A Dolly and Me Tea Party!

Let me just start off by saying that this is a looong post!  But I couldn't resist 

documenting all the fun!

My friend has taught me this fun decorating tradition which we have done since Cole was 2.  The night before the kids birthday, after they fall asleep, we sneak in their room and decorate it with balloons, banners, and streamers!  All stocked and supplied from the dollar store.  The kids just LOVE waking up to INSTANT birthday!  

I always like to let the kids open their presents right after they wake up!  It just starts the day off right!  It's fun to have that moment separate from friends.  Sadie has wanted an American Girl doll for a year now and devourers every magazine that arrives to shreds until the next one comes.  I've always been hesitant to get her one but finally, her wish came true!

She loved meeting Chrissa!  She looks so much like Sadie!

A little Tea Pot invitation.  It was so fun to make!  I sewed the paper together.  When you pull on the lid the invitation slides out. 

 It read:

You and your favorite Dolly are invited to attend,

Sadie's 4th Birthday coming up next weekend!

Wear your favorite dress,

So you can feel like a little princess!

We're celebrating with a Tea Party and lace,

At Sadie's home on xxxx xxxxxxxx Place.

Saturday March 21st is the date,

Please be there at 12:00 don't be late!

R.S.V.P. Amy @ xxxxxxxx

I made this giant S to hang on the door for the day.  And these cute felt purses I used for party favor bags I found at Target in the dollar section!  Love that place!  They were filled with Sadie's favorites. Chocolate candy, lip gloss, rings, candy necklace, ring pop, a barret, a glittered pencil and a party tiara.

This is Sadie's Easter dress that I made.  I thought it would be perfect for her birthday too.  I also made a matching one for Chrissa.  They looked so cute together! 

The friends arrived!  And the party began!

Olivia, Sadie, Elle, Kate and Maddie (not pictured)

We started off by making pink bracelets for the girls.

A very quiet task.

Isn't that pink bracelet cute?

Of course we HAD to make one for their dolls too!  

Time for tea!  I was so nervous to use real china so I found the clear tea cups at Zurchers.  

They looked cute filled up with pink lemonade!

We ate PB&J's, Strawberries, Pineapple, Grapes, and Carrots.  

All Sadie's favorites.

And these cute little flower cookies that I bought at the store and stuck some 

pastel M&M's on with frosting. 

 I LOVE that Sadie's birthday is on the first day of spring!

The dolls were just enjoying this beautiful spring day sipping tea and nibbling on their cookies while admiring their new beautiful bracelets!

I felt like a photographer for the American Girl magazine setting this all up!  That would be way too fun!  I will say that taking pictures and hosting a party is a lot of work!  

So please excuse any poor pics.  I was busy!

Opening presents.  I love how cute Chrissa looks sitting next to Sadie!

The cake!  Sadie REALLY wanted a Tea Pot cake!  I bake two bowls of cake and suck them together to make it's nice round shape.  Then I cut the spout and handle out of a pink foam craft sheet.  

I made tea cup cupcakes for the girls.  So fun!  I borrowed my SIL's big cupcake pan and cut off the tops and frosted them with chocolate and the edges pink.  Not that hard.  Really.  And I used the same foam paper for the handles too.

LOVED the way they turned out!  I wish I could freeze dry one! ;)

The moment Sadie has been waiting for FOREVER!  

"When will I ever be four!?!", she would say.

It took quite a few huffs and puffs for her little frame to blow out the candles!  

Here is her last BIG effort!

Let me just say that Sadie just

her American Girl doll.  I have MANY pictures of her mauling it all day!  She is constantly telling me how much she loves her and includes her on everything.  It is so cute!  I don't think I've seen her play with any of her toys this much.  It is so reassuring!  Don't let the 8+ on the box scare you.  If your daughter likes dolls, she'd love one of these dolls.  I think American Girl uses that as a marketing scheme to get parents to buy more.  First babies, then twins, then finally the big dolls!  I'm on to their little game!

Sadie was SO excited to take Chrissa out to dinner with us to eat 

"mashed potatoes at a restaurant."  She loves mashed potatoes!

Sadie insisted that I wear a dress to the party!  "No jammies or jeans mommy!"  After all is was a tea party!  A very fun tea party!  She just frolicked all day in her little dress.  She was the HAPPIEST girl on the planet!  She felt special all day and it showed!

I LOVE you Sadie!  I feel so lucky!  You are one special little big girl!

She's Four Today!

Today is my little girls 4th birthday!  I can't believe she is growing up so fast!

We are having a dolly and me tea party this afternoon!  I can't wait! I'll have to post details later!  

We love you Sadie!  We are so lucky to experience life with you!  You are a PURE delight!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Brace yourself!

Last week Cole and I had a little discussion.  He started out by saying how he was "a little jealous(shy) to tell me"  that he's "falling in love."  HELLO!  This is my soon to be six year old we are talking about!  Isn't he a little bit young for all this?

Where did he come up with this"falling in love" stuff?  It's totally obvious he has a little sister who is constantly dreaming of Princes and falling in love!

Her name is Sasha. She's not even in his same class!  She's in Kindergarten though.  Feew! He just sees her at recess sometimes and plays chase with her and her friends.  I've heard about these girls that Cole and Peter try to run away from this whole year.  

But oh have things escalated!

 

Cole LOVES to talk about Sasha and today he decided to make her a heart out of Peerler Beads.  He kept it in his pocket so he could give it to her when he saw her.  And when he gave it to her she gasped!  How appropriate that he's wearing his "Dad's lil' Dare Devil" shirt.  

I do not know how to handle all these changes!  From constant wresting and karate fighting(having minor battle wounds) with the big neighbor boys to falling in love is all too much for me to handle!  Where are the reins so I can slow this down a little?

He asked me if he could have Sasha over for a play date.  Can boys have girls over for play dates?(he asked me to look that question up on the computer LOL)  I know I did as a child.  My best friend was a boy.  Oh what to do!!  

Even though I'm totally not ready for all this, I'm trying to play things all cool, calm and collected.  There is a small part of me that thinks this whole thing is cute.  But still, I'd like to wait for all this to happen in another 10+ years!

St. Patrick's Day 2009!

This was my first year that I really did something for St. Patrick's Day!  The kids were so into it and talking about it, I couldn't let it slip by!  It was 11:58 as we were running out the door to school and we hadn't seen any sign of that Leprechaun! (probably because the Leprechaun stayed up to late the night before sewing and had forgotten to plan anything for breakfast.)  

Cole wanted to quickly sent a trap for him.  The conversation went a little like this:

M: How can we set a trap?  We have no time!

C:  We need to hide gold for him!

M: We don't have any gold!

C:  I know!  The Golden Plates!!!

 (something Cole is just obsessed with! GOLD!  He found these plates at my parents house and

 doesn't want to return them anytime soon.)

So we quickly set a trap to try to catch that Leprechaun while the kids were at school and Mom was out running errands.  

And to our disappointment, we didn't catch him!

But he sure messed up everything in our house!!  That darn Leprechaun!  My gym shoe was hanging on my my guitar, pillows in my chandelier!!  Messes, messes, messes!  Sadie did not know what to make of it all!

After observing all that he had done, she sat on the couch and just started to worry about it all!  And the GOLDEN PLATES!  Oh if I could post every expression on her face as she went through her emotions!  

This was just before she had her mini melt down saying "Grandpa is going to be so mad that the leprechaun took our Golden Plates!!!"  Worried little girl!  

Luckily he hid them next to the kids "pot of gold"

And that made her much happier!

My attempt to get a picture of the girls in their cute St. Patty's attire.  Notice the fabric?  I was inspired by my blog paper...just hours before St. Patrick's Day.  Why do I do this to myself?  I couldn't get it out of my head!

Cute enough to wear all summer! ;)  It was so warm!  I should of taken MaryJane's long sleeve undershirt off.  The dress is so much cuter without it!

I had to post these frame by frame pics of MaryJane showing off her cute personality!  For some reason she thought she was so funny!

It was a ruff day for poor little Sadie!  When I picked her up at preschool her teacher told me that Sadie said the quote of the year!  After they had their Leprechaun hunt her teacher served them green juice and green rice crispy treats.  Sadie burst into tears and cried "I don't want to eat or drink one more green thing ever again!!!!"  Oh my picky little eater.  Thanks to the book Pinkalicous, Sadie now hates to eat anything green!  She was so relieved when she came home and found our food in the fridge not all green!

I had no idea how fun today was going to be!  I'm now convinced of the fun this holiday brings!  It was so thrilling to watch the kids discover, learn, and devour all things St. Patrick's!

Hope you all had a great day too!!

p.s. Sadie calls four leaf clovers "Leffyclovie"  or shamrock if she thinks real hard.

7 Years!

So happy to be celebrating our 7th anniversary today!

Love you Kev!

Green...Really?

How does one decorate for St. Patricks Day?  Blah!  After all the cute pink and red that has adorned my house the last month, everything just seems so bare!  And now that Easter is FINALLY in April, for the first time I get to decorate for St. Patricks Day.  After not finding ANYTHING not cheesy to decorate with, I decided to make some green of my own.

And I've changed my mind now. Green is GREAT!

It first started with my green banner.  I had to have a cute banner!

Then using the leftover fabric, I made a little table runner.  And added some shinny green apples!

A little bit of green ribbon,

and a jar of bright green gumballs,

There you have it.  My St. Patty's decor! 

 All I need now is a CUTE glittered green shamrock.  Any ideas where I could get one of those?

Are you ready?

For Daylight Saving this weekend?  My kids have been waking up earlier now that the mornings have been a little lighter.  They usually sleep in between 8:30 and 9:30.  But lately they've been up just before 8!  I think their bodies are sensing a change coming.  

I just wish Daylight savings didn't exist!  Why can't they leave the time thing alone?  What do you think?  Do you like Daylight Savings?

I found this fun Daylight Savings Activity at Alpha Mom.  It was designed by Secret Agent Josephine  Can't wait to play it with the kids over the weekend.  Fun times ahead!

A Crown for Zach!

Sunday was my nephew Zach's birthday so I made him a crown!

To my surprise he wore it most of the evening!

It looked so cute oh him!  Happy Birthday Zachy!  Can't believe your 2!

It's called Grocery Smarts People!!

All my cousins have gotten me into this coupon/watching for the stores sales thing.  I've always been a little skeptical but the past few weeks have won me over!  Two weeks ago, I saved a big $60!  I've always thought you can't buy the "things you really eat" on sale.  But you can!  I do!  I wait for the things we like to go one sale and stock up!  My pantry is starting to look so full, I LOVE it!!

Albertsons was having a GREAT sale last week!  I got a sitter, my in-store paper ad, and shopping list and started my quest!  I know I'll get better and faster at this but the first few times takes a little time.  One hour and 10 minutes later, a chuck full shopping cart, MEGA anxiety(thinking I went way over board on $), and hot flashes,  I pulled into the checkout counter and loaded all my groceries.  

Nervously awaiting the total, I was totally surprised!

The Bill came to $103.00 ish

And I saved $113.00

Thats ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN DOLLARS!!!

I couldn't believe it!  I was on such a natural high!  The game has now heightened!  I'm starting to get addicted to searching for these great prices!  I mean , who knew I could get 3 gallons of milk for $5.00 or name brand cereals for .75 cents !!!  Now I'm gearing up for this week!  Wonder if I'll break my new record anytime soon!  We'll see...

p.s. I'm really sad to say goodbye to all my cute Valentine's stuff.  All that pink and red just brightened up my everything!