Thursday, August 29, 2013

Hannah's Birthday

The day after Hannah's birthday party was her actual birthday.  Austin left super early that morning to go fishing with my Dad but Papa, CiCi, Rachel and Dean all hung out with us in the morning and we had breakfast and watched Despicable Me together.  Hannah LOVES Despicable Me and always wants to watch that or Tangled.  We had a great morning just hanging out with our special girl. 

I also had a fun day planned for us after everyone left!  Hannah and I were going to have a little girls day together and just enjoy her birthday doing whatever we felt like next.  I got a bag full of snacks ready and told her we were going to the movies to see Despicable Me 2!  She was so excited I think just because I was making it sound like it was so much fun.  :)  We made it to the first movie of the day at 10:30 and she was SO excited when we got out of the car.  It was adorable.  She was running into the theater saying "Hannah moomie!  Despipable ME!"

Of course I had to stop and take a pic of her in front of the movie poster.  And yes, her black eye was a TRUE black eye by that morning.  People stared.  Whatever.  I promise she was excited, she just got distracted by a truck that drove by.  Ha.


She was so cute when we walked in to the theater.  She yelled "Ooooh!  It's coooold Mommy!"  She was right, it was freezing.  I guess they really blast those theaters with air overnight and as the day goes on it gets warmer.  Luckily she had pants on and I brought her a sweater.  Mommy, on the other hand was wearing shorts but I had a little 99 degree furnace on my lap to keep me warm.  :)

My attempt at a pre-movie selfie.  She wasn't scared at all, she just got upset when she saw her eye in the phone screen.  Sad.  :(


This is when the previews started.  She was amazed!  No time for pictures Mommy!


I snuck this one at some point.  No, my phone didn't flash so I didn't bother any of the other 20 people in the theater.  ;)  She was SO into the movie!  I fully expected to go, pay for us both to see it and have to leave an hour into it but she did GREAT!!  She sat in my lap until probably the last 15 minutes and then she wandered to the seat next to me for about a minute and then was back.  We watched the entire movie and it was SO cute!  Even better than the first in my opinion.  It's awesome going to a kids movie too because every now and then she would yell something out at the screen in excitement and no one cared.  A few other kids did the same and there was a kid who cried at one point but really, no one cared since we're all in the same boat there.  I like that.  :)


Of course we had to go into the photo booth to take the cheesy pics after the movie!  Tracy made me laugh when she pointed out that it was funny it says "Mommy loves me" right next to a picture of Hannah's shiner.  Ha.  Hey, that shiner was 100% not my fault!


Since the movie went so well I decided to keep her birthday celebrations going and head to Build-A-Bear for the first time!  We checked out all the animals on the wall and Hannah wanted the cute puppy.


Getting her puppy a heart.


Filling him with stuffing!


Rubbing his heart on her arm.  I can't remember why.  Maybe so he'll have her love or something??


Anxiously waiting for the nice lady to sew him up!


She loved giving him a bath!  It was so cute, she's at a great age for this.


So, we walked around looking at all the cute outfits for her puppy.  She got excited about them and then....then she saw the Tangled outfit.  And it was over.  There was nothing I could do to change her mind.  "Mommy Tangled!  Tangled dress Mommy!"  Ok, my sweet birthday girl, you can have the Tangled outfit.  We are now the owners of the strangest looking dog that ever came out of Build-A-Bear.  She couldn't be more proud.  :)  Rapunzel has somehow mysteriously lost her hair now.... I wonder if it had anything to do with how it shed all over our house.  ;) 


After we got home Hannah wanted to do a little painting.  She's wearing her winter hat, necklace, one sock and a baby headband around one leg.  I love this girl and her silly personality!


We had the best day together!  I love you sweet Hannah Lee and I look forward to spending every birthday with you!  Happy 2nd birthday!!
 


Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Party Details

So, here are all the details for our sweet girls 2nd birthday party!  I decided like 4-5 months ago that I wanted to do a Mickey Mouse Pancake Party as the theme because I wanted her party to be "simple".  I figured it doesn't get much more simple than pancakes...  I don't know why I pretend to keep things simple though because it never happens.  The party itself was yes, very simple.  We ate, had cake, kids played and bounced but the preparation...not so much.  Oh, and I wanted an early party because it's August in Houston and it's HOT! 

Here is her precious outfit that I ordered!  I wanted her to have something comfortable on because I knew she would be bouncing a lot.  When she first saw it she said "Minnie pretty Mommy!"  She was excited to wear it.  :)  It now has about 3 blueberry stains on it.  :( 


You are now entering the "Kelly doesn't know how to keep things simple" portion of the post.  ;)  Here are the shoes I painted for her big day.  They actually were really easy to paint and I love how they turned out!


When the guests arrived to our house they were greeted with a sign so they knew they were entering Hannah's clubhouse for the morning!  Austin cut out some wood he already had and painted it while I made the letters and Mickey for the top.


This wreath was a labor of love from her 1st birthday party.  It's about 400 balloons that I pushed in with my thumbs until they were bruised.   I just added the Mickey and 2 to it this year.  If any of my friends need to borrow this wreath, it's all yours!  This baby needs to get used because it took me FOREVER last year to make it!


This guy was right inside the door at the photo booth area.  Hannah wouldn't take her picture with him, she just wanted to move him somewhere else.  She loved picking him up and just moving him.  Then she'd move him again. 


I bought these black hanging lanterns and made the ears and bows so they would look like Mickey and Minnie. 


Ok, so up until now, all of those things are simple and easy (minus last years balloon wreath).  THESE GUYS right here, are NOT simple!!  NEVER EVER AGAIN will I make party favors for my childs birthday.  Or your childs birthday.  Or anyones birthday.  I made 16 of these Mickey/Minnie ears.  They turned out SO cute and the kids looked adorable wearing them but they took me a few hours every night for about a week at least to complete.  There was a LOT of pattern making, cutting, hot glue gunning, ribbon making going on. 


Due to the fact that I was making pretty much everything on my own for this party I stepped away from my tradition of making the birthday cake and ordered one this year.  I LOVE how it turned out!!  The top layer was chocolate with chocolate cream filling and the bottom was white cake with strawberry filling.  Yummy!


Jackie and Bryan came into town a few months ago and we sat down and made these in about an hour.  I love how they turned out!  So cute and easy.  These may be my favorite detail for the party.  Also on the cake table was her Mickey Mouse birthday book that everyone signed.  I'm so happy we've done that two years in a row.  It's just fun to go back and read everyones messages to Hannah.


Ok, so this wasn't that simple but I made the birthday banner this year as well.  I love it!  I went back and forth on the design of it and just kept adding details to it.  I really love it and her name is now hanging from her kitchen that we made her last year for her birthday.


This was another project that Jackie and Bryan helped me with.  :)  So simple and cute, just a little decoration for the backyard.


I made this to hang on the back door so people knew that inside was fun too.  ;)  There was a bounce house outside, when you're 2 years old I don't know if anything gets more fun than that!


The other party favors that I made.  Mickey and Minnie sugar cookies.


Hannah invitations!  I love them!


Birthday sign in case someone didn't already know they were at Hannah's birthday party.  ;)


The food table.  I love how it turned out.


We had Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes (regular, blueberry & chocolate chip), Plutos treats (bacon), Minnie's sweets (fruit cups) and hot diggity dogs (sausage kolaches).  Everything was gone by the end of the party!


A few weeks before the party Austin and I took Hannah to get her 2 year pictures taken so I had those on the food table as well.


She's so cute


For real


I love this picture!  She is hugging her Minnie and Mickey dolls so tight and has the biggest smile on her face!


This was another "simple" detail that took me a while to do but mainly because I went through an entire year of pictures.  I picked a different picture for each month of this year (months 13-24) and made a little Mickey head for it.  We used a frame we already had and added chicken wire and hung the pics.  I love it.  My purpose for this was to display her pics at the party and now it holds her best artwork in her playroom.  Super cute.


Um...yeah.  I did this.  Mark this under the category of Kelly losing her mind in the party planning.  But whatever, they were cute.  People always wrap their water bottles for parties, shower, whatever and the ink always runs and it's a waste of time.  Well, when you have Mickey Mouse duct tape it doesn't run!  I saw someone do this somewhere online and thought it was genius.  Necessary??  No way.  But still clever.  Thanks Bryan and Mark for wrapping all the bottles! 


So, there you have it!  The details of our sweet girl's Mickey Mouse Pancake Party!  The most important detail is that she had SO much fun!!  It was a great party that I'm so happy we had and she was loved on all weekend long.  Mark my words though, next year we will be going to a bounce house place.  ;)  Here's a little something that when you plan a party for 10am you need to make sure you realize.  You MUST do everything you possibly can the night before!  I had it all organized for at least a week into piles of table stuff, stuff to hang on walls, etc so when it came time we could easily see what we were working with.  You have to be organized especially when it's a morning party.  As soon as Hannah went to bed Friday night we spent about two hours getting everything decorated and it was a life saver on Saturday morning.   Actually, other than picking up the balloons and ice, all that had to be done on Saturday morning was start making the food so it was really nice.

Thanks again to everyone who made it out to her party!  We're so blessed to have such awesome family and friends!   



Thursday, August 22, 2013

Hannah's Mickey Mouse Pancake Party!

Saturday, August 10th, the day before Hannah's 2nd birthday we had her a Mickey Mouse pancake party!  This was the picture on the invitation in her cute bday party outfit.  I love it!  It now is stained with blueberries...  Such a cutie!


The guests arrived and knew they were at the right place with the sign Austin and I made for her.  My camera fogged up big time because it was THAT humid outside!


Her cake table with the book I asked everyone to sign and leave Hannah a birthday message.  We did the same thing last year with a Dr Seuss book and I love looking back on it!


What two year old party is complete without a bounce house?!  The kiddos LOVED it!


CiCi and Dean, the pancake makers!


The Townsends!  She was happy, I promise.  Yes, her face is a little banged up but that didn't slow her down.  The story behind that was on Friday I ran around all day doing party stuff while she played with her CiCi and Papa.  They were playing outside and she was having SO much fun getting sprayed by the water hose and then one thing led to another and she tripped and her face had an unfortunate meeting with a potted plant.  It was NOT GOOD!  I walked outside right as it was happening and my poor baby was hysterical but after some extra snuggles, loving and watching Tangled, she was feeling much better.  So, this will always be remembered as the "birthday with the black eye".  Nice.


Hannah with her CiCi and Papa!  She smiled ALL day long EXCEPT when I asked her to.  Of course.


Sweet Emma with her Minnie ears on.  I learned something this year.  I will NEVER EVER EVER make party favors again!  EVER!  Haha!  I made the ears for all the kids and that took forever and I also made the cookies as favors.  Next year I'm going to the party store.  ;)  But, they are all super cute!


Hannah and some of her friends at their own little table eating yummy pancakes


Avery and Rhett handing out.  He was super excited about that as you can tell.  ;)


It's Emma again!  She's SO close to walking on her own now!


So, before the kids went outside to bounce Hannah pulled out some of her old toys to play with.  There she is at the coffee table playing with blocks she probably hasn't touched in two months.  Typical.


Showing Blakely how it's done!


Amber and Paul came to party


Beth and baby Rhett


This makes me laugh.  We opened presents and there were many where my enthusiasm was just a tad over the top...  ;)  I wanted to make sure she knew how awesome all her presents were!


She is just so cute.  Messed up face and all.


She opens an awesome present and she was more interested in the bow.  Ha! 


Talk about a winner!  Amber and Paul got her a Minnie Mouse baby and it was a HIT!!


She loved on it right away.  So sweet.


Hannah has a book with her own name on it now!


Hey Haley, you having fun girlfriend?  Haha.  I promise you, she was.  She's so funny.


Peyton was having lots of fun!  We had a Peyton, Payton and Peydon all at the party.


Time for cake!  She didn't know what to think of everyone singing to her.


Blowing out the candle!


Hannah and her Daddy


Beth and Peydon


I love doing this for parties, it's so much fun!  We had another "photo booth" setup.






This picture of Avery cracks me up


After everyone started heading out Haley and Hannah wanted to swing.  They are just SO cute together!


Beth and Hannah giving kisses


I made Minnie and Mickey cookies for the party that were decorated with black and red icing.  This is what happens to your mouth when you eat black icing.  :)


After all our friends left we played pin the nose on Mickey with Leah, Hannah and Haley.  It was SO funny!  It was probably one of my favorite parts about the day. 

Leah taking her turn


Haley spinning around before her turn


And then there was Hannah.  Mask crooked...


Going for Mickey...  You're getting warm!


Now you're a little colder..


And just getting icy at this point.  Haha!  She didn't care, they just had the best time!


The next day Hannah was still having fun with her birthday balloons!


It was a GREAT birthday party!  Almost every single person we invited came out to celebrate our girl with us!  Hannah had the BEST time and it made all that hard work sooo worth it!  Up next, the party details.

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers