Girls Night Out...For Me and Linda's Birthdays!!!

The girls from work wanted to take Linda and I out for our birthdays because they fall so close together.  My 33rd birthday fell on the 6th and her 47th birthday fell on the 13th so we decided to do a girls night out on Friday the 10th to split the difference!  We went to a quaint little Cuban/Mediterranean restaurant called Mama Roomba and everything we ordered was FABULOUS!!!  It was a really nice night with good company!

Left to Right--Angela Westbay, Angie White, Me, Kim Smith, Linda Bradbury

Left to Right--Angela Westbay, Angie White, Me, Kim Smith, Kacey McNew

Dozens, Dozens & more DOZENS of cookies!!!

Kim and I must've gone CRAZY this year because we decided to give the gift of sugary treats to all the folks in our SPED department!  We made boxes for all the aides, teachers, clerical secretaries, bosses, etc!  We had found these really cute bakery boxes in Visalia at Hobby Lobby on one of our road trips in search of creativity and bargins.  I think we made 10 different kinds of goodies by the time we filled up all of the boxes!  We had peppermint bark, snicker-doodles, pumpkin bars, toffee chip cookies, spice cookies, haystacks, chocolate covered peanut butter patties, peanut butter covered Nutella patties, sugar cookies with a white chocolate peppermint Hershey kiss, and chocolate chocolate chip cookies!  They were VERY well received!!!  I then made some plates of cookies that I had left over to take to family!       

Holiday Bazaar!!!

Kim was able to participate in this Relay for Life fundraiser thanks to her sister's connection to the Kern County Police Department so we decided to team up!  Kim had learned to make cute hair bows after her daughter was born and so she had a bunch of those on display.  Her and her sister also made some cute baby onesies that had added crystal bling on them.  I had a BUNCH of diaper wipes cases on display, some key chains,  along with my dog collars and leashes.  Just for fun (and hoping I'd sell some) mom and I wrapped up some pretty sagos and took them along too!  Truly, this day was long and a total bust when it came to profit margin!  By the time we donated (AKA Paid) for our booth I'm not sure if either of us broke even let alone made any money!  We had to remind ourselves that it was a charity event to make ourselves feel better after putting in so much crafting time!

Halloween--Highland Style!!!

It's Halloween 2011 and I needed a costume!!!  After creating an outfit for Octoberfest, I decided to use it for Halloween too!  By promising to dress up I got a bunch of my students to sport costumes too!  My friend Kim Smith (co-teacher in crime) dressed up as Lady Gaga with a platinum white wig!  My friend (and aide) Linda Bradbury dressed as witch!  My math class gutted pumpkins for a seed related statistics lesson (mean, median, mode etc.) then my art class carved them!  Oh-yeah baby, cross curricular madness!!! It was a fun gooey day!  :-)

July 10th, 2011--Carter & I attend Charlotte's 2nd Birthday Party!!!

Kim Smith (my friend and co-worker) threw a party for her daughter Charlotte who was turning 2 years old and I was invited!  The event was held in Kim's backyard on a very warm July

afternoon.  It seemed like everyone on the guest list either had children, was pregnant, or was part of the family except for me!  So to combat this issue I "borrowed" Carter for afternoon.  This gave Sherry and Matt some free time, and I got to spend some quality time with my favorite nephew!  Carter had a great time playing with all the little kids and was in a good mood the whole time!  He was everywhere...from the swing set to the blow-up pool, to the hammock swing to the bubble maker.  Carter has been in this phase where he doesn't eat meat of any kind and of-course for a kids party they were serving

hot dogs which he wanted NOTHING to do with!  Luckily  Kim being a mom on the go herself happen to have some quick Mac & Cheese in her pantry that we threw in the microwave and wallah--one happy Carter!!!  We did miss most of the present opening because we were inside eating macaroni at the time but not to worry, Carter finished just in time for cake and cookies!!!  Overall it was a good party and a fun afternoon!