The Liebster Award

My blogger friend Holly over at Mr. Mrs. and 5 Little Misses nominated me for a Liebster award!  This is an award for small bloggers (less than 200 followers) for their contribution to the blogger world.  Thanks Holly!

Here are the rules:

1. Thank the Liebster blog presented who nominated you and link back to their blog.
2.  Post 11 facts about yourself by answering the 11 questions you were asked and create 11 questions for your nominess.
3. Nominate 11 blogs who you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been nominated.  
4. Display the Liebster award logo.
5.  No tag backs-you can not nominate someone who nominated you.

So here are the questions Holly asked me:

1. What is your favorite vacation spot?  I know this is going to sound super simple, but my favorite place to go is the Oregon Coast.  It is so pretty and I absolutely love living in a place where the mountains and especially the beach are an hour away.  Every year for the past five years we have made it a priority to go to the coast as a family for almost a week and just RELAX.  We don't make plans, we don't do anything special, we just chill. We like to watch movies, play at the beach, and we build a fire each night on the beach to have smores.  The girls love the beach and we look forward to it each year.
2. Tell us your children's names and what made you chose the name you did.  I have always wanted a daughter named Grace.  Originally Sydney was going to be Grace but it just didn't seem to fit.  We were watching a re-run of the show Alias one night, with Jennifer Garner.  This was one of my favorite shows when I was in college but Chris had never seen it. Jennifer Garner's character was named Sydney in the show. All of a sudden we were like "SYDNEY!!"  It was perfect and she became Sydney Grace.  We really liked it because Chris' middle name is Spain and it's another destination that starts with an S.  So when we were pregnant with Savannah we decided to pick another destination that starts with an S and we loved Savannah.  We chose Faith as a middle name because we wanted something Biblical like Grace.  So we have Sydney Grace and Savannah Faith.  
3. Are you planning on having any more children?  This is a little bit of a touchy subject.  We desperately want to have another child but we absolutely can not afford it.  So we are done, but only because we have to be.  There are many tears on a regular basis because of this.  
4. Do you prefer to have your nails painted?  I don't have my finger nails painted because they chip so easily but I do always have my toe nails painted.
5. What's your biggest pet peeve?  Ok this is a funny one.  You know how when you're driving down the road and a song you love comes on the radio?  And you know how when that song comes on you usually turn the radio up?  Or in my case, crank it up?  I absolutely hate it when people keep talking when you have turned up a song and usually have announced "I love this song!"  So you turn it up, and they talk louder, and so you turn it up, and they talk louder, and it drives me crazy!
6. Tell us about your best friend.  My best friend for the last 16 years is Melissa.  I've talked about her tons on here.  My mom grew up with her parents in the same church, now Melissa and I are super close, and now our daughters are third generation friends.  It's so fun to have that kind of a history with someone and their family!  Melissa and I dated best friends in high school.  Thank heavens those relationships didn't work out but Melissa and I remained close after those relationships ended.  We were in each other's weddings and our girls were born a day apart.  We have tons in common and she is my fellow party fanatic.  We both love to go all out on parties and we could literally talk for hours about parties.  
7. If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?  I don't like animals.  Period.  So if I had to be something I would be a unicorn because there are unicorns in Harry Potter and I love Harry Potter.
8. What's your favorite way to spend a Saturday with your hubby?  I honestly don't think Chris and I have had a Saturday alone since we had kids.  We are both home bodies and we honestly prefer to stay home and be with our kids.  We don't really do "girls night outs" or "guys nights out" that often with our friends, we never leave to go away for the weekend, with each other or with friends, because we just want to be home with our kids.  But, if Chris and I were going to be just together for a day I think it would be fun to go to Seattle.  Maybe go see a Mariners game, walk around the market, hit up Hobby Lobby (because there isn't one here and that's the closest one), and get some coffee.  That would be fun.  Maybe this year for our anniversary!
9. What was your first car?  I had a white Ford Tempo that I purchased on my own for $800.00  It was awesome!  My mom drove me to my first job three times a week and then I did tons of babysitting so I could buy it.  I valued it way more since I bought it myself and took great care of it.
10. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?  I love living here in Oregon and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.  If I had to choose somewhere, it would be the fictional town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, the setting for Gilmore Girls.
11. What's your least favorite food?  I can not stand Thai food.  I have tried but it is just terrible!  The worst date I ever went on in college was to a Thai restaurant and it was all down hill from there.  I love pizza and See's chocolate, and anything Mexican.

These are the questions for my nominations:

1. What is your favorite book and why?
2. Who is your hero or mentor?
3. What is your favorite Bible verse and why?
4. How did you meet your spouse?
5. What is a crazy random fact about you?
6. If your children had been born the opposite gender, what would their names have been?
7. What is your favorite TV show that is no longer new on the air?  (Re-runs are fine.  For example, Friends is on re-runs but no longer new on the air so it would be a good answer).
8. What is your greatest accomplishment?
9. How do you feel about your name?
10. What was your least favorite subject in school?
11. What is your favorite color and why?

Here are my nominations:

1. BrettandPatti
2. Camp Campos
3. KernerCorner
4. BanmanLand
5. WorkinProgress
6. SwankySouthernYankee
7. FebruaryJill
8. MarteneyLove
9. TheLaRueFam2
10. WiensWorld
11. SouthernBlonde

Thanks Holly!  This was fun!

Minnie's Bowtique Party

 Last week we celebrated Savannah's third birthday.

Let me pause and go lay face down on the ground and sob because my baby is THREE!

She loves Minnie's Bowtique and I thought it would make a really cute theme for her party.  In case you aren't home with two little girls all the time and are unaware of what Minnie's Bowtique is, it's a little show in between regular length shows on the Disney channel where Minnie Mouse owns a little store that sells hair bows, or a Bow-tique.  After my pal Melissa had her daughter's bake shop party last December, I was inspired to make an awning for the party to give it more of a store front feel.  I was beyond thrilled with how it all turned out.  I will give credit at the end of this post for all the decorations.

 Savannah was so happy with all the decorations and balloons!  She was one happy girl.  I love the banner especially, such a great pop of color for the table front.

 I got it in my head that I wanted to make a balloon arch.  We used to make them all the time in high school and I've always wanted to make one for my kiddos' birthdays.  Well, balloon arches take a lot of balloons, helium, and time.  I only had 30 minutes to set up so the balloons had to be done ahead of time.  My sister helped me put together these balloos towers instead and I LLL-OOO-VVVEEE them.  They were so cute, they perfectly framed the table, and they lasted for over a week before I got tired of them and popped all the balloons.

The cupcakes were the perfect feature for the main table.  The stand is actually made up of two boxes that Melissa filled with tin cans (to give weight and structure) and then wrapped up.  These boxes have been passed around our circle of friends but this was the first time I had used them for a party.  The great thing about them is that they perfectly hold two dozen cupcakes and give height to the table.  Together with the cupcake toppers, that I added bows to, and the baking cups, it was so cute!

I was really happy with the two different types of centerpieces I had.  This one is from the printable line Melissa designed for me...

 ...and this one I found on Pinterest.  Styrophome balls, spray painted black, and embellished with a bow.  Perfect!  I was on a quest to get as many bows in as I could.  I was actually having a hard time finding vases for the centerpieces.  The Minnie heads are REALLY heavy so it had to be something pretty heavy duty to hold up well.  These little containers are actually bed risers, for dorm room beds, from Joann's.  They are super heavy duty and when flipped over, filled with confetti paper, and embellished with a bow, they were perfect! They are regularly $8 for 4, but with a coupon, they came out to just over $4.  Perfect!

 For the party favors I gave out, of course, hair bows!  The little tag says "There's No Business Like Bow Business," which is Minnie's tag line from Minnie's Bowtique.

 I was really happy with how the kids table turned out.  A pink tablecloth, a black chevron paper table runner, and polka dot plates completed the look.

 I love these little water bottle labels and straws.  Just another way to incorporate the theme into the table and decorations.

And now some pictures of the party girl!

 I love it when guests embrace the theme into the gifts!  Melissa put together this little gift box and I adore it.

And now for some much deserved credit:

The printable party line, which included the invitations, centerpiece,water bottle labels, cupcake toppers, and banner are from this printable line from 5M Creations.

The straws, balloons ,favor bags, and baking cups are also from 5M Creations.

The Minnie Mouse necklace is from ZadeeJane Boutique.

The awning base and fabric cover was made by my mom and the balloon towers were put together by me and my sister.