Happy Day... Happy Day... Happy Day!

Last weekend we celebrated Carson's birthday. Our little man turned two! We started by brinking cupcakes to his class on Friday. On Saturday he went to a birthday party for his friend. Even though it wasn't his party he had fun. Saturday we had our family party. I made a "Sunshine cake" (that's the real name of the cake - I found it on allrecipes.com) because he is our sunshine. He loved his present, a singing Elmo and walked around with it all night. Every time Elmo stopped singing Carson would look at us and say "again?" and start it all over again. The next day we remembered that Bugga had sent a gift, but we had put it under the tree so we forgot to open it on Saturday. So, Carson woke up on Sunday to another gift! What a surprise! It was a remote controlled car and he (and Averie) loves it!

He especially loved it when we sang him Happy Birthday. Every once in a while I catch him singing "Happy Day... Happy Day.... Happy Day" it's so stinking cute!!!!

Family Pictures

Last month Shutterfly held an event where customers and employees could sign up for a photo shoot. They had six photographers and held it at Freedom Park. It's been a long time since we've had family pictures. I was sad that Cameron couldn't be here to complete our pictures, but they still turned out well.

Bow-chick-a-wow-wow party (it's not what you think!)

A couple of days ago Averie brought a flyer home from her school listing out the Thanksgiving activities they will be having next week and asking for food and craft donations as well as volunteers. I read through it and made a mental note to buy some food items to donate. Later that evening Averie excitedly reminded me that she needs to bring food for her Thanksgiving, "Bow-chick-a-wow-wow" party. HUH? Her what?!?!? Then I looked more closely at the flyer... Ahhhhh... Her Thanksgiving "Pow-Wow". I'm not really sure where she got "Bow-chick-a-wow-wow" I just hope people don't get the wrong idea. I can just imagine the raised eyebrows!

Blue Ridge Parkway

Today we went for a drive to and along Blue Ridge Parkway. This was our first taste of "real" mountains since leaving the west and we had a wonderful time. Unfortunately we missed the peak of fall colors, but the scenery was still beautiful. Despite a beautiful forecast in Charlotte, we expected chilly weather in the higher elevations so we dressed warmly and packed mittens, hats and coats. As you can see in the pictures it was a beautiful day. The temperatures were in the mid-seventies so we were slightly over dressed. We made stops at Blowing Rock, Moses H. Cone Memorial House and a small ski resort. We had a great time hiking and Averie was more than happy to pose for MANY pictures!

The Pledge of Allegiance

This video is a bit old, but we are so proud of Averie. Since beginning school she has learned the pledge of allegiance.

Halloween Activities

We kicked off Halloween weekend on Friday at the kid's daycare with Trunk-or-Treat. I took a half day off work and volunteered. I decorated my trunk and dressed up as a witch. It was so much fun! The kids were all so cute! They came out class by class starting with the youngest and circled around the drive-way. Afterwards the kids had class parties with treats and snacks. Carson's class loved my hat and and enjoyed playing in the tulle layers of my tu-tu.



Saturday we woke up and Averie asked for a "Halloween Breakfast" so we made orange pancakes in the shape of pumpkins. Later that afternoon we carved pumpkins. Averie asked for a princess pumpkin so Justin carved just that... "Princess" into her pumpkin. I have absolutely no patience for intricate details so I carved Carson's pumpkin with pretty basic triangle shapes. As the evening neared we dressed up. Averie as a fairy princess, Carson as a biker, Justin as a mechanic and I as a witch. We went outside to turn on our lights and light the pumpkins. It started to sprinkle lightly, we figured we would wait it out then it started to rain pretty hard. Averie and I were very discouraged, but after about an hour it stopped and we went trick-or-treating. The kids had so much fun! Carson was a trooper and hauled his heavy pumpkin around, walking by his self until the last few minutes as we made our way home. We had such a good time!



At the end of the night I went outside to get a few more pictures then to turn off the lights and blow out the candles. When I turned around I saw the kids peaking out the window at me.

We had such a good time. We thought the kids would fall asleep right away after all of the walking. Carson was a little too sugared up, but he eventually fell asleep (in our bed, of course). We had a rude awakening in the middle of the night when Carson threw up... Too much candy. We put him in the tub and changed the sheets. We took his temperature and he was fine so we layed him down on a towel and went back to sleep... Only to have him throw up again (this time the towel caught it). Back to the tub. He fell right back to sleep and woke up fine. Next Halloween, we won't let him have so much sugar!

Averie's Princess and Knight Party!

Last Saturday we had Averie's Birthday party. It was a great party and she played the part of princess very well. I love playing hostess so this was a good opportunity for me to "play" too! Of course we wanted it to be fun and kid friendly, but I also wanted it to be a bit elegant. We ordered personalized invitations from Shutterfly. They were PERFECT!



Averie has MANY princess outfits, but she wanted to wear her ballet outfit. We quickly modified it by adding the long, tulle skirt.



I debated whether to buy or make the cake. There is a great little bakery near-by that makes delicious cakes. I decided to save some money by making it myself. My plan was to make a layered butter cake from scratch. I made the cake and let it cool, then when I attempted to put the top layer on, it fell apart. It wasn't really salvageable so I quickly made the top layer from a box mix. Rather than an elaborately decorated cake, we went simple and I think it turned out rather well.



Averie admiring her cake. She LOVED the tiara on top!


Decorating was really easy. I bought plastic table clothes from the dollar store, cut each into three strips and draped them from the light fixture. We made tissue paper pom-poms to hang in the center. Averie had fun sprinkling confetti all over the table (which, by the way, ended up all over and I'm still finding pieces a week later). I took this picture rather hastily. The kids were just starting to arrive and I wanted to get a "before" picture.

Justin did a wonderful job of arranging the Knight's chest armor and swords and the Princess tiaras and wands. Averie watched out the window as her first guests arrived.

Carson loved it too!

As each guest arrived I took a picture of them with their Princess or Knight accecories. As we waited for all of the guests to arrive the kids watched "Enchanted". We then played a game of Memory. I had photos of like items printed and we placed them face down on the ottoman just like a Memory game. The goal was to match various Disney Princesses to their Princes and match other royal items like crowns, thrones, swords, shields, etc...

After two games of Memory we had a treasure hunt. At the end of the hunt the kids found the treasure but it was guarded by a dragon (pinata). They had to "slay" the dragon before they could reach the treasure.

After the pinata we had cake then Averie opened her gifts. Since the party was after lunch, we had snacks (punch, apple slices, chips and dip, carrots and cheese) and, of course, candy and more treats.

While we wrapped up and waited for parents to pick up the kids there was a lot of sword fighting and the poor dragon was torn to pieces!

I found this cute idea online... marshmallow lollipops (marshmallow dipped into white dipping chocolate and decorated with sprinkles), they were pretty but not a big hit with the kids. I, on the other hand, LOVED them... very addicting!

The "after" mess. Pictures don't do it justice. The floor was sticky from spilled punch, confetti all over and black pieces of tissue from the pinata ALL over the living room! It was well worth it!

For Thank You notes we ordered stationery to match the invitations. We printed a picture of each of the children to include with the thank you note. We had so much fun!