Grease Birthday Bash!

This past week I celebrated my birthday. Thanks to facebook I saw that the Booth Tarkington Theatre in Carmel was hosting a Grease Sing-a-long event. Check out the trailer below:

 Well, I had never heard of anyone doing an event like that and it seemed like such a fun idea. So, we rounded up a few gals and busted out our poodle skirts and saddle shoes!

What a fun night!!  SO thankful that I have such wonderful ladies to celebrate with!!  Love ya!

Christmas Letter 2015

I took the lazy route and combined our family photo & Christmas letting into one. ;-) Best idea ever!

Paigey's Autumn Bridal Shower

As you might know, I like to get the most out of our projects. So, when it came to throwing a fall bridal shower for the lovely Paige, I knew I wanted to use the sunflower mason jar decorations again. They have been repurposed for multiple weddings, showers, parties, etc. We were able to combine our decorations with some from someone's fall wedding from last year and put together a pretty awesome shower. And of course Pinterest provided plenty of inspiration.

 The bride-to-be's mother shared a lovely devotional about marriage that brought both laughter and tears to the guests.

 

 One thing that we have gotten in the habit of doing is having a photobooth set up. Not necessarily the goofy kind (but we love those too). But it makes for a great way to capture the bride with each of her family or friend groups and always provides a lovely reminder of all the wonderful ladies that support and love her. I have known Paige since she was just a little girl. It has been a blessing to see her grow into a beautiful woman of God.

 

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Big Boy Birthday!

Ten!  My firstborn son is ten years old! I can still hardly believe it!  As you know, turning ten is kind of a big deal. We offered Nate the choice of a party (like we usually do) OR a special outing for him and one friend to Kings Island. Having never been to an amusement park before, Nate hardly hesitated. Kings Island was the obvious choice!

We went on a Friday at the beginning of June (actually a month before Nate's birthday) to avoid the July heat and crowds. It was perfect. There were hardly any lines at all. I think the longest we waited for a ride was 15min!! Nate could hardly believe it when we told him that in the past when Daddy and I had been there we had waited in line for over an hour for rides!


Nate's friend Liam had never been to an amusement park before either so it was great for them to experience their first roller coaster rides together. Every ride the boys would hesitate, saying it was gonna be too big/scary/etc as we went through the line... and then they would ride and LOVE it!

What a wonderful day with a few of my favorite guys!! Happy birthday to my baby boy!!  ;-)

Cinco De Minion Party!

This year we made the choice to combine Joe and Christine's birthdays into one party. They are 6weeks apart and I kind of go all out. So, that is a lot of planning for me to do in a short period of time. We decided to celebrate both kids on Christine's birthday which is May 5th - Cinco De Mayo. But an ordinary cinco de mayo theme wasn't enough, so we took a hint from Despicable Me 2 and we had a Cinco De Minion party!

 

 

 Because it was a combined party, our guest list was even longer than usual. So we asked my parents if we could have the shin-dig at their farm. Lots of space for the kids to roam around and plus they have some fun things for the kids to do including a "train" and bounce house. Another change we made this year was we made the party a pitch-in. So each family brought various Mexican dishes. Seriously, we ate GOOD! YUM!!

 We had a fabulous photobooth and got pictures of every family that attended the party. This is my crazy crew, including the two birthday kiddos!

 After dinner and games everyone gathered in the barn and we closed the doors... making it pretty dark, allowing us to project Despicable Me the movie on the wall and watch it like a cross between a movie theater and a drive-in movie.

I had been planning and gathering minion treats and such for quite some time. I kind of went a little minion crazy. This was the first party of ours that a few families had attended... they were really impressed. I am afraid that they will be sorely disappointed by the next party which is unlikely to be as extravagant! ;-)

  *writing this post reminded me of Arrested Development's Cinco De Cuatro... those who watched it will know what I am talking about.  ;-)

 

A Very Harry Potter Birthday

A couple weeks ago was my oldest's 9th birthday! AH! I can't believe I am mom to a soon-to-be 4th grader!
Well, this boy loves Harry Potter so we put together a pretty Pintastic, magical Harry Potter party for him.

My awesome friend who runs a before and after school program let us borrow a Sorting Hat to sort the boys into the different houses at the beginning of the party.

Each boy had a lightning bold drawn on their forehead, Harry Potter style glasses (really just these that we cut up to be like Harry's), a Hogwarts robe and house tie.

Each of the boys got a Harry Potter goodie bag with some fun treats including: Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, a pair of Chinese handcuffs, a box of sparklers, a Hogwarts notebook, and a Hogwarts certificate/scroll.

Our local library had a Harry Potter party on the same night as I had planned the party so we decided to incorporate it into the plan. So, after the boys were sorted we all loaded into the van and headed to the library.

They had Potter themed snacks including: pretzel wands, butter beer, wizard hats (Bugles) and magic color changing potion drinks.

There were craft stations where the boys were able to decorate their own wands, color pictures, get house badges, and make Monster Book of Monsters.

After the fun at the library we came home for dinner and movie.  We had some Potter themed drinks, Wizard Chex Mix, fruit and of course a party staple... PIZZA!  ;-)

Because I wasn't sure which kids had seen which movies I chose for us to show the first Harry Potter movie (The Sorcerer's Stone). 

** Because the Harry Potter books and movies get progressively darker Nate is permitted to read a book each year around his birthday and then we follow it with a family movie night to watch the corresponding movie. Shortly after the party he and I finished listening to the audio book of The Goblet of Fire and watched that movie as a family.

I am wondering how much longer Nate will be into themed parties and such.  As much work as they are I love being able to make his birthdays special and unique every year.  He is an incredibly special kid and I am proud to be his mama!  Love him!

Little Mermaid 4th Birthday Party

As usual Pinterest was my go-to place to get party ideas. I kept pinning and pinning... way more ideas than I could ever actually do.  And I was kind of feeling partied out so I wasn't very motivated to do a whole lot.  Thanks to my friend Lehi for loaning me a bunch of beachy/luau stuff that kind of went with our Little Mermaid theme. 

 We did a surf board craft and had the kids "go fishing". They loved it!

  Thanks to Jess for doing all the printables! Not pictured are coloring pages and paper dolls that were in the family goodie bags - which were sand buckets with fun treats in them.

 Cut out sandwiches for the kids...

 Chicken Salad Crabs from Lehi! So good!

 Clam shell cookies...

and who needs cake when you can have Jello?  ;-)

Our birthday girl was sweet and smiling the whole time!  

She enjoyed every minute of her Little Mermaid party!