Our "Cupcakes" 1st Birthday

Today you turn ONE! We chose to have a cupcake party because you just LOVE to eat :) You have never been a picky eater. Love this photo of you licking the icing from your hands.

The kids decorated their own cupcakes. I made the little chef hats out of cardstock and elastic that come on the party hats (super simple to make). I had little decorator bottles filled with icing to help control the mess (pampered chef).

You started walking at 10 months old so by your birthday you were everywhere. Independent not wanting anyone to hold you. Had this outfit and hairbow made to match the party but you were not enjoying the hairbow at all! Love those little chubby cheeks :)

Your "play" cake was a HUGE however, it didn't take you long to "dig" into it.

You really wanted mama to have a bite.

Little sneaky grin after all the sugar. That purple icing stained your little sweet face.

Instead of opening the presents you were climbing on them :) You are such a sweet precious angel...Happy Birthday my sweet Ayla. I look forward to celebrating many more....Mama ~

My Sonic Boy

Kelan, our 5 year old son, LOVES Sonic the Hedgehog. If you are familiar with the "Old School" sega game then you know he is a thing of the past. I searched the internet and could not locate a costume so, I decided to just make one myself. I purchased a BLUE cotton long sleeve shirt, pants and white gloves from our local supercenter. I purchased an additional white long sleeve top and cut the sleeves off of it and had a friend sew the white sleeves onto the BLUE shirt. I also used the white shirt for the oval on the cneter of Sonic's chest. I found the plastic mask on ebay for like $5. His shoes are my favorite! Kelan has a action figure of Sonic so I tried to re-create them as much as possible. I found a pair of red house shoes (at our local supercenter) and purchased colored electrical tape and made the strap in white and the buckle with yellow. It took me a few tries but they turned out GREAT! I bought BLUE hair color and tried to get him to let me spike his hair and spray it BLUE but he was not having it~ So he started pre-K this year and of course he wanted a Sonic back pack and lunch box. I searched the web and found a store that had a solid brown bag with the spikes just like on Sonic's back. They had Sonic the Hedgehog patches that I ordered and had my friend sew in the middle of the backpack and lunchbox. So even if you cannot find exactly what you are looking for alter something and make it how you want it. Kelan has such an imagination! He will come up to me and say "Mommy look what I made." I hope he will always think outside of the box and use his creative "juices" that God has given him~

Ayla's 2nd Birthday

We just celebrated Ayla's second birthday party in December. She loves Sesame Street and Barney. When we asked her which party she wanted to have she said "Abbey and Elmo." So we went with the Sesame Street theme. She had a blast especially with the cupcake! She LOVES to eat! We served Pizza (Elmo's favorite), chips and pasta salad (Noodles). I found Solo plates and cups at the local Wal-Mart with the Sesame Street characters on them. We played Oscars Trash Toss...we brought a bag of our recycled plastics and the kids raced to see who could get the trash in the can the fastest (they loved this). We also played Big Birds Balloons Bust... We had a garbage bag full of balloons and when it was time we opened the bag and the kids just went wild sitting on balloons. The last game was Feed Cookie Monster...I made a cookie monster with the Cricut, made 3 chocolate chip cookies out of cardstock, put a penny the center to weigh them and each kid through 3 cookie in his mouth. For the tables I purchased red, yellow, blue, & green tablecloths from the local dollar store. I handmade Sesame Street sign centerpieces with paper tubes, styrofoam balls, green spray paint, hot glue gun, cardstock and the cricut. Gotta love that Cricut for all your crafty projects. Instead of a cake this year I tried my hand at Cookie Monster and Elmo cupcakes. They did'nt turn out as well as I wanted but they tasted good! Miss Ayla had red icing all over her new sweatshirt that I ordered from Wal-Mart.com. It has the SS characters hugging the letters of her name. I also made Cookie Monster's favorite chocolate chip cookie for a little extra sweet. We gave each child that attended a Mini Pinata that I ordered from ebay.com. Elmo for the boys and Abbey for the girls. She personalized them with Happy 2nd Birthday Ayla (super cute). Included in each pinata was a gift from some of the characters. Goldfish crackers from Dorothy (Elmo's fish), a glow in the dark rubber duckie from Ernie (ordered from orientaltrading.com), crayons from Elmo (orientaltrading.com) and just a little candy to help fill it up. She had a great time lots of family and friends came out to celebrate her. She is such a sweet baby girl and a true blessing in out lives.