Saturday, December 13, 2014

First Annual Christmas Cookie Decorating Party

Every other year, around Christmas time, the kids and I host a little cookie decorating party. It's always been a small thing - Sadie would invite a couple of her friends over and the mama's and I would hang out and help the kids decorate their cookies.

This year, Mike and I talked and thought that we should make this cookie decorating party an annual thing. And so, it was official, our first annual Christmas cookie decorating party. We invited kids from Sadie's class, our neighbors and family friends. The kids had a blast and I'm so happy with how everything turned out.

Our invitation.

The spread.

Hot Chocolate Bar - I made hot chocolate in the crock pot and laid out cookies, candy canes, marshmallows, chocolate chips, sprinkles and you can't forget - after eights. And of course, with hot chocolate, you have to have whipped cream.


With brunch came a Mimosa bar. You should have seen me standing in the liquor store walking around texting on my phone, with no clue of what champagne to buy.  Thank you bestie for helping me out haha.


The cookies. 

And the kids decorating. I figured I'd separate the older kids from the younger ones. Although, still goofy as the young ones, they definitely had their cookie decorating game faces on.


The youngin's at their table.





My little man. He wasn't really interested in decorating and was more interested in the sprinkles. Yes, he ate all that and loved every second of it.

My girlfriend jenny and her little babe. Thanks for your help during this party, mama! xo





A great turn out and more memories made. And lastly, we also encouraged those who were coming to bring a non-perishable food donation for our local food bank. The kids were able to put together five full bags of non-perishables and I couldn't be more proud and happy of the outcome. It isn't too late, don't forget to donate food, unwrapped toys or cash to food banks and toy drives in your community. Let's help make the holidays memorable to not only our friends and family but to those in need as well.









Monday, December 1, 2014

a Frozen birthday party

This past weekend, we had our oldest baby girl turn six! That's right, S I X! And even though she has grown so much, she is still the same - always happy, has so much imagination, such a little performer whether it be dancing, singing or acting, always a princess, and still jumping off anything and everything!

With this fun loving new six year-old, came a party. A Frozen party to be exact. She had asked for a Frozen birthday party since the movie came out. She literally reminded me every month after the movie came out, that she was to have a Frozen birthday party and I wasn't supposed to forget - It was hard not to.

So after months and months and months of her patiently waiting for her birthday to come and having that constant reminder of what kind of party she was going to have, the day finally came! She was so excited when November came. She would ask what games we were going to play, what we were going to eat, who she was going to invite. She was definitely mommy's little helper.

So here it is, a Frozen birthday party for Queen Sadie...

 We made hot chocolate packages for the girls once the party was done. They absolutely loved it - I mean, who doesn't love hot chocolate with tons of marshmallows ;)

 Pin the nose on Olaf. One of the games for the girls to play. I am the worst at drawing and it took me a half hour to draw this out. The girls knew who he was and that's all that mattered to me haha

If you know me, I'm a huge procrastinator - so bad! I left Sadie's cake last minute and didn't do any of the baking until 3 hours before the party. I'm grateful and so happy that everything turned out. Sadie loved her cake and couldn't stop laughing at the fact that a toy Elsa was on the cake! She thought it was the funniest thing she's ever seen! lol

mini cupcakes and fruit cups


The girls each had their own crown and skirt to dress up in. 

The birthday girl with her bff, Saige. 

 Playin "pin the nose on Olaf". The girls had so much fun with this game.


 Later, they played "do you want to build a snowman?". They ended up looking like mummies but a carrot nose and buttons helped make them look more like snowmen haha



 This was the game that they kept playing and playing. It was so nice to see all the girls taking turns and helping each other out.

 And once everyone was done "building" snowmen, they ripped all the toilet paper apart and had a toilet paper fight. It was everywhere! We later played a game of "who can put the most toilet paper in the recycling box". They had tons of fun playing this game, too. haha!

 We then played "stomp the snowball". I tied a ribbon that was attached to a white balloon to their ankles and had the girls try to stomp each others "snowballs" while protecting theirs.

 After games, the girls took a little kinder break. They ate and opened their kinder surprise eggs and played with their fairies that came with the egg.






We then sang, "happy birthday" to the birthday girl, had some cake, opened presents and watched Frozen.

Sadie loved everything about the party and couldn't stop thanking me for throwing her the best birthday party she's ever had! It put the biggest smile on my face seeing her have so much fun with her friends and seeing her so happy after the fact. An exhausting weekend but all worth it in the end. 






Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Monday, November 17, 2014

Birthday Boy!

November happens to be a very busy month for this fam jam.

Fun fact : out of the 5 of us, 3 have birthdays in November - Declan (9th), Myself (28th) & Sadie (29th) ;)

Last week, we celebrated little man's birthday. He turned 2! He is my strong-willed, crazy, fun-loving boy.

These are a few of Declan's favorite things, at the moment -

Favorite breakfast - toast with scrambled eggs
Favorite food - apple sauce
Favorite treat - chocolate chip cookies
Favorite song - Happy by Pharrell Williams from the movie Despicable Me
Favorite movie - Disney's Tangled, especially this part
Favorite toy - anything on wheels
Favorite phrase - gasps, "oh no!"
Favorite book - Color Book
Favorite thing to play with - crayons or measuring cups
Favorite shoes - his 'Cars' crocs
Favorite time of day - bath time

We had planned to spend the day at the Telus Spark Science Center for his birthday but it snowed over night and all morning.  With one bad tire, slippery roads and the Science Center almost 40 minutes away, we decided to save it for another day.


The girls wanted to help out with the cake. I baked Declan's cake while the kids were in bed so I let the girls draw on the cake when they woke up. They had so much fun drawing pictures for their brother.



Pictures for the birthday boy from his big sissy's and balloons - we love balloons!
 


We were unsure of what to get the birthday boy this year. We decided to get him this Imaginarium Train set/table a few days before his birthday. We were a bit iffy about buying the table because we thought all the pieces would end up in different places of the house and that we'd lose most of the trains. I can happily say that after a week of having it, the tracks are all still together, no pieces missing and the kids actually play with it. I decided not to put it in Declan's room just yet because the main floor is where the kids normally hang out most of the time. They still play with it for most of the day which is nice.






My sis-in-law made this tipi for Declan. She made it the day of! Can you believe it? It's super cute and the kids love it. We are so lucky to have such a talented sister/auntie. She really can make anything and she is an amazing cook/baker. If she ever invites you over for a cooked meal, say yes! I promise you will never be dissappointed :)

August, this cutie celebrated with the birthday boy. He had fun playing (or should I say, sucking) on all the trains, tracks and the little people that came with the set. Such a cutie. If you have Instagram, you need to follow him - @hi_my_name_is_August













 When it was time to sing "happy birthday" to the birthday boy, he had all eyes on the little rainbow balls that outlined the cake. As you can see, most of it is gone because he was eating it throughout the day with his sisters. When we finished singing to him, his mouth was full, if he tried blowing out the candles, he'd be spitting out marshmallow fondant, so his sisters helped and blew out the candles for him.

Declan's birthday cake - I baked him a rainbow cake with vanilla buttercream and marshmallow fondant. It didn't turn out the greatest, I had used tons of icing trying to keep the cake together because I had made the layers too thin. It was so easy to make it tho, so I definitely plan on making another in the future for another birthday. 





 And last but not least, a little video of his day. Enjoy :)