Valentine's Day

So, we planned this whole big date night for Valentine's Day with the kids going to Parent's Night Out at Bethany.

Guess what....Jason had class that night. 

So, instead we had a nice family dinner at home the night before.  NOT fancy by any means.

Red beans and rice that they kids like, and garlic shrimp for Mom and Dad.   Super yummy.

Then we opened a box we got in the mail that day.  SURPRISE!

Nana sent a cookie bouquet.

 

 

Goofy out of focus picture... but the kids were funny. 

 

On Valentines Day, the kids had Happy Meals from McDonalds, and I had a frozen burrito.  Before you feel bad, I was by myself at home.  Did I mention I was by myself - alone?  Despite it being VD, this was not a bad thing, as I rarely get time at home alone. ;)

 

 

I guess we'll try again next year.

Kaitlyn's First Slumber Party

So, in keeping with Kaitlyn's never ending birthday celebration, we had some of her friends over for a birthday slumber party.  I have to say, Pinterest is awesome for finding great ideas to use.

Dining room table was set as a bed.  I got the slumber dolls from Oriental Trading, and they were a big hit with the girls.

 

The bags are their gift bags, also from Oriental Trading.  Inside, they each got a book, Nancy Drew and The  Clue Crew: Sleepover Sleuths, Skittles, some stickers and a lip gloss. 

 

Her cupcakes were a tie-dye-ish frosting with zebra print hearts cut from sugar paper.

 

 



 

Outside, it was a little more "glam".  I had hair extension clips for the girls for the "Dance Party".

 

 

We had a sundae bar to go with the cupcakes. 

 

 

The girls had fun with their dolls while they watched Secret of the Wings.  I had a lot of the star LED tea lights scattered all over.  I got 6 packs for $.60 at Big Lots on clearance, and I had them everyway.  They were great to guide the way to the bathroom and my room at night in case they needed anything.  They did keep collecting them to dance around with.

 

There were five girls total  (and one boy for a while) at the party, but only four (including) Kaitlyn were sleeping over.  That was a great number, and I would have been hard pressed to find room for more.  We would have had some arguments over the couch.  They finally went to sleep around 10 which was pretty good, and they slept until 6:30.

 

 

We had eaten pizza outside the night before, but with only four, we ate breakfast inside.

 

Watermelon and cantaloupe flowers, hard boiled eggs, tater tots, and two doughnut holes.

 

I saw the drink idea on Pinterest.  That was great because I could prep them all the night before.  I had strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla magic straws to encourage milk drinking.  For dinner, they had lemonade in the jars, and I had colored heart ice cubes that they added in.  It made the lemonade change color as they melted, and they thought that was cool.

 

Overall, it went great, and the girls had a great time. 



 



Kaitlyn's Cake

After a very busy holiday vacation, we finished up with Disney Princesses on Ice.  Nana was coming with us, so Grampa, Daddy and Connor had a football-boys day, and we had a girls day out.

We decided to celebrate Kaitlyn's birthday that day as well (third celebration - second with grandparents) and I made her cake.  She designed it, picked the colors and the flavors.

Without further ado...

Strawberry cake made purple.

Vanilla Cream Cheese frosting tinted teal.

Final product

Note the tie dye swirl - my idea :)

Inside the cake.  I had two strawberry jam layers to make it more moist.

She loved it!!

Welcome to the winter wonderland!

Saturday was Connor's Winter Wonderland party.

8 children, 9 adults. 

The weather cooperated as it was sunny and clear through the first part of the party, and only then did it get a bit cloudy.

Staked balloons in the yard.  Kids loved this, but 30 minutes in, and at least of the third of the balloons were gone.  The 2 year old from next door had a lot of fun pulling them out and letting them go, until Connor got upset.

 

Mostly white (ok, off-white) food.  Cheddar corn puffs, peeled apple slices, yogurt covered pretzels, white fudge covered oreos, vanilla meringues, Monterrey jack cheese and crackers, kettle corn and white chocolate Bliss candies.  I did have Bacon/crackers for the adults.   

Connor and his cake.  The goody bags were pretty cool too.  They each had an arctic friend stuffed animal (polar bear, penguin or otter), a arctic friend ball, a peppermint tootsie pop, and four finger lights.  If you have not seen those lights yet, check them out.  The kids loved them. 
Amazon finger lights

Pin the hat on the Polar Bear.  I had 2 heats - one for 5-6 year olds, one for 3 and under.  Each kid won a prize, but the winners got to pick first. 

Favorites were the pooping polar bear and the grow your own polar bear.



 

 

Final images of the cake - note the shadows of the fish in the water.  Ha Ha.  I loved this cake and it was super fun to make.

 

Connor had fun at his party, and now Kaitlyn wants a winter wonderland themed party as well. 

Polar Bear Party

I am choosing to ignore the fact I haven't posted for 5 whole months, and am just movin' on.

Connor's birthday is coming up, and since it is during the holiday, we are embracing the season and having a Polar Bear (Arctic friend) Party.

I started working on the cake, and I think it is coming out cute despite my husbands pointing out the non-snowy whiteness of the bears.

I think they are cute!  They are made from tootsie rolls.  Dollar tree had big vanilla ones.  They aren't as white as the vanilla midgees, but I think they are fine.  The little one got fatter and more "slumpier" as he cooled, but oh well.

Their igloo.  Hope it holds together when I transfer it to the cake.

Now, I just nee to create the jello pond, and then put it all together.

We will be playing a toss the snowball game, pin the hat on the polar bear, and maybe one more game, but I might just let them play.

Menu is all white - kettle popcorn, Monterey jack cheese bites, vanilla meringues, white chocolate covered oreos, apple slices, crackers and yogurt covered pretzels.  I might do pizza since we will need to eat before we head out to the boat parade, but we'll see.

8 maybe 9 kids are coming.  Can't wait.

Gingerbread

Just a quick post here.

We decorated Gingerbread houses with/for the kids.  This went slightly better than the pumpkin carving where Monica and I did 90% of the work.  Here they did about 40%, but mostly they ate the candy. 

Trying to back post, so we'll see if it works.

We had a halloween party for the kids before they went trick-or-treating.

Mummy Hotdogs, Halloween chips

Cheese Broomsticks, banana ghosts, kiwi frankensteins

Pumpkin and ghost pizza

 

Those kooky kids.  Kaitlyn was a Black ballarina bat.  Connor was Spiderman.  You can't see Buzz very well, and of course, the Cat in the Hat with Thing 1 and Thing 2 and the fish not in the photo.