Phoenix's 3rd Birthday Party

My lil fella is a big boy!  He is totally obsessed with all things CARS, so of course he had a CARS themed party.  

I found this adorable fabric at Joann's, I cut out a Mater (his favorite) and a Lightning McQueen and ironed them onto this shirt, it turned out really cute!

So I made these cupcake toppers out of circles cut out from my cricut and stickers.  Easy enough, right?  The kids LOVED them!  I have so many pictures of different kids holding their cupcake toppers up for the camera to see.  Its the simple things in life...

Dessert Table (of contents hehe):  Homemade Oreos, lemon cupcakes, tootsie rolls, creme puffs (the frozen kind), puppy chow, red vines, and assorted candy bars.  I brought some dirt out later on, as you will see...

We served my Dad's Sloppy Joes for the meal, they were delish, but I think for the next party we will do take out for the main dish...one less thing to worry about right before the party!

I had all of us in the family color a big coloring page for the food table backdrop, I liked the personal touch it gave, and I had fun shading with crayons.  Audrey added the Italian flag to the back of her picture (I do not know if it is exactly accurate, but I am so proud of her!).

Totally obsessed with the "Jello Roll-ups" shown above, I seriously make these like once a week.  Thank you pinterest!

 Heather is one of my best friends, she is one of the nicest people I know, and I love hanging out with her.  She is also due to have her baby two weeks from this picture, and I just had to capture her with her napkin over her baby bump (only those of us who have been pregnant can really relate to this).  She is adorable (and has since had Ella, who is also extremely adorable).  P.S.  I am TOTALLY jealous of your hair Heather!

I am not sure what happened to my photogenic child, he is totally pulling an Audrey in this picture (meaning he is posing like this on purpose).

 I love my little Phoenix-Willy

 I found this idea online to paint some boxes and have the kids race each other, the brown one is Mater, but you can't see his face in this picture.  Phoenix and Ace are little buddies, and they have birthdays less than two weeks apart!  

Nothing says high class like exposed insulation in the ceiling.  I can only defend this by emphasizing the fact that we are RENTING, and this is an unfinished basement that we use as a bonus room.  Any who, try to ignore that nasty yellow foam and check out the pinata made by yours truly!  It turned out awesome, it was incredibly easy, basically free, and saved me $20!  I decided to go the ribbon-pull route, something about a large group of small children swinging a bat around did not seem...safe.  All of the kids took a ribbon and pulled at the same time.  Then it rained candy.  Awesome.

No one in our family really eats much cake, so I made lemon cupcakes (because Audrey and Travis WILL eat lemon) and I made some dirt for Phoenix.

Another shout out to one of my besties.  Melissa is everything you want to be.  Gorgeous, best cook, amazing style, totally fun personality, and oh yeah, she WASHED ALL OF MY DISHES during the party.  If that isn't a true friend I don't know what is.

Two different families got Phoenix the same bubble gun, which turned out to be a VERY good thing.  Phoenix, Skylar, and Azley took turns with the guns, and they had so much fun!

One of my friends (Kory ;-) ) could not figure out the significance of the #3 on Phoenix's back,  in case you are having trouble figuring it out also, it is because he was turning 3.  Don't you love the black and white check?

I did this for Audrey's birthday also, a picture from each of their birthdays, I really like looking at it.

 Unfortunately the gift bag presentation was one of the casualties of the last minute rush, thankfully Audrey made some post-it  Thank-you's to attach to each of the bags.  Have I mentioned how proud I am of that little girl?

Azley, Phoenix's little girlfriend,  this picture was too cute to not include.  

The party was SO MUCH FUN!  Pretty much everything turned out how I had wanted it to, all of the kids had a blast, and Phoenix had the perfect day.  I am so grateful to all of our wonderful friends that we have made throughout the years living here, there is something intangibly special about a big group of people coming to celebrate one of your children.  Thank you to everyone who came, and we love you all!  

Phoenix literally fell asleep the second his head hit Audrey's pillow (we usually sing them a song in her bed before we move him to his room), if that's not a sign of a good party, I don't what is.

1st Day of 1st Grade

Audrey is in year round school, and her first day back was July 9th.  I told her she could wear whatever she wanted to wear.  She chose:  an old frumpy polo shirt that is at least one size too large, cut off shorts, and to wear her hair "down".  Not the direction I would have gone, but she just loves this shirt.  Funny girl.

She is loving first grade, she actually told me this week that she loves school.  That is a complete turn around from her first day of Kindergarten.  I am so glad that she is happy.

NY Trip: Part 5

It is always sad when a trip comes to an end, but we went out in a blast.  We were going to be driving back to NC on Phoenix's actual birthday (lamest parents of the year), so we had a little party for Phoenix the night before.  My Dad made his delish chocolate cake, and he fed Phoenix some frosting, it was so cute, and Phoenix obviously loved it.

 These two have so much fun together...

 I am beginning to question if Audrey is capable of taking a..."normal" picture anymore...

Thanks to my Dad for making the cake, it was so yummy.  After we put the kids down we played some Settlers, if I remember correctly it was me and Jo who won (female domination!).  We are planning to go back to NY for Christmas this year, for a longer time, it should be epic and I cannot wait.

NY Trip: Part 5

I was with my sister.  I had a camera.  We had a competition with each other to see who cleaned up better.  How could we have NOT had a photo shoot?

 What can I say?  Perfect timing...

These pictures make me laugh, we had the hardest time trying to look serious, while being in extremely cheesy poses (yes, that was on purpose). Many thanks to our photographer, Travis.

NY Trip: Part 4

Treman State Park has been a long time family favorite place to visit, especially on holidays like Memorial Day.  Travis had one stipulation before we totally decided to go to NY and that was that he could go fishing.  Conveniently, my Dad already had a Treman trip planned.  Trav, my Dad and one of his friends got to Treman a few hours before we did (as in 6 hours) to get some quality fishing in.  All of them caught some fish, success!  Me, my Mom and the two kiddos met up with the men-folk for lunch.  

Grilled hotdogs.  Outside.  Cooked to perfection.  Black Cherry Soda.  Yum.

 My parents had to head out after we were done eating, but we hung around and swam.  It was weird to get into water that was actually, dare I say, refreshing?  The water in NC stops feeling cool around June 1st.  

 Audrey is quite the little fish, she is such a good swimmer and she LOVES going swimming whenever she can.  

 If Jo had been able to come with us I totally would have scaled the waterfall with her...and gone off the diving board.  When I was younger (up until like 5 years ago) I was kinda terrified of a fish touching me in water...which really limited the fun that I had at places like this...but I got over it, so now I just need a buddy to help me make up for lost time.

We had an awesome time, Treman is one of my favorite places to visit, it is so peaceful and beautiful.  Maybe next year Phoenix will be old enough so that we can take him and Audrey camping there.  Many good memories doing that with my Dad.