and baby makes five.

i don't know what i'm going to do about the name of this blog! we are not just loving owen & kate around here anymore. sweet little wyatt grey is part of our family now too. he is a sweetheart & we are loving him like crazy. 

lego "everything" party

owen is 6! and he is quite the LEGO fanatic. he likes it all- lego star wars, lego ninjago, lego batman- and couldn't pick just one lego theme for his party. so, he decided he wanted a "LEGO everything" party :)

ninjago pinata made from a gift bag- spray painted black, yellow paper eyes, filled with candy and stapled shut. the easiest pinata ever! the backdrop is a $2.50 pack of wrapping paper from the LEGO store along with a homemade birthday banner.

since the party was in the backyard, instead of having everyone come through the house, my sister made this sign for the front door to let them know where to go. 

the "lego brick road" was just construction paper legos in a path to the back gate.

lego star wars light sabers- cut pool noodles in half & covered one end with shiny silver duck tape. the boys loved these! each party guest took one home as part of their party favors.

i only planned one game which worked out great because the kids really just wanted to play with the light sabers! for this game, "mr. freeze" froze batman & robin in ice. the boys had to use water guns to melt the ice away and free the toys. there were 2 blocks of ice, one with batman & one with robin frozen inside. we had 2 waterguns & 2 teams relaying to try to free their toy the fastest.

pinata time! they took one whack at the pinata with their light saber then the next time around they used a real pinata stick. we knew that light saber wasn't going to do the trick but this way ensured everyone at least one turn!

the favor bags doubled as sacks for the pinata candy. favors were the pinata candy, the light saber, a lego club magazine (free at our lego store) and chocolate lego brick candy.

cake time! owen told me what he wanted his cake to look like. it's a little hard to tell from the pictures but lego minifigures are holding the happy birthday candles. and luke skywalker, his favorite, got to hold the important # 6 :)

the cupcakes were decorated with chocolate lego pieces that i made from a candy mold.

mmm... cake! levi & logan approve!

SIX!!

 happy birthday sweet boy!

kate's pink & purple princess party!

i am {obviously!}so behind on blogging. kate turned 3 last november & requested a princess party. lots of our family made the 3 hour trip to kc to come celebrate with us which was so special! kate had a few of her little friends at the party too.

party prep...

decorating princess crowns

she loved her ladybug sleeping bag!

happy 3rd birthday, kate!!

christmas teacher gift

there is a really cute printable out there in blog land from eighteen 25 via skip to my lou.

i photoshopped it a bit to make a christmas version for the sweet teachers who take care of my kids each week.

"wishing you a latte joy this christmas."
i did mine a little different than the original: printed 5x7's at walmart (1 hour photo) & hot glued the coffee sleeve to the print. i didn't have any twine but that would be a super cute addition!

here is my christmas version for you!

chalkboard pantry menu

there are some cute chalkboard menus all over pinterest.

 

 

i love the idea but don't have the wall/counter space in my kitchen. however, i have 2 pantry doors that were perfect for the job.

since these are raised panels, i didn't tape or anything... just went at it with a few coats of chalkboard paint!

a few scrapbook stickers to add some cuteness & frame out the days of the week...

the kids each have their own panel & have had so much fun drawing on the doors.

puppy party- kate is 2!

i feel really bad. here i am planning kate's 3rd birthday and i haven't even posted about her puppy parties from a year ago! last year we did two small parties... one with friends here in kc and then one a couple weeks after her birthday with family while we were home for thanksgiving.

for her friend party, i did a quick & simple evite & asked guests to bring a donation for the local pet shelter in lieu of gifts. we had just moved into our house 2 weeks prior so it was really an excuse to have a little playdate, show our friends our new place & celebrate kate at the same time :)

i did  a little bit of decorating...

we had a great time!

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for kate's family party i sent out invitations the old fashioned way. i picked up some plain turquoise notecards, printed them with brown ink & added a couple of embellishments (dog-theme brads from the scrapbooking section of joanns- took off the brad part & hot glued the flat embellishment on the invite).

kate with her gran & cousin lydia

party favors were puppy stickers, a bouncy ball, puppy chow & a handmade t-shirt (inspiration here)

favors for the big dogs.

kate with her great grandma :)

i used an unfrosted chocolate cake for the ears, the top of a cupcake for the muzzle & a flattened starburst candy for the tongue.

the funny thing about all this partying was that kate actually doesn't want anything to do with real dogs or puppies but she can't get enough of stuffed puppy dogs or books, pictures & movies of them :) for more puppy party ideas (some that i used and some i didn't) check out my party board on pinterest.