Week Nineteen: Love is All You Need

This week was crazy busy. Between work and play and prepping for Kelsey and Jake's wedding in Duluth this weekend I'm not sure how we managed. But we did!

I love weddings. Specifically those that include my best friends tying the knot. This weekend was full of love and fun and drinks and dancing.

Love my guys.

Beautiful bride with her ladies.

I had such fun chatting with friends I haven't seen in ages, and was reminded by another mama how important it is to let go. She and I chatted about motherhood {her little guy is 9 months} and life and balance for a while. She mentioned that she really needs to work on letting go a little and making time for her and her hubby. We talked about the struggles with mommy guilt and so much more. It is so nice when someone else gets it.

With that conversation so fresh in my mind, an hour or so later my grandma came to pick O up from the reception and take him to her house for the night. I tried my very best not to go into an insane amount of detail about his night-night routine or his eating habits. And then I let go. We waved goodbye, gave hugs and kisses, and went back into the reception to dance the night away.

And oh boy did we ever. We also learned that we are OLD and OUT OF SHAPE. Mike decided that he wanted to catch himself in a midair ninja jump/kick thing in the photo booth. Not only did he almost die doing it, now he has a hurt knee. {Trying not to laugh too hard} I didn't walk away with any injuries, but partway through the first song the wedding party danced to, I had a horrible side cramp! Jumping around for 3 minutes is apparently the most physical activity I've done in quite some time! Whoops. I suppose one of these days I'll kick myself into gear and get healthy again.

All in all it was a wonderful day {pretty sure it was the nicest day Duluth has had all spring} and I am so happy I got to spend it with my loves- my husband, our little guy, and my friends that I love so very, very much.

I wish you guys a lifetime of loving each other, Kelsey and Jake!

-H

Week Seventeen: First Birthday Party

I still can't believe that my baby is ONE. I realize I have to adjust to this fact. And the fact that people keep calling him a toddler.

O's birthday party was a success! We had a ton of people at our house, managed to have enough food for everyone, and had a happy baby for 99% of the day!

Here are some of my favorite style pictures from his party :)

This is one of my favorite things I made! I created it in Publisher and
 printed it as a poster at Walgreens. So easy and I *love* how it
turned out!

Monthly photos.

Monthly photos.

#paperstrawobsession

POP of color!

Nothing amazing, but cheery and bright. 

Major mom points: I remembered to pull out the baby book for people to sign!

Plans for many tiny balloons atop the cake on skewers just didn't turn out the way I had hoped,
so a quick improvisation worked out well! {Paper straws, watercolor paper from the invites, and crepe
paper twisted into a rope}

Who knew there was an excellent selection of balloons at Dollar Tree?

These meatball/cheese/biscuit balls were a hit at the last party, so easy and yummy dipped in marinara. 

Rainbow fruit skewers!

Mike made the butter-cream, I made the cake!

Too bad my sweet little O didn't care much about it. Presents were far more interesting. :)

-H

Party Pop & Crunch

You probably remember the delicious looking party mix featured at the Baby Blessing Party I threw. Well, here is the recipe! {I adapted it from a recipe on another blog.}

I used the recipe I found to give me a general idea of how much of each thing to add, but ultimately I just eyeballed it. 

What you'll need

*Rice Chex

*Pretzel sticks

*White popcorn {I grabbed a bag of the already popped variety because I'm lazy}

*White melting candies {I used Ghirardelli}

*Sprinkles

*M&Ms

What to do

Mix about 1+ cup each of the Chex, pretzels, and popcorn in a biiiiig bowl. 

Melt the melting candies {next time I am going to try almond bark instead just because we love it so much} and pour them over the mix 

Stir/fluff/fold to coat and then dump it out onto a cookie sheet right away {I lined mine with non-stick tin foil because I hate dishes}

Sprinkle with...well, sprinkles...while everything is still melty but don't stir any more or your sprinkles will disappear

Toss the pan in the fridge until it is set

Add M&Ms to the mix as you bag it up for gifting or serving {waiting until now to add the M&Ms will keep their color nice and vibrant and not coated with the melting candies}

I love this mix because you can really adapt it to your own theme- for this batch I only used purple, pink, and white M&Ms and sprinkles to match so it went with the color scheme of the party. 

You could easily skip the sprinkles or switch them to any color scheme, and same with the M&Ms. 

Try not to shove it in your face by the handful-- I dare you. 

Week Four: Baby Blessing Party

I am so excited to finally share all the fun things I put together for my friend Reilly's sweet little girl's party!

Since this little sweetheart is Reilly's second baby, and she didn't feel like she wanted a baby shower, we decided to come up with a different way to gather all the ladies close to baby Natalia and celebrate her earth-side arrival! 

I jumped at the chance to throw this "Baby Blessing" or "Welcome to the World" party. Not a baptism, not a shower, but just a time for family and friends to come together specifically to shower Natalia with love. 

I created an invite using my favorite picture editing website. {PicMonkey} Instead of using a photo I just chose to work on a "canvas" and added text and graphics. It was pretty easy and I'm so happy with how it turned out! 

I never intended on having a theme beyond a color scheme, but one thing led to another and we had an owl themed party. Lia's nursery has some owl touches as well, so I think it worked out pretty well. 

I bought a paper punch that embosses and punches in one hand-cramping easy motion. I used the little card stock owls it produced throughout the party. They're so darn cute!

Washi tape was on my list of things to include in the party, but I wasn't able to find any that really matched the color scheme the way I wanted. So, I improvised and purchased these two rolls of decorative tape from Target and they worked great! Not as easy to tear as washi tape, but the color was right, so I wasn't complaining. 

I also simply *needed* to include paper straws because the internets told me I had to. Every adorable party on Pinterest has them, and Target is displaying them front and center in their party aisle. Bandwagon? Yup. I love a good bandwagon!

Now, without further ado, I present to you my favorite photos of the party!

Desserts and Drinks

Food ala Pinterest

Sweet peppers are my favorite in a veggie tray!

Party mix in paper "cones"

Recipe Here

Lemon cupcakes {and owls}

In love with my stemless wine glasses!

.

I'm obsessed with the mango lemonade from Trader Joe's- add Sprite and you've got punch!

Paper straws+decorative tape

The decorative tape did not get old// Pens to use for the Baby Wishes book

My wonderfully talented mother in law painted and constructed this book just for little Lia

Everyone at the party wrote a little something to Natalia// I started the book off with my favorite poem 

So, there you have it! My first attempt at a baby party! I think it turned out pretty great and everyone loved showering Natalia with snuggles and writing sweet words in her book.