Hubby turned 40 - Wakanda Forever

Hubby turned 40 in late March. He didn't want a party so we celebrated as a family.

He mentioned something about turning 40 and my daughter wanted to make him feel better about it. So I went on Pinterest to get ideas.

I found something similar to the below and decided to customize it for hubby. He got a chuckle out of it but loved it!

We took the day off to celebrate and decided to see the movie Black Panther. We first had lunch at a Hibachi grill not too far from us then headed to see to the movie. We absolutely LOVED the movie!
Here we are heading out for the day.

When we walked into the building, I saw this and absolutely had to strike a pose as well. Totally nailed it right?

And of course, to see the movie, I had to wear my African queen tee from AyoBe Boutique :-).

Happy faces :-)

Since hubby LOVES chocolate, I got him a chocolate cake from Wegmans. Let me just say DO NOT KNOCK IT UNTIL YOU HAVE TRIED IT! This cake was DELISH! I am not really a chocolate cake person but this cake was THAT good!

Later on that evening, we celebrated by singing him a song and the girls helped him blow out his candle.

The birthday boy had a great time.

Happy birthday to my darling husband J. Wishing him the best new year and looking forward to celebrating MANY MORE with him.

A day at the museum

My last post was about my JAE's 3rd birthday party.

On the day of her party, J and I decided to take the day off to spend with her.

She wore the outfit I initially ordered for her before she changed her mind and said she wanted a Moana themed birthday party.

Here she is on her birthday. She was all smiles that day. This was the first birthday that she was fully aware of and let's just say she'd been talking about her party for MONTHS!

To start her day, she requested to watch...you guessed it...MOANA! Watching the moving for like the umpteenth time.

J and I headed to the museum after dropping JOE off at school.

We thought it would be a great idea since the kids have watched Finding Nemo and Finding Dory several times. But with the exeption of a few exhibits, JAE was scared. The dark lighting and the size of some of the creatures really scared her.
So J spent most of the time carrying her.

She did enjoy seeing the jelly fish though. And they had A TON!

We found Nemo!

And Dory!!!

The let the kids get close to the water and alowed them to tough the stingrays with the help of a guide. JAE was having NONE of it! She didn't want to. I don't blame her though because I didn't want to either.

She did enjoy the dolphin show but that's primarily because it was in a well lite area AND we sat up high.

More jellyfish. These were actually quite mesmorizing.

We were done in time to pick up JOE and go out to lunch. JAE requested pizza and we obliged. It was her day afterall.

When we got home, it was time to open presents. And boy, was she happy with her gifts!

This little girl has brought so many joys into our lives. She has a big personality and has her daddy wrapped around her little finger. We are just so thrilled with her. Wishing her THE BEST new year of life!

Happy Birthday Princess! Mommy and Daddy love you to the moon and back!

Moana themed birthday party...my baby turned 3

My baby turned 3 a few weeks ago. I can't believe how quickly the time is going by.

She requested a Moana themed birthday party and being the DIY mom that I am, I started pinning stuff on Pinterest. She is only now realizing that she can have a themed party so I wanted to make this a birthday she would remember.

Since I am very busy with my day job, I decided to purchase her outfit and do a few DIY here and there.

Initially, she wanted a Paw Patrol themed party but then she changed her mind as we got closer. AFTER I had ordered her custom outfit. Oh well...she still got to wear it. She wore it to the museum the day of her birthday. So technically, she still got to wear that outfit for her birthay.

Anyways, I got her Moana outfit from Amazon. It was easier and cost less than it would if I spent my time and money to ge tthe materials.

I made the headband though using flowers from Walmart and a ribbon I already had at home. If you look closely, you'll notice it is the same one from my older daughter's Trolls themed party. It is all good. No waste in this home :-).

My little Moana.

The tablescape. My daughter was SOOOOO happy with the set up. I really love how her face lite up when she saw it. Totally melted my heart.

I'll blog the DIY items on my Ayobeboutique.com blog but for now, here is the outcome of how it looked.

The cake...

Gift bags for the guests. More this on the blog. These were relatively easy items to do as well.

The smile on my daughter's face said it all. She was so happy and that made this momma happy!

GOSH...My baby is THREE!!!

Christmas 2017 - We hosted

Since the cold weather has REFUSED to leave, I figured I might as well post about our Christmas since I never did.

Christmas 2017 was our first year hosting Christmas and we had an awesome time! I am one of SIX kids and most of us are married and have kids. So you can imagine how fun it was in the DMV.

Hosting was part of the reason we wanted to finish our basement quickly because we wanted to ensure that we could accomodate as many people as possible and we did.

My sister surprised us by making tees for all the family members. My hubby surprised me by getting cupcakes from my favorite place to share and celebrate with family since we weren't here with family for my birthday. My siblings surprised me with the most generous gifts and overall, we had a great time! We also had Jamie from Jamie Good Photography come take pictures and she did a GREAT JOB!

Here are some pictures from our Christmas celebration.

They started it all. Still looking fly after 42 years!