Gracie's Birthday aka. Party #1

I have had this party theme for a while.  Both kids invitations were made back in July when I was still working.  Gracie loves to play dress-up and what a better way to spend your birthday then to do what you love with the people you love the most.  I did a dress-up theme birthday party.  I will start with the decorations and set-up first!

I found this cute little girl all dressed-up on 

etsy and I then made the rest of the invitation

an old suite case filled with dress-up clothes

lots of jewelry to play with

I made all the little girls a cute apron

for face painting

I love the ribbon

may favorite bunting

everyone loves candy

each girl got to decorate a cupcake with sprinkles

Festivities ~ Part 2

The rehearsal dinner was bbq themed.
Things turned out pretty cute and everyone loved the food.

The Decorations

 white table clothes, burlap runners, 

red candles, and ball jars with flowers

 pretty cute

 our pie dessert table

 gracie loving her flower girl gifts

 daddy & the kids

 my babies

 the kansas girls

 nora being cute

gracie & sawyer being so cute and 

practicing their duet for the wedding;)

Sprinkled with Love

Recently, I heard about an event called a Sprinkle, like a baby shower but for baby #2 or 3 and instead of showering them with gifts you sprinkle them, very clever.  What a great way to get those few things that are need for baby #2.  Now I checked with my SIL Kassi in Cali and she said they do them with every baby.  Mainly a reason for girls time and then you bring diapers or a cute little outfit.  As I read about these things called "Sprinkles"  I found people loved them or hated them and it really had to do with your particular circle of friends.  Anyway, I decided I didn't care so I threw one for my SIL Kristen who will be welcoming a little girl.  I tried to make it simple but you know my when it comes to parties I can't just do simple, the ideas just go running through my head.  I threw her an adorable pink and yellow themed Sprinkle that was held at 10am at her house with all her friends from church and I was the hostess.

the table

sorry about the light

grapes

the donut tree

kyle made the chalkboard blocks

More on the 4th

Just to give you a quick over view, Troy and Gracie got back from Kansas on Thursday night(I will put up pictures soon).  Friday we had our ultra sound and then enjoyed the day recoupeing from there trip.  Saturday we played and my parents came into town and helped us set up for our big Sunday party.  I wanted this to be simple laid back and well once we go going it was crazy.  I went a little over board on the details I think but it was so cute.  We had 44 people, yes that is right 44 people in our house and some how it worked and with the hot weather people wanted the cool air.  I am so thankful how well everything went.  The only thing I forgot was to video take the cutting of the cake.  The reaction was priceless!

one of the tables with the cake

our little reveal cake

red, white and blue theme

our 4th of July preztels

caramel apples with chocolate
these were suppose to be all chocolate

but we had issues with the white chocolate

chocolate covered popcorn

cute buckets a borrow from kristen

my favorite and the easiest was the layeres strawberries &

blue berriesthere were also strawberries covered in

white chocolate & blue sprinkled edges

my nephew Sawyer wearing Gracie's tutu

Gracie and Nina playing

all though these fans look cute I did not enjoy making

them & have marked them off the list for future parties.

Hosting does not allow for alot of mingling but I did get to enjoy some of our visitor's thanks to my mom monitoring the food area.  Troy and I were so grateful to all that came.  I never got pictures of our guests and I missed the reaction of everyone when we cut the cake.  I was so busy watching Troy's reaction but I guess all the guys were jumping around like crazy throwing up high fives.  Troy is very excited!

Fall Decorations

I love fall, the weather, the leaves the smell, I love it all.  This year I went threw the Pottery Barn magazine and just wanted to decorate like crazy.  I did just that, I found about a hundred things I wanted to do but I was not willing to pay for all of them.  So, I settled for a couple of things I really liked.

 my something old, from last year

 something new, what a weird pumpkin that I 

found at the market, and yes it is real.

 pictures to help me remember for next year

 something borrowed, the glass jar with the indian 

corn I saw on someone's blog and loved the idea, 

borrowed the idea and I am keeping it : )

 white pumpkins, so fun

 also borrowed, the twill tied the leaves onto the candle, 

this cost me about 10 cents, way to much in PB 

magazine.  The acorns free from the neighbor.

I thought I would post a picture of Gracie for the people who 

really don't care about fall decorations.  This whole post is really 

for my mom who listened to my fall decoration ideas.

My cutest decoration of all Gracie.  My friend Christina 

found this outfit at church consigment sale.  I am almost 

100% sure it is homemade.  So cute.