Our Elf Lola

We jumped on the craze of the Elf on a Shelf this year and it's been pretty fun. Ariana named our elf Lola and she's a pretty shy tame elf compared to these other mischievous elves people have. Here is what she's been up to since we got her.

 She came one day while Ariana was at preschool and hid in our tree.

 We found out she was pretty shy the day we found her hiding by Santa. We think she was missing the North Pole.

 Lola started liking being with us us and brought us a special breakfast from the North Pole as well as a little wooden tree for Ariana to decorate for her room.

 With Ariana being so good we found Lola measuring her stocking one morning to see how many goodies Santa could fit in there.

 Lola was hanging out upside down in the kitchen.

 She got bored one night and started doing one of Ariana's puzzles.

Lola took a stroll in a barbie car. Ariana loved that and pushed her around in it.

 She got into my Christmas M&M's one night and practiced writing her name.

 She was found reading Christmas books by Ariana's nightlight one morning.

 Lola likes snow, since she's from the North Pole and Ariana found her hiding in her snow boot by the backdoor.

 She made a bed, or ball pit (we're still not sure) one night in the bathroom sink using the cotton balls. Ariana did not like this.

 Hiding in Mommy's apron pocket one morning.

Lola got busy one night making lots of tiny paper snowflakes.

I'll share more of Lola's antics on Christmas Eve. She's a silly one and the first thing Ariana says when she wakes up is "Let's go find Lola!"

Bad Durkheim Wurstmarkt (and Wine Fest)

The Bad Durkheim Wurstmarkt and Wine Fest is the largest wine festival in the world and it's held every year in the town of Bad Durkheim in Germany. 

We went for a day trip out there on September 8th. It was like Oktoberfest for wine! The glasses of wine they had were huge. And by huge I mean 1/2 a liter, per glass!!

It's a lot like a fair. Rides, games, fun houses (sort of) and of course music and drinking. We went during the day so it was fun for our family but I'm sure at night it really comes to life!

Brats of course!

 Lots of fun kid rides.

 The largest wine barrel in the world. It holds 1.7 million liters of wine!

 Lebkuchenherzen - German gingerbread cookies with phrases on them. These say "Ich liebe Dich" which means I love you!

 My husband took this picture of me, he's pretty proud of it!

 Food and wine!

 These glasses of wine are huge!

 Ariana loves carousels!

 Practicing her shots like Meridia from Brave!

 Fun music.

Rheinland Pfalz is wine country! 

Summer Goals Revisited!

 At the beginning of the summer, I created this checklist of things I wanted to do while in the States. Today, I'm looking back at how I did. We did a lot! It was a fun summer that ended with a beautiful marriage of my best friend!

Summer Checklist:

1. Sidewalk Chalk.
2. Ride bicycles.
3. Photo walks. >>> See them Here and Here
4. Drive-in Movie Night. >>> It was fun to say we did it but not that great.
5. Spa Day with my Sister. >>> Best pedicures.
6. Shopping day with my Mom.
7. Build-A-Bear. >>> See photos of Cleverbelle Here
8. Miami Zoo. >>> See us feeding giraffes here
9. Sushi night.
10. Shop for Ariana's school clothes.
11. Everglades Air Boat Ride. >>> Up close and personal with Alligators Here
12. See as much friends and family as I can!
13. Date night with my Husband.  >>> Fun Double Date
14. Suspension Show and Tattoo Expo. >>> Didn't make it with my inlaws there that weekend.
15. Waterpark/Splash Park
16. Beach (a few times)  >>> Only went once but it was fun!
17. Flamingo Garden or Butterfly Garden. >>> We went to Gumbo Limbo Nature Reserve instead. 
18. Drive to Georgia. >>> Home.
19. Drive to South Carolina. >>> 11 hour road trip.
20. Eat at Pearl's, my favorite restaurant in Savannah. >>> Best seafood ever.
21. Be a bridesmaid in my best friends wedding.  >>>  I posted some wedding photos here.
22. Shop for Ariana's ballet, gymnastics and tap leotards and shoes. >>> She's going to be the cutest ballerina!
23. Swim in the pool as much as possible. >>> Of course!
24. Hibachi dinner. >>> Worst Hibachi experience ever, not worth it.
25. Read 3 books. >>> Only made it through 1.
26. Get my camera cleaned. >>> Annoyed  I didn't get this done.
27. Beach sunset/sunrise shoot.
28. Celebrate my Birthday with my whole family! >>> 28th Birthday, 28 Random Things About Me.
29. Archery or Paintball.
30. Fro-yo and Jamba Juice.

And lastly I'll leave you with the last of our summer collages. See the others here.

1. Passing on the peace along the interstate between Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. 2. Peeking into the backseat. 3. Jamba Juice!. 4. Our Peace note. 5. Grammy and Ariana. 6. Riding my sisters bike.

1. Ariana and Paco traveling. 2. Ariana at Monkey Joes with Aunt Sarah. 3. Silly photos with her Aunt Sarah.

1. Getting fitted for her tap and ballet shoes. 2. Sisters on a road trip. 3. Ariana's first Jamba Juice. 4. Balloon butterfly at dinner out.

Summer Lovin'

Summer time collages.

1. My fun purple sparkle sunglasses. 2. Staying with my mom.  3. Plastic flamingos.  4. Blue skies and sunshine.  5. Sidewalk chalk fun.  6. Relaxation at the pool.  7. Silly swimmers.

1. Fun beach towels.  2. Shopping for shoes.  3. Random heart leaf.  4. Sushi!  5. Beach boil.  6. Mom and daughter cocktails.

1. Training wheels.  2. Pampering pedicures.  3. Pool days.  4. Frozen yogurt  5. Arriving at the airport.  6. With my sister.

1. Flowering bushes.  2. Ariana's coloring.  3. Sharing my crab legs with Ariana. 4. Eating with Daddy. 5. Shrimp nachos.  

1. Beach toys.  2. My Birthday dinner.  3. Picking up the Winning Family at the airport.  4. Tropical flowers.  5. Aunt Jen and Ariana.  6. Day on the boat.  7. Stormy palm trees. 

Enjoying my trip so far. Two more weeks left! Georgia and South Carolina soon!

Ariana's First Build-a-Bear

I have never set foot in a Build-a-Bear store until just the other day. Ariana has been sick with pink eye and is still has a cold. She's been coughing and stuffed up for the past few days. Daddy and I took her to get her very own special bear the other day to help cheer her up.

There were so many choices of characters: bears, cats, bunnies, alligator, seahorse, hello kitty, she liked them all. She finally choose a blue bear with white stars and took her to get stuffed with a little heartbeat inside. 

She had so much fun looking at all the outfits and accessories but decided on a leotard and shoes that were special for the Olympics. Our bear became a gymnast!

 Then she named her bear and we got her dressed to take home with us. 

Meet Cleverbelle (named by Ariana all by herself)! She's the newest member of our family. We all had such fun that day helping her make her bear. I will definitely be doing that again with Ariana.

Now I just wish she could shake this cold and start feeling a little better so she can enjoy the rest of our trip!

Birthday in a Box! {DIY}

The 'birthday in a box' idea came to me when I was trying to think of something creative to send to my sister for her birthday in June. I have no idea if it's been done before or not. I love surprising my friends and family with creative things for their birthday's/holidays. The year of my sister's 21st birthday I mailed her 21 booze/party/21 related cards in the mail for her to open one each day, the 21 days leading up to her birthday. That was fun! This year since we're trying to save money (21 cards was expensive) I decided to do mail her something fun. 

I'm going to be honest here. I was relying on the postal services between Germany and the United States and I wasn't sure how balloons would react to be mailed/flown overseas. Luckily all but 2 made it, those two deflated.

STEP 1: Gather your supplies. A big box, balloons, money, glitter, tissue paper, confetti, funnel and packing materials. I made confetti by hole punching colorful paper and used gold glitter.

STEP 2: Fold your money into tiny squares and put them inside your balloons. This may take some patience. 

STEP 3: Using a funnel, put the glitter and confetti into the balloons. Blow your balloons up and tie them off. Remember they'll take up a lot of space in your box, experiment with sizes.

 STEP 4: Tape a pin into a card with a clever message. The glitter will go everywhere so warn them not to do it inside unless you want them to have to clean up a mess. (I added glitter inside my card too)

See results of pin vs balloon below.

 (My husband helped me test it out in the backyard to see how the glitter would fly.)

STEP 5: Fill your box with balloons, colorful tissue paper (and bubble wrap if you'd like, I did) and mail it off. Or drop it off at your friends doorstep, either way they're sure to be delightfully surprised!

Viola! There you have it! I fun birthday in a box!