Mother-Daughter Garden Party

I've always wanted to do some kind of mother daughter party with my girls.  Tea party? Nah, we want to be different. Garden party? Yes!  We held the party while the boys were away at the father and son campout at church, we invited a few friends and the activities were as follows:

Make butterfly fans: Trace a butterfly shape onto your choice of paper, the sturdier the better, decorate and glue onto a craft stick and you're done!

Potted flowers: each girl got to plant flowers into cute small tin pails I found at the dollar spot at Target.  I couldn't find enough rocks for the bottom of the pail, so we used dry beans from my food storage. If you're wondering if the beans will sprout, yes they will and then they push the flowers right out of the pot.  Next time, I'll be sure to find rocks. :)

Of course we had to serve lunch as well. Our menu looked like this:

Assorted sandwiches (no crust of course)

veggie tray

fruit tray

chips and salsa

raspberry trifle

punch

For decorations, I kept it really simple with flower pinwheels in the grass and a couple of hanging flower baskets that we had a drawing to win.  Each girl also went home with a strawberry planting kit also found at the dollar spot at Target.

Me and my beautiful, wonderful girls

Lindy, Lucy and Greta

Heidi and Hannah

Kadance and Neuza

Hattie and Angela

We knew the party was over when the boy walked in waving this around

Nice catch Trey, but I think next time we'll have the party the night they are away instead of the morning before they come home.

30 grateful- days 4 through 13

When my Grandma was fostering a baby with Down Syndrome, I remember her saying she thanked the Lord every day for the person who invented disposable diapers.

My awesome ride, but more specifically the automatic doors

Flowers just make everything beautiful

Twin Falls is dang windy all the time. The plus side? My pinwheels always spin :)

Because chocolate makes everything better

Twin Falls has a beach! It's tiny and really rocky, but hey it's a beach.

Quiet time

Kiddie pools entertain my kids for hours

 

built in family that become your closest friends

 

For someone who lives far from family, the laptop, facebook, skype, etc. is all essential and I am always grateful to live in a time when staying in touch is easy.

friends

Day 3- friends, especially right when you need them

Laughter, Costa Vida, and a great friend.  Nicole, you have no idea how much I needed that tonight.

Day 2- 30 grateful

This cute girl I am grateful for in a million ways, but today she made breakfast for everyone by herself and not just cereal, but french toast!  When I say by herself, I mean I was in my bedroom and aside from asking me where a couple things were, she did it all on her own....and it was delicious, seriously!  Cooked perfectly, lots of cinnamon just the way I like it.  I took a picture of it, but it didn't turn out, but this picture is of her at her first softball game tonight.  What a great girl!

30 grateful

When I read about the 365 grateful project on design mom, I felt moved to follow suit in an effort to combat my own struggles.  Each day for the next 30 days, I will be posting a picture and a short description of something I am grateful for, the small things that may otherwise go unnoticed.  I hope you join me!

Day One- Little girl's dance clothes and homemade play-doh

Okay, so my first post is technically two things, but I couldn't choose just one.  When I saw my girl sitting there in her little dance outfit (which she wore all day), I felt such happiness in my heart and was reminded of how precious childhood can be.  The play-doh gratitude is two fold.  #1, we made it and played it together.  #2, she continued to play with it, giving me some time to get a few things done. :)

The boy turns 9

Treygan's birthday was such a whirlwind this year happening soon after moving, I hardly had time to reflect like I usually do because I'm sappy like that.  Instead, I'll sap on the blog for just a moment.

Treygan at 11 days old.  The quality of this picture alone makes me feel old!

9 years ago (9!!) I brought my first baby into our family, I was 21.  Sometimes I'm just so grateful he survived having this young completely clueless mama. It's hard to be the guinea pig but Trey takes it all in stride, he's pretty patient with me really.  I love that he has a good mixture of qualities from me and Justin; confident, easy going, ambitious, funny (you do the parent matching, haha). My favorite right now is watching him interact with Luke. They are buddies and I hope it stays that way despite the 8 year age difference.  Since moving, they now share a room and in the beginning (when Luke wasn't used to a roommate) there were 1 or 2 reports of baby brother waking up and "yelling at me and I rub his head to get him back to sleep." It made me smile that big brother just knew what to do, he didn't come complain to me, he just took care of it.  Treygan is going to do great things, I just know it.

Onto the party!  We celebrated in Rexburg this year with cousins.  It involved a Star Wars theme and a lot of fun. Take a look...

The cupcakes (thanks Lori) They look Star Warsish right?

The Food: I don't even know what Muja's or Padwan's are, but I went with it, and yes I used Hot and Ready and not Pizza Hut, it's just how I roll, simple but still gets the point across. 

The birthday Storm Trooper

Yes, he was really that excited for a bat bag

The death star that I was told didn't really look like the death star

 

And now the absolute best part of the entire party...

Darth Vader stopped in, this is the after shot, where he just held it up for the picture,  the paper mask didn't last long in the battle...

Don't you just love that last picture? Sheer joy on the boy's face, he will never forget his very awesome dad being so willing to be attacked with pool noodle light sabers.  At the end of the day, Trey summed it up well when he said, "Best birthday ever!"

Below are a few great pictures of the party guests that I have to include because they are so great.  Thanks Lani for taking them for me!