DIY Blue Ombre Layer Cake

A few pictures from the day when I baked Dean's cake. 

P.S. I used cake mix + blue food dye. :) 

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DIY Very Hungry Caterpillar Felt Book + Free Printable

I promised you a printable from Emmett's party, so here it is! If you're looking to make your own Very Hungry Caterpillar felt book, this printable is for you. I think this would make a perfect gift for a young child or a teacher. You could even enlarge all the pieces and use it in the classroom with a felt board. You can use any felt, but I like to use wool felt blends because the quality of the felt is higher and it comes in a wide variety of beautiful colors. I purchased mine here (if you sign up for their newsletter, you can get a discount code too). 

Materials:

different colored felt

Very Hungry Caterpillar printout

scissors

pins

glue

Go ahead and cut out each object, leaving a generous amount of space around the outline. Next, pin it to the appropriate colored felt. 

After that, simply cut out the felt pieces along the lines and then remove the pins and discard the paper. At this point, several of the pieces will already be done! A few of the more complicated pieces may need to be glued together, either with white glue, fabric glue, or a few dots of hot glue. 

For the actual felt book, I bought some grey felt by the yard at the fabric store, and then cut them down to size. I sewed them down the middle to hold the pieces together, and that was it! 

Here's a look at each of the pages:

1 apple, 2 pears, 3 plums, 4 strawberries, and 5 oranges

cupcake, ice cream cone, pie, watermelon, lollipop, cake, cheese, salami, pickle, sausage

1 green leaf, the cocoon, and the final butterfly

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DIY Midterm Survival Kit + Free Printable

Midterms just passed recently for Dean and many of the students in my Women's Bible Study. I thought it would be nice to put together some survival kits for the students to help them through the week, so my fellow SO's (significant others) and I baked/bought some goodies to put into these kits. I had a lot of fun coming up with fun names for all the treats we put in - "Brain Bars," "Top-Dog Trail Mix," "Crunch-Time Cookies," "Mighty Muffins," and "Power Popcorn." Don't you just feel like going out and saving the world after reading those names? :) 

If you have a student in your life, maybe they could use an extra boost of energy too! Click on the image below for a free download of the tags and labels used in the Midterm Survival Kit. Simply print on cardstock or label paper, trim, and attach to your items. Enjoy! 

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Snapshots

I realized I haven't shared too many pictures of our day-to-day lives here, so I wanted to start posting some weekly snapshots. Hopefully, this will give you a glimpse into our lives here on the island. 

1. John 3:16 // 2. eggplant + tomato pizza // 3. bougainvillea flowers outside our apartment // 4. fish friday vendors in the city of Gouyave // 5. crab curry // 6. wing night Wednesday // 7. snorkeling at Magazine Beach // 8. fresh tamarind // 9. tamarind tree

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Green Eggs and Ham

Say!

I like green eggs and ham!

I do!! I like them, Sam-I-am!

And I would eat them in a boat!
And I would eat them with a goat...
And I will eat them in the rain.
And in the dark. And on a train.
And in a car. And in a tree.
They are so good so good you see!

 So I will eat them in a box.

And I will eat them with a fox.

And I will eat them in a house.

And I will eat them with a mouse.

And I will eat them here and there.

Say! I will eat them ANYWHERE!

I do so like
green eggs and ham!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-am

Happy St. Patrick's Day! :) 

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A Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party

In addition to the invitations, I also helped out with some of the decorations for Emmett's first birthday party. Chau found a local baker who did such a fabulous job with the beautiful cake, smash cake, and the cutest cupcakes ever! Chau and her sister also worked really hard to put all the extra details together, and her mom and extended family made tons of homemade Vietnamese food that was so delicious. Let me say, this family knows how to throw a party! And I have to mention that Chau and Quoc have a gorgeous home that is just perfect for throwing parties. :) 

For Emmett's birthday present, I decided to make him a felt version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar that included felt pieces of all the fruits and junk foods that the caterpillar ate. I'll share more details and a printable DIY in a follow-up post. :) 

the birthday boy

Pin the caterpillar on the apple

Photos courtesy of Julie Wan

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A Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Invitation

I've been meaning to share with you these fun invitations I made for Emmett's first birthday party several months back. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of Emmett's favorite books, so his mom Chau decided this would be a perfect theme for the invitations and the party! Chau mentioned that Emmett loves to stick his fingers through all the little holes in the book, so I did my best to incorporate that into the invitation as well. 

I decided to play along with the counting aspect of the book, so each phrase had a number that matched  the amount of fruit the caterpillar munched through each day.

I also helped out with some of the decorations for the party, but I'll talk about the party in a different post because there were so many gorgeous details that I want to share with you. :)

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