joyfully celebrating

We celebrated some birthdays recently and I wanted to share some pics from the parties. My Jake had a LEGO party. This child is from the same cloth as his mother - begins planning the party for next year the day AFTER his party! So, I had plenty of time to gather up ideas and let me just say...PINTEREST is my friend! If you'd like to see where some of my ideas originated from,  check out my Pinterest board I call "If I Step on one more Lego".

 LEGO-filled vase for table

 homemade LEGO pinata

(aka cardboard box spraypainted)

 cookie cake NOT homemade - purchased from Sam's Club & decorated w/Legos

 wrapped juice boxes w/LEGO water bottle labels

 Our Lego-Man Jake - Happy Birthday!

Next birthday party was for our Ally, who turned 5. She's like her brother in that she likes to plan the party, but isn't as full of ideas like he is. Again, PINTEREST is my party-planning friend. I collected ideas on a board I named "Look whooo's having a party". I guess you can tell from that title that we had an OWL party. I had gotten the idea to let the girls make stuffed owls after I saw this AWESOME "Night Owl Party" on a blog called "Snowy Bliss" HERE. Holy Owl - I don't have NEAR the time or talent that this woman has, so I revised mine a bit. Anyway, here are a few shots from the "Make An Owl Friend" party.

 cupcakes made by my 11-year-old friend, Taylor...seriously good!

Those little "A's" are white chocolate! Printed toppers by me.

 Birthday Girl with her owl outfit..and felt crown

 The party room

 See the feathers? Those were HER idea...and I let her.

The "Make An Owl Friend" Room

 The poem on their "owl friend" bags - again, snagged from "Snowy Bliss"

 Warming our owls' hearts

My Birthday Girl with her new owl friend

Love my babies. Can't believe how 8 and 5 years have passed SO quickly. My oldest will be a TEENager this year..yikes! I wouldn't trade a day. And as my Grammie used to say, "My cup runneth over." Oh how I wish she could've met my 3 little blessings. She would've loved every minute. Be blessed...and find JOY in the little things :)

joyful about book character day

To celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss, my son's school hosted a "Book Character" day. I would've LOVED to have rummaged up a costume of a character from his favorite book series, "Geronimo Stilton." Aside from putting together a 3 piece suit, I just didn't have it in me this week to put that together. Our little guy just *loves* monkeys, so I thought the "man in the yellow hat" was a good fit.

SERIOUSLY easy costume >> Yellow foam hat in summer crafts at Hobby Lobby, foam sheet for necktie (w/elastic) and a yellow tshirt, also from Hobby Lobby. And, because he loves ALL monkeys, we already had a Curious George. Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

speaking for the trees

In preparation for the National Education Association's "Read Across America" next week, I designed some *free* water bottle labels to share with you.

CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE THE IMAGE FOR YOUR *FREE* DOWNLOAD!

LORAX_waterbottle label

joyfully reading

Reading has not always been my strong suit but in my adult years, have learned to enjoy a good book series. Strangely enough, our oldest son can be found every evening at bedtime with his nose in a book. He loves a good series too. His love of reading really began with the Percy Jackson series and, recently, the Hunger Games series.

Like any parent would, I tried showing interest in what he was reading by asking questions. One time, after I asked more questions than I guess he wanted to answer, my 12 year old says to me, "Why don't YOU read it and we'll go see the movie together?" The movie will be released on March 23rd.

 

The book series has a huge following and it's going to be BIG!  I started the first book over Christmas break and had no problem flipping through it in a few days but haven't made it all the way through the 2nd book. He cannot wait for me to finish, but I'm thankful for the opportunity to share something special with my young fella.

Speaking of reading...Did you know next week is NEA's National 'Read Across America' Day? The LORAX is the book that has been selected. You can read more about it here. I thought I'd share some of the projects I created last year for my daughter's preschool class for Dr. Seuss Week. I love Seuss stuff!! So colorful and fun!

These are some marshmallow pops that I made with wooden dowels & jumbo marshmallows, decorated with a little squirt frosting...super easy! I put some floral foam down in the bottom of the bucket & pressed the dowels into the foam. An afterthought I had was that some aqua tissue paper would've been cute to stick out of the bucket, mimicking the "Thing" hair. I also created some water bottle labels.

CLICK THE LINK ABOVE THE IMAGE FOR YOUR *FREE* DOWNLOAD.
Dr Seuss Water Bottle[1]

Visit here again for more *free* water bottle labels. Now...GO AND READ!

Superbowl Water

I love myself a PARTY! Even if we ARE watching football and I don't have any idea what's going on..ha! I love getting together with friends, watching kids play, and the FOOD! Water bottle labels are my newest passion, so I decided to whip some up for this SUPER occasion!

I was struggling to find a way to coordinate Preschool Bible Hour at our church w/the Superbowl events, so I decided to use the second part of 1 Corinthians 10:31, which reads, "Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

CLICK THE IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD, then select 'save as' to save to your computer.

I loaded the image as a .jpg, but if it's still a bit too grainy/fuzzy, email me at coryjoyw@hotmail.com and I will send the .pdf to you as well.

Williams Family Christmas Card

Joy Love Family Christmas

Turn family photos into personalized Christmas cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

joy of the holidays

The busy-ness of the holidays is upon us, so that's the excuse I'm going with on why it's taken me so long to post. Sickness has hit out house a time or two, but I've come to realize that maybe that's just God's way of saying "SLOOOOW DOWWWWN!" I always get so much done when someone or some-THING makes me stay put at home.  Here's some of the crafting, sewing, & photography I've been up to.

melamine tray from Target $5 - personalized w/vinyl using my Silhouette machine...LOVE!

Would you believe I've had this fabric for almost a YEAR? It's flannel, tho - Didn't wanna make it until she could wear it.  Doesn't Miss A look like she loves it?

 My babies - maybe I'm prejudice, but I think they're pretty neat.  They bring their Daddy and me such happiness, life, and completion.  Thank you, Lord, for our little blessings.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS and MERRY CHRISTMAS!