Hopkins 2nd/3rd Grade Music and Art Night

 About a month ago, the twins showed off their art and did quite a cute musical play. 

Grandma and grandpa came to watch the show:) Mark was out of town which was sad.

 This is Luciano. Sophia has quite the crush on him. It is the first time she has ever talked about a boy with such admiration. Mark is not very thrilled. I think its funny. Although we did sit her down and have a talk about being friends with everyone and that there is plenty of time to like boys when she is much older:) They play soccer together at recess and thank goodness he is in the other 3rd grade:) 

He seems like a nice kid. 

 The twins with Alice and JJ.

Here is the musical they did... it is 23 minutes. All about the life cycle of plants. You dont have to watch it all. I recoded it for Mark who wasn't able to make it. They twins do their little signing part around 6:20...they were the Big Bad Squirrels- its a rap- so thats why they had to wear hats sideways and necklaces:) Enjoy.. (sorry my hand is shaky)

A Tea Party Baby Shower

 Continuing in my blog catching up- this post takes up back to June 2012.

We celebrated the arrival of little Beccah to our Sola Family! 

Melody and Val threw a beautiful tea party in honor of our special little guest.

 We just love baby Beccah and can't believe she is almost 6 months old already! 

Italian Themed Teacher Luncheon

I really enjoy creating the staff/teacher luncheons at Mark Hopkins Elementary.

 Its fun to create a nice relaxing lunch to show teachers 

how much we love them and appreciate what they do with our students.

For our fall luncheon, I went with an Italiano lunch theme. 

 I use BRING IT as an online sign up sheet and parents sign up for what they would like to bring. I really like Bring It because you can add what you want others to bring so you can make sure to get just what you need for your event. 

 World Market had the yummy Italian Torrone candies for favors. 

My friend Melody, let me borrow her gorgeous glass drink container- I really want one of these! 

I have borrowed it from her for numerous parties and its so pretty. 

It always gets lots of compliments:) 

 I am going to post a recipe tomorrow for this AMAZING dipping oil with the most yummy combination of spices! It goes wonderfully with Panera's baguettes. 

(we are so blessed to have a parent who works for Panera's donation/promotion department- they ALWAYS donate so much to our school and we are very grateful!) 

I also need to post the recipe for these mini cheesecakes- they were super easy and very tasty! 

Overall, it was a great event and went very smoothly.

Mini "Pumpkin" Cheese Balls

I made these tasty treats for a baby shower this past weekend and I thought I would share the recipe. 

They were very delicious.

You could fashion them as small round pumpkins as an individual serving or you could make a large cheese ball and surround it with crackers. I found the recipe on a blog but I cannot find where now, so just know it is not original to me.

Recipe: 24 mini cheese balls 

2 pkgs. soft cream cheese

1/2 cup of chopped roasted red peppers

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper, more or less to taste

2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
Paprika
Pretzel rod (tips)
cilantro leaves

Mix cream cheese, peppers, garlic and cayenne in mixer. Stir in cheddar cheese. Put in fridge for an hour to harden back up. Then, take out and roll into balls about an inch round. Roll in paprika. Slit sides with a knife to make them look like pumpkins. Place a cilantro leaf and pretzel rod into cheeseball before serving. Place on a stack off crackers.
Enjoy! 

Showering Jen's Little Pumpkin Baby Shower

We were honored to celebrate the expected arrival of Jen's little baby boy (due in December).

We went with a fall theme and used some of the colors in her nursery. 

Julie created the beautiful decor and Val put together a yummy brunch menu. 

The food was amazing! We have some pretty awesome cooks here at Sola! 

I think we should create a cookbook to share recipes. 

 Jen is looking absolutely adorable and its so fun to share in her excitement for the first little life added to their family. And I cannot wait to find out his name. 

Congratulations Jen and Josh! 

Turquoise Lake Summer 2012

 This post is so long overdue. 

But I wanted to make sure it made it onto the blog archives:) 

This past summer we took a nice little getaway with the Mondragons and Endyks 

to Turquoise Lake.

It was absolutely beautiful! 

We will definitely return. 

Lots of little people all around

 It was SO cold in the morning! 

 Daddy helped them spell their names with rocks on the beach

I would rate this camping experience in one of the top ten! 

It was a blast:)