Birthday Party! WOO HOO!

 We had Emily's birthday party today.  We had a great time with our friends that were able to come out to the skating rink.  Here are a few pictures from Wayne's World.  We went over to Pizza Hut afterwards and had pizza and cupcakes.  Emily's friend Sam came home with her and we had a weinie roast and made smores. 

Last week I went on a soap making spree in preparation for Christmas.  I am trying to make gift baskets for several people and I needed to get the soap made so it would have time to cure and dry out before gift giving time.  I thought the cops were going to be called last weekend when I purchased every bit of lye on Tractor Supply's shelf!  Here are a few of the results.

This is what I call the Christmas soap, it is peppermint scented and colored with powder algae and red jojoba beads.

Bergamot!  I colored the orange with paprika that I soaked in olive oil and the strained through a coffee filter.  My intentions were to swirl this orange up and down into the white, but after I already had the log wrapped and covered up I realized I had forgot to swirl the colors, so I just left it the way it was.  Kind of disappointed with myself, but the soap is still going to be fabulous to use.
 

 I also did a run of spiced mahogany scented, pumice soap.  I colored it with turmeric and put it in a silicone mold that was shaped like leaves and pumpkins.  Brandon needed an abrasive soap for getting grease off his hands and I wanted to experiment with this mold.  The color came out perfect! It has the look of pumpkin pie.  I don't have a picture of these yet. Now I need to think about what creative ways I can package the soaps.  I went to Mitchael's and Hobby Lobby to try to get some ideas and basic items to start with.  We will see how that turns out.


Here are some other things we have been up to:

Emily with her science fair project.  It is not due until November 19, but we didn't want to be burdened with it over her birthday week, so we set a goal to have it done by Friday of this week, and ta-da, here we have it!

Never I thought I would Allow this in My House!!

We have had a very productive weekend!  All 3 of us girls had our hair cut Thursday evening and then we got ready for the 3 day weekend!  I cleaned up most of the aftermath from the Halloween party on Friday and started doing my 8 hours of continuing education so I can keep my mortgage origination license.  I opted for a self-paced online course this year so I can get it in whenever I have a few extra minutes here and there.  I also rescued my 3 beautiful pineapple plants from the raised beds and relocated them to the basement for the winter.  I have 1 that is almost 2 years old and I would hate to kill it!  I may try to "force" it to bloom, but I think that may be impossible in this climate, but I may research it more and find out.  I have read somewhere about putting a bag over it with a rotting apple and the fumes it gives off with trick it into blooming.  We will see..

Brandon and I got over to the Community college and did our early voting so we don't have to wait in line on Tuesday.  The kids went with us and watched the whole process.  Abigail gave us a blow by blow comparison of the presidential candidates at supper the night before.  I guess this is what happens when one of her best friends is a kid out of a very politically involved family.  A family where the kids have to watch the debates and any presidential speech and then have a quiz on it!   I was surprized at what all Abigail knew about them, but we had to straighten her out about some things!
We also made some progress with Emily's science project.  We had the experiment part done on October 28, but we had to do all the materials, hypothesis, procedure, conclusions, results, and all the graphs to go along with it.  We got these written, got pictures printed, and now we need to get everything organized and fixed onto the board.  We are trying to get this out of the way so it doesn't interfere with our birthday party next weekend and her birthday week won't be spent trying to hurry and get it finished.  It is due November 19, but I hope it is ready to turn in by this Friday.  I hate procrastination and it will not happen on my watch!

I organized my supplies for soapmaking and made a 6 pound batch of peppermint "Christmas" soap.  I also tried to mold some candycane special molds, but I think it may have to be rebatched.  We will see how the 6 pound batch turned out tomorrow morning after it cools for a while.  As many pictures that I take of other things, I can't believe that I have never took pictures of the homemade soap stuff.  I guess it is just because during the process it is nerve racking to just get done what you need to do, let alone document it with pictures!  Here again is something dangerous that I am allowing in my house!


My soap making station.  Hope no one was looking in the basement window-it looks like a drug lab!

Here is my "Christmas" soap.  It should have a green bottom layer and you can actually see some of the green that I swirled up into the top layer at the far end of mold. 

Saturday night we had some friends over for dinner.  I like it when one friend calls to come over and I can call another friend to take care of the menu and I just supply the meeting place!  Hahha!  Thanks Kelly for supper and thanks Debbie for thinking about us while you were in town!  

Emily's birthday is coming up and we went to Old Navy and bought her a few new shirts. The poor child has only a few shirts that she like to wear and she wears them over and over. Honestly, I am tired of seeing her in the same stuff all the time. We went through her closet Saturday morning and took out EVERYTHING that she had either outgrew or just didn't like to wear. It left a few things by the time we were done. So we set off shopping. She got several new shirts to change up her wardrobe. Then today we took her to Tractor Supply to pick out her birthday present. She said she wanted cowboy boots, but she actually ended up picking out a pair of Justin boots that are pretty wild! Of course Abigail wanted new boots too! She didn't complain when we were clothes shopping, but when it came to Tractor Supply boots she was mad! They don't have kids sizes thank goodness, but I pacified her with a junior compound bow. She is like the new Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games!

Can't believe I am allowing this in my house!

You would think it was her birthday!

Emily sporting her new boots and her new PJs!!!



Girls are ready for Pajama Day at school tomorrow!