I grew up a short driving distance to Disneyland so I can say I am very familiar with the place. I also have a six year old daughter with a growing collection of Disney movies that the whole family enjoys watching. When I was picked to "Show My Disney Side" and host a Disney Side Home Celebration I was very excited. Not just because of our love for Disney but because the invitation came at the perfect time, Penelope's 6th birthday. I immediately knew I would incorporate my Disney side into her party and I knew beyond a doubt just how I was going to do it. What do all little girls love about Disney? Why the princesses of course! So here are some photos of our Disney Side Home Celebration and Penelope's Disney princess party!


Here are all the treats that were available to eat. The perfect feast for the sweetest princesses. I also made wonderful goodie bags filled with all the princess essentials like; crowns, wands, lip gloss, jewelery.

Here are the royal guests all showing their best princess smiles and tiara's!

We also played musical chairs to Disney song favorites like "When Will My Life Begin", "Almost There", A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes". We played find Cinderella's glass slipper, and of course Pin the Tiara on Aurora!


Finally the belle of the ball making a wish.


And that is our Disney Side...What's yours?

Penelope's lunch today...


I made pepperoni hearts and cheese pretzel kabobs, a hard boiled egg that was supposed to be shaped like a heart but my heart mold wasn't working today, baby tomatoes, and extra pretzels for munching. Her dessert was 3 fruit jelly stuffed marshmallows. She said she loved her lunch and finished everything. My heart is breaking... :(

Two weeks ago Penelope was presented with a Student of the Month award at her Wednesday chapel service.



She was sooo surprised! Chris and I were told she would be receiving an award but were told to keep it a secret.


She received the award for exemplifying the biblical character trait of encouragement. I asked her what this meant and her response was " it means to be nice to others by telling them things to help them".


Aside from her certificate she also received a Yogurt Island giftcard, a certificate for a free round of miniature golf at Mulligan's, a coupon for a free Mini Murph Make n Bake pizza from Papa Murphy's, a free 8 piece chicken nugget meal from Chik-fil-A and a free kids meal at California Pizza Kitchen.

We are so proud of you Penelope!

I got a new little bento box from Target,


and have your seen all the cute Valentine's Day kitchen stuff they have right now? Love it!


She had a turkey and cheddar sandwich, peppercorn ranch crackers, sweet orange pepper strips, baby tomatoes, Ranch in the little HK cup and an HK senbei with strawberry cream drizzle.

I have mentioned this before but I am kind of a cookbook hoarder collector. I have a pantry that is almost being over run by cookbooks. Looking for a specific type of cuisine, need some recipes for your new kitchen appliance, want to entertain some friends with a fancy feast? You can bet I got the cookbook you need. And this is only half of my cookbook addiction collection! When we moved drown from Alaska I sold the other half to make room in our U-Haul. Aside from cookbooks I also  acquired a few food magazines along the way. The problem with magazines is their are usually only a few recipes in them that I would actually make, and they are not as pretty as books. That's when I got this idea...


I went out and purchased this adorable binder, some clear pocket dividers, and rounded up my magazines. I proceeded to tear out the recipes that I wanted to keep and make my own cookbook.


Brilliant right?! Now I have more room in my pantry for more cookbooks!

This weekend Penelope's homework was to decorate a shoe box to collect her valentines in during her classroom party that is coming up. Can you believe I had 0 shoe boxes in this house. You would think with all the shoes Chris owns I would at least have one. But alas my minor OCD causes me to throw out all boxes, because I don't like clutter! Needless to say Penelope ended up with a new pair of shoes so that we would have a box for her homework. Lucky girl!




Penelope's valentine box came out sooo cute that I had an idea. Instead of throwing out all our shoe boxes why not decorate them all pretty and put them to use. They would make great little boxes to store craft supplies, office supplies, Pen's little toys, even Chris' random junk he keeps umm everywhere. They would also make great gift boxes. So from here on out I will no longer throw out those shoe boxes., and no Chris this does not mean you can go out and buy another pair of shoes!

I love this pillow case Penelope made with her teacher at school.

Here is a snack box I made for Penelope yesterday. She gobbled everything up after school and said it was the best snack box.


Parmesan cheese cubes, cheddar slices, Wheat Thins, salami, blackberries and blueberries, baby tomatoes and cucumbers.

Yesterday was Penelope's 100th day of school. They had a little celebration which included all the kiddos taking in 100 snacks to share, they counted 100 objects throughout the day, and each child had to wear 100 of something.


Can you guess what Penelope wore 100 of?

Friday they are celebrating Chinese New Year at school and having a giant Chinese food feast. She is very excited because she loves Chinese food. They will also be learning about Chinese culture and making related crafts. I don't remember school being this much fun!

This is a long overdue thank you post to my two Alaskan friends Tracy and Tracy.


When I was going through some health stuff a few months ago those awesome girls put together a package, Alaska style, and sent it to me. Smoked salmon, goat jerky, fire weed jelly, and these delicious homemade scones I miss having on our Monday morning play date. Thank you so much for thinking of me and making me miss you guys and "the cosmic hamlet by the sea".

Check out Tracy and Tracy's company Lost Things Designs on Facebook and their amazing reclaimed wood signs and more.