A Party on Sesame Street

Will's First Birthday Party was last weekend. We chose a Sesame Street theme, mainly because I had seen so many cute ideas that would allow me to create and design and just be creative with it. I had a bit too much fun.

The birthday boy loved it and I think his sister loved it even more. It was an awesome time.

Front door sign.

I used my trusty Cricut and scrapbook paper to decorate the bags like the characters to use for favors.

The favors for big kids.

And favors for little kids. I loved finding activity books that just had the character face on the front - matched the favor bags perfectly.

This is the main food table. I saw this wonderful idea for labeling the foods with street signs from Sesame Street. So, there was "Rosita's Queso," "Cookie's Cookies," and "Dorothy's Goldfish."

Centerpiece (I just printed these on card stock and stuck them on straws in a sand pail with tissue paper.

Sweets table.

The Elmo and Cookie Monster Cupcakes I made. I had a little too much fun with these.

I love balloons, so I used them for the majority of the color in the room.

Sesame Street name sign over the food table.

Big sister, Scarlet and her aunt, Julie.

We played Ernie's Rubber Ducky Dunk. There were 20 ducks in the pool. Five had black marks on their bellies. So, if a child got one with a mark, they got a prize.

What I didn't count on was for them to be going back over and over again to make sure they got one with a black dot! I was very glad I got enough prizes!

I think they had the most fun riding this little truck. There was a line for most of the party.

Part of the Cook-out crew, making the hamburgers and hot dogs.

After dinner, Elmo stopped by for a surprise visit. The kids were shocked and happy

Jonathan may have just been shocked...

Will was just not having any of it. He couldn't get away from Elmo fast enough.

Sweet Imaginations did this Smash Cake for him and I just loved it!

It took a taste test from daddy to get things started...

But that was all!!

Happy birthday our sweet little baby boy. We love you so much.

Christmas Morning

I know you all have moved on into 2012, and I'm still getting caught up on what happened last year. So this will be my very last outdated post about Christmas...I promise.

I loved the holidays this year. I think I noted in a previous post that I really didn't expect Scarlet would be old enough to understand things this year or appreciate all the stories and hoopla that go into the Santa/Christmas experience. I was SO wrong.

She was very much into every bit of it and wanted us to tell her stories over and over, and sing Christmas caroles all day long.

So, getting ready the night before Christmas was so magical for Waylen and I. We didn't go too overboard, but we did have a few great presents that we were really excited for the kids to discover.

Every time we had asked Scarlet what she wanted for Christmas, she had told us "lots of baby dolls and a trike (tricycle)." She was adimate about these things and never changed her answer. So, we got her exactly what she asked for. We diverted just a bit, however, and also bought her and Will a 12V ride-on utility vehicle (Ford F-150) for the back yard.

Here are some photos of us getting everything ready on Christmas Eve as well as the big unveil of all the presents on Christmas Day. I'll have to also post a video of them in the Ford. It is hillarious and, yes, they both ride very well together in it. Will just hoots and hollers!

A Crafty Christmas

Every year my mom's side of the family has a Kris Kringle - where we exchange names for gift giving. The babies each have each other, so Scarlet and Will had their second-cousins, Landon and Elijah.
We decided this year that the rules were to make our gifts. I was really excited to get this news and started making our gifts in mid-November. Here are the gifts that were given to each of the boys as well as Jonathan and Ben.

These are mittens made into dinosaurs.

These are no-wood, no-sew growth charts made from mod podge. I used fabric backing, scrapbooking paper and little sayings/quotes on vellum. The numbers marking the ruler are scrapbooking stickers.

I then made the boys tool belts from Dallas Cowboys fabric. They were lots of fun to make and seemed to be a big hit with all these little men!

My last project was for Julie. I took many of the tshirts and cotton tees that were my mom and dad's that remind us most of trips, events, or of them in general. I cut them in squares and made a quilt with a sweatshirt backing. I loved it so much I made one for me, too!

Our First Christmas Pageant

I know - I'm a bit late with getting these Christmas posts out, but I couldn't resist still posting them so you could know what we were up to during the holidays - especially when it comes to the Christmas pageant at Scarlet's school. It was our first experience of this kind and it was so precious. She did really well. They sang three songs with the older classes including Old Saint Nick. She loves it so much, she still sings it at least 5 or 6 times a day.

Inside the auditorium/chapel at her school.

Her little class is right there in front.

This video is so funny. You can tell about half way through that she realizes we are in the audience, including her grandmother. It was all she could do not to run down the aisle toward us (which she did promptly as the song ended).

 

Can't wait for next year!

In Prep for Christmas

I think Waylen and I had so much more fun this Christmas than we had expected. I didn't really think that at 2 years, Scarlet would yet "get" Santa and all the hoopla. Boy, was I wrong! She was really into it. She talked non-stop about Santa, Frosty, the Reindeer, Baby Jesus, and so much more.

So, I took every advantage of making this as memorable as possible...if not for her, for us. So, we started with the Elf on a Shelf breakfast the day after Thanksgiving. I had so much fun putting it all together and the kids both just laughed and talked about "Ellie" our Elf all the way through the breakfast.

Our elf, Ellie, is a girl with a little felt skirt. She brought candies, chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, and bacon with her for breakfast.

~Welcome, Ellie!~

A super surprised baby girl.

Barely awake, but loving it nonetheless.

Big smiles!

Uh, you got a little something...right...there.

Ellie also brought the first Christmas present to properly bring in the season.

It was the Christmas edition of Beauty and the Beast.

Our next big adventure was decorating the tree. She helped for at least a half hour and really surprised me that she wasn't getting bored or tired with it. We had so much doing this together.

Discovering little treasures like this puppy ornament was the highlight of the experience.

"Yook at de tree!"

So proud of herself.