Birthday Recap - #3

I took a break from Miss A's birthday recaps to share some BIG news.



And now we are back to regularly scheduled programming. Here is the last recap from all of Miss A's birthday festivities.

I designed the invitations and the mailing labels. The invitation ended up being 2 pages, so I attached both pieces with some red and white ribbon.

The favor bags each had a fun sticker on the outside and inside were farm animal stickers, bubbles, chalk and candy.

Here is the birthday girl sporting her birthday outfit. My mom made the pants... if you look carefully, you will notice that the 2 fabrics in her pants are also in the table runners that I made. Crafty. Her white T had rosettes along the neckline. It was perfect for running around the farm.

I found these frames in the Target Dollar Spot. The colors were perfect for her party, but they had some corny and cheesy sayings along the top. So, I covered them up with some fun ribbon. Problem solved.

Here are all of the fabrics that I used in the table runners. I made 2, 11 foot runners. It took forever.

And every good party should end with a thank you note. I found these wobbly eye farm animal note cards at Michael's.... It was the perfect touch to wrap up all of her birthday festivities.

Bebe #2

Thank you all for the kind words regarding bebe #2! We are all very excited. Here is a rundown thus far:

• I am 9.5 weeks along


• We were able to see the heartbeat last week and everything looks great.


• No morning (or afternoon or evening) sickness, but I have absolutely ZERO desire to eat meat. So, if you have any good recipes without meat, please pass them along.


• I don't think we are going to find out the gender. We were surprised with Miss A and we are going to do that again.


• I have been accumulating stuff for Miss A's big girl room for a while, so we are almost ready to start the big switch to her big girl room.


• We have already started to discuss names. And we will probably be discussing names up until the very last minute. Ha!


• My goal was to wear normal jeans for at least 8 weeks. I was able to meet that goal, but just barely. With Miss A I was pregnant in the winter, so I am having to get all new stuff for this pregnancy. So far, I have ordered stuff from Boden, Gap and Old Navy.


• Overall, I am feeling great. By the end of the day I am beat, but chasing a busy and active toddler all day would do that to anyone!

Guess what?

Miss A is going to be a BIG SISTER!

Birthday Recap - Part 2

Here are some of the detail shots from Miss A's birthday party. I was so busy in the weeks leading up to her party. I designed her invitations, made the name banner, sewed the 2 table runners, designed and printed the labels for the sandwiches and water bottles, plus a zillion other things.

We had 2 main tables set up with food and beverages. Pigs in a blanket, PB&J, chips, pretzels, haystacks, cupcakes, water and juice.

I ordered the cupcakes from Target and added the plastic animals as toppers.

The day before her party, my dad and I took her to a local field that was full of bluebonnets. She wore a "Happy Birthday To Me" shirt and held up a bright pink #2. I framed those pictures and used them as decor on the main tables at the party.

The first time Miss A saw these water bottles she said "momma, thirsty tractor." Funny girl.

We had PB&J sandwiches and I printed floral labels to use on the bags.

I love how her name banner turned out.

Inside this crate were all of the party favors.

All of the tables had jars filled with flowers, toy farm animals, a cow puzzle and antibacterial hand gel.

Birthday Recap - Part 1

Whew. The shabby chic farm party has come and gone and I am wiped out. In fact, while the Mr. and Miss A are at church this am, I am home taking some "me" time..... Organizing pictures from the last couple of days and watching chick flicks on tv. Yesterday could not have gone any better. We had wonderful weather, Miss A loved playing with her friends and it was so much fun celebrating our little 2 year old! In the weeks leading up to this party, I was constantly on the lookout for pink, red and turquoise party supplies. These are pretty popular colors this time of year, so I had a pretty easy time finding all of the stuff that I needed. We held the party at a local farm. It was the best venue for a bunch of toddlers. They were able to feed animals, go on a tractor ride, ride a barrel train and basically just run all over the place. I don't know if I will ever host another kids party at our house again. :) Here are some "big picture" pictures..... tomorrow I will post some of the detail pictures.

More to come!

Children's Art

If you have little ones in your house, then you are constantly faced with the question - what do you with all of their art?!?! Keep? Display? Toss?

I am going to do all three.

I will keep the ones that are really special to me.

I will display all of it, on a rotating basis.

And I will toss it after a while.

And before you roll your eyes at me for tossing artwork created by my kid, just imagine how many masterpieces you would have if you saved every little scrap of construction paper your child gave you. It would probably be borderline hoarder.

In our game room I have created a gallery wall - it is composed of some Miss A art and some other framed prints. I really like how her stuff is incorporated in with the other stuff. It is important to display your child's artwork, and this way I can constantly display her stuff without having to tape things to my walls or kitchen cabinets. Eek.

I made little cork board strips and I have clips and thumb tacks on hand to attach the art.

She in constantly bringing home new projects, so the wall is constantly changing. Whenever I take down a piece of art, I take a picture of it and add it to a photo book.

I love sites lite Picaboo, Shutterfly and Snapfish. I am constantly making photo books, so this seemed like a logical thing to do with her art. I have not ordered one yet, but I am planning on making one book per year.

What do you do with your child's artwork?

Hey Good Lookin', Whatcha' Got Cookin

School mornings in our house are pretty hectic. Breakfast, bows, shoes, backpacks.... we are usually rushing out the door and I am always grabbing something to eat as I drive Miss A to school.

I made these breakfast cups today, hoping that we can all eat these and mornings will be a little less rushed. I am planning on freezing them and then pulling them out on an as needed basis.

Breakfast Cups

6 eggs

shredded cheddar cheese (I used about half of the block)

ham (or bacon, sausage, canadian bacon...) (used about half of what is below)

canned biscuits (2 cans of 10)

Scramble the eggs and allow them to cool for a couple of minutes. Mix with the shredded cheese and the chopped ham.

Use a rolling pin to roll out the individual biscuits and then stuff with the meat/egg/cheese filling. Do as best as you can to close the cups - I pulled each corner up and twisted it in the middle.

Line a muffin pan with liners and spray with cooking spray. Place each cup inside a liner.

Bake according to the biscuit directions. Enjoy!

Enjoy!

Kendra Scott Jewelery

I think we have all seen these fabulous Kendra Scott earrings around the blogosphere.... I keep seeing people wearing them and then last night I got to touch and feel a pair. (not heavy at all, I thought they might rip my ear hole out, but they seem very wearable.)

Well, I am in love with them.

But the hard part is choosing a color.

Yellow. White. Turquoise. Salmon. Mint green. Black. Silver. Gold.

Decisions, decisions! Do you have a pair of these earrings? If so, what color? Or, what color would you get?

And while we are talking about this lovely Kendra Scott Jewelery, take a look at these necklaces. Once again, I am in love with all of them. Good thing my birthday is coming up in June!