Unfailing Love: One SWEET Birthday Party!

Vincent Gerard

This is my hubby. Also known as Vinny, Dowey, Dowebally, and (as of last night) Pickle Juice. (You may learn that I have an affinity for nicknames, comes from my daddy!) Unbelievably, the hubs and I have been married for 9 years! I can't believe it! Seems like just yesterday I was a freshman in college and my friend introduced me to this hunky senior with a hot red car! Vince is working hard to support our family and traveling here and there. Vince is a WONDERFUL father and his girls (all of us) are the most important things to him!

Barclay Kathryn

What to say? I'm Barclay, usually known as Barclay (not much you can do with Barclay). I was an elementary teacher for fours years until I had Bella. Now I am doing the job I have wanted to do ALL of my life, being a mom. I love these two girls more than I can possibly express and it is my joy and privilege to be able to spend each day with them. I recently entered the blog frontier, and although my blog followers will probably be able to be counted on one hand, I thought it would be exciting to be a part of something so neat. I love that there are many other moms out there facing the same joys, hardships, questions, surprises, and challenges that I am. I also hope to be a sort of medium to spread awareness for others that need prayers, help, or just someone to walk through life with!

Isabella Kathryn

Usually referred to as Bella. As well as Bells, Bellie, Belly Boo, Bellsie Bubs, Bubs, Bubba, Bells and Whistles.... Bella is our first born daughter. She is 6. Bella enjoys school, reading, riding her training-wheel free bike, she could color and write for hours, she loves singing to the Momma Mia soundtrack, anything princess or pink, having bows in her hair, playing dress up, and her little sisters! God blessed us with Bella a month early but she was perfectly healthy. In six years she has become such a bright, outgoing, sensitive, and fearless little girl. Bella really is the sweetest girl you will ever meet. She is eager to please. If she hurts or disappoints someone it literally crushes her to tears. This last year she asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior and we could not be more proud!! Love this sweet, blonde, blue eyed beauty!

Bryanna Karina

Usually known as Brynn. As well as Brynnie, Miley, Miley Moo, Geegs, Geegers, Brynnie Boo, and many more. Ten days before Bella turned 2 years old we were blessed with another beautiful, healthy girl by planned c-section. This time I was able to see my baby right after birth, watch her get weighed, bathed, etc. I couldn't wait for Bella to meet her. Brynn is now 4 and keeps me laughing all day long. Brynn, since she was about 2 months old has been the smiliest baby I have ever met. All you need to do is look at her and she will flash you a world class smile. Brynn is smiley, more shy and reserved about things than her big sis, can be quite the clown when she feels safe or gets in a silly mood, amazingly brilliant, she's been speaking full sentences since she was 19 months and continues to amaze us with what comes out of her mouth. She loves doing whatever her big sister is doing, dressing up, looking at books, her blankie, being held, twirling in her dresses, singing, and dancing whenever she hears music! Brynn is my compassionate baby, she hates to see people hurting. We just love this sweet, shy, snuggly, smiling little girl!

Brooklyn Blythe

Also known as Brookie, Brookie Cookie, Cookie Lu, Lulu B just to name a few. Sweet, sweet Brooklyn is our family's latest addition! We welcomed Brookie into our family on August 23rd 2010 at 12:23pm by planned c-section. I was nervous she would be a bit high maintenance since she came out screaming bloody murder and continued to wail anytime anyone touched her- get her footprints, take her temperature, etc. Amazingly, she would instantly stop the moment the Hubs touched her or began talking to her. And since her birthday, we have barely heard a peep out of her..... And fast forward 18 months, she definitely makes plenty of peeps now! :) We are full blown in the the terrible twos (which IMO last from 18-36 months) I believe. To make matters worse she's also cutting her 4 molars. She definitely knows what she wants but can't quite articulate it, so gets frustrated. Eating is also a hit or miss these days which is very foreign to me. Mixed with the crabby days though is the funniest personality ever. She is a riot! She LOVES chasing after her big sisters or having them chase and imitate her. She also has this adorable chubby face and will peek out of the corner of her eyes and just melt your heart! She is definitely shy at first but if you can get through to her she will keep you in stitches with her antics. We love you little BB and couldn't ask for a sweeter addition to our family!

Monday, May 16, 2011

One SWEET Birthday Party!

Well this post is WAY over due (and super long sorry!)!

When trying to plan the girls' birthday party I was thinking they would want it at a gym, or a bouncy house, or Chuck E. Cheese, etc. So I asked Bella what kind of party she would like, her response?

"I want it at church and I want to play Candyland." :)

She could literally play Candyland ALL DAY.

After hearing a speaker at MOPS talk about kids' elaborate birthday parties these days, and her asking us to think about who are we really throwing the crazy parties for, and how the kids would be perfectly happy doing just about anything while being the center of attention, I was really convicted about it. Here I was thinking Chuck E. Cheese or at our local gymnastics gym and all Bella wanted to do was play Candyland. :)

So that's what we did!

We reserved a room at our church again since we needed the space, like we did last year, and my mom and I began planning a Candyland party!

Here are the invitations that my wonderful momma made!

We just went for colorful for the decorations. And I ordered the paper goods and a few decorations from Birthday Express.

My crazy talented mom worked hard a couple of days leading up to the big event to create an awesome cake for the girls!

Here are the pics from the girls Candyland Birthday party.

Schedule:

10-10:30- Kids arrive, Candyland coloring sheets out on tables, each kid grabs a color coded name tag which splits them into 6 groups of about 5 to 6 kids

10:45- Gathered the kids and read my edited version of the Candyland story and explained the stations, then assign a different color to each station

10:45-11:30- Enjoy our fun Candyland stations:

1: Rainbow Path: We had a food for each color of the rainbow, had the kids put hats on (worried that blindfolds would bother the kids) over their eyes, and they tasted them and guessed what is was and their color. Red:Strawberries, Orange:Carrots, Yellow:Bananas, Green:Kiwi, Blue:Blueberries, Purple: Grapes

Didn't quite get she was suppose to cover her eyes with the hat. :)

2: Gumdrop pass: I had a small glass filled with gumdrops, talked with the kids about whether they thought there was a lot or a little, had them make guesses and then we counted them all, and then discussed our finds afterwards.

3: Peppermint Forest: The kids raced round peppermints on spoons down a long hallway and back in a relay race, forward and then backward if needed more of a challenge

4: Lord Licorice: We got string licorice and fruit loops and the kids made bracelets

5: Gramma Nut: We took heaping spoonfuls of peanut butter and had the kids race to see who could finish it first (had a sucker for our little one with peanut allergies)

6: Gloppy: Put chocolate pudding in gallon sized ziploc bags and had kids write letters, shapes, their names, etc. in the pudding

After all the stations are cleared, our missing princesses are finally saved and we crowned the princesses to the song, 'Happy Birthday Princess!'

11:30-12: Enjoy the awesome cake my wonderful mom made and slide show I made

As a goody bag I had a dear friend, who is oober talented and starting her own bake shop, make cookies for the kids to take home. There were two wrapped in cute baggies with ribbon around them. They were as delicious and they look!

If you're local and interested in having something made for any occasion, you MUST check out her Facebook page, she's amazing!

Afterwards we went to lunch with a few of our guests and then quickly got home cause the girls were anxious to open gifts. :)

Look at what they girls got! How perfect are these?! They come with little matching blankets inside too!

Trying on some dress up jewelry.

Got a lot of fun new Littlest Petshop and My Little Pony things.

And tickled pink with their Rapunzel dolls!

Later we also had them close their eyes to reveal bikes our close group of friends had gotten them. Which is funny because they totally saw them at their party but they were still thrilled none the less. :)