May Happenings

Nolan's first day of the month started with a pajama party at Preschool to celebrate the completion of their ABC unit of the year!

Acelyn is TWO!

Another year down... and this one flew by just like the previous one!  My last baby is now two, which doesn't make her a baby anymore, at all!  Acelyn is still as wild and crazy as she was at one... and probably more so now that she is turning into her own little person, full of personality and feistiness! 

Here's the Scoop: Acelyn's Ice Cream Party 2nd Birthday!

Acelyn's 2nd birthday party snuck right up on me this year... how in the world can my baby be turning TWO already!?  Because she has such a sweet tooth, and one of my absolute favorite words she says is "ic-sh guppies" (ice cream), we decided to throw her an ice cream themed birthday party.  I decided to venture outside our norm of throwing the kids' birthday parties at our house, and set up at a local park and splash pad, which was actually perfect and easy in so many ways!  We chose our favorite one, with fun fountains and one of Acelyn and Nolan's favorite park structures to play at. 

Acelyn's "Sweet" 2-Year Birthday Pictures

For Acelyn's second birthday, we decided to throw an ice cream and sprinkles party theme, since it's one of her favorite things to eat and, even better, one of my favorite words she says currently (Ice cream = "Icesh-guppies!"  Why guppies, I have no idea.. but it's friggin' adorable).  

To get in the party theme, I decided to give her an ice cream photoshoot... complete with sprinkles and a huge, huge mess!  These might be some of my favorite pictures of her yet.  Of course we couldn't leave Nolan out of such a fun photoshoot, so he joined in with his ice cream, too.  Acelyn definitely enjoyed herself, and wore her ice cream quicker than she could eat it!  The good news: no stains after an immediate soaking and a really happy 2-year old who took an amazing nap as soon as we got home. 

I can't believe my baby is turing TWO!  We can't wait to celebrate her big day with an ice cream party this weekend with our family and friends.  Until then, try not to drool while looking through these yummy pictures!

January Happenings

We kicked off the New Year by getting a glimpse of baby girl at our 23 week ultrasound, which actually turned into our 22 week ultrasound since my Due Date was changed by 5 days.  Little Miss was extremely active and all over the place, but everything looked great and developing on track.  We got this sweet little profile to admire, and I feel like she may look more like me than Nolan does/did.  Can't wait to find out!

We started a new session of classes at the rec center, and this round, we decided to try out a Messy Friday art class with our besties.  Nolan was immediately more comfortable in the class than any other he's taken since he had his buddy Hudson there with him, and they both seem to enjoy the weekly arts and crafts each class offers.  This week, they got down and dirty with paint!  

Nolan insisted on rocking in the rocking chair with his baby shish-ter and all of his stuffed animal friends.

He started playing with one of my old Cabbage Patch Dolls, calling her sissy, and picked her up one afternoon, totally random, and started rocking her saying, "I Love Sissy", "Sissy, Love You!" which made me melt into a million pieces.  When I tried to record it, he just decided to talk a lot of gibberish to her, instead. 

Nolan turned TWO and we celebrated with a fun Sesame Street party with all of his closest friends and family!  We also had a low-key birthday at home on his actual birth-day.

The morning after his birthday, we set up his new basketball hoop, which he has been obsessed with ever since.  When he makes baskets, he's now learned to say, "Swish!"

When the weather warmed up, we headed outside to ride our Lightning McQueen car (or KaChow, as Nolan likes to call him).

I snapped a picture of the ever-so-styled dude before our Preschool class at the rec center one morning.  He's too much with those glasses.

Nolan played in his awesome new Sesame Street tent from Auntie Stacey and absolutely loves it!

We went grocery shopping and I finally caved and let Nolan ride in the humongous car cart, and other than it being ridiculous to push and getting all the stares, he absolutely loved it and made grocery shopping a little bit easier that day. 

He sported his adorable Star Wars robe that Auntie Erin and Uncle Jeremy gave him for his birthday, as I squealed with excitement over how adorable he looked in it (don't mind the hat, he insisted on taking his picture with it on).

I tried videotaping him singing Let It Go, from Frozen, now that he likes to sing songs (or his version of singing every 3rd word), but instead I got a typical boy-response... a burp and laughter.  

Daddy and Nolan read books together before bedtime one night, and they looked like complete twins (the older Nolan gets, the more and more he looks just like his Daddy).

We visited the doctor for Nolan's 2 year checkup, and this was his first ride in the carseat forward facing since we hit the 2-year mark.  He absolutely loves facing forward and gets so excited to ride in the car now (before he was getting extremely irritated and uncomfortable rear-facing, which is why we made the switch since it was acceptable for his age, height and weight).  

Nolan made some handmade (literally) Elmo Thank You cards for all of his party guests, and they came out super cute!

We hit the 24-week mark in this pregnancy! 

I started some major shopping for the babe's nursery, and am so excited about how it is coming along!  

Nolan had an absolute blast at his Messy Friday class when they got to play with shaving cream!  At first he was a little hesitant about the huge mess, but soon enough, he got right in and played away.  He thought hiding the toys in it and making "castles" was the coolest thing, and Mommy thought the colors were pretty sweet, too.

We definitely were lacking on the pictures and videos this month... between all of our activities, classes, being sick and just plan 2-year old craziness and all-over-the-placeness.... it's hard to document everything!  We'll try better next month!!

Nolan's 2nd Birthday!

Nolan's party was held a few days after his birthday, and I had been super excited planning, crafting and buying for it since I knew he would be SO excited for his theme, his absolute favorite thing: Sesame Street!  Come nap time on Saturday afternoon, I got to decorating and finishing last minute details as well as prepping all of our food.  It came out so much better than I expected and all the time and effort put in was definitely worth it!  

When Nolan came downstairs, he was super excited to see everything decked out in Sesame Street!  He definitely had to snap some pics by the GIANT Elmo balloon, which was totally exciting to see!

Guests were welcomed at our front door by Monster feet!  Big bird, Elmo and Cookie Monster left their tracks and Nolan loved this when he saw it!  I also crafted a personalized "Nolan Street" sign for our front door.

Throughout the house, we had Sesame Street covered from ceiling to floor!  I decorated with both new party supplies as well as Nolan's current toys, which made it easy for little "extras" here and there since he has so much Sesame gear!  One of my absolute must-haves for his party was the the HUMONGOUS mylar gliding Elmo balloon, which was a hit with the kiddos!  This thing is still inflated in our house a week later.... and although he's missing a leg now, I'm wondering if he'll ever loose air!  The tables were decorated with Nolan's 2-year pictures I had taken a few weeks prior at the Smith Center, to keep with tradition.  I also displayed his "Nolan Street" sign that we used from our photoshoot, which was probably one of my favorite decorations to his party- I'm bummed I have no use for it or anywhere to put it to keep!

After lots of Pinterest searching I decided to make my own Pin the Nose on Elmo game for the kids to play, and with a little felt and some hot glue, it came out perfect!  Each kiddo had their own orange nose with their name on it to place onto Elmo's face after some spins and eyes closed (for the bigger kids).  They played it quickly during the party and liked it for about 10 seconds, but either way I was happy with it!

I was super inspired by the Sesame Street Tissue Poms that I found all over Pinterest, so of course wanted to make my own for decorations.  Unfortunately, these came out less than impressive and I've decided that you must have to have a special "tissue pom" touch to make them look even half way decent!  Nolan loved them when he saw them, so that's all that matters, but next time, we're passing on any form of tissue pom!

In the kitchen, I used Nolan's Sesame Street garland from his photoshoot to decorate the dessert counter, where we had some yummy Sesame faces cupcakes and some amazingly designed sugar cookies!  The cookies were definitely one of my favorite things, they turned out amazing and tasted good too!  Nolan had received Dorothy as his birthday gift a few days before, and she made a great centerpiece that fit swimmingly with the party theme.  

For the food, I tried to incorporate easy finger foods to go with our pizza (Nolan's favorite and personal request) into some Pinterest food cards I had come across, as well as creating my own food labels using a blank Sesame Street sign template.  (PS: the original creator of the PDF files for the food cards spelled Guacamole wrong... not me, as Jason so nicely pointed out as I was setting things up!) The napkin rolls and food picks were made with free printables I found on Pinterest, also.  The character faces were crafted out of leftover Amazon Prime shipping boxes, construction paper and a simple Google search of each character's face!  Super easy and they came out pretty cute!  Nolan snacked away all night on his favorite: chips and cucumbers!  At least some of it was healthy!  :)

The kids' table had some snacks and drinks, as well as each guests' favor bags.  Inside, we customized different Sesame Street themed toys based on each kiddos age.  The older kids received an activity book, a character-specific Play Doh, a sheet of stickers, and crayons and a bag of Goldfish... because.... "Elmo loves his goldfish, his crayon too!"  For the toddlers, everything was the same except a coloring book instead of the activity book, and for the two babes of the party, they received special baby toys and smaller books, all Sesame themed, also!  The favor bags turned out much cuter than I anticipated and we were definitely happy with them!

After all the eating and playing, Nolan wanted to open his presents, so we gathered around and watched him dig in.  This year was definitely much different compared to last year, as he recently had practice with Christmas and knew exactly what to do- and dug right in!  We definitely had to slow him down a few times.  He had lots of help from his friends, but didn't mind at all!  He has the best friends and family and was so spoiled, yet again, by all of them with the best gifts, and was so excited opening each one of them!  Thank you all so much!

After presents, we jumped right into dessert, and Nolan absolutely loved when everyone sang him Happy Birthday.  He had been singing it himself for the past couple of days prior when we celebrated his real birthday, so when he heard everyone join in to sing to him, he was mind blown!  He blew out his candle (with some help from Mama), and then poked around at his Cookie Monster cupcake, but was more interested in the sugar cookie, so double fisting was a must at one point.  All the kiddos chowed down and then got back to playing!  The boys were total goofballs together... and soon enough, Nolan and Hudson had to hurry back for round two of dessert!  Party on!

The next day, we had to take some more pictures since we didn't get much of Nolan solo during the party, so we did some quick photoshooting, making sure to snap some shots with our annual Petite Lemon birthday sign that we plan to use as a tradition for every birthday!  Nolan's shirt was also another similar thing from his first birthday- we used the same small shop, Lil' Threadz, to customize a Sesame Street shirt just like his weenie dog one the previous year.  They are so soft and he will wear it throughout the year, so it's a perfect splurge! 

Nolan really did enjoy his second birthday, and it was adorable seeing how excited he was to have all of his friends celebrate with him and be surrounded by one of his favorite things on this planet- Sesame Street!  This age is so fun and I loved seeing the excitement of his birthday through his eyes this year.  I know it will only grow, which makes me happy to see him grow up, but at the same time, I can't believe how fast it actually goes!  Thanks to everyone that came out or sent wishes for the big man's birthday- he loves you all!  

Party Details:

Sesame Street themed invitations: Plume Designs

Giant Walking Elmo balloon: Party USA

"Nolan Street" sign: Crafted by myself

Sesame Street Character Feet: Found on this website

Pin the Nose on Elmo: Crafted by myself

Tissue Poms: Crafted by myself (Dollar Tree tissue pons and face templates from Google Image search)

Sesame Garland: Crafted by myself

Cookies: Pete's Custom Cookies

Cupcakes: Albertson's 

Food label cards: Found on Pinterest, here

Sesame Street blank sign template: Found on Pinterest, here

Food pick and napkin roll printables: Found on Pinteret, here

Character boxes: Crafted by myself

Favor bag tags: Found on Pinterest, here

Play Doh labels: Created by myself using PicMonkey

Giant Sesame Street Wall Backdrop: Party City

Nolan's Sesame "2" Shirt: Lil' Threadz

Photo Birthday Sign: Petite Lemon