Heather Ann Melzer

Movie night - on location

We took Family Movie Night on the road last Friday and went to our first drive-in movie as a family.  Thank goodness the kids fell asleep halfway through because it was SO not appropriate for them. I seem to remember parts of the first one really bothering me, but this one was off the charts. The language was horrendous, and for no good reason. Other parts were not appropriate as well. Jack fell asleep on me, Katie fell asleep in the backseat of the car, and Kenzie fell asleep on a blanket eating popcorn with Tom. It was a lot of fun, something I'd definitely do again (with a more kid-friendly flick).

We stopped at Burger King on the way and grabbed some kid meals, since they were Transformer-themed. Their Bumblebee cars kept them entertained while we waited for the movie to start. 

 

 

A few weeks ago we had HSM 2 movie night and the kids absolutely loved it. Even Jack was in complete awe over all the singing and dancing. Is that pic of him leaning up against the couch not hysterical? He's such a chill little dude - cracks me up. We had milkshakes in HSM cups and wore EHS bandannas. My kind of fun!

We have Inkheart on deck for this weekend and I'm cooking up some treat ideas now - hmmm...

Bedtime Stories

Last Friday night we had an impromptu movie night with Bedtime Stories.  Very cute movie - great family flick.  The only thing I remembered from the preview was that it rained gumballs, so I plated some cotton candy and gumballs and voila - we had a treat!  Something we do alot during our movie nights is pause the movie during the scene that relates to the treat and then we go get it and bring it up.  The kids really like that.  I think Jack was pleading with me for more cotton candy in that one pic - ha.

Tom's sister and family are coming out for their annual spring visit this weekend and we're hoping to have a movie night for all of the kids.  Trouble is, I think we've seen every new release that's come out.  I'll have to do some more digging and find something good.  The kids are SO excited to see their cousins.  I think Jack is going to be devastated when they leave, though.  He loves having little boys to play with, so he'll be in heaven with his 2 boy cousins here.  It's supposed to be 82 on Friday, so that should be fun.  I'm so unbelievably slammed with work that I might be locked in my office all day - hoping I can escape for part of the day to enjoy it.

I was able to add a few items to my shop this week - new Dreamy bracelets, Eternal Sunshine bracelets, and Oval Photo Pendants that I can make in a week or less - so, there's still time for custom Mother's day gifts!

Late to the party, once again

Tom read the Twilight series last month and he was so jazzed up about the 4th book that I've been dying to see the movie.  We scored a Blu-Ray copy at Blockbuster on Sunday, so we watched it that night.

And again last night. 

And I'm not sure I have the strength in me to return it today - lol! 

I have always thought that Edward looked too creepy to be swooned after.  Even as we started the movie, I said that I had no idea what girls saw in him and that it was going to take some kind of miracle to change my mind.  And now, I'm ready to start carrying one of these around.  HA!  I think he might have cast some kind of spell on me.

I think the girls knew they were missing out, too, because they kept sneaking out of bed and listening to the movie on the stairs the last couple of nights.  And when Kenzie saw the DVD case this morning she said, they fall in love in the end??!!!  LOL  I think it's a great movie for teens, but not for 4 and 6 yr olds.  Not yet.  And it's obviously also great for 34 yr olds.  Who knew?  Anyone that has a morsel of romance inside them has to love it.  Although I'm not sure where that leaves my brother-in-law, who said the book was the worst thing he's ever read and swears to get back at Tom for lending it to him - haaa.

We did watch a very kid appropriate movie this weekend - Bolt.  It hit me that we watch ALOT of dog movies - so much that I'm seriously running out of dog-themed treat ideas.  I had a taste for Portillos and Tom suggested I get the kids chocolate shakes to go with their hot dogs.  Portillos started out as a small hot dog stand in a suburb of Chicago and is now a huge chain.  The hot dogs and beef sandwiches are THE best.  There was a dog on the side of the cup, so that worked for me ;)

I don't think they put them down the entire movie!

Aside from movie mania (we watched Role Models, too, and laughed our heads off), we had Tom's family over for Uncle Jon's birthday and did some painting, too.  Tom finished the powder room on Saturday and the hallway yesterday.  I'll post some pics tomorrow because I'm totally stuck on our powder room and would love to hear suggestions.  I also just met with a really nice woman that lives in a town nearby that makes custom draperies - eeek.  It's very painful for a DIYer to hire outside help, but I know my limitations.  I told Kenzie she was coming today and she said, "But, you sewed our Halloween costumes."  One-day-wear costumes are one thing, 13 foot long lined panels are completely another.  We'll see how the bid comes in.  I could cry just thinking about how happy it would make me to have them.

Speaking of sewing, I have some beautiful fabric on the way that I'm hoping to make some simple A-line skirts with.  Does anyone know of a good pattern?  I was thinking of this one or this one.  I really like that the first one has a little bit of swing to it AND and an elastic waist.  I'd love to have some cute skirts to wear this summer.  I'm getting more and more like Katie these days - comfort is key  and none of my paints seem to fit right.  Would love any advice you can give.  I also want to sew the girls some tops from the pre-smocked fabric they sell at Hobby Lobby (and some Wal-Marts, I hear).  How cute and easy does this sound?

I think I may need a new sewing machine before I tackle these things.  Can anyone recommend a good inexpensive model?  My mom's machine barely made it through the Halloween costumes and I don't think I could survive the frustration.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua

The girls were really looking forward to this one.  They now understand the concept of "previews" and this one was on another movie they've been watching in the car, so they've been anxiously awaiting it's arrival.  We recently dumped Netflix for Blockbuster, but still couldn't get it in the mail or store.  Thank goodness I got lucky at a Red Box and away we went.  Corn dogs, tater tots and veggies for dinner and chocolate sundaes with a Scooby snack on top for dessert.  I told the girls to load up on their bling, so Katie threw on a bunch of her play necklaces and a bracelet I made her and felt very fancy - so Beverly Hills.  The movie was really cute.  I've always loved Drew Barrymore and George Lopez was hysterical as "Papi".  Great family flick.  Up there is Jack is trying to take a bite out of each corn dog and Katie while saying "Beverly Hills Chi-WOW-WOW", which she thought was so funny.

I'm hoping that I'm on the road to recovery here, although it seems like things are getting worse.  I went to the doctor yesterday, after Tom shined a flashlight down my throat and said it looked exactly like Katie's last week.  Sure enough, I've got strep.  I was actually starting to feel better yesterday and then I got an insane earache last night and went to bed in agony.  I'm not in as much pain today, but now both ears are completely plugged.  Is there anything more annoying than that?  I feel like I'm underwater, but without the warmth, sunshine and umbrella drink waiting for me ;) 

The bright shining spot in my day?  It's the last day of winter!!!  Let's all cheer together - YEAY!!!  Now, that doesn't mean we won't see snow again, but we're moving in the right direction.  I even picked up some new sandals and spring tops at TJMaxx yesterday to get me in the mood.  This is the most awkward time of year for clothes, I think.  I wore a turtleneck sweater out last Sunday and was sweating when it reached the 60's by afternoon.  Might be time to pack those away, regardless of the temps.

I also scored some new pieces for my dining room, which is looking much better now.  I don't know what I'd do without such great stores around here.  Crate and Barrel Outlet had some amazing deals, including a $7 teal vase, some pretty white dishes on the cheap, an adorable birdie teapot, and a 22" drum shade for $19 - wee!!!  I need to find one more and then put some kind of DIY plan in place to get them hung. 

For now it's back to work and back to taking pics of some new pieces I'll share on the first day of Spring - how fitting.

TGI(almost)F!

City of Ember

Katie and I teamed up to put together last Friday's movie night and we managed to really surprise Dad, Kenzie, and Jack.  The movie was really good and after watching the trailer I knew that we had to string lights overhead just like in the movie.

 

Their reactions coming up the stairs were so funny, and Katie loved getting the first peek since we teamed up on it.  The people of Ember ate only canned vegetables, so we had ice cream sundaes in vegetable cans.  I cleaned them out really good earlier in the day and then put the ice cream/Magic Shell/whipped cream in paper cups that fit right inside.  My total spending was $3 for 4 cans of veggies, which Tom said made me the winner (although I didn't realize we were in competition - lol).  I guess out-of-season coconuts are not exactly cheap - bad Dad!

This would be a great movie to start with if you've never had a family movie night before.  Just dig up some xmas lights and empty some veggie cans.  The kids had such a blast with this one. 

My kids are also amazingly good about watching movies.  I had to sit back and take it in during this one because it's very strange.  They are wild animals until the show comes on and then they're glued.  Tom and I are huge movie watchers, so maybe it's in their DNA.  I love that this tradition could continue our entire lives.  You never get too old to enjoy the movies and they never stop coming.  Yeay for movie nights! :)

I'll be sure to share my new favorite dessert recipe tomorrow, once I'm able to get my pictures off my memory card.  My computer is wonderful most of the time, but the built-in card reader has always had a mind of its own.  Ah, technology.

PS - Thank you for all of the WONDERFUL advice you all gave on my dining room.  My head is spinning now and you've definitely made me think of some new things, which I really appreciate.   Hopefully by week's end things will slow down enough for me to start working on some things in there.

2x2

I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day!  Tom's family came over and his brother, Jon, cooked up a ton of really yummy food and we all hung out.  The kids ran in circles, I worked on some jewelry pieces, and my father-in-law helped Tom with a new power tool that we'll be using on some new jewelry creations soon :)  Then we had the first of two sequel movie nights...

 

We didn't have a treat planned for this one, but Tom offered to cook up something, so he worked on this masterpiece while the kids and I watched the movie.  Then he came up and gave everyone a fork and revealed his creation - strawberries and bananas drizzled in chocolate and vanilla sugar crystals.  They loved it.  Katie said, "Mom, Dad really has some ideas!"  LOL  His closet creativity has finally come out - he's in trouble now.  And the heart worked because the whole movie was about Elliott getting married (and saving their lost friend).

Sunday was a work day.  I finally decided on a paint color, so Tom spent most of the day transforming the dining room while I made jewelry and chased the kids around.  That night was Dad and Kenzie's turn to come up with movie night ideas, so they went to the store and came home with all kinds of stuff.  Dad snuck in the garage with some produce and his drill and we ended up with this...

Tom drilled holes in coconuts and let them drain.  Then he filled them with chocolate milk using a funnel.  Kenzie and Dad's combo idea was flattened vanilla ice cream (to look like ice) with Oreo penguins secured with Magic Shell (because Kenzie had to work it in somehow).  Katie had to have her buddy Alex join us for the movie and thought the movie was called "Alex 2" - ha.  We started this one early enough that Jack was able to watch the whole thing.  I think the Madagascar movies are my absolute favorite animated movies.  They are so funny and this one was just a funny (if not more) than the original.  It's PG for crude humor, but I didn't hear much of that (or it went totally over the kids' heads).

While watching our Family Movie Night movies, we always come up with a treat that would have been perfect, but without seeing the movie it's impossible to know ahead of time.  Open Season 2 has a scene where Boog is explaining how Elliott and his fiance are like a S'more - those would have been perfect.  And in Madagascar 2, there's a part where they talk about a chocolate lion, which was really funny and would have been a great treat, too. 

As much as the girls love to be surprised with the movies/treats, Kenzie really liked planning this one with Dad and keeping it a secret from Katie, Jack and I.  Katie and I have the next movie, so that should be fun.  I'm sure our little motor mouth will have plenty of ideas for whatever Netflix/Blockbuster delivers this week.  We're about to dump Netflix because they have us on a "watches too many movies/month" list and takes over a week to get us new movies sometimes.  We're still in the honeymoon period with Blockbuster, so we're getting new movies almost every day,which hasn't happened in a long time.

Tomorrow I might have to share some pics of our new dining room and the list of things I'm trying to find to finish it off.  I'm in LOVE with the new paint color, but now I'm dying to change the lighting, curtains, and artwork.  Thinking I might try a stab at that last one myself (in my free time, of course). 

Movie nights

2009 is already slipping away from me - I have 3 movie night recaps to do from the past several weeks...

Wall-E was a highly anticipated movie in our house.  We tried to grab it during the xmas sales, but never found it and then Netflix was taking forever to send it, so we got lucky at a Red Box a couple of weekends ago.  The movie blew my expectations away and the kids are now in love with Wall-E.  I remember my friend, Maegan, saying that she wished she'd made krispie treat cubes to look like the cubes of garbage Wall-E makes, so I ran with that.  I used cocoa krispies to make them look garbage-y and I created a skyscraper with them like he does in the movie.  I picked up the cups and masks at Wal-Mart before xmas.

 

We had this movie forever, but I was looking for dinosaur cookie cutters and orange t-shirts for weeks.  I finally found the cookie cutters at a kitchen store at the outlet mall and the t-shirts at Hobby Lobby.  I drew on them with black marker and just snipped them with scissors.  Then I made myself a Wilma necklace by threading styrofoam balls.  We had alot of fun with this one (too bad the movie was so badly scratched that we couldn't watch the last 15 minutes of it - lol).  And is Jack not the perfect Fred Flinstone?  Look at those feet!

 

Another movie that blew past my expectations was Fred Claus.  Vince Vaughn is hysterical and the movie was super kid-friendly.  It's all about Santa's brother (Vince) helping him save xmas.  The girls even asked Mrs. Claus if he had a brother when they had their picture taken with Santa before xmas - lol. "We saw it in the movie!"

Speaking of, I never shared this picture (which cost me what I think is an absurd amount of money). [jumping on soapbox] Since when did a visit with Santa turn into a professional photography session, where no personal cameras are allowed, and Santa barely says boo to my kids because he's so concerned about getting the perfect shot?!  And this is coming from someone who is psychotic about photos.  Sometimes I think the world is rolling horribly fast in the absolutely wrong direction.  Anyone else?

All 3 kids did great and the girls were super excited to see him, which made it well worth standing in a line that seemed to wrap completely around the mall (even if they did add that border to the photo when I asked them very nicely not to).  Oh yes, we will be looking for a new place to visit Santa next year.

Allrighty - back to a Thursday that feels like a Wednesday.  Happy over-the-hump day!

Bringing Benji Back

Netflix has decided to only send us our 30-40th movies in queue the last week or so, so we ended up with Benji for movie night last Friday.  We're so spoiled by animation and special effects that Tom was not thrilled by this choice at all.  I actually just put it in the queue as a 'maybe some day' choice, since none of us had ever seen it, but we made the most of it.  I used some of that extra Halloween candy (which is almost gone, if you can believe that) and made some Benji treat toppers.  Jack could have cared less who was on the tag, he just wanted the candy OUT! LOL

The 70's music was hilarious.  Katie couldn't resist jumping up in front of the TV to get her groove on, and then Kenzie and dad soon followed.  Jack was attached to my hip in his favorite before bedtime spot on the couch.  He's been laying with me like that since he was born and if someone else is in his spot - hoo boy.  Not a pretty picture.  I've still got a few years of cuddling left, right??

Regarding the movie, it was absolutely the slowest one I've ever seen.  If I had to watch Benji make his lap through town (that lasted 20 minutes each time) one more time I think I would have died.  It was a cute story, but it made us realize how much movies have come since then.  We must be much more impatient than people in the 70's were, because it was downright painful in parts.  The movie topic was concerning, too.  The 2 children in the movie are kidnapped and one of the kidnappers kicks Benji's girlfriend (another dog).  Something I'd rather my kids didn't see.  We we talked through it and all was well, but still - sheesh.

Tom just emailed me to say that Beethoven will be here tomorrow.  I'm running out of dog treat ideas!

Double Feature

 

We were able to squeeze in 2 movie nights last weekend.  The first was TinkerBell, which the girls LOVED (as you can see).  Actually, Tom and I were pretty entertained, too.  It was very cool to see how Tink came to be and it had a great message for kids (don't all Disney flicks?).  I picked up some TinkerBell headbands and cups at Party City and Tom made us green-dyed milkshakes with shaved chocolate inside (YUM!).  I love Katie's reaction when we started the movie - those girls truly are as fun as they look.

Sunday night was Journey to the Center of the Earth, which came with 4 pairs of 3D glasses (hence Jack's alternate glass - lol).  We built this one up pretty heavily and Tom even reconfigured our surround sound upstairs so it would sound really good.  Well, it sounded so good that I jumped out of sheer fright several times and scared the girls - lol.  The combination of 3D, sound, and my already jittery nature made for a frightening combo on this one.  The movie was very appropriate for kids - no crazy violence or language or anything like that, but the adventure scenes were pretty intense.  The T-Rex scared me the most, I think.  The girls were totally fine, though.  They only freak when we freak, so I try to keep calm most of the time. 

For the treats, I printed earth images off the internet and attached them the wrapper of my favorite Fannie May chocolates on a stick and tied a little bow on.

I love that pic of them fighting to get upstairs for the movie.  They absolutely LOVE movie nights and we try to keep the movie a surprise so that it's on the screen when they get up there.  They've started snooping around the house looking for movie boxes and treats now, which has me very worried for xmas.  It might be time to start stashing things in the attic ;)

I hope everyone isn't too tired from watching the election last night.  I wouldn't go to bed until I saw both candidates speak and I'm so glad I did.  I cried through both of them and went to bed feeling very hopeful for our country. I feel very proud to be an American today.

Great fall weekend

 

Ok, so I'm remembering why I love fall so much.  We had a beautiful weather weekend - the absolute BEST.  65 degrees and sunny - just perfect.  We started decorating outside by planting mums, setting up the hay bail/pumpkins that I scored at Menards, and hanging ghosts on the trees.  The girls loved working on this project - 36 in all, great fun for $6 at Target.  The girls and I had to run out for a newspaper to stuff the ghosts while Jack and Tom cut the grass and we scored those Halloween masks for 75 cents at Walgreens.  They were cracking me up.  They ran right for the playhouse when we got home and played monster house with them.  Later Saturday, Tom's family came over on for dinner and the kids ran their uncles ragged, as usual.

Yesterday, Tom watched the kids for a few hours so I could get some work done (which I absolutely hate to do on the weekend and maybe do once or twice a year).  This is crunch time, though, and I have so much stuff in the works that I needed some time to try and get ahead.  I got quite a bit done and should have some fun new things in the shop by tomorrow and more later this week.  So excited.

We also squeezed in two movie nights this weekend.  Friday was 101 Dalmations, so I made some dog bone sugar cookies with chocolate sprinkles for spots.  Even Sebastian got into this one (so much so that we had to keep him downstairs because he wouldn't stop barking at the TV - lol)...

 

Jack has developed QUITE the sweet tooth lately.  He loves movie nights treats as much as the girls and the other day he was screaming at me while eating some Lucky Charms because the girls had eaten almost all of the marshmellows out of the box.  Whenever I found one he would squeal and grab it out of my hand.  I need to do an update on him this week - he is changing so much, turning into a little man (sniff sniff).

Last night we had another movie night - Fish Tales (quite possibly the worst movie of all time).  I didn't care for how the kids/parents talked to each other and there was some cursing and horrible acting.  I didn't have the mental fortitude to come up with a creative treat, so I put together a buffet of fish (Swedish Fish and goldfish) and then picked up these cute little mermaid dolls for the girls at Target.  Tom and I set them up in a tub of water and carried them up for the girls to play with while they watched the movie.  We hardly ever buy them toys outside of birthdays and xmas because they just have too many, but they've been fighting over some tiny barbie babies they have lately and they love bath toys, so I couldn't resist.  They played with the toys more than they watched the movie, and they drenched the TV room, but they had so much fun.  And yes, the Swedish fish did end up in the tub, making the water nice and sticky.  LOL

 

 

Jack thought the mermaids were kinda cool, but he thought it was more fun to do flips over Dad's legs while he watched the movie.  I'm telling you, he's such a little nut.  And those chubby legs - don't even get me started ;)