A Birthday Party Fit for a Princess

Once upon a time in a far away land, there lived a little girl who dreamed of throwing super fun birthday parties for her future kids. Hello, that would be me for, ah, pretty much my whole life. I don't know what it is, but I have always ADORED birthdays (and pretty much every holiday for that matter. If you know me well you know this to be very true). I think I can thank my mom for instilling this deep love for celebrations in my life. She always made our birthdays very special growing up, and still to this day (even if she doesn't see us!) makes sure my siblings and I feel extra special on "our day." As far as the other holidays go, she decorates and celebrates them, but I might have taken that to a new level. What do you mean nobody else decorates for Christmas in October? And yes, actually, we do watch "Elf" all year long.   

  With that said, in my mind, a first birthday is almost as fun as Christmas. Hence, the fun I had preparing and putting togther this Princess party for our sweet Addilyn's first birthday. I mean, not only was it a first birthday, but I got to buy pink everything... sparkles, tutus and... oh my, it was fun. Here is our little princess on the day she was born, and then exactly a year later.

  Ok, now for the party. I decided to go all out and make all the food from scratch  for the Princess Brunch which consisted of: strawberry frosted donuts, baby quiche, deli circles, banana bread, cinnamon roll bites, hashbrown casserole, fruit kabobs and yogurt parfaits. AND my dad made some delicious frappachinos that had the cutest pink paper striped straws that I forgot to document with a picture. Dang it. All food wasn't out yet for this picture, but you get the idea... 

 

 

 Oh, and the cake... Since having kids I've found a new passion for making fancy birthday cakes. They are so fun! I told you I had much too fun preparing for this party!

    Addilyn loved all the attention, toddling around in her giant tutu, the hashbrown casserole and homemade donuts, and especially watching her big brother open all her presents. Since the party, Lukas has made the declaration that "even pink princess toys are for boys" and is sure excited about every new toy Addilyn has received.

 

  She really wasn't too impressed with my cake...  

I think she tried one bite. Oh well, at least all the other party guests seemed to enjoy it. ;)   Thanks to Pinterest, I stayed busy crafting and baking and whatnot for this party. I seriously had so much fun, it was kind of ridiculous. So you must see some of the projects because I spent too mcuh time preparing them. Below is a fun little chalkboard and the favors, which are pixie stick wands. The recipes for the food at the party will soon make their debut in the "recipes" tab of my blog. However I must first figure out how to get them there. Minor dilemma, yes. (Kalie, if you're reading this, another doughnut/coffee date is in order for more blog training...)   

 

 We are so thankful for all the friends and family that shared this special day with Addilyn. We loved having everyone over to celebrate with us!! Here are some family members that came to celebrate with us... ok really I just put this picture up because you can tell how overly excited I am. I know, ridiculous.

...SO that's the end of the party post, but I'm going to keep going with Addilyn's actual birthday celebrations in this post too. I'm a little slow when it comes to the blogging world so you'll have to bear with me here. I'm sure you won't mind, these pictures are just as cute. 

 

 The birthday girl woke up to some confetti pancakes to start her special day. She was a little concerned about the addition of sprinkles to her favorite breakfast item, but soon discovered they were quite splendid.  

 We then proceeded to go shopping and then to the park where we met Daddy and Mema and Loompa (Grandma and Grandpa on Jeff's side). We had some cupcakes, played with Addilyn's new princess ball, did lots of swinging, and of course the slides. It was the perfect morning to be outside!

The rest of the day consisted of Addilyn's favorite lunch of: mega noodle soup, strawberries, cheese sticks and chicken nuggets, lots of time playing outside, her favorite dinner: homemade mac n cheese, hamburgers, and peas, and another little celebration with just our family. Of course we had to have more cupcakes for the occasion. And I think after the 5th taste in the last several days, she decided she kind of liked it.  

Addilyn opened a few more presents from Mommy and Daddy and Lukas, we had a dance party (which is Addilyn's second favorite thing to do next to playing outside!) and just relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the birth-day. I loved that we got to celebrate our birthday girl for almost a whole week!  Have I mentioned I just LOVE birthdays?!

Oh yes, remember in my last post I mentioned a surprise the kids came home to from Phoenix? I think I said something along the lines of "look for a post about it in a few days!" Oops. You could say I got a little distrated with some small-ish party preparations. Well, the surprise was... A brand new re-done kid friendly backyard, with some new grass and a sweet new clubhouse! WOOP! The kids were thrilled! My kids absolutely LOVE to be outside. Like they would live out there if they could. Maybe it comes from living in a place that gets snow 6 months out of the year? Yes, yes, probably. So having a place to play outside for hours on end is a big deal for the summer. Oh, and its not in this picture, but Jeff also got me a nice red lounge chair I can sit in to watch the kids play and soak up some sunshine. That man sure knows the way to my heart.   

 Ah. Life is grand, isn't it? Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a beautiful, sun-shiny kind of day. 

 

Colorful Veggie Casserole

Ingredients

1 Cup chopped green onions

1 Large carrot, shredded

2 Celery Ribs, chopped

1 Small green pepper, chopped

1 Small sweet red pepper, chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

2 T Veggie oil

3 lbs frozen cubed hash brown potatoes, thawed

2 Cans condensed cream of chicken soup

1 1/2 Cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided

1 1/2 Cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

2 tsp. Dried parsley

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Paprika 

In a large skillet, saute onions, carrots, celery, peppers & garlic in oil until crisp-tender. Transfer to a large bowl, add hash browns, soup, 1 cup cheddar cheese, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, parsley & salt. Mix well. 

Pour into a greased 3-qt. baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses and paprika. Bake, uncovered @ 350° 1 hour or until golden brown. 

A Week in Phoenix

"The love of a family is life's greatest blessing." That's a quote I read that sits on my parents desktop when I first sat down to start this blog post several days ago in the midst of our Phoenix adventure. Have you ever just taken a moment to sit back and realize all you have to be thankful for? As I sat down, read that quote, and just thought for a moment, I took that moment to realize how blessed I am and came through it with a big smile and a happy heart. I am so blessed, and our recent adventures reminded me of all the joys I have to be thankful for. This is a long one; thought I should warn you now. Feel free to take a cookie or coffee break at any time.  

 To start things off, my brother (AKA Uncle Dude) married his beautiful bride, Michelle, on May 4th. It was a beautiful wedding with the sweetest vows, the cutest ring bearer, a super fun photo booth and some delicious cupcakes. I might be biased about the ring bearer, since I also think he's the cutest little boy on the face of the planet, but that's for you to decide. The kid strutted his stuff down the aisle, decided to "swim" in the flowers the flower girl tossed, never left the dance floor except to cool off with a Capri Sun, flirted with all the little girls and won the hearts of all in attendance. What can I say, my son is a stud.

  

My bestest best friend, Stephanie, flew in for the weekend from Texas for the wedding. I think everyone has at least one really good friend that you have known for quite some time, yet sadly don't see very often. So you know what I mean when I say that every time we see each other, we can just pick back up on life as if we saw each other yesterday. Despite only seeing each other every few years, she's still that one friend I look to for advice, prayer and just to tell the most recent funny story. If you don't have a friend like that, well you should.

    Anyways, she was accepted by all members of the family (immediate and extended) as "family," however, Lukas refused to say her name the majority of the weekend. He fondly referred to her as "that girl." Don't get me wrong, he loved her, but wasn't a fan of her name apparently. Stephanie's one request upon arrival to Arizona was to go on a hike. We almost blew off the mountain, Lukas found some turquoise and we somehow ended up off trail (I think I'm starting a trend here...) but eventually made it back to the car. Phew.  
Lukas was sure to point out every airplane along the hike and was sure to remind us often that we were, indeed, climbing a huge mountain and it was awesome.  

Family from across the country also flew in for the wedding. My cousin Melissa has 2 kids, Noah and Macy, who are around the ages of Lukas and Addilyn. They all had a blast together! The boys were constantly playing super-heroes, hide and seek, beat up grandpa ski-man, riding tricycles, playing at the park, flying kites and even hunting for scorpions with their black lights. Thank heavens they didn't find any. I feel like I might not have ever had a decent nights sleep at my parents house had they found some. Again, PHEW.

    There was no shortage of super heroes around the house!    
And to top things off, we celebrated my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. 60! You see, we don't have this much family together very often, so we had to celebrate all major events in the course of the next year pretty much all one time. And of course it meant another occasion to have more dessert. I'm down with that. My grandparents are a true example of a Godly marriage. I hope and pray that Jeff and I can reach 60+ years, be just as in love as they are and have an amazing legacy like they do to leave behind. My grandpa prays for every single family member every single morning by name, and has been doing so for the last 40 or so years. And my grandpa can still keep everyone laughing with his witty jokes and quite humerus personality. If you have had the pleasure of his company at any point in your life, you know just what I mean.   I know, aren't they the cutest?
Other Phoenix-adventures included: swimming, shopping, mani/pedis, amazing pork sandwiches, too many desserts (I'm not complaining), lots of laughs, my sister giving me a side mullet for the wedding (thank goodness we took it out and it looked fine leaving it down right before the wedding), a mini 1st birthday party cake smash with Addilyn and her BFF Harper to celebrate their May birthdays, and a trip to the zoo with a sweet friend and her adorable kids; oh and Lukas and I got to ride a camel. (Check that one off the bucket list!) Once we got home, the kids had a big surprise waiting for them that Daddy worked on while we were gone. But that will be another blog post, so look for it in the next few days! And now that we are home I think we will stay here and relax for at least a week. No matter how much fun a vacation is, it's always good to be home. Anyways, kuddos to you if you made it this far reading! Did you take a cookie or coffee break yet? You totally missed your chance if you didn't.  

 

 Who knew an almost one-year old would LOVE the zoo so much! Monkeys are now officially her favorite animal; she could have watched them all day. And here we thought she loved puppies...

 

My friend Amber, and her daughter Harper. Addilyn and Harper have May birthdays 2 weeks apart. Of course we had to get together to celebrate. And of course they had to have matching outfits. And yes, we've already planned to do this every year until they are at least 18.


See what I mean? SO blessed. Thank you, Jesus, for my family and all the blessings you have bestowed upon us. Ok, now it's your turn. Take a moment and remind yourself how blessed you are, too. And now go and have a beautiful day. OH! And don't forget to enjoy the little moments, like eating bubbles.

 

 

1.