A Berry Sweet Birthday!

I had plans to post Sydney's birthday pictures right away and then as usual, life happened, I got busy, and the post never got done. Here we are almost a month later and I feel like these pictures have kind of lost their steam. Old news, you know what I mean?

But alas, I spent a lot of time planning her party, and I do want to share the details so, albeit a little late, here is all the nitty gritty on her Berry Sweet birthday bash!

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Grandma stopped in early the morning of Sydney's party to say hello and drop off her present, which included a lovely wooden puzzle set, and also, some stickers. After she left I carried on getting ready and later, when I came back into the living room, I found that both of my children had been bedazzled with stickers. The bedazzler was very proud of her works of art!

The party was loosely strawberry themed with reds, pinks, and blues. I kind of loved the colors and figured I could use some of the decorations again as memorial day or fourth of July decorations in years to come.

I found this cheap, beautiful, craft idea in a BHG magazine. It's just paper, craft sticks, and glue! I love it! It's still hanging while I try and figure out what to do with it now!

Deserts included chocolate cupcakes with strawberry butter-cream frosting,  strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, strawberry shaped cut out cookies, assorted strawberry jelly beans, and chocolate covered strawberries. Honestly, I don't think the cupcakes were a huge hit with the kids. I'm not sure if it's just because there was so much other food and they were full or if they really didn't like them but I noticed several half eaten cakes. (Not a surprise with Sydney who tends to eat the frosted top and leave the rest!)

The weather ended up being beautiful so we were able to spend most of the day outside again. I didn't take a ton of pictures because I was busy enjoying the party (next time I'll have to remember to hand my camera over to someone else!), but there was lots of good food, the best sangria ever!, pinatas, a bonfire, and tons of friends and family!

Cheap grocery store flowers, fishing line, and curtains from the house that I think need to make a more permantent appearance outdoors next summer.

Sydney's kind of been into the idea of fishing lately (go figure!) so I thought it might be fun to do that old fishing game we used to do when we were kids. My nephews agreed to be the men (or fish in this case) behind the curtain, hooking up candy and prizes to the fishing line. The game was a huge hit, even with the older kids, which surprised me!

Of course Sydney finally got her birthday cake!

Super embarrassed face finally gave way to excitement when she got to blow out the candles.

The night ended with a lovely birthday duet concert and one partied out baby.

I think Sydney is getting old enough now, that next year we will probably do something a little more low key. Some fun activity that she wants to do with her friends rather than the usual big barbaque cookout that we've been doing, BUT, I know one little girl who has a big numer-o-uno birthday coming up that won't mind a big BBQ bash! :)

I heart faces | Orange

My kids in a pumpkin patch. Real original submission right? I know, BUT I love this photo! It makes me smile every time I see it. Lillian's face, it kills me!

I had hauled my kids to the orchard for the obligatory fall pumpkin patch photos, but Lillian, my six month old, was determined to sit and eat leaves instead. Big sister was trying to be helpful and pull the leaves away from her and you can just see the frustration and anger on her face! No, it's mine!  I have a feeling I'm getting a glimpse into what the next 15 years are going to look like at my house! Ha!

Submitting this for the October photo challenge, Orange, over at iheartfaces.

Cakes for Carter!

This weekend we went to the Cakes for Carter event at Katie's Kids, the learning center where my sister works. It was so amazing! The turnout was great and Katie's Kids rocked this thing out! They put together a seriously awesome event! There was breakfast, music, story time, balloon animals, arts, crafts, photo booths, silent auctions, raffles, and so much more! All of it being done by and for people looking to shower Heather, Matt, and Carter with love and support! What an awesome day!

Face paint!

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Lizard)

Kid's pancake bar!

Breakfast!

Stories, balloons, crafts, music, and more!

Photo booth photos by The Memory Box.

I think someone had a little too much fun!

A horse, an owl, and an oompa-loompa, walk into a bar...

Okay, I have nothing to follow that up with. Well, nothing but Halloween pictures of course.

Oh man, Sydney was so excited about trick-or-treating this year. She was ready to go first thing in the morning when she woke up!

I felt a little bad that I didn't think of dressing up myself when she asked me what I was going to be and if I was going to be a "big owl". Next year, I'll have to plan ahead like my sister and come up with some awesome coordinating costumes. Willy Wonka and an Ooompa Loompa, love it!

The pony was really interested in eating leaves, which Kam apparently thought was hysterical.

Ok, this next photo secretly makes me laugh. I wanted a cute group shot of the kids and this was the best one that I got. The only problem was that Chucky had his bloody knife up to Wonka's head, and while that's oh-so-Halloween, it wasn't really the cute, G-rated photo that I had in mind. So, I applied a little sneaky editing in Photoshop and we are left with a kid-tested, mother-approved, Halloween fist pump! LOL!

Even Daisy got in on the costume fun! Doesn't she look thrilled?!

Time to get some candy!

LOL!

Totally jazzed about collecting candy!

She apparently really liked that red sucker!

We didn't last quite as long trick-or-treating this year; it was really cold and we had two little girls that had to go potty, but I think the little ones still got plenty of loot!

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!