LOGAN TURNS 10!

Let's get the obvious out of the way.
Yes, it's been way too long since I've blogged.
Yes, I regret it and feel horrible I've missed documenting the past few months of our lives.
However, it was a good break.
I feel refreshed and ready to write again!
Let's start with my Most Favoritest Son's 10th Birthday.
DOUBLE DIGITS PEOPLE!!
I whipped up these snazzy little invites to resemble real Baseball Tickets.
Even with a bar code at the bottom!

This year, instead of inviting all the boys in his class for a sleep over (every parent needs to experience this at least once) we let him choose 4 friends to spend the night and go to a Nashville Sounds ballgame. We had an awesome group of boys. We had PRIME seats. Right behind the Sounds dugout!
There was also a good group of enthusiastic people around us including a little league team!
I've found that it can really affect the mood you're in by the people you sit around at big events like this. (i.e. concerts)
This here is Ozzie the Cougar. Not real sure what he has to do with "Sounds" but, he did a great job of amping up the crowd.

Little boys pigging out on hot dogs, slushies, pizza and...

FUNNEL CAKES!!!

About half way through the boys were getting a little restless. Let's face it, baseball games are long! Thank goodness there's a cool little area for kids to play around on. Obstacle bounce houses, trampolines and velcro walls.

The velcro wall was hilarious. I don't think the boys were quite heavy enough to make themselves stick to the wall so Josh had to end up throwing the boys against it to make them stick!

Evan got completely stuck up there and it took all 4 boys to get him down.

My son. He does awesome tricks only a 10 year old boy can do.

I think they're singing here? Their facial expressions are hilarious!

So after all that fun we made it back to the game. It was getting to be a real nail biter! Sounds were down by 2. In the 7th inning we scored 2 runs and tied it up! Our 5 had made their way down to the front row. Right behind the dugout! The little league team beside us were going crazy! They started chanting this little diddy:
We want a single just a little single s-i-n-g-l-e single single single We want a double just a little double d-o-u-b-l-e double double double We want a triple just a little triple t-r-i-p-l-e triple triple triple We want a homerun just a little homerun H-O H-O-M H-O-M-E-R-U-N HOMERUN
And wouldn't you know?? The next batter got a HOMERUN!! It was amazing.
Those little boys were so excited thinking they'd caused the homerun (maybe they did!?) and our guys were really into it by this point.
So by the 9th inning Sounds were up by 1 point.
All we had to do was hold them in the Top of the 9th.

First batter up...3 strikes and he's out!
Second batter...3 strikes!
THIRD BATTER...3 strikes.
OUT!
9 pitches, all strikes. Annnnnd
THAT'S THE GAME!!

IT.WAS.AMAZING!!
On top of that, there was a couple sitting next to the boys above the dugout. The guy kept hollering to the pitcher to give Logan a ball 'cause it was his birthday. The pitcher kept trying to ignore/wave him off. The guy was relentless and the pitcher gave in!
Logan got a game ball!!

Oh it does not end there my friends. After the field was cleared all the kiddos were invited to run the bases. The excitement of 5 10 year old boys running a real baseball field was immeasurable!
To end the night, there was a fireworks display to the tunes of Mr. Michael Jackson. It was like our own personal amzing light show! We were so close to the action!
And that is the story of the Most Awesome 10 Year Old Birthday EVA!!

Brynn's 2 Sweet Candy Shop

I wanted to take a minute to discuss what kind of party planning actually

went on behind the scenes of this 2nd birthday party.

The theme was pretty easy.

One of my favorite sites for party ideas is Design Dazzle.

I was stuck between the Milk & Cookies party and the Candy Bar.

Once I googled the candy bar party and saw all the magnificient things that

could be done my theme was decided.

Her Mema got her an adorable outfit to wear that had a 2 on the shirt and a cupcake skirt.

I took photos of her and the lollipop and preceded to design her invites in photoshop.

I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out!

On to the Candy Bar!!

Most of the glass jars were flower vases I had or were borrowed. All except for the round ones with the lids. They were half off at Hobby Lobby! Love that store.

These little treasures below are called Cake Pops

& were inspired by the oh so talented Bakerella.
Nana is the baker in the family and created these as well as the Birthday Cake below.

My Giant Lollipops!
These were soooo easy and so stinkin cute! I got 2 big dowel rods, cellaphane and ribbon.

The pool noodles were donated by Mimi & Poppy. See, no one thinks to sell pool noodles in the middle of February! Boggles my mind. Hot glue pool noodles into a circle. This is no easy task and must be done with 2 people. One to glue and one to hold noodle in place. Let it dry for a few minutes and ram the rod through the middle. Wrap with cellaphane.

Tie with a ribbon and voila! Giant Lollipops!

My next project was the Lollipop Topiary. Now for some reason I have a lot of different size styrofoam balls, ribbon and a lot of small/medium wood dowels laying around. So I used 2 of the balls, 2 of the dowels, got 2 silver buckets from the dollar store and some lollipops.

Put square styrofoam in the bottom of the bucket and fill with marbles or rocks. Whatever you have to weight it down. Stick the lollipops in the styrofoam balls. Insert the dowel into the foam in bucket and hot glue it together. For extra support. Insert ball into other end of dowel and hot glue it at the base of the ball. Put tulle in base to hide rocks and tie with ribbon.

Lollipop Topiary

Candy Shop Labels

Now these jars would been cute just plain with the candy showing but, let's go one step further. I made up some labels. Printed them out and cut with scrapbook scissors. Used some of my extra ribbon from the topiary's to put around the jars. They looked OK but, something was missing. I had some old scrapbook stickers (you see, at one time I intended to scrapbook...then I found BLOGGING!) I think these were Martha Stewart. I added them to the sides of the labels. NOW it looks finished! It's all about the details people.

The Banner
Scrapbook paper cut into triangles. Unfinished wood letters from Hobby Lobby. Half-Off! Seriously people, Hobby Lobby has phenomenal sales! Paint letters and glue onto paper. Let dry and hot glue ribbon.

TWO SWEET BANNER. Easy-peasy

Chalkboards

AGAIN, Half-off unfinished wood chalk boards from HL. Hot glued excess ribbon I had from Giant Lollipops and add a few pieces of candy from crafts I already had. I used these for a HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign & for The Candy Store menu.

Last but not least...PARTY FAVORS & GUEST BOOK!!

I kinda felt a little bad about all the sweets. Just a little. So I got the 3 pack of toothbrushes from the Dollar Tree and the swirl lollipops from my work (I get 40% off!) Tie with a ribbon and add a little tag. DONE
Logan didn't know what to get Brynn so I suggested the Dr. Seuss Happy Birthday To You book. We sat it by the favors and had everyone sign it. I made a little picture to go with it so people would know to sign it. Can you see the shout out to my favorite musician in the writing;)?

All in all I think the party was a success! Lots of people commented on the decor. Yes, it was time consuming but, the crafts were not hard! Honestly, I think the more stuff you can do yourself, the more meaningful & in-expensive it will be! I had a blast doing it and I think she had a blast being the star of the show.

My 101th Post...Feel special girls

Two of my very best friends in the whole entire world have July Birthdays. Mrs. Parker turned the Big 3-0 and Mrs. Marlin, the Even Larger 3-2 (she'll kill me for that ha!) Let's start with Mrs. Marlin's:

If there's one thing the Marlin's know how to do it's Host A Party! Carrie soooo graciously makes the trip from Hendersonville to The Boro quite often to visit her beloved friends. It was time that we reciprocate. There was food galore, many many kids, even more friends, cake and a live band. Yes...a Live Band. Ok, well actually it was just 2 guys playing acoustic (ahheemm...for a mere $40 for the entire night I might add) but they were phenomenal!

Here's a few pics to explain the evening

John telling one of his maaany stories.

He's got an arsenal of them I tell ya

Tiner couldn't believe her ears!The kids (minus about 10) ate some cake.

MeShell got all Indiana Jones on our a$$The band decided to play a few songs to calm her down.

We decided to dance.
(The words are what I sing to B to make her dance)

Carrie's hubby knows the way to a girls heart!

Happy Birthday Mrs. Marlin!!

PS No matter what anyone says you'll never look a day over 31 to me.

Now for Mrs. Paaaarker. Deciding what to do for a milestone as big as your 30th Birthday is hard! She decided on renting tables at The Bay for dinner...The Deckers didn't make this cause we were at the lake with NC cousins. I am never late. Then to The Pig for our ole buddy's (The Peterson's) cover band performance.

The band started to play &

The Parkers wanted a pic with the backs of their heads in it. I thought it was strange but I obliged.
Tiner told the crazy story she'd heard from John to Mrs. Marlin & Mrs. Paaaaarker. They were befuddled!

We decided to make a kissy face pic but a fly caught my eye.

I tried again with Mr. Decker and succeeded

Carol got thirsty.

Happy Birthday Mrs. Paaarker!!

PS You are waaaay hotter than DORA & don't let anybody tell ya different!

29 and feelin fine

For those that are unaware, I turned the Big 2-9 the week before Mothers Day and yes, I'm just now writing about it. Better late than never right? Well let me just say that I am not one to get hung up on age AT ALL! So what if it's my last year in my 20's. I decided to have a very fun me day and just do whatever I wanted...well, as much as I could at least. I awoke to birthday wishes from Josh before he had to go to work *sad face*

So I got up and did this:

It was crazy hair day at school and this is what the kid wanted.

Ohhhh you shoulda seen the tub! I think it looks pretty cool though.

Then I was invited to a birthday lunch with Mimi & Great Meme. So when B got up I dressed her in a pretty twirly dress because it was my birthday and I'd better dress her how I want while I still can!

Then off we went. Doesn't she look pretty.

Demos was delish aside from the fact that our crazy waiter would come check on us and then throw out random words like protractor. Seriously,

"Do you guys need any water? protractor" just like that!!

He did this at least 3 times with different random words each time! I don't know if he was confused or just wanted to see if we were paying attention. I got a good laugh out of it though.

After lunch I said, "You know what...I'm gonna use some birthday $$ and get some new flip flops and polish." And I'm talking the OPI kind! I haven't found any I like better.

Now this is the
definition of summer!

When Logi got home I got my beautiful hand-made card and I finished the day by having a Partay at Bounce U!! No not really. We had the Awana Celebration there. Josh came home and got me some delish Mexican that I'd been craving. He also got me a facial!! I'm super pumped...I've never had one

To top it all off one of my all time favorite bands was playing in town the next night. What better way to spend a birthday than with a lil Mexican food accompanied by a few close friends followed by some Fantabulous live music!!
The Food The Man The Show

A wise man once said,
"You're only as old as you think your are."
Well I will never be a day older than 19 in my heart!

So what will 29 bring?
Knowledge? Wisdom? Memories? Love? Sorrow? Happiness?

I'm sure of it!