A Tangled Birthday Party

Our oldest daughter Reese turned 5 last week, and we had several celebrations planned to mark the event. First, we planned on going out to lunch at Happy Joe's on her actual birthday, June 7th, when my husband had a work conflict. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for that afternoon and began to think that if my midwife induced labor, I was five days from my due date, I would not be very comfortable or willing to go out to dinner. As a result, we decided to celebrate her birthday with a family dinner the night before. We went to Happy Joe's per Reeses' request and the kids had a blast playing all of the games and collecting tickets for their prizes. After eating too much pizza, they delivered a birthday sundae to our table and the entire restaurant joined in singing, "Happy Birthday!" to Reese.
The very next day, I went into labor with our third child! Besides getting a "Happy Birthday", the poor girl did not get the celebration that this much anticipated birthday deserved! She did get to go out to dinner at the restuarant of her choosing (Chik-Fil-A) and go shopping with her grammy, which made her feel pretty special!

We had planned to hold a birthday party with my in-laws that weekend, so after getting home from the hospital, we went into full party prep! Actually, most of the preparations had been done long in advance, so it was just organizing the house after bringing home a truckload of stuff with us from the hospital!

Reese absolutely loves the movie "Tangled", so we decided on a Rapunzel themed party. I started with the invitations several weeks ago. Being pregnant, crafting invitations was a perfect activity to keep me busy while spending the evenings with my feet propped up. I combined 2 different invitation ideas that I found on Pinterest to create our own unique invitation.

Source: marthastewart.com via Aubrey on Pinterest

Source: itsnotalwaysblackandwhite.blogspot.com via Aubrey on Pinterest

Another project that I worked on while propping my feet up, was the banner. I used a cut out of the sun motiff and attached it to a piece of purple cardstock. I then strung the cards together with yarn and hung them throughout the house. We also had several different types of purple paper lanterns hanging in different areas of the house.

My banner was inspired by this one on Pinterest.

Source: legaladdictivestimulants.blogspot.com via Aubrey on Pinterest

Finally, we put together a cupcake "cake" inspired by a cake I also found on Pinterest.

Source: cupcakedecoratingsupplies.com via Aubrey on Pinterest

I baked a batch of cupcakes and frosted them all in green frosting and arranged them all on a platter. I then frosted the edge of an ice cream cone and placed another one on top. I added the cone castle to the cupcakes by using a toothpick inserted into the cone and cupcake. While I rolled out a few pieces of banana laffy taffy to make the hair, I gave my daughter a package of edible flowers to add to the cupcakes and tower. Finally, using some frosting, I attached the laffy taffy braid to the tower and draped it through the cupcakes.



The birthday girl was completely spoiled by our wonderful families. Though she ended up having to share the birthday spotlight with her new baby sister, I think that she ended up having a perfect birthday!

Nesting Overdrive

I have been off of work for a full week and I was determined to keep active rather than relaxing with my feet propped up. Now that I am at 38 weeks, my thoughts are that keeping active will encourage the baby to make his or her appearance sooner rather than later!
Monday was Memorial Day and we spent most of the day hanging out at my in-laws pool. It was great to be able to play with the kids, but be able to relax and stay cool at the same time.
While the kids napped on Tuesday, I started going around the house gathering items that I plan to sell at a garage sale later this summer. During the cleanout of my craft room, I came across 2 scrap pieces of fleece that were perfect for a project I pinned on Pinterest. I pinned this tutorial for car seat pillows several months ago and with a lot of travelling planned this summer, I really wanted to complete this project. The instructions were very easy to follow and I would have had both pillows done in one naptime, but I did not have velcro on hand.
Wednesday, my husband was out of town, so I tried to take it easy, I didn't want to go into labor when he was several hours away. I worked on school work for my summer class while the kids played outside. That evening we went to town and ran a few errands, to purchase supplies to work on a few projects on my to do list. We also purchased and put together a few deck boxes to store our patio cushions in.
Thursday was rainy and gray. Rather than sit around the house watching movies and tv, I pulled out the gallon of oops paint that I finally purchased for my son's room and got to work. You can see a before of the room here. I took time off that afternoon to go to the doctor and received the disappointing news that I was not even close to going into labor. That renewed my energy to finish the painting that evening after dinner!
Friday, I finished painting my son's room and then took the kids to walk around the zoo. We walked for at least 2 hours before heading home for lunch. While the kids napped that afternoon, I worked on cleaning the house. That evening we went out to dinner and a party to celebrate my father-in-law's 15 years of service.
Saturday we attended my daughter's last soccer practice/game and then spent several hours running errands and getting groceries. That evening I spent several hours in the kitchen preparing 5 loves of stromboli. We planned to take some out on the boat with us the next day and then I figured that we would have a few loaves prepared for meals while I was in the hospital or soon after I got home.
Sunday morning I woke up before Randy and the kids and decided to take advantage of the time to work on another Pinterest project. I pinned this nursing cover project several weeks ago and decided to go ahead and complete one with a blue checkered fabric that I had on hand. Though we are not sure what we are having, I think that the pattern is kind of feminine even though the colors may be more masculine. The cotton fabric that I had was light and see through and therefore not so well suited for a nursing cover, so I ended up lining the whole cover with a white cotton fabric. We then spent the rest of the afternoon on the boat at the beach. Thankfully, the kids were happy to splash and play in the sand while I sat back and relaxed. After eating a quick dinner and bathing both kids, we were all in bed by 9pm. It was a crazy busy week, but with our third child due in about a week, things are only going to get crazier!