Unexcused ABSENCE

i have been away from blogging for too long now.
i never seem to have the time to sit down and think of something (interesting)to write.
so much time has passed since my last post
i don't know where to begin. so i am just going to post some random photos of "life" since i have been away.


my son's hockey career ended ~ so sad! however, they ended on a great note.


my son's senior year. the team won the regional championship - for the first time in school history. very exciting...trohies, newspaper interviews!!!


he was named to the all county team as an individual player - very proud!!!!


also... very sad to say good bye to something that has been such a great part of our lives........


however, i still have one more son playing for 2 more years...that's a good thing.



so what do hockey mom's do when hockey is over?


well of course, we pack up all the photos that we took and go away on a girl's scrapbook weekend ...........



and then we come home and buy these:



i do believe that the cricut is an essential machine for all scrapbookers! i LOVE it.



and then there was spring break

long drive for sunshine! but totally worth it.


and when we came home

we added this adorable little puppy to our family.

this is roxy. she was born on valentine's day. we adore her. i am sure she will be the subject of many upcoming posts.

a girly hockey mom get together

because we spend so much time in the ice rink together, I decided to have a party for my fellow hockey moms........and i wanted to make it extra girly.


i made invites with my scrapbooking materials !! i decided on pink, green and orange as the colors for the evening. I also added a feather as a hint of what to expect for the evening.

Here are a few of my "mama's" toasting the end of a fun season and the friendships that we made via our hockey playing sons.

We drank cotton candy champagne - which was absolutely yummy!

i took plastic champagne glasses and glitzed them up with feather boas and rhinestones, dipped the rims in pink sugar....plopped a fluff of cotton candy into them and poured in the bubbly!

I focused on the "sweets".... cupcakes...cookies....candies...cream puffs!

I decided to use my dining room for the sweet's buffet. I decorated with feathers, ribbons and paper pom poms.



Each guest brought a $15 accessory for a gift exchange.

Everyone brought home a mini corset that I filled with lavender.

we ate...played games....Drank and had fun!




I'm going to miss my hockey mama's...

Thank you to Chris at Celebrations at Home for the ideas and inspiration for my party.

purse preTTy

how cute is this?
i think it will be my new purse for spring....
i found it here.

thIrD grAdE vaLeNTiNes paRTy

i was in charge of Katie's classroom valentines party this year.
for once i was smart.....


and volunteered for the low key holiday party.
this is what we did!
(unfortunately i didn't have time to take pictures of everything).



we made i Loves.....the kids really liked these.
i had all the materials assembeled ahead of time in individual sandwich bags, it made things much easier!

last week the teacher had the children make a creation to hold their valentines.

the kids voted on three categories...most original, most creative and most valentinesy



i made award ribbons out of paper plates, ribbon, patterened papers and candy.

here is my daughter's box.. .........

"Katie Bug was awarded ~ Most Creative"

is that wrong?
i didn't vote
but i was running the party?
it's like the time i was selling 50/50 raffles for my son's hockey team.
i won $350!
i didn't feel right about it, so i donated the money back.....
i didn't feel right about that either!!!

lesson learned: never sell 50/50 raffle tickets again!

the kids made strawberry shortcakes with lots of sprinkles - sorry no pictures!

we played a quick game!



and the rest of the hour was spent opening valentines goodies!

it was quick succesful fun!

hope you have a

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY.

snow day!

capturing a winter storm in and around my neighborhood today...........

Houzz!!!!

okay it is possible that i just live under a rock! maybe i am the last person on the planet to know about this site: houzz !!!
I found it today, while in bed with the sniffles....and now I may never get out of bed and flip through the pages for days.

I love this site - so many ideas for decorating. Once you sign up (and that literally takes about 20 seconds)...you can create an idea book and paste all the photos you like into your book. You can also tag items within rooms ~ lamps, rugs, pillows, furniture, etc.

It is wonderful go check it out for yourself.

Here are a few rooms that I drooled (sniffed) over today.

adorable...adorable children's playhouse.

yuck

best describes how i feel today.

my kids have all taken turns passing around the germ.

and now i got it.

sniff...sneeze....headache....cough.....PINK eye.

six kids - one down per week!

yes, over a month of this in the house

and now....my turn.

so i am laying in bed and reading all those wonderful blogs out there.

i stumbled across this. i thought it would be fun to meet some fellow bloggers.

so if any of you happen across my blog...nice to meet you.

let me introduce you to my family!

this is US..........

well all except Alice - we haven't found her yet.

anyhow - we are a family of eight and everyday is an adventure. my kids are

18, 17, 16, 15, 11 and 9.....

my blog is kind of a diary into my life as a busy stay

at home Mom!

nice to meet you! NOW....

join in on the fun!