Turning 6-Party #2!

Over the weekend, we had Avery's  second party for our family and close friends.

Avery and I ready to party!

We had a not-so-nice day for her party. It was freezing all weekend-like low to mid 60s. We had planned to set up the bounce house like usual, but unfortunately that was out of the question. It was strange having people over in long sleeves and pants at the end of June (hello summer? Where are you?). But...we managed. Everyone arrived and we had snacks and a nice cookout.

Then we tried to get a group photo of all of the kids, which didn't work out all that well...

Avery opened up her nice gifts...

keychain

bathing suit #1

bathing suit #2

After presents it was time for cake!

She wanted another cat themed party so I scoured the internet for some cat cake ideas. This is what I came up with! I will say that I cursed at it many times in the making, but I think it turned out ok! She loved it and that's all that matters!

Happy Birthday, Avery!

Make a wish!

Despite the bad weather, we all had a great time! Party #2 was a success!

Frozen Party-Take 3!

I was hoping we'd get lucky and Cassandra would pick a different birthday party theme for us. But, she didn't. When I asked her what she wanted, she screamed out "ELSA!"

So....here we are with Frozen party #3 in our house. (See party 1 and party 2).

I have to admit, I didn't go as crazy with the planning with this one as I did with Avery's. First, her birthday is not even a month after Christmas. I didn't have time or creative energy after the holidays to get very gung-ho on this party. And second, I was trying to make this party different than Avery's parties. Thirdly, she's 3....as sad as it sounds, she won't remember it. Avery probably won't remember hers either, but there's a slight chance she might.

Anyways, here are some shots of her birthday party from the weekend.

Cassandra's cake-made by moi. Bottom layer chocolate, top layer vanilla, oreo filling and buttercream frosting. Delicious!

Decorations...look familiar?!  Basically the same as Avery's party!

My Mom bought the girls each an Elsa dress to wear for the party. This is Avery's:

Cassandra napped through almost the first hour of her party-we went up several times to look in on her and she was out cold. We kept her door open hoping the noise would wake her. It did eventually, but she wasn't happy about being woken up at all! So unfortunately I didn't get a picture of her in her dress.

We had some appetizers then pizza, boneless wings, salad and fruit salad. While we digested our food, Cassandra opened her gifts.

My loves

Loves her dresses!

After presents, it was cake time! I also made chocolate covered Oreos and my Mother-in-Law found these frozen-esque cookies as well.

Singing "Happy Birthday!"

Make a wish!

We had a really fun time at her party! We didn't do any organized games or activities this time. We were going to, but never did. The kids just had fun running around and doing their own thing. 

I also forgot to take a picture of the goodie bags. They each got one of the frozen-esque cookies, some Frozen tattoos and some Frozen stickers! Nothing too big, but I don't think they mind!

Another successful party in the books!

Frozen Birthday-Party 2

This year Avery really wanted a birthday party for her friends at school (aka daycare). We figured since she's starting real school in the fall, she could have a party since it would be one of her last time seeing some of these friends.

The party was the week after her family party so the decorations were the same and were kept up between parties. (I hate to admit that a month later, they are still up! There might be some serious meltdowns if they come down. Just sayin')

For this party, I decided to do cupcakes instead of a cake. They're just easier with kids!  And I found a Pillsbury cake mix that was the perfect shade of blue! Add on some homemade buttercream, some white sugar and some snowflakes and voila....frozen cupcakes!

And here are the rest of the treats-candy sticks, blue gumballs, swirl suckers, mints, white M&M's and some white chocolate covered snack mix.

We set up the bounce house for the kids and again we lucked out with the weather. It was hot and muggy out and I think it rained an hour or two after the party ended....yep, we totally got lucky!  The kids loved the bounce house though!

We also filled up a ton of water balloons-I'm not sure how many but there was a lot-probably close to 50 or more! And they went through them in about 5mins!

We kept the food simple-pizza and the rainbow fruit tray along with the snacks we did at the family party too.

Kathryn, Avery, and Gina

After lunch, it was present time!

Little stinker!

Then we did cake and ice cream!

Before the kids left, they did the scavenger hunt and found their goodies to take home.

The party went pretty well for our first "kid" party. It went from 11:30-2 which was perfect. I think she had a lot of fun and so did the guests! I'm sure there will plenty more friend parties in our future...just maybe not at the house! Haha!

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!