Grace turns TEN!

It is VERY hard to believe that my first born is now double digits! Ten years has flown by so fast it makes me nervous for the next ten years...then she'll be twenty Yikes, mild freak out moment! Anyway back to today. To celebrate Grace and her turning ten she wanted to have a beach party, so instead of pretending we had a beach in our yard we took her and three friends to the beach. It was a long day but in the end it was perfect! The weather was a little worrisome at the start but God gave us beautiful weather. Grace had an awesome time playing in the waves, playing in the sand and climbing rocks. It turned out to be one of the easiest parties, there was no decorating and my house stayed clean! :-)












All grown up and beautiful!

With Daddy at dinner

My sushi girl

The sushi restaurant we went to, Crazy Sushi, turns CRAZY on birthdays, flashing lights, singing and poppers, it was great!

Grace choose these colors and invites for her party. Of course I loved the vintage feel of the Woodie wagon and surf board! :-) I purchased the invites from The Tomkat Studio


Her favorite drink

For favors we gave each friend a beach towel. I made the coordinating tag that read "Thanks for coming!".

Potato Stamped T-Shirts

When I was a kid I remember making stamps out of potatoes and I have been wanting to make them with the girls. Instead of buying them matching 4th of July shirts this year I had them make their own. I found white t-shirts at Target for less than $4 each and bought one large potato. This is a super fun and easy craft that can be used for any season, just change the colors or shape of the stamps.

Supplies needed:

Large potato
Paints (I used poster paint because I already had it)
Cookie cutter(s) in the shape(s) of your choice
Small knife
Paper plate(s) for paints
T-shirt(s)
Cardboard (place inside of t-shirt before stamping, prevents the paint from bleeding through)

To make the potato stamp cut your potato in half.


Next, take your cookie cutter and press into the center of the potato-half until the cookie cutter is flush with the potato.


Take your knife and carefully cut the outside of the potato away to reveal the cookie cutter. Then slowly pull of the cookie cutter.



The completed potato stamps.


Put some of the paint on a paper plate and press the potato stamp into the paint, just like you would with a "regular" stamp and ink pad. Be sure to stamp the excess paint onto the paper plate before stamping on the t-shirt.

The last step, step back and let the kiddos have fun! It was hard to watch the girls and not butt-in but they had fun and did awesome without my help. Their t-shirts were uniquely theirs. I love the flag Grace created!










For fun I'll be sharing at

The 4th of July (a little after the fact...)

This year we decided to organize a good old fashioned block party for the 4th of July. I typed up some simple invites and the girls and I spent an afternoon, walking around our block inviting the neighbors. We encouraged them to come and invite friends and family. We had a great turn out! I was thrilled! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, visiting and eating of course. The night was finished off with fireworks. It was neat to see new relationships forming and some neighbors have even gotten together for dinner since then, pretty cool, I think. We hope to do it again next year.

Before the festivities I cornered the girls for some quick pictures.




The block party, stationed in front of our house. It was SO HOT that day, unusual for Oregon!



There were tons of kids! We got permission from the city to close our street. It was great, the kids could run free with new worries about cars.





Me and my girls



My husband loves to play! (I had a hard time getting good pictures of the fireworks, but you get the idea)