DORA PARTY {INSIDE SCOOP}

Planning my children’s birthday parties is a job I take very seriously.   My husband may argue that it’s a party that they may not even remember by the time they are our age but its all about making lasting memories!

Reese is old enough now to be able to tell me what type of a theme she wants for her party.  This year she made it very clear that nothing else but Dora would do! 
My first goal is to find a focal point for my party,  I do this with my Christmas themes and it keeps me on track.  So, I called out to my newest blog buddy, Connie from Measured by the Heart and gave her details about what I was aiming to do.  She loves creating beautiful printables and together we collaborated colors and thoughts of how to make this personal and cute. 

After invites are created, you have a great basis for planning the rest of your details!

1.  Customized Dora Party Invitation printable created by Connie from Measured by the Heart.  For this printable you can find it HERE and Connie can create other invites! Just give her a shout! Here is an up close view!

2.  Customized Dora Hershey Kisses!  Connie created the image to match my invite that was an added touch of personalization inside our favor bags! Again, you can find this available HERE. Here is the close up image that was printed on Avery labels.  SO CUTE! Love how she is holding the banner to spell out Reese!

3.  Custom Embroidered Tank to match the invitation as well with the pink strips in the #3 and Dora holding Reese’s name in her banner! This was created by my dear friend Stephanie with Ashlyn Grace Designs!  She designed Reese’s shirt last year too! Love it!!

4.  Custom Party Bag tag printable created by Connie from Measured by the Heart.  For this printable you can find it HERE.  I loved the added touch of this on each favor bag to say “Thanks” and still keeping with the personalized party details.

5.  Custom Dora Friends Cookies by my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE Cookie designer, Cookie Coterie!  I cannot emphasize enough how well these work for party favors!  I get so tired of the cheap throw away toys that are out there.  I have worked with Cassie for almost a year now and I will always be inserting her beautiful creations in my favors bags!  They are so good that I always order extra so I have a stash of joy for myself left over!

6.  Custom Dora Birthday cake made by my local baker BEST FRIEND Michelle from Hands on Design cakes.  Michelle never disappoints.  I sent her the image from Reese’s invitation, found another cake with adorable multicolored balls around it and voila! The cutest matching cake a girl could ask for at her party! Not only was this cake a perfect match, it was delicious as always!

I asked Michelle to make some cupcakes for the kids so we could blow candles out on the cake above to take home for a celebration with family.   These turned out so cute too!

Lastly, was how to decorate for the party.  Since we were having it at Gymboree Play & Music I didn’t have a lot of room to work with as the majority of the party is set in the play room.  I kept it simple with Dora table covers and glass candy dishes filled with Dora fruit snacks. 

The party was a hit! The sweet personalized items made her party so special and I couldn’t have done it without the help of all those mentioned above.  If you thought there couldn’t be more to show about a party, tomorrow I’ll show the party in action! It was so crazy and fun!!

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REESE IS 3!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REESE-A ROO!!

I can’t believe you are already THREE!! They aren’t kidding when they say that time flies!

Reese is super spunky, stylish and sassy.  She is known as the “mother hen” in school and teachers assistant.  I am always told stories about how Reese helps her fellow friends in class follow directions and points out when they are disobeying the teacher.  She is the first to run to the aid of her friends if they are hurt or their cheerleader when they do something well.  She is such a loving little girl and very affectionate with her older brother, Ryan and baby sister Rayne. 

At the ripe age of 3, Reese is wearing roughly a size 8 shoe and size 3T top and pants.  We are closing in on the potty training but to be honest, she’s really not that interested.  She loves Dora the Explorer, Little Einstein's and Sofia the First.  Reese is a ‘do-it-yourself’ kind of a girl and likes it her way.  For example, putting on her pull up.  She prefers to pull it apart and then re-strap it on which looks like the long way for me but that’s her way.  She likes to dress herself and put on her shoes like a big girl.  Speaking of shoes, she loves to clap around the house in all of my shoes and pretend she is like Mommy. 

Reese is a little lover and a great snuggler.  If I could put her in my pocket and keep her like this forever, I would! She is a joy to me and Erik and melts our hearts daily!

To make her birthday special, I reached out to two of my favorite places to customize a few things for her birthday party.

First up was getting her very first big girl necklace.  I knew that I could count on Amy Cornwell to come through for me in creating a beautiful and dainty necklace!  Its hard to see in the above picture but up close, its gorgeous!  Reese loved her necklace and I love how tiny and sweet it looked on her!  Thank you to Amy for a beautiful creation!

You may recall my post about Ashlyn Grace Designs from my Sisterhood week a few months ago.  My sorority sister Stephanie creates the cutest embroidered items for any special occasion and you can find her HERE for your next special event.  I sent her a picture of Reese’s invitation which I will share with you tomorrow and asked her to help me make it match as best as she could.  She nailed it!  Reese LOVED it!! I just happen to have a Carter’s ruffle skirt that matched and she was set!

I can’t wait to share all the details of Reese’s Dora Party with you in the coming days. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REESE!!

We love you, to the moon & back!

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We Call Him Maverick!

We have an event that happens once a month in our city called “Trade Days”.  It’s a huge space that vendors rent out and sell things from kettle style popcorn to iron works and even chickens!  We decided we would get the kids out on Father’s Day for a quick stroll through to see if anything struck us.  We have been a few times in the past and have never bought anything other than maybe some fresh lemonade or a bag of popcorn, so I didn’t expect anything this time around either.

We thought we would start from the middle and work our way back to the front because there are about 20 or so rows of vendors and it gets HOT fast!  We are an animal loving family so it was no surprise that we began with the animal row. 

Ryan ran up to each spot where there were puppies and asking if he could hold each and everyone of them.  Ryan has been asking for a new puppy since we lost Mackie.   We have been on a waiting list for an American Mastiff which Erik is still firmly wanting to get when one becomes available.  But…. what if the Mastiff wanted a friend?  Two buddies is better than one solo, right?

Here is Ryan holding a Wirehaired Dachshund which sure—he’s cute with his big ole blue eyes but wire hair is just not my ‘thang’.  This cute yellow lab is super CUTE!

Moving on… Erik pointed out some golden (sounds better than yellow) labs and chocolate labs.  The breeder was sharing that they are AKC certified and pure bred with paperwork and the whole nine-yards.  Most of the pups were sleeping and I saw one that I thought was super cute and held him.  The entire liter was male.  I put him down and kept talking and that one I held was a total toot!  He was biting and rough housing it and tearing things up in the pin. 

Erik and I looked at each other as if we were speaking code and we agree that it is better to have 2 pups vs just one, so we decided we would get one now to be the brother to our future mastiff.   The price was too good to pass up.  I looked over at the liter in the pin and watched the one crazy one and Erik asked if that was the one I wanted.  I said NO… I want the one over in the corner who is sleeping with his legs in the air.  This fella was laid back and cozy being on his back which I’ve learned that is a good indication of their temperament.  So, we dusted him off and put him in the stroller!  

 

His name is Maverick!  I’ve always wanted a pup to name after Tom Cruise’s character in Top Gun.  He was such a cool guy in that movie and I’m hoping we got the right pup to carry the name well.

He got his first bath with the help of each of the kiddos!  He hasn’t had any accidents in the house! He is so affectionate and playful!
 

Ryan was disappointed to learn that he would not be sleeping in his bed with him, but downstairs with us in our room in a crate.  He did well for his first night.  He got a little playful with his puppy pad and I had to take that out around 11pm and then started to whimper around 2am. I took him outside for a quick run to the potty and he went and ran back in.  I put him back in his crate and laid back down and he began to whimper.  I couldn’t take it so I got up and got him and put him in bed with us.  He snuggled up and laid on his back.  Erik whispered “spoiled” and he’s right. He did great for the rest of the night. 
Thrilled to have a new fur baby!  He’s so sweet!!

Maverick Johanson, born April 10, 2013! Here’s to many years of joy!

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FATHER’S DAY 2013

Hope everyone has a great Father’s Day this year! 

I had some chalkboard label markers that I thought I’d use for a simple addition to a picture with the kiddos to make into a mug for Erik for Father’s Day.  I started out trying to get them each to hold their respective marker but Rayne kept turning hers around so I couldn’t see it and Reese was holding hers in front of her face so I made it easy and just stuck them in the ground & voila!

Aunt Tanya came by to visit and we got busy with a fun, yet messy craft for hanging up for Father’s Day! I got a kraft paper roll from Wal-mart, some acrylic paint, a few inexpensive paint brushes and markers.  I did also purchase some plastic table covers to lay down as our mat for catching the excess paint. 
Rayne got marker all over her legs.  She found it was super fun to just color herself vs writing or coloring on the paper. Very fun and easy to dress up the house and make Dad feel special! Finger prints, hand prints and foot prints, oh my!  Super cute, right?

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We’ve Got Style

I have been seeing a lot of these WWIW on Instagram and I have been asking myself “What in the world is WWIW!?”  See, you don’t have to feel alone.  Its ‘What I Wore Wednesday’.  There are so many acronyms to keep up with these days that I wasn’t sure if it was a new game or a war about to happen. 

I always enjoy the pictures that are posted of girls my age, at least I think they are my age posing in everyday cute clothes.. they give me some great ideas and inspiration! Let me just say that I walk into my closet almost every day and roll my eyes and dread having to pick something out.  Who’s with me!?

I do however, LOVE to dress my kids very cute (biased I know) and I’m thankful they let me take these pictures!


Ryan is sporting a Neon yellow soccer shirt and shorts set from Kohls. He picked out his shoes himself too at Stride Rite, they are Tommy Hilfiger brand. 

Reese is working it in her ‘Love to Smile’ top from Carter’s, yellow matching shorts I actually got at Walmart and her pink sandals from Carters. 

Love her toes!  I recently painted them glitter purple to match mine! These shoes are just adorable! She loves them!

Our sweet Rayne!  She is wearing the Mommy’s Love Bug shirt from Old Navy and Children’s Place shorts.  I just love her sweet face when she says “Cheese”!

As I was taking their pictures, they always want my camera to take pictures too.  Ryan asked to take my picture so I let him.  He did a good job. I might get him signed up for some photography classes!!
I am wearing a chevron jersey tank with bow tie neck that I got from JcPenney’s, a black jersey skirt from Target, Bongo strap wedges from DSW.

My favorite jewelry!  Shine bracelet from Amy Cornwell, cross bracelet from Silpada and my custom ring with Reese, Rayne & Rayne circling my finger from Courtney Marie Jewelry!

My first successful What we Wore post!

Have a great weekend!

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