Princess Tea Party 2012

My sister-in-law Debi invited us to join them again at the Norco High Princess Tea Party fundraiser.  It is a fundraiser for their choir programs, so I'm happy to support. If you remember last year, Brighton had a h-a--r-d time. Way too much attention for her.  I'm so happy that she has noticeable matured. She was all about it this time. She wanted curly hair that was "long, and with a bun" like Belle, and was so happy to get to where her "big ol' Belle dress". During the drive out there, she kept saying, "Mom, I look soooo gorgeous in my dress."  This year, she had no problems entering the building and even though she was a little shy at times, we didn't have any laying on floors or screaming NO! at people.

Boston however.... well, this picture shows how she wanted to wear her dress. She was so mad every time I pulled it up.

The center pieces at the party were the cutest.  Each table had a different princess scene on it.  Ours was Snow White. I took a pic of Beauty and Beast for Brighton.

Boston enjoyed the punch and food, and loved the singing.

Brighton loved everything. You could tell she felt so special in her dress, and loved making and drinking her real tea.

I can't begin to tell you how shocked I was when Brighton agreed to sit by Cinderella to take a picture. She just keeps surprising me lately! This is her princess pose.

We hit up the face painting...which we kept on for a solid 24 hours.

About 1/2 way through, I decided to change Boston into the backup dress I brought. Once she was free naked, she went crazy when I tried to put another dress on her.  So we stayed in our diaper for a few minutes to avoid a "scene"...

Because I'm sure this wasn't a "scene" at all!

 

She eventually let me put her dress on without a complete tantrum.  We had a great time overall, and will definitely do it again!

Just one more picture of gorgeous gal.

Easter Brunch 2012

Last Friday I hosted my 3rd annual Easter Brunch. I've always loved Easter. If you asked me as a kid what my favorite holiday was, I would say Easter. So I've decided to make that my holiday to host a fun get together.  I forgot to take pictures before we started eating, but you get the idea.

Yummy brunch food: lemon scones, apple cinnamon muffins, hashbrown/egg nests, waffles, bacon, fruit, virgin sangria and other various drinks.  

After eating the girls made bracelets with chunky beads and pipe cleaners.  I tell ya, pipe cleaners are the best way to go. So easy!

Then we headed to our tiny patch of grass for an egg hunt (or more realistically, an egg pick up). Our possum friend didn't join us this year.

Boston was a little slow and only gathered 2-3 eggs.  Here is the look on her face when she realizes there aren't any more. "Huh?" She cracks me up.

Then back inside for more playing and mom chatting. The girls all played so well together and seemed to have a great time. They each got a little foam purse and stickers craft to take home as well.  Thanks for coming everyone! We love having you all over :)

A Night in Italy

If you didn't know, I am the 2nd counselor in our Young Women's program at church. Every year we put on a dinner and auction to raise money for them to go to Girls Camp.  This year we did "A Night in Italy" as our theme. All of the girls made either spaghetti, lasagna, or fettuccine to bring. And we provided an awesome salad and toasted garlic bread. The cost was $5 per person or $30 per family.

Members of the ward brought baked goods for us to auction off live, and we also had a silent auction going in the back with services the YW were auctioning off (babysitting, dog walking, window washing, etc.).

Between the dinner, live and silent auctions, we made just under $2700.  Covering the cost for all of our young women, including an awesome non-member, to go.

I was put in charge of the decorations, and thought they turned out cute.  I mean, there is only so much you can do with a gym, and a limited budget.

I found this awesome website and printed 99 cent 8x10's (thanks to a promotion Walgreen's was running) to hang along he back wall, like an art gallery. I glued them on cardstock and then on 1/2 sheets of poster board to make them bigger. 

I found chef hats for a good price on amazon, and had them shipped and on my porch in 2 days.  I love amazon.  The girls were awesome to comply with my request that they wear them :)

Our menu.  When I think of an Italian restaurant, especially in movies, I always picture it with a chalkboard menu. (Thank you Megan!)

I saw an idea on pinterest (of course) to chain together tissue poms to hang along walls at different lengths. Although probably just as cheap as balloons, you couldn't pay me enough money to make 114 of them (the number of balloons we blew up...thank you Justin for your air compressor).  I ended up really liking the balloons though. They reminded me of grapes, which makes me think of Italy as well.

But we did make 6 large poms to hang on either side of the stage.


My favorite, the centerpieces. Vases from the dollar tree, carnations from Flower Works, Italian parsley and a lemon slice.  I bought red damask fabric from Joann's to make squares for each table, and printed more Italian photos in wallet size to scatter around.


To complete the "mood", I downloaded an album of Il Divo (Pop/Opera) to play while everyone ate.  

Some of our girls performed a Samoan dance as entertainment for our guests. And we ran a slide show of pictures from our different activities.


I think people enjoyed themselves :)

I am so glad it is over though!

September in Pictures

Just a quick run down of things we did in September.

 Lots of playing together.

Playing in the rain.

My van got backed into. Yes, another accident. Go ahead, make jokes. The girl was driving her boyfriends car. She didn't want her mom to find out, so they paid us cash instead of going through insurance. I'm pretty sure I took their whole life savings, including a dollar coin. Funny story.  I met the boyfriend at a park where I was having a meeting Tot Lot so that he could give me the money.  It totally looked like a drug deal with this skater kid handing me a envelope full of cash. I quickly counted it, pocketed it, and departed. Oops!

Brighton had her first field trip (she's not in the picture, she was way too scared). But they had Prehistoric Pets come and show the kids a bunch of snakes, turtles, frogs, etc. It was fun, and Boston even got to come. 

We had our first family movie theater experience. We saw The Lion King. Boston was in awe. She sat through 90% of it. A quick walk up and down the stairs and then she ate fruit snacks on my lap until the end.

We've entered the awkward smile phase.

These girls love baths. Boston is a fish. She loves to lay down, and then flip over (almost drowning herself) and then sit up and repeat.

A VERY rare picture. After lunch at Chick Fil A and then the Aquarium with an old friend.

Movie night in mommies bed. I've been waiting for these evenings for a long time. So much fun.

Play dates with our bestie Adalie.

Bachelorette GNO with Kristy and the other sister-in-laws. Sorry, I don't have any pictures of Darrel and Kristy's wedding!

This munchkin does not leave home without her blankie and baba.She is 100% hooked.

I don't really let her drag it all over, but she tries!

 **HOLD UP** Is she sleeping? On the floor? Not in a bed? YES she is! (I think I heard angels singing when I saw this). This is the first, I repeat first time Brighton has ever fallen asleep around the house. As Braden and I were starring at her he says, "We finally have a normal child".

The only picture I somehow took while at the aquarium.

And last, we got a few cute and sassy outfits from Nana and Grandma.  Thank you!