1

You might have guessed- Daggers turned one and we had a family party to celebrate. Now can you guess the theme?

BIRTHDAYS

Right after Christmas birthday season started in our house. Here are some snip-it’s from mine and Joel’s.

 

 

 

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

A couple of weeks ago my family put on a birthday party for my two nephews Josh and Bennett. My sister Tessa had just had her baby Evelyn a week before hand and didn’t want her boys to miss out on celebrating their 4th and 2nd birthdays. So my mom, sisters and I stepped in and took over the party. My mom handled the location and cake. My sisters Brie and Laurin took care of the food and drinks. And I called dibs on the decorations and the games. Letting my creativity flow was a lot of fun and thanks to Pinterest I had a ton of ideas.

While there was plenty of sweat equity on my part, there was only a little originality. I would have had a much harder time if it weren’t for another blog, which I down right copied in most cases. I made the “Toodles” as a chart for the party games. The birthday boys got to pick which games they wanted to play, saving the mystery mouse-ca-tool (pinata) for the end. It made it a lot easier on me having a place for all of the kids to congregate before and after each game and it was a great decoration.

The music notes represented a cake walk, or “Hot Dog” song walk. On the outside deck I placed a picture of each of Mickey Mouses friends in a circle. The kids walked from one picture to the next while the Hot Dog song played. When I stopped the music I’d call out one of Mickey’s friends and whoever was standing on that one got a sticker. This was supposed the be the simplest game but it was a flop. The papers were moving all around the floor, the space wasn’t big enough and most of the kids kept forgetting to walk in a circle. It was confusing. But the kids didn’t seem to notice, they were just happy to be getting stickers.

The next game the boys chose was Pluto’s Bone hunt. This was probably the best game of the night. I cut out bones out of yellow cardboard and made envelopes on each one. Once the kids found all of Pluto’s Bones they ripped the envelopes open to find pieces to a Mickey Mouse puzzle. All of the kids helped put the puzzle together and the birthday boys took it home. Did I mention that I found that puzzle for $1 at the dollar tree?

The last game was Pin-The-Ears-On-The-Birthday-Boys. And you guessed it, it’s a total rip off of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. The winners of this game got a sheet of stickers… although we found out a little late that the first three kids could see under the blindfold, thus explaining their VERY accurately placed Mickey Mouse ears.

The most original I got with this party was in making the pinata. My sister-in-law suggested I decorate it with small strips of crepe paper and I like it better than the circular pattern they showed on this tutorial.

I would be remiss if I didn’t include pictures of the cupcakes my mom made. She used to make cakes for a living and around every birthday we all get to benefit from her mad skills. I thought her Mickey Mouse was over the top! Good job mom- I seriously loved the Mickey face.

Odin’s 3rd Birthday

Yes this post is over due, but since we have a newborn in the house I think a two month turn around is pretty good. My sister Tessa was a champ and took all of these pictures for me. And my amazing hubs and his sister Jody did all of the decorating and food. As you’ll see the theme this year was racing. Odin loves Disney’s Cars movie and we overlapped the party with the Daytona 500. Needless to say this party was right up Joel’s ally. All I took on was the cake, which I always love doing. I think this was the most relaxing party we have ever thrown… well for me at least. So here’s some pictures for all of you who couldn’t fit in our in-laws house.

We had a family party this year which was a treat. As our little man gets older and he gets more of his own friends we won’t be able to have family parties anymore- so we have to soak them up while we can. Of course Odin loved being the center of attention. That pirate ship is from one of his favorite cartoons and it was the overall hit. As soon as he saw it in the box he said “It’s Bucky! I love it!!!”

Odin we love you so much that words cannot express it. Thank you for making us mommy and daddy and lighting up our lives. We love you son.

30

This year both Joel and I turned the big 3-0. We kept things low-key on the day-of for both of us but we had a really nice (and really expensive) dinner out with both of our families.

30th birthday picture

the perfect steak

close-up

our night out

I made a little present for Joel

make a wish!

Happy birthday my love- I am so grateful that I get to hit this milestone with you.

BIG 2!

My Baby Man, WAIT. Not my “Baby” anymore, I guess he’s my Little Little Man now a days. Okay lets start over.

My Little Little Man had his second birthday at the end of February. We had both of our families over for a Finding Nemo party and by some miracle (and genius furniture rearranging) we fit everyone one in. O had a GREAT time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so excited. Almost everyone he knows in the world came to pack themselves into our house and bring him presents and attention. He was hyper. He was pleased. And he was really well-mannered. (Yay! My constant coaching on “say please” “say thank you” has payed off! Proud parent moment)

I made the invitations

and the banners

and the cake

but I kept the kids food simple

and i bought most of the adult food

Mmmmmmm Sangria.

I found Nemo!

Yeeeeeeeeeah. So I accidently put re-lighting candles on his birthday cake. The poor kid blew them out three times before we figured out my mistake.

Eating with the GREATS (grandparents)

Opening gifts with daddy

The goody-buckets for O, Josh and Baby Bennett

Playing with his new tball set

Happy Birthday Little Man! Even on the roughest days you are the best gift God’s given us. We love you SOOOOOOOO much.

Joy’s Birthday

Joy’s birthday was over a month ago by now but I can skip a blog posting about it- not when we had such a blast at the Carnival. Happy birthday Mom!

twice over

Joel and I have become an aunt and uncle for the second time! My baby sister had her second child last week. Welcome to the world Bennett- I’m so excited to be your aunt and to see who you will grow into.

For those of you who know Tess and want to hear the full story you can check her blog out by going here: Bennett’s Birth Story

Baby Man’s 1

This is just a quick shot from Baby O’s actual birthday… there will be more pictures from his party soon =)

3-0

My oldest sister had her big 3-0 last weekend. We felt like a night on the town was in order… the rules: Dresses and heels, sisters only, and good eats. Brie organized the tunes for the car ride, Tessa organized the three different spots we’d visit and I showed up for the party =)

If you know any of us you know that we are most often late to any appointment. Why did we think that a night out would be any different? We drove to Annapolis to start off with drinks at an Irish pub (for which we were way over dressed- but who cares). We got there with only an hour to spare before our dinner reservation. So after downing a cider we scurried over to dinner about three blocks over. I think Tessa and I lost the other two girls after the second block, and they had loss a toe or two due to a poor choice in heels. But we made the reservation just fine (and sadly didn’t really need to rush because the place was really laid back and only half full) and were seated with a great view of the harbor. I don’t know where Tess found this place but the food was AMAZING! And apparently they had world-renowned crab cakes…

…so I ordered them and mashed potatoes =) Brie ordered the tuna and shrimp dumplings and Laurin and Tessa got the Salmon. This place was really  great. I mean really, really great. I want to eat some more… now. But I guess I can wait for the next special occasion. After dinner we hit up this little Italian place for dessert and dropped Tessa off to make an all night ride to Tennessee. The rest of us finished the night with some drinks at a brewery near Laurin’s. All in all it was a great night with my GREAT girls. It’s nights like this that make me sooooo happy to have you all as my family. Happy birthday Laurin- enjoy every second of being Thirty!