40th anniversary cabin adventure

A couple of weekends ago we celebrated my in-laws 40th anniversary at a cabin in a national forest in southern Illinois. We played games, it rained, I read, we hiked, we talked, we cooked, lit a fire, and fought mosquitoes and flies. It was a fun time, relaxing but a bit too short.

Thanks for the good time, Ohio Shunks!! We really enjoyed it ... and happy 40th (again!) We love you. 

anniversary (family) outing.

Friday was our 5th anniversary - we celebrated family-style with a picnic in the park. Loose Park in Kansas City to be exact. Complete with anniversary cheesecake, a sweet, swinging 2 year old, lots of green grass and a vintage romper.

Lovely, relaxing and completely enjoyable. I love having no agenda but to be together.

Angry Birds Cupcakes

So another piano student (I only have 3) had a birthday last week - remember my other piano birthday post? Anyway, A just turned seven - fun age!! Active boys are quite the challenge at the piano bench and I'm looking more and more into activities we can do to keep him engaged.

(I've just found this teaching resource and I'm super excited to try it out. I'll let you know how it goes!)

And he loves Angry Birds. I found a blank notebook with the red angry bird on the front on clearance awhile back and I actually planned to use it for incentive - but then I thought, "Why not an Angry Birds birthday!" So I did.

I found this tutorial for fun cupcakes...

Aren't they awesome!?

source

So, last Monday I went to gather my supplies. Marshmellows, frosting, black licorice, red sprinkles...

I really didn't think that it would be super difficult. Well, four stores later, I realized that I had no idea where (and no time left!) to look for red sprinkles and none of the stores carried rope licorice so I had to give up on sprinkles and I used a chopped chocolate bar for the angry eyebrows.

All of that to say, I was sorely disappointed in my rendition. Not to mention, the frosting was PINK! I tried so hard to make it red (the tutorial even said to use red gel coloring to get it red, but my gels just didn't work!) - and pink is SO not cool for a 7 year old boy, mind you. Sigh.

They ended up looking messy and childish but I wasn't about to throw away something I'd put money and time and thought into. So I shared them - at least they were tasty!

mmm! :-)

star-spangled romper to dress

This was the girl's 4th of July outfit last year.

Except, it was too big. WAY too big. This year, she fits perfectly! However, I wanted her to wear some navy and white starred capri leggings I thrifted with it. Over the ruffly rompered bottom was no good!

So, since it was knit, I promptly cut off the legs and now she can wear it as a little dress and leggings. (It also came with a "baby's first 4th" bib, which she wore last year, but is obviously irrelevant now...)

I'm not much of a "themed" clothing type girl, but this idea was fun, we already had the outfit, and we might as well celebrate!!


KC friends - where is the best place to view 4th of July fireworks in your opinion?? We still have yet to find a place. Any other must-see 4th of July celebrations?

Anniversary Celebrations - 4 years!

Jeremy and I celebrated four years together last Thursday. We try to go with the traditional gifts list for ideas, gifts and fun. Last year (3) was leather. Jeremy got me some inscribed leather luggage tags from Etsy and I got him a very needed leather belt.

This year was "fruit and flowers".

Yeah.

What do you get a guy that's fruit and flowers? I thought about this and thought about it and just didn't come up with anything too wonderful. I did, however, leave two tiny strawberries from our garden on his dinner plate and came up with a silly card with the theme. Maybe next year will be easier?

Getting it for a wife might be easier, however we were on quite the tight budget. So, Jeremy made me an awesome, completely homemade banana cream pie (fruit), which tasted incredible (and which we gobbled up between us in a few days).

YUM.

And, he brought me home a single red rose (flower). So lovely.

 

Some friends gave us a chance to get away with some anniversary money we received ... they watched the girl for four hours! We ended up getting dinner and going to see The Hunger Games, which was pretty good in our opinion. No movie ever lives up to the book, but this one was pretty accurate. 

We rarely get to go out alone or see movies in the theater, so it was a treat.

Happy 4th anniversary, Jeremy. Only at least 48 more.