Celebrating the "Indepencia de Costa Rica"!

Costa Rica's Independence Day is September 15, so many celebratory activities are held in the few days leading up to the day! Last Friday, the whole school came together for a night of fun and celebration of Costa Rica's culture.

Parents brought typical Costa Rican foods of all kinds to share!

We had a presentation put on by the students that included a skit (by my class) about how the Independence was won, typical dances, typical humor, and even a "cooking show" explaining how many of the typical Costa Rican dishes are prepared. I had a blast! Costa Rica has such fun and lively traditions. 

My class, taking a bow after their skit!

Videos of the cutest little dancers ever!

At the end, the school hosted a traditional "Desfile de Faroles" (or Parade of Lanterns). All of the students created their lanterns out of recycled materials and showed them off in the parade that night. Here are some of my favorites!

These are the winners of the lantern making competition

At the end of the celebration, we also found out who won the classroom decorating competition. My kiddos were very pleased to find out that we had won! We got to enjoy a special lunch and dessert this week as our reward.

My gracious students :)

My attempt at a group picture...

And last, but not least, here I am- in my typical Costa Rican dress!!

Southern Bride Blogger

Guess what? I am officially a Southern Bride Blogger! If you haven't seen Southern Wedding Magazine, you're missing out! It's an adorable website with so many great Southern wedding ideas. 

I know that my parents from Pennsylvania will be proud. But hey- they're the ones who decided to raise me in the South! I am going to get to show my family from all over the US what a Southern Georgia-Peach Wedding looks like. 

I looked at my calendar today and realized that I only have 4 weeks until I'm back in the US for a month! No teaching for a whole month? That means it's going to wedding planning central up in here!

Here is just a glimpse at my to-do list for my trip back to good ole GA 

(many inspired courtesy of my ever so helpful theknot.com account!). Number one on my list is undeniably "buy a wedding dress" because I keep having nightmares about not having a dress on the big day! :O

Some examples of the DIY inspiration for wedding crafts that I hope start over the break...

hanging decor

Use this idea with "Mr. & Mrs."  for the backs of bride & groom chairs

window pane for menu

quote & verse displays

Wood & pinecone centerpieces

candle holders

cake stand!

table numbers with pictures of
the bride & groom at that age!

Table numbers

ski lift escort cards!

Ring box

...in other words, if you want to see me when I'm back in the States in July- you better be in the mood to get crafty! :P

{ & let me know if you have any rustic but elegant winter wedding DIY craft ideas, I'm on the prowl!}

Treasures in the Leftovers!

Since moving into my little casita, I have been little by little 
('poco por poco') been adding my own (primarily recycled) 
touch on my space. 

The first place that I started with was my dressing table. 

I wanted something that made all of my jewelry easily accessible and aesthetically pleasing! Oh and I didn't want to spend any money. This is what I came up with:

Earrings:

Bracelets:

Necklaces:

Others:

In order to turn the nothing that you have into something that you want, you have to find the treasures in the leftovers! 

Any suggestions or ideas for what I should do next?

A Long Distance Mothers Day

Happy Mother's Day to the woman who knows what I need in a care package before I even know that I need it. Thank you for being such a wonderful and hardworking servant to our family! I hope that one day I can be as selfless as you. 

Since I am 3,000miles away from my mom, I wasn't quite sure how to make her day special. After some brainstorming, the result was this video: a long distance tribute to my mom!

Just a few more funny gems that I found that reminded me of my mom:

From UGA Graduation Dec '12 (even though I didn't technically graduate until last Friday!)

This time next year I will be blessed enough to have two mothers! Happy Mother's Day to my future Mother In-law! Can't wait to make it official in January. Thank you for doing such a fantastic job raising the man of my dreams. My mom always used to say that you can "tell how a man will treat you by the way he treats his mother". From what I can tell, I will be one lucky girl!  

Lastly, a Mom joke that describes my life perfectly right now:

A mother mouse and a baby mouse are walking along when suddenly a cat attacks them. The mother mouse shouts “BARK!” and the cat runs away. “See?” the mother mouse says to her baby. “Now do you see why it’s important to learn a foreign language?”