Tag Archives: parties

We had our baby shower this past Saturday and it was absolutely lovely. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law did such a great job - from the food to the decorations…everything - it was all so amazing! The theme was a Baby Sprinkle Brunch, as opposed to a baby shower, where guests came and “sprinkled” us with love and gifts - get it?

Several friends and family also helped make this party so amazing, so I really just want to step back and say thank you to everyone that helped. Brett even made the cupcakes…how could he not, he is the cupcake king! But seriously, it was such a nice thing to do for us and Aubrey and I am so appreciative of all of it. We felt extremely loved and were glad everyone came together to celebrate.

Cute invites (they got them from Tiny Prints).

Before the party started and guests arrived, I had to grab Trent, the new big brother, to take a photo. I can’t wait for him to meet his little sister.

In the living room was this beautiful set-up, complete with umbrellas, rain drops, clouds and a sun…and pretty flowers.

How cute are Aubrey’s initial letters on the table?

The cutest little pink rain boots, flowers and baby girl duckies.

There was definitely no shortage of food. There was a yogurt parfait bar with granola and yummy fruit.

Mini quiches and biscotti.

Cupcakes scattered everywhere. Our wonderful friend Karey made the cloud cut-outs for the cupcakes. Aren’t they adorable?

The cupcakes Brett made were white cake with strawberry filling and pink cream cheese frosting. Yum.

Let’s head into the kitchen/dining room, shall we?

MORE FOOD!

Fluffy croissants with buffalo chicken dip, egg salad and chicken salad.

Egg rings.

Variety of cheeses on the most beautiful cheese and fruit tray ever.

Monkey bread and a frenchtoast bake with bananas, strawberries and coconut.

Party platter, chips and more scattered cupcakes!

Drinks and cinnamon rolls.

The big hit of the party was the iced coffee bar! Complete with plenty of flavored creamers, sugars, syrups, chocolate and whipped cream. I definitely went over my caffeine limit for the day…it was so good! I even borrowed a Turvis cup from my niece to bring some home!

Flowers everywhere.

We loved these vases with the cut-up lemons and limes in them..such a great idea!

This is what happens when there’s an iced coffee bar and everyone’s had a little too much caffeine.

Trent refused to eat much of anything up until this point, but then he stood behind me and ate an entire plate of food while I opened gifts. He did so well!

My sister-in-law got Aubrey some of the cutest Disney princess outfits and bows…expect Aubrey to be wearing those in photos soon! It also may force me to reconsider how long we wait to go back to WDW…haha.

So omg…this box…

I thought it was real. Even when the people that gave it to us said there was something else in the box, I still asked “So that means someone gave this to you to begin with?” I just was amazed that this was a real thing and someone would buy it for someone else.

But apparently it’s just a gag box…phew…thank goodness!!

More princess photo props! I think we still need more!

Karey also made this adorable canvas photo for everyone to put their fingerprints and initials on, with some notes on the back. She is such a good artist.

Waiting for Miss Aubrey!

Family of three, soon to be family of four

Trent fell asleep in the car on the ride home…I wanted to too! It was a fun day and I’m glad to spend time with family and friends. <3

 

You may also like:

Trent’s Colorful Mickey-Themed Baby Shower

Baby Shower Registry Tips

Baby Shower Ultrasound Thank You Cards

 

I’m sorry everyone…I’ve been really slacking on the baby updates this time around. We’ve taken one progress photo and a few maternity photos at Disney World…and that’s it. The nursery is still a mess and we haven’t even painted it yet.

“We’re not ignoring you baby girl…we’re just really bad with timing this time around, so don’t surprise us with a super early arrival ok?”

I had my shower at work this past week. I don’t normally post too many work details here, but I just have to tell you how amazing my boss is at party-planning. In the 2 years I’ve been here, she’s had to do three wedding showers and 1 baby shower and she can turn a conference room into another world when you walk in.

There was lots of delicious food and it was nice to see everyone come by for a visit. Even Brett and Trent joined us

One of the items on our Baby Registry is a Baby Jogger City Select Double Stroller, so everyone pitched in to make a little mobile with photos of me and the stroller and money to go towards the stroller. Such a cute idea!

I’m so happy to work with such wonderful people. It was also nice enjoying all the leftovers the next day!

 

When it came time to start thinking of a theme for Trent’s 2nd birthday party, it was actually pretty easy. One of the very first animal sounds Trent knew how to make was a dinosaur roar and it’s so cute, he even puts his hands up and shakes them…he’s a pretty convincing dinosaur.

He already had several dinosaur toys too, so we figured a dinosaur party would be fun to do and he would get a kick out of roaring all day (which he totally did).

We wanted to be much easier on ourselves this year compared to his first birthday. We created a secret, shared Pinterest board with some ideas, but it probably only had 1/3 the amount of pins his secret monster party idea board had. It wasn’t that we were being lazy, but we each picked a couple of things to do and felt like it was the perfect amount.

Let’s start with the invitations. We checked out a few invite sites online and came across this dinosaur invite on Minted.com. Last year, Brett made the entire invitation, but this was too cute to pass up, especially since it would be easier since we were ordering right before our Disney trip in May and wanted to get them out asap. I loved the options for the personalized return address labels, the pre-printed addresses and the dinosaur design on the back.

 

For the outside of the house, we blew up a few of these dinosaur Happy Birthday balloons. I also drew a welcome sign on his chalkboard easel. Usually Brett is the dinosaur artist, but I was so proud of my dinosaur on this sign!

I drew it the night before and Trent wanted to take the chalk and draw too. I felt bad saying no and had to hide the chalkboard in my closet so it wouldn’t get messed up (except I smeared it when I was changing my shirt…way to go mom).

We hung this sign on the front door that we also got from Minted.com in the same design as the invitations.

In the living room, we set up the mantle with letters I painted, two jumbo inflatable dinosaurs and one of our favorite photos of Trent.

The letters were so easy! I just bought cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby and painted them with acrylic paint.

Next to that was our dinosaur photobooth setup! Last year, Brett created two very large, awesome furry monsters, but time got away from us and we didn’t get as many photos as we would have liked. This year, we didn’t get everyone that attended (sorry everyone!) but we got way more than last year…and that makes me happy. Especially since we got some of us!

The dinosaur background and dinosaur masks were from Amazon. I made the prop signs using PicMonkey (stay tuned for a separate post with the downloadable signs) and printed them on thick paper, glued cardboard to the back, and then stuck skewers in the cardboard. I think people had fun with this!

The main focus was the dining room…of course, that’s where the cake is!!

For the wall, we hung plastic tablecloths on a curtain rod with a dinosaur Happy Birthday sign from Amazon, and then some fluffed tissue paper poms in the corners.

Brett made the volcano cake…chocolate cake with homemade chocolate icing. Mmmm. For the lava icing, he used orange and red canned icing dispensers. It was super easy!

My attempt at a dinosaur made of grapes for the fruit tray…was interesting.

Brett said it looked like a horse I guess that’s what happens when you don’t pull up your pinned image from Pinterest as a reference and are making it as people are walking up to the door!

Brett made peanut butter cookies with dinosaur fossil footprints. For some reason, cookies kept disappearing from the tray while we were preparing for the party. I suspect a certain 2 year old was taking advantage of their close proximity to the edge of the table…

We also had tortilla chips with salsa and spinach & artichoke cheese dip.

Brownie brittle.

Lunch was delicious pizza and breadsticks from Marco’s. SO SO SO much easier than last year!! Thank you Marco’s for making it easy for us! Haha.

We also had a salad courtesy of Brett. He makes the best salads.

Sweet tea and lemonade. We’re in the south y’all!

Out on the back porch, we transformed Trent’s rock box into a Dino Dig!

I made the sign using PicMonkey and Brett cut the grass from 2 sheets of green posterboard. I scattered a bunch of mini dinosaurs into the rocks and left out sand-buckets (from the dollar spot in Target) for the kids to search through the rock box for the dinosaurs. At the end of the party, the kids could take home a bucket with some dinosaurs. The kids loved it and I’m sure Trent will still be finding dinosaurs for a few weeks!

Outside, kids enjoyed the pool, along with the purple elephant pool and splash pad. We also brought out the Monster toss from last year!

How awesome is Trent’s shirt?

It says “T-Rexy and I Know It!” We got the dinosaur shirt from Amazon. We originally ordered a 2T but it was too small, so we had to rush to reorder a 3T and I’m so happy they shipped it fast and we got it in time.

He only had it on for about 20 minutes until he ran outside and wanted to play in the water once other kids started showing up, but then he got to wear his new dinosaur swimsuit from Old Navy! Dinosaur everything!

As the host, I felt like I was running around making sure everyone was happy and kept wondering if I should put my swimsuit on and bring Trent in the pool, but he’s kinda off-and-on about the pool. Sometimes he just wants to run around the pool and the grass or sit on the steps and play with toys without them floating away, which is what he was doing this day…sitting on the edge next to people and playing with the water and toys. So, that’s what I left him to do! It was a good opportunity for him to play with other kids and adults, since he doesn’t see them as often.

I thought it was going to be a nightmare taking him away from everyone to come inside and do gifts and cake, but he did so well. To be honest, we were kinda worried since by this time last year, the shyness and tiredness was consuming him and he didn’t even want to touch the cake and presents, but we couldn’t be happier with how well he did this year. He opened all of his gifts on his own and clapped along with everyone when they would clap for him.

He even shared his toys with friends while he was opening them.

More dinosaurs!

He looked like he was trying to read what was on each toy!

Then came the true test of shyness, time to sing happy birthday!

He stood there and watched everyone sing to him and even attempted to blow the candles out himself.

He even decided to give the cake a little taste test before daddy could cut the first piece.

After that, some people headed out and some lingered and it was just a relaxing time. I hope everyone that joined us had a good time and I especially hope Trent had fun, too. We’re so glad he had fun with the theme, roaring whenever someone would ask him what a dinosaur says. Brett’s sister even brought all of Aiden’s old dinosaur toys for him to keep!

If you’re interested in purchasing any of the dinosaur items we used (or need some more ideas too) below is an Amazon widget that includes links to everything to make it easy for you!

 

 

Here are some pinnable images if you’d like to save some ideas to your Pinterest board!

With the availability of inexpensive, quality cameras on the market, more and more people have taken on the role as self-appointed family photographer. Of course, as a wife to a photographer that loses money when you take your own photos, my wallet would tell you not to do that.

But I just can’t deny the importance of taking as many photos of your kids and your life as possible. I am so extremely grateful that we have so many photos to look back on.

However, with that being said, there are times when taking your own photos may not work best to your advantage. One of those is family photos, where unless you have a remote, you will be missing from most of the photos. Along the same line is another scenario when you should put down the camera and let someone else do the work…like your child’s birthday party or special event.

 

Here are some pros and cons to hiring a photographer for your child’s party or event:

Pros

-You don’t have to view the event through the camera lens and you get to experience it uninterrupted - Sometimes I take a second to think about how I might look back on times when I watched something through a video recorder instead of actually watching it. I actually think about this a lot for Brett, since he ALWAYS has a camera. Will we regret it? Should we just put the cameras down? Luckily, I get more freedom than he does (the one day he purposefully didn’t bring his camera to a Disney park, he regretted it within 5 minutes of arriving and vowed never to do that again). There’s something nice about being completely in the moment and seeing it with your eyes, as opposed to worrying about how it looks through the lens.

-You can concentrate on your child, the party and the guests - You’re not going around getting photos of everyone or telling the kids to do something again because you missed it. Enjoy the day and let the photographer capture the memories.

-You can look at the photos and see things you may have missed - You can’t be everywhere at all times, so unless the party is in one single room and no one moves, the photographer can venture around to take photos of various things that you can enjoy later, as opposed to you just taking photos of what’s happening where you’re at that very moment.

-They can get great photos of all the details you worked so hard on.

-You may even try to let the photographer coordinate the party by telling people when and where to do things, since they will know how long it takes to do things and where the light is best, etc. - Photographers tend to be the unofficial event coordinators, especially at weddings, because they’ve done enough to know what works best and how to keep the party going. Not that I’m saying to set out to do this, but you can be sure a GOOD photographer will keep things moving so they can get all the events before the end of the party.

-You can be in the photos too!

 

Cons

-There may be a stranger at your party, unless you hire someone you know - This may make some parents or party-goers feel weird. Many photographers are very personable and interactive with guests, so if you have a good photographer in this sense, then I see no problem.

-Making sure they get the photos you want - this can be solved by talking with the photographer before the party about your wants, and the schedule of events.

-Cost - Of course it will cost money to have the photographer there, but you have to decide whether it’s worth it for the pros mentioned above. Perhaps you can even work out a deal for them to distribute their business cards or sell prints to the parents of the children at the party…the photographer can set up a website page with all the photos from the party for parents to order from!

Brett has done several birthday parties, ranging from a 1 year old to an 8 year old, and even graduation parties. The parents got all of their edited photos to share however they wanted, and they didn’t have to edit anything themselves. Another good thing about what he offered was that all the photos were available on his website for other family members, friends and party-goers to see and purchase photos. Parents of other kids really liked this, as they can get professional photos of their kids without paying for a photographer!

I don’t think this idea is wildly popular yet, perhaps because it may have been viewed as an unnecessary extravagance back in the day, but with the popularity of unique (sometimes over the top!) parties that people want to share on Pinterest, I think it will definitely become more popular.

 

 

Last Friday, I attending my lovely sister-in-law’s birthday party at Painting with a Twist - Tallahassee!

I’m sure you’ve seen some version of this type of place in your hometown…

Painting + wine (or other drink for people like me that don’t like wine) + food goodies + friends/family = fun.

I’ve attended a party here before, but this was the first time it was held in the private room. She got to choose which painting we all did and we had our own instructor for just us friends and family. You don’t have to be a painting pro to leave there with a masterpiece. It’s always amazing to see how everyone’s paintings show their individuality…they are of the same painting, but look so different…in a good way!

I figured it would be fun to make a video of my entire painting from start to finish for you to see how it all comes together. Our party was about 2 hours long, with some breaks for gabbing and eating, so this had to be sped up quite a bit…enjoy!

 

By the way, this wasn’t a paid or sponsored post. I paid for my own admission, just thought it would be fun to share. Have you been to a painting party or session before?

 

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