London Olympics Opening Ceremonies Party

We've been super excited for the Summer Olympics in London this year so we decided to have an Opening Ceremonies viewing party with a few of our friends.

Our fun little dessert table display most of the printables and the inspiration came from one Bird's Party. The cheesecake was a Cheesecake Factory red velvet copycat recipe and turned out to be awesomely moist and delicious. Next time I'm going to use the same concept and cheesecake recipe with my carrot cake recipe.

Cake pops and gold medal cookies. The gold medal cookie design was a free printable from One Charming Party. I simply took the printed page to our local Publix bakery and had them print it onto an edible cake sheet. Then I chopped them out with a 2 inch circle punch. I put them all in the freezer and pulled them out a couple at a time as I was decorating to make it easier to peel them.

I admit I may have gotten a little carried away with baking this last week.
I made the cake pops first because I think they are easiest to store and seem to remain fresh for a long time. I just used a basic cake pop recipe. They are always a hit a parties!
Olympic ring cookies: I used Wilton's largest and second largest fondant circle cutters to shape the rings. I decorated them with just white royal icing because I was too lazy to color it and then dipped them in lots of sprinkles so the white wouldn't show through.

VINTAGE flag cookies
So the story behind the vintage flag cookies: I had made these beautiful flag cookies with lots of TLC. Then I decided to store them in an air tight container in the fridge since it was a couple days before the party.

BAD idea.

It destroyed the tops of all of them...so they quickly became my vintaged cookies.
Vintage is in, right?

Cupcakes, I just baked standard size cupcakes, decorated them with butter cream frosting and topped them with printables from Bird's Party Olympic collection. I cut the cupcake wrappers out from Skip to my Lou's template.

The night I was making my cookies I snapped a quick picture with my phone before they were accidentally vintaged.

I made these flag cookies with the exact same method as the gold medal cookies described above.

Super excited for the opening ceremonies to start. Yes, I even made us all wear coordinating Olympic shirts.

If there is a cake, there is a birthday, right? Ellie made everyone sing happy birthday to her so she could blow out a few candles on the cake. She loves the attention.

More decor. Our Olympic torch now sits proudly atop the TV as we watch the games. The torch was super simple. I just rolled up a piece of 12x12 gold glitter cardstock and taped it from the inside. Then I just stuffed red and gold tissue paper inside for the flames. I couldn't figure out how to get it to stand, so it now sits in my empty pepper shaker. Sometimes I have to get pretty creative when I'm working late into the night before the party!

The ladies of the party: Izzy, me and Darlene.

The kids snuck off to the back room to bust out the extra cake pops. Ken said, "Mom, I think I ate way too many cake pops...it was AWESOME!"

Ellie partied hard until she crashed.

A picture of the ceremonies from a British paper. Click here for more images if you missed it. The opening ceremonies were amazing to say the least and so fun to watch. It's is such a powerful thing to see the whole world come together for this big event.

Want to hear the best part of the whole thing? I fell asleep in Ken's bed while I was reading him his stories so Joey carried me to bed. When I woke up in the morning the entire party was cleaned up! The dishes had been done, my decor stored away, the kids room organized (they had destroyed it the night before with their friends), the laundry done and all the furniture put back where it belongs. I have the coolest husband ever, hands down. Seriously, who does that? It's no wonder I'm so crazy about that boy.

We hope you enjoy the rest of the ceremonies!

Earth Day Celebration

It was about time for another party for us, so we had a fun little Earth Day celebration and luncheon after church today with a few friends from our ward. The kids helped me make the decorations all week. Their favorite part was painting the globe (along with the table and their clothes). 

Ellie has been walking around all day singing 'happy birthday' because the whole Earth Day/Birthday thing seems to be a little confusing to her. Either way, she was excited for an excuse to party

The party got two thumbs up from Kenny. I love how much fun he makes our lives.

I may have had a little too much fun planning all the details. Joey was awesome and got all these great shots for me while I was setting the lunch up.

 Kenny was super excited to plant his little cilantro seeds. Call me crazy for setting the kids free with a giant bag of dirt in the house, but our little party got rained out (like everything else this weekend) so we had to hang out inside. We made little eggshell cups to plant the seeds in. It's actually a pretty cool thing I read about online... you can plant the eggshell directly in the ground and it's supposed to dissolve into natural fertilizer.

Ellie was more interested in playing the dirt than anything, but she managed to plant a few seeds!

Time to sit back and wait for some cilantro to grow.

*Party inspiration and printables come from One Charming Party. Love those party planners over there!

St. Patrick's Day ideas

Kenny was a little hesitant about the idea of little green men running around his house the night of St. Patrick's Days so he came up with a spell to protect himself if necessary: "Be gone, leprechaun!". Luckily we only had nice leprechauns running around our house and he never had to put his spell to use.

The leprechauns left behind lots of yummy treats, even if they did play a few tricks on us first!

Those tricky leprechauns turned everything liquid in our house GREEN, left behind lots of little green footprints and even painted the kids nails green while they were snoozing away!

Kenny felt pretty cool wearing his leprechaun shirt around.

The leprechauns left lots of little pots of gold behind this year for the kids to find as they followed their footprints around the house.

Everything is just so much fun to celebrate when you have little kids around getting excited about it! 

Later that night we took the kids to see the new Dr. Seuss movie, The Lorax. We thought it was a cute little show and Kenny loved it. They definitely got the message this time around. When we walked out of the theater, Kenny turned to me and said, "I want to be the Lorax, I speak for the trees. Now, how do I go plant a tree?". At least it's a good message to teach them to love our trees!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."

-Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

We love Dr. Seuss, we think he is number one. So we threw a funkaly party with cupcakes and fun. Green Eggs and Ham is Ken’s favorite to read, so that quickly became the party theme indeed.

After a fun day at school, Kenny came to take a look at the ‘Horton Hears a Who’ pop-up book.
He read and he read until he was finally full in the head. That Dr. Seuss has some real street cred, especially with the good stories before bed.

From an old book, the pictures I had to raid,

just to create the Green Eggs and Ham banners I made.

Kenny  got home from school, didn’t make a sound, until he assessed the decorations seeming to float all around.  “Wow mom!” Ken shouted with glee, “you really did a good job decorating for the party.”

No sniffles or snuffles or crying ensued, but a glad hearted boy saying nice things, not rude.

“Good job mom! Good job mom!” He makes it all worth it, you know that it’s true,

we did this all for him, and got an overwhelming “thank you!”

Kenny is so sweet and loves to read to Ellie, especially when rewarded with a big laugh from her belly.  

The children have learned when we are out and about, mama is a sucker so she’ll buy them each a book without a doubt.

“Look at me! 
Look at me! 
Look at me NOW! 
It is fun to have fun 
But you have to know how.” 

-Dr. Seuss

The Cat in the Hat game was full of good fun that is funny. The only rule is to say “I can do that” to give you a run for your money.

I almost forgot to include these cute little cakes. Each was made with love for Ken’s class with fine sugary flakes. They were an instant hit, Ken was the talk of the school. That and Ken’s quick wit made him extra cool.

Kenny stood proud, awaiting the arrival of his guests. They were in for a real treat and would certainly be impressed. 

Lots of yummy treats would fill us to the max- just the right recipe to help us relax.
The chocolate covered Oreos were perfect as you see, it was like a little piece of heaven in my mouth just for me.
Please tell me you've tried one.
"If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good.”
-Dr. Seuss

"Do you like green eggs and ham?
Would you like them Here or There?"
Mama made a few eggs and colored them green, it wasn’t because she’s crazy or mean. 
We just love to party and make silly things.
"Say!
I like green eggs and ham!
I do!! I like them, Sam-I-am!
And I will eat them here and there.
Say! I will eat them ANYWHERE!"
-Dr. Seuss

Some of our party balls hanging up high. These little balls were like bubbles floating in the sky.
“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!” 
-Dr. Seuss

Lots of silly décor made it fun for the kids to explore.

“From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!”
-Dr. Seuss

Ken with his buds, Alonso and Dylan. They had so much fun just pretending and chillin’.

They ran, 
                      ran, 
                                  ran 
with their parents in tow and finally sat down to eat Green Eggs and ham, as you know!

After dinner we went out to finish it right, with silly string in hand, the parents & boys shouting, “thanks for a fun night!”

"Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one."
-Dr. Seuss

The Everything Ellie Birthday Party

We celebrated Ellie's 2nd birthday yesterday with a few friends. I've had her party dress for almost a year now and the party theme "Everything Ellie" was designed around Ellie's whimsical and fun personality.


Ellie making her grand entrance excited to see all the balloons, suckers and other treats she loves.

Ellie loved hearing everyone sing to her and was eager to blow out her candles right on cue.

Loving her balloons. The kids have been running around and playing with the balloons nonstop.


Ellie with Grandma Patty
Nate, Claire and cute Norah. Claire is eight months pregnant and hardly looks it!

Mama and 'da'eee-uh' with the birthday girl. No time to stop eating candy for a quick picture.


Ellie being a diva and crying because Preston finally broke her piñata.

Ellie had an average of 3 suckers in her mouth at all times.


The guac boys. Super out of focus, but I could't trash the picture because even blurry, these are some good lookin' boys. They made an awesome guacamole dip! I think Joey has finally mastered the art of the guac dip and I can't wait for more!

I must say how amazing my brother Jonny is. Jonny was awesome helping me get ready for the party. He totally helped me decorate all the cupcakes, set up and get everything clean.


Helping themselves to some sugary goodness.

Star Wars Birthday

We have been planning on a Star Wars birthday party for Kenny since the moment his Toy Story Party ended last year! Seriously. So needless to say, we've been pretty stoked about it for a while. Luckily it lived up to his expectations and Kenny had a blast. When we were getting ready to sing "Happy Birthday" one of Ken's little friends, Sage, turned around and shouted "This is the best party EVER!". It was hilarious. So without further adieu, here are some of the highlights of the best party EVER!

The Invitations

I totally tried to hire a graphic designer to make these invitations, but nobody ever got back to me. Soooo I had to figure out how to make them myself. I made them way back in August since I wouldn't have enough time this semester. I was quite proud of them. Would it be weird to frame one for Kenny? ;)

 The spread. 

I had so much fun designing all the little table decorations for Ken and making the pom poms. 

 The cakes

This little R2D2 took a lot longer to make than I had anticipated. At last minute Kenny told me he decided he wanted a General Grievous cake instead of R2D2. So being the awesome mom that I am, I told him heck no. I had put way too much time into researching how I was going to get the R2D2 with the correct dimensions and all. Then I started feeling guilty because it was technically his party so I made a couple extra round cakes and slapped a general grievous toy on top of it. My mom was awesome enough to cover it in fondant for me while I was fighting with R2D2 to make him look right. And yes, Kenny was quite pleased with our efforts.

 Kenny proud of his birthday spread.

If you blow the picture up you can see the giant rain pelting away at us.

 Jedi Training Academy

The Jedi Master, Joey, came out in his Jedi robes to instruct the young padawans in the ways of the lightsaber.

Did I mention my super amazing, talented, awesome mom made all of these padawan robes for all the kids??! Isn't she the best?

 First Mission: Destroy the Death Star

The kids had tons of fun attacking the Death Star with their lightsabers, but we had to pull out a big stick for them to bust the candy out.

 All the young padawans gathered around the Death Star

 Final mission: Defeat Darth Vader

a.k.a. Ken's version of heaven. Ken had a perm-a-grin the whole time he was battling Darth Vader

 The young padawans were victorious at last!

 Ellie was devastated when she realized Darth Vader was her father and he was being destroyed by the Jedi

 Other than that minor incident, the padawan princess had tons of fun at the party always pumping her fist in the air and shouting "STAR WARS"! So cute.

 

 Dress 15 kids up like padawans + give them all light sabers + set them loose in a bounce house = one awsomely wild time (+/- a few injuries).

Our super yummy lightsaber treats and thank you gifts.

All in all it was an awesome party with lots of awesome company. I definitely couldn't have pulled it all together without my mama. And big kudos to Joey for being a good sport and dressing up in an insanely hot costume (plus a ski mask!!) in super hot and humid weather to be attacked by 20 kids with light sabers.

And most importantly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENNY!!!!

We love you so much! I can't imagine how dull our lives would be without this lively boy.

Most of my party inspiration came from Here and Here