Regan's Bridal Shower

My Sister's bridal shower was absolutely beautiful, and I wish I had something to do with the decor.  She loves purple, and her wedding coordinator friend has an amazing vision when it comes to this kind of stuff. 

 A-MAZ-ing decor...

 Mimosa bar and brunch spread...

This was part of our gift, I found it on Pintrest (of course!) but it was six bottles of wine to commemorate all the important 'firsts' of a married couple's life... wedding night, first Christmas, first fight, etc.  Such a great idea for my wine-loving sister :-)... And, I happened to luck out on finding a wine-sized milk bottle crate at Home Goods.

 Another super personal gift from one of her sweet friends... their established sign.  I LOVE these. 

 Kristin made the ribbon bouquet.  Such a special friend to both my sister and me.

 And here are all the ladies from our little family.  Mom, Reg, Grandma, me, Claire and Hannah.

Happy Wedding Shower Sister!!  Can't wait to be a part of your BIG day!

Hannah's Birthday (part one)

This year has been a crazy one...really what year isn't?... but I decided early on that I wouldn't be having big themed parties for the girls like I did last year.  While I LOVE planning the parties and being creative, it was just a tough year for that. 

Sooo, we decided to have a park party for Hannah on her birthday.  I think it was a lot of fun and super simple.  We had snacky foods, cupcakes, and playtime at a nearby park!  I liked this too because we were able to invite and get to know the girls from her class.

The kids didn't seem to care that it was the WINDIEST day of the year, and that we kept checking overhead for rain as there were plenty of ominous looking clouds.  :-)

 These cupcakes were delicious and looked like tie-dye!  Thanks Jennifer!

The favors were crazy sunglasses, I figured it was the perfect thing for a partu on April Fool's Day!

 Happy Seventh Birthday Hannah!!  I hope you enjoyed your day!

Claire Turns Four - Fishy Style!

Claire's fourth birthday was the day after the dance recital this year... Phew!  What a crazy week/weekend that was!  I was so glad that I had planned her party out and gotten most everything ready ahead of time. 

We had enjoyed having a swim party at my parent's house last year for Claire's third birthday, so it followed suit to do the same again this year.  I had the idea of doing a fishy-cracker themed party and took it a step further in making nearly everything at the party either orange or blue. 

Claire was SO excited to finally be FOUR!  She had been talking about her birthday for so long and we had kept telling her that it wasn't for X amount of days for so long that when it was finally her birthday she didn't believe us :-) 

I am also a big fan of swim parties.  Especially swim parties where most of the parents get in the water and have fun with the kids.  It was really such a fun day!

Happy, Happy Birthday sweet Claire!  You are a wonderful daughter, a sweet girl with so much spunk and personality, and I love you to the moon and the sun and back a million times

*You can see more of the details of the party on my crafty blog: part one, part two, and part three.

Hannah's Cupcake Party, Part One

Well, it has been close to two months, and I still haven't posted about Hannah's birthday party back at the begining of April.  Here is my effort at changing that:

When the kids arrived, they were given a cupcake apron.  This photo is only about 2/3 of the partygoers.  I wanted to get at least some of them in their aprons before the chaos started ;-) 

Next, the kids decorated chef's hats with coffee-filter flowers and their names.  Here is Miss Haven modeling the cuteness...

Then they all moved on to either the cupcake decorating station or to make their own pizzas. 

They had five varieties of cupcake to choose from: chocolate, red velvet, lemon, strawberry, and plain white.  FYI the favorite was strawberry!

Justus and Ethan are creating their own pizzas.

The birthday girl was busy decorating two cupcakes, one was to eat later and one was to take home.

Stay tuned for part TWO!

Kids Easter Party

My friend Kelly (see her post here) planned an AWESOME Easter party for the kids this week and I had to share!!

Everyone started with this Easter craft, a hand tracing with a cross stating 'He Lives'.  Hannah took her time doing hers and Claire worked quickly so she could go play :-)

 Claire and our friend Haven...

 Hannah and Claire playing ball...

 Hannah on the left enjoying a bunny-hop race, and with her friend Justus on the right.

 After heading inside to hear the Easter story and sing a few songs, the kids enjoyed an egg hunt in the yard. 

 Hannah and Haven showing off their loot.

The girls had such a fun time!  Thanks Kelly!

A peek of what's to come!

A Patriotic Third Birthday!!

My baby is now THREE!!!  Wow!  Even though I have been waiting for her to be three to enjoy the 'next phase' [see post below], the day arrived and I could not believe that it had really been three years since she joined our family.  I couldn't believe that I no longer had a baby... not even a little bit.  As a matter of fact she is COMPLETELY diaper free... even at night!!! I love the stage she is in.  She is so funny and thoughtful, very entertaining and full of personality.  Such a love-bug!

We decided to have a little shin-dig with a few family friends.  What better to do on [literally] the hottest day of the year [thus far] than swimming and BBQ?!?  I even paid a little more attention to detail than I normally do with parties and {GASP!} chose a theme, made a plan, and even got a little crafty! 

I went with a red, white, and blue motif because, well that's what is easy to find right now with the Fourth of July coming soon.  The cupcake toppers were from Paper & Pigtails' shop on Etsy.  I read a rave review about her on Nina's blog and have to completely agree... super cute and so easy to work with.

I also tried my hand at Bakerella's cake pops, but kept it simple with white chocolate for dipping and red, white, and blue sprinkles.  While they ended up looking pretty darned cute, I accidentally used a bit too much frosting in the recipe and they were a little tough to keep formed in their ball shape.  I am actually looking forward to trying them out again.  They were very tasty!

Other fun details:

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  Patriotically themed candy from the bulk section at Winco
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  Red, white, and blue cupcakes from Vons (on sale $4.99 per dozen!)
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  White chocolate dipped prezles with sprinkles
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  Red, white, and blue metal bins and platter from Wal Mart... LOVE these!
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  Mason jars for tea and lemonaide
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  [not pictured] stained glass jello, in red, white and blue.  I wish I had a photo, but instead of stars I just cut it into squares and it looked AWESOME! 

I had a lot of fun planning the details, but even more fun because I know Claire felt so important knowing all the fun stuff was for her! 

I love you baby girl!  Happy Birthday!