Monday, September 5, 2011

Special Delivery for Luna Lovegood

I came home from babysitting one evening and my neighbors were out on the porch including one of their dads. My male roommate looks at me and says, "You've got a package today, Luna Lovegood." It took me a few minutes to figure out why he called me Luna Lovegood, only certain family members call me that and he knows my name. Then I realized why he did that... it was the package I was waiting for!!!


My Aunty Jodi and cousins Andrew and Kaitlyn went to Potterfest in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. They sat through Hogwarts classes, met teachers and students, got sorted and did all sort of cool Harry Potter stuff. I was bummed I was not able to make it but they brought Potterfest to me! 


Here are the super cool goodies I got from Potterfest. Thanks Aunty Jodi!! I love everything!


Wizarding Map
A map and schedule of the day's activities. 


My very own wand.
I took my wand to the final movie.. haha


All my goodies!


Wizarding Map (again) and a signed photograph of Gilderoy Lockhart. 


I love Hungarian Horntail pin (I wore that to the movie too), Bertie Botts Every Flavored Jelly Beans, my wand, and a chocolate frog, that got melted a bit! But still delicious! 


A few spell books and a crossword puzzle.

Such a fun package and it totally made my week!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Making: Mini Cheesecakes

Remember this photo?



For Alyssa's bridal shower I made mini-cheesecakes!

       Here is what you need:
  • 1 (12 ounce) package vanilla wafers
  • 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • Foil mini muffin liners

1. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, eggs, lemon juice, vanilla until light and fluffy.

2. Place the foil muffin liners on a baking sheet.
3. Place a vanilla wafer inside. *NOTE: Make sure to get the foil muffin liners so they stand up on their own and not in a mini muffin pan*
4. Put in oven at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes.
5. Cool


While the cheesecakes are baking make yourself lemonade with sugar, lemon juice and water! :)


After the cheesecakes have cooled at your topping. I put strawberries in the blender to make a sauce to put on top then cut a piece of strawberry to go on top of that. I also melted white chocolate chips and drizzled it over the cheesecakes before placing a few whole chips on the melted chocolate. 


ENJOY!

Wedding Presents

I had a ton of fun gathering up gifts to give to Alyssa (and Bill too!).


The Bachelorette Gift will not be shown... but it was a fun game, Blow Pops and other "soon-to-be-married" goodies that your mind can probably come up with!

For the Bridal Shower I choose a Decorate Your Kitchen theme.

With the gift came, two yellow place mats and two green napkins. 

A frame that I spray painted to match the rest of the gift and created a wordle using kitchen terms. I added a border around the words. To find out more about wordles click here

I created a cookbook for Alyssa (again with the same color scheme). I included recipes that I have received or found. I added little phrases at the top of each page and included tips and variations of the recipes. 





For their wedding gift we choose a Date Night theme. Bill and Alyssa are not going on their honeymoon until October so we wanted to give them a mini-honeymoon for one evening. We added the fixings for spaghetti and chocolate chip cookies. Added a candle and movie! 


I made instructions for the Date Night!




;)


In addition to the gifts and making the mini-cheese cakes for Alyssa's bridal shower, I made thank you cards in her wedding colors. 

I had so much fun planning and preparing all the gifts! 

Thursday, September 1, 2011

WEDDING!!!!

It has been almost one month since Bill and Alyssa got married!

The days leading up to their wedding were filled with wedding festivities. I don't have many pictures from their big day but I do from the days before.

The weekend truly started on Thursday. The sisters (Eryn, Raena and I) threw a bachelorette party for Alyssa at Applebee's before we all headed to Alyssa's Bridal Shower!

The decoration I made for the table. 

The car packed and read to go!

The beautiful sisters ready for the crazy weekend!

The beautiful bride getting geared up for her big night!

Alyssa opened up LOTS of gifts (not many internet appropriate...)

Then we played fun games that Eryn led. 
For this one we had to tie objects in knots.. in our mouths!
Twizzlers, cherry stems and unwrap starbursts. 

 Raena giggled.. alot! :)

Alyssa's gift from the sisters. 

Another gift from the sisters... this one a joke gift from the Salvation Army! haha

Then we headed off to the Bridal Shower at Aunty Ju's house.
Lydia made a beautiful sign to welcome guests. 

Leis were given to the Bride and Bridal Party.

The bride's chair!

Lydia helped to decorate!

The beautiful cake Aunty Ju made. It looks very similar to Alyssa's dress!

The hostesses!

The mini cheesecakes I made for the shower. Strawberry and white chocolate are Alyssa's favorite!

Here comes the bride!

We played a wedding version of pictionary. 

The game was so much fun and everyone was laughing so much!

Aunt Esther had some of the best interpretations!

Alyssa with her beautiful cake!

The delicious food!! And decor matching Alyssa's wedding colors!

Lydia made a new friend with Alyssa's friend's little girl. 

Look at all the gifts Alyssa got! So blessed!

Then came the day BEFORE the wedding.
Raena and I got to church super early to help Mom get the flowers ready.

Super stoked!

Raena and I made the bottom portion of the centerpiece.

All the flowers!!

The church morning before the wedding.

Getting there!

The wreath in memory of the grandparents who passed away. 

YEAH WEDDING!

Working so hard!

Bill even got in on the flower action!

We had an assembly line!


Bill, Alyssa and Bill's sister, Jaz


Aunt Addi and Lydia

The boys entertained themselves!

Favorite picture of the groomsmen!
My buddy Ian is really paying attention!

Apparently I am not good at paying attention either! haha

Me and Ian!

Jet's Pizza was eaten at the rehearsal dinner! Their Jet bread was delicious!

The groomsmen!

Uncle Lionel, Aunt Bev and Eryn catching up. They came from Texas!

I have a few pictures from the wedding.
We started off the day by getting our hair done!
Beautiful bride!

Beautiful Maid of Honor

Beautiful sisters, Bill's sisters

Beautiful Raena

Raena fixing up Eryn's hair before the ceremony.

And there ends my wedding pictures... except for these last few
The wedding favors that Raena and I made!

The centerpieces!

Dad and his friend, well he tried to make friends.

We snuck out during the reception to decorate the bride and groom's car.

A funny picture to end a crazy weekend!
To see more pictures from the actual wedding check out the photos I am tagged on Facebook.