fancy nancy butterfly birthday

Yesterday was Little Miss Sunshine's birthday. She turned 8! I'm not sure how that happened! We decided we would have a small party in the morning with a couple of our favorite friends. LMS said she wanted to have a Fancy Nancy party. If you don't know who Fancy Nancy is...click here. To sum her up...she likes being fancy and wears whatever makes her feel fancy. So, we told our friends to dress as fancy as they wanted!

So everyone wore something super fancy and super cute!

After the quick group picture, it was time to eat!

Ok, so, I have been listening to a lot of Francis Chan's sermon's on YouTube lately. He is so challenging and speaks the truth so well. (He wrote the book Crazy Love...which, if you haven't read it yet...you should!) Anyways, several times he has mentioned how sometimes God just blesses us in the most surprising ways - even the tiny little details that He takes care of even when we haven't even asked Him to. For this party, all I did was tell Leah and Laura the Fancy Nancy theme. That was it. Nothing else. Ok, so notice the butterflies hanging in the kitchen that Wendy happened to put up that morning for LMS's birthday breakfast and note that the little cupcake liners I used to put the fruit in had butterflies on the bottom...and keep watching.

That whole center piece was from one of my favorite stores - the $ Tree. The flowers are pens and pinwheels and the little balls filling the vase are Sixlets candy.

Aiden looks so big drinking out of this big kid cup! :)

This little girl, who is most definitely "tutu cute", is SO. IN. LOVE. with Aiden!!! You should see the look on her face when she just sits there staring at him!! She is totally planning her wedding in her head! lol Ok, maybe not quite...but almost! At one point, Cake Leah picked Aiden up for a minute and this little Leah looked around and said, "Where did Aiden go???" like he did NOT ask permission to leave her sight! Ha! So cute.

Ok, back to Wendy's butterfly decorations. Leah agreed to make LMS a Fancy Nancy cake but all I did was flip through a F.N. book to show her who F. N. was. No other instructions or ideas whatsoever. Yeah...check out her (crazy beautiful) cake:

Uh-huh! Butterflies!!

Oh wait...there's more.

And fyi, this might be my favorite cake Leah has ever made...

and I might have eaten a slice for breakfast this morning....

Maybe.

Then it was time to sing Happy Birthday, make a wish, and blow out the candles. Which of course includes the obligatory picture of the birthday person with chipmunk cheeks as they blow... :}

Next it was on to presents! Have you seen Lalaloopsie dolls? Evidently it was one of the top items this Christmas. They are...interesting. :)

Oh, and see that pretty present with the flowers all over the wrapping paper?? Um yeah, that was from Laura and baby Leah and guess what was inside???

One craft box of butterflies to decorate and hang up.

AND!!

A FANCY NANCY BUTTERFLY BIRTHDAY sticker book!!!

Like...seriously?! Are you seeing a theme yet? A completely unplanned one? Well, unplanned by us girls anyways. :)

Aiden sat on a little stool and watched the present opening very patiently...for about two minutes. Which is about right for a two year old! Then he was off to the see-saw! :)

My handsome little man! :) He was soo excited to get to wear this suit and didn't take it off for the rest of the day! I told him he could change back into his favorite red sweatpants and a comfy shirt but he chose to stay all dressed up! He did make one slight change however...he didn't like that you could only see a tiny bit of his cool tie...so he pulled it out so in hung down in front of his jacket and then it was all perfect! :)

We love our baby Leah!! :)

Everyone had such a good time! The kids had fun playing. The mommies/kiki enjoyed squeezing in a bit of grown-up conversation in between chasing kiddos. And the birthday girl said it was the best day ever! Leah, she told daddy that you made her cake and worked soo hard on it and that shows how much you must love her! ;)

A little while after everyone left, the mailman brought LMS a package from Aunt Janet! It was a "grow your own mushroom crop" package which is perfect because LMS LOVES science! She also sent these cool little laser rings for all three kiddos and they couldn't put them down the rest of the day!

We of course got outside for just a couple minutes for a quick mini bday photo shoot....

Fancy hair. :) Not the best zig zag job I've ever done. I do zig zag parts a lot because it's just fun and super easy! Oh, and I made her hairbows the night before. Can you tell what sparkly things I chose to put in the middle?? Yup! Butterflies!! I was trying to decide between that or flowers but liked the way the butterflies looked better. Little did I know at the time.....! It was just so fun that four of us chose butterflies for different things and hadn't even discussed it! It just felt like God reminding me one more time that He cares about the big stuff...but that He also cares about the little stuff too - stuff we never even thought to worry about in the first place! :)

Funny kids. :) LMG has no teeth! And Mr. Happy has a banged up chin! He fell and hit it on the corner of a metal box! Yeesh! Thankfully I was not around for that one!

One sweet pic....aaand of course...one goofy one!! That's my kiddos! They get it from their mother...! lol :D

Ok, so check this adorable little boy out:

Cute, isn't he??

Actually, that is not the same little boy!! The one in the middle is Aiden...the other two are Mr. Happy a couple years ago when he was two!! Aiden gets most of the clothes MH grows out of and wore this outfit to our little party. He got out of the car and I said he looked just like MH! Which is a comment that has been made before. So I had to pull up a couple pics of MH in the same outfit. It's so fun to get to see it on another little handsome boy now! :)

LMS, I hope you had an awesome day! I think you did. :) You are such a sweet girl with a tender heart. I love how you are learning to love Jesus and have told me before that you have prayed for our new friend Isaac or the little street boys in Uganda at some point during your day. You are so helpful around the house for me and are so much fun to be around. I love you!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE!!!

just a reminder...

she took this picture. i just like it. :)

firetruck golf

This past Sunday, Michael and I drove up to Pigeon Forge to meet my college roommate, Jodi, and her husband...also a Michael...who were there to get away for a weekend for Jodi's birthday. We all went to college together and when the two Michael's are around, the rest of us call Jodi's husband by his last name...Landry.

We ate at Calhoun's...yum...walked around just talking for a while, then when the guys got bored, decided to play mini golf.

This is Jodi, who also has a cute baby bump (like Shannon! :) and is due with a little girl in just a few short weeks! Jodi and I roomed together our Jr and Sr years of college...many fun memories! :)

Aww. :) When we first arrived (oh man, I wish I had had my camera out at that moment!), the two Michael's bear hugged and we realized they hadn't seen each other since Jodi and Landry's wedding - 6 years ago! I wish they lived closer to us! (Ok, so they "only" live three hours away now instead of the nine or so that it used to be...but still...)

Yes, this would be Michael talking on his phone while golfing. Amazingly, he made this hole in two strokes. :}

Discussing the best way to go about this particular hole....

Ha. :}

As we were leaving the mini golf place, we asked Michael to take a picture of Jodi and me.

This was him taking pics while spinning around in a circle. Nice.

There was a fire truck out front and Jodi told him to be sure to get "the whole fire truck!"

So he did.

:-p

But we did get an actual picture in the end... :)

Jodi, it was so good to see you and Landry! The whole evening was so much fun and went by way too quickly. (Even the Marble Slab with no flavors, few toppings, and slow service that stayed open too late....! lol) Maybe eventually we'll get out to see y'all in your new house! You know...after that sweet baby gets here....! :)

another birthday!

*** Catching up on a fun and busy weekend! Don't miss the two new posts below this one! ***

Reegan is Lauren's little sister. Her birthday is this week and her party was this weekend too! She chose the Ice Chalet for her party and of course my kids were there and had a blast!

Mr. Happy has decided he is going to marry Reegan when he grows up. He gave her a bracelet with a locket with his initial on it and I am supposed to get a picture to put in it for her. He also might have picked out a locket for himself with HER initial on it "so I can always remember her and never forget her!!" (hands clasped to his heart...)

Ice skating is tricky! Thankfully they had these helpers for the kids. Where were these when I was three and going ice skating??

Wendy tried them out too.....HAHA!!

But don't worry...she really can skate like a "big girl"... lol! :)

Mr. Happy and his Lala...although he's grown out of calling her that these days. Sniff sniff...

This is a very sleepy Maddox and his awesome godmother, Hillary.

Reegan's awesome purple zebra cake! If you've read this blog for very long, you know who made this cake! Cake Leah of course! :)

Maddox approved.

The birthday crew! Did I mention how tired Maddox was...? :}

And oh my goodness...they have not updated this place at. all. since I was little!! Check out the lovely curtains on the windows....! Lol. Oh my.

Happy Birthday, Reegan!!!

save it for my party!

Last Wednesday was Jonathan's 4th birthday...but his party was on Saturday. Shannon sang Happy Birthday to him Wednesday morning and he told her to save it for his party on Saturday! Lol. He was very excited to be four and have a party. :)

First was a yummy lunch but Jonathan was eager to get to the presents!

Ok, actually, Jonathan's cousin, Josiah was pretty eager to get to the presents too! He was more interested in getting every present open than Jonathan was! Jonathan is good with stopping after a present to play with it for a bit.

Oh, and Shannon's cousin Jessica has been a "stalker" of mine for a while now...except she's left a couple comments now so she's official. :} She was at the party too...Jessica, it was great to see you! She is a semi-new fellow blogger also so click here to check out her super cute little blog and leave her a comment to say hi! You know comments are happy things... :)

Jonathan's aunt sent him this piano and microphone. It was one of his birthday requests. He loved it. So did Josiah.

While Jonathan took a break to open a card, it was Josiah's turn to serenade us!

Then it was Chris and Caleb's turn! (Jessica's husband and other son...)

Next it was outside to find...

...a brand new sand box! So cool.

Josiah said, "Look! I can make footprints on this sand!"

And he was right. :)

Back inside for cake of course!

Aaand back outside for ooone last present...

A new big kid bike!! He was a little excited. :}

But got a little nervous about riding and told Dave, "Daddy! Don't let gooo!!"

Then it was time to try out his new bat and glove. This kid can throw a ball hard! And hit pretty well too!

This is my bf Shannon! And that cute baby bump is my new niece, Baby, who I am HOPING arrives earlier than expected!! Her due date is the day before I leave for camp for two weeks this summer!

It felt sooo good outside...good enough for bare feet on the driveway! :)

Gettin' ready for some serious baseball practice. With a great catcher - Shannon's dad...who is one of about three guys that I know of that check in on my blog sometimes. (Hi Mr. Gibson!!)

He informed me that it was now MY turn to hit the ball! HA! So I did. Or tried. I do have to admit that if I had played a sport in high school...this probably would have been it. It's fun. And Dave's mom was afraid my arm would be sore the next day...but it wasn't!

Thanks for inviting me to your party, Jonathan! I had a blast and I can't believe you are FOUR already!! Love you!

(: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JONATHAN!!! :)