Spring Break 2013 - Xierra visits Chicago

As much as I hated leaving Winnipeg after my brief visit, I was super excited to get back to Chicago with Xierra, to spend Spring Break with her.  We only had a week, so we crammed as much 'awesomeness' into it as humanly possible.  Here's a summary:

Last time we flew together, just the two of us, was when she was 2.5 years old!

We love breakfast!  Especially when the pancakes are shaped like Mickey Mouse!

Brought the kids (and grandma and grandpa) to Monkey Joe's for some bouncy fun with friends

Visited the Kohl's Children's museum -- this was Xierra's second time going, but Xander's first.  Fun when you're 2... but still fun when you're 9!

One of Xierra's pre-vacation requests was to eat at an "Authentic Italian Restaurant" -- so that she could order "Fettuccini Alfredo, with Spaghetti noodles"... um.. okay.

Spring Break landed on the week of Easter, so what better way to get the kids excited than to decorate Easter eggs! Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to host the egg dyeing party.  Look at these gems:

And her visit wouldn't have been complete if she didn't get a chance to see the rest of the Schmid family -- Easter brunch at our Aunt Jennie's house was delightful and delicious

a rare family photo

We went up to Milwaukee for a couple of days, to hang out with Brian during the week -- did some swimming, brought the kids to the movies, did some shopping, made some crafts at the hotel and Xierra discovered Culver's -- which is now in her top 5 favourite places to eat (that darned grilled cheese sandwich is just soooo goooood)

At the Fox Bay Cinema -- super oldschool theatre with table service.  The kids loved it :)

Braved the crowd on the Easter long weekend, and brought the kids to Legoland in Schaumburg.  Such a cool place but it was crowded as hell.. Whelp, at least the KIDS had fun..

The last hoorah consisted of a one-night-stay at Key Lime Cove -- a hotel -slash- indoor water park -slash- resort.  Whatever you want to call it, it was effin awesome, and I'm so glad we did it

Hey! We know you!  We just saw you at Walmart a couple of days ago!

Water slide fun!

Our sweet family photo

A final visit to Nibbles Café for some breakfast, before the little diva and I headed to airport for her drop-off

Big sibling hugs xoxo

This was Xierra's first time flying as an unaccompanied minor, so we made sure to get to the airport SUPER early to take care of the extra paperwork that's involved.

She did perfectly fine on her flight back - the airline took really good care of her.  What a brave girl :)

It was so much fun hanging out with my little Yaya Monster for her Spring Break.. but a week just wasn't quite long enough!

Cassie & Mario's candy-themed wedding

Remember that wedding I was planning...and designing...and crafting...and coordinating...and baking cupcakes for...and making floral bouquets for...and decorating...and standing up as a bridesmaid for...and (you get the idea)

Well it happened.  And it was awesome :)

Here are the photos from the Wedding that was held at the Byron Colby Barn in Grayslake, IL

My beautiful family <3

We collected jars from friends and family for 4 months prior to the wedding.  Some jars were decorated with lace, or burlap and twine.  All 250 jars were filled with candles or flowers and they were clustered on the tables as the center pieces.

Once the sun set, the entire barn glowed so beautifully, from all of the candles

Every Guest received an empty Ball jar to fill with candy from the candy table.  The tags read "Love is Sweet, fill your jar and Enjoy a Treat"

Here are some other detail shots of the other projects I worked on for the wedding

And here's the best photo from the entire event:

It was a lot of work, and there were nights that I stressed so much about it that I lost sleep -- but it was extremely rewarding and I gained a ton of experience from it.

And after all was said and done, I connected with the lady that runs the Barn, and she is recommending me to her Bride's as a wedding consultant / coordinator!  Super exciting opportunity :)

Mini-Me Centre Pieces

This post is over a year and a half overdue - better late than never

My dad celebrated his 65th birthday and retirement.  Me and my siblings decided to throw him a party...

And any time there's a party, the first thing that comes to my mind is:  What can I MAKE??

I love the idea of personalizing decorations, whenever the opportunity presents itself.  And in this particular case, the opportunity was all up in my face.

My dad is hilarious.  He's always been a clown - maybe a little too vulgar for some people's taste, but always amusing, in my opinion.

When my sister and I found ourselves weaving the aisles of my favorite local wholesale warehouse, we asked ourselves "what can we make as centre pieces for the banquet tables", I had an A-HA moment.

"DAD!"

Yes, we decided to make centre pieces that look like my dad -- here's how I did it:

Head:

- Using a foam ball as the head, I used white glue and 'beige' coloured tissue paper and applied it similar to paper maché.  I chose this method over painting because the foam balls are too porous and would just absorb the paint.

- This was a very time consuming process, as I had to wait for each layer to dry before applying the next layer

Body:
- We bought 1 litre carafes as the base of the bodies, since the shape of the bottle kind of mimicked a human neck and shoulders
-  I created a template for the shirts, and using various colours of scrapbooking paper, I cut each one out individually and attached a separate piece for the collar
(My dad always wears Lacoste golf shirts)
- I filled the carafes with different coloured jelly beans

Finishing touches:
- Once the heads were dry, I drew smiley happy faces on them
- Glued ears to the sides of the heads using beige construction paper
- Put little glasses on each head (these were meant to be used for doll-making)
- Finished off each 'dad' with a tiny little Lacoste logo on the chest of the shirt

TA-DAAAAA!! The finished product (and the Birthday boy!)