Back to School party

Well now that school is in session I thought I would finally post my back to school party. (Please excuse the poor quality photos- I cannot find the cord to my nice camera so had to use my other one and I also forgot to put my glasses on. OOPS!)

The first few pics are of the center piece. I found the vintage globe at a garage sale for $3. I thought it was a good deal and it is in really good shape. I thought it worked perfectly for my tablescape. I found the printables off of someone's blog and I cannot remember were now. I need to learn to give credit were credit is due. I also liked how it seemed vintage like too.

In looking at my pictures I realized this is not the complete center piece. I also had a pencil vase with fresh flowers. Please excuse the mess on my hutch in the background. These pics were pre-party.

I really liked how my mantel turned out. I kept it really simple and love the results and will do the same next year. The banner is back to school fabric from etsy. It too has a vintage feel to it. (Sorry for the blurry picture.)

This is a shot of my flowers looking down at them. I added rulers and pencils into the mix of flowers. I thought it turned out cute. I got the idea from the Celebrate Fall magazine by Phyllis Hoffman.

These are the goody bags I did for the kids. I filled them with back to school supplies and age appropriate since I had a mix of ages.

Here is a picture of the table before the kids saw it. Please disregard the boring looking plate in the bottom of the pic. That was my plate and I should have removed it for the picture.(I really should learn photoshop.)

This is what everyone's placemat looked like. I used black scrapbook paper and wrote their names on it. Very simple and I thought it looked cute.

Underneath everyone's plate I wrote a little personalized message. They all loved it.

My attempt at a sandwich made to look like a cake. Very cute but do it for only a few kids not 5! You use a lot of bread and you waste a lot of bread. Kids LOVED it though. So worth the work put into it.

And finally I served cupcakes that looked like apples. The kids loved those too. The stems were tootsie rolls and the leaves were starbursts.

So there you have the back to school party. We also played Back to School bingo which I purchased off of Etsy. The kids enjoyed that too. I will have to do it again next year. It was so fun and worth all the energy that went in to it.

Too much RAIN

NOTE ** this is more of a post for my memory**

While most areas having been dealing with heat and no rain, here in the upper midwest we have had plenty of rain. We have also had lots of humidity due to all the moisture in the air.

A few weeks ago we had yet another storm. This one came in the early morning, around 5 a.m. I was sound asleep and awoke to a noise. I thought to myself, is that the wind?! I rolled over to discover that the power had gone out and came back on. So I thought maybe that was what I heard, you know, all the noise that is there when we have power but don't realize until you have no power. So I went back to bed. Well Evan and I got up around 6:30 did our usual morning routine. I went to open the blinds and the front door and this is what I saw!! A HUGE tree branch had landed on our side walk. Thankfully missing the garage. It doesn't look too large, but trust me it was.

Of course I went out to see the damage and heard chainsaws. My neighbors to the right of me lost 2 giant trees in their front yard. One of which was covering his driveway. Thankfully they had no damage either. They also have 2 cars that are parked in the driveway nightly. Here is there mess.

This is looking from behind my garage to their house. Another tree lost. They also lost a 2 huge trees by the lake. One hitting their dock but not their boat.

When I came back to our house I notice this tree on the side of your house uprooted. I sleep on that side. I am so glad the wind went the way it did. Thankfully we didn't lose any more trees. That tree is large but our precious pines held it up. One received a lot of damage. Another thing, these are crappy trees so we were glad to see it go.

This is just another big branch down in the yard. We had several of these type of branches down in our backyard as well.

The only good thing about all the rain is that our lake has come up a lot this year. We have been is such a low moisture pattern for a long time. IT is definitely very lush and very buggy!! YUCK!

I think it was determined that we had straight line winds but it looks like a tornado to me. There were only 3 houses with major tree damage or loss. Our house and the ones on either side of us.

One thing I learned through all this is that people are really kind and want to help. The hubby was out of town and I was home alone with 2 little ones and trying to clean up a mess. Both neighbors, who lost trees, came to help me clean up. One even cut up the big branch so we could use the sidewalk. Be kind to your neighbors. You never know when you may need them.

Getting Ready!!

I think I am ready to give this blog thing another try. So brace yourselves for more than one post this week. ( of course my computer acts up so if it takes a few days you will know why.)

I thought I would have my first post be about getting ready for "back to school". School doesn't officially start for us until September 8th but I will be a hosting a small back to school party for my some dear friends of ours. It will hopefully turn out good ( I have lots of ideas but until it actually happens, well you know how that goes.) So I have been a crafting fool for the last few days. Here are a few things that I have made.

Pencil vases ( side note, hot glue does not hold the pencils. I will be trying double sided tape. I read this is a magazine and should have tried it right away.) These will be great for the table and for a little present for the Mom. I also thought maybe a great teacher gift for open house night. Still chewing on that.

ABC letters. I have had these letters in my stash for a few years. Finally decided to craft them up a bit. I still might add a little bling to them.

Crayons in a vase. Simple addition for tablescaping. Just add a bow and you are good to go.

Picture in frame. I love the saying and it is my motto for my kids. Just be creative and don't worry about perfection.

Lastly, a no sew table cloth, for the kids table. Thanks for the idea Sue. I just loved the fabric. I bought 1 yard and added some pom pom fringe with hot glue. Instant cuteness!! I will be making more of these.

I am excited to do more for this party. I also bought a banner on Etsy (shown in picture).

I will also be posting some of my trash to treasure items too. Hope they turn out the way I am envisioning.

Linking to Kim for Wow us Wednesdays.