Pinterest Party

My friend Cassie is so clever. She decided to throw a pinterest party on the Saturday after our birthday (we both share a birthday) and it was so fun! I didn't get as many pictures of the crafts as I'd have liked, but I was busy photographing our cute kids!

She has the great idea of putting on Frozen so we could craft without too much distraction. It was fun!

After they watched a film, they even joined in on the fun by painting on their own canvases :)

Cassie made some delicious pizza and we vegged while gabbing and crafting. Perfect!

It was such a hit that Nikki and I are itching to throw pinterest parties of our own! I'd like to do one in November to make Xmas stuff :)
SO fun!!

Michelle's Birthday Elmo Party!

Michelle's party was on the 7th and she had so much fun! She wore the rag skirt I made, along with her elmo shoe bows and a cute ruffle shirt. She wore it for about 30-40 minutes before all the kids changed into their bathing suits and ran through the sprinkers ;-)

^^ What on earth is this face?! Hahaha! Mish has been making this face lately when I ask her to smile for the camera. So funny!

The bows up close :)

We filled up the tugboat with sand and the kids had a blast! Totally worth finding sand all over the house the next day.

When we sang with Happy Birthday song Mish sang along, cheered, and blew out the candle! It was so cute, and so funny. I'm glad she didn't cry or hide!

Some of MY friends came to the party! It was so nice to catch up with them <3

My friend Jessica made the cookies and they were to die for! So good!!!

My ghetto elmo cupcakes ;-) The party theme was Elmo, but all of the colors were pink and white. They weren't the prettiest, but the kids and adults seemed to like them!

A banner I made. Says "Hooray Michelle!"

My little family <3

When everyone left Michelle was pretty bummed. But I was secretly happy because it meant I could eat the last hidden elmo cookie from my secret hiding place! Mmm. Did I mention these cookies were AMAZING!?

Michelle had SO much fun, and we were so thankful for everyone who came out to celebrate with us. <3

Sewing Sewing Sewing

If there's one thing I've ever wanted to learn it's sewing. I've tried to learn so many times throughout my life, but I just can't sew a straight line for the life of me. Well, I had some ideas about the outfit I wanted Michelle to wear for her Elmo Birthday Party and I figured it was time to figure something out.
After pinning 1,000,000 things on Pinterest onto my sewing and Elmo party boards I decided it was time to tackle my project.
I ended up making Mish a fabric scrap tutu and some coordinating bows. It was my way of making her outfit but not having to pull out my sewing machine ;-) I know, cheater!

The one on the RIGHT is the party tutu. The left currently has more green and is for St Patty's Day

CUTE!!!

Top bow is on tutu, bottom is for hair, middle will have Elmo faces on them and get attached to the shoes!

The bows aren't finished because I'm waiting on my plastic Elmo faces to come in the mail, but once they're here, they will be ready to go on Mish's shoes. My mom also text me a picture of Elmo fabric she found at the store today, so I might add some of that to her tutu since the party isn't until June 7th.

Oh! And then I went totally random and made some fun (and adorable!) flower crowns. My family was thrilled.

Now you'll notice the title says "sewing sewing sewing" and not tying, hot gluing, and ripping. Lol. Well after making forty-eight million rag tutus for Michelle, her cousin, and 3 American Girl dolls, I decided to pull out my sewing machine and frustrate myself and waste fabric ;-)
I started easy and sewed some bedding for my niece's American Girl doll. It came out so cute! And then Michelle stole it, so I made another (better) one to give my niece.  I didn't take pics, but it's puffy and cute ;)

THEN I came across the freaking cutest vintage pillowcases while treasure hunting some thrift stores. I bought 6! One is going to my cousin for her adorable daughter's vintage themed bedroom that's in the works, two were sacrificed to a bow banner/garland I'm making (here's the inspiration), two are set aside for making half aprons (my new obsession) and one was made into a pillowcase dress for Michelle!

I am very very pleased with how it came out! It was such an easy and fun project to do.

So then I started thinking about other things I could sew. It was almost manic! What can I sew next? Does Charlie need a bow tie? I want to make a quilt! Wait, I can't sew straight lines and quilts are all about lines. I decided to use some ribbon and a cute pink tea towel to make Michelle a little apron to wear while playing with her kitchen. I had enough left over to make a mini half apron for Mish's play kitchen at her Nonna's house and got to try my hand at making pleats. It wasn't hard, but I think I did it wrong. Ha, oh well. Mish won't mind!

I can't wait to make some more goodies for Michelle and her Elmo party. I've made so many things with the Cricut cutter that I had to buy a new mat for it! haha, the old one completely lost its sticking abilities. So all of my fun with paper and glue will have to wait until the mats come in the mail (should be here this weekend!). I'll try and share some pics of what I have up my sleeve with the Elmo party soon. 

Yuletide Fun

We had the busiest weekend when we went home last weekend. Every day was filled with a fun Xmas event, and we got to spend time with both of our families. It was really nice, even though we were more tired than we’ve been in a year!

Christmastime is here!

Friday night we went to my parent’s Christmas party that they throw with their best friends. It’s definitely an adult party, but we dragged Michelle there anyway. It was crazy, but I had a fun night! I haven’t seen 80% of my friends/family friends since losing weight, so Michael and I got a lot of complements and acknowledgements about our weight loss (some were SO nice, some were very rude. Lol! Like saying we look great, and they’ve known us for years and didn’t know we could look so good-looking! Hahaha, thanks).

The next day we went to the Christmas Tree farm with my in-laws to cut down their tree. We’ve gone every year for a while now (5 years? I forget!) It was Michelle’s first time there outside of the womb (last year they closed early so she missed out), and she had so much fun! 

My little family

Auntie Rach, Nona and Gramps

My little family

Yearly Xmas photo

After pretending to be lumberjacks and drinking cider, we got ready for an Ugly Christmas Sweater party. It was my first time attending one, and it was fun to decorate our sweaters! I made Michael, Michelle, and myself matching sweater vests. Ha! It was also an adult party, but there was one other baby there for Michelle to play with for a while. 

Matchy matchy!

Michael's ladies - his mom, wife and daughter (can I just add that Michelle keepts yelling "NONA!" at this picture. Haha)

Caging the other little kid at the party. LoL!

Sunday we had breakfast with my sister and two nieces, then went back to my in-laws so they could decorate the tree. My hubby’s family all have special tree ornaments they like to hang (childhood ones, baby’s first xmas, and sentimental ones), so his parents like to have the kids decorate. We got home pretty late, and then got up and left for Y at 5 am! We hate that early morning drive, but what can ya do? It was worth it.

Cousins!

 

Relaxing with Daddy after he got home from work

Goodbye June, Hello July!

I cannot believe June is already done and gone! After having such a busy winter, this summer and the lazy days we've been having just snuck past me.
I blinked, and my baby went from an infant to a 13 month old. Crazy!
I thought I'd share a list of highlights from this lazy crazy month.

June highlights:

• This picture. 

• Michelle's 1st birthday! 

My beautiful ONE year old!

• Yes! The highlight of the month was Michelle's one year anniversary of life on this wonderful planet. Our gorgeous little bean grew into a big girl this month. I swear she grows into a kid more and more each day. Soon she'll be talking all the time and running! Speaking of which...

•  Mish started WALKING!

Walking/playing in a pool with the K kids!

• Our little rascal decided to start walking after her first birthday party! And our lives have never felt busier or crazier since then! She wants to walk in stores, outside, and all over the house. She also decided to start climbing everything; including the couch, stairs, boxes, and tables. Can you imagine how scary it is to see your baby just standing on the couch!?

• Giants game 

• I know I already posted about the Giant's game, but it was really fun! A highlight of the month! So above is a cute pic of my baseball fans being silly :)

• Michael and I celebrated 9 years together! 

Flowers Michael bought me for our anniversary. Coincidentally, they're our high school colors. Go Crushers!

• That's right! *Nine* years together. We started dating in June of 2004 right out of high school, and never looked back. I knew I was going to marry him after the first time we kissed. A girl knows these things. 

• Max's 3rd birthday

• My best friend's son Max - 1/2 of the K kids, and the future husband of my little bean (sorry Mish, we arranged it before your birth. I gave them a goat, they promised me land for our farm..it's all in writing. Lol) - turned THREE! Time really does fly when you're having fun, and the K family knows how to have fun! We went to their house for a pool party/all around fun day. Mish loved playing with her friends! Mackenzie (the other 1/2 of the K kids) fed Michelle, and gave her kisses! Of course Cassie and I were ecstatic because we've been calling them best friends since before we even had daughters! Our imaginary future daughters were going to be best friends no matter what, so fate intervened :)

Two generations of besties :)

June was pretty good, but July is my FAVORITE month, so I hope these  next 4/5 weeks are going to be awesome!