Golf Party

I had the privilege to throw my Grandpa's surprise 80th birthday party with some wonderful help from family. He loves golf and, he still golfs everyday even though he just turned 80. I say 80 years young, not 80 years old. Boy was he surprised, it was priceless!!

For decorations I made a backdrop for the food table out of 12x12 scrapbook paper and a white tri fold project board I got at Walmart. You just fold the paper accordion style, then fold it in half again. Staple it all together, I used 3 pieces of paper for each big flower and 2 pieces of paper for the smaller ones. I just hot glued them to the board. The ones with 2 flowers together you need a circle in between the flowers to help the glue stick. Then you just need to cut out circles for the center. It is really easy to make just a little time consuming. I used green, black, white and silver color theme. We had 3 different sets of golf clubs around the room too.

 

 

Center pieces, my Mom had this great idea. We bought our jars from the Dollar Store and we got the crinkled paper you put in Easter baskets (brown and white) and used that to stuff them. Then we put some golf balls on top with some golf tees. Finish it all off with green and black ribbon and you have some cheap and cute centerpieces. :)

I love Hobby Lobby and they have thicker wrapping paper which is nice to run down the tables for an added decoration and it also helps protect your table cloths. It is nice to just roll everything up and throw it away, it makes for easy clean up!

I made golf term labels for the food table. We had croissant sandwiches so I made one that said "Club Sandwiches". We had the best fruit bowl and it said "Fruit Slice",we had chips so I made "Chip Shots". Water for drinks I made a "Watering hole" tag. Cake table I made a "Caddy Buffet" even though it wasn't candy it was still sweets.

My cousin had a great idea and we had all the great grand kids make him a card so we had a gift and card table.

I had the idea to make a memory jar. We had everyone write down some of their favorite memories they have had with my Grandpa. We just had strips of scrapbook paper for everyone to write one down on. Then he got to take them all home to read later.

One of my cousins made a cute candy poster for him and, her and her boyfriend did a really cute birthday rap for him.

I put a game together with the help of my Grandma that helped us get to know him better. My Grandma came up with 20 questions about him and I put them all in balloons and we made them into 80 and we had all the little kids come up and pop one and I read the question to my Grandpa for him to answer.

I also made a picture slide show for him of his life up to now. I loved watching how much it meant to him. I put it together with music and the music I used for his slide show was.

Abba- take a chance on me (for when him and my grandma were together.)
Alan Jackson- Remember when (for when his kids were little)
Lonestar- let them be little (for when all the grand kids were growing up)
Louise Armstrong- What a wonderful world ( pictures of everyone with him day to day)
Forever Young- (pictures of everyone with him day to day until now)

At the beginning I had one of my cousins read something I wrote about celebrating his birthday.

It all was a great success and I am happy for everyone involved for making it such a great day for him. Enjoy!!

Homeschool Room Make Over

The before pictures are horrible and messy, this was my throw everything in my misc room, I knew I wanted it to be a school room eventually, but yes it was a MESS pretty much all the time until.....

I painted the walls, (I used taupe)

 I cut out the ABC's with my wonderful Silhouette SD, I found this wonderful huge map at a yard sale for $1.00, SCORE!!

TA DA, I am in love with this room. Everything in this room was either things I had already or, from Yard Sales this summer or the Goodwill. My green and blue bins came from the Dollar store. My books are all in sections for different learning along with all my Curriculum.

 In the awesome blue and green bins from the dollar store I have things like, links for counting and colors, pattern blocks etc..

 Crayons and all the fun Art supplies

 How to tell time (sorry these wont turn the right way for some reason)

I love my calendar set I got, I have all boys so I had to have something kind of girly. This was perfect for me :)

Every binder for every letter of the alphabet with all my different activities. (I got this idea from http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/) I love her site it is AWESOME. I have purchased a lot of her print ables and sets for homeschooling.

 My board, I switch it out and add things to it but this is what is always on it for the most part.

Pledge of allegiance, questions to ponder, rules, weekly activities, Not pictured (address, and phone number for them to practice)

I use these to organize all of my handouts and papers for each subject. I still have a lot to get printed off but, you get the idea.

I am going to start Homeschooling my kids……Was homeschooling something I had always knew I would do? That would be a big fat NO!  Yes; Yes I know people will think I am crazy and that it’s a bad idea. I don’t care though, I didn’t just wake up one morning and say, “Hey I think I will try Homeschool”. I have been seriously thinking about it for a little over a year now. With much prayer and consideration of it all, I AM DOING IT!!! Wish me luck :-) My husband wasn’t too keen on the idea at first, but he is on board 100% with me now. His main concern was socialization and sports.  The first question out of almost everyone’s mouth when you mention the fact that you are homeschooling is, "What about the socialization?"  If you are a social person, your children will be social. There are many opportunities for socialization at church, sports, reading groups, and other midweek activities. If you are social yourself and are interacting with other human beings on a regular basis, this is not really going to be an issue...   “The world will teach our children if we do not.” The public school system puts together a one-size-fits-all education when really; learning should be more perfectly fitted to the individual. To be honest, the only things I remember from school are the things I was interested in. If I was forced to learn it, I retained the information long enough to pass the test and then it was gone. Here’s an interesting tidbit of info for you. Did you know that public schools are only between 150 and 200 years old? And that they were formed for the benefit of poor people who were unable to afford material to educate their children at home or a private tutor to educate their children. Over the years, it just became a convenience for most people to send their children to the public school no matter what their status was. And I’m pretty sure that 200 years ago, before public school, there wasn’t a socialization crisis!

This is not to say that all kids in the public school system are improperly socialized and taught or, that my kids are somehow going to be better off in life than yours. As I’ve said before, this is a lifestyle choice and it is definitely NOT for everyone.  It is just a personal choice either way our choice is Homeschooling. I know there will be hard days and some days I will want to pull my hair out. I know a lot of people that homeschool their kids and every one of them say it is worth it.

“People are more influenced by love than anything else.”

Like I said before Homeschooling was NEVER something I ever thought I would do with my kids. I am not looking back only forward to all the blessings I will have to teach my children and love them while I do it. I am looking forward to it so much!!!

I couldn't be happier with my new room here is the before and after next to each other :-)

 

Grey White and Black

I love these colors together for a Master bedroom. It is so clean and precise. Pretty but yet masculine. I really wish I took pictures of the before but I didn't. Here are the after pictures (just picture nothing in the room and all white for the before) This post is also to show just how important the right piece of furniture really is to make the room complete and perfect. As you can see my log bed was just not cutting it for the look I was going for, and it really throws everything else off. So I sold it and got my new black bed that makes everything come together! I love it now that it has the right piece of furniture. 

Dinning Room Before and After

 Before

AFTER....

For our dinning room I went with more earthy tones. The paint I used was Milk Chocolate from Val-spar Paint on the arch I used Cobblestone  . It is simple but still elegant. I will have some curtains soon I just haven't found the ONE.... The best advice I can give you on having a nice table with kids in the house, buy some plastic at Joanne Fabrics and have it cut to the table size. It's the perfect shield for kids. I am glad we have it, it has saved us on more than one occasion :) They have different thicknesses to choose from. Enjoy!

Kitchen Makeover

I LOVE to decorate. It is always so fun to see the results of where you started and end. I know a lot of people are afraid of the color red, but I think if you have the right tone it works great! The color I used in my kitchen is "Posh Red" by Valspar signature paint. I would love to paint my cabinets white at some point. I just need to wait for summer time :) Here is the before and after pictures. Enjoy and don't be afraid to use bold colors!

Before

AFTER............