Avery's Rainbow-Themed 5th Birthday Party

Avery has been loving the movie, "The Wizard of Oz" lately, so I suggested to her an "Over the Rainbow" themed birthday party and she loved the idea! So we decided to run with that and it was so much fun! We invited all our close friends, family and neighbors to her party and had the party at the park around the corner from our house, just like we've done the last several years. The weather started out cold and rainy that day, but by party time, it had completely done a 180 and was sunny and in the upper 70's! Perfect for a rainbow party in the park.

You can find Avery's adorable rainbow dress here!

I found a majority of the decorations here at Target. They had a whole line of rainbow party themed decorations and they were perfect for her party! 

The cupcakes were from Walmart. They didn't have rainbow cupcakes like I wanted so I just ordered cupcakes with white icing and rainbow sprinkles and then bought the rainbow rings here on Amazon and added them to the cupcakes. They turned out so cute!!

The party was at 3:00, so we just served some snack-food. We had a "Build a Rainbow" Nacho Bar, a Rainbow Fruit tray and cupcakes for dessert. We also had beer and sweet tea for the adults to drink and then the little fruit flavored "hugs" for the kids! It was all so perfect for a rainbow party!

Then we had glass heart shaped bowls (from Dollar Tree) on each of the tables with Wild Berry Skittles in them for the centerpieces. Each of the tables had a different color of the rainbow table cloth on it. Unfortunately it doesn't seem that I got a good picture of the other tables.

Avery got so many presents and she was SO excited about each and every one of them. She gasped with excitement while opening them all! She got an LOL doll and pet, some LOL bubbles, several adorable dresses, a Disney game, a kite, a few pair of shoes, some hair bows a little tea set and a Cinderella Lego Set to name a majority of her gifts. Somehow, I didn't get a picture of the present table with all the gifts on it, just the first two. :-( But regardless, she got a lot of great gifts and was so excited to open them!

 (My mother in law gets Avery a Birthday Angel Figurine every year to add to her collection! They're always so cute.)

After opening presents, we sang Happy Birthday to the Birthday Girl!!

The kids did a lot of playing on the playground, which was right next to the pavilion!

And the girls had fun playing with some of Avery's new toys!

As each of Avery's friends/cousins left her party, she handed out these adorable favors. I just tied 2 different rainbow lollipops (that I got from Party City) together, along with one of these rainbow tags from Target that matched the other rainbow decorations from there. Then Avery signed her name of the back of the tags. Here's a link to the 2 different lollipops... here and here.

I made all the little signs for the food on the computer and then printed them out and put them in these awesome frames from Ikea. I bought several of them last year for Avery's birthday party and have been happy to use them for any and all parties throughout the year. They've really come in handy.

It was such a fun party and so cute to put together! It was so much fun to watch Avery enjoy each and every moment of her party! Though it can be stressful at times planning these parties, it's all worth it to see how much each of my kids enjoy spending time with their friends and family and knowing they're all there to celebrate them.  

Happy Birthday to our "Sweet Sugar!" Our sassy, silly, spunky and smart 5 year old! I feel so incredibly blessed to be your mommy. You are an absolute joy, (most of the time, ha!) and I just love and adore you more and more each day! I can't wait to see what this new year brings for you. You'll be graduating pre-school later this month, going to several camps this Summer and then off to Kindergarten in the Fall! I can't hardly believe how quickly you've grown and I'm so very proud of you! I love you to the moon and back sweet girl!

Love,

Mommy

Weekend Rewind

I had a nice, long weekend, but it was jam-packed with so many fun things!

First, Friday Avery wore her birthday shirt and headband to school since her birthday was over the weekend! They programmed their scrolling message to say, "Avery is 5" and took her picture standing by it. They also said happy birthday to her over the intercom that morning and she also got to write the daily message for that day! She was so excited!

For those who can't read 5-year old writing (including me), it says, "Daily Message by Avery S. - I Played in the Bakery." The picture is of her playing in their classroom "dramatic area" which right now is a bakery. She was playing with her friends Aubrei and Jimmy.

 

That same night Jackson's school had their annual night at Grant's Farm. It's always such a fun night, and one we look forward to every year! 

 

Saturday morning, each of the kids had a soccer game and a baseball game. Avery's soccer game was at 8 a.m. and Jackson's baseball game was at 8:15, so I took Avery and Jake took Jackson. Then Avery had a baseball game at 9:45 and Jackson had a soccer game at noon. It rained most of the morning too and it was pretty chilly, but the games were all still on, so we pressed on and got through it. They both did great at all of their games! Jackson made 2 outs in baseball and Avery got her first hit without the tee! In fact, both times she was up to bat, she didn't need the tee! So proud of them both!

Then Saturday afternoon was Avery's 5th Birthday Party at the park! It was such a cute and fun party! It was a rainbow theme, which made decorating so much fun. Thankfully the rain cleared out at around 12:30 and the sun even came out and warmed up the day. The party was at 3:00 and it ended up being around 75 degrees for the party! I'll do a post all about the party later this week, hopefully. But here's a few phone pictures from the party!

Then Sunday was Avery's actual birthday!! She came down the stairs that morning and let me know that it was her birthday and she was now five!! We went to church that morning and everyone sang happy birthday to her at breakfast. Then after church went to my nephew's 15th birthday party. He and Avery share a birthday! That evening the kids just played outside with the neighbors and Avery and I took a few snapchat photos that evening before bed. I thought this one was cute since it had the date to show it was her birthday!

I was off on Monday (yesterday) and Jackson had a field trip to the Zoo. It turned out to be a great day! The weather started out rainy on the way there but turned out to be sunny and in the 70's! Perfect for a day at the Zoo.

Then once Jackson got home from school, we headed to the dentist. He had an appointment to get his first ever filling. I was so nervous at how it would go, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well he did. He was a rockstar and said it didn't even hurt. When we got back, we ate dinner and I took both kids to the store to pick out a toy. Avery had a gift card for her birthday and I let Jackson pick out a toy for doing so well at the dentist!

It was a great weekend making so many memories with my sweet little family.

Five on Friday

Happy Friday!!!

One

We have a jam-packed weekend coming up. Tonight we have Grant's Farm night with Jackson's school. Then we have 2 soccer games and 2 baseball games on Saturday morning, Avery's rainbow-themed birthday party Saturday afternoon and then church Sunday morning and my nephew's birthday party Sunday afternoon! I'm tired just thinking about it all, but it should all be fun!

Two

I am currently reading "Where the Crawdads Sing" and I'm having a hard time putting it down. It's just so good. I'm almost finished with it and I can't wait to find out what happens, but at the same time, I don't want the story to end. Here's a little synopsis about the book. I highly recommend it!!

"For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life--until the unthinkable happens."

Three

We recently bought a new refrigerator and I absolutely love it. The Samsung we bought 3 1/2 years ago when we first bought our house, continuously had problems with the ice maker. It leaked and froze up on a very regular basis. We had someone out 3 or 4 different times to fix it, but it just kept breaking. So we finally decided to buy a whole new refrigerator rather than putting any more money into the old one. I have to say, I will probably never buy another Samsung appliance again. Our new refrigerator is an LG, and so far I'm loving it. We bought the 3-year warranty plan that Best Buy offered just in case, but hopefully we don't have any problems with this new fridge. 

Four

Avery, and her best friend from school, had the best time on their play-date at the park last week! It was a beautiful day so I decided to take them on a picnic at the park. They ate lunch, played on the playground and we walked around the pond and fed the ducks! It was such a fun afternoon.

Five

This is my new favorite coffee flavor. If you like hazelnut, you will really like this coffee. It's so good.



I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

Shooting Hoops

Since the weather has been nicer lately, this is where you can often find Jackson! He is loving having this basketball hoop that we got him for Christmas. He and many of the neighbor boys will often play a little game or shoot hoops on our street! They love it and I love that it gets Jackson outside as much as possible.