Momma Said There'd Be Days Like This

This week, so far, has proven to be very interesting and at times trying with my children . Just to give you a example this is what happened in about 30 minutes yesterday. 

While getting my son dressed in his room my daughter went into our bathroom and decided to play in the toilet, so I washed her hands. Then we came downstairs and found her hands in the dog's water bowl, so I washed her hands. Then after my son went potty and I was washing his hands she snuck in and stuck her hands in his potty, so I washed her hands. While I was washing her hands he decided to unroll the toilet paper roll, while I was rolling the toilet paper back onto the roll, she decided to stick her hand back in his potty again! So, I kicked my son out of the bathroom, closed the door, and washed my daughters hands again! 

Then, I sat down and enjoyed my Pepsi. I think I deserved it after that don't you?

Wordless Wednesday: Mmmm Crayons

Brother decided to throw his crayons on the floor the other day, I thought we had them all picked up but my little "vacuum cleaner" found one....

Of couse she isn't allowed to eat crayons, but how cute it that face?

More Wordless Wednesday Posts can be found here as well as those who have linked below. Enjoy!

S'more Much Fun Continued.

I wanted to share what we did for the invitations, party favors and decorations that we had at my son's Outdoor Alaskan Party. If you missed my previous post with all the S'more yummy goodness you can read that post here.

First I'll share where and why we chose this type of party for a 2-year old.

My son loves Moose! He has two stuffed moose that sleeps with him every night and we have to take at least one with us on long road trips. He gets excited any time he sees moose. Luckily we live in Alaska so he gets the opportunity to see Moose (From a distance of course :-) )

The other thing my son loves is his "house." He has a Little Tykes Log Cabin Playhouse and it is his house! It has several windows, a half door, a table with a couple of chairs, and a fake fireplace. It so far has been one of my best finds on Craigslist. I've only seen him openly invite his daddy, sister, and myself  to have a seat in his cabin. Unfortunately, he freaks out and pushes others out of his house even his poor sweet baby cousin. (We are still working on the share the house thing.)

So this was the invite I designed and made for the party. I loved how it turned out. And it looks just like his cabin!

His Banner was pretty simple this year, Kraft cardstock and green fleece letters. Simple but cute for this party. (Thanks to one of my dearest friends for helping me finish this!)

My husband helped me with the rustic signs in the yard. I LOVED how they all turned out!

The Moose Crossing sign with significant places and their distances from us. 

The other side of the sign with more significant places and their distances. Like I said I love how these turned out, and love how they are customized to my little guy. (btw, I'm a HUGE Boston RedSox fan (no, I don't want to talk about how the season ended.)

Mason Jars for rustic lighting. We used floating candles in water then tied them to the fence using jute. (Thanks to my father-in-law for hanging them.) Unfortunately, it was beyond windy that day and they wouldn't stay lit. I was a little sadden by that, but they were still cute. 

We handed out S'mores Pops as one of the favors. You can find instructions how to make these and others here.  We made ours with the jumbo Marshmallows then put them in a cello bag and tied them with jute. 

And I loved how these favor bags turned out! The idea came from these adorable halloween favors. I decided to make my own marshmallows so I could have the moose shapes. I'm so glad I did. The marshmallows were way easier than I thought they were going to be and I can't wait to make them again!

We put the favors in brown paper bags to hand out to the guests. If you didn't want to do that they would look great in a basket like this and guests could just grab as they left. 

And this is the adorable Birthday Shirt my little guy got to wear on his Birthday. His grammy made the shirt based off of the invite. The best part, she didn't even have the invite yet, she used an iPhone pic! She's just to good!

She was so sweet to make another for the little guy and even made baby sis one too. Aren't they cute???

And last but not least, this is a tote bag that my sister-in-law made for my little guy for his birthday. It has a couple of pockets inside perfect for holding a couple of sippy cups and there is plenty of room for snacks, books, etc. He loves it, of course it's because it has a moose on it. (Here's my shameless plug for my SIL) If you like this bag my SIL has them listed in her Etsy Shop. You can find the moose bag here 

Although I loved all the recipes, favors, and decorations, and gifts, the best part about the party was spending it with the people we love! 

Thanks for looking! Let me know what you think, I would love to hear from you!

Tweet

Wordless Wednesday

This is my first time participating in "Wordless Wednesday" and I'm really kind of excited about it! It is where, yep you guessed it, not a lot of talking but mostly pictures or a picture (Thanks to Debbie @ GrowingPhasesFarm for helping me out with that one :-) ) I've decided to post some fall pics and pick back up with more Birthday photos later.

Enjoy, and be sure and leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Be Sure to Link up and share your Word(less) Wednesday Posts!

We had S'more Much Fun!

For my son's second birthday, we had an Alaskan outdoor theme party, and I thought since I have so much to share from his Birthday Party, I would start with the food! To start, though, I want to say a huge THANK YOU to my mother-in-law for helping with the food part. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have been able to get everything done!

And what would be the main food at an Alaskan Party for a 2-year old? Ooey, Gooey, Yummy S'mores!!! If it could be made into a s'more I think we had it. Of course I had so many ideas of things to make, it just wasn't possible to do it all.

His cake was non-traditional this year. There wasn't any buttercream frosting or bright fun decorations. Instead he had a Giant S'more Cake! It was so fun and it looked great on the S'more Bar Table. It didn't hurt that it was super yummy. The Giant S'mores Cake Recipe can be found: here

Brown Sugar Spice Cookies with a Maple Syrup Glaze cut out in the shape of a moose head. One of my all-time favorite fall cookies. When these bake the whole house smells like fall! These are from one of my favorite cookbooks from Gooseberry Patch "Old-Fashioned Country Cookies" it can be found here

All the hard work of these cupcakes including the meringue icing was thanks to my mother-in-law. There a few steps but worth it. You can find the S'mores Cupcake Recipe here

We also had cookies. S'mores Cookies Recipe  here

My favorite, beside the cake was the S'mores Bars. I forgot to take a picture of them, but I could eat a whole pan of these guys no kidding! Be sure and check the recipe out here.

For the main meal we roasted hot dogs and had chili to make chili dogs or just have a bowl of chili to warm up with! The chili recipe that I used can be found here  (I modified it slightly to appeal to the varying palates and tastes) We also had hot chocolate & homemade marshmallows and hot spiced apple cider to keep us warm. 

Here is the birthday cake on the s'mores table. 

We had all different kinds of chocolate bars and caramels to make up all kinds of s'mores. 

We also had all different varieties of graham crackers: regular Honey Graham, Chocolate & Cinnamon. (Not pictured)

And of course we had several different kinds of marshmallows. We had the Jumbo ones, regular size, mini's, and strawberry. I looked for chocolate mallows because I wanted a chocolate, chocolate, chocolate s'more but I couldn't find them, oh well maybe next time! :-)

I'm pretty sure my little guy ended up loving his party and the s'mores! He is still talking about the fire and the marshmallows!

Oh yeah, it was an ooey, gooey, good time!

I'm Back!

Hey Everyone!
I'm back from taking some time off to spend with family and prepare for my little guys second Birthday. I'm hoping to get back to posting in the next few days. Not certain when I will be listing new items in my shop as I will be actually going on vacation soon, so hang with me as I'm in limbo! :-)

I do have to share at least one photo from his birthday!

We filled his room with lots and lots of balloon so he would have a surprise when he woke up! He loved it and it was so much fun! We will definitely do this again!!

I can't wait to share the rest of the photos with you! It was so much fun, and I can't believe my little guy is two!!!

Happy 18th Birthday to My "Baby" Sister

Over the weekend my baby sister turned 18! It's hard to believe but she is finally an "adult." I am having such a hard time believing that! Oh well, such as life, it goes by way to fast!!! 

So for her birthday, they (my mom & other sister) were having a surprise party and I made up some decorations for it. I've been dying to share and I couldn't wait for her to see what we came up with. I was super happy with how they turned out and I think they were too. 

(Please forgive the quality of the banner pictures. It was late and I really wanted pictures before I packaged them up for the post office. )

 So here is the sign as a whole. "Happy Birthday Larissa" 

Up close of the details. All of the paper was glitter cardstock: the black, pink, & white. Then I sealed it with a gloss sealer to keep the glitter from continually falling off so man did it sparkle!!!

I love the detail of the scroll work and how awesome this turned out! Wouldn't this be fun for a sweet sixteen, turning "30", a bachelorette party or even just a "Girl's Night Out' party! So many possibilities with how pretty this turned out!

Just another view. I was really trying for some decent pics...

This was one of the centerpieces I made up. The decorations were for a masquerade party theme. So there was still lots of glitter, pretty ribbons, beads, and feathers!

One of the masks I made. 

And this is the other and my personal favorite! This one could be used alone or as the main centerpiece. Love how it turned out. 

A couple of close-ups of the details. I learned a lot doing these. Of course decorating these could go on forever. I had to stop somewhere though. :-)

Here it is at her party. Sign, centerpieces, and table confetti. 

I really wish I could have been there for her party. That's one of the hardest things about living away from family, you miss major milestones like this. But I was most definitely there in spirit and I LOVED doing this for her. Happy 18th Birthday Larissa, I Love You!!!!!

* At this time, these decorations are not listed on my Etsy shop.  I'm not certain if I am going to be listing them, I will be sure and post and let you know if I do.