Happy 5th Birthday, Princess

 

Emerson Grace is five years old.

Even typing that sentence blows my mind.

She is the perfect mix of sweet and sassy and of girly girl and tomboy.

She makes us laugh daily and she truly is the apple of my and her daddy's eyes.

 

To celebrate her birthday, we threw her a princess party here at home.

We decorated in the colors of teal & purple and asked her guests to wear princess dresses.

 

The tiny princesses got crowns, wands, bead necklaces, and hairbows for their goodie bags.

 

Dinner was first, and it was a simple pizza party with fruit wands & carrots and dip; grape Gatorade to drink.

 

Then, surprise!, an unexpected guest arrived....

 

Elsa!

None of the girls knew she was coming so they were quite surprised.

And they had about a bazillion questions for her including

do you know the trolls?

why did you freeze Anna? IN HER HEART?

can we see your shoes?

did you know Hans was a bad guy?

where is Olaf?

can we touch you? please don't freeze us!

are you the real Elsa?

how do you know Emerson's mom?

can you come to my birthday???

  

 

They played games, sang & danced, painted faces, made wishes, blew bubbles.

 

Elsa even stayed for cake!

 

Em got lovely gifts,

 

and I think even the boys had fun.

 

It was truly magical.

Homemade Valentines: The Frozen Edition

 

Have you seen Frozen yet? If not, you probably should. Because it's good. Good like the first time you watched Aladdin or The Little Mermaid. Even if you don't have kids or daughters or whatever, it's still worth seeing. I've personally watched it twice and cried each time. The music is on steady rotation in our house and in the car.  I'm not kidding- it's that good. 

 

Anyway, my daughter is quite obsessed with the movie, so a friend emailed me a valentine she found online of Olaf the snowman and some Hersey hugs and thus an idea was born. Instead of "warm hugs" we went with "do you want to build a snowman", and I made the cards on photoshop.  We printed them out, stuffed tiny clear bags with marshmallows & chocolate chips & pretzels & candy corn, and my girl signed each one.

 

Sometimes she ended her name with an M instead of an N or completely forgot a letter, and that pesky S was backwards a lot, and that was completely ok.

 

It was perfect, in fact.

 

Past Homemade Valentines:

 

 

2011: Sucker photo cards for daycare

 

 

2012 : Heart-shaped recycled crayons for daycare

 

 

2013 : A CD mixtape of fun love songs for preschool

Homemade Valentines: The Minecraft Edition

 

In case you couldn't tell from my son's Minecraft birthday party, he's a bit enamored with this simple game.  So when I showed him these Valentine cards, he was pretty stoked to give them to his classmates.

 

I tweaked a couple of them, making them a bit more first-grade appropriate, and then we printed them out, wrapped up tiny Hersey bars, and got to work signing them.

 

So cute!

 

Past Valentine Cards:

 

 

2011: Sucker photo cards for preschool

 

 

2012 : Heart-shaped recycled crayons for pre-k

 

2013 : Star Wars glow sticks for kindergarten

Narls' 7th Minecraft Birthday Party

 

Have I shared pictures from Narls' birthday party? It was a boytastic time full of friends, Minecraft, laser tag, rollerskating, pizza, presents, and cake. 

 

Party snippets:

 

 

 

 

 

 

My boy had the best time ♥

 

Party details:

 

It was hard to find Minecraft party stuff so I had to make almost everything.

 

Invites were made on photoshop and printed on cardstock,

 

goodie bags are just green bags with the creeper image sharpied onto them (which is also what I did with the kids' party cups),

 

the sticker was found at a dollar store and the candy labels were made on photoshop then printed on cardstock,

the amazing & delicious cake was made by a friend,

 

and I also made the thank you cards on photoshop then printed on cardstock.

 

Narls' past parties:

Sixth *Star Wars* Birthday Party

Fifth *Angry Birds* Birthday Party

Fourth *Superhero* Birthday Party

 

Creative Homecoming Invitation

My amazing little brother spent the weekend with us, and he and I worked on some super secret craft stuff.

He highlighted and bedazzled a soccer ball for his girlfriend, who is a pretty sweet soccer player, and used it to ask her to their sophomore homecoming.

When he left my house, he went to meet her. He picked up some flowers on the way and was waiting for her after her soccer tournament with them and the decorated ball, and he asked her in front of her father and of course she said yes.

I mean he's handsome, resourceful, and romantic! What girl wouldn't???

Love you, Lukey! And so insanely proud of you.

♥ ♥ ♥

DIY Chalkboard Champagne Bottle

A super easy craft just in time for the weekend. And if you're anything like me, you have all the supplies on hand, making this project free ninety nine.

From start to finish, making a chalkboard champagne bottle maybe takes two hours. Soak the empty bottle in warm soapy water for about a half hour to loosen the labels. They should peel right off.

I'm assuming chalkboard spray paint would be even easier, but I had regular paint on hand from when we painted Narls' chalkboard wall a couple years ago. Apply a coat of paint, let dry about 30 minutes, apply another coat, then let that dry for another 30 minutes to an hour.

And voila, you're done. I stuffed a cork in the top to finish the look. Write your family's last name, a love note, a sweet word, anything; the finished project is lovely.

Linking up: