How we spent our summer pt II

I shouldn't make promises of future posts, huh?!

Life (and boondock internet connection) keeps getting in the way of my blogging.

Still, I blog to journal our family events...

So I'll keep pluggin away;

 I'm making a BIG DEAL about this school year.

Soon my kids will be too jaded to care about my silly theme parties etc

But this year (as when Sarah started Kindergarten) we hosted a meet n greet for Jack and all the littles just starting at our school... 

This year it was all fish themed with shades of blue n green for accents.

My dear Mom pitched in with a jumbo fish balloon (which Jack released before I got a pic), help with fish cupcakes and much more (as usual). 

We even made a poster and invites for the school entry that I had printed out for mere pennies!

(I use Staples for all my Pinterest finds. Thanks Mit!)

"It's  O - fish- al

You're a Kindergartner.

We're so lucky to be in the same school!"

We served goldfish crackers in glass bowls, set out One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and even had a live koi from our pond in a tank.

I used blue punch with a fish ice cube mold found at Ikea and set out fish bait.

We had a ton of fun using Pinterest.

Please visit Karaspartyideas.com for  a beautiful fish party as my pics stunk.

photo not mine - see http://crissyscrafts.blogspot.com/p/my-parties.html

The kids cut out fish using paper plates and we also used their Rainbow Fish school projects.

I'd thought we might play pin the scale on Rainbow fish but the slip n slide kept them occupied.

My guppie has no shark teeth so sadly no personality either!

I passed out fliers at Kindergarten readiness camp and again at orientation.

The awesome Principal, Ms. Townsend, even had me stand and be introduced while encouraging all families to attend...

At that point I panicked, not sure if we'd have 12 or 120 join us!

I must say that the response was disheartening.

Not helped by the rain at party's start time.

But we did meet new friends and have much splash play!

Hope you're finding fun in these early fall days!

I'll try to be back quicker as I have lots of summer catching up still to do!

Some mornings...

Some mornings just aren't as you planned.

I was going to share some fish party pics.

But we live like with animals.

I came down stairs to bird feathers  everywhere.

(thank god no juicy bits found. yet.)

Walked in kitchen to find a precious egg from three remaining hens knocked off counter.

s p l a t 

Over to coffee maker (must.have.the.coffee.before reality.cleaning)

stepped over a black glob of ants.

very nice.

Jack cuts up his own apples into funny chunks w/a plastic knife.

One ended up under counter.

Tho seems to be making it's way across the floor.

Maybe those industrious ants could sweep n mop on their way out?

I'm bettin y'all take back any mention of wanting to come visit me here!

Oh yeah, here's a token fish pic.

I want to float away.

I hear at least hurricane Leslie was in the tropics.

How We Spent Our Summer part I

It has come to my attention that I am a big wussy whiner.

I apologize.

This blog has been over run with sniffs n sobs.

No more (at least til my hormones beat me again)!

It's time to count the many blessings this summer brought our family!

Our summer's been full of colorful fun, friends, farming n finds.

(Plus another huge project that will soon be revealed.)

I think I better remind myself of some of the highlights. I'll attempt to post a few more in the next week.

Last night we quietly prepared for our second week of school and enjoyed having friends over for burgers and sweet corn and leftovers from our big back to school party last weekend. 

This was my attempt at a classic school mantel using the perfect print from http://www.sweetcoconutlime.com. I picked up felt apples in the clearance bin at Walmart. I found a mini 1st Day of school frame thrifting and it's colors match the print perfectly so I felt I had a theme started... ;-)

The apples in the picture came from Mrs. Plank's farm. She's the teacher's aide for Jack's class. We didn't know she had a farm til we saw her selling at the farmers market last weekend!

Sarah saw me buy the gorgeous green and yellow squash (not captured well in the am sun) and rightly guessed it's color sold me. She then pronounced I should show it on my blog! The other squash are from The Farmer's own garden. He did really well with an abundance of awesome sweet corn, a few watermelon and squash. My own tomatoes are spindly and other than asparagus, grapes, herbs and horse radish my "potager" has not yielded much. I'm definitely more interested in landscaping with trees, shrubs, flowers and object's de 'junk (say it with a french accent and they can seem more suitable for a garden club  teehee) than I am with veggies. Kinda embarrassing for a farmers wife who believes in eating local. Good thing I'm super supportive of farm stands! 

Okay here are a few pics of our "o-fish-al" back to school party as a tease...

I think we all had fun(?)! Maybe not Nick.

I'll be back with more soon!

As usual, I ran outta time forgot to take pics of staged table before. Doh!

Come back soon friends. I PROMISE to begin posting more!