Frozen Birthday-Party 1

This month is kicking my butt. Literally.

Every day during the week that I've had off has been filled with at least 1-2 commitments. And the weekends have been full of parties, weddings, and birthdays. Seriously my calendar for June is crazy-there isn't an open day on it. Which is why I've been MIA for awhile now.

So now I'm going to try and play catch up with you over the next few posts and show you just what we've been up to around here.

Last weekend was Avery's first (of two) birthday parties. This year we did our usual family party and we decided to add in a friend party for her school friends and some neighbors. So 2 parties it was!

And to show how crazy this day was...her party was at noon and Cassandra had swimming lessons that morning. She won't let Gabe take her so I did. We were gone from 9am-10:15. By the time I got home and showered, it was close to 11:20. Talk about running like a jackass to get everything done-yikes! Luckily I set most of it up Saturday night, but still!

Anyways....Our theme this year? Frozen! (which by the way is WAY better than the original theme she wanted-Barbie)

The problem? Frozen is so popular right now that you can't find anything in the stores for it. In fact, when I went to Party City to buy her invitations, the girl told me it was my lucky day-they just got them in that morning and she said they would be gone within hours. Yep, that's how this stuff is selling. So...it made buying decorations and supplies really hard. I ended up getting most stuff online (at Party City) and just ordered everything for both parties at once, without any type of head count. And yes, I ended up with extras, but I'll use them for something I guess. I couldn't find decorations at all though-everything Frozen or winter themed on Party City was sold out for weeks so I was stumped as to how to decorate for the party.

Gabe ended up buying the girls a Frozen posted at Michael's a few weeks back and I didn't hang them up just in case. They ended up being part of our decorations. I also found some balloons at Party City when I was there and bought them.  Add in some snowflakes, and boom-Frozen decor!

Cool snowflakes found here

I thought my favors turned out really cute. I hate getting "junk" for favors-ya know the stuff that goes in the garbage when you walk in the door? It's a waste of money and a waste of space-my kids won't let me throw them out, yet they don't use them either. I prefer something useful or something edible. Always goes over well. So, we did snowmen in a bag!

What's inside?  Three large marshmallows, pretzel sticks (for arms), chocolate chips, mini chocolate chips and an orange candy coated sunflower seed (I scoured bulk food for anything tiny and orange). On the back of the snowman paper I wrote to assemble them with frosting or stir them into cocoa.

Here are the girls ready to party!

I also made up some cute signs for some Frozen food....

This thing leaked so we ended up with a pitcher-bummed because it looks so nice!

Family photo before the chaos:

We ended up with a gorgeous day! Sunny and upper 70s so the bounce house came out and got used!

Little Sabrina wearing Avery's old dress!

We did a cookout for lunch-hamburgers, hotdogs, pasta salad, green salad, baked beans and my fruit rainbow (always a big hit by the way).

After we ate, some kids started on one of our activities-make your own Olaf. Gabe found this online somewhere so I don't have the link to it!

Carly, Avery, Noah making their Olafs

Bianca

Then Avery opened up her presents....

And it was time for cake! Here's my latest creation-vanilla cake with chocolate pudding filling and homemade buttercream! Avery's request!

Sweets table:

Blowing out the candles:

Carly, Avery, Bianca

After cake, we did a Frozen themed scavenger hunt. Again, Gabe found this online and it was super cute. Every clue was a song lyric with a missing word. That word took you to your next clue. Some were super easy, some were more challenging, but the kids thought it was cool! Their prize was the favors I made.

Scavenger hunt

After that, people just hung out and enjoyed the day. We started at noon and most people stayed until about 4-5ish. Some family stayed later until about 6:30 or so.

Todd and Leigha

It was a super busy day but lots of fun too! Thank you all who made it special!

MIA

Just popping in to say that I'm sorry I'm MIA.

I'm in the midst of 2 weeks from hell.

Well....not really, but they are the busiest 2 weeks that I can remember. And I'm only halfway though it.

Our big girl has a birthday this week so we are partying and doing lots of other things besides that.

I promise I'll be back after the craziness settles down!

Happy 1st Dylan!

Over the weekend, we went to Dylan's 1st birthday party!

It was the perfect day for it too!

The kids did lots of playing outside on the swingset!

Avery and Brayden

We had some yummy food and the cake was super cute!

Their dog, Missy, was cracking us up. Apparently she doesn't like when you try to take a soccer ball away from her. She goes crazy-growling and pawing at it so you don't take it away. It was incredibly funny!

And the birthday boy made quite a mess with his cake....

The dog kept coming over looking for "donations" and Dylan would stick his hand out to get it cleaned off! Then he'd go right back to eating the cake!

He was covered in cake by the end-it was hysterical!

After cake and presents, we stayed later than normal to enjoy the fire they made. And some s'mores too! Can't forget those! Delish!

It was a great party and the kids had a blast! Happy 1st Birthday Dylan!!

Aruba-Part 2

Let's continue on with the vacation post, shall we? (You can find the start of it here!)

Saturday we were up around 7:45 and we went out for a pancake breakfast. 

Cassandra ready to roll!

Then we did some shopping at some flea market type spots that we found. We got a few small souvenirs and since it was hot, we had to get some slushies!

Then the girls got a braid put in their hair...even Cassandra who has the finest baby hair out there!

When Cassandra napped, Gabe and I did some shopping-I didn't get anything but just looked around. Then we went for dinner and saw a fountain show nearby then headed home for bed!

Pretty sunset

Sunday we were up around 7:45 again. We had breakfast at home and did some swimming in the pool all morning. After lunch, Cassandra napped and my Mom and I went to the beach to do some walking around.

Palm beach

Palm beach

Palm beach

After Cassandra's nap, we headed back to the lighthouse area for dinner there.

turtles

Avery on the restaurant steps

restaurant views

We heard this is the best place on the island for the sunset so I was anxious to see it....

Cassandra and Avery

Gabe and I

Avery loves playing photographer lately!

Gabe, Mom, Cassandra and I

All of us!

And the sunset? It didn't disappoint....

Love this one

Frame worthy?

It was spectacular....I'm amazed at the beauty in our world sometimes! After dinner, we got the girls in bed and then Gabe and I went to the casino for a bit before bed.

Monday we were up at 7:30. The kids ate breakfast and we got ready to go to another beach. Gabe and I went to this beach (Baby beach) on our honeymoon and we knew the kids would love it because it's so calm. The only bad thing was that it took us about an hour to get there as we had to from one end of the island all the way to the other end. But it was totally worth it!

And we saw a cruise ship in port which was cool!

Baby beach

Baby beach

Baby beach

The kids had a ball at the beach-Avery was loving the water and had so much fun!  Cassandra was in and out of the water and playing in the sand. We got there just in time and claimed the last free palapa so we had some shade for the day, which was perfect!  We stayed at the beach until around 3 and I thought for sure the kids would pass out on the way home...nope! We came home, all got showered up and went out for dinner. Then we got the kids to bed and Gabe and I went to the casino again before bed (do you see a trend here?!)

Mom and I before dinner

Tuesday we were up around 7:15. We had breakfast and relaxed by the pool all morning. We had lunch and while Cassandra napped, Gabe and I went to Palm beach to walk a bit and for me to buy some paintings. We saw this guy while we were out and about....

After Cassandra napped, we went out for dinner on the beach for our last night.

Cassandra and Gabe

Avery and I

My Mom and Avery

the view from our table

Again, another lovely sunset....

The girls had fun running in the sand after dinner a bit!

We got the girls in bed then did some packing.

Wednesday we got up around 8:15. We had some breakfast, took showers, and packed up.

Mom, Avery, Cassandra before leaving

We left the house around 10:45. Our flight was at 3pm and we were told to get to the airport about 3hrs ahead to deal with both customs. And we also had to drop off our rental car. We ended up at the airport just before noon and no joke, we were at the gate by like 12:15. Yep, we had almost 3hrs to kill just sitting at the gate! Not to mention 2 flights home!  The first flight home was a little rough for Cassandra again. She missed her nap and was just not having it. Our layover was fine and our last flight was delayed, but only by about 15min. The last flight went well. Avery lay down as soon as we took off and slept most of the way home. Cassandra finally conked out around 9:45 and we landed around 10:40. The poor things were woken up numerous times between getting off the plane, getting luggage, getting in the car, and getting home. It was a super long day. 

It was tough going home and leaving paradise-we all had such a wonderful vacation!