Easter Weekend

On Saturday we ventured to the church, Peace Lutheran in Pasadena, and participated in the annual Easter Egg Hunt.  Of course the babies were too little to do any hunting, but Jocelyn had a blast filling her basket with colorful eggs.  Before we left the house she insisted that she bring her big Easter basket instead of the medium size one I thought would be easier for her to carry.  It was a beautiful day outside on Saturday!  After the hunt was lunch and activities in the fellowship hall and then we spent a little bit of time playing with friends on the playground.  Surprisingly enough though, Jocelyn did not take a nap on Saturday.

On Sunday, we went to worship at 8:30am at Peace and then headed out to my dad's house for lunch.  We had quite a spread with a delicious ham, with twice baked potatoes and sweet potatoes as well prepared by Pam as the main course.  I made my usual green bean casserole and mom made corn casserole to add to the spread.  Jennifer brought some beer bread and it was fabulous.  Yum!  I overindulged in the desserts however since it had been 6 weeks since I had had any sweets. 

One of my favorite things about Easter is getting all dressed up and this year was lots of fun to dress the 3 kiddos in matchin outfits.  John wore a nice new suit and I wore a dress I rented from Rent the Runway.  I love that website - it's a $245 dress I rented for $35.  Great way to wear designer cloths without footing the bill for it.  This is the third time renting from there and another great experience.  The only downside is that you can't try the dresses on before hand.  I thought it looked great and it was really comfortable.

Jocelyn's Little Mermaid Birthday Party

On Sunday the 12th, we had Jocelyn's birthday party at the Pearland Natatorium.  She said she wanted an Ariel birthday party and we were fortunate enough to have an indoor pool so that my January baby could have a pool party.  The weather turned out to be really nice and warm that day so an outdoor pool party might not have been completely out of the question but why take the risk and with the prior cold weather, the pool water would have been really cold.

 

So, with a place in mind and a theme - I got to planning.  We weren't going to have a lot of time to set up and decorate, but I wanted to do some home-made decorations anyways.  Why?  Because it is fun and a creative outlet for me.  I couldn't put anything on the walls of the room, so I did a backdrop using a blue cardboard tri-fold and painted on it to look like water and glued green foam cut like seaweed.  Then I glued a little burlap banner on it that said "Happy Birthday Jocelyn" - in retrospect, I should have made the paint darker to be able to see the letters better.

The food was a lot of fun too - I wanted to keep it simple since i was bringing it all with me from home (no cooking on site and I wasn't going to pay for catering), so we did sandwiches, chips, fruit and jello.  The jello was put into baby food plastic containers and a swedish fish candy was put in the middle to look like a little aquarium (I will note that the swedish fish turn slimy and a little gross after being in jello for a while). Plus the sweets - cake pops, rice krispie treats shaped like fish, cookie sandwiches to look like oysters with a pearl inside, plus the cake.  The cake was made by Fairy Bakery in Pearland and they did a fabulous job.  I gave them the figurines to use and let the baker use her creativity to do the rest (with a bit of guidance from me - 2 tier, with a water/ocean theme).

The table decorations were done using baby formula cans, wrapped in green foam shaped like seaweed.  I also used foam stickers for fish and other sea creatures, plus some glittery pink, purple, and blue twig items for sparkle.  The middle part was supposed to look like Ariel in a bubble and i added the plastic spoons as a throw back to the movie.  I put the centerpieces on a runner made of burlap and purple mesh ribbon, plus I added a couple of white Ikea frames with print outs wishing Jocelyn a Happy Birthday!  These were fun to do and very easy.

Jocelyn had a blast swimming with her friends.  She was thrilled that her friend Avery from school could come - that's her best friend and the two had so much fun and were inseparable!  I think the kids and parents had fun swimming too!   After swimming, we ate, opened presents and had cake.  I probably should have left more time for food/cake/presents than 30 minutes - but the kids were having so much fun swimming it was hard to get them out of the pool.  We had the room/pool access for 2 hours and it was enough time for a really fun party without being too long. 

The Whole Gang Meets Santa

John and I took the whole gang to Bass Pro Shop on Tuesday night for a meeting with Santa.  We love going to Bass Pro because they have short lines, the area is decorated so nicely, the Santa is usually great (didn't disappoint this time either) and they don't rush you to get a picture and get out.

Jocelyn was a little hesitant at first but she warmed up pretty quickly and we got a great picture of the 3 kids with Santa - of course i had to be in there too since Santa wasn't going to handle all 3 kids at once. 

Once Upon a Time - Murder Mystery 2013

I had my 3rd Annual Murder Mystery Party a few weeks ago and this year's theme was "Once Upon a Time."  The first 2 parties were in August for my birthday but I wanted to put it off a little bit until after the time change so that it would be dark outside by the time the "murder" happened and a little cooler outside.  It worked out great - the weather was wonderful and made for a lovely outdoor dinner. 

I had a wonderful time getting all the decorations for the party put together and the theme was so much fun to work with.  Everyone was dressed for their parts and were so awesome (big thanks to everyone for playing along)!

The entry way was made into a draw bridge with the use of some "stone towers" that I borrowed from church (VBS this past summer was Kingdom Rock), chains made out of cardstock and "wooden bridge" made out of a roll of packing paper.  Not sure if you can tell but the window has "stained glass" on it - diamond shaped tissue paper glued together.  It looked pretty cool in the dark but it was hard to get a picture of that.

Everyone came in and had their picture taken here.  Again, the use of stone pillars from church and a stone backdrop from Oriental Trading. 

 John was initially going to be Rumpelstilzkin - but some last minute casting changes called for him to step into the shoes of Prince Charming.  So, we had to put together a last minute costume.  I went to Goodwill and Hobby Lobby Saturday morning and got a few items - got home, worked with Mom and we were able to put this outfit together in an hour!  Thought it turned out pretty good (even though the jacket was huge on him).

I made a stone fireplace out of foam board - cut to frame the fireplace (covered the wood) and painted to look like stones.  This was super easy! I also made the banner above the fireplace (and the ones over the windows) - these were super easy too - just felt on felt.  I've learned that you don't have to be an artist to do this stuff.  All you really need is to get the effect of it but not necessarily be really intricate with each project. 

One of my favorite things was my awesome chandelier!  It was made out of a hula-hoop, spray painted black, plastic cups glued on with hot glue, battery powered tealights, black yarn and paper chains to hang it from the fan.  Turned out great and looked really cool with the lights out.  I didn't even put this together until Friday (the day before the party) and it was so easy.  I get these ideas in my head and just hope that they work the way I think it will - this time, it did and turned out great.

This was my Royal Feast table - turkey, ham, casseroles, potatoes, vegetables, mac & cheese and rolls.  Lots of food to feed everyone!  It would have been better if I had a double oven to cook everything, but we were able to time it pretty well so that the food was ready and still warm by the time we were ready to eat.  I liked my Cinderella silhouette - cardboard frame, spray-painted gold, red poster board and paper silhouette printed off the internet and cut out.  Worked out great!

Our dinner setting was outside and I had 2 tables set up - one under a tent and on under the porch.  There were candles on the tables and lights wrapped around the tent.  THe lights gave great ambience, although that was hard to capture in the pictures. I did assigned seating.  They are hard to see but on the big table are 2 white pumpkins that I made to look like carriages - thought they turned out cute.

Everyone ate off of paper plates for easy clean up - but I used gold charges to set the table and make it look "royal."

Everyone did an awesome job getting into character and this year (unlike last year) we had several people actually solve the murder!  It was so much fun.  Can't wait until next year....I'm thinking of a western/saloon theme.  Let the planning begin!

6 Months Old

Hard to believe that Liam and Lizzie are already 6 months old!  They are doing great and getting so big.  Big Sister Jocelyn is doing well too.  She has her moments where she wants lots of attention, but for the most part she is very sweet to the babies and understand that they need lots of hands on time from Mommy and Daddy and Ya Ya.  Jocelyn did get to spend a weekend with Grandma and Grandpa while John and I were in Las Vegas for a conference (the babies spent the weekend with Ya Ya) and she had a great time.

Here is a recent picture of all 3 kiddos.

Halloween

I'm not a big Halloween person, but I do like attending a trunk or treat event at a friend's church in Webster.  They do a great job with the evening and the kids get to do other little activities - like story telling and Jedi-training interactive skit.  Jocelyn really enjoys it and has a lot of fun with the other kids.  She dressed up as Ariel, but she wouldn't wear the Ariel tiara - she is very picky about what she'll put on her head.  We took the twins to so they could experience their first Halloween.  I made a simple Halloween costume for the babies so that, when laying right next to each other, their onesies would look like a "Twix" package.

 

Here is Jocelyn as Ariel during the Jedi-training:

 

 

Halloween is officially on Thursday and I planned on taking Jocelyn around trick or treating in the neighborhood but the weather forecast looks pretty bad, so we'll have to play it by ear.  I never went trick or treating as a child since we couldn't in Deer Park and I never really knew I was missing anything, so I don't think she'll care too much if we don't go.  Shoot, she might enjoy it more just staying at home and giving candy to other kids.