Birthday and Building

So we have had a crazy, busy last two weeks.

First came Sam's party. That week I was gone almost every night doing something or other so I didn't get to get ready for his party until the day before. If you remember, he was having a Harry Potter party at the theater for the last movie. We could not wait! We (or should I say I) went all out for this party, but it was worth it, and was so much fun. We had 25 people at the party and it was opening day so we were all so excited.

Sam doesn't like cake that much so he requested brownies. I didn't want to do plain, old brownies, so instead I made these.




Wizard Hat brownie cakes. They were cute. Not too hard to make, but it did take a lot of time. Sooo chocolatey. Yum.

Then I wanted to do party favors that related to the movies, so I made these.




They are chocolate frogs. They were cute and really looked like little frogs. Much better in real life than in teh picture. I don't know if they were good though because I never had one. I made hald dark chocolate and half milk chocolate.

And lastly, I made these.




I got 40 flavor Jelly Belly beans, put them in the bag, and made my own label. each bag also had a chocolate surprise, which were the chocolate frogs. They were wrapped in foil, so you couldn't tell what they were. These were my favorite part of the party. They looked so good and real. Loved it!

Anyway, we had a great time, the movie was great (can't believe they are over!), and Sam is 11 years old! Woah!





So since we moved in to this house, 6 years ago, I have been one by one changing the rooms and making them more grown up. :) All of our furniture was cheap Wal-mart stuff from when we first got married 13 years ago. It was crap and I hated it. I finally decided I had to do something about it. I couldn't stand it anymore. I had two rooms left, the music/piano room, and the office. So I searched all month for the perfect furniture. Boy, is that hard to do. I had specific stuff in mind, so finding them for the right price and exactly what I wanted was difficult. We went to several different stores and almost decided to build them ourselves, but then I was lucky and found the best furniture store ever! They carried the exact furniture I wanted, for half the price of the name brand store, and got it here in 4 days! Amazing! So my office is transformed! YEA!!!!!! Also, this week, we built (mostly I built with AJ's help thrown in here and there) a corner storage cabinet. We built it in like 3 days. It would have taken way less, but it is so hot here, we had to wait until 9:00 at night to go to the garage and build it. Anyway, it is FABULOUS. I love everything about it and it fits in the room perfectly. Almost looks like a built in. Yea for building cheap, better quality, perfect furniture yourself!!!!

Here it is before accessories and after. I need more decorations, but haven't gotten that far yet.



Here is the whole room. It isn't quite finished yet, but it's a start and WAY better than what we had.



I am so proud of the room and love every piece in it. Really, I could leave it like it is and be happy, but a few more things here and there will really make the room. We also finished the piano room besides art and decorations, but realized I haven't taken a picture, and the office far surpasses that room, so I am in love with it at the moment. My whole downstairs is exactly what I wanted. It's all cute and nice and all of it is REAL wood, not plywood or MDF and should last a long, long time. :) SOOO happy! Now, on to the upstairs.... We did all this in one week. Craziness, but worth it. :)

I also had a Thirty-one gifts party last night. It was fun, the stuff is so cute, and I get some good stuff, and got to show off my new room. :)

Tomorrow starts the getting ready for school process. I am going to help teachers get their rooms ready this week. Next week is a half day of school to meet the teachers and then the next week they start full time, which means I start full-time as a student teacher! Ahhhhhhh!Two week until real-life sets back in. Sigh....