A Princess Tea Party!

Every time I look at my blog I cant believe how long it has been since I last wrote a post! You would probably be silly if you believed me this time when I say I am going to be blogging more often. :) I so wish I had the time to do more regular posts.  I have about ten blog posts in the works that I need to catch up on. So many fun ones! They are coming, (someday) please bare with me!
In November my little girl turned four. FOUR. That just simply sounds old.  This year for her birthday I was 6 months pregnant and sick.  I kept saying it would be a more low key party because I was quite sick and we had just taken on a huge redesign project at church. (fun future post!) However my smart little cookie had a different idea.  Lola can tell you about each and every one of her birthday parties, we usually go all out and I have so much fun planning them for her.  This year was a little different, she knew exactly what she wanted: A Princess Party. Ugh. I think I asked her if she was sure 100 times, and suggested 100 different theme ideas. ;) I do not love the tradition birthday party themes, I enjoy coming up with something a little more original, and special.  So we decided to combine two of her favorite things so it could be a little more unique, princesses & tea parties! (she gets her love of tea from her Mimi!)  Lola loved the idea and we went to town on the invitations. Here's how they turned out!

Front:

Back:

 After the invitations were ordered, Lola & I headed to Hobby Lobby to find our party inspiration.  We were looking for the perfect tea party fabric to cover the table.  Lola picked pink, she will always pick pink!  Here is the fabric we chose together, as well as 20 yards of pink tulle to create a fun table skirt. I simply pleated the tulle as I sewed it to the fabric.  It was super easy, and I think it had a big impact! 

I knew a main part of the tea party would be finding all the cute food holders. I started looking around but got a little discouraged when I realized how much they cost and how many I would need to buy in order to create the look I had come up with.  I spent a little time on Pinterest and my problem was solved! I would make them! My husband would make them! I am so blessed to have married someone who entertains all my crazy ideas and helps me figure out how we can make them all happen! 

After a quick visit to St. Vincent de Paul and Goodwill, I had all the candle stick holders we needed.  William cut plywood for the tops into the shapes and sizes I desired and routered the edges to make them look finished.  He glued the plywood tops to the candlestick holders and then spray painted them for me.  (Usually I am the spray painter, but I was 6+ months pregnant and it was November so it had to be done in the garage.) :/  

I absolutely love how they turned out!  I couldn't have found ones I liked better if I had bought them in a store. Total cost for 9 food holders was right around $40.

I bought some fun supplies for our party online!  I wanted the girls to drink out of real teacups to make it more tea-party-y (is that a word? Ha!) however, in the interest of my carpet I looked for an alternative that is more 2-4 year old and carpet friendly. :) I found these square bottles and thought they were so cute.  Bonus was that they came with lids.  I had my handy husband drill holes in the lids so we could use some adorable stripped paper straws. We wrapped them with a little ribbon and they were all set! Lola helped with so much of her party this year!  Usually I am doing all these projects alone, but this year she wanted to be apart of it all which was so fun!  I ordered most of my fun party supplies online from Shop Sweet Lulu. I was so impressed with their quick delivery, reasonable prices and adorable shipping material.  I will use them again for all my future parties!

Lola really wanted to serve pink tea.  I am not a tea drinker, so I am not sure if there even is pink tea?  We instead went with pink lemonade.  It was a hit, who doesn't want to drink straight (pink!) sugar? :)

Since we were unable to use teacups for the kids' drinks, I wanted to find another way to have teacups displayed on the table.  I decided they would be perfect for holding the cupcakes at each place setting.  Another trip to Goodwill and I found some little teacups that worked perfect! I paid only .50 each. Bought some cute cupcake liners and we were all set! 

I always purchase my cupcakes from Safeway, not very glamorous I know! But they are surprisingly tasty, reasonably priced and they always allow me to bring in my own sprinkles that they will use on the cupcakes for me so they match our party. 

It was a lot of fun to pick out the food for the party.  I wanted to have an adult display of party food, as well as separate food for the kiddos that would be displayed on their par-tea table.  Lola helped picked out the food and chose some of her favorite snacks!

Here is the spread:

Cupcakes

Animal Cookies

Rice Krispies Treats

Mini Pot Pies

Caramel Apple Pops

                                                    Little Smokies

Here is my little helper making the Rice Krispies Treats! :)

I made some tulle pom poms to hang from the ceiling to add some more color & fun!

This is the adult buffet:

The Tea Party Table:

For favors we gave each girl a princess crown & wand, and each boy got a prince crown & a sword. 

We also made bags of Pink Princess Popcorn for all of our guests to take home.  It was pink tinted chocolate drizzled over popcorn, and boy was it tasty!

The birthday girl:

The party planners :)

This was my favorite party yet! Each year is more & more fun as Lola is getting older and wants to help me plan, shop, and decorate everything for her party. Cant wait to hear her ideas for next year! : )

Lola Goes to the Movies!

Last week William & I took Lola to see her very first movie in the theatre! We had been talking about taking her for a while now, life has just been so crazy lately that it was hard to settle on a day that would work, but we finally did it!

We have been reading the book "Curious George Goes to the Movies" for months now and she always has the same response at the end, (and you need to say this quote in your saddest 3 year old voice possible...) "I wish I could go to the movies and eat lots of popcorn... :( " I told her the night before we went that we had a surprise for her the next day and she was so excited- my girl loves surprises! The next day we got all ready to go and when William got home from work we loaded up and took Logan over to my Mom's house. Lola of course asked what her surprise was and I took out the Curious George book and gave it to her, she knew right away we were going to see a movie! She then proclaimed all the way to the theatre that this was the best surprise ever! : ) It was fun to see her so super happy! Now that we have two kids it was special to be able to spend some one on one time again with Lola, she sure is growing up! We took her to see The Lorax, such a good movie! It was not scary which made it the perfect first movie choice! Here are some pictures from our night, we had such a great time!

She walked right up and handed him her ticket!

Normally we do not buy snacks at the theatre, but Lola was so excited about the ginormous bucket of popcorn that there was really no way around it :)

Her favorite, she calls them M's :)

It's official, she loves popcorn!

Such a fun Daddy, Mommy, & Lola date! I think she has asked me every single day since when we can go again, and also for more popcorn! Her mind will be blown the day she finds out I can make popcorn here at home! : )

The Non Clutter Lover Mom

It has been a while since my last post again hasn't it! When you have kids, time seems to just evaporate! I finished this project (#5) quite a while ago, just haven't managed to find the time to sit and blog about it. But here I am, and here you go! :)

While wandering around Hobby Lobby a while back, I saw these cute bulletin boards. I have seen them at a lot of different stores but until recently never really had any use for one in my home.

Let me start by saying I adore my daughter to pieces! I love every single piece of artwork that she does, and I love even more how proud of it she is. She always lights up after showing me her latest creation and I give her the reaction of "lets hang it on the fridge!" Okay, now all the warm fuzzies aside, I do not like anything hanging on my refrigerator! I do cherish her work, so whats a non clutter lover mom to do? Here was my solution! Make her a special board all for her, where we can hang pictures of her friends, the never ending amount of artwork, church projects and so on.

My husband went to Home Depot and bought me a huge piece of sturdy wood and cut it down to the size I wanted and then even routered the edges to make it look great! Using my staple gun I wrapped the board in some quilt batting and stapled it tight. Then I did the exact same thing with the fabric.

I chose some blue ribbon that I thought would look good with the kitchen wall. Pulling it tight and stapling it, I was almost finished! At all the intersecting ribbons I simply hot glued some buttons.

Now I know most people may not mind the unfinished back to this, (who will ever see it right?) but I like to have my projects looking as complete as possible. (You don't buy it in the store with an unfinished back right?) That being said, I bought a sheet of black felt and cut it to fit the back and hot glued it in place. I think it looks better, dont you?

In our kitchen we have these photos of the kids hanging up with ribbon. I thought it would be nice to keep it consistant, so I also hung her board up with the same ribbon.

Here is the final product! Lola has her own table in the kitchen, so now with her new bulletin board it is just a little more defined as her space! She loves it, and I love it because my refrigerator is neat and tidy, and I still get to enjoy my girls masterpieces! : )

Total this project cost around $15. I used mostly stuff I already had around the house. When I look at all the tiny boards they are selling in stores they are priced around $28 and they are barely a third of the size. This was a super quick and easy project, it literally took me longer to figure out how to reload the staple gun than it took me to actually make the whole board! :)