Blogspot here we come!

So, our website is currently under construction.  Since mobile me decided to stop services, we've had to change our blog over to a blogspot.  And I've had to do it the hard way, transfer each blog post from 2008 up until present by hand.  It takes a while and it's incredibly time consuming.  NOT FUN!  But I will do it when I can, just so we can have our blog up to date.  In the meantime, bear with me (I'm speaking to the 5 followers that I have) and I'll get it together here soon!  Got LOTS to post from Lilly's to Daisy's birthdays and all the fun we've had this summer.  Yikes!  It's overwhelming!

STAY TUNED!

Daisy is number 1!

Our little beauty, Daisy, just turned one.  And of course we had a fancy birthday party to celebrate!

I was tired.  And I wasn't really into feeling like I wanted to plan a big party.  But you know me...I can't pass up that kind of an opportunity.  So, the week of her party, we started the planning.  I usually plan months in advance, so we had very little time to do everything we wanted.  

So to start off, we came up with a "Country fair" theme.  Michelle suggested we make bunting (yes, I'm blaming this project on her).  So we went up to the Tri-Cities (with all the kids in tow, mind you) and picked out our colors.  Notice above the color combinations we came up with.  Daisy yellow, caramel brown, burnt red, and black.  We cut, sewed and pressed like a thousand little 6 inch triangles in three days.  Then Michelle took the triangles home and hot-glued each one onto a twine-like cord.  Here's what it ended up looking like below:

Pretty cute.  I hung it everywhere.  I also went around to like 8 antique shops (something this area has an abundance of) and found old pictures and frames to hang up around the house.

Next came my idea of doily lanterns.  I got my idea from Pinterest.  love that site.  Here's the pin

I started off by getting dollar store punch ball balloons—3 for a buck.  You can't beat that price.  Then during my trips to the antique stores I bought like a gazillion doilies for $2 and $3 a piece.  Then just did the whole mod podge thing.  *Although* after the fact I learned an important lesson.  Grease up your balloon with like vaseline or cooking spray or something, cuz when you pop the balloons they'll stick to the doilies and you'll lose your round shape.  Yep, that happened to me.

Above: what I learned to do after awhile.  Just pour that dang mod podge all over the doily and rub it around till it's all soaked through.  Then shape it around the balloon.  But don't use any water...you need it as thick as possible so it dries harder.  And let your doilies dry for a LONG time.  I had to do one side at a time because the doilies would fall off of my balloon if I tried rotating the balloon around.

Here are the final products.  Again, they kind of lost their shape because the balloon got stuck to them.  So I had to blow up another balloon inside to reshape it.  That kind of got annoying.  Hind sight:  I would've given myself more time for these.  And I need to figure out another hardening agent to get them to stay in a perfect spherical shape.

My next task was making a Daisy wreath for my door.  I got the idea by looking in the pool noodle section at the dollar store because they were out of foam for flower arrangements.  So I taped the pool noodle in a circle and then just stuck the flowers in through the foam.  Michelle finished it off for me by hot glueing some smaller flowers to the wreath and some fabric circles to create fillers.

Just a pool noodle.  Make sure it's taped well.  Mine came undone during a wind storm the other day.  But it lasted a good 3 weeks outside.  So hey, can't complain.  It cost me like $5 to make.

My last major project for the party was this fence with a quote on it.  In my search for Daisy quotes, I came across this little gem: "Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flowers?"  Meg Ryan said this in the movie "You've got Mail" when Tom Hanks brought her flowers when she was sick.  So anyway, I love me some Meg Ryan (80's and 90's Meg), and had to put up this quote.  My mom owns an online vinyl cutting business, MoreThanVinyl.com.  So I just had her cut out the letters in a cute font that I liked and then spray painted the whole fence white.  Turned out pretty cute I think.  Of course we had to add extra bunting that was lying around too.

Now for the decorations.  In the kitchen we had a little watermelon or strawberry theme going on—whatever way you want to interpret those balloons.  But we did have strawberry lemonade and fresh fruit kabobs.  We also had baked potatoes, steak, pork, pasta salad, homemade rolls and jam, and jello salad.  I have to say that it was DIVINE, the yummiest food ever.  And I didn't have to make any of it.  My in-laws and friends who came brought most of the food.  And my husband cooked the steaks.  It was perfect.

Next was cake....or cupcakes rather.  I am lame in the cake department these days.  I had good intentions, but time got ahead of me.  So I made chocolate cupcakes.  But I tried to cook as many as I could on a cookie sheet and they got squished together and turned out not so round, but more odd shaped than anything.  So then, the day of the party I decided to frost like 50 cupcakes 5 minutes before guests were arriving.  So yeah, they didn't turn out like the cupcakes I pinned on pinterest.  See below:

Yeah.  Not quite.

And Daisy wanted to share her birthday party with her "almost" twin, Julia.  Julia was born the day after Daisy...even though her mommy was due like three weeks after me.  Yep, I was two weeks late with Daisy.  But, it's kinda fun that "Daisy June" and "Julia Mae" almost share the same birthday.  So we celebrated.

Here's Julia's cute cake that her mommy made.  It's rainbow inside!!!!  Fancy that?  Hmmm, the things you can do with the little bit of help from Pinterest.

We get a little peek inside the cake.  I think she ate it all...or somebody did.

Here's Daisy attacking her cupcake that I slaved over.

Trying to put the candle out with her hand.

Not too happy about that hot thing on the end of the candle.

Julia Mae

Daisy June

We spent the rest of the evening outside playing potato sack races, and other yard games.  I was inside dappling in a little face painting too.  Here are some of my masterpieces.

Butterfly

Tiger and Spiderman (or a red faced KISS whichever you want it to be)

Overall, it was a nice relaxing Sunday.  We were glad we could celebrate this special day with Daisy.  She was a cutie during the whole party and loved that everyone was there for her.  She didn't actually fall asleep until after she blew out her candles and ate her cake...but then zonked out right before it was time to open her presents.  Oh well, it's all good.  We'll save them for next year.

Lilly's 2nd birthday!

The party spread

It was Lilly's 2nd birthday.  And because she's pretty special, we had to throw a pretty special party for her.  I based the theme off of Alice in Wonderland (the newest movie version).  So it was a whimsical, shabby chic, little tea party.

Of course, like the year before, we had Joreen from Bon Vinos make her two cakes.  Yes, she got two of 'em.  One just for her (gluten-free, dairy free, and egg free), and the bigger one for everyone else.  Seriously too cute for words...so cute, in fact, we will over look the fact that her name is spelled wrong.  Ah well.  Nobody even noticed.  I got the ideas for these cakes from Pinterest, of course.  Here are the links:  ruffle cake and painted flower cake

Here's another shot of the spread.  Lots of goodies for everyone to eat--even "make your own mini fruit pizzas" (Thank you, again, Pinterest)

These three beauties were tough to make.  It was almost a pinterest bomb...but thankfully, my husband saved the day and helped me out with his wire bending skills.  I'm really glad we had these though, cuz they sure did make a statement.  Here's the link to the pin if you want to see the inspiration: Giant Paper flowers .  

Party-goers got to make their own clip on mad hatter hats.  We got some pretty interesting designs.  

Here's the very first hat I tried.  Turned out pretty dang cute, if I must say so myself.  Here's how I got the idea: mad hatter hat cake topper and this link too: Divine hat designs .  Michelle and I had a ball making these.  We made these about a week before the party so they could be dry enough to put jewels and ribbon on.  This was where the party goers got creative.  They just chose a hat, then embellished the crap out of it.  And here's how I created them:

1. I bought like 20 of these oval boxes from Hobby Lobby.  Only 99 cents each! 

2. Then I cut out circles just slightly larger than the oval box using your basic cardstock paper.

3. Mod podged some cute material all over the box part.  I did about 3 coats or so...so it would be nice and hard.

4. I wanted the "band" part of the hat a different color.  So I mod podged this with a different, complimentary color of fabric.

5. Then I just glued and mod podged the box and lid together.  Except I turned the lid over so it didn't fit together like a box should.  This added a little bit of extra height to the hat.  I wanted this to be as tall as I could get it.  Every centimeter counts!!!!

6. Remember that circle I cut out from cardstock?  Well, I took that circle and then added four circle pieces of material and grouped them together like this.  You can't see the cardstock circle, cuz it's hidden behind the four material circles.  Kapeesh?

7. After those 4 material circles were firmly attached to the cardstock circle, I simply attached it to the hat.

8. Once it dried a little, I turned the hat upside down and mod podged more material circles to the underside.

9. Almost done...I just shaped the sides of the hat so they looked turned up and kind of curly.  I just played around with this and let it finish drying upside down for a day or so.

And here's Janie wearing the first, test hat.  I just threw on some tulle, and glued some buttons on, and a 10/6 sign and called it good.  I just used one of those alligator clips and hot glued it to the bottom of the hat.  These hats are a little heavy, but they stay on okay if you're wearing a ponytail.  And you can make one of these for about $1.50.  Not bad, eh?

Here's Aline and Lia in the ultra creative process with their mad hatter hats.  I think they're messing with the glue gun.

Yep.  Here we are after the party died down a bit. I never do my hair or make-up on a party day, cuz I am always running around frantic getting last minute stuff done.  So I don't even know why I let someone take a picture of me.  But My mom came all the way out from Utah bringing all the mushroom wall decals you see in the back.  It was fun to have her there.  Except....what are you looking at, mom?  I think she was as pooped as I was at that point.  We were up really late the night before putting all the decals on the walls.  Yeah, fun stuff.  All this for a two hour event.

BUT.... the most important thing was that this girl was happy.  And she was.  She loved having all the attention and everyone celebrating here special day.  Then she konked out right before it was time to open presents.  Oh well....

Lego mania

Tanner is 4.  I can’t believe I have such a big boy.  Time is flying by way too quickly.  And for his birthday he wanted everything LEGO.  He especially is obsessed with the little LEGO figurines.  He can’t get his hands on enough of those.  So...of course I had to go ALL out.  After all, he is my oldest and we are now in our brand new house which is like a blank canvas.  And boy did I go all out for this one.  Yes, I have an addiction to party planning.  I can’t help myself.

Above:  Front of the invitation.  I spent hours taking photos of each lego guy and then editing them in photoshop.  But hey, all for the sake of a good party, right?

Below: the inside page of the invitation.

Below: the last page of the invite.  Had to blurr out the info...cuz ya never know what crazies are out there.

Michelle gave me this idea...one day she said, “there’s got to be a way to decorate your giant fireplace like it’s a bunch of stacked up LEGO blocks.”  This is what I came up with.  Thanks to dollar store plastic table cloths and painter’s tape.  Also, his name is formed out of giant MEGA blocks.  

Of course, the entryway had to be LEGO themed as well.  My mom (through her printing business: “More than vinyl”) printed up the LEGO figurines from the invitation and then my husband stuck them on painted cardboard and cut out their faces so that the kids could take pictures AS LEGO people.  There were at least 6 of these scattered throughout the house.

Here’s another LEGO guy.  Then if you notice, all my benches and window sills are wrapped in green bubble wrap to give the illusion of green LEGO bases.

Here’s Ben posing as the above LEGO guy!

Speaking of that particular LEGO guy.  For some reason he’s Tanner’s very favorite guy.  So my mom screen printed him on a T-shirt for Tanner so he could be that LEGO guy all day long.  I though this was a cute idea.  Check out her website if you want to see more creative ideas for other parties that we’ve done. 

y mom can also print removable wall vinyl with any photograph sent to her.  I sent her a few of these LEGO guys photgraphs and she sent them back in giant sticker form.  And I put them up on the walls throughout the house.  Sooooo life-like, don’t you think? And they peel right off without leaving a trace of residue. Here’s her website again:  www.morethanvinyl.com

As the party goers arrived.  They were encouraged to “Guess how many LEGO blocks” there were in the clear jar.  I put 104 Duplo blocks in there.  But the common guess was 60.  Guess those Duplo blocks are deceiving.

Then the kids made their way to the kitchen where they made their own pizzas.  My intent was that the pizza dough would be formed into rectangles and they would put tiny round pepperonis or olives or ham on them.  So that it looked like a pizza LEGO block.  But yeah....this is how they all turned out.  But it was yummy nonetheless.  Thanks to Nana Katie’s famous homemade pizza recipe.  Tasty Tasty!

While the pizza’s were cooking, we made our way to the LEGO play room.  We played a few games like:  See who can build the tallest LEGO tower in 1 minute, or the coolest mansion in 5 minutes.  It was fun to see the kids work together as groups.  They were so competitive.

After we ate.  It was cake time!  So we made our way to the dining room.  Yes, that is a Duplo LEGO train circling the cake.

Don’t look too closely at the cake.  It’s not one of my finest jobs.  I frosted it that morning in a hurry, so it didn’t turn out how I had it envisioned in my mind.  Oh well...next time use fondant.

MIchelle made the chocolate LEGO figurines out of some moulds I bought online.  I also had some regular LEGO block moulds as well.  But we didn’t get around to doing anything with those.  And yes, those are Little Debbie snacks and frosted Suzi Q cakes.  I try to cut corners where I can...I’m not the best baker in the world, that’s for sure.

Next, Tanner got to open his presents wearing his LEGO crown that his pre school teacher made for him.  What a stud.

And lastly, each child got to take home a LEGO head (painted baby food jar) filled with LEGO candy and their very own mystery LEGO figurine.  Here’s Luke modeling his party favor for us.  I got the idea off of Pinterest. Here's the link to the pin

Daisy and Papa chillin'

Tanner had a fun day.  And it was kind of cool to have our house look like LEGO land for a weekend.  And yes, I kept the decor up all weekend long.  No reason to clean up too quickly after spending a week decorating, right?...and also, I was pretty exhausted too.  But in a good way and so very happy to see my little boy so excited and so grown up at his party.  Ahhhh...they grow up too fast.