Sweet Baby Girl Worked it yesterday at the lake! This little one got her first little boat and rocked it!!! Our good friends, The Henderson's, got these for their little ones and told us that Costco had them for a great deal!

We are blessed to be part of an amazing family that always welcomes us. We have so many sweet memories at the lake because they are so selfless. We love our time with them and love time at the lake too.

These pictures are of one of my dearest friend's daughters and my girls. Her girls are precious. Their sweet family brought their new paddle boards out on the lake to test them out.

This is one precious Godly woman, friend and mentor. I'm blessed that she's part of my life.

Hughes Happiness

Day 3 was all about spreading God's love! Sure is amazing that he trusts us with such big responsibilities such as spreading his love! We have a parent at our school that tells her baby every morning when she drops him off to "Show God's Love Today!" What a great reminder! Now I've started doing the same with Ava Greer and then we try to reflect at the end of the day on those times we were able to (me too) show God's Love! We tried to reflect on missed out opportunities as well. Another amazing responsibility he trusted many of us with is raising his precious children. What better way to show his love than through our children! I have to admit I can be short fused at times with these little ones. I so desire to be filled with the fruits of the spirit though, so I can share his Love with these sweet babies and all others I come in contact with! What a priviledge!

I cut coffee filters in the shape of hearts. We used food coloring to tint water and water droppers to watch how a little drop can spread and make a big change. Just like his love when we spread it! If you do this with your little ones I would just use straight up food coloring rather than mixing it with water. It makes it brighter. A little goes a long way! When the hearts dried we glued them to construction paper and attached a sticker that said, "Spread God's Love!"

Our special snack/craft were actually ideas from the VBS curriculum book. People Paws... Popcorn and Gummies in a plastic glove as a reminder that God uses his people to spread his love!

Hope you can do some of these fun things with your little ones!

Hughes Happiness

This is another craft and snack from VBS. The lesson Tuesday was that God loves us even though we are different. The story was about the Samaratin woman. I decided to emphasize how God created us uniquely all the way down to our fingerprints. AG has this awesome fingerprint art set that we got at Books-A-Million which led me to this craft.

The Baby class did the activity too, but Mrs. Jessica adapted it a little bit so the little ones didn't get ink all over them. I can't remember what the things they used were called but they were like ink bingo markers. The kids used different colors and put dots all over their pictures then their teachers turned their dots into critters.

The big kids used the art on the wall to figure out what they wanted to make and then the teachers used sharpies to make the critters.

The snack was Masterpiece Munchies and came from the VBS curriculum book. Mera and I made individual bags of candy decorations for each kiddo. We gave them an iced cookie and they used their creativity to make their masterpieces. Supplies needed:

Icing

Cookie

Pull apart Twizzlers

M&M's

Mike and Ikes

Sprinkles- little brown ones would be cute for hair.

These would be fun summer activities with your kiddos as well!

Hope you got some good ideas! Would love to hear if you do any of these craft/snacks!

Hughes Happiness

I'm excited to share a wedding with you that I was able to take part in. My sweet friend Alicia and I went to school together and reconnected when she interned at my previous school last year. I loved talking to her about the wedding plans and offered to help in any way. My duties consisted of directing, decorations, cake and cake bites. Alicia had a Pinterest board with wedding ideas that I browsed through to see what types of things she liked. 

All of the beautiful floral decorations you see throughout the wedding were from Morgan Creek Winery.  Alicia borrowed these Shepard hooks from a friend. The Jars came from Wal-Mart and the sheer ribbon came from Hobby Lobby. The vineyard also loaned us the burlap for the arbor and we used tulle that I already had. The morning of the wedding Alicia's brothers met me and helped me with the rebar that was used to make the arbor. Basically they bent the rebar and stuck it in the ground. They stayed with me all morning and helped me get it all done. They are some sweet brothers. I originally placed the burlap and tulle over the rebar, but let's be honest…I'm not in the floral business and I was scared to death that Alicia trusted me to do this. Thank the good Lord above that the Vineyard owner and another precious lady that works at the vineyard came to the rescue. They really saved me and made the arbor looked amazing. 

The Shepard hooks were a Pinterest inspired detail.

Going into it Alicia and I decided it would be great to use wine barrels to place the cake and other desserts on. She decided on a yellow cake with cream cheese icing. Rather than a grooms cake, I enjoyed making chocolate cake bites with chocolate drizzle. She also decided to have The Alabama Biscuit Company cater their amazing chocolate chip cookies. 

This is a comparison of the cake Alicia found on Pinterest and the cake I had the privilege of doing for her. Not the same, but Alicia was pleased and I really was too. After I set up for the wedding I ran home to get dressed and be back for pictures. I couldn't leave without working on one more special touch, so I used my Cameo Silhouette to make their initials using vinyl that I placed on the barrel holding the cake.    

The Alabama Biscuit Company did an amazing job on the food! It was perfect for an elegant southern wedding. It was YUMMY!!!!

I so enjoyed directing my first wedding. Alicia's family and friends were great! Alicia looked absolutely amazing! The greatest thing about this sweet girl is I have known her since I was in middle school and her beauty is defineitly is within. I have never heard a negative word about her. She is one of the kindest people I know and Rod is one lucky guy to have her. She is dear to everyone who knows her.  
Thank you Alicia for allowing me to be part of the most memorable and special celebration of your life. 
I love you Friend.   

We started vacation bible school today and it was wonderful! I have the privilege do doing crafts and snacks. The theme is weird animals, but I have been kind of doing my own thing. Of course I got the cute owl craft and snack idea from Pinterest, but I decide to do owls today because it went perfect with our preschool bible lesson that God will always be with is even when we feel alone. We learn this as kids, but when we feel lonely it is so important we remember that he desires to be with us and that may be why we are feeling lonely... He's trying to get our attention!

To help the little ones remember this lesson we did this owl craft...

I cut all the parts out using my Cameo Shiloutte... Btw the Shiloutte does not like construction paper! 😉

I prebagged the supplies for each child and Mera and I glued the body on the cardstock. The kiddos then glued the pieces on and the teachers helped paint hands for the wings.

These are the supplies needed...
Yellow, white, black and brown construction paper.
White cardstock
Paint

I made Owl Smores for the snack.These are the supplies needed...

Graham crackers
M&M's
Mike and Ike's
Marshmallows

The first thing you need to do is split each graham cracker. There is a trick to this. If you don't want a ton of graham crackers breaking you will need to do the following...

Hold the cracker with the seam facing you. Push back on the seam. With one hand on each side. If you try to break the cracker pushing towards you, it will break.

You will then cut each marshmallow in half with kitchen scissors. Place the marshmallows on the graham crackers. You will need to individually microwave them between seven and 10 seconds. I watch them and when they start to puff I get them out of the microwave. Then I add the M&M eyeballs and the Mike and Ike nose. After they cooled I was able to stack them.

For those of you that wonder when and how I do this... My craft room is a hot mess to say the least and I don't do these projects until the girls are in the bed at night! That means I am up til the wee hours of the morning! So... I'm a hot mess too! lol! I am a blessed hot mess though and I usually make up for the lost sleep each day when I cuddle with my girls and nap! It's all totally worth it!

We love that we are blessed with this time to fellowship with our friends!

Hughes Happiness

The sermon this week was AMAZING to say the least! It really hit home! I took more notes than I've ever taken during a sermon. For those of you that know me, you know I am a people PLEASER! I don't want anyone upset with me or disappointed in me. I learned a lot about myself this mother's day! The Lord convicted my heart about seeking approval from others rather than him. I take for granted the fact that he will love me regardless...PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE listen to this sermon... http://doubleoakcc.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=279877&programId=180220

or go to www.doubleoakcc.org , then Sunday Worship, Media, May 11th sermon

If you can't listen to the entire thing minutes 23-26 really hit home!  Is my heart in the right place? Whose approval will I seek from now on? I may fail, but he will pick me up and carry me through.




Hughes Happiness