{ so halloween happened... }

This may be the absolute last year I'm able to convince my family that it's fun to coordinate our costumes.  I'll take it though....I only spent $19 for everything for our costumes this year! ;)

I did, however, have to agree to let Happy Jack help with the spray painting job.  Not exactly a mama-of-the-year decision.

They may have been delirious because it was SO cold and wet.

Not sure if Georgia has forgiven me yet for this, but she did get an extra special doggy treat for putting up with this nonsense.

                      h  a  p  p  y      w  e  e  k  e  n  d  !

{ October LOVE }

I love October. It's kinda silly how happy this month makes me actually.  Fall gifts us with perfect temperatures, crisp, smokey smells, and - my goodness! - the COLORS!  Fall is our favorite season as a family too.  We love cozy nights by the fire, all snuggled up together as a big ol' pile of a family, sipping apple cider.  Ahhhh, does life get any better?  We see Autumn as such a radiant, fleeting gift, and we try to cherish every minute of it.  The second week of this month feels especially magical to me for some reason. This week, we visited the obligatory pumpkin patch, and the whole family had an absolute blast.  The boys got to ride horses, play in the hay, go through the corn maze, of course, pick pumpkins. I'm still picking straw out of my shoes three days later, but that's just fine with me. ;)

Hope you're enjoying Fall as much as us!

{ (another) first day! }

Happy Jack started his second year of preschool today. We had one excited four-year-old this morning.

I am so proud of my big guy!

And little brother can NOT wait to join you at school next year.

hope you're having a great week!

{ boys of summer }

I love the relaxed pace of summer.  We have been having a blast, and are squeezing every minute of fun out of the season.  
Here's what we've been enjoying lately.

A little swimming.
A LOT of silliness.

A little baseball.

A LOT of mud fun.

I hope this summer is treating you well!  :)

{ grant's dino-mite 2nd birthday! }

We celebrated Grant turning two with a dinosaur themed party recently.

This giggly guy does the cutest "ROAR!"

I picked up this fabric on sale at Joann and these playful dinos were the inspiration for the party.

I designed this invite compliment the fabric. 

Then we partied!!!

Happy birthday, sweet boy!  We love you!

Sources:

Dino Fabric - Joann Fabrics

Chevron Fabric - Riley Blake Fabric

Dinosaur Cookies - The Sweet Shop Cookie Company

Personalized Dinosaur shirt - Peachy Keen Designs

Chevron favor bags - Banana Splits Boutique

Stripey straws - HeyYoYo 

Dinosaur cut-out cupcake toppers - Cut N Paper

Styling, invite, hat and printables - Polkadots and Puppies

Photography - Kimberly Wagner Photography

Wishing you a joyful and blessed Easter!

{ giggly grant is 2! }

To my little guy....

Unbelievably, you are two years old today.

Today you: 

slept in until 7:30a.m.  (thank you for that!)

went to a puppet show at the library.

dyed Easter eggs with me, big brother, and daddy.
said the word "chalk" for the first time.

I love you my sweet, cuddly, thoughtful, giggly Grant!
Happy birthday!

{ boys & cupcakes }

They just go together, ya know?

I decided to bake a batch of my husband's now famously delicious cuppycakes during naptime yesterday. Then I set out some bowls of Easter candies and sprinkles, and we went to town decorating them. Jack took this task very seriously and even gave some piping lessons to little Grant.

I found this stuff called "edible Easter grass" at Target.  Right. I'm gonna say that's debatable.  It tasted like wax.  It's pretty though.

I had a little too much fun with my own decorating.  I've told you about how my very first job was in a bakery, right?

I thought I'd share how my hubby makes his crazy delicious, insanely moist, doctored-up, from-a-box, vanilla cupcakes.  Here's how we do things at our house....

  

        Oh, and we love this recipe for irresistible chocolate                                            cupcakes. Happy baking!

{ jack's kung fu panda 4th birthday party }

This kiddo has been obsessed with Kung Fu Panda since the first movie was released. Po, the well-meaning but awkward hero, is his "absolute favorite guy in the world!" So, of course, I was not too surprised when he asked for a Kung Fu Panda birthday party this year.  As one wise friend said to me, "the characters were coming at some point, right?"  ;)

I had intentions to keep this party pretty low-key.  We invited just family, and I decided to forgo sending paper invitations.  I emailed this invite instead.

This party was definitely a "use what you have" shindig.  I had this black and white polka dot tablecloth, and I loved that it was a bit of a graphic nod to Po's coloration. Then I grabbed an orange basket from Grant's room, red buckets from Jack's room, and some yellow trays from the Target dollar bin, and this table was well on its way.

I forgot how fun and easy it is to make paper chains.  Jack even helped make one.  I was able to crank out the other eleven during one episode of Downton Abbey!

I had this red frame too.  I just raided my trimmings drawer, and stapled lots of them into the frame.  Then I backed the frame with burlap. Added a homemade banner, some free printable masks and DONE!

Another grocery store cake - this one was improved with dotty ribbon.  Jack plays with his Kung Fu Panda toys from McDonald's all the time.  So it made sense to invite them to the party too. ;)

My favorite project of any party - the birthday boy hat!

On to the goodies. How great are these kickin' Po the Panda cut-out cookies?  These beauties are courtesy of etsy baker and artist, The Sweet Shop Cookie Company.

My husband, who is a fantastic baker, stayed up late making these cuppycakes the night before. Holy moly, they were yummy! We added fortune cookies and some cupcake picks too.

Rice Krispie Treat sushi!

More colorful sweet treats.

SKADOOSH  juice!

Dragon warriors need fruits and veggies too!

Chinese food is a pretty obvious choice here, so I served eggrolls and potstickers for something savory to snack on.

Favors were those yummy cut out cookies plus stickers packaged up in kraft paper take-out boxes and stripey baker's twine. 

It was a fun day celebrating, and Kung Fu Jack was beyond thrilled to have "the best party of my dreams!"  The birthday boy and lil bro were both pretty darn HI-YAed! out by party's end.  

Happy Birthday, Jack!  We love you!

                                    Party Sources:

Cookies - The Sweet Shop Cookie Company
Stripey straws - HeyYoYo
 KFP Balloons - Ebay 
Dotty Balloons - Hobby Lobby
Kraft take-out boxes -  Michael's
Black/White Baker's Twine - Leigh's Paper Creations
Chinese character fabric for backdrop - Hobby Lobby
Printable masks - Available for download on HP's website (I made the monkey one myself)
Printables, invites and styling - Polkadots and Puppies (that's lil ol' me)
Photography - Kimberly Wagner Photography