Sydney's 6th Birthday, A Mermaid Party

Today my oldest baby turns six.  SIX!  That's two hands!  Before I start bawling like a baby and bemoaning the fact that she's growing up way too fast, let me tell you about her birthday party that we had last weekend.  When I asked her what she wanted to do for her party, she told me she wanted to be a mermaid.  Not, "have a mermaid party," but be a mermaid.  I found inspiration in this picture:

So last spring I set out to throw the best mermaid birthday bash Sydney could ever ask for!  I decided to have the first part of the party at home, which was decorated with an under-the-sea feel, and then take all the kids to the pool for some games in the water.

My sweet six year old.  I found that frame at Hobby Lobby (totally worth the 3.5 hour drive, I got so much stuff for the party there). 

I wanted to have an underwater feel at the house.  Here's how it turned out:

3 yards of tiered ruffle fabric from Hobby Lobby (with a 40% off coupon, hooray!) and about a million tissue paper poms strug together to look like jellyfish.  I was pretty happy with how it turned out!  I loved all the decorations.

That fabric was the perfect backdrop for the cake.  I was pretty happy with how it turned out!  I made that cake, and a practice one two weeks ago, so we've been eating cake non-stop for a while now!  I was going to make it from scratch, but Sydney's favorite cake is Funfetti, so I used 3 boxes of mix split between 6 pans and 5 containers of cream cheese frosting.  I really wanted to do a pink ombre cake and I was pretty please with how it turned out.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but the top layer is a light pink and then it gets progressively darker to a bright pink on the bottom layer.  I was extremely pleased with myself for making this cake.  I'm glad I did the practice cake so I could work out the kinks, and it was unbelievably cheap for how cute it was!

I ordered the fondant toppers from this great company, Sugar and Stripes Co.  They packaged it up really well and it held up great!  I was very happy the topper, I think it just completed the cake!  I will definetely use them again.

When the guests all arrived, we got pictures of Sydney with all her little friends.  I love frame pictures like these!

 Of course I had to get a few pictures of my girls.  They are getting so big!

Once we had pictures of everyone we did cake and presents.

Next all the guests got to get their party favors.  I had seen the idea of a favor bar in June, and I really wanted to try it out, but the cost can really add up.  I found some amazing deals and worked hard to keep it modestly priced.  Here's the favor bar:

I love all the varying heights of the different favors.  These were a ton of fun to put together!  All of the paper products were from a 5M Creations new printable line.

These little mermaid body washes were my favorite party favor.  I looked forever for those little round bottles and finally found them at Hobby Lobby for PENNIES!  They were so cheap.  3 bottles of ocean breeze scented bpdy wash for $1.19 each and it was a fabulous, inexpensive favor that was so cute.  And those cake stands...oh my gosh, fabulous!  Part of the new Christmas line at Target and they were only a few dollars each.
Now, what says beach more than smores?  I love the idea of a smores kit for the guests to take home and enjoy.

 Some graham crackers, marshmellows, and mini Hershey bars on top of tinsel in my party color and voila, smores kits!  The bakers twine to hold it all together is so stinkin' cute, too.

Bubbles are always a kid favorite.  Melissa designed these little stickers and it made such a cute display of bubbles.

My next favorite favor, after the body wash, were these adorable little sand shovels filled with candy.  So simple, so easy to put together, and when you buy the shovels after summer clearance sales, it's pretty darn cheap, too.

Last summer when we went to the coast for family vacation I picked up some salt water taffy for the party.  At the time Chris thought I was crazy for planning that far in advance, but I think it adds just the right touch and taffy just screams beach, you know?

 I fell in love with these little rock candies on wooden dowels and I found a lady on Etsy who sold them by the dozen, complete with ribbon, clear bags, and shipping, for $10.00!  Amazing!  Click here to see her store.

Swedish Fish in these adorable little chevron bags from Melissa were a nice little touch.  I love those bags!

Finally, some hairbows from Halo Heaven, and a pirate patch for the one boy at the party, completed the favor bar.  All of the starfish and sand dollars I found on an auction on Ebay.

After the favor bar we loaded all the guests up and went to our local indoor acquatic center.  At this point I gave our one boy a pirate hat and sword and all the girls got to have mermaid tails.

 I picked up those beach towels at an end of summer clearance sale for so, so super cheap.  My mom added some velcro to the waists so the girls could wear them.  Then I took clear, plastic pony tails holders, two per towel.  Pull one holder over each corner until they meet together and it makes it look like a mermaid tail!  The girls were all so excited to be "real" mermaids and our lone pirate was a pretty good sport!

After we made them they were done posing for pictures they got to swim for an hour in the warm water pool with an instructor leading them in games.  There was lots of happy yelling and splashing!

It was such a fun party!  I'm already thinking about next year's party.

Happy, Happy Birthday to my sweet Sydney!  Mommy, Daddy, and Savannah love you so much!  Here is the birthday girl on her first birthday and then this year.  I can't believe how much she's grown!

Pretty Much

Thanksgiving

I know this is a little late, but I hadn't planned on sharing it until I decided tonight it was too good not to post.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving.  It was quiet and peaceful, filled with family and good food.  We spent the morning visiting my grandparents with my dad at their new place.  Then we went home and the girls napped while Chris and I watched a Christmas movie.  Then we loaded up in the car to go to have dinner with my mom and sister but we had to make a quick stop.  Melissa and her family were out of town for the day and asked us to let their dog out that afternoon.  We run over there to let her out and while we are there Savannah has a big, huge, massive poop blowout.  If you would like to know why this is funny, click here.  Savannah is pretty much potty trained, but girlfriend will not tell me when she has to unload.  It's normally ok, but this was by far the largest, nastiest, earth-shattering poop she has ever had.  Funny little tid-bit?  My kids always poop at Melissa's, and rarely at home!  I think it's funny that Sydney's one and only blowout was at Melissa's and now Savannah's, too.  This time, though, we were in a hurry.  I had to clean her up, and it got all over the floor so I had to thoroughly clean and sterilize Melissa's floor, and wouldn't you know it I hadn't packed a single extra pair of panties or change of clothes.  So instead of wearing her cute little Thanksgiving outfit, Savannah wore blue boy undies and a pair of boy pajamas for Thanksgiving that I borrowed from one of Melissa's boys.  Savannah was not happy about wearing boy clothes!

I'm not really sure why they decided to lick up their pumpkin pie?  But for some reason these are the only pictures I got that day.  Sigh...epic fail for mommy that day, I didn't take the right pictures or pack the right clothes.  But, we had an amazing day and made some great memories, and that's a win in my book.

And another win for the day?  Melissa got to come home to a clean floor in her bathroom from my scrubbing it clean!

The Girls

I can't say it enough, I love having two girls.  They are so much fun!  I know if we had ever had a son I would have been totally in love with him, too, but I love having two children the same gender.  Two little girly-girls, and I can't get enough of them!

Savannah loves having some one-on-one time with mommy each morning when Sydney is at school.  She was helping me bake cupcakes and she wanted to wear her fluffy dress up skirt.  So, so cute!

That skirt totally reminds me of a square dancing skirt, you know? 

Swing your partner, do-se-do!

Anyways...

Sydney has been OB-sessed with Barbies for the last year.  She is also obsessed with weddings, and she often blends to two and lines up her Barbies to play out a wedding.

There she is, marching Wedding Bride Barbie and Beast (from Beauty and the Beast) down the aisle in front of their guests; Tinkerbelle, Vidia, Chef Barbie, Mariposa (butterfly) Barbie, Snow White, and buck naked homegirl barbie in the front row.  She couldn't really give me a good answer about why that particular Barbie didn't have any clothes on, but I guess every wedding needs that one guest who really stands out, right?

Sofia the First

The Disney Channel aired a new movie a few weeks ago called Sofia the First.  My girls were beyond excited for the movie and we made a family movie night out of it.  I love that they're old enough for things like that.  We popped popcorn, and the girls wore their new Christmas jammies for the first time. 

And just in case you're wondering, Savannah doesn't normally have a mullet like that, she has just had a bath and her hair was still slicked back!

Crisp and Cold

We have been having really cold, crisp winter days lately.  I LOO-OO-OOVE it.  I do not like the heat and anything over 60 degrees is sweltering to me, so this is my best season!  We've had tons of rain and storms, but in the middle we've had a few cold, clear days.  One of these days happened to fall on a weekend so Chris and I bundled up the girls and walked to the park.

Sweet Sydney.  How is it possible she is almost 6 years old?  I remember when she was tiny and bald and now she's sassy, tall, and has all that long hair.  Time is going by way too fast.

On another bitterly cold day Savannah and I were hanging out and having a lazy morning at home while Sydney was at school.  I say lazy, but I was doing lots of housework and we were having good snuggle time and I lost track of time.  Before I knew it, we had to leave to get to the bus stop for Sydney and I hadn't dressed Savannah yet. 

Yep, I was that mom.  For the first, and last, time this year, I had to whisk Savannah to the bus stop in her jammies, rain boots, coat, and hat.  Poor baby.  She had no idea and certainly didn't care, but I felt bad. 

Yesterday there was a break in the rain storm we've been going through so we got our Christmas tree.  We had so much and even though you can't really tell in this picture, our tree is so pretty!  I'll post pictures of it soon.

Melissa and Tony

Chris and I love the show Dancing With the Stars. 

Mock me if you must, and you can all blabber on and on about how So You Think You Can Dance is better and all the professionals on DWTS came from SYTYCD and yada yada yada. 

I don't buy it for a single minute.  This season is the All Stars season, so all the celebrities were either winners or fan favorites from previous seasons.  Tonight was the final and tomorrow we'll find out the winner and I am hoping it's Melissa Rycroft and Toni Dovolani.  They were paired together a few seasons ago and finished third in the finals.  They are amazing!  Not since the American Idol season with Chris Daughtry have I voted so much. 

(Actual conversation in our house every Monday night)
Me: "Why did we get rid of our house phone again?!"
Chris: "Because it saves us $30 a month."
Me: "But I only get 5 votes per line and your cell and mine only equals 10!  We could have had 15!"
Chris: "Vote on Facebook"  (totally uninterested)
Dara: "I DID!!  ON MY PAGE AND YOUR'S! I NEED MORE VOTES!"

I'm going to post a clip of my favorite dance from this season.  It was the Argentine Tango from the Michael Jackson week and Oh.Em.Gee you can not even tell who is the professional and who is the amatuer, she is so amazing.  And seriously, poor Tony has never won and I think he should get a trophy just for the fact that he had to dance with Kage Gosselin a few seasons back.  Besides beating him down emotionally and mentally every week, she was a terrible dance!  Melissa is so sweet, talented, and I LOVE them!  Just click the "Argentine Tango" link below to get to the video.  Enjoy!

Argentine Tango

Flower Girls

Chris' dad got married last week and the girls got to be flowergirls.  I will post more pictures soon but I wanted to post these.  They were so, so, stinkin' cute in their little dresses!  The ceremony was very sweet and we are so happy to welcome Monica to our family!

Pictures

Since our last camera bit the dust we've been borrowing cameras for various occasions.  I realized I never transfered photos from a camera we borrowed this summer until just this evening.  Here is a random hodge-podge of photos from this summer.

 Here was Sydney at the ice cream social at her new school.  She had a great time and it helped make her new school not so big and scary.

 Savannah loves to sneak into Sydney's room and jump on sister's bed and wear her clothes.  She is such a little sister sometimes!  I love those curls, they are all natural.

 Madison came over one day while her brothers were at the orientation for their preschool.  We baked cookies...

 ...and all three girls dressed up like Rapunzel.

Savannah went to her friend Emma's birthday party and was so cute and cheesy!

Melissa's Halloween

I love this picture.

This is Melissa's clan plus a few extras on Halloween in their superhero capes.  Left to right you have Haley (Melissa's younger sister), Madison, Micah, Mason, and Emma (Melissa's niece and Savannah's best buddy). 

So, so cute. 

I love personalized anything, and these capes are so awesome!  The kids wearing them are pretty awesome, too.

Halloween, Part Dos

The girls had the best time trick-or-treating.  This was Savannah's first year to participate and it took her exactly one house to figure out that she only had to smile, say "tick-oh-tweat" and people would give her candy.  They both came away with TONS of candy! 

 I love this random picture of Sydney.  She was trying to smile, but she was distracted by the other trick-or-treaters and when I made her look at the camera, this is what I got!

Halloween, Part Uno

We had such a fun Halloween!  I decided to break up our H-day pictures into a couple of posts.  I started out the morning by helping with the party in Sydney's classroom at school.  Once I get pictures of that, I'll be sure to post them.  After school, we went to our favorite local coffee place, Dutch Brothers.  We seriously love it there; the coffee is awesome, the atmosphere is fun, and the workers are all fun and energetic (and why wouldn't they be, when they work at the coolest place EVER and get to drink coffee for their whole shift?!).  The baristas all love Sydney and Savannah and always give them stickers, little treats, and their favorite, chocolate milk, which the girls call their "mochas."  So Sydney and Savannah decided to be Dutch Brothers baristas for Halloween and I was happy to make that happen.  We had Dutch shirts, sweatshirts, bracelets, aprons, and Melissa even made them name tags with the names of our favorite baristas on them: Sydney was Ashley, and Savannah was Carmen.  After school we went to the Dutch and saw the real Ashley and Carmen and had some pictures taken.

Sydney even got to help take an order, then they both got to "help" make the drinks, then Sydney carried it to the customer.  They were both so stinkin' excited to be "working!"

Sydney told me she wants to work at Dutch when she's in high school.  Love.It.So.Much. 

By the way, I know you can't see their costumes very well in these photos, but I'll post some more tomorrow of trick-or-treating that are better.