Crazy Eight

My baby turned eight today. She was so excited for this day, in spite of the fact that I kept begging her to stay little. The little snot doesn't listen to a word I say. There's a reason why we call her Stinkerbell.

I had one of my secretly proud, probably shouldn't be proud, parenting moments yesterday. On the way home from school she told me that a little boy in her class put her in a head lock, and she turned around and punched him in the stomach. I know I should have said "We don't solve our problems with violence, sweetie."

But I didn't.

I said, "I hope no one saw that." As in, I hope you didn't get caught because, You Go Girl! Tell that boy not to mess with you!

My Little Flower, she is not. That's Zoe Bug. She's a Delicate Flower. Stinkerbell . . . is a Scraggly Weed.

The red silky shirt you see The Stink wearing is actually Zoe's shirt. Annika has been coveting it for two years. She begs and begs Zoe to let her wear it. Finally today, for the momentous occasion of her eighth birthday, Stinkerbell was permitted to wear the Coveted Silky Red Shirt.

She was so happy.

We had her birthday party after school at the movie theatre. You know what that means . . . I didn't have to clean my house.  Whoo hoo! I love me a good off-site b-day party.

We saw the movie "Hop" at the theatre, and let me tell you, it was silly. The animated characters were adorable and had cute personalities, but the main human character was a little hard to take at times. Peanut Head and I had to pause for mutual eye rolling and exaggerated pretend vomiting several times.

We were the adults in attendance.

The fun part for me was making the party favors. I found the cutest digital kit, Kate Hadfield's Movie Night, almost a year ago. That's when I decided that Annika's next birthday party was going to be a movie party.

I am quite experienced at creating the Kodak moment around the coordinating scrapbook sticker, and this was just another version of that.

"I have a Potty Training Sticker Sheet and we are going to potty train if it kills me. I don't care if you're only eighteen months old. I own the sticker sheet!"

I may or may not have done that.

I scored the popcorn containers at the Target Dollar Spot, two for $1.

I filled the popcorn containers with Hop-worthy items.

Then I stuffed the whole shebang in a clear goodie bag and tied the digitally created tag on with a piece of ribbon.

I love my digitally created artificial Kodak moments.

You Asked for It . . . Thoughts in Vinyl

So, remember when I did the magnetic menu planning giveway, and then I picked a couple of winners? Well, I decided that since so many people were interested in the vinyl menu planner, I was going to find someone who could cut the vinyl professionally, as in not my make-it-up-as-I go self, and then they could sell it to everyone who is interested.

Well, have I got a deal for you. Janae of  Thoughts in Vinyl  made these beauties for my winners, and you're not going to believe this, but she is selling them for only $9.50 each--and the transfer paper is already on them. What a steal! Trust me on this. Forget buying a $40 Cricut cartridge and wrestling with the transfer paper. This is the way to go.

These are the vinyl menu grids Janae made for my winners, and I have to say, I'm a little jealous because they are way cuter than mine. I love this font and the days of the week are so perfect.

I recently received a desperate e-mail from Mary Ann asking me to please, please, please sell her some Germ-Be-Gone labels, like these, so she could make some ginormous hand sanitizers for Teacher Appreciation Week. In spite of all my whining about my jobsy and my lack of time, people still ask me these things all the time. Instead of replying with a snotty "Did I stutter?" I told Mary Ann that I would work on finding someone whose jobsy it is to cut vinyl professionally.

Enter Janae. She made these super cute labels, which are waaaaaaaay cuter than mine I might add, and she is selling them for  only $4.50 each. How cool is that, Mary Ann? I'm sorry I was so mean. I'll try to be nicer.

These labels are for my classroom, because I never did get around to making them for myself. Before I applied these labels, I cut them into thirds because I find it's just a lot easier to apply a little bit at a time. I don't have the steadiest of hands, and I have that attention deficit thing going on, so this works best for me. I start at the top and work my way down. You might be fine doing it all in one go though. Don't take my word for it.

Before I forget, I want to give you Janae's contact information. She is a pleasure to work with, and she will custom design vinyl to your specifications. I highly recommend her.

Janae Anderson

Thoughts in Vinyl

E-mail: janae@thoughtsinvinyl.com

Website: http://www.thoughtsinvinyl.com/

Phone 208.524.7066

I hope that lots of you will contact Janae and buy so many menu planning grids and hand sanitizer labels, that she will call me and beg me to take the link down. To which I will reply "Nevah! Bwah, ha, ha, ha."

Speaking of hand sanitizer, here's a true funny confession. I was leaning up against the wall at my gym, nonchalantly waiting to get my kids out of the clink, and I leaned right underneath an automatic hand sanitizer dispenser. I got slimed. It was so icky, I can't even tell you. And I did not look cool.

Changing the subject yet again, people e-mail me all the time about this little magnetic pocket that I keep on the side of my fridge (sans ugly sticker, of course). I use this to hold my recipes for the week because it fits my recipe cards perfectly. Well, you'll be happy to know that I was at Staple's the other day, and they had a bazeellion of these babies. I haven't seen them for ages. Anyway, I only bought one so there would be some left for you. Staples is selling them for $7.29. I couldn't find them on the Staple's website, but you can find lots of them by Googling "Oxford DecoPouch."  I even found one on Amazon for $5.99.

And lastly, people have even e-mailed me asking for the 4x6 images that have my menu choices on them. I realize that the vast majority of you have no use for these, but for those that want them, here they are. Personally, if I were you and I wanted to make menu magnets of my own, I would just print my menu choices on some pretty scrapbook paper, cut them into squares mounted on card stock, laminate, and finally, apply magnets. You could even just laminate blank menu squares and write on them with a water-based pen, or with a Sharpie if you want them to be permanent.

If you want to use these, don't forget to click on them first to get the best resolution. Enjoy!

Menu Plan Winners

Now that I'm sure it is well past noon in Russia, I think it's pretty safe to pick a winner for the menu planners.

My first winner is Heather A. She lives in Alaska where it gets down to 45 degrees below zero. I feel sorry for her. While it's sort of spring in Idaho, she is cold right now.

My second winner is Andrea. She lives in Texas where it gets stinking hot. I feel sorry for her too. She has an adorable family and she "never wins anything." Here's to changing that, Andrea.

And just so you know, I didn't just pick people I feel sorry for. I really did use the Random Integer Generator thingie, because I don't want the responsibility of having to choose from all the of the 97 deserving people who entered.

Thank you to everyone who entered. It was fun reading all of your responses. Some of you really need a vacation.

Here's a little heads up for everyone too, I'm in the process of hooking you up with a professional, unlike my let's-see-if-this-works self, to cut some of the vinyl projects you have been begging me to make for you. Watch for that, and have a great week, Peeps.