Chinese New Year Celebration 2012

We had a wonderful CNY Celebration!

We had a great turnout, over 60 people came to celebrate and learn about our Girls' heritage.

We were able to use the gym at the Brown's church which had a full kitchen and lots of room for all the kids to have fun!  We had so many people offer to bring food, which was amazing!

Our menu consisted of:

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Teriyaki Chicken

White and Fried Rice

Spring Rolls

Chinese Chicken Salad

Dumplings

Almond and Cashew Cookies

Dawn B. ordered this amazing dragon cake from our friend Jenn...it made quite the centerpiece!

Lucy invited some of her first grade friends and their families to share in our celebration, along with Grammy and Papa, and Aunt Deanna 

Dawn has done lots of events for her church, so she is great at coming up with games and crafts!

(this pic was taken during the introductions...the boys look like they are just waiting for the food!!)

Our night went perfectly

The food and company was fabulous

and 

we, along with our friends and family celebrated and honored the heritage of these two

little Asian beauties~

(note to self:  next year just shoot in auto w/flash and guarantee better pics!...uuggh)

 

♥Valentine Treasury♥

♥Here are some sweet finds from Etsy for Valentine's Day♥

Coffee Mug Cozy love heart f... KnotworkShop $16.00	Personalized Ribbon -10 yard... TheLonelyHeart $25.00	50 Red Hearts Paper Straws w... ThePartyFairy $8.00
Sutured Heart necklace silve... idlehandsdesig... $75.00	Personalized Jewelry, Embroi... merriweatherco... $35.00	Valentine Soap - Decorative ... SoapRhapsody $6.00
Hugs and Kisses hand stampe... HammeringRedhe... $45.00	Print Tea cup art Love Val... handz $19.00	Fingerles gloves. fashion 20... gloveshop $25.00
Love bracelet. (3X2 Offer fo... Dianthusa $10.00	Red heart Mug Cozy, Cup Cosy... LilacGifts $8.50	VALENTINE Baby Shoe Boxes . ... Marzycards $25.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Do you ever spend time on Etsy?

I recently opened a "shop" Ciao Bella Emporium, but currently don't have any items listed.

A few of my friends have their own Etsy shops, you can find them here....

Catie - Fivetenfifteen

Gretchen - Sew Much Whimsy

Emily - Lady Em~Vintage Jewelry and Lady Em~Vintage Goods

Sandi - Love From Cape Cod

 

Blake, you're my Han Solo!

Blake was invited to a Star Wars Party last weekend
To say he was excited would be a HUGE understatement :)

 I had gone to the store and when I came home, this is what I saw :)

He had put together a Han Solo costume ... what I love about Blake is that he doesn't care if anyone else is dressing up...this was not a costume party, he didn't check with any of his friends...he just wanted to be Han Solo! (and he was the only one who dressed up :)

That's my boy!!

 

The Hunger Games

Have you read The Hunger Games?

At first, I was not interested in reading the books,

they seemed completely unlike anything I would normally read

After hearing a couple of friends say the same thing, and then LOVING the books 

I thought I would give them a shot

I started the first book

and

I was

HOOKED!

I read the first two books in a week...I could not put them down

I talked about them so much that Blake picked up my Kindle and started reading them too

and now we are both waiting for the movie to come out at the end of March....

I might even be there at midnight :)

Did you read The Hunger Games??

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Meyer Lemon Bars {In My Kitchen}

Meyer Lemons

I don't see them very often in my grocery store

Yesterday I stopped in Walmart, and there they were

(sometimes that store surprises me :)

I scooped them up so fast

Aren't they they the most perfect lemons you have ever seen?

I knew what I wanted to do with them

Make lemon bars

My sister-in-law Sarah's Lemon Bar recipe

(penned by my sweet mother-in-law...what a treasure!)

(this is the whole recipe if you would like to use it...I know Sarah wouldn't mind :)

 Isn't she lovely??
Meyer lemons are not as tart as a "regular" lemon, so these bars were not "too lemony" ...they were just right for my family :)

Bon Appetite!

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♥Valentine's Day Pins♥

Is there anything cooler than Pinterest??

I am seriously addicted!

Here are some c.u.t.e things I have pinned for Valentine's Day

We are going to do the bookmark Valentine's this year for Lucy since she is LEARNING and LOVING 

to read!

You can find the sources for all of these things on my Pinterest page!

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè!

Happy Chinese New Year

Year of the Dragon!

Our family will be celebrating on the 30th

(due to crazy weather here, we postponed our celebration)

Lucy will be taking treats and Chinese New Year books to her class this week too!

My french friend Celine has a wonderful cooking blog
Celine's Cuisine

and today she shares a recipe for a delicious and easy Chinese Dumpling Soup!!

Loving right now~

I want this to be my car...

via

and then I could do this....

via

a new favorite...

99% caffeine free

0 trans fat 

No hydrogenated oils

=

Really yummy!!

and, my kids are CRAZY for these pickles

not sure if they are everywhere, but  they are so good....

so good, in fact,  that after they have eaten all the pickles, we save the juice,  I peel a cucumber, slice it up and add it to the jar!  We do that 2x before we throw out the juice!!

and....a fresh pack of my FAVORITE pencils

makes me happy!

What are you loving right now??

Careful what you wish for....

We had a fun snow day on Wednesday

but by Thursday morning things were looking a little different...

trees were snapping

(this is our tree in the front yard...what you can't see to the left is the neighbors truck it just missed)

plants were covered in a layer of ice

our snowman got a frozen runny nose

a layer of ice covered our world

many neighborhoods lost power...we were one of the lucky few who did not

we did lose cable and internet access for awhile

my Mom has SO many trees down on their property (some on their roof) and as of last night were still without power

school was cancelled for the rest of the week

and thankfully today the temperature has warmed and things are beginning to thaw.