Message Center

I was really tired of the old message center that I had up so I decided to make it prettier and work better for our family.  I plan on using one letter bin for Mac and one for Mille.  It seems like there are always a million papers coming home form school and I always misplace at least one!  I added a calendar to the cork board but didn't take a photo of that (found a really cute monthly calendar online and printed it out)

These are the girls chore charts.  They want to start getting an allowance so I told them that was great but they needed to complete a list of things each day/week to earn it.  I'm keeping a tally and then whenever they accumulate enough to buy something then I will give them money.  We did an allowance a while back but I hardly ever have cash and I would forget to pay them so I think this will help me and them.  I even told them that once they earn enough $ and we are out shopping and they want to buy something I could just do it that way. 

I just covered a white/magnetic board with cute paper then I hot glued cute buttons to little magnets.  They take a button and cover up what chore they did.  I put daily and weekly chores on there and I even included "extras" for them to either earn extra $ or make up for days when they didn't complete their daily chores.  So far so good, I just take the chart with me and look in their rooms and then tally up what they earned for the day.

Mac surprise birthday party back in December

I was going to do a baking party for Mac but then I thought a slumber party would be fun and Mac has ALWAYS wanted a surprise party...so why not do it all at once!  I made the girls aprons and then I put their names on chef hats.  The girls used cupcake liners to make flower decorations for their hats, they turned out really cute. I used small metal pails as the base of the little cake stands.  I took a cake circle and covered it with scrapbook paper then hot glued it to the bottom of the pail = cake stand!  I baked small cakes and the girls decorated them.  That was their dessert so if they loaded it with icing then that's what they ate.  Some were kind of scary but most turned out awesome!!!

It was great because I used a lot of stuff that I used at Mac's party last year and even some stuff from Mille's party too.

I made Mac's apron a little more fancy then the others, she's the birthday girl after all!!! The aprons turned out really cute.

A close up of the cake stands and all the cupcake liners too.  They just used the liners to make whatever flower they wanted, super cute!!!

Mac and mama with her apron!

There is a pic of her apron and her cute hat!  She did such a great job on her flower!

Mac and Mille, Mille had another b-day party to go to so she didn't get all dressed up. Mac is decorating her cake.

adding chocolate, yummy!

Finished!  Her cake looked great, she put a little M in the center.  She's pretty creative!  :o)

My sweet baby, can't believe she's 10!

Sweet girls!

For the next morning we had yummy chocolate milk!

Yummy cereal too, I also had cinnamon rolls and pigs in the blanket.

The girls had so much fun and they were all asleep by about midnight.  I had to enforce it b/c a lot of us had a busy weekend.  I  will say it was great having it on a Friday night because the girls were kind of sleeping from school.  They surprised Mac (she had NO idea!) then they decorated their hats and cakes.  We ate pizza and our yummy cakes then they played some games.  After the games were over they made mini scrapbooks.  Once they were all finished they settled in (I moved out some furniture and they put their sleeping bags on the living room floor) and watched ELF.  Fun night I know Mac will never forget it.

Man it's been a while!!! Here are SOME of the things that have been going on at the Cherry House!

We have been so busy around the Cherry household!  I'll go back and post pics of Mac's party it was a surprise Slumber party with a baking theme. Super fun! Here are the girls sledding in Lake City.  We went there for Christmas and had an amazing time.

Mac has been studying the Alamo so we went there this past weekend.  It was a super quick visit b/c Mille had a game that day so we drove straight from the game to the Alamo!  Then the next day we drove to Austin.  We went to see Wicked, AMAZING!!!! 

Mac dressed up as Susanna Dickenson for a project for school, Almaron was her FIRST husband (she had a total of 5!)

Here is what the girls gave their teachers.  We bought valentine candy boxes and the girls, Craig, and I ate some then threw the rest away. :o) Then I covered the boxes and put gift cards in there.

This one is a Sonic gift card and it reads "You're an awesome teacher b/c you're "Sweet!"

Chick-fil-A that says You're an awesome teacher b/c you're "an awesome Chick" we couldn't come up with anything other than that. :o)

iTunes that says, you're a good teacher b/c you "listen!"

Then we covered the gift cards with yummy candy.

Put a sweet note on it and then...

tied it with a bow!

I don't know what Mille bug is doing in this pose but that's the Mille bug!  

Cupcakes for Mac's class, they're cuter than this pic shows.  I also did a salty snack of popcorn, pretzels, and goldfish.

Water bottles with a sweet message from Mac.

I attached a Crystal Light packet and put a joke on it. 

I made a banner for our mantel, Happy Valentine's Day!

This is a precious pig I got in Salado with Leslie.  We had an awesome day playing and shopping!  I painted the frame on the chalkboard grey to match my kitchen better.

This is a frame I painted and distressed.  I bought the frame at H.L. it was white to begin with and then I painted it Gray Matters then I rubbed it with Walnut stain.  It started out as a cork board but I just popped it off and turned it around and painted it with chalkboard paint (I recommend the paint in a can versus spray paint. I did that first and it didn't work well!)

There are some things that I have done and worked on.  I know there is more but I'll post those later!  Working on Mille bug's b-day party, Art Party! Also working on St. Patty Day stuff too. Fun!!!