Lauren's Paris Birthday Party

I haven't been great at blogging this past year but I feel like doing a few posts, especially now that all three kids are back in school all day!

Lauren celebrated her birthday earlier this year and doing a Paris theme was a total given.  

 

She LOVES Paris!  She likes to watch language videos on YouTube and teach herself French.  Not.kidding.  It's pretty much adorable to me!

 Welcome to Paris, Utah!  Ha!

She has the cutest bunch of friends!

 

 The girls tied fabric scraps onto flip flops for their craft and then we had a fashion show to model them. 

 

Some of the girls didn't know how to tie (??) so thankfully big brother Graham came to the rescue along with his friend that was over.  The fashion show quickly turned into a conga line around the kitchen island!

 The house got VERY loud.  

We then had the girls be fashion designers with le toilet pa-per.  You know, like you do at every single bridal shower you have ever gone to in your 20's. 

 They thought this was both disgusting and hilarious.  

 

We pinned the flag on the Eiffel Tower poster while getting ready serve cake and ice cream.  

 

 My sweet little Parisian girl.

 

 

 I usually let Lauren have one or two friends stay over to play after a party.  She gets to play with her new toys and games with friends and it feels like the party lasts a little longer for her while we clean up the aftermath!

I think this cutie had a great day!  So far being seven is great!

I Had a Birthday...awhile ago....

I had a birthday!!

I wanted to write about my big day - and since time seems like it's in slow motion these days, it feels like it was just yesterday. 

I started celebrating the night before with my best friend, Kjersten.

 (Looking hot with our feathered hair circa 1990)

 We went to Nordstrom and hoarded free samples, smelled 100 new perfumes trying to find a new perfect one for summer, oohed and ahhhhed over $400 shoes and $3000 Burberry purses that we will never own and picked out some new make up.

This made us very hungry, so we split some flatbread at The Cheesecake Factory (try the pear and blue cheese one - SO good!) and ate cheesecake until we were sick.  It was SO good!  Such a fun night - I love that we have been celebrating birthdays together since we were 12.  Almost 30 years...yikes.

I woke up the next morning to little giggling kids who gave me these awesome gifts...

 My very own BeyBlade from the boys (they gave me a good one, I might actually win a match now!)

 And Lauren wrapped up her Rapunzel tower just for me.  

The presents starting coming in!  My sweet in laws drove up to give me these pretty flowers and say hello.  

I met my cute friends Marcy, Rachel and Leslie for lunch at my new favorite place, Cafe Bella Rue for a yummy sandwich and gelato. Have you been there?  The sandwiches are SO good! 

Later that night we got some Olive Garden to go at my mom and dad's - which was good because I started feeling really, really awful/weird and had to lay down.  

 I saved my piece of cake for breakfast the next morning (don't judge, you know you'd eat bithday cake for breakfast if you could too...)

 It was a great day with friends and family.  Dan always treats me like a queen and spoils me rotten.  I love it.

Couldn't miss a shot with my dad - ever since his stroke he's decided to go all rebel by growing a beard, his first one ever in his 70 years.  

My mom and I hate it, but if this makes him feel like a tough guy, then whatever.  ;)

Lego Late Over Birthday Party

 

 The parties just keep coming around here!  

After a small celebration for my dad who turned 70 (hooray!!) we moved on to Greg turning.....

  

Since we like birthdays to drag out forever, we started on Friday by me bringing in cupcakes to share with his class at school.

  

He got to wear the birthday "necklace" and obviously loved hearing his class sing to him!

 

 That night he invited some of his good friends over for a 

LEGO LATE OVER!!! 

Miss Natalie over at Natty Sue Designs made this awesome invite for us:

We did a similar party like this for Graham's 8th birthday also.  

It's a really fun theme that the boys love and not too stressful for me.  Which is what I needed!  

I am getting better and better everyday, but I'm no where near 100% yet so I am still trying to take it easy!

 

Dan put up some simple decorations and the boys set up the tables and chairs for me.  

As the boys arrived they played with a huge pile of Legos and waited for the rest of their friends.  

 Dan & Lauren went and picked up pizzas and breadsticks.  

We had 2 slices left over!

 

Hungry boys!

 We played a few Lego games...the first was where they sat in a circle and started building for 1 minute.  When the time was up, they passed their creation on to the next person who added onto it. 

 

After about 7-8 turns, the last person had to explain to the group what the creation was/used for.  We got some REALLY creative and unique explanations.  It was hilarious!

 Next up?  Lego Chopsticks!  

They had one minute to see how many Lego's the could pick up using the chop sticks.   We did this a few times, they loved this game!

Last up was the Lego Memory Game.  I put some odds and ends on a cookie sheet and they all had a short amount of time to look at the objects.  We then took the objects away and they had to write down what they remembered.

Lauren totally WON this game.  The boys were super sore losers to find out that a 5 year old girl smoked them.  Too bad, so sad.  

We all went downstairs to watch the Lego movie, Clutch Powers  

Have you seen it?  It's awesome!  The boys were mesmerized!  

We came up later for cupcakes and ice cream.   

 

I have gotten more use out of this cupcake stand, I love it!

I found these awesome Lego minifigure and brick molds on ebay

to make the cupcake toppers out of melted chocolate. 

 

I used the brick mold for crayon favors, really easy!

 

 I think the boys, and most importantly, Greg, had a great time!

 We are so happy that he has such a great group of friends.  They are all so fun and nice to each other.  

Happy 8th Birthday Gregory John!  We love you! 

Birthday Girl

Lauren had preschool the day before her birthday and celebrated there with her little friends.   

She was thrilled to get a pink crown, balloon and be the special helper that day. 

 

Two weeks ago, Lauren and I sat down and put together little treat bags to hand out to her friends at school.  Each had a cupcake, shape ruler, stickers and party horn. 

 We started off her birthday with her favorites for breakfast, pancakes! 

Not so easy to make a pancake in the shape of a 5, but Dan managed to pull it off.

She wanted one of her favorite friends, Miss P to come over and have a play date.  They are so cute together, they like painting their nails and playing Barbies.  They wanted to make Fairy Houses so they worked on that for awhile.

 Lauren and I made a cake for that night.  I saw this beautiful rose cake on the Farm Chicks blog and we decided to copy that.  It was SUPER easy to do and I thought it turned out darling!

So pretty for a Valentine week birthday celebration! 

I love this red cake stand my sister in law, Kelly gave me. 

 Pink wasn't enough, so Lauren asked to put sprinkles all over it.  We usually have birthday dinners with grandma and grandpa but I still wasn't feeling that hot and making this cake was about all I could do.  They came over later instead for cake and ice cream and to open presents. 

She made a BIG wish.  And wouldn't tell a soul. 

I was worried with my not being anywhere near back to normal yet that this might be a cruddy birthday for her.  It was low key but perfect and I think she still had a wonderful day answering telephone calls and opening up presents from her cute cousins.  

I'm still a little in shock that my baby is now FIVE!!

It seems like were JUST celebrating her first birthday last week!