Picture Day

Just because we home school our children doesn't mean we don't have Picture Day.  And just because one is not in fact 'in' school does not mean he doesn't get his picture taken on said Picture Day:

Cutest non-student ever.

Here are a few shots of the kids and how intelligent they look:

Okay...back to school work!

Have Courage and Be Kind

SENTIMENTAL WARNING: The following paragraph contains words of sentimentality and sadness.  Read at your own risk or skip to the next paragraph which details the more joyous accounts of a young girl's 10th birthday.

Our 'Little Girl' is not so 'little' after all.  She recently turned 10 (against our every effort to the contrary) and this inevitable event weighed on my poor maternal heart a humble and acute heaviness. I cried the other day watching her swing away carefree on our tree swing. As I watched, I remembered when she was just a young thing, running around, singing and playing in her distinctly cute fashion.Well, she is still the sweetest thing and it cannot be argued that she is indeed growing into a very kind and intelligent young lady of whom Richard and I are exceedingly proud!

In honor of her 10th birthday, we decided to have a Cinderella themed party (not the cartoon but based on the 2015 live action film).  If you have seen the film, you know that the moral of the story is to "Have Courage and Be Kind" (and if you haven't, you really really should) and that was the central theme of the party.

We started with the invitation:

She loves the Fairy Godmother... so there you have it.

Next we worked on the gift bags.  We made these homemade whimsical bookmarks replete with glitter gold:

We encased a handful of gold-wrapped Almond Kisses in tulle and trimmed it in blue ribbon and then added all things Cinderella-blue: a bracelet and nail polish to boot.

Finally we personalized each bag to make it a truly royal affair.  Plus, we found these really age-appropriate Cinderella coloring sheets that the girls loved and added them to the bounty as well.

Next, we found these nylon butterflies at a consignment sale and thought they would make the perfect touch:

I also printed up this poster from online and bought a cheap frame to glam it up:

 Here we have the table set for our guests...

We have mini pumpkin muffins topped with homemade fondant pearls.  These were such a hit!  Did y'all notice the metal decorative pumpkin carriage in the background?  Perfect, right?  Thank You Hobby Lobby for reading my mind.

We  also have Magical Wands: sesame bread sticks dipped in melted white chocolate and sprinkled with blue.

And the two-tier cake topped with Cinderella's glass slipper!

 After the girls watched Cinderella, we had a toilet-paper gown making competition.  The boys were beside themselves with the excitement of it all.

One more touch...

And the winner is,,,

After the competition we made origami butterflies which held a kind hand written message for someone special.  A real cute craft!

Here is the link to the instructions.

Next was the cake and once you introduce cake everything becomes a blur - it's not the camera, its the situation: everyone is dizzy with excitement and anticipation!

 Let the real fun begin...

Okay so when Mila turned 8 we went to get her ears pierced and they ended up getting infected so we waited 2 years before trying again...

See those tiny gold studs...they really make her eyes POP, don't you think?

Fingers crossed.

Happy 10th Birthday to our kind and courageous girl!