Upgrade

I am reading a great book about the "ten secrets to the best education for your child".  It's called Upgrade by Kevin Swanson.  Check it out and see what you think.  Although the focus is education, I'm finding a lot of helpful parenting advice in this book too.  It's hard to sum up all the awesome things this book addresses, so I'll just recommend it and let you find out for yourself.  If you are considering homeschool, this book is a must read.  If your child is struggling in a certain subject at school, this book may give you some direction or inspiration on how to help them succeed.

This book will encourage you and maybe surprise you too.

Wedding Shower Gift Boxes

The wedding shower went well.  (Thank you to the ladies that gave me game ideas!)  We ended up keeping it simple.  I did a quiz to see how well they knew my sister.  Several people got all ten right.  I asked her to leave for a moment and the gals were asked to write down as many things as they could remember about what she was wearing.  We also gave a prize to the person whose birthday or anniversary was closest to my sister's wedding date, ended up the mother of the bride had the closest anniversary, and the mother of the groom had the closest birthday.  Then during gift opening, we set the timer for random amounts of time.  Whenever it went off, the person whose gift was being unwrapped received a prize.  I think everybody had a great time.  

I also made little treat boxes and filled them with bags of chocolate covered almonds as a party gift for everyone that attended the wedding shower.  I've attached  a couple of pictures below so you can see the finished product.  Also, I've included a brief "tutorial" if you'd like to make these treat boxes. (If you need more info, I can email you a pdf file that gives step by step instructions.)  They are very easy to make and you can get two boxes from one sheet of 8 1/2 x 11" card stock.  Supplies needed to make the box: card stock, double stick tape, scissors, Scor-pal (or some sort of system to make score lines), and whatever embellishments you want.  

Here's the completed treat box.  It was a bit beat up
by the time I remembered to photograph it.
The box is about 3 1/2" by 3" by 1 1/4".

I made fifty of these little boxes.  Crazy, I know, but it was fun too.  

Sticky strip is double stick tape sold by Stampin' Up.  Crumb Cake is a color of card stock they sell.

Visual Tutorial by: Andrea Walford, Paper Crafter’s Library, February 2011. www.papercrafterslibrary.com