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Halloween Party Invitations and Halloween Birthday Invitations

Baseball Season in full swing!

Wow...what an exciting year it has been for professional baseball! My team, the Houston Astros, has been up, down, in, and out. Half the season devoted to breaking 500. Now trying to build on to that despite DLs, trades, pitching and hitting dry spells etc... As always, our Astros are battling their way to their second chance at the World Series. We made it once and are eager for another! Go 'stros!

And that's the way it is with our Astros...they have talent come and go (did Biggio retire on a high note or what!), they have their struggles with managers, the bullpen, trading favorite players away (we miss you Willie and Brad!!!), but this team has heart like no other. They make baseball seem like the passion sweeping sport of years past. Like apple pie, like fathers and sons playing catch in the backyard, like...well, like baseball was meant to be.

It's such a joy to see all those grown up "kids" jumping up and down on each-other after a hard fought and closely won battle. You can see it in their big goofy smiles that this truly is more than a business to them. This is a game, their game, their passion. Lucky for my family and all Houstonians, it's our passion as well! Thank you Houston Astros!

Are you passionate about baseball as well? To learn more about your home team, visit mlb.com. To learn more about my home team visit astros.com. And if your children or family are passionate about sharing your baseball spirit you should checkout the personalized baseball invitations and announcements we've created for some of our baseball-fan customers...totally custom and all-too baseball cool!

Baseball birthday invitation


Baseball holiday card


Baseball birth announcement


Baseball graduation announcement

School is back in session! The kids are coming home loaded down with homework and they are hungry. You wonder if they even eat their lunch. My kids say a quick hello when they walk in the door then it’s, "What’s for snack?" I really try to pack them healthy lunches everyday, so how about those after school snacks?

My Mom was very serious about after school snacks. What she put out for us was always healthy, usually a fruit and a protein. She believed that if we, her children, did not eat a substantial enough snack we would be hungry way before dinner was ready. All you Moms out there know how difficult it is to concentrate on making dinner with whiny, hungry kids in the kitchen. Talk about stress! So I have followed her example and it has worked well for me. Out of all my Mom’s great afternoon snacks these are a few of my children’s favorites:

• Core an apple, any kind, and fill with natural peanut butter.
  Try the kind with no additives.


• Slice a banana lengthwise and spread natural peanut butter on the bottom half, replace top.


• Place a slice of cheddar cheese on one piece of wheat bread then put under broiler until cheese melts.


• Top a ½ cup of low fat yogurt with fresh fruit and chopped walnuts.


• Make your own trail mix using dried fruit, nuts and pretzels.

I hope these simple ideas will give you a little extra peace and quite while you rush to put dinner on the table.

It’s almost time for the Renaissance Festival in our neck of the woods. These festivals take place under different names and at different times of the year around the country. We’re lucky enough to have ours in late October – perfect Texas weather for outside activities.

It’s always one of our Family’s favorite outings. We love the jousting, juggling, and jesters. The food and craftsmanship is fabulous and the games and rides are fun for young and old alike. And the belly-dancers are my daughters’ favorite (my husband’s too I’m afraid!).

We always make sure to arrive before the opening ceremony – it’s so exciting to see each “house” introduce themselves and their members. Each has its unique garb and all are totally in character. The Barbarians are covered in animal pelts and weapons, the Vampires are in black and seem to float when they dance, the Highlanders are in plaid and skirts (ok kilts!) , the Pirates are in hats and puffy sleeves, brandishing swords and “aaarging” (no doubt to make up for the puffy sleeves), and the Royals are velveted, bejeweled, and ribboned with the appropriate “better than thou” attitude.

Many fans of the festival will attend dressed up in their favorite renaissance clothing. Some festivals offer free or discounted admission for dressing up as it enhances the realistic feel of the festival. While we don’t attend dressed up, it does not keep us from dressing up each year at the photo booth. Last year we dressed up as Pirates, Wenches, and Fairies and had a serious pose taken as well as a funny one. They both turned out wonderfully but the funny one was hilarious and we ended up using it for our holiday cards, complete with pirate lingo!

Attending the Renaissance world is such a wonderful, all encompassing experience…if you’ve never been you should definitely try it this year!!! Visit Renaissance Faires & Festivals to find a festival in your area.

See you there!!!

I didn't do much camping as a kid. It wasn't until I was a teenager with a driver's license that I started packing up my car with camping gear and heading to the river with friends for a long weekend of tubing down the river. Calling that camping is kind of a stretch though. We wanted to go tubing on the river and we didn't have a lot of money, but we did have enough camping gear between us and camp sites are relatively cheap compared to a motel. Cheap being the operative word here for a teenager.

Camping for me has changed alot since then. Camping as a family is now about watching your kids earn their junior ranger patches and sitting around the campfire at night making smores and talking about the days events. Like the incredible hike into the canyon or watching the deer walk right through your campsite. Sometimes it's just about looking up into the big sky at night and seeing a blanket of stars that you simply can't see when surrounded by big city lights.>

Camping is still cheaper than a motel, and with so many state and federal parks in our area, we have an excuse to get out of town for a weekend and check out that park we just heard about. Reservations are made easy with sites like Reserve America. You may also want to look up your state's website for a list of state parks in your area.

I'm lucky enough to live in a particularly friendly neighborhood. On any given early evening or weekend you can find parents and kids out in force...riding bikes, tossing the ball, or playing kick the can or ghost in the graveyard after the sun goes down. Not all neighborhoods are like this. How did ours attain this strong sense of community?

When our neighborhood was very young a few of the new Moms formed a Moms group. Our kids had lots of play dates, which was great. But then we began to participate in variety of community services, one of which was Meals for New Moms.

Every time a new baby was born to our community, we would contact the new Mom and offer a week of meals for her family. We would inquire about family food preferences, allergies, etc... Moms group members would divide up the meals, cook, and deliver accordingly. Individually, it wasn't much work. Cook an extra meal. Drop it off at a neighbor's house. But this small act of kindness was so appreciated by the recipient families. Each day for a week they had one less thing to plan for, they easily came together as a family for dinner, and perhaps the new Mom would have just a bit of extra time for a much needed nap! Often the new Mom would then join the Moms group and participate in cooking for the next new Mom.

I like to think that our little Moms group had something to do with the warm community feeling in our neighborhood. Do you have a Mom's group in your neighborhood? Although you can easily organize an informal group like ours, there are also nationally organized groups that offer lots of organization and support, such as The MOMS Club and Mothers & More. Whether you go nationally organized or do-it-yourself, connecting, supporting, and reaching out makes us all better neighbors.

Picture Me Perfect has entered the Blogosphere! Finally right?

While it may have taken us a long time to get here, we are very excited now that we are. The office is a buzz with Blogging. Walk by any office and you will see eraser boards and sticky note filled with ideas on what to blog about.

So give us a little time. We are trying take our time in making sure we post quality blogs that you will really value. But there is such excitement, it's going to be tough to hold our authors back.