Someone please have a boy!

I can't sleep tonight so it is 1:30 AM and I am on the internet and I come across this adorable shower idea!

So, I would like to request that one of my friend's get pregnant and have a boy so I can put together a shower inspired by this Bow Tie Baby Shower I saw on Hostess with the Mostess. Isn't this adorable! I love the colors and the details! So much fun!

Oh how I wish I could just plan parties for a living....

A Shrek-tacular birthday!

We had a wonderful time celebrating Peyton's birthday today and we had a Shrek-tacular time with friends and family and felt so blessed to have so many people we love and have been such a support and encouragement to us during these past two years celebrating Peyton with us!

I had such a hard time coming up with a theme for her party, we started many months ago with Elmo, then went to Curious George and then settled with Shrek although she might a little more into Toy Story now! Such a kid!

So, I ran with the Shrek theme and was surprised how hard it was to find ideas and party goods but we worked hard and I was really pleased with how it all came together! The main colors were brown, green and then pops of aqua with the table cloths and some balloons. I am glad I went with the aqua because it helped the green and brown pop.

Of course the main way to incorporate a Shrek theme is in the food choices and names, I really took time to come up with various foods and name them and then made labels this week for them. We had: Leeches on a Log (celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins), Swamp Sticks (pretzel sticks), Princess Fiona Fruit, Worms in Dirt (two kinds of pudding with gummy worms), Donkey Droppings (chocolate rice krispie treats rolled into balls), Puss in Boots Kitty Chow (Chex Mix) and then pizza...Weed Rat Pizza (chicken), Ear Wax (cheese) and Pimple Pepperoni. I also had Swamp Scum (green kool-aid with gingerale) but forgot to take pictures of it!

Some other touches was our centerpiece of onions because Shrek claims that Ogres are like onions, they have layers. We also had Shrek ears for the kids to wear to be an Ogre for a day!

I had some other ideas I wanted to do but being pregnant and so sick cut into my planning energy so I had to nix some ideas like my, "Beware of Ogre" signs outside.

Here is the birthday girl waiting for her friends. She desperately wanted some balloons and I told her she couldn't have them until her friends came, we had the party and they left! So she was wanting them to hurry up!

A family of Ogres all ready to party! Peyton was not too happy and it was hard to get a good picture of all three of us.

One of the cutest party guests! I love him!

As our activity for the kids, I set up the table to make Gingy from the movie! They had gum drops, icing and sprinkles and sugar cookies cut out like gingerbread men. We originally intended to do actual gingerbread men but the dough and molasses made me sick causing me to throw away the first batch, John attempted the second batch and I got sick just smelling it so this morning I threw together a batch of sugar cookies and it worked out great. I think the kids liked the taste of them better anyways!

I had a very hard time determining a cake for the party because I didn't want to pay a fortune for a custom Shrek face or something elaborate and decided to go with green and brown with polka dots to add a girly touch. I ordered it from Kroger and was super pleased with how it looked! It was just what I wanted!

Last year Peyton cried when we sang to hear but this year she LOVED the attention and smiled...she occasionally hide her face but overall loved it and even clapped and cheered for everyone. She also did a great job blowing out her candles. Whenever she has hot food I ask her to help me blow our wind on it so I told her the same thing and she did great!

She was super ready to eat cake and when we were done tried to stick her hands in it! I managed to quickly stop her and got it cut. She ate it up and surprisingly didn't finish it!

Then it was present time and she was super happy! I don't have any pictures of that but Uncle Shawn got some so I will add them when I get them. She did great opening, occasionally saying thank you! She was on a roll until she opened a Veggie Tales movie and wanted to watch it NOW! We managed to divert with telling her to look under the present table for the present we got her...a Radio Flyer tricycle. It worked, I hid the DVD and we were good! She was a very spoiled little girl and got tons of nice gifts!

One of the last gifts was a University of Texas cheerleader outfit and as soon as she opened it she insisted to put it on and starting to take off her dress. So, she got naked, changed clothes in the middle of her party. I can't wait to get those pictures and show her when she is older! It was super funny and I loved it! Such a Peyton move! I want this on now and I don't care how it will happen!

We had a wonderful party and a wonderful birthday! I am so thankful that God blessed us with the opportunity to be parents to this precious little girl. I continue to pray for wisdom and guidance to help raise her into the woman that God has destined her to be and so excited to see what this year has in store and see her grow into the role of Big Sister! Peyton, we love you so much and hope you had a wonderful birthday!

As you can see, we had one very tired birthday girl afterwards! We let her watch her new Veggie Tales movie while we cleaned up so she could start to unwind for nap time then the whole family had nap time, watched the Texas game and just relaxed and played with our new toys!

Happy Birthday Peyton Pumpkin!

Our Cupcake's First Birthday Party

We celebrated Peyton's birthday party a week later due to the holiday weekend and it was so much fun. I have been planning a cupcake themed party for months (mostly due to my trip to Canada and wanting to stay ahead) and it came out just like I wanted.

It was so much fun to celebrate Peyton's big day with our friends and family. We are so blessed to have such great relationships here and this year has been such an amazing year due to their support, prayer and encouragement.

Here are some pictures from the big day and you can check out more here! I didn't upload ones with people in it because it was taking too long so check out the other ones!

I looked everywhere for invitations and couldn't find something I loved so I ended up making them myself and liked how they turned out!

A couple of days before the party we took Peyton to the park to take some portraits of her in her outfit. I ordered this tutu and personalized onesie off of Etsy from the Pampered Little Princess Boutique. It was really nicely made and you can completely customize it to your colors etc!

I ordered the bloomers off of Etsy as well but the person I ordered it from no longer has an account but you can find tons of cute diaper covers on Etsy. She also made the personalized bib for her to wear when eating her cupcake!

Here is the party girl looking to see if her friends have arrived yet! Isn't she so cute on her tip-toes! Here are pictures of all the decorations I made hanging up around the house and on the chandelier as well as the favors.

Here is the door sign I made from a cupcake template I found online and then had John enlarge on the copier for me. I used two different card stocks and scrapbook sticker letters.

This was the inspiration for the color purple for the party. I found this cupcake fabric for the tablecloth and needed some complementary fabric to make it big enough so we went with purple and so everything was purple. This was my first sewing project ever too and I am happy it turned out!

I decorated the cupcake stand with various pieces of purple card stock and ribbon to dress it up more.


I ordered the name banner from Whimzy Creations also on Etsy and she was so easy to work with and turned it around super cute. You can order Happy Birthday ones as well but I liked this one so we could use it other times for her!

Here is the table with all of the food....veggies, fruit, chicken salad with cupcake shaped bread, chicken nuggets and also Red Velvet cake balls.

Here is a close up of the cake balls. I got this idea from Bakerella . Hers are a whole lot nicer but I was having some problems with the whole process so my friend Diane came over the night before the party and helped me figure out a solution. So, we made them more by hand instead of doing the cookie cutter method and then put them in little cupcake wrappers. They turned out great thanks to Diane's help. I did follow Bakerella's recipe though!

Here are the cupcakes! My friend Lindsey iced all of them for me which was amazing! I got the little cupcake picks off of Etsy again from Orange1 who did a great job and you can again customize it however you want. I got some that said "Peyton," "Happy Birthday," and
"One." A nice way to dress up your cupcakes!As I am sure most kids do...Peyton was not a fan of all the excitement and attention!

But she did love the cupcake and frosting!

We ended the day with lots of presents and one very tired cupcake!

I was featured on Creative Parties and Showers!!!!

As you can tell, I have been in a blogging slump lately. Partly because I have been sick and also because I feel like nothing exciting has been going on.

Anyways....remember that Canada Day party (which by the way will be even bigger and better in 2010 given the amount of Canada gear I picked up this summer on our trip)...well, I submitted it to Creative Parties and Showers, an amazing website with tons of great ideas and awesome parties. I honestly didn't think it would be featured since it was my first party to submit but guess what.......IT WAS FEATURED TODAY! So Cool! Check it out here!

Definitely a way to kick you out of your blogging slump and help you smile when you are checking email at 4 AM because your munchkin won't sleep.

Stay tuned for details on Peyton's first birthday party coming soon....