August 2: the Bean's birthday

The Bean's birthday was also in August. Since we had a 6 week old at the time, we wanted to have the party at home, and basically have someone else besides myself run the show. :) I was super excited when someone told me about a girl at our church who does character parties. She does Snow White, Cinderella, Pinkalicious, Fancy Nancy, and others. The Bean is still super into princesses, and so we chose Cinderella. "Cinderella" did an INCREDIBLE job! I highly recommend her. The Bean and all her buddies had a blast. "Cinderella" arrives in her rags and goes through the whole storyline of Cinderella. She talks about how her stepmother and stepsisters mistreat her and make her clean, and she gets the girls to help her dust using dustrags. Then she gets an invitation to the royal ball, and the girls help her get ready for the ball. Then they learn a dance for the ballroom, and rush "home" by the stroke of midnight where they fall asleep. And of course at the end they all get to try on the glass slipper. She really involved the Bean as the birthday girl, and they sang several songs from the the Cinderella movie. It was absolutely precious. And all I had to do was get a cake, and "Cinderella" did the rest - she even cut the cake for us!

My friend Sara N. let me borrow this adorable carriage. I'm terrible with flowers, but I think it turned out ok!

Cinderella arriving in her rags costume.

Getting ready for the ball...

Falling asleep at the stroke of midnight...

Making a wish!

I took a picture of each girl with Cinderella and mailed it off with the thank you notes.

All the girls had to hug Cinderella before she left...

A magicial time was had by all...and they lived happily ever after. :)

The End.

May Part 1 - end of school, Mother's Day, and Bub's party

May included end of school, Bub's 3rd b'day party at the Fire Station, Community Helper day at Bean's school, Mother's Day, and a trip to Mimi and Grandpaw's. Here are the first four!

We had Bub's 3rd b'day party at a fire station near our house. It was perfect because there was a playground adjacent to the fire station. We did a tour of the fire station (...during which the firefighters were called out!! We got to see the firefighters jumping in the truck with no shoes and sirens/lights going as the truck pulled away!! Pretty cool.) Then we had cake and ice cream and played at the park. Everyone had a great time!

Each of the kids had an end of the year class party. Bubs had a water day theme, so they wore their bathing suits. He had a blast! The Bean's class did ice cream sundaes, and the party mom went all out! I can't believe the school year is already over! I'll have one in K5, and one in 3 year old MDO, and a BABY next year! I am getting old. :)

Listening intently to the firefighter...

Playing in the firetruck

A future firefighter?? Lately Bubs says he either wants to be a firefighter or a doctor. :)

The whole fam...I think I'm 8 months pregnant in this pic...

They were pulling off about 30 seconds after the alarm sounded...no kidding!

Bubs and sweet cousin Sarah Grace

Here I am telling Bubs to "blow out your windows"...that's right, I said windows. My brain has not been functioning at full capacity since I've been pregnant!

Blowing out his "windows"...I mean, candles!

Cookie cake double doozies from Sam's Club...delish! Btw, that was Daddy's choice, not Bubs. :) I think Bubs would have chosen a Spiderman cake.

The guests

The park

Come on, I HAD to include this one!! If this is not a Kodak moment, what is?!?

Party favors included a fireman's hat and a cup full of candy and fire truck related stuff...

A couple of Bubs favorite gifts...a Spiderman cap, camo rain boots, and a gun. He has worn those boots and cap almost every day since.

We also celebrated Mother's Day with my mom (Mimi) on the same day Grant's birthday. We had a girlie lunch...chicken salad on croissants, fruit with marshmallow dip, and chocolate chip or lemon blueberry bread. And lots of leftover cookie cake.

Community helper day at school...Bean was a nurse.

Bub's last day of of school - water day!

Bean's end of the year school party - ice cream sundaes!

The spread

No party is complete without a pinata, right?? Doesn't every ice cream sundae party need candy chasers??

The Bean and Lynley, her K4 BFF

Sweet Mrs. Thompson! The Bean loved every minute of being in her class!

Summer Part 2

I spruced up our entryway with a few thrift store finds and bargains.

We had a friend's b'day party/playdate for the Bean, princess-style, of course.

We played games.

We decorated crowns and cupcakes (not at the same time...glue and icing don't mix).

The crew

The Bean changed clothes several times. Here she is as Belle.

Here she is with her friend from "From the Shore to the City."

As Belle again with a friend from Green Eggs in the 'Ham.

More friends...Snow White this time.

She started off as Cinderella.

We had a family birthday party for the Bean & Grandpaw (both August b'days) at Mimi's house. Mimi graciously provided cute cupcake toppers, princess plates and napkins, baked the cupcakes, and made chocolate castle-shaped suckers. Do you think the Bean was in heaven?

The Bean helped ice some of the cupcakes and picked out the icing colors.

We went to my niece's baptism.

We've only lived here over a year, but I finally got around to decorating the bookshelves in our kitchen w/ some help (ok, a lot of help) from my friend. Most of the stuff came from thrift stores or the Hob Lob. :)