Sydney's 16th

A couple of weeks ago Kevin's niece (Sydney) turned 16!

 

I still can't believe she's 16!!!!

{sniff, sniff *tear*}

 

Isn't she beautiful?! Yes. The answer is Yes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got to do the decorations & desserts for the birthday bash/cookout

The theme was music; using the colors purple, blue, green & black

 

This may not pop out in the picture below, but Syndey's mom made a homemade guac dip which I am now completely addicted to. So if you have a party I will probably make and bring it just so I can eat it... so have a party and invite me already!!

 

 

 

 

Sydney's mom also made this awesome shark watermellon inspired by pinterest!

 

 

 

 

Close up of the circle garland

{made out of construction paper using a circle cutter & circle punches, then sewn together} 

and musical notes

{made out of black poster board & party city fans}

 

 

 

 

It was hard to get a good picture of the circles above the dessert table, but they turned out really cool!

We used cardstock and two different sizes of circles - sewing them every other one to make these circle streamers that hung from the ceiling.

 

 

 

 

Desserts included chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, chocolate cupcakes with cake batter frosting, cookies & cream cupcakes, cakepops, white chocolate popcorn, musical note sugar cookies & a cake!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a "photo booth" set up with props for some serious seriously fun picture taking!

 

Ray & Dottie {Mom & Dad}

 

 

 

 

Me & Grant {nephew}

 

 

 

 

Kevin & I {umm... the cool uncle & aunt!?!}

 

 

 

 

Claire {niece}

 

 

 

 

Jayne {niece)

 

 

 

 

The theme came together at the last minute so I owe many thanks to Kevin, Amy & JD for slaving away Friday night cutting & sewing circles & decorating cookies while I baked the cupcakes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So thankful for the help of friends and the love of family!

 

remembering mia

Mia

10/12/03 - 2/28/13

This post is long overdue, but it's not an easy one to write.

Kevin & I are deeply saddened by the sudden illness and loss of our beloved, Mia, our first doggie-child.

It has been hard to deal with this loss, but God has taught me so much and shown so much love through this sad experience that I will be forever greatful. Especially grateful as we remember Mia's life and how she was just the epitome of love towards all...

So I pulled my favorite pics to remember the good times... sorry there are so many! 

This was a quick family shot for Christmas 2012.

Of course, I had to do some ear scratching, because that was one of Mia's favorite spots!

{Her second, or maybe even first, favorite spot was her butt, but that was Kevin's job!}

She loved being outdoors!

She also loved eating stuffed animals!

She would always eat the faces off first and she often fell asleep holding them in her mouth :)

Mia never met a stranger {just like Kevin!}

Peanut Butter!!!!

There is no treat on earth Mia loved more than cleaning out our empty peanut butter jars.

When she was young she had an obsession with chewing on socks.

Luckily, as she got older she stuck to her bones and sticks.

She would usually wait till everybody was calmed down and in bed before she'd start chewing.

I rarely chidded her on the noise (and it could be loud!), because I knew how much she loved it!

Of course a stick was always preferable to a bone, but this picture remindes me of Mia's

theme song, which I used to sing to her and Kevin...

I wagmytailbackandforth

I wagmytailbackandforth

I wagmytailbackandforth

...

...

...

Boy, did she get excited when it snowed.

{Totally acceptable with all that hair she was carting around all the time}

Doesn't her loopy grin just crack you up?!

Mia was so tollerant, whether is was a 2 year old niece using her as a trampoline replacement or her own mother, dressing her up for the holidays - Mia never minded so long as it made her "people" happy.

It's hard to see in this pic, but she's proudly showing off her pink bows after getting her hair cut!

She was a great campsite defender as well. Even though I'm sure her bark was asking the raccoons to come play, happily for me, they didn't think that's what she was saying!

Once, when I first got her, she ran to a baby bird and picked it up in her mouth and then put it down (completely unharmed, except maybe it's heart) and nudged it to get it to play with her.

I'd put blankets right up there with snow and peanut butter as one of her favorite things... well, anything soft really. We had to make her get off the couches all the time!

We loved bringing her with us when we played frisbee!

She's a ISU Gnome fan through and through!

Everywhere we went on walks people would comment on how beautiful Mia was!

I tease that Mia was the reason Kevin & I got married. When she was given to Kevin, he didn't have a place he could keep her so I got to "keep" her for him... well, I was not going to give her up so... here we are, married almost 5 years now!

I even found a couple of puppy pics!

Look at how big her paws were! It's no surprise she weighed in at 110lbs full grown!

Mia was an oops doggie-child. The breader went on vacation and the "help" left a door or two open... Mia is the love child of a golden retriever and a yellow lab.

BEST MISTAKE EVER!

I'm so grateful for the time we got to spend with this giant furry ball of love!

Mia, you will be missed.

squirrel army

Our neighbor feeds squirrels... lots of squirrels... enough squirrels to form an army of squirrels.

I am not exagerating. At. All.

Take a look

This is what his "feeding grounds" look like every morning

{during the 7:30am feeding shift}

I'll even help you by numbering the little monsters

{I only call them monster because they dig up all my flowers during the summer}

I imagine they are Callie's redneck cousins because they kinda look alike and cause she hates them.

I imagine my neighbor feeds them so they are close {to eat} in case of a zombiepocalypse.

o deer! baby shower

My friend is having a baby!!!

At first, I was distressed that she wasn't having a boy because I hard-core wanted to throw a "camping" themed baby shower for her, but it's hard to be upset long when you think about all the fun we will have with a cute little girl! Yes, I am beyond excited for the bows & frills & baby snuggles!

This is my first shower planning experience with others, and let me tell you, group planning is the way to go! It was great not to be running around 5 minutes before the party started trying to get everything out on time! Not to mention all the ideas, errands, & leg work the other ladies did - Amazing!

But let's get to the important part... the pictures

Our theme was "woodland animals" and we wanted lots of pink too!

The sign on the mantle reads "O Deer!"

The trees were a fun craft project and the animals & wreath we already owned!

Our centerpieces were twig filled vases with some cute decorations & animals

The only hard part about these was getting to the twigs in the snow and cold weather!

The all important food table!!

I made the cute bunting with paper, fabric, ribbon, felt flowers & felt animals

Again, our centerpiece is twigs in a vase, adorned with handmade felt animals, mini bunting & printables!

Time for a few close ups!

The food was awesome! I loved it all!

I made chocolate & vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream

chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream

and owl shortbread cookies

whoooo loves how cute these are?!?!?!

Erin made this stunning {and yummy} cheese ball

Christina made cheese tortelli with parmesean ranch sauce - YUM!

Amy made scrumptious stuffed mushrooms

{no, I am not required to tell how many I ate and yes, it was more than my fair share}

Katie made this amazing watermellon hedgehog

Soooo cute!!!!

One of my favorite party details were our cups for pink lemonade & water

Aren't they the cutest ever!

The cups & lids are from Staples (ordered online)

& the striped brown straws are from this etsy shop.

Instead of playing any shower games we had this create your own flower headband station

The mom-to-be is in love with headband flowers & bows so it was perfect!

Sam's hand lettering is stunning! I hope you are as impressed as I am?!

The flowers turned out great!

I'd like to try my hand at making some of these myself!

We also had a little advice stations set up where you could share some words of wisdom with the mom-to-be or take a guess at little baby girl's future name!

Our final party element was the favor station.

We had the mixins to "make your own trails mix" displayed in brown paper bags

with super cute homemade to-go bags. The bags were an easy sewing project that displayed all the cute homemade felt animals tied perfectly with a raffia & ribbon bow

Ahhhhh! It was all so cute! I love it all!

Thank you sooo much to Erin & Sam for taking all the pictures.

I just didn't have the frame of mind to get it done!

And thanks for making it through all the pictures I posted,

I just couldn't downsize any more than I already did!