Photo Dump Wednesday: A mermaid weekend

We had another full but fun weekend. All of last week, I prepared JOE for Sunday School. Last Sunday was going to be her first Sunday being in a real class environment. However, we arrived at Church at 9:46am for the 10:00am service and turns out we should have been there by 9:30am. So JOE wasn't able to attend because the 3-year old classes were full. 
However, in anticipation of her first day in Sunday School, we took the pictures below. 

I can't get over how "grown" she looks. She's definitely our "three-nager". Three going on thirteen!

Both my girls dressed in their Sunday best. 

After Church, we came home and got ready to head back out to a birthday party for one of JOE's friends. The kids were encouraged to wear their favorite costumes and JOE went as Sheriff Callie. 
"Howdy pard-nah"

It was a Mermaid themed party and the mom really did a great job putting it all together. 

I love the 2-tiered cake.

And the cupcakes. 

Check out the table-scape. It was definitely a fun decor.

 We all had a great time and JOE certainly had fun playing with her friends. JAE enjoyed watching and cheering JOE :-). 
Hope you're having a great week so far.

DIY Monday: JOE's Doc McStuffins birthday party

Like I said in my last post, JOE asked for a Doc McStuffins party. I wanted to do things that weren't going to be too time consuming but at the same time still reflected the theme she wanted. 
The DIY items I took on had to be inexpensive (afterall that's the reason you DIY), not too time consuming (I exclusively pump for JAE so my time is limited) and FUN!

Again, I went to Pinterest to get some ideas for the party and I found some pretty good ones.

The first item I did was the picture frame. The idea was that guests would take a picture with the celebrant (JOE) and I'd include them in the thank you notes I send out. 

All you need are a colored foam board, a book of Doc McStuffins stickers, a pen knife, a ruler, a pen or pencil and some foam letters with stickies.

First I marked off how big I wanted the frame to be and then I cut it out.

Then I added the stickers and did the writing using glitter glue.

Then I added the foam letters on top of the glitter glue to make sure it will stay.

Total cost for all the materials (I already had the glitter glue and stickers at home) came up to about $10. Unfortunately, I forgot to let guests know about this so it ended up sitting on the floor and didn't really get used.

 

Using the leftover board from the cutout, I made the food signs.

All I did was cut up part of the foam board and then applied Doc stickers to the 4 corners of each board leaving enough space for writing. Then I used Microsoft Word to print out the food signs in purple and tape to take it on there. A 15-minute task and it cost nothing extra.

 

Up next were the band-aids. These were easy and took about an hour. I used sugar wafers, decorating gel and sugar hearts. Total cost including taxes for all the materials here was just under $8. Wafers was $1.19, gel was $2.99, hearts was $2.59.Note: You will have to put the finished product in the fridge for at least an hour to give the gel time to harden up. 

For some of my other handmade items, please visit AyoBE Boutique to get something beautiful for you or someone you know. 

Up next was the sign for the door. I got this idea off a picture I had seen online. I had a picture of JOE lying around and figured it would work great for what I was trying to do. 
JOE painted the sheet with yellow crayon and I drew everything else. This was a fun joint project that took MAYBE 10-minutes to complete. All you need are popsicle sticks, a heavy card stock for the pack, matching ribbon (I used leftover ribbon from JOE's Christmas outfit last year), paper glue, crayons and permanent marker and a picture of the celebrant of course :-). Since I already had all the items at home, this didn't cost me anything additional to make.

For the dessert table, I wanted to put up a bigger sign. I didn't want to spend too much money on it so I stopped by the dollar store on my way home from work one evening and got a $1 frame. I spray painted it pink. Then using Microsoft word, I did the letters in purple. Pink and Purple are Doc's favorite colors afterall. Total cost for this one was $1.06 including taxes. Total time was perhaps 10 minutes. It really doesn't take long.  

  

 
On to the thermometers. This was another simple DIY project. I got pretzel rods, melting chocolate, used the leftover sugar hearts from the band-aids and decorating gel.

I used this spatula to fully coat the pretzels. 

First melt the chocolate and then dip each stick in there about 3/4 of the way. 

Let it dry (takes about 5-minutes). Then use the writing gel to draw length-wise along the pretzel rods. Then attache the heart at the top. 

Then arrange all the pretzels close together and use the writing gel to make lines across. Let it sit in the fridge for about an hour and serve. These are DELISH! A mix of sweet and salty. Definitely can't go wrong with that. 
The pretzels cost $5.99, the melting chocolate cost $2.19 and the gel cost $2.99 (I needed 2 tubes total for the pretzels and the wafers). Total cost was about $12. This task took about an hour to complete.

Overall, I love the way everything turned out and JOE was very happy with her party. 

Have you ever done a themed party for any of your kids? If so, what was the theme? Did you do a lot of DIY items? 

Photo Dump Wednesday: JOE turns 3 and had a Doc McStuffins Party

I can't believe I am actually typing this. My first baby, the one who made me a mom, the one who has given us sleepless nights and brought us so much joy, laughter and happiness is 3. WOW! I can still remember her labor like it was last month. I remember seeing her for the first time and now, I am celebrating God's blessings, his favor and his protection on our first daughter. I am celebrating that he picked J and I to be her parents. I am celebrating that she is one of the most beautiful, thoughtful, opinionated, happy, intelligent little girl I know. 
To say each day has been a wonderful adventure with her would be an understatement. 

For her 3rd birthday, we asked JOE the theme she would like for her birthday party and she said she wants a Doc McStuffins party. So being the mom that I am, I went to Pinterest to get ideas for an awesome Doc McStuffins party. 

This year, since I also have JAE and am a full time pumping mom, it wasn't so easy to find time to do a lot of DIY items for JOE's birthday so it was important to me that I chose items that wouldn't require too much time, were relatively inexpensive BUT would still make her very happy. 
Since she is getting older, I also wanted to make sure she was more involved in her party and she definitely gave me feedback every step of the way and I am happy to report that her party was a success. 

Here is a quick picture recap of her Doc McStuffins birthday party.  

I made thermometers .

And band-aids.

And a picture frame for taking pictures. However, this one was forgotten during the party and I don't think anyone got to use it for pictures. Oh well...I do love the happy and silly face of J and JOE.

Also made the food signs using what was left from the frame.

I also made this sign for the door leading to the party room.

The Dessert Table:

Since Doc McStuffins does all sorts of check ups, I thought this would be a fun sign for the sweets table.

We attended a birthday party late in the summer where JOE had mini-cupcakes. When I went with her to the store to put in the order for her cake, she insisted that she wanted mini-cupcakes. So that's what we got. We got them in chocolate and vanilla flavor with pink and purple frosting. Then I ordered some Doc McStuffins themed rings from Shindigz and put them on the cupcakes.

The thermometers was a huge hit!

As were the band-aids.

We got the main cake from our local Wegman's and they did an excellent job with it. JOE chose the design and shape and everything. 

I found these beautiful candles on Amazon.com.

Cotton Balls! I initially went to the store to pick up white marshmallows. However, next to them were these fruit flavored marshmallows which cost the a few cents more. These were a hit at the party and I'm glad I "brightened" things up a bit instead of going with my initial intent.

The food table. We got pizza and I made wings while JOE's grammy made some mini smokies which JOE loves!

We were able to score a deal on the Magician through groupon. This was a big hit. JOE loves "pretend tricks" and Doc McStuffins was a magician for Halloween last year so this went well with the party's theme. This guy was very good and definitely kept the audiences' attention the entire time.

The smile on her face melts my heart.

The doc sign displayed on the door to the party. This sign also now adorns one of JOE's birthday gifts.

JAE also got to spend some time with her grammy. 

The best words I got came towards the end of the party when JOE said "this is the best birthday party!" Those words filled J's and my heart with so much joy. We make sacrifices so that our kids can have things we either didn't have or can have better than we did. Growing up, my parents always told me "I want you to do more and be better than we were." That is our goal for our kids as well and this was one sacrifice we are happy we made.

JOE made out very well! Here are just some of her many toys from our very generous friends and family.

This was a gift from J and I. I think it was her favorite gift. She's done a ton of role playing with this. Even the animals from the "Nice and Friendly Corners" (Disney's Sheriff Callie) have gotten checkups in Doc's clinic.

Remember the sign from her party? Well, it now adorns the front of her clinic. 

JOE got her first pair of heels as a gift and she couldn't wait to walk in them. She especially loves that they light up when she walks.

JOE also received a farm house for her birthday and she loves it! It comes with keys to the various doors and this has kept her entertained.

This year, I think we got it right with JOE's gifts. She was beyond thrilled with all her toys.

JOE turning 3 marked 3 years of J and I as parents. Its been the best 3 years of our lives and we are both very much looking forward to watching JOE and JAE grow up to be the awesome people that God has made them. 

Happy 3rd Birthday JOE. We love you VERY VERY MUCH!

I'll post more on the DIY items next week. Until then, enjoy the rest of your week!