Friday, July 29, 2011

Kaity's "Sweet Shoppe"

I blogged about my daughters second birthday party a little while ago. I am stuck on the theme "Sweet Shoppe" and providing everything sweet for our party guests. I've decided these items are on the Must Have list:

Cotton Candy
I am preety sure we will rent a machine and make the cotton candy there at the party.

Chocolate Fountain
We will have various fruits (for the health nuts) with the option to dip in this luschious fountain to keep with the sweet theme.

Last but definetly not least...


Yes, you are seeing this correctly. These are cake cones. Who would have ever thought you could bake cake in an ice cream cone? Kaitylynn's birthday is in November and we wanted to do a little ice cream shoppe but we thought with the weather being as unpredictable as it is it would be a bit of a stretch. Now we can have an ice cream shoppe without the cold, sticky mess! I can't wait to try this for myself. If you'd like to try this please visit Oh Cupcakes! for the instructions. 

A food to DIE for!

I was just browsing the website pinterest.com that a girlfriend recommended to me. I just started browsing the site and was caught by this yummy photo:



Please visit Culinary Concoctions by Peabody for the recipe! I can't wait to try it!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Sweet Shoppe Theme 2nd Birthday Party

My daughter is turning 2 in November. I know that is about four months away, however since I am pregnant and due only a day after her original due date (she came three weeks early) I decided it is probably a good idea to set the wheels in motion for her birthday party. At least this way if the baby does make an early entrance everything will be in order. And if not, well I won't feel as overwhelmed come November.

So this is Kaity

She LOVES anything sweet.
Poptarts, Animal Crackers, Coo-Ka (as she calls cookies), Chocolate Chips, Cupcakes (As seen here), ice cream... you name it.
Thats how I came up with the theme for her party. I am still going back and forth on whether or not she is too young for a candy themed party. Most of our friends kids are around the same age and I worry they won't appreciate a sugar filled party!

I am using these pictures as inspiration.
  


I have to say this blog On to baby is the cutest blog I have seen in such a long time! They have the cutest party themes!

Now I have to decide on the invitation. It is so hard when there are so many cute ones to choose from.
Sweet Shoppe Printable Birthday Photo Invitation- Birthday, Baby, Bridal

sweet shoppe birthday invitation by hello love designs

Sweet Shoppe Birthday invitation - digital file

Sweet Shoppe...Custom Printable Digital Birthday Invitation by DimplePrints

Sweet Shoppe party - Set of 15 custom invitations - Printable file also available



I am debating on whether or not to do the multi bright color sweet shoppe or stick with a light gray and pink color theme. I have going to keep looking and see what I find. Stay tuned for more updates!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Fourth of July

I have to start by saying I am not sure how I made it through the past four days. Our air conditioning has been broken since last wednesday (could be longer but we noticed it Wednesday). The weather was a scorching 103 degrees pretty much every day and our house never cooled below 92. It is horrible sleeping in a furnace with no relief. That being said, and my complaining out of the way, the weekend was a busy but enjoyable one!

On Saturday we finalized putting together the swing set we bought for our daughter.




She LOVES it!  Saturday, in the sun and 103 degree heat, we had to drag a screaming, sweaty baby into the house and into a bath to cool her off. We are happy it is such a hit!! I think Bailey (Our retriever) is jealous that she doesn't get to play on the slide...

Later Saturday, when we realized our air wasn't going to be fixed until after the holiday decided to purchase this:


The pool was relatively inexpensive and is only 14'H x 4'D. It only took an hour to put together and about four times that long to get three feet of water in it. It was a huge success Sunday when we had our friends over to celebrate the Fourth.



For the Fourth we were lucky to be invited to my parents for some air conditioned fun. Kaity had a blast in the kiddie pool they have set up for her and couldn't get enough of her grandparents!



We finished off the day with homemade chocolate and vanilla (With mini chunks for peanut butter M&Ms) ice ceam.




Daddy and Mommy getting ice cream kisses from our baby!

Aside from the heat it was a great weekend! We didn't go out to watch fireworks because Kaitlynn is in bed before it gets dark enough but we were able to catch a few from our bedroom window. Hopefully next year she can stay up later enough to enjoy a fireworks show!


Wednesday, June 29, 2011

My addiction to Pottery Barn...

While browsing decorations for BBQ's and the Fourth of July I cam across some pretty cute items from Pottery Barn. I am addicted to their recycled glass collection which just screams summer time to me:

Casa Recycled Glassware, Set of 6

(I can just imagine drinking ice cold lemonade out of a frosty cold tumbler)

This wonderful mason jar mugs:
Mason Jar Mug, Set of 6

This cute condiment set
BBQ Condiment Set

Drink Dispensers
Decorator's Drink Dispenser

Outdoor Straws colored perfectly for the Fourth!
Outdoor Straws, Set of 12

The perfect table

Palmetto All-Weather Wicker Round Pedestal Dining Table & Set - Honey

Pottery Barn has the best ideas for entertaining and party planning!

Fourth of July

We are having a small get together Sunday the 3rd to celebrate the Fourth. We figured it would give people some time to recoup before going back to work on Tuesday. We are planning water balloon tosses, wade pools for the kids and plenty of delicious food. We are looking forward to spending quality times with friends but are dreading the impending Heat (It is expected to be 103! yikes!)

Here are a few of the tasty treats I've come across.

Revolutionary Berries

What you need:
12 oz. White Chocolate Chips
Strawberries
Blue Sugar

Watermelon Pop Stars

What you need:
Watermelon
Star Cookie Cutter
Cookie Sheet
Popsicle Sticks
Freezer

 Patriotic Ice Cream Cupcakes



Tuesday, June 28, 2011

New Baby!

It's been awhile since I've blogged... About two months! We've had a lot going on. On March 30 I found out I am expecting agian. I am thrilled.  Whats funny is that we are due just one day later than our daughters original due date, just two years later. Kaitlynn was due on December 8, 2009 and ended up being three and a half weeks early. The new baby is due December 9, 2011! The kids will be almost exactly two years apart!

My husband and I have a little bit of added stress when it comes to being pregnant. We are both carriers of cystic fibrosis and have a 25% chance of having a child with the genetic disorder. If you haven't done research on cystic fibrosis you should! Its a terrbile disease that is currently incurable. Needless to say after the testing, and the stress and the worry we are all clear! This baby is not even a carrier of the gene (Kaitlynn is a carrier although she does not have the disorder). Aside from finding out we are healthy, we also found out we are having a BOY! We are planning on more children so we aren't done but it is nice having one of each right away.

I am currently four months pregnant and am passed the morning sickness stage. I've just started to feel him move and can't wait for whats to come! We've started on the nursery and have the crib set up. The bedding is purchased and all we have to do is finish the decorating.

Here is a sneak peak at what are theme is for this little precious boy:

Harper Nursery Bedding

Brett Baseball Shade & Batter Up Base

Boys Baseball Print - Boys Toys Baseball

Baseball Sport Bookends

As you can see we are going with a vintage baseball theme. The bedding is a very crisp, clean navy that will be a great starting point for all the baseball accessories. We are going to keep a lot of the baseball stuff to a minimum while he is a baby and add to it as he gets older. We are thinking this theme will be able to grow with him and isn't too childish or corny. I am not a big fan of most boy nursery bedding.

I will post pictures as we get the nursery together. 

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

My Easter Brunch

I have been perusing the internet for inspiration for easter. I've finally narrowed down my color theme; pink, pale yellow, sage and blue. these things have been my inspiration;

It began with this cute invitation
Easter Brunch Collection - PRINTABLE INVITATION by Itsy Belle
Photo Courtsey of Itsybelle


I just ordered these straws from the Cupcake Social



I'm going to order these paper laterns from Luna Bazaar in pink, yellow, green and blue to match the color theme.


I think these are just adorable and would make cute additions to any table.
For the how to please visit All You

Thursday, March 10, 2011

My easter Deocrating has begun

Over the weekend I pulled out my easter tote and realized I didn't really have any decorations. Actually I had none. All I had was a couple of baskets and a whole bunch of plastic easter eggs. My husband informed me that last year I went crazy with plastic easter eggs in various apothecary jars around our old house. I also remembered that for table decorations for our easter brunch were tulips I had purchased the day before easter. I guess having a 5 month old at the time didn't really allow for much time to decorate.

 So I wanted to see what I could do with what I had and this is what I came up with this weekend.


I bought the branches at costco and I had the eggs. I did something similar in our dining room but I used cherry blossom branches. The pictures don't do the centerpiece justice. It is so much prettier in person!


Friday, February 25, 2011

Easter inspiration

We are just approaching March and Easter ins't until the end of April but I feel like you can never get a big enough head start on projects. While browsing the internet I felt inspired by these ideas. Hopefully you will be too...

Choco Eggs a la Martha Stewart- I saw this last year but ran out of time to try. I think this year I will do a couple of dry runs to see if they turn out.




I love this idea for my entry table. I saw a great bunch of cherry blossom stems at Costco for a really good price. I haven't seen any faux blossoms I like so I think I'm gonna go with the real ones.
 

The project on the left is really cute. The vases are made out of blown out ostrich eggs that can be found online.