Mother/Daughter Look Alike Contest

Last Friday and Saturday was the Women's Expo here in Norfolk. There were over 30 booths featuring local businesses and their products. There were booths selling handbags, home decor, scrapbooking products, eyecare, jewelry, Tupperware, hair/beauty products, etc. There was one booth on photography. Reflections Portraits is a local photography studio. Reflections was sponsoring a Mother/Daughter Look Alike Contest. All you had to do was stop by their booth and get your picture taken to be entered. This contest had been publicized in the newspaper.

I told Cara that if we were going to ever win a contest this was the one for us to enter. Truth be told, Cara looks exactly like me when I was 9 years old. Ashlin also looks like me, but I decided that I could only take one daughter to the Expo and enter the contest. I chose Cara because she is the oldest and would behave the best while I browsed for awhile at the Expo.

At first Cara was embarrassed and said that there was no way that she would do it. I again stressed to her that we definitely did look alike and that we should give it a try. Saturday morning Cara was ready to go and give it a shot.

The third booth that we went to at the Expo was the photography booth for the contest. Right away the photographer was telling us how much we looked alike. She proceeded to take about four different poses of us together and then she took a few shots of Cara by herself. Then we were told that we could check out our proofs online in a few days. Cara and I then walked around the Expo and browsed, but everywhere we went ladies kept asking us if we had gotten our picture taken for the Look Alike Contest.

Yesterday I received an e-mail that Cara and I had placed 2nd in the contest and that she would be mailing our gift certificate to us. Cara was so excited and I was also. We checked out our proofs online and some of them are amazing.

So, you tell us if you think that Cara and I look alike!! You can check out the 1st place winner and Cara's and my 2nd place photo at the photographers blog Reflections Portraits under the post - Women's Expo 2010.

Take care,
Michelle

Valentine's Day Wreath

I don't have very much Valentine's Day decor, so I have been searching blogland for an easy craft project. I came across this cute and easy Valentine's Day wreath over at Living With Lindsay on her Tuesday Tutorials. She gives you step by step instructions on how to construct this cute wreath.

Since I am short on decor and the project looked fairly easy I decided to buy the supplies for two wreaths. One smaller and one larger heart-shaped wreath. Cara completed the smaller one and I completed the larger wreath. Erica and Ashlin tried to help Cara with the smaller wreath, but Ashlin thought the project was too hard and Erica lost interest.

Cara's smaller wreath. She used a calico small heart printed fabric.

I added the heart ribbon as a hanger and hung the wreath on our front door.

My completed larger heart wreath. I used a darker red fabric that had small black crinkle lines running through it. I bought all of our supplies at Hobby Lobby.

I hung my larger heart wreath above the mantel.

A closer up look at the larger wreath.

Next, I am working on another Valentine's Day project to add some more decor to the mantel for this holiday. Hopefully, this project will not take me too long and I will be able to share pictures in a few days.

Take care,

Michelle

Shoot Me! Week 4 of 52

Today is Week 4 of 52 in the Shoot Me! Challenge by Carin over at Forever in Blue Jeans. Cara, our oldest daughter, took this picture of me last Saturday when we were working on a Valentine wreath craft project. It is not the best snapshot, but it is a picture of me on the other side of the camera. I still find this challenge to be exactly that for me "A Challenge". Hopefully, it will get easier for me each week.

I will have another post later today about our Valentine wreath project that Cara and I completed, and I am starting to work on another craft project for Valentine's Day.

Take care,

Michelle

Help the Children of Haiti

Yesterday Ashlin was dropped off from Preschool by the carpool. She came in the house and immediately yelled that she was home. I asked her how school was and she said that she had an important note for me to read. Ashlin got the note out of her backpack for me to read. After I finished reading the note Ashlin said, "Mom we have to help those kids." The note was from Ashlin's Preschool Teacher and what the preschool class could do to help the children of Haiti. Mrs. Nedrow contacted the Orphan Grain Train in Norfolk and asked what her preschool class could do to help the children of Haiti. It was suggested that the class help out by donating new socks and underwear for the little children of Haiti.

Ashlin's class must have learned about the poor children in Haiti at school yesterday. Ashlin knew that these children needed help. She knew that these children needed new socks and underwear. Also, she knew that the children in Haiti did not have beds to sleep on and that they slept on dirt.

Today after picking Ashlin up from preschool we went to the store and purchased new socks and underwear for Ashlin to give to the children of Haiti. Ashlin picked out "Fancy Nancy" and "High School Musical" little girl underwear and a big package of little girl socks.

Next week is Catholic Schools Week and our school is holding a clothing drive for the children of Haiti. We can bring new or gently used summer clothing to school and it will be shipped to Haiti. A few weeks ago, the second collection money at Mass also went to Haiti to help after the earthquake.

God Bless these little children of Haiti!

Take care,
Michelle

Date Night

On Saturday afternoon Keith suggested that we have a date night. Pretty short notice but if he wants to go out I am all for it. He suggested dinner and a movie. Right away I call one of the neighborhood sitters that we use to see if anyone is available. I hit the jackpot on the first phone call so we were set.

The sitter ran over at 6:00 to watch our kids and Keith and I start quizzing Keaton on what movie to go see. There was only one movie showing that we had any interest in seeing, "The Blind Side". The problem was that the movie started at 6:45. How were we going to get dinner in before the movie? The answer in our haste was to return the Red Box movie from Friday night, drive thru Burger King and grab a sandwich, stop at the bank ATM for cash and then get to the movie theater. Good thing we live in a small town where we could accomplish all of that in a short amount of time.

We loved the movie!!! We are both huge football fans so I was sure that we would enjoy it. We got out of the movie at 9:00 and we both looked at each other and said "Now what do we do?". So we headed to a local sports bar for a drink and nachos.

It is no wonder that throughout the night and the next morning that we both had stomach aches. We ate enough junk food in one night to make up for all of the junk food that we both had been depriving ourselves since we started watching what we eat and working out. If you look at what we had to eat - Burger King sandwiches, movie theater popcorn with butter, large sodas, nachos and margaritas. I'm surprised we didn't throw up on all of that junk. My body isn't used to junk food like that any more. Thank heavens we don't eat like that very often! But, it was a GREAT night out away from our kids!

Take care,
Michelle

Friday Night Movies

The last two Friday nights we have had family movie night. Keith and the girls go and pick out a family movie from the Red Box for $1. Then we all snuggle up in blankets and lots of pillows in the basement. And of course, we can't forget about the popcorn and pop to add to the movie night. A week ago we rented "Marley and Me" and this Friday was "The Dog that Saved Christmas". Both of these movies were great family flicks. We had such a good time just hanging out together. We might have to make this a Friday night ritual, plus it is so much cheaper than going to the movie theater.

Take care,
Michelle

Our Goofy Erica!

I'm not quite sure what to say in this post, except, this is what happens when our six-year old, Erica, decided to take the camera and then snap pictures of herself. This is soooo Erica! She thought this was so funny when I asked her about it. Only Erica would think to do something this goofy.





P.S. Erica gets this from her Dad, NOT me.

Take care,
Michelle