Colt's Second Birthday

Colt got some really great gifts! Everyone was so thoughtful! The train was a really big hit with all the kids. I don't know if the girls thought it was theirs or Colt's but they have officially taken it over ; )

Colt's Party Decorations

On Sunday we had Colt's Second Birthday party. Of course, it was Spider Man : ) Many of the decorations were store-bought, but I decided to make a few:
On the treat bags, I hand made the little spider web tags. I found a Spider man movie font and typed the kids' names on white card stock and then drew webs around each name.

I didn't want to spend the extra money on a birthday banner, so I drew the same font as on the gift box tags on a larger piece of card stock and then did the webs around each letter. I then hand drew the Spider Man heads and threaded the letters and the heads together.

The cake was store bought. It had all the Spider Man characters on it.

We had a wonderful day with friends and family...we are truly blessed with wonderful people in our lives : )

My Birthday/Hula Party

Yesterday was my 32nd birthday. We had a great weekend: my mom and I took Ella (Grace had a prior birthday at a friend's) to get manicures and pedicures at my friend, Nikki's, salon. Sunday we went out to dinner with my in-laws to The Olive Garden. Chris and the girls got me a VERY cute Mickey/Minnie Mouse figurine and my mother in law got me a gift certificate for a facial. Earlier that morning, I took the girls to a Hula party sponsored by Grace's Girl Scout troop. We all wore leis, flowers in our hair, grass skirts and learned how to dance the Hula.
This is Ella, Grace, and Taryn (our baby sitter's daughter).

I couldn't find anything else to wear, so I wore Chris's Hawaiian shirt : )

Grace's 6th Birthday Party

We finally celebrated Grace's birthday party! We were going to celebrate at Chuck E. Cheese's, but decided at the last minute to just have cake and ice cream at the house since we all had to go to school the next day. With just a few family members (lots less than usual) we had a nice small garden party. She received lots of nice gifts and got to play with mu brother Donnie's kids.

Grace's Birthday and the Dunes

On Wednesday, we went to the Warren Dunes in Michigan for Grace's sixth birthday. We were pretty nervous on the way there because storms and clouds were rolling in about half way there, but the day turned out to be a beautiful one! Chris made her a sandy cake and she blew out her six stick candles : ) It was Colt's first time at the big beach and he loved the water and especially the sand - we had to keep a real close eye on him because he kept wanting to throw the sand at everyone (leave it to Colt) : ) We had a wonderful time and got a little sun and best of all, we got to spend some quality family time before school starts next week.

Ella and the Girls

Here's Ella on her birthday with her cousin Anna, who just turned five in April, and Grace, who will be six next month. I was playing around with FotoFlexer online. Very fun site! Adding frames and playing with the colors were really neat - lots of cool things you can do.

Ni Hao Kai-lan Birthday Party

On Friday, we had Ella's 4th birthday party. She decided on a Ni Hao Kai-lan party. We decided on a cupcake cake with Kai-lan on it since it seemed less messy. I also made some homemade cupcakes decorated like the sun from the cartoon with marshmallow clouds. Instead of traditional treat bags, I decided on Chinese takeout boxes with the phrase "Thank you coming to my party!" in Chinese characters. I also did personalized name tags of the secondary characters for the boxes - each of the children's names were in Chinese (the picture of the pink rhino). In the boxes, I had chopsticks, fans for the girls, Chinese candies that I purchased at a local Oriental grocery store, bouncy balls for the boys, and other goodies. I made a Chinese dragon that snaked around the room and I also decorated with Chinese lanterns around the room. For eats we had the regulars - chips, hot dogs, veggie tray, etc. - but Ella's Aunt Sarah made Chinese spring rolls, her Grandma Ruthie made almond cookies, and I made Bing Tang Hulu, which is candied fruit on skewers. They didn't turn out exactly as I planned, but they were still delicious. All of the food items and eating utensils had labels in the native Chinese (you can see this better in the food picture above). Ella wore her authentic Chinese dress and chopsticks in her hair. She was so cute! She received many wonderful and thoughtful gifts from everyone...We are so blessed to have so many fabulous family members! It was such a great day, we can't wait until Grace's birthday next month!

Happy Birthday Ella!!

Ella is officially four today!! Eventhough her actual birthday is today, we won't be celebrating with family and a party until Friday evening at Grandma and Grandpa Brown's. Daddy had to be out of town today, so we didn't do anything too terribly exciting - she played with a neighbor friend and we had ballet class to attend. More pictures of Ella and her Ni hao Kai-lan party will come Saturday morning.

Ella's Fourth Birthday

This is a picture of Ella's Kai-lan invitation. The eyes and hair were the hardest to make - lots of little cuts with tiny scissors!

Her birthday is fast approaching. She has decided to have a NiHao Kai-lan/Chinese themed party. It's really giving me a run for my money! Ella's grandma Ruthie (Chris's mom) bought her an authentic Chinese dress, fashion chopsticks to put in her hair, and a really pretty silk Chinese fan. We're having the party at Grandma Vicki's (my mom) house since everyone who is coming is from the Lagrange area.

We decided on a Kai-lan cupcake cake, finger foods, and I'm making Chinese Firecracker Candied Fruit Sticks for fun. I hand made all of the invitations myself since I enjoy scrap booking. (I make all the kids' invitations myself) I also decided to hand make a huge paper dragon that I'm going to string on fishing line out on the porch. Each child will also get a Chinese take out box full of Chinese goodies, such as chopsticks, fans, Chinese finger traps, Chinese penny candy, fortune cookies, etc. I also made handmade goodie bag tags in the shapes of Kai-lan's friends with the kids' names on them written in Chinese.


My mom and I found some great paper lanterns and a few Kai-lan decorations at the local Party & Card Outlet Store (they have the best selection!) My biggest exciting find was the Chinese take out boxes - they were kind of hard to find.
I'll post all of the pictures after the party (on July 23rd).