Summer Family Pictures

My goal is to get pictures of the kids every summer around the time of their birthdays, which usually falls to August since it’s in between the birthdays. This year, we had such a hard time scheduling an time with Jessica (she had decided to take off weekends over the summer) we had to try someone new. Felicia from Inspired By Three Photography was great, The location was a little rough to get to but most the pictures turned out cute. Jarrod and I got in a few of them too. Overall I was happy with them, but we will probably go back to Jessica in the future if we can. She seems to have a faster turnaround! It took Felicia 4 weeks to get them back, and then I’ve had to edit some of them myself. . .shhhh!!

Football Season has begun!

The first Home game of the year for the Red Wolves!

We played Mizzou and only lost by 7! It was a pretty good game! It was just Jarrod, Stratton and me. We let Arden go home with Gigi and Pops after her party. The weather was perfect! We had to even go buy Stratton a sweatshirt it got so cool! We had a great time and were exhausted by the end of the day! A birthday party, and a football game in one day will wear you out!

After the game they had a fireworks show! It was so cool!

Arden’s 3rd Birthday

Invite

Angelina Ballerina is Arden’s favorite. Too bad the ballerina mouse’s peak popularity was about 5 years ago. There is NOTHING out there besides some crazy expensive stuff on Amazon and Ebay and a few books and dvds. I did the best I could. Which meant I had to make a bunch of stuff. And I was trying SUPER hard to keep everything under $300. I almost did it too!

I made and bought cheap just about everything. My mom made the cake. A lady from Kennett, MO made the cake topper and most of the other food was bought! I started working on the decorations the week before and it took me the whole week to finish. I ended up taking off work on Friday to shop for food and finish the decorations and get everything ready. Mom and dad came up to watch the kids for me later that night so I could go up to the church and set everything up. Jarrod was working again. It took my friend Lori and I about 2 hours to get everything set up (including Arden’s new princess tent I bought- which came with zero instructions!- That was fun!).

Decorations

This right here is resourcefulness at it’s best! The base is a flipped over paper plate, with a piece of foam hot glued to it then I made the Angelina Ballerina part out of cardstock (designed and printed) sat it on top of the foam to hide it. Then I covered the rest of the plate in little pieces of cut up tissue paper. I made a pole out of 3 balloon sticks wrapped in tulle, and stuck 6 balloons on top for a balloon topiary centerpiece! I think they turned out cute and were SUPER cheap! I had planned to make 6, but ended up only making 5 before I wore out. It worked out great, as we only had 5 tables at her party anyway! I might attempt these again. I got pretty proficient towards the end.

I saw this idea on pinterest and thought “That looks easy!”. . . Easy, yes. Horribly time consuming. . .uh, heck yes! I had no idea it would take me about 4 hours total to make this! I worked on it for 3 days! I had planned to hang it, but since I used a wooden 3 instead of cardboard it was a little on the heavy side. We ended up just setting it on one of the tables and it still looked cute. Not sure if it was worth the effort though!

Another pinterest idea. A pvc pipe with streamers and decorations hanging from it, attached to the wall by hanging it on 2 command hooks! This was genius, since we can never figure out how to hang stuff at the church since we don’t want to hurt the walls. It looked cute and was (again) super cheap! I bought the fans online and added some extra decorations to them to fit in with the rest of the décor. This took be about 2 hours total. I did it Friday morning while I was alone! There is no way I could have worked on this with the kids home! I cut all the streamers out in 7 ft length strips and then hot glued them to the pipe. Some on the front and back and tried to overlap them so the wall wouldn’t show behind it. I ran out streamers so the very last white part is a little wider! But I think for the money and time it was a pretty decent investment!

The cake topper was just the cutest! She was perfect!

Super cute!! And it was SO yummy! Gigi makes the best cakes!

The top was Strawberry pink, and the bottom was white cake tinted purple! How perfect?!

It’s so hard to decorate the fellowship room at church, since it’s so huge! It’s perfect since there is room for a bouncy house and for the kids to run around, but to try and decorate it is a nightmare! I think I did pretty good considering!

We had brunch, so for food we had doughnuts (with sprinkles of course) and doughnut holes, fruit, mini quiche, mini cinnamon rolls, mini muffins, deli spirals and I made sausage balls, too. By far the best idea ever. Birthday brunch was so easy and good!

I found these amazing tablecloths on sale online! I paid less than $25 for them both?! And the best part is we can use them again! Next time I will remember a steamer though!

The drink table. I made this Happy Birthday Banner with a borrowed Silhouette cutter. It took me a bit to figure it out! But it also turned out cute and really wasn’t that hard or expensive. The paper was on sale at HobLob 1/2 off!

My mom made the little puffy tulle wands! They were so cute!

Table centerpieces with some confetti on the table worked perfect!

Party Pictures!!

The kids played in the tent almost as much as they played in the bouncy house!

Arden, Darcy and Laney.

We ate, opened presents, played on the bouncy house, had cake and ice cream and did lots of visiting! It was a fun FUN party! It was a lot of work but worth it to see her smile!

I tried so hard to get a picture of her in her cute shirt and skirt at the party, but it just wasn’t happening. So I tried again when we got home. This is the best I got.

Happy- Birthday Girl!

Over it- Birthday Girl. . .

Meltdown-ing- Birthday Girl!

It was a looong morning and she was ready for a NAP!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!!

Labor Day weekend

Jarrod had to work Friday night and part of Saturday, so the kids and I went to Hickory Ridge Friday night and spent the night so Jarrod could actually rest when he got home! We played and swam and took naps! Saturday at lunch Doug and Kay and Grandpa came over and ate at mom and dad’s. Then Jarrod got there later in the evening and we headed to Searcy.

The kids built a bear cave with the couch cushions.

I think her baby is a little big . . .

Jarrod finally got off work and met us in Hickory Ridge and we got on the road to Searcy. On the way, Stratton decided his tooth was loose enough and it needed to be pulled. I gave him a kleenex and a few minutes later he had it out! Three down in a month!

We got to Searcy late and tried to stop at the Bulldog for supper but Miss Attitude was in one of her lovely moods so we just went on, then she screamed the whole drive to Searcy that she wanted to eat supper and go back!! Not happening sister. We slept in on Sunday and had breakfast before getting around and then we met Jennifer, Daniel and Archer for lunch. We all went back to Terry and Margie’s and ate a late supper from Taco Bell! Then we waited till Nan and Pa got home and visited with them before heading to bed. Sunday we had lunch with the whole crew!

Sunday afternoon we left the kiddos with Nan and Pa and headed back home. Sunday night we had dinner at Matt and Carla’s for Matt’s birthday and then went home and crashed! Jarrod got up Monday and rode with Dillon to Hickory Ridge to get my car. Then came home and worked in the yard and garage. I took the opportunity to clean the kids rooms out since they were gone! I pretty much spent all day going though closets, bins, drawers and toy boxes! It was productive though! Lots of stuff for the garage sale next time! Jarrod loaded up most of the stuff and took it to our storage unit. Then Nan and Pa brought the kids back and we had supper and went back home and got ready for a BUSY week!