Extraordinary Kid Series - BYU WOMEN'S CONFERENCE

Every year I like to attend BYU's Women's conference.  I love it.  I grab a couple of good friends and road trip it to Utah.  I'm a Provo baby so Utah is my home away from home.  This year's theme is....

Sounds good right?!  I'm sure you asking what does this have to do with extraordinary kids.  I'm getting there :)   The theme for 2011 service component is Errand of Angels and this year one of the projects is Autism Caterpillars.

 

It makes my heart happy that they have decided to do something for extraordinary kids!  Will I see you there?!!  If any of you are planning on going email me and we can meet up.  There are a bunch of you I need to hug for the kind emails and comments :)  O.K...Now I need some info from all of you.  What exactly is an Autism Caterpillar?  Is it a weighted toy of some sort?  I've tried looking it up online and I can't find anything.  Also I have been trying to buy some therapy toys for Jayden and I'm having no luck finding any.  If anyone has any resources let's get them together in the comment section.

Cookie Exchange Part 2

 Another cookie/ornament exchange has come and gone.  I look forward to it every year.  Check out some of the fun...

This is me and my good friend Michelle.  She takes smokin' pictures...If you live in the Washington/Oregon area check out her stuff.  I think she visits Utah in the summer!

My friend Jenni.  She is my friend that reminded me I'm a mom of an extraordinary kid the other day:)  Love her!  She is also a mom of an extraordinary kid and will be a guest blogger soon.

We started having prizes for yummy creative cookies last year.  It was fun so we did it again this year.  We talked about also wearing ugly sweaters next year.

If you have prizes you just gotta have judges.  My husband is the guy who looks really excited.  I guess maybe I should make cookies more at home!

The cookie winners!

A cookie sign...

A perfect evening...good friends and cookies.

Cookie Exchange

Cookie/Ornament exchange tonight...

Thanks to THIS fun idea from Shanty2Chic I have beautiful decorations for the 5th annual cookie/ornament exchange I help host.

  A cookie a day keeps the doctor away...right?  (After the cookie party I will take that sign off and put a drawing made by my kids on and it's now a teacher's gift.)

Packaging Counts!

Totally off subject but I wanted to share a good find.  I found this pack of 70 ornaments at Home Depot for $9.98.

Perfect for your ornament wreath.  They also had packs of red, green and silver.  Good deal!  Since we are off topic I might as well remind you to enter in this weeks giveaway (over on the sidebar).  Monday is the last day.  Also come join me on facebook.  I have some fun plans in mind and giveaways that will only happen there.  You can find me HERE!

Ok!  Back on topic now.  I think many of you would enjoy crafting with me.  I do really stupid stuff that would make you feel good about yourself.  It makes me laugh.  I won't share my "stupid moment" today but just know they are there in every creation :)

A while ago I posted a wood cookie tutorial for the cookie/ornament exchange I help host.  We can't forget about the packaging! 

You open your little box and get this....

I wrote the invite like a wedding invitation because we have been doing this thing for 5 years now.  It's kind of like an anniversary of sorts!  The cookie is a magnet so you can tempt your family with goodness.   I made the little box myself and since you guys are being so good to me... here is the pattern.  Cut on the dotted lines.  I used a glue gun to keep my little box together.

We play a little ornament gift exchange game at our cookie exchange party.  You can find it HERE.  Anyone have any gift exchange games/ideas they want to share?

Cookies

Every year my friend Heather and I have a cookie exchange party. If you haven't ever had one...put it on your "to do" list. It's such a blast. We make fun invitations. Some of the past invites have been posted :) Everyone who comes brings 3 dozen cookies. One dozen goes on the sample table and the other 2 dozen go on the trade table. During the party we have an ornament exchange and everyone can go around sampling cookies on the sample table. We have two guest judges (my husband and a friend) come and pick winners of some fun prizes. At the end of the night you get to bring a variety of cookies home (totaling 2 dozen). Yummy!

This year our invite is a wooden cookie. Looks so good you could eat it right? Well it's been tried by about everyone in my family at this point. I'm kinda a jokester so it makes me laugh.



To make your own cookie invite cut out a 1/4 inch MDF 3 inch circle. That was a mouth full! Say that 3x fast:)



I sanded the edges of mine to give the cookie a nice sound shape. With a knife frost your cookie with some Dry Dex. I got mine at Fred Meyer for about $6.99. The cool part is it goes on pink and drys white.





Add some beads. At first I was going to use some felt but sewing on all those beads could drive a girl crazy. A friend suggested the Dry Dex...so much easier!



Check out the pink to white action. My kids loved this concept of changing color.







What are you waiting for? Make some wooden cookies and have a cookie party!!

***Don't forget to enter the ornament wreath giveaway. Click the picture in the upper left hand corner of my sidebar. A new giveaway will start tomorrow.***

Cookie Exchange 2009

My friend and I just had our 4th annual cookie/ornament exchange. It was so fun. If you don't do one with your friends I suggest you start a tradition of having one. This year I found this cute invitation...

Click HERE to read more about these amazing invites. Hers are way better than my imitation :)

(Spatulas are from the dollar store!)

So you make your invite and tell your friends each to bring 3 dozen cookies. Out of those 3 dozen cookies, 1 dozen goes to what we call a "tasters table" and 2 dozen go to the exchange table. Everyone gets to go around and eat cookies from the tasters table.

The picture below is from before the party started. Check out the crystal looking cookie stand I built. Everything from the dollar store :)

We also have an ornament exchange. Each person brings a wrapped ornament and we play an exchange game. We have used THIS one the past four years and we still love it! I love my cute friends :)

At the end of the party everyone goes around exchanging cookies. Bring 2 dozen go home with a different 2 dozen. My kids were so excited to see me. You give them a cookie and they look like this...


It's worth every moment!