Time to celebrate!!

Sometimes it's hard being the one who plans all the parties because when it's time for my own birthday, who does the planning? Normally we do something nice as a family and I love it, but I don't always spend time with friends or get a break. This year I got everything I wished for... time with good friends, time alone (with a good book and a pedicure to keep me company) AND special time with my family! The tricky part for me was planning something for myself with friends without making it about ME, ME, ME... I didn't need gifts, just time to relax and hang out with some of my favorite girlfriends. I had seen a "Favorite Things" party on a blog forever ago (sorry, don't remember where!) and loved the idea of getting to share some of our favorite things with each other. Throw in a few of my favorite appetizers, favorite drinks and desserts, and of course favorite friends (with my favorite show, The Bachelorette, on) and it was a fabulous night!! I was so relaxed that I forgot to get a group picture and I had also wanted to get a picture of all of our "favorite things" that we swapped. It was such a fun assortment of things, from mascara to crock pot and vegetable steamer bags and everything in between!

Happy Birthday Jake!

We celebrated our sweet son Jake's third birthday with a backyard sail boat party! It was a beautiful, relaxing day full of fun friends {and little swimming pools, a water table, squirt guns and water balloons}. I bought the Sail Away pdf file from paperandcake.com and loved it! For favors, we had a red, white and blue candy bar for all of the guests, along with books for each friend {from the $1 section at Target!} We love you, our silly sweet Jakers! I used the "Life's a Beach" Cricut cartridge for the front door decoration, as well as the "Jake" banner and lots of little details {sail boats for the candy bags, water bottles, and thank you cards}. The adorable straws above and red/white polka dot cupcake liners below are from bakeitpretty.com. The cute little straw flags are from the Sail Away collection from paperandcake.com. The "fish and chips" were really dolphin and whale shaped chicken nuggets with fries! This adorable sail boat shirt is from myduckduckgoose on etsy. Thanks for stopping by to check out Jake's party!! Have a great weekend!

So behind!!

I've neglected this blog for MONTHS and MONTHS!! :( Every time I thought about getting caught up, I got overwhelmed... so I'll just catch up with this exciting news and move on from here. Welcome back!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have so much to be thankful for this year- a wonderful family, amazing friends, and most of all, my little boys who are my whole world. Here's my sweet Sam ready for preschool with a batch of turkey cupcakes! I think Sam has a future doing something creative... here is the cupcake he decorated all by himself! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

5,4, 3, 2, 1... Blast Off!!

My sweet son Sam turned FIVE last week!! I can't believe he is already five years old. He really wanted a Buzz Lightyear party and I really did not want to do a character party. I think we came up with a great compromise... little details with Buzz Lightyear and green aliens from the Toy Story movies, and plenty of rockets, space details, and coordinating colors {royal blue and lime green} to pull it all together! Many more pictures and party details coming soon! I had a photographer come take pictures of the party and I should be getting them tomorrow... I can't wait to see the pictures myself!

All Aboard!!

This weekend I had the pleasure of coordinating this fun Train Party that included tons of bright colors, fun activities, and special touches for our sweet friend, Evan.   This sign greeted party guests at the front door... Party snacks were set up along the buffet like a train, each snack with a train inspired name. These adorable little candy trains decorated the tables. The birthday banner was a huge train I cut on the Cricut... too long to get in one picture! These train labels from Parties by Hardie were PERFECT!! They come as a pdf file so you can print as many as you need! I used them for the water bottle labels, and tags for the train shaped chocolate candies, the train cookie favors, and to decorate various galvanized tins around the party. Love, love, love these labels!! The cupcakes were wrapped in train themed paper and topped with fondant trains from Sugar Robot on etsy.com Party favors included these train sugar cookies that I made. White chocolate molded train candies I made {and somehow managed to get to the party before my little Jake ate them all!!  Silly boy learned how to push a chair around the kitchen to reach up and grab the good stuff!}... And these party bags for the kids! Inside each bag there was a model train kit, a wooden train whistle, and a train lollipop, along with some other sweet goodies. It was a fun afternoon for all of the guests who visited Evan's train station!! And now it's time to move on from trains and on to rockets... my own little man is turning five VERY soon!!

Feeling the love in blog land!!

I'm a few days behind here (okay, more like a week and a half... because I'm up to my ears tagging TONS of baby clothes and such for this BIG consigment sale next weekend!) so I just now saw that Jake's Farm Party was featured on one of my favorite party blogs, Simply Creative Insanity!!! I'm thrilled that she featured Jake's party- thank you, thank you!!