Cousin Danyelle's Bridal Shower

On Saturday, my mom and I hosted a bridal shower for my cousin, Danyelle. Everything turned out really great, despite the horrible weather. I just hope she was happy with what we did ; ) I "stole" this idea from another shower I did some scrap booking for: guests had to fill out a piece of advice for the newlyweds and then I took a picture of the bride along with the person that filled out the advice. I'm then going to put the advice and the picture in a book as a keepsake.
I made a card box that Danyelle and Chris can use at the reception. I used a regular box, some craft paper, and the bride and groom that I hadmade for the invitations as accents for the box.

Gift table

We bought a plainly decorated cake and I made more of the bride and groom accents that I used for the invitations and the gift box.

Cake table. I found some really cute napkins with a "D" on them and I also found the cute "D" and "C" pots at Hobby Lobby. I put Gerber daisies in the pots since those are her bouquet flowers.

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.

Our 10th Anniversary

Yesterday was our 10th anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long! We had a pretty uneventful day, went swimming and out to dinner with the kids. It wasn't Hawaii like we wanted, but it was the next best thing : ) Chris got me a super cute Precious Moments figurine with a couple on it and a big number 10 in a heart. It's kind of a tradition...I got one when we were dating, one when we were engaged, one when we got married, one when our first child was born, and now one for a milestone anniversary. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures to post today.