Ready, set, summer!

Growing like a weed.

The kids, that is. Not Uncle Dave's wheat crop. Well, OK. Maybe both.

Top 10 Questions Asked on the 1st Grade Field Trip to the Sedgwick County Zoo.

10. Can we eat lunch?
9. Can I have a drink?
8. Why is that monkey's butt red?
7. Can I get a snow cone?
6. Can we feed the fish? Geese? Giraffes? Gorillas?
5. Will you hold my jacket? Map? Snow cone money? Water bottle?
4. Can I have a snack?
3. What time is the bus coming? (Usually followed by "what time is it?")
2. Can we sit down?
1. My feet hurt, will you carry me?

I volunteered to go on Gus' First Grade field trip to the zoo on Friday. Usually, a 3-hour visit to the zoo on a sunny day in May can be so delightful. However, we were there for 5 hours, and it was really HOT. Despite all the whining, the kids had a great time. And I did too (when I wasn't feeling like a pack mule - jackets, lunch boxes, hats, sunscreen, camera, backpack, etc.)

I am my mother's daughter.

It's Mother's Day, and I wouldn't be half the mom I am today, without my own mother - Jeanette Weishaar. She taught me everything I needed to know about how to raise happy, healthy, well-adjusted kids. She should know, she raised seven of them.

Not only that, but when my youngest brother was only a year old, she started a career of raising other people's children. For 26 years, she had a daycare in her home and helped nurture and care for over 70 children in Colby. (A few years back we tried to count them all, but lost track.)

If ever there's a mother that exemplifies strength, humor, patience, faith and love - it's Jeanette.

Thanks mom, Happy Mother's Day.

Cinco de Mayo Dessert-o

Fresh from the Denneler Panaderia (that's spanish for "bakery"): 

Taco Cookies

We're having a little Cinco de Mayo feast at work today, so I baked some sugar cookie tacos. To make the shells, I folded the cookie dough over wedges of tin foil and then baked them. The sugary mexican toppings include: 

Ground Beef = crushed Oreos, icing & melted chocolate chips

Sour Cream = buttercream icing

Lettuce & cheese = green and yellow coconut flakes

Tomatoes = cherry sours

Mucho delicioso!

You're invited.

I love a good party. Maybe that's why I've always enjoyed doing party invitations. Here are two freelance invites that I did recently for a baby shower and a graduation.

I'm not familiar with a "Sip & See," but apparently that's what they do in the south. Or east? Or northeast? (I'm not really sure where it originated. Just not in the midwest.) I guess you drop by, take a gander at the new baby and have a sip of your favorite beverage. What a great idea.

And I know it's cliché, but for this Doctor of Optometry graduation invite, I created a slightly altered eye chart. It worked so perfectly, it felt wrong to do it any other way.

I always say that the invitation sets the mood for the party you're planning, so make it fun!