::party barn - ladder chandelier::

I have this great old beat up ladder that was on my farm when we moved in that has been begging to be made into something re-purposed.  

I ordered some cheap lights and stabled them on.  

I picked up some cheap ribbons.  

Quinn helped me try ribbons on.  

We decided to just ignore the broken run.  

Josh brought his skills out to add wire.  

And then he hung it in the rafters of our party barn and attached it to electricity.  

I'm really pleased with how it turned out and total cost was less than $25.  

::teenager drive in::

How is it even possible that Lily is 14!  WHAT!  14.  

It's not like I didn't see it coming but still...

14

This year for her party we decided to turn the party barn into a drive in movie.

I used my old luggage cart as a blanket rack.

Quinn helped with the popcorn machine.  

I loved the treat table.

We had hot chocolate with mini chips and sprinkles.

Whip cream got brought out latter.  

My lovely friend Emily and her family gave me this bowling pin vase. 

It made it too the party table because it'ss so cute.  

When it got dark we drove the trucks in and filled them with air mattresses and blankets.  

Max decided he would sneak in and join the party by sitting on the roof of a truck.

It ended up being five girls total. 

They had a really good time.  

::summer 2015::

We had such a wonderful summer this year.

 

 We started a pumpkin patch.

 

 We took out goat back and forth to a vet school in Illinois and she got her cast off with no residual issues.

 

We ate lots of wild berries.

Max and Josh made a rocket and fired it off.  Then picked it out of a tree.
 

We got three new kittens that have been hours of entertainment for the kids.  They are names Broccoli, Scrubs, and Jack Sparrow.  A few weeks latter the little grey and white one found its way here and got named Peter Pan.   

 

 Lily did an art camp and made the best teapot.  Its amazing.

 

 County fair was amazing!  All the animals did well.
Emma won Grand Champion pygmy wether with Bo.
Lily won reserve Grand Champion do with Marshmallow – a home grown baby girl

 

Lily won Champion All Other Breeds with her little Babydoll Southdown Ewe, Bernadette.

 

We learned that Q has three front teeth on top instead of two.  This should lead to some pretty fun dentist bills in the future but just adds to his serious cuteness. 

 

I took five chickens to the butcher and the three turkeys are going soon. 

 

The garden didn’t have its best year.  It started VERY strong, but late blight killed off most of my tomatoes.  I have a plan on how to deal with them next year, so I learned from it.

 

 

We got to sneak out on a Schaefer family cabin trip to Kentucky.  The whole crew had a good time. 

 Lily had too much fun decorating her locker for sixth grade.  

Disco ball included. 

 

 Max started second grade and Lily sixth.  

For her birthday this year Lily wanted to take her girl friend to get nails painted and then watch shows at our house.  I was the trusty driver.  

::how to train your dragon birthday party::

First - let me thank my Emma for taking all the pictures and my Josh for not grinding up Xanax and drugging me.  I get so nervous before a party and it kind of blows his mind.  

The treat table came together perfectly.  

Emma had the great idea of cutting out an animal hide from the extra brown fur left from the hiccup costume.

Josh threw in the two deer hides he had made last season to help set the stage.  

Josh also has access to a large format printer and printed out the two dragons on the backdrop.  

My usual cake lady made the amazing cake again.  She is so talented and her pricing is really reasonable.  

The treat table has dragon poop (more on this latter), dragon teeth (Hershey kisses), dragon claws (bugles), and dragon eggs (grapes).  We also had gold fish crackers and Swedish fish to feed the dragons.    

Dragon poop was a big hit.

You melt a whole bag of green candy melt then toss in marshmallows.

I used two forks to get out about eight marshmallows at a time and put them in little piles.

Then I covered them with green sprinkles.

(This idea is 100% off my pintrest board, it is not my idea at all.  I totally copied it from here.)

Our local donut shop has decorated donut holes that I try to get the kids for every holiday.   Those puppies were gone in minutes!

Sheep pops looked really cute. 

These were so easy to make!

Brown M&M's cut in half for ears.  

The cake decorating aisle has the sheep eyes.

Then I just melted some chocolate for the sheep heads.  

Dragon eggs.  

Emma's idea!

She is so clever.

Josh's deer hides.

Some inexpensive dragons stood guard.  

Oh the cake...

Usually when I dream up a cake I want to combine pieces of several other cakes.

On this one I gave my cake lady one picture and told her it was exactly what I wanted.  

Link here for cake design credit.

Link here to be sent to my cake ladies page.  

When the little ones arrived the picked a Viking hat and decorated their own viking shields (12 cake rounds with duct table arm hooks)

This book is book one in the Dragon series.  

Each party guest got one as a take home present.

We will donate our extras to the free the library in our town. 

Please remember I can't sew.  

Judge me lightly.  

I made the boys costumes with hot glue.  

Oh this Max...

I tear up, he melts me.  

The kids made catapults from spoons and corks and had a blast shooting them.  

And Mr Max loved it all.  

Link here for pintrest board with ideas.