Cars Party!

Hard to believe, but our little man turned 5 this weekend! He's been so excited for his party that he had been counting down the days for the past month. To make it easier in showing him how many days were left we made a paper chain and each night before bed he would tear off one of the loops.

I asked him what kind of party he wanted and without hesitation the answer was Cars. So Cars it was! I went on Pinterest for ideas and found a couple easy cakes and we started planning. Here's what we came up with...

Excited to help Daddy build his new present!

I made each of the kids a 'driver's license' to include in the treat bags

It was a fun party! A few guests couldn't make it so we had a total of six kids, including ours. But it turned out to be the perfect sized group (and I'm sure they made enough noise to make up for the ones who couldn't make it!)  ;)  For the kids we had a late lunch of finger foods/snacks and cupcakes.

After our first little guests left we had about 15 minutes before Kyle's family arrived for our second party. More snacks, followed by a pizza dinner and cake & ice cream! Sooo much food! I feel like I won't need to eat for the next three days. :/

It was great that both our friends and family were able to make it to celebrate with us! Thankful for such wonderful  friends/family who show so much love to our children.  :)

Elise's Birthday - Part 2

On November 16th we had Elise's birthday party! We had invited several families from church, most of whom had little ones Elise or Parker's age. A few of them weren't able to make it because we changed the date but we had a fun time with the ones that could be here! I changed the time from lunch to dinner but we had the same menu to keep it simple--a 'make your own sandwich' meal, along with fruit, veggies and chips.We had gone out earlier for pictures that day so I didn't know how much time I'd have to put together a hot meal in time, and I had already bought some sandwich toppings for the week before.
Since the kids aren't big on sandwiches, I cooked some chicken nuggets and fries for them.

I was hoping to get some pictures of the party, but I was too busy getting dinner out and then chatting with our friends that I didn't think about it! Oops. But we managed to get a couple of Elise opening presents and a few of our family and her cake. Elise did really well that day! I was expecting a meltdown part way through but thankfully she had taken a good nap in the afternoon and there was enough going on around her that it kept her occupied.

Just realized that the gift opening pictures are on Kyle's phone, so here are a couple that are accessible right now.  :)

Trying to keep with the bunny theme for party favors, I filled carrot shaped bags with small bunny graham crackers. Elise and her little friends got a carrot and a small wooden bunny-shaped puzzle (no picture, sorry), and the older kids got a carrot and a disney jigsaw puzzle.

Hard to believe Elise isn't a baby any more! She's now an active little girl, trying to walk everywhere, climb on everything and copy what everyone is doing!
I think we're in for some very busy days ahead.  :)

Parker's Puppy Party!

Parker's Puppy Party--try saying THAT five times as fast as you can!  :)

But it happened. Our little man turned three and had a puppy party!

His actual birthday fell on a Thursday this year. Kyle took the day off work so we could spend time as a family and have a personal celebration before the party.
Over the past  month or so Parker has really taken to a little foam bowling set we had around. Because of this new bowling obsession we thought it would be great to take him to a real bowling alley.  So we started off his day by going bowling. He was SO excited! We had bumpers put up and asked for a ramp to make it easy for him. After pushing the ball down, he would grab onto the ramp and jump up and down laughing. It was so cute seeing his excitement in trying something new. And he's the perfect bowling companion. Because no matter now bad our own throws were, he would clap and shout heartily, "Good job Mommy! (or Daddy). The highlight, though, was Parker getting his first strike! It's all he's been talking about for the last four days. 

Next we headed over to the SF zoo. We've been there several times over the summer but it never gets old. It's somehow relaxing to wander around and watch the animals. One of my favorite spots is the hippo exhibit. Not because I particularly love hippos, but because it's always sleeping when we go, so it promps Parker to shout, "Wake up, hippo!" And if we ask what a hippo says, Parker replies, "Haha haha ha!" (it's a sound his hippo flashlight makes, so now he thinks real ones make a goofy laughing sound as well). At some point, yes, we will correct his animal sounds. But for now, well.....it's hilarious.  :)

Anyway....

We planned his birthday party for late Saturday morning. We started the festivities with two of Parker's favorites for lunch--cheese pizza and cheetos. Healthy? Nope. But it's a party, right?!  :)

After lunch the kids played for a little while. And then we brought out the box. The kids were crowding around asking what was inside. 

It was time for the much-anticipated puppy adoption! 

Not to worry--no real puppies were adopted. ;) 

Parker has a thing for puppies/dogs. Early this year we were in Walgreens and we happened to see a small stuffed dog in the toy aisle. He asked if he could have it and since it was only a couple dollars I said sure. And that's how it started. He carried that dog around with him every day and night for months. He got a second one later on and then he carried them both around. Since then he's acquired a couple more and loves them just as much. So when he picked out a puppy cake for his birthday, I knew  exactly what we'd do for his party--a puppy adoption! He and all his little friends could pick out a small stuffed dog to take home with them. I saw it first on pinterest and thought it was the cutest thing ever! 

We had lots of boxes around so I grabbed a big flat one and cut off three of the flaps. The only newspaper we had was a small flyer, but it worked fine (disregard the puppy in the corner. He had a little accident). As for supplies, I bought a yard of paw-print fleece at Joanns and cut it into small squares for blankets. And I found a set of paw-print bracelets at Oriental Trading that were perfect for collars. I waited until they had free shipping and they ended up being pretty cheap. Once I got them, I had to shorten them slightly to fit around the dogs, but it was nothing a pair of scissors and a glue gun couldn't handle. And finally, I had some doctor/vet supplies. I wasn't going to get those, as the only ones I found at the toy store were a little expensive and I wasn't sure if they would be played with after the party. But, as luck would have it, I was at Target a couple days before the party and I found small doctor kits in the dollar section. Yay! 

I opened the box and laid out the supplies next to it. Starting with Parker, we let all the kids go through and pick out a puppy, a blanket and a collar. 

Then they took it over to Daddy, who was the in-house vet that day, for a check up to make sure their new pet was healthy. Turns out Parker had to give his puppy some medicine...

He loved it! A couple of the kids weren't sure they wanted a dog, but once they saw the others having fun picking one out, they quickly came over and wanted to join in. Here are the happy new pet-owners! 

Last on the agenda was dessert! I had found some fun dog-themed ideas online. Although it was overkill for the number of guests we had I went ahead and set everything out anyway. 

Dollar Tree had these huge dog bowls that were just the right size to hold snacks. We had:

Puppy Chow

Doggie Biscuits (iced cookies)

Doggie Treats (Scooby graham cracker bones)

Rawhide (Pirouette wafer cookies)

Fetch Sticks (pretzel rods)

And of course, the cake! I decorated it on Friday while Parker was napping. When he wandered out later I lifted him up so he could see it. He looked at it for a minute, then gave the biggest smile! Makes me so happy to make him happy. :)

Seeing how excited he was about his party and all his friends coming over made today the perfect day. While I was changing him into his pj's later I asked Parker what was his favorite part of the party? 

His answer? The puppies!

He's Two!!

Parker's 2nd birthday is next Wednesday so we decided to plan his party for today! We invited several of his little friends from church and had the party at lunchtime so the toddlers could all be home in time for their much-needed afternoon naps.  :)

We decided to keep it simple, so lunch was a 'make-your-own-sandwich' bar. I made a big bowl of chicken salad, then picked up a few different kinds of buns, meat and cheese as well as a few sides--chips, potato salad, fruit, etc.

It seemed like an easy and filling meal but there was one problem...the little birthday boy isn't a big fan of sandwiches. He usually picks out the cheese and leaves everything else. I wasn't sure about the other toddlers' preferences either, so I made them a special little meal....

I had seen something on Pinterest called 'toddler buffet trays.' She had gotten ice cube trays and filled the little holes with toddler food/snacks. It looked like a fun idea and something Parker would like so I stopped at Dollar Tree last week for a few ice trays. They turned out pretty cute and the toddlers seemed content to pick away at whatever food choices they liked.

Shortly after lunch one of the little girls informed me she was ready for cake, so we brought out the dessert. I had wanted Parker's party/cake to have a theme that he would recognize so Kyle looked at a bunch of cakes with me and we decided an owl one would be cute. Park has a stuffed owl he carries around and he makes the hooting sound every time he sees one. When he saw the cake this morning I heard him shout, "Owl! Whoo...whoo!"  :)

I gave him part of the small owl cake and some ice cream. When his own ice cream ran out, he reached over to Kyle's plate and started helping himself to more. Then when I looked over a few minutes later, he had pulled Kyle's whole plate over. He had a utensil in each hand and was eating off both plates.  :)

After dessert we had him open his gifts. I thought he'd be more into it this year, but he still gets distracted too easily. He opened one and wanted to play with it--didn't care that we were putting other bags/gifts in front of him. He just wanted to keep pushing the buttons on the truck he just opened. We eventually made it through all of them but it took a while. By the time we finished it was already time for the party to end and a few guests had to leave. But before we sent them off we gave out marshmallow pop favors--large marshmallows dipped in chocolate, then rolled in either sprinkles or oreo crumbs. I wanted to give out something edible and these were something I could make a few days before the party and have them ready (and out of the way) early.

So that was our day. Hard to believe our little man is two years old already!! Thanks to all of our friends who could come and help make today special!  :)

You had to 'BEE' there!

I realized the other day I'm a little behind in my 'weekly project' posts! I haven't put anything on here for a while, not because I haven't made stuff, but because I've been getting ready for Parker's birthday party. I was waiting until everything was done and I had a few pictures before posting. I can't believe he's one already!! Wow.
A couple months ago I started looking up birthday cake ideas for Parker. I had all kinds of cute themes in mind, but they're all for older kids and Parker is still too little. He wouldn't have a clue what was going on or remember any of it, so we decided to just do something baby-ish for his first birthday. I wanted it to be simple and have bright colors, so when I saw a picture of a beehive cake, I thought it was perfect! Kyle looked at a bunch of pictures and liked the bees, too, so that was the one I ended up making.
I went online to look up ideas and supplies for bumble bee-themed parties and was surprised that the results were pretty limited--and were mostly for girls. I didn't see any invitations I liked for a boy so I found some honeycomb scrapbook paper and cut it up, printed out the party details on white paper, then put them together with pieces of black ribbon. For a finishing touch I added a little bumble bee die cut (no, I didn't make the bees. I found them on etsy!)

I also ordered a few dessert plates with bees on them, then bought the rest of the supplies in plain black and yellow. It was an afternoon party so instead of a full meal we had snack foods--veggies & dip, fruit, cheese & crackers, chips and drinks.

And for dessert we had birthday cake, cupcakes, ice cream and Nanaimo bars! Yum! :)

It took a few hours on Thursday night to make the fondant bees but they turned out super cute! I made the cake on Friday...thankfully, since it was a fairly simple cake it didn't take too long to put together. That left plenty of time to ice the cupcakes and wash/cut all the fruit and veggies.
And since Parker and his little friends are too young for most party favors, I ended up making each of them a small stuffed bee toy! A little cheesy, yes, but I wanted something bee-themed to give out. :)

We had reserved a local park gazebo for Parker's birthday and on the day of the party we were blessed with a beautiful sunny day. We didn't have anything specific planned...just a time to get together and enjoy everyone's company.

We were amused as we watched Parker walk around from one person or group to another, like he was mingling, yet still in his own little world. :)

Finally it was time to cut the cake! Parker had his own big cupcake to get his hands into.

He wasn't sure what to do with it at first. He sat and looked at it for a minute. I picked up a small piece of icing and put it in his mouth thinking that once he tasted it he would dig in. But he still sat and looked around--guess there were too many people around talking to him and taking pictures and he wasn't sure what to do. Finally he poked his finger into it. Then he started squeezing handfuls of icing and cake, then he finally started putting some in his mouth. And he wasn't being dainty! He was shoveling it in by the fistful, using his arm to push in any falling crumbs. :)

So fun to watch! I'm glad he enjoyed his first cake!
He was getting a little tired after the cake but we wanted to try and have him open some of his gifts before everyone left. Kyle sat with him and helped him pull paper and gifts out of the bags.

We barely finished opening everything when the meltdown started. Poor little guy...he had a big day and he did really well with all the people and attention!
It was the perfect afternoon and we were so thankful we could celebrate Parker's first year with family and friends!