Look for the image of the girl in the purple top, click the box below her picture, and vote for the first graders' video "It Starts With Me." Nationwide voting will determine which four go on to the next round. The winner will receive $15,000 to donate to their favorite charity.

If Mrs, Irving's first grade class wins, they will use the money to buy a new-used van for a group called Loaves and Fishes run by St. Ignatius Church in Baltimore. The group travels through the streets of the city on weekend nights feeding many men and women who are homeless and the van they use is literally falling apart. There are nights when they cannot get the door to stay shut and other nights when it just will not start.

Please, go out and vote for "It Starts with Me" today and every day between now and May 16th. Thanks for supporting this group of first graders!

Things You Only See in Texas

A BBQ restaurant where you order and pick up your food before you go sit down at a table. You can grab a beer to go with your brisket right out of the cooler by the cash register. (If you are ever in Austin, check out Iron Works Barbecue.)

A golf cart with horns.

The Texas Capitol. It is the largest in gross square footage of all state capitols and is second in total size only to the National Capitol in Washington, D.C. The 1888 Texas Capitol surpasses the National Capitol in height, rising almost 15 feet above its Washington counterpart.

Table side guacamole at the Iron Cactus made with avocado, jalapenos, cilantro, onion, tomato, salt and pepper, lime juice and the secret ingredient...juice from half of an orange. The guacamole was so good that I ate it 3 times while I was in Austin!

Stacked pork enchiladas...A New Mexico style favorite...Pork carnitas stacked on red corn tortillas and layered with green chiles, rajas, and Monterrey jack cheese. Topped with a homemade verde sauce and a fried egg. I did not order this, but Tony said it was very good!

Entire stores devoted to boots. These were just the ones they had in size 9.5!

Me in a skirt and a pair of cowboy boots with my friend, Kimberly, and my new friend, Julie.