Happy Thanksgiving Movie Ticket Winner:)

Dylan loves his job and my sister Carey is home from Iraq and got to be a part of it this time.  Congratulations to our November drawing winner!  Hopefully you can use these so you can go see a movie over the holidays. 

Travel Themed Wedding

Lots of couples take time to travel together before they get married.  The places they have been together become important parts of their relationship.  We're seeing travel themed weddings are big for these types of couples as well as couples opting for a destination wedding.  Here are some great ways brides and grooms are tying their love for travel into their weddings.

Passport Invitations are cute and unique

You can keep with the passport idea for the ceremony programs

When guests arrive to the reception they can find their name and table with these cute little luggage tags- that can also double as the "gift"



Table Numbers/Names can be places the couple has visited



A Suitcase Cake to express the couples love for traveling



Bridesmaid gifts- tote bags





Groomsmen gifts- TRAVEL cooler:)



Thankful for the kiddies:)

This week has been strange- it's that in between weather where you're not quite ready for gloves but your hands start to feel a little windburn and dry.  You step outside at 5pm and it's dark.  You get in your car and hear Christmas music?  I had to stop for a second this morning when I heard Jingle Bells on the radio.  I was like omg what month is it?  Then I realized, thanksgiving is 2 weeks from tomorrow!!!  This is the time of year where time seems to FLY by. 

I've been trying to plan little fun activities for Dylan.  This summer we did a lot of cupcake decorating- which he loves to do!  I love it too because it's an inexpensive activity that is great to do on a Saturday/Sunday afternoon on the deck.  So I was thinking about what Thanksgiving activity I can do with him.  This morning I popped open face book and saw on my news feed my friend Kelly had posted pictures of Thanksgiving cupcakes she made, these are so cute I had to share:
(Vanilla Cupcake, chocolate frosting, nutter butters, oreos and candy corn- some gel icing to decorate the face). 

Turkey Cupcakes- great to bring to Thanksgiving parties

I love these and think for older kids it would be a great indoor activity.  For my son cupcake decorating is on the list of outdoor activities so I started looking at some other ideas that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg and I think he would enjoy but would be manageable to do indoors.  Here are some I'm thinking of:

Happy Thanksgiving day cards- great to give to grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.

Hand and foot print turkey

Turkey puppet

Luckily it looks like the only supplies I need for all 3 of these I already have:  Scissors, glue, construction paper, lunch bags and markers.  Could be a great play date theme or even holiday gathering activity to keep the kids entertained.

A Revealing Sex Party (Revealing the sex of a baby)

This is a party to reveal the sex of a baby... This concept was introduced to me by a friend of mine.  So I started thinking wow that's a cool idea- rather than sitting in a sonogram room with a doctor who tells people this news a hundred times a day why not make the discovery even more special.  So here's how it works- when you get the sonogram ask them to put it in an envelope (sealed) then immediately go to the grocery store or bakery and tell them you want them to open the envelope and if it's a boy use blue icing or cake in the middle of the cake.  If it's a girl you want them to use pink.  You can have fun with the outside of the cake too- like this:

Invite your family and closest friends over to your house for a "Reveal Party".  As your guests enter your house have them guess the sex by putting their name in either your girliest stiletto or his manliest loafer. 

After the sex is revealed you can do a random drawing out of the winning shoe and give out a fun gag gift.  You can also do this for a baby shower- keep all the gifts gender neutral and give the host of the shower the envelope and she can mix a gift in with the rest of the gifts so as you open the gifts you will open one that says "congratulations on your baby (girl or boy)" with some gender specific items.  This works well with a co-ed bridal shower. 

I don't watch but for anyone that watches the Duggar Family- Josh Duggar and his wife Anna found out the sex of their baby (girl- note the pink cake) via the cake reveal on the Today Show:

I'm totally doing this for someone!  Such a fun idea:)

How to Host a Boardgame Night:)

Every few months we host a board game night with a few of our couple friends.  Might not sound that exciting to everyone but for this married mom living in suburbia this is one of those events I really look forward to.  There a few keys to a successful board game night for us, they are as follows:

1.  Keep the group small/intimate- 4 or 5 couples MAX otherwise too much going on.
2.  Make sure everyone coming likes playing board games
3.  Drinks and food available
4.  Pack and Plays, monitors, etc. for babies/kids that are coming so parents can relax and enjoy
5.  Provide options for games and let everyone decide
6.  Pajama theme works well- everyone is comfortable and it keeps it casual

Dylan loves when he gets to hang out with baby Bryce and McKinnley (pictured below) which is good because he gets to a lot because we hang out with their parents a lot.  Conveniently we are all in the same neighborhood too now which makes things so much easier.  Everyone trickled in around 730pm.  I had a few appetizers out but nothing to heavy since everyone had eaten dinner.  Also, it was a Friday night and my cooking is not the greatest so I went for easy store bought taquitos which are my new favorite appetizer.  So the first hour serves as a cocktail hour/letting the kids hang out.  And of course- making sure we get a picture of the kids:)

So we start getting the kids to bed.  Mine of course caused the most problems, but finally they're all down and we're ready to play.  We started with the Game of Things, which is an awesome game!  HIGHLY recommend.  The game can get very racy- which with this drinking crew it did quickly- but lots of laughs!  That's an individual game so when we finished with that we decided it was time for a team game- rather than couples we did boys vs. girls in Cranium.  The girls DOMINATED.  By the time we ended Cranium it was after midnight.  We did a little Bizz Buzz then Catch Phrase.  I threw in some late night frozen pizzas then I had to put myself to bed before the Mario Kart tournament started in the basement.  I think Nic came to bed around 2:30am.  He's feeling great today:(

This is one of my favorite events to host because it's so easy, inexpensive and a really great time.  Since the weather is getting cold social events seem to die down a bit which I think can be a little depressing so this is a great way to get a small group together still.  And an event where you can bring the kids- so no paying for a babysitter- which is key:).

NOVEMBER DRAWING- HAPPY THANKSGIVING MONTH

So my last drawing was for couples and I have followers that are single so I wanted to do a drawing that was a "thankful" drawing for ALL of my followers.  So I started thinking about what would be a good drawing to do for November.  Something again that I could mail in case the winner isn't local.  So I started thinking about something that would be useful but also somehow tie into either Thanksgiving or the month of November.  As I was doing some research I ran across an article about how Thanksgiving and Black Friday are the two busiest days of the year for movie theatres.  So I thought- PERFECT!  I'll do ONE drawing for 2 free movie passes. 

So here's the deal- VERY EASY- just comment on this post saying you want to enter the drawing (YOU MUST BE A FOLLOWER OF THIS BLOG) and your comment will be your submission.  Submissions are due by midnight on Friday, November 19th.  That way I'll have time to mail the tickets and the winner can have them in time for Thanksgiving:). 

These movie vouchers are good at all Regal Cinemas, Edwards Theatres and United Artist Theatres.  They never expire and the only limitation is it cannot be used for IMAX or 3-D. 

Lisa and Franc get married:)

I just received pictures from a wedding I did a few weeks ago that was at Brown's Chapel in Reston, VA.  For those of you that read my earlier post I was really excited when I walked into this church and realized it was an empty square room and I had about an hour and half to transform this onto a beautiful place for a wedding.  The chairs that were there were black fold down chairs that weren't very pretty so I started by covering all of those with chair covers and sashes, then ran an aisle runner down the carpeted floor.  The bride had ordered white drape and piping for the front/ "alter" area.  When the flowers arrived I was so excited because they were so pretty and they had brought a lot of petals which I wanted to splash around the room. 

The weather was great, the wedding was so intimate and the bride and groom were both glowing.  It really was a beautiful wedding:).  Here are some pictures that were provided by their photographer Vanessa Vick.

Neighborhood Halloween Parade Success!

So Saturday I pulled off my first attempt at a neighborhood wide event.  It was potluck style and we had houses ending in odd numbers bring a dessert and houses ending in even numbers bring a Snack/Appetizer.  The food was great but the costumes and participation was even better.  I was thankful that the South Riding pediatric dentistry donated little goodie bags so all the kids could get something... As I was announcing the winner for the contest I started feeling bad that we didn't get to give them all prizes because they were all so cute.  Our judges panel did a great job though of picking the winners- and it was a tough job- lots of great costumes! 

My husband (Nic) and his two buddies (Bryan and Jason) filled their truck beds with hay and we loaded up the trucks for hayrides and then the other kids paraded behind the hay rides.  It was fun for the kids to get to strut around in their costumes.  I was so busy with everything I forgot to take some pictures but here are some I was able to steal from others off face book. 

3 hayrides in the parade:)

A Lady Bug and Cookie Monster

Mommy Pumpkin and her Dragon baby- culdesac festivities

Cute doggie costumes

And the WINNER is............