Savannah Lynn's Birthday

I am a huge sap for birthdays.  I figure that our kids will only really want 10 or 12 birthday parties, if I'm lucky, and I want to do them up right.

I seriously would  love it if there were random rich people out there that would pay me to decorate and prep crafts for their children's birthdays.  It makes me so happy to think of all the fun memories!!

For Savannah Lynn this year, we did a Princess Party at home.  There are about 2,000 pictures in this post, I apologize.

Tea party-style foods are cuter :) I use my stackable serving platters.  There are storebought lemon cookies, butter cookies with frosting and pink and red sprinkles, sliced cheese I cut using a flower cutter, and butterfly crackers.   I went super simple for the cake, just a pearl S.  One of
the best investments I ever made was in pink fabric when there was a yardage sale with a coupon at JoAnn Fabrics.  I got tulle, beautiful organza, and even prints, and I reuse them each year to decorate.  I used my mom's cricut with baby pinks and greens to make the birthday banner, and then I fill in with balloons and streamers.  I like that I'm saving money by reusing and also being a little bit greener :) I got these crowns at Tar-jay for a very decent price, and put out one for each little girl.  For crafts, I found plain boxes at Michael's for $1 each and painted them (the blue ones are for brothers) and then put in edging, stickers, and self-adhesive jewels for each girl to make a treasure box.  When they were done, we filled them up with necklaces and pink candy (gum, truffles, and kisses) and then wrapped a pink balloon around them.  Each girl took that and her crown home instead of doing a goody bag.


Savannah borrowed a pageant dress from her friend Katie-Marie (who is now a size 8 and didn't need it for the party!) and looked adorable. 

Grandma came, which always makes a party more fun :) Even mommy got some time to cheese for what are, unfortunately, really bad cellphone pictures, but we had a great time :)

Riley and Logan dressed up in their suits for the party, although Riley quickly retreated downstairs to play Legos.  I love this picture of him and Savannah.  He loves his little sister something fierce.  She loves her bubbas both tremendously.  

Riley was retreating from our special surprise- a REAL PRINCESS!!  Princess Genevieve from the Kingdom of Azuria came and spent some time with the girls.

She started off telling stories about her kingdom and showing off her treasures.  The girls were so excited they couldn't move or speak!  Logan, however, had a blast and even went to get his treasure box and tell her all about Vava Land (where Vavas and Vivos live)

After, the girls and Princess Genevieve enjoyed some singing, dancing, and twirling, and the girls got much more comfortable.  When it was time for snacks and lemonade, Genevieve made herself right at home on the floor with the little princesses, who enjoyed her company greatly.

We had a fantastic time, and I very much enjoyed our very girly party :)

In Which My Sweet Baby Turns 5

We have 3 children.  Of those, we successfully planned to conceive one.  Riley was a massive surprise, Savannah came out of nowhere, but Logan- Logan was the one we ordered :) (Disclaimer: We love all 3 of our children dearly)

 Logan is such a sweet little boy.  He's content with a show and a snack any day of the week.  He doesn't need other people's approval to be happy- in fact, I have to laugh when we're around other kids because he's going to play what he wants and if you want to join him, that's cool, but if not, that's cool, too.  The picture above is Logan on his last day of being 4.  It was his "Mama Day" where he gets me all to himself every Tuesday.  He always wants to spend it the same way, snuggling on the couch in our jammies watching Ice Age 3 and eating Nutella.  Well, the Nutella isn't always the snack of choice, but you get the idea.  The boy is happy with simple things and I love that about him :)

 

When Logan grows up he wants to be a bunnyninjachef (so hence the bunny ninja drawn hastily on his ice cream cake.  I'd already made 3 cakes this week so I was super happy he wanted an ice cream cake but didn't realize until the last minute he also wanted it decorated.  Yay for leftover frosting!!) 

Logan is sensitive and kind, and a quietly fierce competitor.  He is so proud right now that he can read small sentences and likes to rub it in his brother's face share his new skills with other members of our family because it is coming so easily for him.  He is an awesome kid and we're so lucky to have him

In Which We Have Tea (but sadly, no crumpets)

I am such a dork about birthday parties for my kids.  I love them.  I love creating things and making treats and I love making their birthdays as magical as I can.  Savannah had her first "big" party at home this year. Last year we did Gymboree and had a combined party with a little friend of hers.  This year, I had a pink princess tea for 16 of her friends (and brothers!).

So, the evolution of a party.  It started off at JoAnne Fabrics.  With a coupon, and a sale :)  I love using fabric to decorate, though, because I can use it again.  So, even if it's more expensive than paper from the dollar store, over time I'll use it again and can craft it when I'm done :)

So this is some of my haul from Joanne.  The pink swirley fabric that I wanted to use for tablecloths is called "Pink Tea Party", which I thought was perfect! I also picked up pink tulle, necklaces, jordan almonds (at Savannah's request), several trims, pink shimmer with dots of silver sparkles, pearls, cookie cutters, individual paper cups, and pink and purple sprinkles.  It was a good time.  I also had some wonderful friends loan me kid-sized tables and chairs, and then I made my loving hubby move our sofa and dining room set to the basement :) I also picked up numerous hats from the thrift store, because our craft was going to be making tea hats.  The boas in the Joanne's picture above were cut in half- they're too long for preschoolers!

 In the kitchen (if you've never seen my kitchen it's not *THAT* yellow, for some reason the picture just turned out that way!) I cleared off my bakers rack and started laying out the goodies for the girls to decorate.  I put rings and necklaces, boas and hats, stickers and jewels, silk flowers, and some very cute candy bracelet watches that we actually bought for Valentine's day, but decided to use for this instead.  This picture doesn't have everything on it- but by the end of the party it was empty, anyway! My mom and my brother's girlfriend Miss Lauren came to help the girls hot glue gun on any fancy schmancy details they needed to their hats!

With the dining room cleared out, 1/2 the sectional in the basement, and 1/2 the sectional in the dining room, we were able to fit in 3 kids tables set with some pearls, sparkles, and a dish of caramel kisses, which incidentally come wrapped in pink.  I'm not sure if this party would have been able to be as pink as it was if Savannah's birthday wasn't the day before Valentine's day!!



The kids really loved picking their seats and that the room was so obviously set just for them.  Also, above the seats, I used that pink tulle to swag the ceiling instead of doing streamers.  I'm very eco-friendly.  ;)

      


So then there were the details.  I wrapped napkins and forks in pink feather trim, and made all kinds of yummy treats! I did pink marshmallows, pinkalicious cupcakes, glitter cookies, butterfly crackers and cheese flowers, ham and cheese tea sammies cut to be flowers, strawberries on "princess" skewers and all kinds of pink candies.  We also served pink lemonade with frozen raspberries floating in it.  Everything was a big hit

For the glitter cookies, I used Martha's recipe, but I just did the one ball without filling.  They're HUGE with the filling.  I also rolled mine in Wilton Pearl Dust instead of regular sprinkles because 1) It stuck better to the warm cookies and 2) It made them sparkle! You can't see it in the picture very well, but these were beautiful! I used Pink and Lilac, but they've got a million colors to choose from and they'd be awesome in Gold and Silver, I think :)

For the cupcakes, I used Strawberry cupcakes and then frosted them with a fluffy, but not too sweet icing since I was mounding them so high! My frosting recipe is:
1 8-ounce cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups of heavy whipping cream
1 t vanilla extract
Beat the cream cheese and the sugar.  Add the vanilla and scrape the bowl.  Switch to your whisk attachment and stream in the whipping cream, scraping occasionally, until stiff peaks form.  Add coloring of your choice.

The nice part about this whipped cream frosting is that it's stable at room temperature (some of them melt), and again, it's not too sweet.  It's very very slightly tangy from the cream cheese, but I thought that was lovely with the strawberry flavor of the cupcakes.

For the cherries, be sure to dry them for at least an hour on paper towels so they don't make your frosting run.  I used Wilton (again) Pink Sugar Pearls and was just going to pipe on the pink swagging in buttercream, but Savannah decided she loved the cupcakes as they were and wouldn't hear of it, so no swags :)

I think all the girls had a great time, and I know that I did!!

(Wait...I had a birthday, too!!)

Okay, not that I'm important, but Savannah's birthday is just 7 days before mine!! Austin took me out for Lebanese food and comedy, which was so much fun!! The comedians were all really funny, although the last one to go on was actually a little bit much for my taste- he actually came out and took his shirt off and was dancing and rubbing his fairly substantial beer belly, and it pretty much went downhill from there, although his pants (thank goodness) stayed on. It was really great to get a night out with my hubby, though, he's been so busy with work lately and I miss him when I never get to see him awake!! The kids made me cards for my birthday, too, and I'm not sure if the video will work, but Logan's was super cute. Grandma helped them make them, and Logan was really disappointed because he wanted to go to Hallmark and buy me a card that plays music when you open it. So, instead, my mom rehearsed with him so that when I opened my card he sang "Eye of the Tiger" and when I shut the card, he stopped. It was super cute and definitely my favorite part of my birthday, even beyond the chocolate whipped cream cake!! Not the most flattering video of me- but I hope it works for you because he's soooo cute!

Fantastic February (Look, I'm caught up!!)

So, more fun in February!! First, we had Savannah Lynn's 2nd Birthday!! Her Ema Anne (which is actually Hebrew for mother, but whatevs, it works) was able to join us because their most recent litter of puppies ended up not being there after all!! For Savannah's home party my momma and I did a ballerina bear cake:

Which is sideways, but I don't know how to fix it!! Sorry!! The picture of Savannah at the top is of her in the birthday dress that my mom made for her on her super-cool new sewing machine!! Mine is broken right now because some little helpers knocked it off its TV tray and the thread holder snapped off. It's a fairly easy fix, I just haven't done it yet- not that my skills are anywhere as good as my mom's!! Savannah was so cute because after opening her first present (a doll and a "mommy set" with a stroller and diaper bag and bouncer seat) from my parents, she politely refused everything that everyone else gave her!! I think that my brother was truly heartbroken, but everyone else seemed to take it in stride. Our present to her was a big girl bed, which she's done fairly well in so far- although the missing baby gate across her door has certainly allowed her to get into mommy and daddy's room with much less fuss!! She been doing great with potty training, too, and has been speaking more and more, which is such a relief after two early-talking boys!! Savannah still "clicks" her K's (we call her a bush baby) and says H instead of P and a few other standard things (like W instead of L) but it's fun to listen to her begin to express what she's thinking more and more!!

For her "big party" we had a joint 2nd Birthday at Gymboree with Savannah's friend Shane, who also has 2 big sisters the same ages as Savannah's 2 big brothers! We had a really great time with all our friends and the kids all seemed to enjoy the "farm fun" theme!!

I still can't believe my baby girl is 2! She is so much fun to play with- we really enjoy our teaparties and dress up while the boys are at school!! Savannah is definitely all about being a princess and loves all things pink and purple and glittery and does such a great job playing mommy. She's an awesome swimmer and constantly showing up the older kids in her class (which she gets from Daddy!) and also loves to dance to the music and run around after her brothers. She is definitely outgoing but also loves to spend time alone and will "Wead" books to herself quietly for a good 10 minutes, which I think is pretty impressive for such a little girl! She loves to color and even enjoys a good shopping trip with mom! It's so great to have a girl- even though I love my boys!!

Riley's 6th Birthday (of Doom!)

Riley is such a fun kid- and he is wicked popular, which I never was. I was only popular when the popular kids needed help with their homework. I actually think that's still true, but Riley, on the other hand, is a people person. So, in order to fit EVERYONE!! into one place, we had his party at Kids in Motion, which we've done a few times now. Riley also wanted to have a Volcano Cake Of Doom- so that was an adventure in dry ice and fantasticness.

The cake was a huge hit- I baked it in the mold for a princess (top) and an angel food cake pan (bottom) and then carved an opening for a tall plastic cup which I filled with red jello and hot water. When we added the dry ice, it totally erupted, which was awesome and all the kids loved it. It's so hard to believe that Riley is SIX!!! He's so big and independent, and a great helper and big brother. And, we're really proud of him.