A.J.’s 8th birthday party!

We had A.J.’s party at a local party center where they have games, a rock wall, laser tag, and go-carts.  In fact, if you are a Duck Dynasty fan, this is the exact same place where Si took Willie to get all the tickets and won the Gorilla.  (That’s a fact Jack!) 

A.J. had a Mario Kart theme, so he really wanted to be able to ride the go-carts, but it was a rain out that day.   But, it really didn’t put a damper on his mood and he had a great time anyway!

My boys…

Me and my birthday boy….

My sister Julie made his cake again this year and of course she did an outstanding job!

And it was very yummy! Here are my sisters cutting and serving …

A.J. got to spin the  birthday wheel and won 1000 tickets.  Then Andy hit the jackpot in one of the games and got 1600 more tickets.

And, many of the kids at the party gave A.J. their tickets.  When we added up all of them, he had 4000!  Andy sure had fun feeding them all into the counting machine!!  (hehehee!)

A.J. could have gotten the Gorilla, had it still been there.   But he was able to get an air hockey game and a basketball, so he was Happy Happy! 

He told me later that it was the greatest party ever because all of his family and friends were there and everyone had fun.  He is such a sweetheart…when he wants to be!

Spring Break with A.J.

I am very lucky that I get to take the week off of work for A.J.’s Spring Break.  Andy’s Spring Break falls at a different time so it’s just the two of us all week long.  It’s nice because there aren’t many other times that we get to spend alone together.  What makes it even more special is that A.J.’s birthday always falls right in there somewhere.

This year, his birthday was the first day of Spring Break.  I woke him up with a birthday cinnamon roll…

He decided that he wanted to go to Sci Port in Shreveport for the day.  We invited his memaw and pepaw to go with us since they had never been.  It is a really neat place to go and do some interactive activities. 

Here are some pics from that day…

We got to go on the roof to see a demonstration of how fast the earth moves by watching the shadow of the sun.  It was really cool! 

We also saw “Born to Be Wild” in the IMAX theater. It was about elephants and monkeys.  It was ok, but I think “The Artic” about polar bears would have been better.  But it was A.J.’s choice! 

That evening we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.  A.J. and Andy both had to try the Blazin’ sauce which is their hottest choice.  I did not partake since regular ol’  Salsa is usually too hot for me!  LOL!

Later that week, we went to see Jack the Giant Slayer in 3D, which we both really liked!  It is PG-13 so it probably wouldn’t be good for the younger ones, but for A.J. it was fine. It just had some fighting and violence.  (The giants eat people…but it doesn’t actually show it.)  We also went bowling, which is not our best game, but we had fun!

The next Saturday, we had his birthday party, which I will share next time!

Dining Room Before and After

So it’s been a while….I know!  No real excuse except that honestly, I am too lazy to go get my phone cord which is plugged in behind my bed, and hook it up to my laptop so I can get the pictures from Spring Break and A.J.’s birthday.  So, today I decided to share my latest room makeover.  I have shown bits and pieces of it for a while now, but I don’t think I showed the whole thing, before and after. 

Here is what the room started out looking like before it’s makeover…

Here are some “during” shots…

I had a good little helper….

And here is what it looked like after I finished painting and stenciling the walls…

And the “afters”…

I got the faux silk curtains from Overstock and the china cabinet off of Craigslist.  I gave it a makeover which you can see HERE.  I have been playing around with accessorizing it…

I really like how I can display more of my dishes and crystal now!  This is the centerpiece I have on the table now.  It came from Kirklands…

The dishes came from Dillards…

and I got this awesome mirror at Kohls…

The colors were perfect and it was just the right size to hang between the windows!

Here are some more overall views…

It is really hard to get good shots due to the lighting in there!

I did re-finish the table, although you can’t tell in the pics.  It is still dark, which I wanted, but I got rid of the red undertones which I didn’t like. 

I really like how it turned out and I’m glad it’s done since it was about a 6 month process! 

Basketball

Hey everybody!  I ‘m on vacation from work this week and I’m spending it with A.J. since he is out for Spring Break.  His birthday was yesterday. He turned 8 years old!!  I came to to realization that in 5 years, I will have a teenager.  In 10 years, I will have an adult!!!  That is just insane. So, I am motivated even more to document his childhood as much as possible!  I’ll be sharing pics from our day together yesterday, as well as his party that we are having this Saturday in upcoming posts.  But today, I had to brag on his basketball skills!

He just finished up his 2nd year of basketball and had another undefeated season. His team also won the Championship!  He was responsible for most of the points scored throughout the season!!!  He loves basketball….I think it is his favorite sport, and it is definitely my favorite sport to watch him play.  Here are a few shots of him in action!

Who says white boys can’t jump???? LOL! 

Hang on to it baby! 

Here he is with his good friend that he plays baseball with too!

And the  #1 team!!!

Can you tell I’m a proud Mama?! 

Wallpapered light switch covers

I have been meaning to share this little project for a while now, but life kept getting in the way!  But I literally pass by them every day and think “that looks so good!”. 

After I used textured wallpaper in our half bath, which I showed you in this post, I had some left over. I wanted to use it for something, so I decided to try to put it on my light switch covers in the living room to dress them up.  I never liked the look of the plain covers, but could never find one I liked for a reasonable price, since one of them has FIVE switches.  Not what you call a standard size, so no finding those babies at Lowes.  So, the wall paper was worth a try. 

Honestly, I didn’t really expect it to work or look very good when it was finished, but I surprised myself!  Here is what I did…

1.  Removed the covers from the wall.  (Tried not to lose patience as I unscrewed 14 tiny screws)

2.  Cut the wallpaper so that I had about an inch extra on all sides of the cover. I made sure to center the design on the cover. 

3.  Wet and “book” the wallpaper according to the directions.

4.  When it had set the appropriate amount of time, I laid the cover upside down on the paper.

5.  Cut the corners of the paper and fold the sides over.

6.  Taped the edges of the paper to the back of the cover.  I used regular masking tape.  This is just to hold it in place until the glue on the paper adheres to the cover.

7. Turned the cover over and used a small screwdriver to poke holes where the switches and screws would go.

8.  Turned the cover back over and cut an X shape where the holes for the switches were.  This gave me 4 flaps that when pasted back, would open the rectangular shape of the switch hole. 

9.  Pasted those flaps back. Secured with a little more tape. 

10.  Waited for it to dry and removed the tape.

11.  Hung them back on the wall!

Doesn’t that look so much better than your standard white cover?   They turned out better than I expected and have held up really well.

Now, please for the love of God, if you go through the trouble to do this, make sure your screws are all lined up (notice all of them are turned so that the middle slots are all horizontal) or it will ruin the whole thing!