3-21 World Down syndrome Day!!

Today is World Down syndrome Day, 3-21.  It represents Trisomy 21, chromosome 21 has 3 instead of 2.  In our world, it is a beautiful day.  We get to honor our little girl.  She is fiesty, cuddly, smart, funny,  I could go on and on.  We always do a little celebration in her honor.  Always a cake, balloons and a small gift.   Just an ordinary day made special just for her.  (Excuse the pic.....it was taken on my iphone and the color setting was not correct.)

We love you Emma, our little peanut!!

A beautiful day!!

It was a beautiful day in the northland, despite the fact that we had 9" of snow.  Now don't get me wrong, I am so over winter.  The sad fact is we still have at least another month of this!!!  I heard last night on the news that we are 14" above the average for this time of year.  YIKES.   Could be some flooding this spring.  You have to admit the snow is pretty hanging on the trees.  I think it will be on them for a few more days.  Temps are very chilly (again!) and will be for at least the next week.

This picture was taken out from my front window.  Don't mind the glare that looks like a snowman.  (pretty neat though)  Just look at all that snow.  Ugh........  I can't remember the last time I have seen this much snow.  There is no way the kids could walk through it.  

 The next few pics are from Evan's golden birthday.  (sorry these shots are from my IPhone)

The Birthday boy!

Just a few gold decorations.  He loved it and that is all that matters.

Family Room Christmas Tree

I am slowing going to show you Christmas at my house and yes, probably bore you.  This is more for me to remember how I decorated.  I will start with the family room tree.  It is a small tree, stands about 6 1/2 feet tall.  This is the tree with all the ornaments that mean something to me and the family.  I love the peppermint lights and candy canes.  This year I added the red and white ribbon.  I am enjoying the pop it brings to the tree.  So get ready for lots of tree pictures.

Tree at night

 I have done this tree topper for the last few years and I absolutely love it.  Most of the items I bought in Texas.  It just adds some whimsy to the tree.  The little wood ornament was made for me by the kids I babysat back in 1984.  I love that I can tell a story with some of the ornaments on my tree.  It was fun to tell the kids this year where some of the old ornaments came from and what they mean to me.

This little house was made by my brother Ross 30+ years ago.  I still love it and would like to have more.  It has a hole so a light from the tree can go in it.

 

The tree skirt is something I will keep forever.  My mom made it many years ago and I have always loved it but now I hold it a little more dear to my heart.  It will be fun to give it to my kids one day.

 

This last picture is just a little snippet of decorating on the t.v. console.  Love the picture that says 'At Christmas all roads lead home'.

So there you have a little glimpse of Christmas.  I have come to realize this year, that less is more and I will be getting rid of the stuff that holds no meaning and I have no space for.  I probably have 3 bins that I did not put out this year and it will be leaving my house.  Getting ready to purge a little.

Evan's 1st day of Kindergarten

My mind is confused, I feel lost.  My little buddy started kindergarten today.  I need to figure out my new normal.  I am excited for him to start school but I am sad that my little buddy isn't home with me.  He kept me company and was my companion on so many errands and other fun things.  I will miss him  (and Emma too).  But I know he is so eager to learn and I am eager for him to continue to grow.  He is so smart and I know he will have a great year.

Nervous for school, sister is coming to check on him

I am a little scared, Mom.

A little happier and showing off his new backpack.  

I worry, for him, because he was so nervous and scared to start.  He woke up at midnight screaming and crying.  It broke my heart.  He even got a little teary at the bus stop.  I know he will miss me too.  But it is time for him to spread his wings just a little more.  I am already anxiously waiting for 4:15 when my kiddos will come home.

Waiting for the bus, a little nervous.

 Well it is time to figure out what to do with myself.  Watch out house, here I come.

1st day of school

Emma is off to school today.  She was very excited!!  She will be going to 1st grade for one more year and it will be fabulous.  She has the same teacher and para-professional.  I must say that I love those 2 ladies.  They are the biggest cheerleaders Emma has had to date.  They are excited to see her grow this year and with them I know she will.  Here is to a great year, sweet Emma.

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World Down Syndrome Day

Today is World Down Syndrome Day and it is a day we celebrate our sweet little girl!!  We will honor her with cake and balloons and a small little gift.  We feel honored to raise a child with Down syndrome.  Our little girl has opened our eyes to so many things and for that, we are forever grateful.  

Yes, I know these pictures are from December, but it is the most current I have down loaded.  But this just shows my girl and all her silliness and how she loves.  

Last day of Kindergarten

 Last Thursday was Emma's last day of kindergarten.  I cannot believe how fast the year has gone.  She has grown is so many ways this past year and we are so proud of all her accomplishments.  These are a few photos before she got on the bus.  She was happy and so good all week.  I am not sure if she realized it was the last week of school or not, but we loved it (and so did her bus driver!).

Love my vintage chalkboard that I purchased with my sister in some small town in Wisconsin.  It will be used a lot over the next 14 years.  As you can see she loved holding the sign about her head.  Silly girl!!  I hope to post more pictures of her last day and our welcome to summer celebration.

North Pole Breakfast and Frosty Scooby Doo

We started a new tradition this year. We had our first North Pole Breakfast and elf visit. It was a success. Our theme for the part was winter wonderland ( I thought since we live in the land of winter for about 6 months of the year, why not). I found these cute printables on Etsy.

Lots of cute printable but I decided on this theme all because of the fabric I had purchased.

The elf was busy decorating from the lights. Hmmmm, how did he do that. {one thing this breakfast lacked was pictures of my kids. They were present but I only got one good one of Evan and no good ones of Emma = ( }

That little elf made marshmallow dips. He brought snowballs from the North Pole too. Santa even threw in some Santa mix ( you can kind of see it on the left side.) Strangely my kids didn't like the Santa mix (it is Captain Crunch Christmas mix and I bought 2 boxes.)

The elf was reading the Elf on the Shelf. So we read it too to introduce Mr. Elf. We also had muffins.

Here is a view of the table.

The elf also left a little gift. His shoe had snowman stickers and a giant pencil. We had milk in the jars.

The elf left a note letting the kids know who he is and what they needed to do.

Here is Evan enjoying the morning. He is more into it than Emma but they do look for it every day and they both talk about their elf too.

So yes, his name is officially Frosty Scooby Doo!

A sweet pillow

I just had to post the cute pillow I had made for me for Emma's room. I am collecting "Now I lay me down to sleep" samplers for her room. I found this one on Etsy and just fell in love. It was a huge piece of fabric but we cut it down to fit into a pillow. I found fabric for the back and the cute trim at Hobby Lobby while I was in Texas. Here is the finished product.

Here is a close up of the pillow. The little girl is so sweet and the stitching is so neat to me. I also thought the girl looked like Emma. The fabric behind her is Emma's quilt. I am doing a vintage look in her room.

Here is a close-up of the adorable trim I found. I just love this trim and wish I would have bought the whole bolt. I would love to trim a lamp shade in this too.

More to come on her room once I finish painting her bed and a cabinet and rearranging her room a little. I also may try to some type of craft for her room too. I know, hard to believe, but I really want to craft more. Especially after seeing all the fun things my nieces do.

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.