How to Plan a Surf Party

Birthday parties are big deal around here! I love to put together a fun themed party with all the bells and whistles...but I usually don't have a lot of time or want to spend a lot of money. This year we decided on a Surf Party for Grant complete with a fun inflatable water slide and fish tacos {aka surfer food}.

 The first thing I nailed down for Grant's Surf Party was this inflatable water slide! We got a great price from some people that go to my parent's church...and even though it cost a little more than what I would normally spend on a birthday party, it was worth it to have this fun slide at our house ALL weekend long. {And yes, Jason and I tested it out with the boys a few times Saturday morning before the party!} If you didn't want to spend as much on a rental, you could always do a couple of slip n slides, sprinklers, and kiddies pools!

 To decorate, I picked up a couple grass table skirts and some cute wave scrapbook paper. The table skirt came from Hobby Lobby and with my 40% off coupon it only cost $6! I spend about $5 and a little over an hour with my Silhouette to make the cute Surf's Up banner that I hung on the boys' skimboards.

 We has some yummy surf themed food:

delicious fish tacos {I just baked up a couple of boxes of frozen fish sticks and served them with flour tortillas, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and couple different sauces},

starfish sandwiches {PB&J cut out with a star shaped cutter}, 

pretzel goldfish {served in cute blue and white party cups},

 fruit kabobs,

wavy chips,
and gummy sharks!

 We also had a snow cone station under the Airstream awning complete with a grass skirt and a couple of surfboards! 

Plus a yummy cake with a surfboard and palm tree:)

 All the kiddos wore their swimsuits and I picked up this cute swimshirt for Grant to wear mostly because it said "Hawaiian Surf Legend"...and because I got it on clearance at Target for less than $5!
{Silly boy was tired of saying cheese I think:)}

 We sang Happy Birthday and he blew out the candles...

 ...then opened a bunch of presents:)

 The party went on for a couple of hours...it was hard to drag the kiddos away from that fun inflatable water slide. But when they did finally head home, they all took a cute box of Swedish fish with them as a party favor!

And that is how you plan a surf party!

7

Today this kiddo turns seven years old!

It seems like he should still be a toddler running around the house following his big brother. We were looking back through some old pictures yesterday, and it is so hard to believe how fast they grow up...it seems like yesterday he was this cute, chubby faced baby: 

 But he's not...he's growing up {way too fast}! 

We are celebrating with a Surf party this weekend. So to go along with the surf theme, I made some shark cupcakes for him to share with his class today. They were SUPER easy to make except that I learned the hard way why the package of almond bark says not to add food coloring:) Let's just say these shark fins spent a little time in the freezer before they could go on the cupcakes.

 I also made a fun surfboard cake for us to eat tonight after dinner...because every birthday boy should be able to blow out candles on their actual birthday:)

Eli's First Day of Preschool

It is so hard for me to believe that Eli is old enough for preschool...but his first day of preschool came and went and he had such a good time! 

 My other two only went to 4 year old preschool, but because of Eli's wonky birthday {His bday is Sept. 5th and the cut off to start school is Sept. 1st, which means he will basically be a whole year older than a lot of kids in his class!}, I really didn't want him waiting until he was almost 5 before he started preschool. So we are venturing into the new world of 3 year old preschool this year:)

  He is SUPER excited...and I'm half excited/half sad! What am I going to do with myself two days a week without a least one kiddo at home with me!?! It's been more than eight years since I've been kid-free, so it's going to take a little bit of adjusting on my part...but I'm sure I will find some way to entertain myself:)

Housekeeping

Housekeeping is something I have been terrible at lately....with both my actual house and with my blog. So today, I'm trying to take care of a few things and hopefully get back on track.

The first thing I need to take care of is the giveaway that I hosted back before our trip to Disney that I never picked a winner for! I had actually forgotten about it in all the craziness of life until my little package came in the mail with some yummy Ragu sauce and $20:) So I used random.org to pick a winner from the 123 comments, and the winner is Mari! Congrats Mari! I have sent an email and she has 48 hours to respond.

Remember last week when I complained about needing a vacation from my vacation, and then I told you I was only 2/3 unpacked....well, I am still only 2/3 unpacked. I have one suitcase that just will not unpack itself, and I can't seem to make myself do it either. It is actually the suitcase that the kids' clean clothes got put in when we left Disney, along with a ton of other miscellaneous stuff. The miscellaneous stuff is the hardest to unpack because I have to figure out where all of it goes:)

Besides avoiding unpacking, I spent most of last week busy planning a birthday party for Grant and Eli. Grant turned 6 the week we were on vacation and Eli turned 3 yesterday. Instead of trying to cram two parties into two weeks, we had a joint pool party...in the middle of a tropical storm! I don't recommend trying to throw an outside birthday party when the wind is whipping and the rain is coming down in sheets, but that is exactly what we did...and the kids even got to get in the pool for a while when the rain and wind stopped for about an hour:)

Here are just a few pictures from the party:

Can I just tell you how much I love Photoshop. The day was all dreary and dark, but you can hardly tell that from the pictures once I increased the brightness of each photo just a little:)

 The lady at the bakery didn't quite get my vision for the boys' birthday cakes. I was thinking more clean and modern to go with the fun stripes and polka dots that were in the invites and other party decorations...she was apparently inspired by our weather. I ended up adding the gumballs around the edges of the cakes to add a little bit of fun and color. It worked out great and the kiddos loved that they got a piece {or two} of gum with their slice of cake:)

Grant and Eli both had a great time at their party and Eli even got the "big red blue bike" that he has been wanting for the past two months:)

Wordless Wednesday: 1st Day of School

Wordless Wednesday: Two Wheeler

*Ok so technically there are four wheels if you count the training wheels, but Mr. Big Stuff here has officially graduated from his cute little green tricycle.*

A, B, C

A is for apples.

 I saw the tutorial for these Apple Gift Sacks at Skip to My Lou, and I knew they would be the perfect gift to end Teacher Appreciation Week. All I need was some brown lunch bags, red spray paint, and raffia and in less than an hour I had 10 SUPER cute teacher's gifts! Head over to Skip to My Lou for the tutorial.

 B is for baby birds.

I first shared pics of our newly discovered bird's nest here....now a few weeks later the eggs have hatched and the nest if full of fluffy little baby birds {who refused to cooperate for the camera}.

 C is for certificate.

Yesterday we went to the award ceremony at Henry's school. They gave out awards for perfect attendance, math, reading, and even positive attitude. It was nice to see all the hard work the kids put into school being acknowledged. Henry got the award for highest grade point average in his class, and we couldn't be more proud of him!

After the busy week we had, I am going to try and relax a little and maybe I will even get a little pampering for Mother's Day:) I hope you all have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all you moms!

One Fish, Two Fish...

Well, really two birthdays in one!

This weekend we celebrated both Grant's 5th birthday and Eli's 2nd birthday with a party at a local gymnastics facility!

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I took one of the party favor bags to the bakery and they matched the cakes to the bag....I thought they turned out really cute!

I picked up these SUPER cute bags in the dollar section of Target a few weeks ago. Each kiddo got a bag with a few Dr. Seuss goodies inside. Grant proudly wearing his #5 birthday shirt. I whipped up these birthday shirts for Grant and Eli on Friday night before the party.
Eli having a blast on the trampoline track!

Waiting patiently to blow out the candles.

First Day of School

They were both all smiles when we left home this morning...I'm hoping they will be all smiles when we pick them up too:)

Starting the Summer Off with a...

BANG CRACK!

Henry had a little difficulty with the monkey bars Wednesday morning.{this is a picture from January...not this week}

And now he will be wearing a cast on his left arm for the next two weeks!

The doctor said his arm wasn't broken, probably just cracked. They put a cast on to protect his arm and to help it heal more quickly.
We go back in two weeks to get his cast taken off and to take more x-rays.
But for now, Henry will be sporting a neon green cast and avoiding the pool:)

P.S. Don't forget to enter FREE 4 All Friday today!