Women's Conference.

"As women become pure and holy they will have a marked influence upon the world" -Joseph Smith

This year I spent my birthday decorating for our stakes (church) women's conference (theme above). When they originally asked me to be in charge of the decorating I didn't realize it was going to be the morning after my birthday. I do have to say that although I spent my entire birthday at the church, I had an amazing amount of love and support from family and friends. In the end it really was a great birthday.

 Ryan hung strands of lights and pom poms/lanterns/poufs all over the gym for me. The hope was to bring the ceiling down and detract from the basketball hoops etc. While the pictures show all the things I wanted to disguise, I do feel like in real life the lights and poms were indeed effective. 

 Each table had three glass jars. We primarily used ranunculus for the centerpieces. I thought they were beautiful.

We had white tablecloths and burlap runners, I LOVED the burlap.

We tied each end of the runner with twine, it was a simple touch, but I thought it added a lot.

We had a clementine on each place setting. My friend Tamara designed, punched out and assembled 300 tags with different parts of the theme on them. It was the perfect pop of color for the tables.

The table looks slightly bare in this picture, however, we needed room for the large salad platter, chips, salsa and rolls, and Mr. Photographer was gone by the time the lunch was actually served.

 This was the pouf cluster hanging above the dessert table. I loved the impact.

The cupcakes turned out amazing (I was not in charge of those), and Tamara and I had a great time assembling all those white cake stands! (Try to ignore the large teal curtain.. no way to disguise that bad boy!)

We made these tags to identify the cupcakes. Just a simple piece of ribbon with a label. Lots of people commented on the tags. I thought they looked lovely if I do say so myself.

Overall I loved the way the whole thing turned out. Given an unlimited budget and all the time in the world it may have been easier to transform the gym, but I feel like we did a lot with a little. I had the worlds best committee, friends and family who all chipped in and made it possible. I feel so lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderful people.

Toy Story Party!

I'm so excited to show/tell you about Finn's first friend party!  I was feeling an immense amount of mom guilt because by this point the girls were on their 3rd major party. I wanted to make sure he felt really special. He is obsessed with Buzz and Woody and Toy Story in general. The idea of character parties is not my favorite but I knew nothing would make him happier. He loved the Toy Story ride at Disneyland so I decided to make the party a little more carnival and a little less character.

I found these invitations on a blog and was going to attempt to do my own version, but realized she had them available to download for free. I added my own red stripe in photoshop and printed them off. I love when people are generous.

I saw a picture on Pinterest of a party with signs similar to these and made my own in photoshop. I already had the aqua arrows from a newspaper bunting I'd made for a previous party.

I raided my fabric scraps looking for the birthday colors. I was lazy so I just cut them out with pinking shears and used mini close pins to attach them to some rickrack. My kind of project. Easy!!

I printed the subway art from the eighteen25 girls and brought down some of Finn's favorite toys for the entryway. Can you spot the birthday boy?

Here's a close up of the toys.

The table in the early set up stages.

We colored and put stickers on rockets and flew them with straws.

We hid 100 army men all over the downstairs and they went on a hunt for the army guys.

My friend Ashley lent me her giant board to make into a balloon popping station. They popped the balloons and candy/bandaids/confetti fell out. Notice the blue balloon that clearly had a slow leak in it

 

Marshmallow shooters were among the favorites for the kids. They were hilarious flinging marshmallows all over the house. I loved it when one of them dumped quite a few in, pulled the balloon back and they shot right in his face. He laughed and laughed.

We had Finn's choice for lunch. Hot dogs, chips, squeezer yogurts and lemonade. I made a big cake that did not turn out all that cute, and then LGM (or Alien Green Guys as Finn calls them) cupcakes.

Blowing out his birthday candles.

And finally, if you are still with me, here were the take home boxes (as seen on my cousin Jamie's blog). They were filled with Buzz Lightyear notepads, rolling stamps, stickers, toy story pez dispensers, etc.

Boy Baby Shower!

This weekend some friends and I threw a shower to celebrate one of my favorite people and her soon to arrive baby boy.

It was two hours that I wish could have lasted the entire weekend.

Bite size caramel apple favors. Don't let appearances fool you, these were a labor of love and not as easy to whip out as we'd anticipated. If you decide to try them, email me for tips.

There was a point in time where we almost abandoned ship, but I am so glad we didn't. They turned out really cute and were definitely worth it.

Wishes for Baby.. I loved this idea. Lauren talked about how in the original sleeping beauty there were 12 fairies who each gave a wish for the baby as we handed them out. We thought these would be perfect for the baby book and a great way to document all the people that were there and are so excited for his arrival.

We made this crepe paper. Super easy and although the pictures don't show it well it added a dramatic effect!  I loved it.

Setting up and arranging :)

Pom Pom/Lantern cluster hanging above the main food table

We did a yogurt bar (Vanilla, Strawberry and Mango yogurt with multiple toppings and suggestion ideas)

The menu board/parfait suggestions

mini pumpkin muffins and cinnamon cream cheese frosting

chocolate dipped strawberries… someone's very favorite..

baked brie and crackers (and not pictured because they disappeared so fast were the blt bites and also mini quiches that I missed getting a picture of)

mock mimosas or orange juice and ginger ale

'

I couldn't resist. Scarly bug in her hang out spot for the shower. She was an angel baby.

Some of the party planning crew and the guest of honor.

The aftermath. Look at all those beautiful dishes. 

Thanks to everyone who brought food, donated dishes and helped to make this shower one we won't soon forget!

"Egg"stravaganza Birthday!

Lily's party started with the tablescape

We decorated balloons and hung them upside down to make them look like easter eggs

We decked out the entry way with Easter decor

The beginnings of the crepe bar (we didn't get a picture of it all the way done… oops). Unfortunately with the 7 year olds the good toppings went to waste and the whip cream, nutella and sprinkles were well used and liked.

Making their own crepes

A guest appearance from the Easter Bunny who read "The Country Bunny and The Little Gold Shoes"

Once the story was over, we handed out personalized buckets and bunny ears for the big hunt. The girls were so excited, it was really cute. There was a gold egg and a silver egg hidden that would win them a prize, the girls wanted to find them so bad that some of them weren't even picking up the regular eggs.

Ryan ended up in serious trouble for giving hints to girls as they walked passed him about the placement of the golden egg, because not everyone received a hint before it was found.

Lesson learned: Don't mess with competitive 7 year olds!

The games: We had some different egg relays, bunny sack hop and crack the egg

All the girls with the Easter Bunny

The cupcakes

and my attempt at the Martha Stewart ruffle cake

The cute birthday girl. She loved her party and spending time with so many of her friends. This was the first party I've ever thrown where we ran out of time, she didn't even get to open her presents before the guests left. Crazy!

I don't have a picture of the cute washcloth bunnies we made, but I think overall the girls had fun and Lily thought it was "the best day ever" and that sure does make it worth all the effort!