What’s been going on

Hello everyone 

We’ve had full days with houseguests and appointments and I’ve been doing some rearranging and decluttering,  again - those last 2 things seem to reoccur often here.  

I sewed this Valentine advent calendar.  I intended to make them for all 3 homes of my grands but that didn’t happen.  I saw the idea on YouTube from Heidi Sonboul.  She has really good ideas, and they are mostly simple, thrifty and cute.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-qRjOBSP-h8ooxwQOmndtA 

Quilts of Valor 

My husband and my dad both received beautiful Quilts of Valor this week 


My mom made this cute crocheted snowman scene for the ledge by their front door.  


I am a huge fan of Walmart grocery pickup these days.  I highly recommend it!  

We’ve had a lot of cold days and rainy days and Ducky has done a lot of this- dog naps 😊

Valentines Gingerbread house party

Hello everyone,  

We celebrated Valentine’s Day with a family gingerbread house party.

The kits were bought on clearance after Christmas for about $1.25 each.  

I didn’t know before I opened the boxes but some gingerbread houses need to assembled with frosting as glue- and it’s tricky. 

Other houses come all the assembled.

If I ever buy more kits,  I will only buy the assembled ones as they are so much easier and stress free.  The boxes are labeled but a quick way to discern the difference is the unassembled kits are in flat boxes and the assembled houses are in cube shaped boxes. 

All those kits,  we only had 3 preassembled houses 😱

Before the party,  we covered the tables with disposable tablecloths. 

And I opened every kit and threw away all the packaging.  

I bought a little extra candy and I asked the guests to bring candy too.  

Now on to the decorating. Some the children chose to work in pairs as they decorated. 

The preschoolers all had and needed an adult for assistance and supervision.  

The kits came with frosting bags but I didn’t put them out for children.  I made a big batch of royal frosting with meringue powder.  It made a fluffy frosting that I put in bowls and we used little plastic knives to spread the frosting on the houses.  I think spreading the frosting was fun and less aggravating for littles.  

All the decorated houses -quite an assortment, right? 

Below are our 8 grands who had the best time being together and creating.  

They range in age from 3 1/2 to just turned 11.  



 Happy Valentine’s Day everyone 

❤️ Rhonda