Charlie's Disney Cars 4th Birthday Party

To celebrate his birthday this year, Charlie had a little friends party at our house. It was just me and Trevor against nine 3- and 4-year-olds. At first I wondered if I was crazy for attempting such a feat, but it turned out really fun! Everyone played and listened well and things never got out of hand.

Additionally, I purchased all of the decor and also bought a store made cake this year, and it was WONDERFUL. Like, zero stress. Except for the moment an hour before the party when Trevor went to pick up the cake and they had--ahem--supposedly lost the order slip and never made his cake. Say WHAT? ... Luckily we ended up getting a free cake, but unluckily it didn't look exactly like the one I ordered (read: pick up a pre-made cake and put Cars toys on top and write on it). Oh well, the only thing that really matters is that Charlie didn't know the difference and he LOVED the cake. He was so excited to dig into it, and he didn't leave its side until the party started. Ha!

Here's a couple pictures of the decor. When I asked Charlie what kind of birthday party he wanted, the first thing he always said was "balloons and cake!" so I made sure those things were present and accounted for. :)

When all the tiny sized party guests had arrived, I let them play with the toys and watch Cars 2 for a few minutes. Then, we played Pin the Teeth on Mater. I let Charlie (being the birthday boy and all) go first. I put the paper blindfold/mask on him and told him to stick his teeth on the poster somewhere. He kept turning his head back and forth and up and down and before I realized what he was doing, he had put his sticker almost perfectly where it was supposed to go. That's when I realized he was looking through the cracks around the mask! Cheater!! Haha... I let it slide since anything goes on your birthday, but I told the rest of the kids that they couldn't peek and I tried to prevent them from seeing. It was such a fun game and some of the kids thought it was super silly. {$6 at Partyland. Can't beat that!}

Next, we trekked downstairs to hit the birthday cake shaped piñata (I didn't have enough time to order a Cars one... oops!) filled with candy and trinkets. Each of the kids took a turn. They got two hits per turn. We soon realized that their weak little arms weren't going to do much damage. Haha! Some kids did hit harder than others, and his little friend Austin (who also happens to be a 3rd child) hit so hard that he knocked it off the string and we couldn't tie it back up. At this point, we let him try to beat it on the ground (see picture below... so funny!) and when that didn't work, Trevor resorted to ripping it open and throwing all the candy up in the air. It worked, and all the excited kids ran and started filling their loot bags. :)

Run run run and get all the treats!

Here's that amazing picture of Austin taking names with the piñata. And then a picture of my sweet Charlie and his birthday cake. He (finally) was a pro at blowing out his candles! Getting sung to and blowing out candles on a birthday cake is probably his favorite thing in the entire world. He was in birthday heaven.

Here's everybody enjoying their cake and ice cream (except Kellen, the little neighbor two houses down who just really wanted to play with toys the whole time... like, I couldn't even get him to eat cake... what!?!) Starting with Charlie and going clockwise we have Chloe, Austin, Alyson, Aunika, Cohen, Oliver, phantom Kellen, and Elena!

After cake (and a good round of "let's clean everybody's face off") we opened presents! Charlie was slightly more interested in his bag of candy and party favors than his gifts, so we had to help him focus a little bit.

Kids live for presents, do they not!?

And sometimes even Dads are impressed by the toys! ;)

Overall, it was an hour and a half of high-energy fun! Charlie had a blast, and I just can't believe that my oldest baby is 4! Sometimes it seems like it's flown by... other times it seems like it's taken forever to get here. Either way though, I just love this silly, crazy, sweet boy and all of his quirks (like collecting everything currently important to him in one container and lugging it around the house... see photo for details hahaha). And finally, here's the invite Charlie personally delivered to all of his friends. I let him run up and knock on each of their doors and hand it to them. <3

Love you, Birthday Boy!

Gold and Pink Princess Birthday Party

We celebrated Delilah's birthday a couple days early, on June 6th. After seeing my friend's cute little one wearing a crown in her 1-year-old pictures, it only took me about 0.6 seconds to decide to copy her idea. A couple Pinterest minutes later, and I knew it had to be a pink and gold princess party for my little girl. The funniest part is when I was pregnant and found out I was having a girl, I couldn't wrap my head around all the girly things and I said things like "I will never call her a princess and do super pink-y girly things. That just sounds cheesy and gross." ... Well, here we are a year later and I'm totally eating my words, embracing all things pink and sparkly and princess-y! With no further ado, enjoy these pictures from her party:

First, just some customary pictures of the table spread in all its glory. I decorated it with pink and gold circles cut out of paper (thank goodness for my neighbor and her Silhouette!), a simple white tablecloth, and lots and lots of white (and a pink) picture frames full of the gorgeous photos we got taken at FotoFly studios earlier in the week. The amazing little crown cupcake toppers were a steal from Topper and Twine on Etsy and made such a big impression for the cost! I made the cupcakes myself out of a white box mix (after failing miserably at making cupcakes from scratch, yikes!) topped with a delicious buttercream frosting kissed with pink food coloring. I also made the little "wand" treats by using prepackaged vanilla wafer cookies with strawberry frosting dipped in melted white chocolate, also with a hint of pink food coloring. Then I finished it off with a paint stroke of dry gold pearl dust for a finish fit for a princess.

I borrowed this cute frame with a magnet board inside from my friend, but what a great idea! Just take any frame and fill it with a magnetic background for a very quick, easy, adorable magnetic surface! Her little girls love to hang up their pictures on display in their room. And finally, Delilah's wonderful, Pinterest-inspired smash cake! To alleviate stress, I asked my friend who is an awesome cake-maker-and-decorator to do the cake for me. She baked the two little 6 inch rounds about a week in advance and froze it. Then, the day before the party, she came down with the flu... so rather than make her decorate while she was sick, I decided to try it myself. For my first time trying this technique, I'd say that it turned out pretty darn good... definitely NOT a Pinterest fail!! :)

Here's my living room, mid-party. It's full of happy friends and babies. And it makes me happy to see all that happy. :)

Post-apocalyptic party living room. Ha. (There's Kimma talking to Grandma)

After we ate some of the delicious treats (may I mention we also served lightly buttered and salted white popcorn, those pink and white Mother's animal cookies {a HUGE hit with my 3 year old son}, and a veggie tray just to counteract all the sugar), Delilah got to smash her cake. She was in a pretty grumpy mood since the party happened during the time she would have liked to take a nap. However, after smashing the cake she perked right up and was happy for a few hours. Thank you, cake induced sugar rush! And, as usual, I couldn't pick just one or two cake smash pictures, so here's 5. ;)

I think she looks sooo stinking cute in her crown from Love Crush Bowtique on Etsy and her tutu/onesie from Onesies for Elliott. I mean, really, what did people do before Etsy and Pinterest!? <3

I think her toes even got a little taste. :) She was very matter-of-fact about her cake eating. It was all business and no play. No hesitation either. It may have helped that she got to dig into a cupcake during her photoshoot earlier in the week.

After a bit of cake cleanup, it was present time! 

Here is sweet Chloe, Delilah, and big brother Charlie. Friends Chloe and Millie brought her this little Fisher Price Cinderella princess carriage where the horse moves front to back when you push it along the floor. So cute! We love girly toys since we don't have very many of those (yet).

She also received a fun stuffed dog that plays music and teaches about body parts (ears, tummy, hands, feet) and colors, as well as her first little baby doll complete with disappearing milk bottle and sippy cup. Grandma and Grandpa Shipp brought some fun little trinkets and an adorable white lacy romper from Old Navy. Kimma and Bebop bought her the cute little pink Pottery Barn Anywhere Chair with her name on it. Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Cummings gave her a little pink ball and a chunky farm puzzle a couple weeks later since they weren't able to make the trip for the party.

Look at those adorable little friends... Millie (who's just 2 months older) and Delilah. Millie LOVED Delilah's chair, but D was good to share with her. Overall she had a fun little birthday party and it's so much fun that she's already ONE!

Delilah at 12 Months

That's the face of a cute little diva/trouble-maker if you ask me! She's already spoiled to pieces and she knows how to work it. She's got her Daddy wrapped around her finger and we just love her fiercely!

Some stats about D at a year:

• Weight: 18.5 lbs (28th percentile)
• Length (height): 28 inches (11.5th percentile - shorty!)
• Head Circumference: 17.5 inches (36th percentile)
• Size 9, 12, and 12-18 month clothes
• Size 3 diapers
• Same eating habits, 4 bottles of formula a day, and about to switch to whole milk soon!
• Eats three meals a day when we eat and snacks in between. She's usually never full, but on the occasion that she is, she will wave her hands in the air (signing "all done") and say "ahhhh duuuu". 
• Loves to drink her bottles in her bed when she's tired, and she'll turn over, get cozy, and pass out immediately after finishing the bottle and tossing it to the side. I guess she uses that as her comfort item since she doesn't use a paci. 
• Is starting to wean her second nap. Some days she still takes two, some just one. I actually prefer one nice, long one during the middle of the day because it can happen at the same time as Charlie has quiet time, but some days she just can't make it past 10:30 or 11am and will take 2 naps that day. 
• New words: "Cah" for car and "ged it" for did it or get it {also still says dada, (ba)nana, nigh-nigh, bye, hi, cracker, ba-ba, di(aper) and yay}
• She is walking about 50% of the time and getting better every day! Working changing direction and getting faster by the minute.
• Still no upper teeth, but I'm thinking they'll be here any day with as cranky as she has been lately.
• Mischief making now includes throwing toys, toilet paper, trash, and whatever else into the toilets or dunking the toilet cleaning brush in there and sloshing water all over the floor. Gag. Gotta make sure those doors are CLOSED! Yeesh!
• Has started taking bows off of her head any time she remembers it's there.
• Loves to play toys with her brother. She tries to copy everything he does, so if he puts a car down the big car ramp, then she will and shout "yaaaaaay" after. It's adorable. She's catching onto things way too fast! Smarty.
• For her birthday, she got a little baby doll with a bottle and she LOVES to cuddle the baby and say "aww" as well as feed her a bottle all the time. What a good little role-playing mommy. It's the cutest!
• Object permanence is in high gear. If she has something and I try to hide it from her, she will open my hands or look under me or try to find where it put it (or if I try to hide myself for a moment of peace she'll come find me) and if she can't get it or find it, she'll start throwing a fit and scream and cry until I either give it to her or tell her "sorry, sis". 
• Unlike Charlie, she hasn't shown much interest in books or television yet, which could pose a huge problem when we fly on a plane in a couple months, heaven help me. She's always just so busy and wants to be moving and doing and seeing and touching. She does like to turn the pages of books, but isn't into sitting still while I read her a book, unless it's "My Goodnight Book", this cute little vintage book that I found in a box of my old things that my parents shipped to me. It was one of my favorites growing up and I love that it's already one of hers too!
• She absolutely loves bath time and swimming or chilling in the float at our neighborhood pool.
• Scrunches her nose when she smiles or laughs really big, and kicks her feet like crazy when she gets excited, mostly when she's in her high chair and I'm getting her some food. 
• Loves riding in the car and will often take naps in there if she's tired at all. I don't blame her... I loved riding in the car too as a kid.
• Whenever Charlie gets sick, she usually gets it too, but it seems like she doesn't get as sick as he does. For example, when he gets a cold that causes a croupy cough, she doesn't get the cough or croupy cough. I've been quite thankful for that so far! On her birthday (while I was at girl's camp and my mom was watching her) she woke up with a fever of 102 degrees. She had it all day with no other symptoms but a mildly stuffy nose and it broke that evening and she was fine from then on. Teething fever? Virus that her body fought off quickly? Who knows... but I'm glad she doesn't stay sick for long, so far! :)
• With every month, she becomes more determined, opinionated, and independent. She wants to drink her own bottles and sippy cups, use her own spoons, go everywhere, escape outside, not be in her crib, etc etc and she makes her desires known with her loud outbursts and screeches. Silly girl ;)

Here's a comparison photo so you can see her growth over the past year (I STILL can't believe it's been an entire year! How did that even happen so fast!?):

I can't wait to see what toddlerhood brings for her... only 6 months until nursery at church! Ha!

Little D's First Year Studio Photos

I took Delilah for a girl's day out to get her one year photos done at FotoFly in Draper, UT. I really wanted the studio look to go with the pink and gold and white theme. I was over the moon with how great the pictures turned out... I loved almost every one of them! If you've ever spent time with a 1-year-old, you'll know how difficult it can be to get them to cooperate and be happy. I am thoroughly impressed with the photographer I had and the studio in general. I'll definitely be going back in the future.

I love how well these photos capture her inquisitive, determined, curious, mischievous, sweet and silly personality. Our family wouldn't be complete without her, and I'm looking forward to seeing how each of her personality traits shines as she gets older.

I just love this one where she's doing her full-mouth, crinkly-nose, cheese-face smile at me!