Hubby pulled through and made me some vector imagines i can use on the invite and cupcake toppers ect. Excited! Not going to show the actual invitations yet but here is a sampling:

Next graphic I'm working on is the favor bags. Girls bag next!

My inspiration:

I have a bunch of ‘Iunch’ brown paper bags which i am using. They 12 3/8 x 6 1/4 x 4 inches. I made the bodice template and the wing template. Again like the boys bags i made the outline so i could print it onto colored construction paper (in this case green). The wings should be cut out onto a fold to make the wings and then add glitter for detail.

(Click image for full page)

(Click image for full page)

My pieces all cut:

Neverland Party Planning (1)

Neverland Party Planning (2)

Next graphic I'm working on is the favor bags. First up is the boys.

My inspiration:

My graphic:

have a bunch of I made an outline of each layer so i could print it onto colored construction paper to give a thicker feel. Here they are for you if you want to print them for yourself:

(Click image for full page)

(Click image for full page)

(Click image for full page)

I printed it out and tested it:

(Left – supplies) (Right – Putting it together using foam circles as spacers)

Neverland Pay Planning (1)

Neverland Pay Planning (3)

So when planning for the Neverland party i decided i wanted to do a treasure hunt where inside the treasure chest was gold bricks (filled with candy). I found on amazon.com these gold brick favor boxes:

It’s a 12pk for $5.36 No candy just boxes and the review said they were a great idea but really to small to be good favor boxes

So i decided to try and make my own. I searched for a DIY box outline that would work for me. I couldn’t find one but i did find one that you could purchase and it just so happened to have a small snapshot of what the outline looked like but it was far to small for me to actually use to make my own. Then i got this bright idea to use that idea but make my own in Photoshop and that is just what i did!

Here it is:

(Click to get full size)

My brick is about 1” tall, 2” in width and about 7 1/2” in length

Here is a picture of the one i put together. Pardon all the lines on it, i accidentally printed in ‘portrait’ view when it should have been on ‘landscape’ and since i was just trying it out i wasn’t about to waste a piece of card stock lol

Now I'm going to make them with cardstock and then use gold foil gift wrap from Hobby Lobby to wrap them and make them gold and shiny

I’m excited!

For the last few days i have been working on Matthew/Anabel’s birthday parties that are in April. Me and Bob heard a talk show on the Christian Radio last night talking about addictions (mainly they seemed to be talking about video games) but they that anything that makes you think about it even when you aren’t doing it is an addiction. Well i guess i have been addicted to party planning here lately because I've been thinking about it constantly! LOL

The house has been being forgotten, in between homeschooling, taking care of an infant, cooking dinner, party planning ect. I've had little time for house work except for the bare minimum.

The last days of planning I've gotten almost all the party thought up but this morning i worked on getting the details worked out and it put into a party ‘outline’. I also made a list of the DIY projects i plan to do, figured out what supplies i have on hand and what i needed to get. Then i used my OneNote and by using tables worked out my shopping list per store, and about how much it should cost me. Some things are variables that i won’t know the price until i get to the store like on food and candy but the other stuff i worked out. There is a ton of DIY!

Since it’s Matthew’s first birthday we are combining it with Anabel’s since they are only 6 days apart. Later when they are older we will probably do them separately. Our theme is ‘Never Neverland’ so there is a good girl theme and also boy theme. I’m pretty excited about it. Now lets just hope i can get all my DIY projects done in time!

So far all my birthdays up until now i drop the ball on. Like last birthday was Abby’s and i planned a craft and games and when we actually got to the party i totally forgot about the games and crafts. I felt like such a failure!

This time i made myself a party outline, outlining all the activities and which ones should go first. Hopefully this will help me keep everything on track! I’m still learning!

Then i decided to switch gears and work on the house. The girls helped me with this a lot by picking up the clutter.

After lunch Matthew woke up from his nap him and the girls went into the girls room for quiet time while i cleaned more. I:

• Did the dishes
• Cleaned the bathroom counter, sink and toilet
• Swept bathroom, hall and dinning room
• Mopped living room, bathroom, hall and dinning room
• Vacuumed living room and dinning room
• and started laundry

i feel good about what ive done so far but my brain is still going on what i should do next!

Hubby had to go into work early today and then he had extra work that started right after school and i am not sure quite when he will get home today.

I’ve spent most of my day in the office/class room today. We did school, i filed schooling and did a bunch of printing of more school pages. I think i got 3 weeks worth printed thanks to the new ink i bought off of ebay! I even got color ink so i was able to print the pages that needed color! Yay! Lol…. funny how i get excited about things like that.

One thing i am VERY proud of is that Anabel has learned to sound out words. It still takes a lot of work but she can do it! We started something new where she gets a flower every school day and if she is able to read a word on her own without help from me, then she gets a sticker to put on her flower. Today she got 13 stickers to put on her flower because she read 13 words. Here is a picture of her with her flower:

So proud of her!

Something else that excites me is the new PC we are having my sister in-law build for us. My lappy is pretty much shot, poor thing. It dies all the time (think the fan is going in and out) and it’s slow as all get out. The girls can’t play their ABCmouse.com which he we had paid a years worth of it in advance (at least they are able to play it on Hubs ipad when he is home) but sometime i would like them to be able to get on it to play activities that go along with the letter of the week are on. Plus i just got a ton of resources that i want to use in school for the girls and my laptop isn’t capable of handling it, like online books and educational sites. So a new computer was a necessary schooling supply. Above all that i use my laptop daily with school to print off resources or crafts to do and such…. i am always using it.

So not only am i stocked about having a new sweet pc for myself, i also need it in my ‘work’. I am REALLY excited about it. The other day i was able to purchase most of the parts for the computer and have it sent to my sister in-laws house. Only parts i haven’t gotten are the case and DVD player for it because I'm super crossing my fingers that my old case and DVD player will work in this new one (would save us a few bucks too). Also we thought the TV we have we would use as monitor but there is a chance we are going to have to buy a monitor as well….. we are going to see if the tv’s resolution will work for a monitor but i have a feeling it’s going to bug my eyes out on txt.

Speaking of income tax, we have only gotten our federal so far but with that we were able to pay off our van and our ergo bed…. we officially own both of those! YAY! We are also planning to use some of that money to purchase next years school curriculum (1st grade YIKES) and some school supplies. I have already bought a few school items that we can use in the rest of this school year. Also we are hoping to refinance our house. We currently have 26 years left on our mortgage but from the calls we made it looks like we could refinance to a 15 year mortgage and still pay the same as we are now, knocking off 11 years! Also i have been working the budget A LOT and with the new bills paid off and if we are able to refinance there is a chance starting the middle of this year we can start paying our normal mortgage with an extra months worth of principle on top of it (so like paying for two months every month). I worked it and if that is possible we are talking about being able to pay the house off in 6.75 years! So before I'm 33! That would be AMAZING! I’m so hoping that works out because frankly that seems to good to be true! Plus that is with putting a substantial amount of money (for us) in savings.

On a side note Matthew is now 10 months old!

He LOVES to climb stairs (scary!), huge eater, MESSY eater lately, in the clingy mommy stage, adores his sisters, waves, says ‘momma’ and ‘dada’, well…. he’s just plain adorable and cute and smiles all the time and melts your heart! Love him to pieces! He’s also done the stereo typical baby thing of splashing in the toilet…. ya…. icky! Unlike most babies he doesn’t go for every little thing on the floor and put it in his mouth, he does it but not as much as the girls did/do (Abby still lol)

Ha i should go clean and make supper, it’s getting late. Anyways there is a little update….. i was bored and wanted to talk since Hubby is gone lol