Princess Lexi Tea Party!

Today we had Lexi's 5th Birthday Party! It was at Thanksgiving Point, and we had a Princess Tea Party theme. It turned out so cute. Here are some of the highlights!

We had guest Princesses come, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty!

 

My friend Alisha who owns Cravings-alishascupcakes made these adorable crown cupcakes for the girls, then my mom made a cake, and the pastry chef at Brett's work made some other cupcakes for me (I thought they were going to be mini, but he did full size, which was great too!)

 The Cake Grandma made! I bought the candles at Target!

 The pink cupcakes made by Thanksgiving Point!

 The purple crown cupcakes made by Alisha! Yum!

 We had a candy station for the girls to take home some "Royal Goodies!"

We had personalized name crowns for each girl on their chairs for the tea party!

 We had cute tea pots with hot chocoalte, and a pitcher of lemonade!

 We had it in the gallery at Thanksgiving Point, which was the perfect size for all the activities and food. The girls loved it, and it made clean up fast and easy!

 We had a pink chocolate fountain because Lexi is such a girly girl. We also served croissants, cheese cubes, and an assortment of adorable petite fours (again thanks to the pastry chef at TP)!

 The girls loved the guest Princesses!

 For the party favors I got tea cups and filled them with a necklace, ring, and princess notebook key chain! They turned out so cute!

 

I had so much fun planning this party and seeing all the little Princesses come decked out for the party. I hope Lexi will remember how much we love her. She has been such a fun addition to our family, and is totally a little Princess.

My Pirate Friend Dav(in)id

This is David! He is one of the friends that you never stop being friends with. He lived with us a year ago for a few months, and then joined the Navy. Dillan thought that meant being a pirate. Lexi always called him Davin. Well...he came into town last weekend, so we had to get together and enjoy some of our favorite things together. We talked about the books we have been reading, we talked about Pride and Prejudice. We ate crab at Red Lobster. We played games with some friends. We had ice cream. And we talked, and talked, and talked some more. It was so much fun! Now he is back to CA and I am once again without my buddy!

 Look at what a cute couple we are!!!

Joys of Childhood #3--Mess making

This is what is left of the cube of butter I got out for making German pancakes! Thanks Derrick. (It is hard to see how much is in his hair because his hair is white, but it is a lot, I would say it is evenly distributed half on the head, half in the hands.)

The joys of Childhood #2--Pony Rides

 

Pony rides... is there anything more exciting to a kid?

The joys of Childhood #1-- Bike Riding

Learning to ride bikes...

I have decided to do a series of blog posts on the joys of childhood, and try to get some fun photos of my kids doing the things kids enjoy most.

This week I have just been loving being a Mom, which is not necessarily a first for me, but is often hidden under the stress of being a mom. I think it helps that I have decided to try and simplify things around here, activities, meals, schedules, etc. Anyway, here is the first photo. We grabbed the kids bikes and stuck them in the back of the car, then let them ride everywhere we went last week, parks, neighbors, even at Thanksgiving Point. Dillan has graduated from training wheels, and Lexi is still a nervous nelly! haha

(This is not a photography project, just a reminder to me to help my kids enjoy the pleasures of childhood, so while I love any comments or suggestions you have on my photos, please know this is all for fun!)

The day for Mothers

I have two of the greatest moms in the world. In order to celebrate them we went to the Thanksgiving Point Harvest brunch, which was incredibly delicious.

Five things I love about my moms:

1. My mom raised me to be who I am today(which is pretty awesome!), and my mother in law raised my amazing husband who is courteous and kind, resourceful, and everything I want in a spouse. 

2. Their humor. I love hearing them laugh, and try and share a silly story each time I see them just to hear it. They both find joy in life, and share it freely.

3. Their faith. They both have such great faith and a love of God, which I can see in their actions.

4. Their creativity. My two moms are creative in very different ways from one another, and both amazing at what they do. 

5. Their love. Being a mom takes sacrifice, patience, love, kindness, flexibility, fortitude, foresight, wisdom, and oh so much more. Without love for their kids, we never would have survived. So thank you!

 me and my mom

My mother in law and I

 I have the best husband and children. They were great to me for Mother's Day. The kids made cards for me, and gave me little gifts they made at school. Dillan wrote me a little letter, which was very cute. They wanted to make a big breakfast for me, but we have church at 9, so it was difficult. Brett got me a lens for my camera, a tray of delicious little pastries and petite fours, and this beautiful flower arrangement. Then they all went downstairs and cleaned up Dillan and Lexi's rooms. We had a nice dinner, and the kids let me nap! Seriously, a nice day!

My cheap office makeover!

My office is in that teeny tiny room in the upstairs of our house. I have been trying to figure out forever what I want to do with it, but haven't wanted to spend money. I finally figure some things out, and now it is just about done. I love it. I started by painting two of the walls. I may have gone a little over board with the color, but I wanted something bright. So, I have a blue wall and a yellow wall, and left the other two white. Color is good for creativity. Then I was stuck. I tried rearranging furniture, etc. Nothing looked right. Then I decided to take my desk and small bookshelf, which were different colors of wood, and both pretty ugly, and painted them. I LOVE how they turned out, and I ended up sticking the shelf on top of the desk like a hutch, creating  more space in the room. LOVE! I will try and round up some before pictures, but the turquoise color turned out great. I put a stain over the top to tone it down some.
 

I had two old shelves in my garage, both ugly, so I painted and stained both of them as well. I also got some pictures turned into canvases of my three sweeties.  I think it turned out pretty cute.

 I love birds, and found this great picture, and this cute little ceramic bird, so I decided to use them. I got a few other things too, but no picture, sorry. This is by the door, and conveniently holds unsightly office supplies. I bought the little cabinet at the DI for $5, and put some paint to it as well. I had purchased a little hutch thing for this spot, but when I saw the cabinet for $5, I returned the hutch I spent $80 on and decided a little elbow grease was worth the savings. I was right! I also took some old picture frames and painted them to match some of the accent colors.

 My favorite part is that I couldn't find curtains I liked that went with the ideas I had, so I bought a fabric shower curtain, and had my mother-in-law cut it and sew it into two panels for me to be curtains! Yay for inexpensive spruce ups!