Ready, Set, Her We Go!!

We are ready for tomorrow's birthday celebration:

Custom cupcakes frosted in turquoise, pink, orange and green complete with matching confetti sugar.... Ordered!

Pepperoni and cheese pizza... Pre-ordered and ready to be delivered at 12:30.

Themed party decorations... Made goody bags, party favors and paper dolls.

Plates, tablecloth... Check! Just need to get 1 more set of plates and napkins.

Anything left? I need to get ice for the ice chest, juice and water and pick up the cupcakes.

It's been busy, but I hope Erin has a wonderful and memorable 6th birthday pool party!! :)

Lalaloopsy Birthday Mania

Erin has decided on a Lalaloopsy party for her birthday.  For those not familiar with Lalaloopsies, they are rag type dolls made out of plastic.  They have large heads, colored hair and button eyes.  The only problem with her selected theme is that there is no commercially packaged party ware.  This means that Mom has to make all of the decorations, party favors and invitations.  So far, I have come up with a paper doll, invitations, cupcake toppers, goody bags and a couple of party favors.  I also found a really cute brightly colored polka dot table cloth that will match the theme perfectly.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

We decided to head to our favorite local restaurant for the Cinco de Mayo celebration. We love Fajita Willies. They make the best fish tacos and chicken enchiladas!
We decided to sit outside where we could enjoy the live music and keep an eye on Erin while she played in the sand box or bounce house. The restaurant had hired a balloon artist for the celebration. He crafted an adorable Ariel for Erin.
We all enjoyed the celebration and left Willie's feeling like we had gone on a mini vacation. What a great way to unwind after a long week! :)

Erin & Mom Herb Garden Project

A couple of weeks ago, Erin and I decided to start an herb garden. We thought it would be fun to have some herbs of our own that we could use for cooking. We went to Lowes and found a really cool herb garden kit for us to start our garden.

I comes with the seeds, 8 cocoa pods that grow when you add water and a self watering dish. We planted cilantro, basil, oregano and parsley. The kit gave us enough seeds to grow 2 of each herb. We planted the seeds, watered them and had to wait about 10 days for all of them to sprout.

We have now moved our young plants outside for them to adjust to the temperature. I will take a couple of weeks before they are ready to be planted in pots and spend all their time outside. Erin enjoys checking on the plants every day and reporting on their growth. So far, the cilantro seems to be our speediest grower! :)

Daisy Service Project

As part of their duties as Daisies, the girls are expected to do one service project a year in order to give back to the community.  The girls decided to plant flowers at the School District's Science Resource Center.  This is a place where all of the schools in our area go for field trips.  They have a wide variety of animals and plants for the students to see and experience.

7 of the 10 girls came to the resource center after school.  They all brought their gardening gloves and tools and got ready to plant!  The girls planted marigolds and other colorful flowers in planters that were featured in the entrance of the building.  They also planted some herbs and other colorful plants in a small garden in the back of the building.  They all had a fun time working together and making the area pretty!

Spring Fling

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Warner Elementary Spring Fling.  They have this event every year to raise money for the school's parent teacher organization.  They have a bunch of booths set up for the kids to participate in a variety of games.  There is also a silent auction that sponsors have contributed items to.

Erin was so excited to go to this year's event.  She was particularly pumped about the dunk tank.  They actual teachers sitting in the tank.  Erin decided to start with this booth because her Science teacher was up to be dunked.  As you can imagine, this was an extremely popular attraction and the line was a mile long... Once we got to the front of the line, Erin got 3 tries to hit the target with a tennis ball.  She succeeded on the 3rd try and in went the Science teacher!!

Erin also enjoyed finding treasure in the sand pit.  She managed a whole in one at the put put station.  She tossed the ping pong ball into the fish bowls in spite of the wind and she got to make a spin art Frisbee (this was the 2nd big activity on her list of things to do).

Big Girl at the Spin Art Table

Happy Easter



Happy Easter Girl

We had a very busy Easter weekend.  Erin has been asking me to host and Easter party for her and her friends for a couple of years.  This year, we decided the time had come to have our very own Easter Lunch.  Erin invited a couple of girls from her Girl Scoot Troupe, a neighbor and some friends form church over for pizza, Easter egg decorating, and an Easter Egg hunt.

Eight kids aged 2 to 6 came over, some with parents and others by themselves.  We painted Easter figurines, dyed eggs, then had lunch.  We made our very own Easter Bunny Cookie complete with icing, marshmallows and jelly beans.  The kids finished off their party with a backyard Easter egg hunt. 

Later that evening, Erin had a Tea Party for a friend's Birthday Party.  The girls drank punch and ate sandwiches just like little ladies.  The had a really great time!

Saturday, Granny came over for dinner.  She spent the night and was up bright and early the next morning to help Erin investigate what the Easter Bunny had left behind.  They followed the trail of eggs that went from the staircase into the kitchen and discovered a beautiful blue basket filled with treats and toys!  She especially loved all the M & Ms and took time to try out each individual toy. 

We also baked our own personal Easter treats.  Erin and I came up with a scrumptious combination of chocolate cupcakes topped with icing (sugar free - thank goodness!), Peeps and Starburst jelly beans.  I think this picture speaks volumes about how much she liked our special dessert!



Easter Egg Hunt in the Backyard