A Rainbow Birthday Party

We did Peanut's party about five weeks early this year because of the Trifecta's expected arrival date.  I'm so glad we did too, because I was/am feeling every bit of 37 weeks pregnant.  I can't imagine doing the party at 39 or 40 weeks OR even one or two weeks postpartum AND nursing at the same time.  There's just no way! 

It was SO ridiculously HOT this last Saturday, but the kids had a great time swimming in my parents pool.  So thankful to have that option of entertainment!  I'll just share the rest in photos. 

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Today was Peanut's last day of school prior to her Thanksgiving break.  She was so excited for "the feast," as it had been referred to all week prior.  They didn't even have to bring lunches today, so it was quite the big deal.  Just ask our 6 year old daughter.

Here she is with her besties.  Ha, ha!  Although, she has never referred to these girls as that, from the way I hear Peanut's tales from school and recess, these three are inseparable and I am so thankful she has made such good little friends just a few months into the year!  

All the children made Pilgrim hats and they did a few recitations and songs for the mommies and daddies in attendance.
 
This is mommy's favorite {a new one for me}:

The turkey is a funny bird
Its head goes bobble-bobble;
And all he knows is just one word...
And that is
GOBBLE-GOBBLE-GOBBLE!

And an old favorite:

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.  Psalm 118:1 

 

Many blessings to each of your families this Thanksgiving.  

 

Six Years

Somehow she is six years old.

I just can't even.

And now, because she is in school, I don't even have the privilege of spending all her birthday with her any more.
 
Sigh.  

I tried to match her gift wrap in the pink/black theme of the pirate party, but I also kept it in true {My} Favorite Things fashion and some of her presents were brown paper packages tied up with string.

Giggle. 

To quote my husband, "You are such a nerd."

Yep.  Indeed I am!


She was a busy girl on her birthday with waking up bright and early for school and then coming home to open presents from Mommy, Daddy and her brother, then off to a BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa's.   She had a fun filled day to be sure.

We sprung for a cute, girly Chargers hat so she could be an athletic supporter (name that movie!) like her Daddy and brother.
 
I'd say she liked it.

'Cause I know her daddy was proud.

Happy 6th Birthday, my dear, sweet girl. 

Girly Pirate Birthday!

Yep, because that's my girl.  She's the girl who would gladly play in the dirt.....while in dress up heals and a princess dress.  She's a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll.  And while I don't love having to stain treat her clothes, I LOVE that she is her own person.

Except when it comes to minding her mommy and daddy, then I want the perfect little soldier.  

But I digress.....

I gave her a couple different party ideas earlier this spring and she landed on the pirate theme.  I may have even done several different design boards for the party theme suggestions.  You know, so she could make a fully informed decision.  Ahem.

I know, I know, who does that, right?

Her only request with this party?  She wanted a piñata.  Because nothing says pirate party theme like piñata.  I guess we'll get to appropriate entertainment for corresponding party themes next year.

Honestly, though, I can't complain, because the Peanut is pretty easy to please.

And thanks to Oriental Trading (not an affiliate link), they have any and all pirate wares available.

Even treasure chest piñatas.

Once again it was a HOT day for the day of the party.  Topping out at a whopping 96 degrees!!!  But at least it's didn't rain, right?  Thanks to my parent's pool, some shady trees, and a killer mister fan, I think most guests stayed somewhat comfortable.

My dear sweet husband made my request of making a treasure map into a reality.  He stayed up late on more than one occasion {during his vacation!} to get it all done.  I think it turned out pretty awesome.

The kids had to complete a treasure hunt with different riddles leading them from clue to clue, which finally led them to their pirate gear/gift bags.

I also learned my lesson from the puppy party and the cupcakes DID NOT get covered in the refrigerator--and the result?  The pretty sugar balls held up beautifully, as did the tasty cream cheese frosting. 

Score!

 I think our favorite little pirate had a great time!!!


 

Back to School 2013

It's her last year of preschool.....

 

Tangled Birthday Party!

We have one more week of four and then our girl will be five.  Five.  I can't hardly believe it.  We had her party a week early this year (fantasy football draft complications--I know) and it's already over.  Now this next weekend, it will be just a quiet little gathering at home as we celebrate the day of her birth.  I can't believe we are already half way to ten.  A third of the way to fifteen, a quarter of the.....anyhow, you get the idea.  It's just amazing how time flies so fast. 

My mom took her to Disney on Ice last year and the Rapunzel braid was her choice souvenir.  Peanut was handed down the Tangled crown from her cousin, so score in both those departments. And funny enough, she didn't even wear either during the party.  Too busy having too much fun. 

I'm thinking this photo of Little Brother is gold for adolescence black mail. 

These senior picture poses......totally all on Peanut.  It's her new pose whenever the opportunity arises.  It makes me smile.

But, back to the party.  It was such fun!  I kind of totally convinced Peanut of the Tangled theme this year.  Okay, there was no arm twisting or anything illegal, but let's just say I totally talked up the fact that if we did a Tangled birthday party, we could light off sky lanterns.  And there was absolutely NO convincing needed after that.

And our girl loves Tangled.  She knows the songs by heart (except when she fills in the words with her own 'cause she can't remember) and she was deciding which boy at her party she would demand convince to play Eugene--AKA Flynn Rider--you know, so they could dance at the end.  Ahem.

That's our girl.  Because dancing =  getting married.

We did a nacho bar (complete with drippy, yummy, no real food whatsoever nacho cheese) and my wonderful mama made her always amazing fruit platter.  We had the standard cupcakes and ice cream and then because we were waiting for it to get dark for the lanterns, we also had a campfire at the end.  And no campfire is complete without s'mores.   So s'mores it was to close out the evening.

And lest you think I came up with all this stuff on my own, as I've said before, I can copy the heck off of someone elses ideas.  Thanks to Pinterest, there are no shortage of ideas.  Period.

Most of this stuff was very inexpensive thanks to the dollar store and Joanne's coupons and sales.  The cupcakes I made myself, the sign was from an old fence piece my parents had and paint I already had on hand, and the rest was just card stock, yarn, and a little creativity on the computer. 

Oh, and of course the sky lanterns.  They were a little pricey with the shipping (but quite honestly they really aren't terribly expensive in the grand scheme of things--I am just flat out cheap).  However, we do say NO a lot to our girl, just because we have such tight finances (we don't even have smart phones, people).  So when birthdays roll around, we do tend to indulge her a little.  And our Peanut is none the wiser--although she is a smart cookie and I am sure she will fully understand shortly.  But that is another post for another day. 

The sky lanterns worked just like they were supposed to.  Although we didn't let them go as they are designed to.  We tied them off with string, which the instructions say DO NOT DO.  Although we had a pretty wide open area to light them off in, my parent's neighbors have some big tall fir trees in the distance and we just felt it was way too much of a liability to let these lighted lanterns off on their own.  So that made the process a little more difficult than we anticipated and Hubs likened it to flying a flaming kite.  So that's fun.  I thanked Hubs more than once that evening for making my hair brained {Pinterest} ideas come to life.  I am always doing that.....coming up with some grand scheme and expecting my husband to figure out how to make it work.  Although my mom is the same way, so I know I come by it quite naturally.  And what's a girl with great ideas supposed to do? And we have to keep our husbands on their toes, yes? 

It was a great, fun day.  I got a little teary as we said goodbye to my mom and dad that evening.  Happy tears.....very much happy tears.   I am We are just so blessed.   We are so happy to be just minutes away from my parents and to have such a wonderful extended family and friends that are there for us.  I am so glad that Peanut and Little Brother have that, because you simply can't put a price on it.

Life is about relationships.  And you have to make the most of them. 

Next Up:  She starts her last year of preschool this Friday, where Miss Independent will become even more independent.

But I don't even know if that's possible.  



 

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?