Showing posts with label Baby M. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baby M. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Costumes and Pizza and Sweets, Oh My!

We didn't want to 'celebrate' Halloween this year by trick or treating, decorating, or anything of that sort, but I do love costumes so very much!  My daughter had 'costume day' on the 31st at her school, and wanted so badly to be Mary Poppins... in the white dress... which she decided a week before she needed the costume.  I said there was no way I'd be able to do it if I didn't have a dress to modify... and I didn't.  So, she said she wanted to be Alice in Wonderland.  That I could do!  I was fairly certain we had a blue dress for her that she wore during the summer, and so on Saturday, I sewed the apron from some scraps of white fabric I happened to have on hand.
 
Turns out that the blue dress was FAR too small. 
 
Out came some old blue fabric that has been sitting in my fabric drawer for over 10 years, and I sewed a circle skirt on Sunday out of that.  Nice thing was that it didn't need hemming.  That fabric was perfect for the job!  And the skirt will work for so many other costumes my little girls are going to want to wear eventually (Ariel's blue dress, Belle's blue dress, Anna's blue skirt...).
 
Monday I sewed the 'shirt' portion of the dress, and found a black ribbon in my scraps which became the headpiece.  M was thrilled!  Here she is, modelling the costume with A by her side.
 

Friday morning, all ready for school, we took some 'tea party' pictures with the white rabbit she brought with her... as part of her costume of course.



I absolutely adore how it turned out!  And I was able to borrow a few petticoat type skirts for under the skirt.  I only found out later (after school) that I should have pinned the skirt to the shirt, as the fabric is so slick that it kept sliding down while she was in school (probably due to how she sits down, actually.  Been trying to teach her to sit instead of slide into her seat).  But she is so cute!


We had some grocery shopping to do, as well as hair cuts, so we grabbed some costumes for our younger two while our oldest was in school, and off we went to town.  A garnered quite the attention while running around as a little pony all over the grocery store.


Our evening consisted of watching Lady and the Tramp while noshing on homemade pizza, and other sweet treats I made myself.  No bake Snack Bars (they taste a lot like Eatmore bars... but next time I'll add more cocoa and less dates), pumpkin fudge (another one without sugar... they need to stay in the fridge/freezer), Caramel corn, and pumpkin rice krispie squares (the pumpkin in the squares makes the rice krispies a little soggy in texture, though.  The flavor was wonderful!).  The caramel corn is such a hit in our house, I may need to start making a double batch.  I think we ate half of it before the movie!  It was gone by the next day.  The other treats are still around, although the rice krispie square only has about 3 pieces left (probably gone by the end of today) and the other two are in the freezer (they needed a food processor, and while I was making the first one, the processor broke and wouldn't work anymore.  So... the texture isn't as good as it should be.  They still taste great, though, and my arms got a workout in chopping and mashing dates and nuts).


And here is our little cutie with a bag of chips she got from grandma and grandpa.  They came over earlier in their costumes.  They had quite the adventure going to their grandkids houses that weren't trick or treating and then later to the store.  Makes me want to dress up for fun again.  Not easy to do with my giant belly, haha.


We do love treats!  Especially since mommy rarely buys any of these things.  At all.
 
Hope you all had a fantastic October!  November is upon us... and with that are thoughts of CHRISTMAS!

Monday, September 22, 2014

Under the Sea

This year, M wanted an Ariel birthday party.  I decided to do an under the sea theme with Ariel added in wherever I could (using whatever we had in the house, or whatever I could make).  She absolutely loved it, and I'm pretty excited with how it turned out as well. 
 
As a warning, this post is going to be photolicious!  Seriously.  Lots of pics here.
 
 Made her a special party hat for the occasion.
 
All decked out as 'Ariel'. 

 We had a treat for lunch... fish, and mac n cheese goldfish.
 
 I reused a bunch of older handmade decorations so I didn't have as much work to do for decorating.  The clouds and pom poms are from Baby A's first birthday, and the raindrops are from my sister's baby shower.  Scrap fabrics are great for other bits and pieces... like Ariel's rock.  Also... toys.  I used all of M's Ariel type toys in the setup.  She was happy to get them for me.

 And now for some of the food...
 I attempted to make the popcorn pink without making it 'sweet', but it didn't turn out quite as hoped.
 Ariel in a jar... you can see the main cake as well.  LOVED how that ended up!
 Blue jello with gummy fish inside.  The fish tasted weird in the jello, but it was a fun experiment.
 
 Some décor, again reusing a few pieces from previous birthdays. 



 I seriously LOVE these oyster cookies!  I wanted to go cheater on this and just buy some round cookies and put icing and yogurt raisins in them, but I couldn't find any cookies that would work besides the ones that already have icing inside them... but I wanted pink icing, not white.  So, I made spritz cookies as pumpkins and used those instead.  More work for me, but those are some TASTY cookies!

 M loves all the foods... and was very intrigued by the 'goldfish bowls'.  Funny thing, I made only 10 (same number as I did for A's 1st birthday rainbow jello cups) and while last time I had jello cups left over, this time they were gone within 10 minutes.
 



As an added bonus....

We had a surprise for everyone.  We found out what our baby gender is this time, and I decided to leave a 'clue' inside the cake.  So, since all the décor was blue (sea) and pink (coral) already, I told everyone to check the inside of the cake for the icing color that would tell them the gender of the baby...
 It's going to be a GIRL.
 
This is the punch.  I love bulk barn as it was the only place I could find blue powdered juice crystals.
 
 
 
 

Opening presents.
 
 We had a lot of people in our house.  I need to seriously consider inviting less people next time as I get overwhelmed quickly by it all!  I love having everyone over, though!  Such a dilemma.

Time to blow out those candles!  :)
 
M had a great time, and she just loved everything!  She makes decorating all these things for birthdays so much fun and so rewarding.  I love how excited she gets!  We leave a few of the decorations up for awhile after the party is over, but not many. 

As for that cake... it was GONE!  ;)
 
Happy birthday, my little M!  I cannot believe you are 6 already!
You have such a giving heart, and I love watching you grow and learn!  People are your passion and you just thrive being around people.  You are gentle in spirit, giving me hugs when you can see I'm upset, and you notice even the littlest of things, commenting politely about them and making those around you feel all the more special for you noticing (like new glasses, new haircuts, furniture that has been moved...).  I am looking forward to watching and learning more from you as the years go by... but don't let them go by too quickly, please!  You seem to be growing so fast and I just cannot understand where the time has gone to!  I love you, M! 
 


Friday, August 15, 2014

Birthday Party Catchups

 So I noticed that I haven't kept up with all the kiddos birthdays!  Yikes!  Anyway, here is a photo post of the parties I missed!

Bram turns 1 year
 Cookie and cake together!  Mmmmm.
 
 Pressies!
 
He LOVED his cake.  We did not get nearly as awesome 1st year cake pics with the girls.  ;)
 
 
M's 3rd (and her daddy's 33rd) Birthday
We had a combo Hello Kitty and Transformers birthday.  Made a kitty and an Optimus out of fondant.
 


 
Bram's Second Birthday

 He loves Mickey's Clubhouse.  So, I made a cake! 
 
 These little figures were part of his gift.  He still just adores these things!  He plays with them constantly!
 
 He just adored his cake.  Adored it!  He stood there and stared at it!
 


M's 4th Birthday
 She chose to do Minnie Mouse... actually, I think she was hoping for some figures of her own.  ;)
 
 We chose to keep it to one family coming over this time.  Made it so much easier on me.  And it was great.  The cupcakes were a hit.
 

 She just loved her Minnie cake.  Dressed as Minnie Mouse slightly as well.


Bram's 3rd Birthday
 Some of the 'cars' snacks.
 
The cake.  And the 'Rusteze' pop. 

He loved it!
 

Happy birthday, little man!
 
Bram's 4th Birthday
 He wanted Angry Birds this time.
 
So much fun!
 
 
It just amazes me how time is flying by!
 


Friday, September 20, 2013

A Fairy Party

My little girl turned 5 today.
 
We decided to do a fairy party for her birthday.  Through the last number of weeks I've been sewing, buying Dollarama items for decorations, baking, paper crafting, the works.
 
 
 For each girl, a set of wings and a tutu.
 
Total cost... $13 for 6 tutus and 5 sets of wings.  And a lot of sewing. 

So, in addition to the craft (which I have zero pics of... oops), this is what each girl gets.  The invite with the butterfly, and then the matching tutu and wings.
 
 
 
I volunteered to send mini cupcakes to school with M.  She's in kindergarten, can you believe it?  Anyway, they needed 20 for in school, so I made 4 dozen.  And decorated them.  All.  Plus the cake.  That took 3 hours! 


I love how they turned out!

 Here is the craft table, and M's first birthday gift... a Tinkerbell costume!
 
I printed a number of fairy papers for the girls to color, and inside the egg is 6 baggies which contain the materials to make wands, including stickers, gems, foam flowers I cut out, and an envelope with tattoos.   

We used the jolly jumper to hang the tutus and wings.  Just removed the spring.  I think it turned out beautifully. 

 And now... the fairy grotto!  I hid the room from immediate view using a tablecloth as a door.  I love how it all turned out!  It looked like a disaster only 30 minutes earlier!
 
I used the kids play tent and covered it in a shower curtain I already had, then a bunch of my fake flowers.  Blankets and sheets covered the computer and bookshelves. 

The birthday banner! 

The cake and cupcakes!  And the Spritz cookies.  I am addicted to those things! 



The table is my husband's parents.  It is beautiful!  I love it so much, and was so glad they let me borrow it for the party!  The lemonade has berries in ice cubes for cooling!  It ended up turning into pink lemonade as they melted. 


I created a waterfall and fairy pool.  Oh, and those mushrooms?  They light up and change color! 
 
 The waterfall bookcase.
 
 The tea party table setting.  I used some of my china, and my mom borrowed me some of hers.  I loved how this worked out!
 

 Tea time!
 

 Pin the wings on the fairy.
 


 Some other décor.
 
 We forgot to blow out candles... parents were arriving as we were doing the craft (oops... 2 hours wasn't enough time apparently).  So, I never got pics of their fairy wands.  I loved seeing their creativity, though!  Bram joined in on the fun at that point as well.
 
 We had our own little party in the grotto later.  A is 'sitting' on a chair in the spare costume.
 

 Happy Birthday, M!
 
I hope you had a magical birthday! 

 I still can hardly believe that 5 years ago, life changed for us forever... you entered our lives, and I wouldn't change it for the world!
 
 
Here are a few fun shots later that evening.
 Baby A loves the lights!
 

 
Total cost- less than $80 including the present!
 
food - I'll say $10 as all we really needed to buy was berries and pretzels, didn't nearly use them all, and the cost of the rest of the food is negligible.
décor - 5 mushrooms, $2 each.  2 mossy squares $2 each.  Acrylic acorns $2.  Fake plants $5.  Fabric, sheer curtains, tablecloths, streamers (which I didn't have time to use), $7(plus some borrowed). 
Easter grass - bought ages ago for dirt cheap (I think it was 10cents/bag... I had 6). <$1
Banner - used what I had 
Fairies - had them already.
craft - $3 (with lots of leftover supplies)
kids costumes - $13
invites - used stuff I had on hand, and the boxes those mushrooms came in.  Free.
M's costume and birthday gift - $25