SNOWBOARDING - ARNETTE STYLE

How do you get up a mountain when you're going with the crew from Arnette? Well since they don't have their own rig yet... you take one of the Oakley trucks. We loved it! we got pointed at, people gave us thumbs up and hang loose signs and the guy at the snowboard shop called out the rest of the staff to gawk at the rig... I'll admit it, it was fun.

Day two of our trip of a lifetime was with the Arnette crew, John from Oakley had outfitted us properly (yes we ARE in Oakley from head to toe... ) and Arnette hooked us up with their brand new goggles which haven't been released yet (you have to admit that's cool) we loaded up the rig in Forest Hills and headed up to the bunny slopes at Mountain High. it was a beautiful drive about an hour out of town. Brent took us up and once there we met up with Joe (global brand manager for Arnette) and they geared us up with rentals and took us to the slopes. I won't lie and tell you I mastered snowboarding, in fact by the end I sucked so bad I walked my board off the hill but I will tell you, I aim to try again and conquer this!

Checking my chapped hands. learning to snowboard without gloves is a bad bad bad idea....

Keith and I on the chairlift with our goggles ready for fun!

zipline - piholo ranch

We chose to enjoy an adventure (on Maui Jim) at Piholo Ranch Zipline. It was stunning, amazing and some of the most fun I've ever had! I conquered some of my paralizing fear of heights, started to feel more comfortable not being strapped in 100 ft up and climbing up a moving bridge... started...but once they strap your trolley on the line, it's the safest feeling ever! They take their roles extremely serious but we all still had a blast! safe was good!!

Keith and I both posing for the camera! What a fun sunny perfect day!

The gulch that we zipped across in Makaoa, leads right to the ocean, such a beautiful sight! the bazillion colors of green, the bring orange flowers in the trees, just spectacular!

You want me to climb up WHAT? 2 at a time so you don't rock it off... um...

the first and easiest tower...cause it had stairs. LOTS of stairs!! this is easy??

This is actually US zipping down the line at an insane rate. I'm in HIT THE BLOCKS form and Keith is still rockin a starfish... starfish is SLOW DOWN, you spread your arms and legs and push your chest forward. I'm in landing form so I don't hit anyone with my legs and so that my trolley doesn't come back and wack me in the face after I hit the brake ;)

all of our trolleys and gear waiting for us! KNOW YOUR NUMBER was what we were DRILLED on.

The trip - highlights!

this is going to be scattered, not in order and I just don't care! I mostly DON'T want to forget all of the amazing things we did/saw/experienced and scattered and picture descriptions will be an easy fun way for me to capture it all!

Mikayla's party!

The LAYOUT! I think it actually came out pretty cute! some purchased, some handmade and all fun. I made the happy birthday mikayla banner with scrapbook paper, hand cut the lettering and hand tied all the pieces to each other. I also hand tied the cartoon to all of the bags and hand tied ribbons on all of the 125 lollipops, then I painted the styrfoam blocks and tied eyelet tagged tags to them to mark which flavor of lollipops. insane amounts of ribbon (thank goodness for sales at Michaels).

I purchased the lollipops on etsy.com, I'll have to say they came out amazing! what a great look!

I purchased the cakes from a gal I met on craigslist, they were green and purple inside, homemade fondant and super super cute.

the treatbags with the cutest cartoon of Mikayla jumping! wished I could have made a poster of this cartoon but just ran out of time

Mikayla birthday prep

Mikayla's party work in progress!



The candy bar is just about done, I'm about 75% done with projects but I have some cutting still to do... the lollipop stands are done, Mikayla's M is done and the table cloth is done as well. I have a little bit of decoration left to do to the candy containers but we're doing great!



the lollipop stands (with tags) the giant M and the happy birthday Mikayla banner.

The M is one of the 12 inch cardboard letters from Michaels, I painted it green and then with a chopstick painted light green, white and purple dots over the entire thing.

the lollipop stands! 4 styrofoam bricks that I painted and then made tags for with the flavors 0f the lollipops and then tied on. the lollipops will be stuck into the top. I still have to tie ribbon on the lollipops (tonight late maybe?)

cheap and effective ways of doing a cake/candy table...

Alright my brilliant bloggy friends. I ordered the lollipops (lime green) and the invites are lime green, purple and yellow... I love the idea of having the cake and goodies all as a focal point. here's the inspiration pics to get you started
stealing the paper banner from this one.... and kinda like the lollipop presentation.

the smaller stuff is what appeals here, with the tablecloth hung as a background...

LOVE the table cloth. love the tall pixie sticks and the colored containers.

freaking out about the lollipop presentation...

OVER THE TOP!!!

I need ideas on how to present the lollipops, how to make things tall and fill space and what cheap fun candy I can get to fill containers...

Mikayla party idea 2!

Mikayla party idea 2!



We're going to have a candy bar, not too over the top but some colored candies and such and I was on etsy and found this!




http://www.etsy.com/shop/AmysSweetDream?ref=seller_info


she's going to make lime green lollipops in the COOLEST flavors! Cherry Limeaid, Keylime Pie, Watermelon and MOUNTAIN DEW!!

we're going to tie them off with bright purple ribbon (I think) and now I'm trying to find a cool way to present them. sticking out of a spray painted stryofoam shape? in a vase? I'll hit the web for some inspiration! anyone have ideas?

ideas for Mikayla's bday...

in part one of this series.... just kidding. I'll be posting a few ideas I have for Mikayla's party. this however is supposed to be a fairly hands off party as we're paying a "place" to do the party. I'm responsible for treats, cake, basic decor and drink (the easy stuff!)

so we're going with Purple, Green and Yellow.... no real theme other than fun bright colors at this point...

I'm ordering candy and treats in those colors but I think I'm going to go handmade on some of the treats. My recent candy making experience has me thinking I could handle this...

so idea number 1:

http://www.twigandthistle.com/blog/2010/06/chocolate-dipped-rice-crispy-popsicles/

ripped off from one of my favorite websites (twig and thistle) is these really cute rice crispy treat popsicles. I think I'll use dyed white chocolate (purple and green) to dip them in and then I'll wrap them in cello bags tied off with ribbon as a take home treat.

I'm also working on little boxes of colored candies and treats (HUNTING FOR GREEN BOUNCY BALLS!!!) and little prizes and such in the right colors for favors.

Stay tuned, more ideas to come.