Lola Turns "Free"

Lola turned three ("free" is how she says it) today!
Wowwee, I thought that because she actually slept in this morning that we were going to have a great day, DIVA free (at least until her party was over)...WRONG!
She bounced right out of bed and got dressed for dance class, we even washed and dried her hair extra special. She loved it! When it came time to go to class, birthday girl threw the fit of her life! She refused to go to dance class, she said she just wanted to watch TV. Over my dead body (she pulled the same crap last week, only in the middle of dance class, at least this one started at home)! We told her that she couldn't have her party if she didn't go to dance and she agreed! She then proceeded to say she didn't feel good! We even told her that she would have to rest the whole day without any TV, and she still said okay. Seriously?! What little birthday girl calls off her own party? I put down a $75 deposit at Build-A-Bear, how was I going to just cancel her party with like an hour and a half to spare?
Finally, with less than half of dance class left to go, she agreed to go and try (she is transitioning from parent/child class to big girl class and it is an hour earlier with a new teacher). She saved herself and was able to have her party, but not without a fight!
Let the "Trying Three's" begin!

With that being said, we did a have a fabulous time at Build-A-Bear!
The party lasted about and hour and our hostess Amber was amazing with the kids!
I think I would be safe in stating that every kid left there a pretty happy camper!

Thank you to all of Lola's friends that joined her and made her day so special!

We REALLY BIG love you Lola!
Happy 3rd Birthday to the BIGGEST little diva I know!

Enough Said.

They make everything WORTH IT.

Happy Birthday, Fishhead!

We have this tradition in our family, he who has the birthday picks where they want to eat their birthday dinner! Kyan and I ALWAYS pick Ah-So, Chad almost always picks McGrath's (if he ever leaves dinner choices up to us, this isn't on our list of stops)! This is exactly where he picked to eat tonight and we ate a wonderful meal as an extended family (usually it is just the four of us). We were joined by my parents, his mama, my brother and two kiddos (we haven't seen them in forever). Not only was the food delicious, but the company was even better!

At the end of dinner, the staff put a giant fish on Chad's head and we sang "Happy Birthday" to him! No one could have looked better and I think is the perfect addition to what I have decided will be my running list of reasons why I love my boo (read the other 31 from last year's birthday post here):
32. You look HOT even with a giant fish on your head!

*please excuse the horrible blackberry pictures in this post. camera phones are no good*

The highlight for the kids: LOBSTERS!
We spent a good 15 minutes watching three of those bad boys fighting over a spot in the corner! The kids were giggling the entire time and picking out which lobster they were!
Thought this picture was cute of the cousins (another one with the old blackberry, horrible I tell you), all lined up at the lobster tank, in birth order!

Happy Birthday Chad!

We really BIG love you.

Not Just Any Sunday...

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!

Yesterday, we hosted our first Super Bowl party, (surprisingly, I didn't take as many pictures as I normally do, guess I was trying to just be in the moment). It was amazing, we were surrounded by old and new friends and family (meant the world to us that you were there), delicious food (ordered one to many sandwiches, so I sent everyone out the door with lunch for a few days this week), football, commercials (think the VW Beetle was my favorite), and one heckofa half time show (might have been the best one I have seen to date)!
It was a day for remembering too, and remember Brion I did, all weekend. When I was coming home from the second trip to the grocery store on Saturday, I was overwhelmed with memories of him, I let a few tears fall, then pulled myself together before I got home. You see, the Super Bowl parties were always his thing (his parties were always so much fun and where every body went), so to carry on his tradition, it feels pretty special, like a big part of him is/was/will be there with us always. I think we pulled off a party that he would have been proud of and we look forward to carrying on his tradition for years to come!

Thank you to everyone who came to the party!
We hope you had just as much fun as we did!

Valentine's Day Wreath

I LOVE it!

My poor hubby had to suffer through many a movies with the lights on (he hates having to do this) so that I could cut out strips of felt to roll into flowers!
I started this wreath about a month ago, with full intention of finishing it in one weekend, but I discovered that I get sidetracked very easily and start something new, before something old isn't finished!
I am sad that this bad boy only gets to hang for a week, it turned out better than I could have wished for.

Do you LOVE it too?
Want to make your own?
Super easy (just very time consuming, trust me)!

What you need:
heart shaped wreath
2 yards felt
hot glue gun
hot glue
ribbon
scissors


Step One:
Cut circle (any and all shapes and sizes) out of felt.
Scallop edeges (as seen in upper left hand corner square), it gives more dimension to the flower.
Begin rolling felt in a circle (shown on bottom pictures).

Step Two:
Once you have finished rolling, hot glue the bottom to hold the flower together.


Step Three:
Tie a ribbon onto the back of wreath (I would recommend doing this part first, and I will if I ever made this again) and hang on the door of choice!

I thought that I LOVED it before it was hung, but when I saw it this afternoon, I LOVED it even more! Here it is, one more time, all done...for your viewing pleasure (ok, mine too)!

Linking up with some of my favorite party people!

Make Your Own Baby Legs

So, she first caught my attention when she said that she made her boy some baby legs (two pairs) in less than 15 minutes! I learned that she got the tutorial from here and realized it really was that easy!!! So tonight I made a pair for Lola and I have to say, I LOVE them and so does she!

Here is what I started with:

First, you have to cut apart some of the sock that you won't need anymore.

Then I pinned.

Up next, sewing the two parts together!

Taaaaa-Daaaaaa!

I had to try them on Lola right away, they were perfect (actually, far from it, but they are so cute). The part that I sewed is meant for the top (as it is bigger typically than the ankle), but because of the skull's placement, this pair will be worn the opposite way (which actually turned out better). Can't wait to have her put them on for dance class tomorrow!

I took this picture right before dance class! LOVE them still!

We Accomplished A Lot Today!

Today turned into a very productive day, part was expected, the other part, no so much!

What we knew that would happen today is that Lola would be starting her dance classes as a BIG girl! That is right, no more mommy/daddy and me classes and she couldn't have been more excited! This was partly due to the fact that this class is more than just ballet and she gets to rock the tap shoes too!
And there she is actually in class...no more mommy! She has no problem being Miss Independent, and did a great job in class. In fact, when it was time to put on her tap shoes, she didn't want to come out of the room for me to help her, she wanted her teacher to! She is such a big girl!
It was so much fun watching her!

Ok, so then after dance class, we knew we were going to Costco to stock up on food, some for now and some for our Super Bowl party next weekend. Well, we spent more money than we ever have there (and my hubs said we didn't even get anything really cool to show for it...ha!) and got enough food to feed a small army! I immediately started thinking about the condition that the pantry was in and knew there was NO WAY that any of it was going to fit.

Insert unexpected productivity of today.

I did not plan on reorganizing the pantry for like 6 hours, I needed to do lesson plans and finish my wreath! Duty calls sometimes I guess.

Although it is embarrassing, I feel like if I show the before picture, my pantry will never look like this again!

Seriously, there was little (very little) rhyme or reason as to what went where. Before anything new could go in, everything had to come out!
My kitchen looked like this for several hours. Want to know the most random thing pulled out of the pantry? A hand-saw. It was on the top shelf, I am sure that I am the one that put it there in an effort to save a little time, I don't know why I do that, I just do! I am proud to say that it is now safely put away in the garage thank you very much!

After a trip to the Dollar Store to get plastic storage bins to help with the organizing and several hours later, I finally have a clean pantry!
All of the kids snack items and food choices were moved to the bottom two rows so that picking out their food could be nice and easy! The appliance that are rarely used are still housed on the top shelf, along with the paper towels. All of the cleaning supplies are to the right when you walk in, but are high enough off the ground that the kids can't really reach (although they do love to help their mama clean)!

It was worth the several hours that it took to get it looking so nice! After I was finished I got to sit down to a wonderful dinner prepared by Short Round (what Kyan asked to be called from now on, hoping that it is only for tonight) and the hubs! I even got to enjoy a bath uninterrupted, while everyone was entertained by an Indian Jones movie downstairs! A little piece of heaven that was for me!

PS - I know this has nothing to do with my post, but I just wanted to share my latest food obsession. I want to eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It annoys Chad about any food I do this with, just so happens that right now it is Edamame! I already ate it for lunch today, but am thinking about eating another bag before I go to bed...