Sneak Peek

Ella's 8th birthday party is this Saturday. We (I) decided to undertake a rather elaborate party, so I hope all goes well.

We are having a stuffed puppy adoption! Here is a sneak peek at the invites:

We've got 24 stuffed puppies up for adoption, collars to decorate, papers to fetch, dog bone shaped cookies to make and decorate and a digging area to dig for "bones" so I hope it is well-attended!

I'll be working the rest of this week to get all the last minute stuff done so I hope I can pull it all off. Wish me luck!

Doggie Birthday

Maho turned 1 (well 7 in dog years) this week. Ever since we got her last Christmas the kids have been talking about Maho's birthday and how we could celebrate it.

And celebrate we did.

Googled dog-safe birthday cake: check.

Bought some birthday bones: check.

Invited some doggie friends (well, they live here, but anyway...): check, check

Tried to get the perfect picture of the birthday dog: well, see below.

We had to add the Feliz Cumpleanos banner since she IS a Mexican dog :)

And just in case you were wondering, here is the recipe for the doggie cake.

Simple Dog Cake Recipe (courtesy of here)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix:

2 cups flour, white or wheat

4 teaspoons baking powder

Add:

2 six ounce cans of your dog's favorite food

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup sugar (optional)

4 eggs

Approx. 1 cup milk (add slowly until mix reaches batter consistency)

Pour in a greased 9 x 13 inch pan and bake for thirty-five minutes until set in center. Let cool in pan for twenty minutes before removing.

Board of Thanks

With so much hoopla surrounding Halloween and then all the stores immediately gearing up for Christmas, I thought a little attention to the season of Thanksgiving was in order for this crew. I want the kids to recognize all we have to be thankful for each and every day of November, not just the anticipation of Christmas. I got some inspiration for a from here and decided to make my own board.

I think it turned out pretty nice. We have it hanging on the wall by the dinner table, so we have been writing our "thankful fors..." before dinner each night.

It has gone pretty well so far. Ella likes writing on the board and Kaley writes out her little notes as well (although they sometimes eat up a lot of the tag!) Jackson we are having a hard time getting into the spirit, but in the last week he did have one thought of thankfulness that moved him to write on the board.

Last year it was his basketball, this year Michael Jackson. I guess he gets points for honesty.

Looky what I got in the mail!

Have you heard about Scentsy?

I decided to become an independent consultant for Scentsy, a wickless candle company and my starter kit arrived last week.

For the past few days all we've been doing is uncapping a lid, sniffing, replacing the lid and talking about how great (or not) all the scents are. Our olefactory nerves may never be the same.

So, now I'm selling the Scentsy and I think it's going to be fun. Everyone likes good smelling stuff right? I can do home demos or send out a basket set for people to take to work and get orders...and hey, I've even got my own website! https://erinmorrow.scentsy.us

If you've never heard of Scentsy, you should check it out.

And then contact me to host a party. :)

Alaskan Field Trip

I accompanied Ella's 2nd grade class on a field trip this past Friday.

It was most likely only a field trip that one would experience by living in Alaska...we witnessed the slaying of a salmon, cut her wide open and took all her roe (eggs), witnessed the slaying of a male salmon and then took his milt (fish sperm), fertilized the eggs and then packed up a little take home package of eggs to each class where they will put them in their fish tanks and take care of them all winter until they hatch.

Interesting stuff if the second graders didn't mind the batting on the heads of the salmon to kill them, or the cutting opening of the female fish to get all the eggs.

But being Alaskans I'm sure they are well-versed in salmon guts and such, so maybe I was just a little hypersensitive to Ella's wrinkled nose and her questions of "why are they hitting the fish with a bat?"

I kid. She really did say that, but I don't think she'll be scarred for life or anything. See, she even went up to touch the fish.

But only really quickly.

Even with all the fish excitement I think Ella was probably more excited to introduce me to her best friend Maddie.

Even though I was glad I chaperoned on the field trip and got to spend time with Ella, my best moment came while waiting for the bus to arrive at the river. I got a great shot of the shore and the sun still rising. This was taken about 9:30 a.m. and yes it is sad that we are losing so much daylight!!

Picture Day

Am I the only one out there who thinks the prices of school portraits are ridiculous these days? $65 for (2) 8x10's and a few wallets is not a good deal. Especially since I cannot preview the pictures first. And don't tell me about retake day cause I don't care.

So what is this parent to do to commemorate the year with photographic evidence? Take her own portraits of course!

My subjects weren't all that cooperative, but at least the background is not generic and I could take 7o billion shots to get that one perfect pose (maybe that is why they were not cooperative?)

So here they are:

Good portraits don't just happen people.

But with a beautiful fall day and my trusty digital camera (plus those 70 billion shots) we finally got three usable photos.

And printing for Nana, Daddy, Mama, Granny and Paw Paw to have their own 8x10's (of each kid) plus many other 4x6's?

Under $25 and back in an hour at Sam's Club.

So take that Josten's.

Pledging Allegiance

I'll just put this out there right now: I'm not much of a college football fan. Sure, I'll maybe take interest if it's on in the background and I'm not doing something else that's actually fun. But on the whole I couldn't tell you the difference between the Big 12  and the SEC. And the only reason those 2 words are even in my vocabulary is that there is way too much ESPN at our house.

Anyway, Patrick IS a big college football fan. During football season on Saturdays I'm lucky if he moves from the couch all day. But he pledges his allegiance to his beloved Oklahoma State Cowboys; it's a good Saturday if they are winning.

He is trying to groom Jackson into an OSU fan.

Mostly he's doing a good job. Jackson knows the OSU logo and the colors and knows the appropriate response when asked who his favorite team is.

The problem is that in the Gibson household there is only ONE college football team. Or at least only one that matters, and that is the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. At least that is what they keep telling Jackson. 

I'm not sure we'll be invited to another tailgate at Greg's house if we keep wearing orange.

Which is too bad cause they had a lot of good food.

But this one...

She always has had a thing for making her daddy shake his head in disbelief.

We'll see how the season goes. Both OSU and Notre Dame kicked off their seasons with wins. Good luck this season to whoever your team is.