Recap of Variety Halloween Party

I have been busy this week so it has taken forever to get this post ready!!! 

 

This year I again got to be a part of the Covestro / Variety Charity Halloween Party! It is such a blessing to participate and spend time with the amazing kids and families that attend!!!  It was such a great time! I can not say enough about what this charity does for special needs children and their families! They provide bikes to children that otherwise would not be able to ride one and voices to those that otherwise would not have one! This party is their opportunity to trick or treat with other kids and not have to feel challenged or judged!!!

 

Click below to see previous years excitement...

2013
2014
2015
2016
2018

 

 

As you know, I enter the pumpkin contest every year. Last year I cecorated a pumpkin to look like a sweet little unicorn and I won first place!! YEAH!!!

 

So, this year I just went for what won last year...bling, color and sequins. Sadly, it did not work as well this year and I did not even place but it was SO fun!! Here is my pumpkin after I painted it red!

 

Then I drew on my cat face...

 

 

 

Added sealing lacquer paint and lots of glitter!! 

And finally sequin horns and a black furry boa...say hi to my cat devil pumpkin! HA HA!

 

 

The day of the party, the cafeteria looked amazing! I usually help decorate but with my travel for work I was unable to assist with any setup so it was all a wonderful surprise to me last Saturday!!! The theme was Disney this year! 

 

 

Soooo cool!!!!! 

Here are the adorable centerpieces. Covestro makes polyurethane so they produce little beads of many different colors that can be blended together. They used the beads inside the centerpieces along with lights to make Minnie Mouse heads!!! So cute and creative!

And Mickey Mouse - se, no bow!?!?! So super cute!

I just thought these were so cute and creative! 

This is the STEM location when they do little fun experiments with the kiddos! An Covestro employee built this entire wall, the toybox and blocks, etc. and painted it all. He is amazing! Shout out to Steven!!

Above is the right side of the wall and pictured below is the left. Is this not amazing??! Like a real life castle for the kiddos!!!!  Se that clock on the far far left? Well, Steven actually painted an Easter Egg into the display (Easter Egg meaning secret that you have to figure out). He made Big Ben (the clock from London) on the far left of the display with Peter Pan and he set the clock to 7. Get it?!?! Big Ben here in Pittsburgh is Ben Roethlisberger #7 on the Steelers!! Cute, hugh???

 

 

Here is table one of the pumpkins...see my devil face there?!?! HA!

And table two of the pumpkin competition. Every one of the Disney movie paintings was done by an art student at University of Pittsburgh. Every year; an art teacher assigns his class to make artwork for the party. So cool, right?!?!

Here is another of the artwork created...

 

And another….

 

These last three pictures are all from the picture room where the families get to get their pictures together... 

The art students do such a great job!!!!!!

 

 

I did not get nearly the pictures  usually do since I was busy making balloon animals and hats the entire time for both parties!! Here are our pre-filled ones we were prepping before the party! We were definitely the busiest table there!! Such fun! The kids loved the hats and animals!!! My favorite was Felicity who loved my cat I made for her even though it was a dog...she had it meowing the entire party!!! These children and their families truly are amazing!!!

Lastly, remember that dog that I made that was a cat....well, in between the two sessions we googled how to make a cat and learned how to make these! So, the second session when they wanted a cat ...they actually got a cat! HA HA!

Great to have a profession to fall back on when my job ends! HA HA!

 

Have a fantastic day everyone! HUGS!

 

What is your hidden skill?? Tie cherry stem with tongue? Balloon animals? Burp on command? Etc? Come on...you know you have one!

 

 

Thinking Out Loud about Plumbing/Thankful Thursday Employment

Today I am joining in with Penny for Thinking out Loud Thursday HERE and Rebecca Jo, at Knit By God's Hand, for Thankful Thursday HERE. Please link up and join us today!!! Updated!!!

So my thinking out loud entails this...

When I was on vacation (3 weeks ago)...I got a call from my neighbor that lives under me. I am in a condo. He said that something was leaking into his cupboards above his refrigerator. He was worried that one of my appliances was leaking. I said I was not home but I would have my cat sitter check to make sure there was no issue. She looked under the stove, sink and refrigerator, she checked the toilet and the tub - there was no leaking she could find.  Fast forward 3 WEEKS YA'LL and he called me again and said "I really think you need to call the plumber; my drywall is wet and starting to buckle". I said "why would I call the plumber when you are the one that can see the leak?" Why have you not called the plumber yet?  I will happily let your plumber in if he needs to check something in my condo but it sounds like it is a leak in the wall pipes since it is over your refrigerator."  (I have no appliance other than my refrigerator above that and it is bone dry under there)  He said he had not called because he did not want to be responsible for the bill!!!! WHAT?!?!? Who does this?!?!? The condo has insurance and money saved to deal with these issues....you just don't let it keep leaking!!!! Are you kidding me!!!

My Thinking Out Loud over and over and over again is....

Is it me or is this just amazing?!?! If you are old enough to purchase a condo you should have the brains enough to know to call a plumber right away, no?!?! WOW!! Have we raised this generation to be clueless?!??! I think my 10 year old niece knows better than this!!!!!!!

Okay...now for Thankful Thursday. I am so very thankful that I have a job! Sometimes I take it for granted and I never want to do that! I work for a great company that really takes care of us! We have great benefits and compensation. Also, I have a lot of freedom in how I plan out my day, etc. They also stress a work/life balance and really support that with two paid volunteer days a year and allowing us to work on a variety of charities throughout the year.

Today I will be spending a few hours during my work day prepping for our annual Variety Halloween Party...it is a great charity and my company does it every year. The kids we get to work with are incredible!!! You can read more about Variety here.  This year the theme is Star Wars and today we are going to be making decorations for the party (cutouts and a banner for the party).

I will update this post after the crafting with a few pics from the meeting. Here is the update!! 

We worked on cutouts that will be hung around the walls and strung on banners

And we worked on these really time consuming cubefolds - they are paper cutouts that you print and then fold into the character. We are using these to lay around the food area as decorations...

Here is my finished cubefold of Princess Leia...I am not even attempting to fold her sword. I think she looks good without it! LOL!!

Also, Thankful for the tickets to the Steelers pre-season game tonight at Heinz Field!!!! I can't find anyone to go with me so I will go alone and lay across my four seats to watch the game!!!!!!! LOL!!!! That will be tomorrow's post!

I hope everyone has at least on thing they are thankful for today....what is yours? every wait three weeks to call a plumber? What charities are your favorite?

Long Time...No Update

I cannot believe how fast time has flow this year already! I just realized that I have not posted in over a month!

WOWSA!

I have been keeping up with all of your blogs just not my own - LOL!!! I am getting older and time is spinning ahead so fast!

Last month (September) was a whirlwind of activities and it was crazy both in my personal life and my business life! I am going to give you a high level overview of the past few weeks in pictures to very quickly catch you up.  I am also promising that I will not go MIA like that anytime soon.

It really just got crazy busy and I could not keep up! I am not complaining believe me...I enjoy being busy but September was just CRAZZZZZYYYYYY!

Here we go!!!.....

First part of September...I had to put one of my older cats to sleep and her brother was getting lonely being home alone so I got him some friends!  Meet Nermal and Trouble. As you can see, they are already great friends and Kidrock likes them too! I am head over heals in love with them both!

Sept 5th weekend was my adorable boyfriends birthday! It was his 60th so I planned a party with his sisters family, his brother and his kids at his favorite place...the bowling alley. We rented a few lanes and had cake and pizza! The owners at AMF Mt. Lebanon Lanes were terrific with helping me plan and I highly recommend them if you are looking to plan a bowling party for adults or kids in the South Hills of PA!  I think he had a great time?! This is him blowing out his candles...

And the obligatory picture of the cake...

Then after the party I spent the rest of the weekend and Monday (Labor Day) at my parents house at Lake Mohawk. We all enjoyed a final weekend of boating, skiing, tubing and relaxing before fall and winter set in here in PA! This is two of my nephews tubing together...

And two of my nieces...

My Mom's birthday is the September 8th and my sister-in-laws is the 7th so we also celebrated their birthdays over the holiday weekend! Mommy is on the left and Sara on the right below...

The next weekend, the boyfriend and I left for New Smyrna Beach, FL. It is his favorite vacation spot and he wanted to take me there to enjoy it so we planned about ten days together for a trip! We came close to killing each other a few times but we made it through (just kidding...well, kind of). It is a long time to spend with someone...LOL! This is a view from our patio in the condo we rented.

And a view down the beach...what a great place to run!! Flat flat flat flat flat!!! I am used to hills in PA so this was heavenly!!!

I had a girls night out planned for the week we got home and spent the evening with these lovely ladies at Painting with a Twist.  It also allowed me to add to my Fall artwork collection :-)  HA!

The next weekend in September was the Great Race in Pittsburgh. My sisters, mother and I run this together every year. We LOVE it! Here is the starting line...

Every year the Eat N Park cookie is at the top of the longest hill (about a mile before the end of the race) and I stop to get a picture every year!!! YEA! My sister on the right was also happy to oblige me when I requested stopping! Thanks Susie!

That same weekend every member of my direct family came into town. All my siblings, their spouses and kids and my parents. My parents celebrated 50 years of marriage on Sept 18th and we wanted to make sure we had pictures and a family party to mark the occasion. We had a family dinner at Benihana! Here they are with all of their grand kids!!

And the whole family!!!!!!!! I love this picture! No one is missing!! We also celebrated my Dad's birthday this weekend and I did not get a picture of the cake prior to consumption!

The final weekend of September I had Jackson's Mill weekend! I go three times a year and meet up with all my Friends of Bill and it is truly my refresh weekend!!! I love these two people below with all my heart!!! They are two of my very best buddies on the planet!

And the theme for the weekend...says it all!!

And finally, last weekend was the Halloween work charity party! We do this ever year for Variety Charity and it gets better each year!

Here is the pumpkin I carved...it was Lego themed and I got the idea from Pinterest!!!

Here is a shot of one section of the decorations...

Another area of the building we decorated...

And finally, our costumes! I made these from ideas from Pinterest and they turned out perfect! On the left was Gail the Construction Worker (Kathy from work) and on the right was me in my Swamp Thing lego costume.

What a great month!!! As you can see, I had JUST a little activity going on but I promise to keep you posted along the way from this point forward and not save it up a month at a time! LOL!

I hope you all had as much fun as me. Hopefully there will be much more to come with the whirlwind of the holidays around the corner! 

Happy Fall yinz all!!!

How was your September? Ever get too busy to blog, I would live to hear about what you did to budget you time?!