Celebrating School

It's that time of year again and many of us are getting ready for school and some are in full swing. My hubby will be starting next Wednesday and for the little one on the 8th. We are in full panic mode, I have been mass shopping at Costco, color organizing of the closets, dry cleaning out just waiting for it to be returned (on my personal hangers no less. Don't you HATE wire hangers? This is a must!) and lining up all of the back to school goodies. Pens, paper, markers oh my! I love this time of year, as hot as it may be, it is refreshing to get back into the swing of things.

Saw the photos above posted ??? for a crayon theme birthday. How cute would it be to host a Back to School party? I love the idea of melting crayon remnants (you know you have them) to create a tie-dye looking crayon disk. LOVE IT and in our house , with B being a crayon eater this would be the perfect solution for all of those broken crayons.

Happy end of summer. Oh and dance starts Wednesday...more tutus coming soon;)

Changes

Life since May has been hectic to say the least. We are expecting a number of changes and I am beginning to think we are just plain crazy.

After a very looong search for the perfect house we have given up hope and decided to create our dream house right where we sit. Meaning we are adding on. Well, that seems like an understatement when we will be adding a 400 sq. ft. den downstairs, and for the new 'upstairs' there will be three bedrooms and two bathrooms. We are essentially doubling our square footage and hopefully gaining lots of sanity. We'll see.

Along with a remodel we have lost both of our avocado trees and stand to loose half of our backyard. To me this is heartbreaking because the trees were over 100 years old and I have played in this yard for going on 30 years now. I am coming to realize that change is good but also change is hard. I do have to add that we will be replacing our old trees with new ones. ( Tree huggers please no comments)

Finally we are expecting a wonderful new addition to our family. Yep you guessed it I am pregnant yet again. At 20 weeks now I am feeling a little more alive and trying to get back in the swing of things. I am just hoping that the next 15 to 20 weeks go smoothly.

It may have seemed that I had completely fell out of blog land and in someways I did. I was out of touch for so long. Just remember, it's summer too. Here are a few cute reads if you are getting board:

Arnolds
Ali Edwards
BHiggins
Polkadots and Pirates (has an etsy store too)
Creative Parties and Showers

4th of July Big Top Birthday

The day B was born I remember crying all the way to the hospital because we would indeed have another holiday baby and I was certain he was destin for a lifetime of horrible birthdays. Boy was I WRONG! This year it hit me, "this is probably one of the coolest birthdays EVER"! I had so much fun planning and celebrating with our Big Top Birthday for our little monkey, and yes we topped off the night with an amazing display of fireworks. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the day: Adult favors: The'twins': crazy how much they look alike.

Train rides

Kids favors: which included crazy straws, ring pops, animal cookies, monkey stickers and little toys, red, white and blue rope candy, suckers, candy necklaces....and carnival like stuff.

Napkin wraps that were done months in advance. We enjoyed typical carnival food: hot dogs, hamburgers, salads, frut, nachos and chili, we even had popcorn and cotton candy. Yummm.

This is one of the most fun parties for kids and adults and I really am looking forward to planning another carnival party down the road. Hopefully when I am not pregnant and feeling 100%.

Pixies and Pirates

OK truth be told my productivity has wained a little and I am way behind in a number of projects. Here is the final result of that jumbled mess I showed you in the last post. The invites to our Pixie and Pirate party. Friends, they will be in the mail shortly. 

I Caved!

Okay anyone who knows me well knows that I'm not a big fan of total commercialization. Don't get me wrong, I love Disney. Their cartoons, movies, and the 'happy place' are great, but you wouldn't see me buying Ariel bedding or Handy Manny birthday stuff. Or so I thought. I used to cringe at all of the princess stuff too until 'it' happened. The look of sheer joy on my daughter's face in regard to everything princess. So, when we stopped off at Party City (a treat after a doctor's appointment) for what I thought would be a quick stop to pick up these funny pink fairy plates for her school party, I stood in awe. It went something like this: 

Me: hey Cam we're going to get plates with a pink fairy on them for your school birthday. Cam: Yea! A party for me. 

Me: Yes, but it won't be for a while. Like a month! 

Cam: And I will have a CAKE. 

Me: Yes, but not today and we are only getting your plates. I veer away from the girly princess aisle (you know the one) and head straight for the pink fairy. We have no idea who it is, but I think it's a Sesame Street thing. So here we go... 

Me: Here Cam, how is this for your school party? 

Cam: (With a look of total disgust) Not good. (Totally calm and not interested she looks up at me.) 

Cam: Where's Tinkerbell fairy? 

 So here it is I caved, big time. This non-specific fairy party is now a Tinkerbell party and yes, Captain Hook accents for the boys.  The things we do for our kids. 

More to come on what this mess is turned into. 

 

And since I still have a say in what she wears to ballet: a rainbow tutu and baby legs.

I told her to pose with her new glasses. She really is a star. I think next year she is confined to black leotard and pink tights. But until then, this is what I do...

Okay. B is reading the Bible so he'll either be asleep soon or crying, I should check on him. Happy weekend.

I DO!

Since I've been talking so much about my love of planning the perfect party and how pleased I am with the end result I'm flashing back to almost 4 years ago. My wedding, my perfect day. I added so many little details, I stressed and worried and had everything planned to the half hour. Remarkably everything was perfect....except for the RED Roses in the 'salon' . Did I mention everything was to be WHITE.

I hand painted champagne glasses for the favors and used them as name place settings (about 200). Yes I am crazy!

By bouquet was about 500 little stephanotis flowers and each of them had a little pearl or rhinestone in the center. Crazy difficult for the florist but this is one of my all time favorites.

I had the isle lined with white and cream rose petals and each chair was adorned with a cream satin bow and white hydrangea flower bouquet. notice the chivari chairs.

I was worried there wouldn't be enough flowers so I went to the flower district and bought more white roses the day before the wedding. Again; crazy, I know. I also did the candles...they are sitting on little clear crystals in the cylinders and more cream satin bows.

Beautiful.

More to come.

A trip down Memory Lane

Last year for Brady's first birthday bash we celebrated Dino style. The party was great! Dinosaur Dig was the theme and what party would be complete with out one...a dig that is. The sand box was roped off to represent a palaeontologist's dream excavation looking for metatarsal bones (mini dog bones) and little dinosaur shaped eggs. Kids that found bones got a larger prize like a Dino coloring book or a large plastic Dino replica. This was my husbands favorite part...just think Ross from friends. :) (I love you babe.)

We also named all of the food after dinosaurs. Then labeled them Carnivores or Herbivores.

The invites were shaped like eggs and a brad held them toghter to reval the invitation on the inside. The front read "Breaking News"!

A few variations on the invite:

And the banner (which matched the invitations) little eggs reading Happy Birthday Brady.

Overall this was one of my favorite themes. So much you can do to have a great party. We even had blow-up dinosaurs scattered around the yard and in plants and trees. Brady loved them. This theme may be repeated in years to come.