birthday day three...Tinkerbell style

While the kiddos nap to gear up for a late(r) night on the 4th of July, I have a few extra minutes to finish sharing Mikayla's birthday - day three. Birthday fun - days 1 & 2 can be found HERE.

DAY THREE
(April 29, 2010 - the "friend" party)

Mikayla invited three of her best friends to come join her for a day of birthday fun! I loved how simple this party turned out to be and yet the girls had so much fun together! It was a "drop and go" kind of party (the first!) and it was really fun to have just the girls (and Austin) for this intimate little party.

The party was "Tinkerbell" themed (Can you believe it? No cute party invitations this year! I think Mikayla will forgive me for that.) We had extra fairy wings and tutus for the girls, so that everyone could dress like a fairy.

Ellie, Allie, Ava, & Mikayla

I made each of the girls fairy head pieces using star "twine" (not sure what to call that) and then added some flowers to the back, along with some pieces of ribbon to hang down. I found the most adorable flower wands at K-Mart and added a green ribbon to the purple that was already there just to add a little more "Tinkerbell" to it.

For decorations...

The birthday table - simple, but pretty! One of the best parts? I found mostly everything in my "party supplies" box. The only thing I purchased were the flowers.

A little splash of Tinkerbell color!
Hello, Dollar Tree. *wink*
For entertainment...

Bounce the balloon with your fairy wand (totally made that up on the spot!) I turned on the music and we tried to see if the girls could keep the balloon in the air by bouncing it with their wands.

Then I took the girls outside (during the rain break) and we played in the bubble machine, popping the bubbles with their wands.

After we blew off some energy, the girls came inside and they decorated baggies that we would be using for the fairy scavenger hunt a little bit later. Austin was such the little helper. I was so proud of him for letting Mikayla have "her day"!

I had little slips of paper hidden throughout the house and in each location was a small "treasure" that the girls could put in their baggie. I had been on the lookout for little things I could pick up for the girls and with their only being four, I spoiled them a bit. Some of the treasures included: Tinkerbell green body glitter, Tinkerbell chapstick, Tinkerbell notebook/pen, Tinkerbell ring, Pixie sticks, bracelets. I was going to try to rhyme each clue, but the reality of everything I had to do won and I didn't. Instead, I had the girls chant after each clue, "We're going on a fairy hunt. We're gonna find some treasure!" They LOVED it!! Again - so simple, but it was a hit!
on the menu...

"Fairy Fizz" (pink lemonade with a scoop of raspberry sherbert), lime Jello, pretzels, carrots, grapes, and a star-shaped PB & J

For dessert, we had individual-size shortcake with strawberries and Cool Whip. YUM!
After lunch it was present time!

I LOVE this picture!!
On the way out the door, each girl got to take home a pretzel rod Rice Krispie treat fairy wand.
And of course, the rest of their baggie of goodies.

The day was a hit and Mikayla fell asleep dreaming in Tinkerbell vision.

Hope you enjoyed the birthday pics! I love birthday parties!!

I have so much more to share...so hopefully I'll be back soon!

it's never too late for my birthday girl!

10 weeks ago, my little girl turned 4 years old. Yes, TEN WEEKS AGO...and I have yet to share any pictures of her birthday on my blog (although I did post pictures on my Facebook page, so that counts for something, right?). As this is a blog for me to document memories, I still wanted to share some pictures of her special day(s).

DAY ONE
(April 22, 2010 - Mikayla's "actual" birthday)

The morning started off with a surprise from mom and dad...The Littlest Pet Shop!! (Side note: my sister had a friend who was selling all of her pet shop toys for a great price and so we decided to buy them and save it for Mikayla's birthday. It was a hit and light on the pocket book, too!)

It's our tradition to give the kids a birthday donut for breakfast! And, during breakfast, we got a phone call from Grammy (who lives in Alaska) wishing Mikyala a happy birthday!

Ryan happened to have the day off, so we headed to Chuck E Cheese's where it was strangely quiet (that' a good thing!). The kids had a blast having the place {mostly} all to themselves.

For lunch we did the typical "free kids meal" treat and headed over to Red Robin. They sang to her (which she became very shy) and then she and Austin shared her birthday sundae!

After some quiet time/nap time, the kids played Wii with daddy, made {sugar free, fat free} pudding for dessert, and Mikayla got to open one more present from her "brother", which was a tin of princess games. We played together and found out that Mikayla is a pro at playing Memory. After sandwiches for dinner (a request from the birthday girl), we had Jello chocolate pudding for dessert and then called it a long and exhausting night.

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DAY TWO
(April 25, 2010 - The "family" party!)

Because of our move only 3 weeks earlier, I decided to keep things simple this year. And guess what? The kids had just as much fun! *wink* I added a touch of Tinkerbell into the mix as I had some things that I was going to use for her friend party that was going to happen a few days later.

Cupcake Cones with sprinkles!

The food...with a little touch of purple & green decor.
Pizza came later...
4 of 7 cousins (from both sides of the family) came to help celebrate Mikayla's birthday - we ate yummy food, played (and sweated in the sun), helped open presents, posed for pictures, and enjoyed being together.

Then it was on to singing Happy Birthday to the birthday girl and blowing out the candles. We enjoyed cupcakes in a cone, but the *wow* factor wasn't a hit for the kids. They didn't want the cone part!! (note to self for next time: just make regular cupcakes)...but they were cute!

The day ended with Mikayla wearing her *new* Tinkerbell jammies to bed. I couldn't help, but notice that as I tucked her into bed she looked much older to me...well, at least one year older.
My 4-year old girl.


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Yes, there is a DAY THREE (friend party), but that will have to wait until tomorrow...or as soon as I can get to it. Let's just hope it's not 10 weeks from now. Good grief!

baby announcement!

Ha! Fooled you, didn't I? *wink*

I just wanted to share with you the newest photo card I was able to design for a sweet new baby girl. This adorable one's mommy lives in South Carolina and she found me one day a little over a year ago and asked me to create a photo thank you for her little guy who was a few months old at the time. Then I was able to make his 1-year birthday party invites in February and just recently she had a baby girl and she asked me again! How honored I felt that someone who doesn't even know me wants me to {continue to} design something for her. She is the sweetest thing!

{click on picture to head to my photo card blog}

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We're just doing one thing after another these days. Aren't summer days supposed to be LAZY?!

Last week was our own HUGE garage sale (and what an exhausting weekend that was!)

Last night, I held my monthly 3/$5 card making night (go HERE to see the fun cards we made!)

Today was filled with the big community garage sale (we shopped!) and then tonight was Mikayla's dance rehearsal for her FIRST dance recital coming up tomorrow (Saturday). She is such the sweet little dancer and I was so proud watching her on the stage perform. I can't wait for tomorrow.

Since it was beautiful weather today, I just had to snap a couple of pictures before we headed out to rehearsal! I'm sure there will be many more pictures taken tomorrow!


Hope you all are being blessed with summer weather...it has finally arrived here in Oregon. Let's hope it's here to stay!

sweet girl, sweet dreams...

I have so many pictures to share of things that are going on in life...I don't even know where to begin, so I thought I'd do a short and quick post to see if I can get my blogging groove back...

There's always something cute about capturing this sleeping angel.

When you're tired, you're just tired...

February 2010
{rocking out to some tunes}

February 2010
{at the foot of our bed on the floor}

February 2010
{sacked out on the couch}

February 2010
{found in our bedroom closet}

~ February must have been an exhausted month! ~

May 2010
{wearing her birthday Tinkerbell crown}

June 2010
{asleep in the doorway of her room}

June 2010
{a new bed arrangement in the corner of her room}

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Things have been great these days, but we're all exhausted around here (as evident by the pictures)!

Today was another Stampin' Up! event (check out the cards we made HERE) and the next task at hand is preparing for the garage sale coming up on Friday/Saturday of this weekend. After that, we're back to working on house projects and the garage can be a little less cluttered. I can almost taste it...

tackling this, that, and the other

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Ours was spent doing project after project, but I loved having my hubby home for THREE DAYS! We got so much done, but still enjoyed spending time together. There still seems like so much left to be done, but we're on our way!!

The last couple of weekends, we have tackled...

*Decorating & painting the "formal dining room" (which won't be used as that for us right now.)

BEFORE

AFTER

Sorry, I can only give you a sneak peek at this time.
We're still in MAJOR transition, but it's painted!

*We proceeded to remove wallpaper cards off Austin's room...

...with a steamer...

...which left us with all of this on the wall!

...so then we tried this...

...and Goof Off
...and wallpaper stripper
...and peeling it off with our fingernails
...and using a straight blade

{insert helpful suggestion here!}

*We went to IKEA on Sunday and found the most awesomest (I know it's not a word, but it should be!) storage cabinet thingy for my very own craft room. Best part? It was in the "as is" section stating that it had scratches on it. Ummm...we couldn't find a single scratch anywhere. It was another 35% off its already reduced price because they are discontinuing it. It was meant. to. be.

So, now I can finally do something about all of this ugliness (hey, we "just moved in"...do I get a little sympathy?)...


Sorry, still only a sneak peek. It will take a lot of hard work and sweat to get this room up to my standards. But here is the bottom half of the unit we purchased. It has a hutch on top. It's actually meant to be a kitchen buffet, but it will work just perfectly for what I want it for.

To add to the tackle list from this weekend/past week:

-filled holes and touched up paint through the house (main living area color)
-hung picture frames (just a few!)
-started weeding the backyard, finished weeding the front yard, lawn mowed, grass seed filled in patches
-major rearrangement of furniture upstairs to make room for my new storage cabinet (we literally moved things from craft room to Mikayla's room to our closet to the play room - oh my!)
-finally organized our bedroom closet
-purchased 2 gallons of paint for Mikayla's room (next weekend, maybe?)
-garage sale pricing
-started organizing the garage (WOWZA! is all I can say!)
-laundry...too many loads to count

I bet there's even more I have forgotten, but all this to say...it was a very productive weekend!

Check out what others have tackled at 5 Minutes for Mom.

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And, on a business note...

If you love Stampin' Up! products, check out my most recent blog post at Stuck on Stampin'. They just released their retiring products in preparation for the new catalog coming out on July 1st. There are also a handful of accessories that are 25% or 50% off. Even if you live far, far away you can still order through my website at heidiboos.stampinup.net. Feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment with any questions.