alice, white rabbit & queen

Luckily the little flu that hit Friday was just that - little.  By Sunday, and trick-or-treating, we were all ready to hit the scene.  Thank goodness.  Last year she got a fever the day of Halloween, so she was totally dragging all afternoon (see the picture here) then perked up for going out that night with her friend AND both families.

This year we cleverly re-cycled the same home-made costume by dressing up the rest of the family, and going around a different block ;)

I love our adorable 'matching' tights (I have pairs of these black-striped tights in red, white, pink, purple, green - I used to love wearing them!) 

I'm also a repeat Alice offender.  I'm been her in 8th grade, senior year on the homecoming float for 'Seniors in Wonderland', my first year of teaching at age 22, for Caitlyn's babyshower, and now pregnant with the twins.

So, yes, we also brought along Tweedle-Dum & Tweedle-Dee for trick-or-treating, but they're lying low ;)  I'm 15 weeks now and greatly enjoying the ease of the second trimester.  There are subtle hints of the discomfort to come though.  Still, I'm excited to soon feel two babies jostling around in there!  In just 21 days we find out the genders - can't wait!


xoxo,
Christy

the most wonderful time of the year

Wow!  September has blown in and blown out and what's left is a lot of October excitement and anticipation.  Quickie-lickie, some news updates:

• I'm pregnant with twins! (due 4/19, find out genders, etc. Thanksgiving week)
• Our house just went on the market! (can't fit 5 people into 743 square feet)
• I'm teaching 260 middle schoolers on a hectic 2 day cycle
• Caitlyn started ballet lessons
• Everyone in the house's recovering from a cold
• Celebrated a special 5 year anniversary dinner @ Mr.A's

 And now, it's finally beloved Halloween season!!  I've been busily concocting some witchy invitations for a small gathering.  I'm also drooling over some designer papers at Studio 45 - Hallowe'en in Wonderland.  See them here.  Be still my beating heart.

27 days until the magic!
xoxo,
ChrisTea™

party thanks

These cute little teapot thank you cards were the perfect end to our Alice-inspired 'tea' party birthday (see previous post, here).  I just had to bust out the Cricut again.  They coordinate with the teacup invitations (here).  I white embossed the image onto PTI cardstock.  The swirly vellum is Michaels circa 2004 (leftovers from wedding invites.  I wrote on the insides in most of them with white in.  

 I have 3 Cricut cartridges but everything I cut is from A Child's Year - for this party there were red roses with green leaves, purple & green Mad Hatter's hats, and a banner in pink, mint, blue and purple.  

We decorated the back patio with crepe paper, balloons - half of them polka dot with big white spots, and mixy-matchy dinnerware, all in the same fun colors.  We hung a few strands of white star lights and put out some pretty tulips.

The HIT for the four-year old crowd were the cake pops.  Bakerella of course (here).  These were definitely red velvet yummi-ness.  They stand in a foam rectangle covered in a sheer ribbon.  I used sewing pins to push in a few buttons I've had lying around from making an Alice costume years ago.   

(HOW does Bakerella make the pops look so perfect???  I tried two batches - one with melted white choc. chips and another with Wilton candy melts - both times it was very gloppy).  

Here's a little gift set for Caitlyn from us - CASEd from Nichole (here).  I LOOOVE this beauty she made! (Nice how I didn't take the time to iron the recycled ribbon ;)


Alas, for more photos.  Before I knew it, the day was simply,

going...

 going...

GONE! 


CAKE POPS HINT: after you've coated the cake pops for use in the display you'll have 40-something cake pops left in a typical batch. TOO many to coat (at least, for me).  Instead I chilled the cake pops, then melted white chocolate chip, put the chocolate in a baggie, cut off the tip, and drizzled them on the cake balls.  I did the same with dark chocolate chips.  Deeelicious, easy and yummy for the adults too.

xoxo,
cch

caitlyn's tea party

4 years old - wham!  It sneaks up on you.  Suddenly your baby is gone and there's this fun little kid in her place.  We had a tea party - with Alice-y touches here & there.  The favors are one of the new templates at PTI and designed to compliment the invitations (here).

 The polka dots are white filigree embossed and the buttons are tied with 1/4" white silk ribbon.  The handles are cute, cheap-o Michael's ribbons, where I picked up the color-coordinated M&Ms (NOT cheap).  They only had dark green chocolates, which would not do, but I found green gums balls in the wedding area.  Perfect.  Gum is relatively new to most 4 year olds, so it was fun to watch them run around the backyard with their bags of candy *bad Waldorf mom* 

 

I put the Cricut to use with a sign taped to the side of our house (and not the best morning light).  There's also a little peak of the red roses & Mad Hatter hats I cut out in the upper corner of this shot (I meant to stick a little 10/6 tag in the hat but, you know, ran out of time).  Check out that amazing homemade hat gift.

The kids decorated paper bag hats - of course I took no photos.  We had a good playset sesh, a borrowed jumpy-jump, and an easy finger-food buffet.  There were pitchers on the side of Iced Cookie Tea & Peppermint Candy Iced Tea.  Everything went off well :)

More photos are coming - I just can't remember which Mac I downloaded them on to...

xoxo,

blog hop - inside & out

Opsy!!  I almost forgot about the PTI blog hop tonight!  I didn't have a post prepped, so I'm just adding in a few shots of my latest creation - party invites for my almost-4 year old.  She's having an "Alice's tea party" as she calls it.  Very unbirthday.

I used a combination of PTI and Basic Grey stamps.  The neutral cardstock is a gorgeous textured celery - the last remnants from my wedding crafting :)

 

 

 

Ok!  Those were tons o' fun to make.  Hope you enjoyed them!  I also have an 'inside & out' wedding stationary set in my next post - feel free to take a look!

xoxo,

cch

queen of hearts

Well, we dealt with a Halloween fever for the little one. I finally finished sewing the Queen of Hearts costume that day - Caitlyn wanted it as much for the Mother Goose queen (you know, the knave stole her tarts...) as for the queen in the Alice in Wonderland books. She's growing fast (size 5) and loves dress-up clothes so I made it a little big (5/6). Pinning up the baggy bodice misaligned the checkerboard, but my perfectionism can take a rest for a moment.
Poor kid was draggin' for the first pictures, but she revved right up for trick-or-treating with her buddy, Leela. All were forewarned of her fever, but the girls could not be stopped.
All the parents dressed up and it was soooo much fun. We didn't make it far, but did grab a great shot of these two queens (snicker).