Celebrate: Dakota Turns 7! And Starts 2nd Grade!

As usual, Dakota's birthday and the start of school coincided - which is crazy to me because my nephew just started yesterday and we are already in week 5.  Hard to believe.  Dakota was really excited about school starting, in fact, she actually missed it all summer.  She absolutely loves school and I am thankful for her eagerness to learn.  She was a little nervous on the first day because she has a man teacher this year and I guess that seemed a little unorthodox to her.  When I picked her up she said, "He is so sweet!" and has really enjoyed him so far.  She also got accepted into the gifted program and will have a few days a week where she participates in an alternate class that will hopefully challenge her a little more.

 I'm pretty sure I was half this height in 2nd grade.

 First year with short hair - she got gum stuck in it and thought she could cut it without me knowing.  She cut out a HUGE chunk and I could have easily gotten the gum out if she would have told me.  So this was the fix.  It is definitely easier but I think it makes her look older...sniff.

Look how much she has grown up since last year's first day!

Dakota really is such an amazing girl.  I get frustrated over the normal attitudes that come with raising a little girl but other than those expected annoyances - she is such a big help and blessing to us.  I really am so proud of her and who she is growing to be.  

This year Dakota fell in love with Legos - especially Lego Friends.  She got a few sets for Christmas and has since become fully obsessed.  In fact, she currently says she wants to be a "Lego Maker" when she grows up.  I tried to explain that's kind of what I do only with real buildings but I think she meant she wants to get paid to play with them all day.  She can be entertained for hours with her sets, following every single little direction and if she messes up, she will start over.  All of that Lego love lead to an obvious theme for her bday.  We decide to invite a few of her closest girlfriends for a small, at-home dinner and play time. They ate, built a few Lego sets (although I don't think her friends are into them as much as she is), had their nails painted, watched a Lego Friends cartoon and just did whatever little girls do best, which involved a lot of squealing.  I don't think I'm going to be ready for a slumber party for a while...

 Lego offers lots of free downloads which is awesome so I took one of the printable invites and added all of my own text in Photoshop.  I also printed some of the mazes and coloring pages for the girls to do at the party.

 We've already established that I am not a great cake decorator so I went simple here; although I still about had a catastrophe trying to get the 7 to stand up after it fell off of it's base which was already embedded in the cake.

Little ponytail holder "lollipops" for favors.  The girls also got a small Lego set.

  We quickly constructed something to hold forks but the rest of the island was covered with her big Lego Friend sets as decorations.  Her smaller sets we put on the table for the girls to build.

The girls took over the dining room table and it was so cute.  Dakota requested:  chicken nuggets, macaroni & cheese, strawberries, blueberries, green beans and rolls.

I love these two girls.

Celebrate: Sage Turns 1!

The little girl that has been filling our last 15 months with extra smiles turned 1 on April 18.  I know this is a little late but I can't imagine not documenting it.  Her party was simple and we are thankful for those that could celebrate.  In proper Trish fashion, I missed photographing some of the details (food, favors and friends) but enjoy these sweet pictures of the birthday girl!

 Her Invite.  I printed it double sided on white card stock and mailed it like a postcard.

 About as fancy as the decorations got.

 Simple Cupcakes.  Dakota even helped make them.  We also made some creamy lemon pies and had munchy food like skinny pop and some fruit.  I think.  I honestly can't remember.  Ha.

 While the weather was pretty, it was prime pollen season and everything outside was yellow (fit with my color scheme!).  We decided to stay indoors to keep the littles from crawling around in the dust and I just set up a quilt with toys.  The bigger kids headed to the playroom to do their thing.

 Not quite as dramatic as Corban's first birthday cake but she definitely enjoyed it.

 Poppy was working in London so he and Grammy couldn't make it to the birthday party but thankfully we were able to Facetime with them so they could say hello.

Yo Ho Let's Go!

Corban's favorite show right now is Jake and the Neverland Pirates so we decided to go with that for this year's Halloween costumes.  Dakota was excited to be Izzy and well, Sage didn't get a say in the matter.  Since the premise of the show is to outsmart Captain Hook and earn gold doubloons to go in their team chest, I decided Sage could be a coin.  She certainly is a treasure in my books!  This year, I had almost all of the stuff to make their costumes so it was super cheap and easy.  I bought the pink, navy and brown fleece, white and gold puff paint, Dakota's Jeggings and Sage's gold skirt (which both can definitely be worn again). All 3 costumes cost me less than $25 to make.  Score for being thrifty!  As far as festivities, they went to a fall festival last Saturday at Corban's preschool's church and last night we did a Trunk-or-Treat at our church.  That's good enough for me - I'm calling Halloween 2013 done.

Jake, Izzy and Team Treasure Chest photos courtesy of DisneyWiki

Celebrate: Corban turns 4!

Little man turned 4 this past week and we had a great time celebrating his life.  Corban is such a sweet boy and we are thankful for him.  His favorite things right now are Fireman Sam and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  He's still on the tall side for his age (84%) but he's probably not going to be quite as tall as his daddy (momma messed that up!).  We went with a camping theme this year in order to enjoy the fall weather and lots of chocolate.  As usual, I got distracted socializing with other moms and didn't take near enough photos.  For food we did hotdogs (pre-grilled or cook-your-own), baked beans, kettle corn, wild berries (strawberries, blackberries, raspberries & pomegranate perils), wild veggies (veggie straws), kindling (pretzel sticks) and of course smores and cupcakes.  Thanks to all who could celebrate with us!

 These were the invites.  I just printed on a natural colored cardstock and stuck in an envelope.  Super easy.

 Ok, I've made some pretty ghetto cakes/cupcakes before so I'm gonna toot my own horn for these.  I didn't even steal them from Pinterest!  The log is a Pirouette cookie broken (they were out of the chocolate ones) and the flame is red, yellow and orange Starbursts.  Melt in microwave for 10-15 secs, mash together, roll with rolling pin and cut in desired shape.  Just so I don't get too proud - let's look back at some of my past cake flops:  Dakota's Melted 2nd Bday Cupcakes, Corban's 1st Bday Frankenstein, Corban's 3rd Bday Pumpkin and Dakota's Melted 5th Bday Cupcakes.  

 Jacob made a perfect little set up for the kids to enjoy the fire.

This was the first year we did presents for Corban's party and he got some fun toys.  All of which he has enjoyed a lot since receiving.  We will probably establish an every other year schedule for the kids' bdays.  I love throwing parties but I don't want parents to feel overwhelmed by yet another gift to buy plus I like teaching them about giving to other needs as well.

Celebrate: Dakota turns 6!

This year we went with a simple ice cream theme for Dakota's birthday party.  Nothing says "summer" like a cold, sweet treat and well....we REALLY like ice cream in this family.  We may go through a few too many Kroger "party pails" at our house.  side note:  Kroger's cookies & cream in the party pail is one of the best cookies & cream ice creams out there!  seriously, get you some!  Anyway, we are in therapy for it and hope to kick the habit soon.  I did a horrible job at taking pictures this year but we had a great time celebrating our oldest child and the sweetness she brings to our life.

 Grammy and Poppy couldn't make it for the actual birthday party because they were closing on their beach house in Hilton Head (more fun beach adventures ahead!).  They came a week early with cake in tow and lots of energy to play.

 Dakota and Corban helped paint the ice cream cones for the banner.

 Welcome to our ice cream parlor!  

sidenote:  I think we need to pressure wash the algae off of our front steps.  Just saying.  

I bought these cute ice cream bowls at Wal-Mart and grabbed a few paint pens for them to decorate their bowls.  They served as a party favor and dish!

 It had rained a little before the party so we made a decision to move it inside.  I always knew our ridiculously large foyer would come in handy for something other than collecting shoes and dust.  They decorated their bowls here and then headed to the kitchen to fill them with ice cream and toppings - which I failed to photograph :(.  Just pretend there is a picture of  ice cream with sprinkles, m&m's, marshmallows, gummy bears, whipped cream, nuts, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, chocolate chips, Oreos, chocolate syrup, caramel, etc. :)  

 2 of the cute boys from Dakota's kindergarten class.

 Dakota really wanted a pinata.  They are classic and timeless.  The humidity was 100% and I couldn't get any good outdoor photos.

 No worries, Jacob had the black eye prior to the pinata.

 Happy 6th Birthday Sweet Girl!!

This year we collected baby food for a local food pantry; a need often overlooked when people donate canned goods.  Dakota's friends were so generous and the food pantry was so appreciative.  In the past we have collected coats and school supplies.

 Dakota started 1st Grade on her actual birthday, August 5th.

Miss Hartman made her day special with the "birthday rug" under her desk!