A FarmVille Birthday Party

My stepson, Taylor is turning 13 at the end of the month and we haven't been able to throw him a real birthday party since he was like 6 or 7 because of how far away he lives and that he always had school or other plans. We've driven the 5 hours over to take him out to lunch and then drive back home so this is an awesome chance for us to celebrate with him! He's a total FarmVille addict so I figured it would be a fun party theme!


I drew out the FV logo and wrote HAPPY BIRTHDAY around it and printed out various FV objects to put around the sign. I got a plaid picnic table cloth to cover the cake table to give it more of a farm feel.


I printed out these pictures and added Taylor's head to the body.

For those not familiar with FV, they don't just have farm animals, they have a bunch of other animals too so I found this monkey pinata at Walmart and thought it would go great!

I searched and searched at Walmart for farm stuff to use for decorations and this is the best I could come up with! Little People farm sets! My daughter (she'll be 2 in July) LOVES these of course so we'll give them to her to play with when the party is all done!


You can see that I bought some fake money then printed out the FV cash logo and taped it to the front and spread gold coins around the table too.

Can't have a party without decorating with streamers, right?! LOL We also printed out bigger pictures of FV animals and barn and taped them around the living room.

And no party is complete without the birthday cake! We always buy this cake from Albertsons, it's a white cake with raspberry filling and white buttercream frosting so I just bought a tub of buttercream, colored it green and slathered it right on top of the cake (so yeah, double the frosting...soooo healthy LOL) then I printed out more FV pictures onto cardstock and taped them onto toothpicks to decorate. I used candles and toothpicks to make the fence and crushed graham crackers for the dirt plots! Pretty easy and turned out cute!

I also have been decorating our front window for birthdays since we've had kids so I drew out the FV logo again and just wrote HAPPY BIRTHDAY (backwards so Taylor could see it when he got here) and that we love him!


I can't believe he's turning 13!!! My hubby and I started dating when Taylor was just 2 1/2 years old, still wearing diapers! I remember when he was 4 and 5 he'd say he wanted to marry me! Awww... then as he got older things got a lot harder, there's been a lot of fighting and he didn't like me for a long time. I've said hundreds and hundreds, maybe even thousands of prayers and every so often over the last couple of years I'd see a glimmer of hope that things were slowly getting better. This past year things have been really great and the visits have been especially nice the past 2 months so I'm getting really excited to see what the Lord is doing in our lives and in our relationships! We're so excited to celebrate with him and I look forward to seeing what kind of man he's going to become!

The Swagger Wagon---LOL!!

This youtube video is HILARIOUS!! I personally LOVE the Sienna mini-van commercials and this music video had me cracking up!! Just thought I'd share! :)

Blog-aversary Giveaway

So I finally got around to posting a giveaway! Head over to my blog The Sassy Scrapper to learn how you can enter to win!! GOOD LUCK! :)

Rainbow Egg Cupcakes

Being in the holiday spirit, thought it was due time to make some rainbow cupcakes! First of all, let me just say that Easter is my 2nd favorite holiday (Christmas is my first). It's the most amazing event in history that we celebrate...Jesus' resurrection! For those that don't know, Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, he was placed in a tomb and 3 days later rose from the dead, just as He said He would do! Because of his death & resurrection, we are now able to join our Lord in Heaven!!!! What an amazing gift that we are all so undeserving of!! HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!!!!

Today my sweet little Bitty (that's my nickname for my daughter) is sick with some sort of stomach flu. She's thrown up 5 times already and is thankfully now taking a nap. Poor little baby cakes! While she's napping my son and I made these yummy rainbow cupcakes using our Easter cupcake tray. We just used a white cake mix and separated it into 6 bowls and used food coloring:


I then layered the cake mixes in the cupcake tray to make a rainbow:



This is what they looked like when they came out of the pan:


I then topped it with cream cheese frosting and cut it in half to see how the rainbow layers turned out:


Keegan was so excited about it and exclaims, "Mom, I LOVE your cooking!" Awwww...exactly what I love to hear from my kiddos! Have a very happy Easter everyone!!! God bless you!!

A Giveaway

Over at Thrifty NW Moms they are hosting a giveaway from Baby Legs! You can enter to win 7 different times by doing various things listed. These would be perfect for my DD!
GOOD LUCK!

Can you help Sheena???

I saw this posted on Be Different...Act Normal and thought I should repost on my blog as well.


Ok friends.
I have a little story to tell. A story about me.
It's kind of a secret....unless you are in the family/friend category of my life.
I'm going to use visual aids....because I like those.
And at the end, they'll be a few questions--I'll need your help.......ok?
Here we go:
Hi. I'm Sheena.



This is me holding a lime.


Why am I holding a lime?



Wait! What is that on my arm?



Well, it's a PICC line, for antibiotics, of course.
*********************************
Let's start at the very beginning, story goes like this. (very, very, very short version.)

July 2008: legs go numb. then hands. then arms.
July 2008-Oct 2008: poked. prodded. tested. retested. scanned. pants dropped for strangers on multiple occasions.
Symptoms get worse. Neurological and joint pain.
Oct 2008: Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
Oct 2008-Jan 2009. Begin, and continue treatment for MS.
Feb 2009 UNdiagnosed with MS (hooray!), diagnosed with Lyme disease. (oh, Lyme/lime, get it?) (to learn a little about Lyme, Click HERE, then to Lyme 101, then click the Lyme Disease Tab)
Feb 2009-Present day. Here I am, still battling Lyme Disease. I'm currently on month 4 of the antibiotics via PICC line.

My body is sooooooo over these crazy antibiotics. Not to mention my poor arm. We're pulling the line in a few weeks (hooray!!!)
But I'm still not better (not hooray).
Lyme Disease is a bacterial infection, carried by deer ticks. If caught early, it can usually be treated quickly with oral antibiotics, and there you have it. Unfortunately, we're coming up on two years for me....it's getting a bit trickier.
We need more options....and this is where YOU come in.
We love my doctor, and we are so thankful to finally find someone who is really trying to help us (we've bounced around alot) But.....big, stinky but......there aren't very many Lyme cases in Utah. While I know he is doing all he can, I sometimes wonder if there is someone else out there who has seen more people with Lyme, and knows some kind of magic trick to help me out.
I thought that maybe, just maybe, by posting a little something here for you all to read (all 20 of you), maybe YOU know someone with Lyme? Someone who's beat it? Do you? Can you help me? Spread the word?? I am quickly growing tired of this, and I'm pretty sure I'm ready to be done. Yep, I am.
So...please....if you or anyone you know is currently being treated for Lyme, or, ever better--CURED!!! YAY!! Please send them my way. I'd love to have a chat with them (no complainers please....I like to keep it positive around here, thanks:)
I have debated whether or not to post about this (it's going to be a struggle to hit "publish")....I like to keep it "happy fun" around here, and this is not so "happy fun", but I also know the powers of the www....and how happy AND fun would it be if we got these bugs out of my body! So I'm really crossing my fingers that this will work.
So there, now it's in YOUR hands. Good luck.
contact: sheenajibson(at)gmail(dot)com. thank you guys!!
and...if you really want to learn more about Lyme, be sure to check out the trailer for Under Our Skin, a documentary on Lyme Disease and the controversy of treatment.

Etching

First off, you gotta check out Emily's Not So Idle Hands blog and see where I got my inspiration! Here is the project she shared that I just had to give a try! I've never used etching cream before but thought it would be a fun project idea to use for gifts. Come to find out...I'm gonna need some more practice! LOL Here is my first try:



I bought a vase awhile back for this very type of thing. I wanted to etch a "C" on it for my mom-in-law and after I practiced on the frappucino glass, I thought I could handle the vase. The bummer is that I used chipboard and there was just enough space that some of the etching cream went underneath so it looks sloppier than I'm ok with. Turns out I'll be keeping this vase and using it to hold my glittery pens! :)



On another note, my baby girl's 2nd birthday is fast approaching. Ok, ok, it really isn't until July but as I learned last year, it sneaks up on me and catches me when I least expect it! :) This year I vowed to get a jump start so that I could do more of the handmade decorations that I've done in the past for my son. A friend of mine that I went to high school with has an older sister that makes AMAZING buttons. You HAVE to check out her blog The Button Shop. Tessa is amazingly fabulous and I drool over her work on a regular basis. Well, she made a set of buttons that became the inspiration for Tatym's birthday party theme, which is Little Birdies. After I saw this set I asked her to make a set for me as well and she totally did! I am beyond in love with them! Check these out:



Aren't they fabulously amazing?!? The big buttons are the size of quarters and the small buttons are the size of dimes. I plan on using them when I make Tatym's birthday scrapbook page and maybe use them on a birthday tutu as well! Tonight I sat down to start making the birthday party invitations and this is what I came up with:



As Tatym's birthday gets closer and we settle on a party date and time then I'll fill in the rest of the information. I made 3 invites tonight and each one is a little bit different, that's the fun of handmaking them, no two are exactly alike!

Well, it's after 1am and I should be getting to bed. My aunt and 2 younger cousins are coming to town for the week and we have lots of fun things planned, a picnic at the park, a day at the beach, a tour of an old style merchant ship and maybe a trip to a farm to watch the birth of lambs...fun fun fun!!! Have a great spring break!!