Peanut's Birthday Weekend

We had a REALLY big weekend last weekend.  We had a big family barbecue last Friday night, party preparations and a fantasy football draft on Saturday and a big 'ol carnival birthday on Sunday.  SO three fun filled days (long but fast somehow) and nearly 1000 photos later, I am finally getting a chance to sit down and get this post done.

Over a week later.  Ahem. 

So last Friday.  We had some extended family come into town and our little Peanut was so excited to meet their little baby girl.  Peanut had webcammed with my aunt more than once with them and Peanut was SO excited to meet her in the flesh..  So excited that those were literally the first words out of her mouth that morning.  "Is today the day we get to meet Baby S_____?"  Yes, yes it is.

This sweet little girl is about 7 months old and Peanut was enthralled with her and every little thing she did.  Now I know that Peanut must secretly think that her little brother is just boring, because she was just beside. herself. with everything this sweet little girl did.  Whether it was smile or crawl or stand (assisted of course!), Peanut was SO excited.  I can't imagine what she'll do when Baby Brother rolls over!

Saturday was Peanut's actual birthday, but it was the day of the Hubs and my Dad's Fantasy Football Draft as well.  I know, like that really should make any difference, right??????  Peanut's birthday should supersede that, but somehow it didn't and I had to make sure we did something extra special that morning since the guys would be otherwise occupied later on that day.

We opted for breakfast with my parents and sister and brother-in-law (who were in from out of town!) bright and early that morning at our house, complete with balloons and streamers and presents after breakfast.  I was totally stressed (are you surprised?) about making sure I made it special for our girl and Hubs kept telling me not to worry.  He was right.

Imagine that.

Every morning when Peanut gets up the very first thing she does is come and visit us in our room.  She has to pass by our dining room to get to our bedroom and we had decorated the dining room with balloons and crepe paper the night before.  First thing that she says to me was, "Those are the best decorations ever, Mommy.  You did a great job!"

Be still, my heart.

Just some balloons and crepe paper and our girl was thrilled.  We hadn't even set out her gifts yet (not that there was a lot from us, because there wasn't)--but she was ecstatic over the simple gesture of birthday decorations.

We are blessed.

So after breakfast and her gift opening, she went with Daddy and Grandpa to Costco to pick up her cake (I opted for a store bought cake the day of the draft, so she wouldn't be without a cake on the day of her actual birthday.  Plus, with all the football guys there, they would help eat it up. We certainly didn't need any left over, as I was baking both cupcakes and a birthday cake for her party the day after.)  

I decided to do the baking over at my mom and dad's because I didn't want to deal with transporting cupcakes and a cake--plus that also gave me extra sets of hands for Peanut watching and Baby Brother holding.

One of my mom's gifts for Peanut were new aprons--complete with matching aprons for Mommy and Bitty Dolly.  Thanks Mom!

So I got the cupcakes and cake both baked and decorated on Saturday and finished up some last minute things for her party while we waited for Hubs draft to be over.  Then it was home to bed so we could get up and get ready for the big carnival party the next day.

As I mentioned, I didn't get a lot of those extra details done this year like I have in years past.  I wanted to make cupcake toppers and set the tables all festive, but I simply didn't have the time.  I am still finding my footing with this two children thing.  I consider it a good day when I get a shower before noon and have dinner on the table at a decent hour.  Needless to say, cupcake toppers are not my first priority right now.  I have to remind myself, Peanut still had a great time--even without cupcake toppers.

My mom helped a ton and gathered up lots of carnival details like peanuts (no pun intended!), caramel corn, and animal cookies for the table and found these really cool vintage-y mason jar lids to use with fun straws and pint size jars for the beverages.

For the "booths" we had face painting, a photo booth, and a balloon artist.

The face painting was done by my husband's sweet and talented cousins:

They did SUCH a wonderful job!  I told anybody that would listen that day, I would have been thrilled with the kids getting stars and hearts on their cheeks.   That's what I remember getting done with face paint when I was a kid.  No, they were so much better.  We had three exotic butterflies, a tiger, a kitty, a pink and purple lady bug, a college emblem and even a superhero (on his arm--he didn't want his face painted.  But I know they would have if he wanted it!).

 

And the balloon artist?  Well, he was entertaining for both the kids and the adults.  We had considered having a clown show up--but clowns are kinda' creepy if you ask me.  My mom then suggested a balloon artist and I knew just the guy! We saw this guy several years ago when we went out to dinner one night--and Peanut's carnival themed birthday was a great opportunity to have him come out. 

He did not disappoint one bit!

Last, the photo booth.  We set the streamer backdrop up in front of my parents garage door.  Of course with the garage being in the front of the house and the party being in the back yard (on the opposite side of the house), the photo booth was sort of forgotten about until the end of the party.  But I have to say, I think it was the funnest part.  At least for the adults.....but I'll let the pictures tell the rest.


It was a fun day.  And even though I know better {because cooperativeness is at an all time low post-big-event}, we even squeezed in some family shots when most of the guests had went home after the party. 

Why yes, this WAS the best family shot we got.  

Is she really four years old already?