so giddy!!!

i am beyond excited too see the shower get soooo many features!! it's like Christmas morning!

here

my first feature!!!

i am so excited to see that heather's shower was featured today!!!

thanks kara!

budding artist...

have i mentioned that hazel LOVES to color!? a while back elijah decided to color--which was a rarity before this day, and hazel discovered her true joy!! she is obsessed...so much so that she gets a little carried away. {she is the first of the three to color on the wall...she created a very large piece of artwork, that seems to be there to stay!}

but apparently, the most important part of coloring is finding the right position...after trying several, the one below is her go-to position. oh, and from the looks of it we thing she may just be a lefty!

the little mermaid

She wants to be a mermaid...a REAL one!! I'm pretty certain that will never happen, but she does swim like one!
After a week of swimming lessons {she was sick the first one} she can now do the breaststroke, the backstroke, freestyle, and the elementary backstroke. {Not sure on the names, but there were 4} and she can float, dive, and swim the length of the pool.
Quite impressive, since she previously only swam underwater. Although, she may need to work on her dive form :)

THE shower!!

This is the most rewarding shower/party that I have ever planned! Not only did I think that it was sooo cute, but every idea that I had anticipated using, was! I have to admit that usually I run out of time and something is sacrificed, but not this time! I definitely can't take all the credit for the outcome...we only had about 45 minutes to set up and I had LOTS of helping hands!! THANK YOU!!I LOVED seeing all the adorable mini cake stands! {is is bad that i made my sister help make them?} I loved them all. It was impossible to choose a favorite! Each had a mini pound cake topped with powdered sugar and a strawberry. There were 3 different shapes of cakes.



Along with the cake stand, each place setting had a menu card that resembled the invite. Behind the trim was a menu with the 3 entree choices and a game card. The favors were fabric flower ponytail holders, which also served as the napkin ring.

The table runner was made from curtain panels that I found at a close-out store. The digging definitely paid-off the day that I found them--the contrast really made the cake stands pop!


Along with the cake stands, there were big colorful jars full of paper flowers!
And to add some fun to the gift table...a few white ruffles :)
I definitely wanted Heather's chair to have something cute on it, but could not decided what. Then I saw this idea in the new Martha Wedding magazine the night before. It was perfect!

Thanks to everyone for all of the help!! It was a lovely shower, and fun was had by all!

fabric invites

so when i mentioned wedding projects in the last post, i actually meant wedding shower projects. i have been waiting for this day for a long time:) i have been bookmarking the most fabulous party ideas in a folder with heather's name on it for years, but when the time actually came to throw this shindig, they just weren't fabulous enough!!! i mean i only have ONE sister, so it had to be amazing!
in keeping with my current obsession of fabric, buttons, and unexpected surprises...i KNEW that i wanted to do fabric envelopes--complete with a button closure and fabric-printed address labels that were sewn the front. my dilemma was coming up with an invitation that was just as cute! after googling it for a while, i came across this cute gift card holder...it was perfect!! and can i just say, that i want to be her sister too!?! she's amazing--i love it all!

a few tweaks, and these were born...
there were 4 little inserts with all the pertinent info behind the strip of trim/ribbon




every single one was different...it was sooo hard for me to choose a favorite! i wanted to take a picture of all 70. yes 70, see i'm crazy! but the day they had to be mailed turned crazy...

first the lady at the post office convinced me that they would never make it to the recipient without being severely damaged. she was not a fan of my cute buttons. she did not even say they were cute. instead she just gave me an ugly look and very short answers. she acted like she doesn't see me in there all. the. time. i could not bear to think of my weeks of work being destroyed, so i rushed home to make an "outer" envelope and cute envelope wraps.

while trying to package and photograph them, i recieved a call to help someone in need. totally cut into my picture-taking time, but so glad that i could help. so warning...the next few pictures are a little sketchy. they were taken in my lap, during the mad dash to the post office. {don't worry i wasn't driving!}they were just too cute to skip a picture.

let's just say, that i'm sooo glad i found a post office downtown that is open until 7:00! there was absouluetly no way i could have made the 4:30 closing time of the uptown office! did i mention that i even had the kids and orum helping trim strings and such!? oh, and then of course the lady at this post office said that the postage was different from the first. apparently, it was dependent on the weight of the button. yes, it was a crazy day!

the "outer" envelopes. if i were to do it again, i think i would have just sent them through! maybe i'll do a test one, just to see what would have happened! party pictures coming very soon...

i'm back!!!

but the mcdonalds are not:( My absence has been due to my sister's wedding projects and the fact that my internet-sharing neighbors moved {the jazz band of brothers that always practiced during nap time} The mcdonalds moved to idaho...sadness, but it also meant a party! lora kept saying no, but then she needed a babysitter. i said yes, but it was conditional... we HAD to have a party!! i won:) we sent them off in style with a crawfish boil!!

{lora and jessica}
{ryan and his dad...isn't the resemblance CRAZY!?!}

{the spread}
{the newbies getting brave...they did it and they loved it!|}

while we were waiting...we had a little crawfish race. the one above was the winner--it was renee's. the kids thought it was AWESOME! hazel was enthralled by them, but she wasn't alone.

tyler {below} loved them too!

Renee drew a winner's circle and a trophy for hers :) She chose the most active one...it kept going to the finish line towards the gate, but was unable to escape the pot!

Elijah preferred throwing things at them. I think his was the one that was smashed before it was all over!
Hazel found the stash of capri suns and then the crawfish were suddenly unimportant. and don't think we'd have a crawfish boil without matching clips!?! aren't they adorable!

orum assumed his summer role as cook...only this time he had an assistant. renee thought shucking corn was soooooo much fun! it looked like so much fun that soon ellie joined in.

the ridiculously long stand of bunting flags made another appearance!

and the babies kept themselves entertained and surprisingly happy in the sweltering heat that day!
these are obvioulsy out of order, but the kids LOVED seeing them all in the boxes! hazel loved them so much, that she kept trying to grab them, but not to worry she had PLENTY of help from her brother and sister to help her refrain.

all in all...such a fun time! ryan, lora, ellie, and parker we are so glad that you love your new home, but we still miss y'all!! see ya at mardi gras :)