Isabella's Actual 6th Birthday Day

Since we weren't having a party on her actual birthday, and really we weren't having a traditional party (since we were going to Great Wolf Lodge), I did a couple things for Isabella to make her day special.

She woke up on her birthday to balloons hanging in front of her door. (Nothing fancy... just went with what I had! :)

I devoted my picture wall to her birthday pictures for the past 6 years. (And here is Bella's silly grin she likes to do for pictures!)

And perhaps the biggest surprise... to welcome baby Mimi (what my kids have called the baby since Laura found out it would be a boy) or rather Miguel Angel Valle IV aka Mavy into the world! Isabella was pretty excited to share her birthday with her new baby cousin. :) 

Isabella turns 6!

Isabella sure lucked out on her birthday this year! She got to celebrate her birthday not once, not twice, but three times in one week!!

The first time was a few couple days before her actual birthday at my parent's house. Only my sister Jennifer & her family were going to be coming to Great Wolf Lodge with us for Bella's birthday, so this was our celebration with extended family. My mom made her a really yummy and cute chocolate Brave cake (from the Disney movie Brave) and Isabella opened some really great presents.

Then of course we couldn't let her actual birthday pass without any notice. So We went and got cupcakes to eat together as a family and did her family gifts. (Please ignore the piles of junk in the background... I was very busy getting ready for the JBF consignment sale & I had stuff everywhere!)

Lastly, she got to have happy birthday sang to her one last time when we were down in Texas staying at the Great Wolf Lodge. This was at the Rainforest Cafe, her pick for her dinner in TX. 

We spent 2 nights at the Great Wolf Lodge and the Polliard family joined us for one of those nights. Isabella sure was happy to have her best friend, Cameron, at her favorite place. We had lots of fun sharing the GWL excitement with the whole Polliard family!

Every time we visit Great Wolf Lodge, Isabella sees all the kids playing this game called "Magi Quest" and she always wants to get a wand a play too. We have put her off every time and the last time we came we (last year) we told her that she could do it if we came for her birthday (which was already in the works the last time we visited). So here we were... signing up for Magi Quest & buying a wand. Turns out, it was pretty fun... although a bit challenging at times (even for us adults). Everyone got in on the action of wand shaking and we managed to finish several "quests". 

Oh and the bottom left hand corner is Bella & Cam in the bunk bed watching cartoons in the morning. Isabella was so excited to have her very first sleepover. Cameron and her shared the bunk (she slept top, he slept bottom). Everyone was so tired, they passed out almost immediately upon getting into bed.

We spent more time on day 2 at the water park and even spent quite a bit of that time in the outside portion. Poor little Cait ... she is such a little girl, she was shivering nearly the whole time she was in the indoor portion. She did much better outside and I actually thought it was nice in comparison! Even baby Lilly got in on the outdoor action!

These next 2 collages are what happen when you let the children have fun with your camera. These pictures were taken by Caitlin (2), Cameron (6), Isabella (6), & maybe even some from Jackson (3). I think Caitlin took the most pictures out of all of them though.

Here are the two group pictures we got with the silly kids... at Rainforest Cafe:

And after story time with Violet the wolf:

We all had a fabulous time and we were so happy to have my sister Jennifer, her husband, JC, and their kids, Brendan, Cameron, Caitlin, and Lilly join us for some Great Wolf Lodge fun for Isabella's 6th birthday.

4th of July 2012

Believe it or not, this is the first year we've taken our kids to see fireworks on the 4th of July. I actually think they've only seen fireworks on TV. Pretty sad, I know. I have just always been a stickler for bedtime when they are little (to avoid meltdowns) & we've always had a baby or toddler for the past 6 years... or so. But now Jackson is 3 & we can fudge his bedtime a little for special occasions. So we decided to get the kids out to see the fireworks. We met up with my sister in a nearby town to watch some at a casino that was fairly close to our house. The kids really enjoyed it and the show was pretty good. They also had a good time playing with their cousin, Taelyn. And believe it or not, it was Isabella that melted down, not Jackson. ;o)

Baby Shower!!

In mid June I hosted a baby shower for my older sister, Laura. It was a lot of fun to put together and I think she had a pretty nice time celebrating the upcoming birth with her friends/family.

The main theme was a gender reveal. Laura and I knew the sex but the party goers were to guess and then have the gender revealed at the party. The colors were red and grey, the nursery colors.

Here is my picture wall converted for the shower to a baby wall with ultrasound pictures of the baby and the invitation.

Here are some games we played- Children's Book Title Scramble, Complete Mom's sentences, & Baby Jeopardy. Everyone also filled out well wishes/advice for the mom-to-be and a wishes for baby card. The small ribbon tied packages were left over prices for the jeopardy game... chocolate covered almonds. We played in teams so we needed a lot of prizes!

The picture in the bottom right corner was the table set up with the chalk board to take the votes, ribbon pins to denote your vote (red for girl, grey for boy), & more ultrasound pictures.

Food, yummy food! Everything was vegan (and easy to prepare because I always have too much going on on party day with limited time to devote to food prep!). To make the shower a bit more eco I used these super cute grey/white strip biodegradable straws with mason jars for the drinks. Biodegradable plates were also used as well as sugar cane fiber napkins. :) I used paper lanterns that I had on hand from other parties (and I will continue to use for future parties) so that we could keep from throwing away too many party decorations.

In the picture below there is a closer look at the little succulent plants that were given as favors (loved this so much that I gave them to my moms club friends for an end of year dinner favor!) but also served a dual purpose- decorations!

For the votes, the boy side got the most votes. And according to the wives tales we read off, she was going to have a girl (8 to 6). And you will see in the bottom right corner, the cupcake revealed that Laura is having a boy!

As a side note... the cupcakes were probably my most challenging undertaking. I found a yummy vegan cupcake recipe easy enough. The tricky part was the cream center. First, finding one that would turn out & be the proper consistency. (Took me a couple tries of various recipes before I settled on sweetened coconut milk with vanilla and thickened with agar agar.) Now the blue color was a whole different problem... concerning chemistry, believe it or not. So I didn't want to use any artificial dyes but needed it to be a shade of blue that was obvious enough for the guests to see. I first thought blueberries... right??? Well no. That was purple. Then I read that you could use red cabbage. Followed first set of directions I found online- boiled cabbage & used that "broth" to color the cream mixture. Nope. Still purple. Read more online. Discovered that to get blue from the red cabbage "broth" you needed to add baking soda to change the acidity. Of course not too much. And you can't heat this mixture after it turns blue or else it will turn a shade of grey. Thankfully this is what finally did the trick. It also kind of sounds yuck to have this in a cupcake... but in the end, it only took a little bit so you couldn't taste it at all. Whew. I was relieved to have that figured out, especially since I started the Monday before the shower (couldn't make cupcakes too early!) and had to go through several trials to get it all figured out.

 Lots of fun had by all and what a fun way to celebrate the upcoming arrival!! (I will be posting pics of mom-to-be on my fb page!)

Summer is Underway!

We started June off with Isabella losing another tooth! Exactly one month from the date of her last tooth! Again another front bottom tooth.

We definitely know it is summer when we start Ms. Jennifer's swim school! Jackson was started in level one this year (he was just in the parent/child class last time) & he did really great. He wasn't crazy about the stuff they had to do (like put their faces in the water) but Jennifer has a way with the kids and by the second week he was doing it without any fuss. I only took video of Isabella, so no pictures of her to post... except the one with Jennifer's next door neighbor's Emu. 

We had a MOMS Club bottle rocket activity at the park (bottom picture) & after that we ran a few errands. At one of the stores, the kids had fun trying on all these lovely hats. :) Of course Jackson liked the green one (Incredible Hulk's color). 

A Busy Start to Summer...

This is a bowl full of strawberries from our garden... just in one picking! Our (Mike's) strawberries did really well this spring/early summer.

Isabella lost her first tooth in May 2nd... just 3 months shy of 6 years old. She wasn't scared at all! I had been wiggling it every night when I brushed her teeth and tonight it seemed even more lose. She made the noise for me to stop wiggling so I did and told her I thought it could come out pretty easily if she pulled. So she pulled and out it popped onto the floor! Then it was a scramble/panic on her part to locate it, which we did quickly. She was so excited to have pulled it out and then super excited to share with everyone. She wanted to send out cards to everyone, to announce her lost tooth. :) 

Co-op classes ended and we had to say goodbye to our friends for the summer. Here is a picture of Jackson's class that I taught and assisted in all day... he is a bit grumpy. ;o)

For mother's day, the kids and Mike took me out to a newer restaurant in Norman called Local. They use nearly all local ingredients so of course I had been wanting to try it out! I was super excited to go for brunch. Isabella is into taking silly pictures these days. :)

Another milestone that has occurred this month is related to Jackson's sleeping arrangements. He has gone from this...

To this (as I scramble to put his new bed together with Mike working because we sold his crib faster than expected).

And then to this (a bed he can sleep in). He did end up spending the night with Bella since I didn't get it done in time and we needed a twin mattress (oops). 

And then I made some curtains out of a shower curtain I found at the store. And now he has a little playing area underneath. 

Unfortunately it wasn't all lovely this month... Jackson mysteriously came down with hand foot mouth disease. His throat was super sore, his feet were a bit sore, and we I had to take him into the ER on a Saturday morning (and miss the Ostrich egg breakfast at the zoo) to get a diagnosis. Unfortunately there isn't anything they can really do to treat this but the doctor did give a Rx for a solution of numbing meds for him to gargle to help his throat so he could eat. Not too long after, Mike came down with a minor case. Thankfully Isabella and I were spared. This pic was taken after he was feeling better.. but this is what his feet looked like!!

Aren't these hydrangeas lovely? I've had the bush in my front garden for a couple years now but this is the first year I've brought some inside to enjoy. I'm sure glad I did!! The are so nice to have around to look at. And it actually helps the bush outside look better because it gets so saggy with the heavy flowers. Win win. 

We did the classic volcano experiment in our homeschool activities one day. It erupted fast!

The kids gymnastics year came to an end and they had their end of the year olympics show. Here is Jackson hanging off the bars.

And Isabella turing to look. Gymnastics has been super fun and next year Jackson will be in a class by himself (instead of one with a parent). Isabella is saying that she wants to go back to dance again. 

Jackson turns 3: A Star Wars Party!

Due to a busy travel month in April, I had to do a lot of Jackson's planning in advance. I'm a pretty good last minute prepper (although that is a bit stressful) but this had to be different. I only had Monday-Friday the week of his party after getting back from Vegas (and Costa Rica right before that). So I did a majority of the things before Costa Rica. We even made our favors (cookies) a few weeks in advance and froze them.

Jackson has been a big Star Wars fan, ever since we bought my nephew Cameron a little Star Wars figurine and it sat on my counter for a week or so before the party. This was back in July so that would make Jackson just 2 years and 2.5 months! He wanted to look at that figurine every time he came into the kitchen. He would ask about it, the name, what was it from. So then after that, he had a radar for all things Star Wars and would zoom into SW things at the store, on the TV, etc.

A Star Wars party was a natural choice and it was Jackson's choice. There are tons of ideas online but I wasn't crazy about most of them... it just was too theme-y. Yeah, I know, it is a theme party. But I just don't like all the matchy matchy cups, napkins, paper decorations, etc. But thanks to pinterest and some helpful suggestions by friends/family, I came up with enough ideas to make it fun for me to plan and fun for Jackson to party. :)

Invites (made with the silhouette cameo):

I had gotten a Silhouette Cameo cutting machine shortly before I began working on his party stuff (thanks to my sweet hubby) and it was really great to use it for a lot of the party prep. I used it for the invite, the door sign (above), the labels on his pictures, the favor labels.... I think that might be it. Oh and the Happy Birthday sign above the fireplace & other misc. circle cut outs that I hung up or made a banner with. Really fun machine, in spite of it's few downfalls. :)

My picture wall in the entry that is usually my holiday decorating area became Jackson's yearly photo wall. I added in some pictures of each of the 6 Star Wars episodes (which you can't see very well in this picture) that are silhouette depictions of a scene from each movie.

As far as party activities go, we had galactic playdough set up at a table where they worked glitter into playdough and then cut out stars, star wars figures, etc. Another table was coloring and Star Wars tattoos.

Decorations were the paper lanterns in red and black (meant to be like planets), the circles on the photo wall (also somewhat like planets), and circle banners (again, planets).

We played pin the lightsaber on the jedi... Isabella actually pinned it in the exact location it should have gone (not sure if her vision was truly impaired by the bandana or not... but everyone got a prize for effort!). Then we played with the pool noodle lightsabers I made (just cut in 1/2 the dollar store pool noodles and then used duct tape, black and silver, on the ends to make them look like light sabers) either hitting each other or attempting to keep a balloon from landing on the ground. Then the last "game" was the pull string piñata with lots of fun gadgets and (healthier) candy. 

We had lots of snack foods which had fun names like Vader Veggies, Sarlaac pit dip, Padme Popcorn, and Yoda Ears. My mom made a super yummy and really great Chewbacca cake. Favors were green (colored with green matcha tea powder, a recipe I found online!) yoda cookies with a yoda label.

Jackson arranging his bugs from the Piñata.

Jackson got heaps of great Star Wars gifts and truly enjoyed his day. He was super busy the whole time, running around crazily from activity to activity. He loved having so many friends to light saber with and also loved getting lots of play bugs/lizards from the piñata.