Avery's Second Birthday Party

We had a wonderful time at Avery's Second Birthday Party this past Saturday. We decided to have it at the park near our house and we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was sunny and in the 70's! Perfect!

Per Avery's request, we had a Peppa Pig theme for her party and she was so excited to see all the Peppa Pig decorations. It was a simple and stress-free party for the most part and everything went really well and everyone had a great time!

The pavilion we rented at the park had just been re-built and everything was brand new, even the grill. There was more than enough room and it was close to the playground and bathrooms so it really was a perfect spot. We grilled hamburgers, hot dogs and brats and my mother in law made little veggie cups with ranch dressing and we had chips and a pickle tray as well. To continue with keeping it simple, I went to Walmart to get the cupcakes and they also had a Peppa Pig cupcake cake. It had Peppa and George on it at the park so it was perfect!! I couldn't pass it up. The decorations were pretty simple with pink table cloths and a few Peppa Pig hanging decorations. The only thing I got somewhat creative with was the favors for the kids to take home. I found these on Etsy and just ordered the file, printed them out and then glued them on the bottles of bubbles I had gotten. The bubbles were 3/$1 so it was an inexpensive and pretty easy little favor.

So without further adieu, here are the pictures from Avery's Peppa Pig Party at the Park!

I bought Peppa Pig shirts for both Avery and Jackson to wear to the party. Avery loved hers, Jackson... not so much. I mean it was George and had "Dinosaur" on it, but he still wasn't amused and pretty much told everyone at the party that he didn't like his shirt. Ha. Sorry buddy.

Avery was obsessed with her cake and cupcakes. The minute she saw them at her party, she could think of nothing else. She wanted a "cut-cake" and nothing else would do.

I tried to get her to eat some food before eating a cupcake, but this was the look I got. Ha. Good thing she's cute!

So since it was her party, I let her have her cake and eat it too! This made Avery a very happy girl!!

After everyone was done eating, we sang Happy Birthday to the birthday girl.

She never would blow out her candle. Little stinker.

After cake, it was present time! Avery was absolutely adorable opening her presents. She LOVES clothes and shoes. So with each new outfit she got, she held it up to her, turned it around and walked around to everyone to show them what she had got. She would look at each new outfit and say "it's cute!" She really showed her enthusiasm for each gift and it was so cute!

Avery hugging her new Peppa Pig back pack from Auntie Ashlee and Uncle Jason and checking out her new dresses and shoes from Maw Maw and Papa.

My mom got her, her first little pair of jellies. They even smell like Strawberries, just like the old jellies I used to have!

She also got some side-walk chalk and the older kids built a hop-scotch and they all had fun with that for a little while.

As each of Avery's friends and cousins left, she handed them their little favor as a thank you for coming.

It was such a fun party. It really couldn't have gone any better.

Two!!

Happy second birthday to my sweet and spunky Avery!!

Here's a little video that I made of pictures from your second year put to your song, "My Girl" by the Temptations. 

View on Flipagram

You brighten our days with your hilarious personality and give us a run for our money with your stubbornness. Your facial expressions are priceless and you never cease to amaze me with how smart you are! You're learning and growing every single day and I couldn't be more thrilled to be a part of it. You are a beautiful blessing and a glorious gift from God.

We love you to the moon and back!!

Love,
 Mommy and Daddy
xoxo

Welcome Home Wednesday: Kitchen/Dining Room Updates

We have several projects going on around the house and none of them are quite done yet. The basement bathroom is coming along quite nicely and is almost finished. The outside paint project is basically right where I left it last week. So hopefully I'll have more updates on all of that in the next couple weeks. 

For now, I thought I'd share a kitchen update and share a few new decorations I've bought recently. Pretty much every room in our house is still a work in progress. No room is what I would consider, done! But we're getting close in some rooms. When I last posted about our kitchen, we hadn't even moved in yet. There were no decorations at all. Though, it's still not completely finished, it's getting really close. Here are some recent pictures of our kitchen of where it is now. We still need back-splash and baseboards, but it's come a long way from this post here.

Here's a little list of the goodies I've gotten to decorate the kitchen with:

Yellow Stools

Mason Jar Ceramic Utensil Holder

Mason Jar Ceramic Salt and Pepper Shakers

Mason Jar Ceramic Cookie Jar

Mason Jar Ceramic Spoon Rest

Be Full of Joy Mason Jar Sign

Wooden Arrow Wall Decor 

(Will actually end up hanging in the living room eventually)

Galvanized Tray

Decorative Lemons
 Mason Jar Glasses with Lid and Straw

The Yellow and Gray hand-towels are from Walmart

The Blue hand-towels are from Home Goods

Yellow and White Striped Serving Bowls in the Hutch

I also just recently got some new decorations for our dining room table. This is actually my parents' table. We are planning to refinish it to look similar to this as soon as we can get some free time to do it.

Details:

Table Runner

Wooden Tool Box is from Ross

Galvanized planters

Succulents

Lemon Salt and Pepper Shakers

Plates

Project Life 2016: Week 14

My project life page for week 14 of 2016!

This week was all about our trip to Costa Rica! 

I used the Get Lost Mini Kit Freebie from Amanda Yi.

Avery's 1st Birthday Party - A Year Later

With Avery's 2nd Birthday party this coming Saturday, I'm now realizing I never posted about her 1st birthday party. Better late than never, right? I've intended to write this post numerous times, but just never got around to doing it. So I'm changing that today. 

Avery's first birthday party was a "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Theme". It was a lot of fun to plan and decorate for and also a little stressful. Planning a big party with 2 little ones taking up all your attention is hard. After this party, I told myself this was the last party I would stress over. I always try to out-do myself with every party. It just got to be too much and now I've really tried to scale it back as best I can and try to enjoy the party instead of stress over it. So this years party is low-key and at a park where the kids can run and play to their hearts content and hopefully the adults can sit back and watch and enjoy chatting with each other and catching up. The weather is supposed to be 77 and sunny. I couldn't ask for a more perfect day.

But back to last years party. We had the party in our church dining hall and I rented a bounce house for the kids to play in outside. Unfortunately, it rained that day. I kept hoping the rain would stop so I still had them set up the bounce house, much to Jake's dislike. It did stop raining... after the party was pretty much over. Oh well, many of the kids did get a chance to play and I think everyone still had a great time. Avery enjoyed her party very much and loved all the attention she got from all of our friends and family. She was adorable and had fun, so that's really all that matters. 

Party Details:

My mother in law made chicken salad wraps and turkey sandwiches for the adults and my mom and I made star shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the kids. It was a fun and yummy spread. My sister made Avery's smash cake and pink cupcakes and I made glittery star picks to decorate them with. They turned out so very cute! The colors of the party were pink, mint and gold. I made a majority of the decorations and bought a few as well. My mom put the centerpieces together and it all turned out so cute!

Everyone enjoyed their lunch, especially the birthday girl.

After eating lunch, we sang happy birthday to Avery and let her dig into her smash cake.

After she ate her cake, Grandma and I gave her a much needed bath in the church sink. :-)

After we got her all cleaned up, we let her open all of her presents!!

After opening all of the presents it had finally stopped raining. So we took Avery outside to play in the bounce house.

Going through these pictures again makes me realize just how much Avery has grown in a year. It's so hard to believe we'll be celebrating her second birthday this weekend. She's gotten so big and grown up so much in a year. It's hard to believe how quickly time flies.

Now off to finish up planning for her Peppa Pig Park Party! Hopefully I'm not a year late in sharing all about it here on the blog. ;-)