Taylor's Ice Cream Shop Party

This theme was so much fun!  Our friends/neighbors are going into the ice cream catering business so this is where we got the idea for an ice cream shop party.  They were so kind to let us borrow the machine!

 

We had a mishap with the ice cream cone cupcakes.  My sister (yay! she was here from Cincinnati!) helped me make them all the night before, so they'd be ready to frost before the party.  But the next day they were so soggy and falling over.  So just a few hours before the party we had to redo all of them.  This left us running around like crazy until minutes before guests started showing up.

Which also meant I didn't have much time to take pictures.  I just grabbed my camera and took as many quick shots as I could, seconds before the party began.  So between me rushing to snap them, not having my good lens on, and another reminder of how I want to paint my red walls so badly -  I didn't get very good pictures.

 

The perfect ice cream machine for our birthday girl....

 

And I finally got to use the ice cream kit idea from Pinterest that I've had pinned for a long time. 

 We sent all the cousins and friends home with a kit to share with their siblings.  I had high hopes of making a cute tag, but I ran out of time.

 

 

I struggle with knowing how to mix friends and family for birthday parties.  Our house just seems to get way too full.  And I haven't wanted to do 2 different parties, although it may come to that.  But the ice cream machine was a fun theme to have some of Taylor's friends join us for.

 

 

It was such a beautiful fall day.  Good thing, because I didn't have any activities planned for the kids.  So I was glad they just enjoyed themselves outside.

 

 

 

And of course we always love that some of the cousins are always there to help celebrate too!

You can obviously tell it was K-State game day, I couldn't get the birthday girl to wear anything else.

 

 

They were kind of eating up the camera being in front of them, so I just went with it.

 

 

And the day was even more special because Cousin Alice was with us!! 

 

 

Thanks to all our friends and family for helping us celebrate our favorite 6 year old!

 

 

A few links:

Ice cream bowls: TomKat Studio

Paper straws:  I can't find the hot pink ones anymore, but here's the brand that I got.  Why can't they create these same cute straws in plastic!!!!  Paper straws are just kind of weird.  But I love them anyway.

Chevron party plates and napkins: Oriental Trading

Birthday Banner: made by the fabulous Heather at CM handmade

Ice Cream Kit Party Favor: idea from Pinterest , the link led me to Tip Junkie but never found the ice cream kits

party sneak peak {taylor's ice cream shop}

 

Taylor turned 6 on Saturday and we celebrated with her own little ice cream shop party!

It was such a fun theme for a party - thanks to our friends who hooked us up with a self-serve ice cream machine!

 

 

Here's just a small peak.  I hope I can get to the rest of the pictures soon.

 

I have a love-hate relationship with Photoshop Elements - it's taking me forever to learn it.  I still have so much to learn.  But everytime I try to create something I do better than the last time.  It takes me a long time sometimes, but I suprisingly whipped up this invitation in no time.

Good thing, since I usually get invitations out at the very last minute.

 

 

 More to come soon.

the pumpkin patch

Before our weekend gets crazy with family and a birthday celebration, I'll catch up on some pictures.

 

We went to the pumpkin patch last weekend. 

 

And that is that.

Gavin {10 months}

And so another month has passed.

 Gavin seemed to really have grown up this month. Maybe I've said that other months, but this month he really changed a lot.

 

 

And YAY for a better photo session!  We didn't get great smiles, but we didn't have tears either.

Dave was great help this time. (I started warning him a few days before hand what day we'd be doing the pictures, to give him time to prepare).  I was glad for some warmer temperatures one day so we could be outside.  I'm not sure we'll be able to do it outside this month or next.

 

 

I had no intentions of getting our lovely 70's style house in the background.  But I did.  Sometimes there is just too much to think about when trying to snap as fast as I can before the baby decides to relocate.  Oh well.

 

At 10 months you said your first word.  At Bluegrass, as you reached for your daddy, you said "Dada" as clear as could be!  We were both so excited.  Of course your daddy was much more excited than I was.  But you haven't said anything since.

You are definitely jabbering a lot, but just no words yet.

But you do still love to use your voice to scream.  I laugh now at all the people who said you were such a quiet baby.  You were.  You cried such a soft cry.  But you are making up for it now.  When you're happy and when you're mad, you just SCREAM.  And it still really hurts our ears.

 



 

This month you decided you were completely done with baby food.  So big people food it is.

And you are finally starting to get good at that sippy cup. 

 

I think you are going to be my "climb on everything, open every cupboard door you aren't supposed to child"  I'm sure someone would maybe think it's not fair that I haven't had one of those babies yet. Our other two children hardly even required much baby-proofing. So I'm glad you feel like you can fulfill that role.  It is pretty common that someone is fishing something out of your mouth every 10 minutes.  Even when I think there s nothing for you to find.

Dirt, string, marbles, Lego's, leaves, and even a dead fly that I swatted and never found, you found it, and chewed on it for who knows how long.

 

You seriously are all over the place.  And I have a whole other post coming on all that.

 

You love the dog and you love balls.  If we lay on the floor and give you access to "wrestle" with us, you are all over that.

 

 

At 10 months you clapped for the first time and are walking with your push toy all over the place.

 



 You continue to be a rock star sleeper. So good that I can even put you down for nap in the strange church nursery and after you fuss for a few minutes you lay down and go to sleep. Your brother and sister would never have even considered that. That makes mommy's morning-a-week at church so much easier! And leaves you so much happier.

 

You are beginning the stage of getting super upset when Mommy leaves the room, or hands you off to someone else.  You've needed to be held a lot more lately and you don't want me to leave you.  There are times I need your brother or sister to take you to your room to play or hold you (you know, like times I need to go to the bathroom or shove food in my mouth), and you don't appreciate their willingness to help AT ALL. 

 But when Daddy's home, it seems to be a different story.  You get so excited to see your Daddy walk in from work and you crawl as fast as your little hands and knees can move to get to him. It's so sweet to watch him scoop you up.  And then you get very mad when he puts you down so he can shower.  You are definitely becoming a Daddy's boy.

 (And then he decided he was done with pictures)

 

 

 Happy 10 months little guy! 

You're our little SUNSHINE, and we love you so much!

a new look

I was ready for a fresh new look for my blog.  I've had an idea for a long time of what I was going for, and debated and debated whether to try to do it myself or have someone else do the design.  As soon as I started designing my own header and then looking into some of the other elements and installation process, I got overwhelmed.  I LOVE to learn new things, and have had so many tutorials and stuff saved over the last few years to learn.  But when it comes down to it, having the time to do it is just not possible.  So after searching and searching and then finding a great deal going on in August, I used Tricia Nae Designs.  And I'm so happy I did.  It's done.  I'm happy with it.  And Tricia did such a good job!

I realized after we got half way through the design process that we will be getting our family pictures taken in early November, and I'll finally have good updated pictures of everyone.  But it's an easy fix once we get them.

* There are still a few things hopefully coming.   Like different horizontal navigation links, and possibly some changes in the sidebar. 

*I'll be getting rid of the list of blogs on my sidebar soon. But I thought I'd give you warning, just in case any of you use those links to get to other blogs.  So make sure to get them saved now.  I'm taking them off because I have completely failed at updating them and I don't use it myself anymore.  I've been following my favorite blogs through Google Reader. 

*You can follow me easily now on Pinterest, Instagram and Google Reader.

 

*I got rid of my old blog name.  I went back and forth on this decision for awhile.  But in the end, I followed Megan's advice to "only do what you want to do on your blog" and "nobody else gets a say in it."  HA!  Thanks Megan!  I wanted to change it.  So that's that. :-)

 

*The design and colors are a total reflection of my style lately.  I love chevron.  I love yellow, turquoise and red together.  I love gray. And I love washi tape.

Which I came to realize that other than the washi tape, my blog now matches my baby boy's nursery.  Kind of weird, but oh well. 

But really, my blog is perfect for me (right now).

It's colorful and cheery, it's fresh and new, it's simpler and cleaner.

YAY!

InstaFriday

I've had a handful of friends and family who have asked me to explain the purpose of Instagram before. Such silly people.
So I have many times said "it's like super-speed blogging, throughout the day if I want".
I love blogging.  So I love Instagram.
But you definitely don't have to love blogging to love IG.  My hubby is on Instagram, he really likes it.  But he doesn't blog. If you were wondering.

And today when I clicked over to Life Rearranged to link up for InstaFriday - the first line of her post read...
"I heard Instagram referred to as micro-blogging"
EXACTLY.  Perfect description.  Even better than mine.
There's just something I love about freezing moments in time and journaling (even just a few words) about them.

Here's a little peak at the past few weeks through Instagram and just a few others that didn't make it on Instagram.

1.  I turned another year older.  We celebrated with a night out at one of my favorite restaurants. 

2. I woke up to flowers that Mason and Dave picked out on the way home from dropping Taylor off at the bus stop.

3. We've had a fun little thing we do since the kids were pretty young...if it's night when we pick them up from Nana and Papa's, they get to drive home.  (since it's just a few blocks and hardly any traffic).  Mason is getting sooooo good. Honestly. Dave takes his hands off the wheel and we just tell him to keep it in the middle.  We of course are going so super slow.

4. Last year I was pregnant with 6 close friends.  Now those babies are all starting to turn 1. Not sure why they think it's okay to do that.  Gavin got to help celebrate the first of them!



5. We had a night out with some friends, for dinner and the Hillsong United concert.  There is something so completely amazing and encouraging to be in a huge crowd of people singing and worshipping. It was an awesome night!



 6. We started our first no-school Friday with a breakfast date to McDonald's.

7. This little guy has found a new form of entertainment that lasts for a long long time.  Too bad it takes up so much room or else I'd have it out all the time.

 7. My cute stripey boys.

8. And Fall might finally be here!  We went from the 80's to the 50's in one day. So hot chocolate and fresh cookies were waiting on the kiddos when they got home from school.

Happy Friday!  YAY for fall!!

Hope you enjoy your weekend.