Bow Tie Baby Shower

 A few months ago I had the honor of doing all of the paper pieces for one of my very best friend's baby shower! Baby Ezra (born in September is such a dapper, handsome lil gent :-) 

Here is Heather's Bow Tie Baby Shower! Love you Heath!

The Invitation with custom Monogram Bow Tie Band

Cupcake Toppers

Centerpiece Flags used in the Diaper Cake!

Tent Cards

Bow Tie Banner

Sweet Friends!

I love how the hostesses framed the Invitation and used the centerpiece flags in the diaper cakes!

My Insta from the day of :-)

  A few product pieces before the party! 

Centerpiece Flags are so cute and can be used lots of different ways!

The banner. darn glare.

 Such a fun way to celebrate Heather's little Gent!

Available in our Shop!

Bella's Shabby Chic Rodeo

 My sweet niece turned 7 and we had a Western Shabby Chic themed party- complete with pony rides! I LOVE this collection! Here are a few of the pieces from that party!

Name Banner

Yee-haw!

Cupcake Toppers

The adorable Birthday Girl!

Pony Rides!

Bella & Emma (twins- 5 years apart)

Baby "Peeps" as Emmy called them!

The Invitation: available in our Etsy shop!

We also had requests for boy versions....so these are also available in our shop!

And our Plaid Wester Girl...

YEE-HAW!!

xo

Emmy the Explorer

It's hard to believe that my baby girl is 2 years old! She is such a precious blessing, so full of life and personality. She cracks me up with her little expressions and the little way she dance/walks. She is such a happy little girl and brings so much joy to our family! We thank the Lord for her sweet little life!

She is potty trained and talking up a storm (and has been for months now) and she is always singing. Always. That baby has got a song in her heart! She sings "Twinkle Twinkle" from start to finish perfectly, and now she even does a "Meow Meow" version of the song. Sometimes its "Mommy or Daddy" version.  Its pretty cute. She loves to dance and any skirt or tutu makes her an "Au-rina" (Ballerina).

She LOVES Dora. She sings the songs, knows all the characters, and frequently tells me Dora Dora is  her "fav-it." So naturally, we had to have a Dora party for her! She was so excited! We decided with everything going on right now, to have a small family party at my sister's house. I still had to make it cute though. It is my job after all. :-) My most favorite piece I did was the Chalkboard "Milestones" sign. I just love it because it really captures her in this little stage of her life.  

Emmy's Chalkboard Sign 

She loved everything about her party and didn't want to move from this spot! She was showing us she is two years old!

"Emmy Banner"

Since it was almost Cinco de Mayo too, there was no shortage of "Fiesta" decor, including the mini sombreros on the drink bottles, that very quickly made their way to the kids heads. They loved it! Purple and Orange soda for the kids with Emmy the Explorer labels, and "Maps Margaritas" for the adults! Ole!

Emmy knows and loves all of the characters in Dora the Explorer, so I made all the food signs with each little character. We started with "The Fiesta Trio's Chips, Salsa & Guacamole"! Then we had "Tico's Taco Bar", "Benny's Beans", and "Isa's Rice" for our Carne Adada Bar.

For "Dora's Desserts" we had Purple Lemonade Cheesecakes,  "Boot's Banana Bites," "Diego's Rescued Animals," and "Swiper's Snickerdoodle Churros." 

After dinner the kids swam and played, Emmy opened her presents and that was it! It was so fun! Such a great little party for our sweet little 

Emmalise! 

 xoxo

Backyard Camp Out & Mmm D'licious: S'mores Bars!

This being Memorial weekend, and the kick-of of summer, we had planned to take the kids camping in the local mountains for a night. When it came down to it, we decided it would still be too difficult with Emmy being so little and we didn't want to disturb her sleeping arrangements if we didn't have to.  We just moved her crib into the kids room, and they are all finally getting used to the new (at times louder) situation. So we decided we'd wait to do the real tent camping business till they are all a little bigger, but in the mean time, we could do a backyard campout!

And oh man were they excited!

They had so much fun helping set up the tent and roasting marshmallows, and eating s'mores! And I wasn't sure if Claire would last in the tent, but she did and they all had a blast! 

blurry- but here we are in the tent!

My Jacky Boy- all tucked in snug as bug, and ready for bed! He was in seventh heaven. He loves camping with Daddy and thought it was so fun to do it in the backyard! 

I slept in my bed so I could listen for Emmy (and because really...) so in the morning, I brought out hot cocoa with marshmallows for them! It was really fun!

In keeping with the Camp out theme, I thought it would be fun to try a recipe I saw on pinterest, for S'mores Bars! I modified the recipe a little so I'm posting my version! They were really delicious! Although, really, half the fun of a S'more is roasting the marshmallows and sitting by the campfire, so I wouldn't say this should take the place of real s'mores. It's just a delicious dessert. Perfect to take to a Backyard BBQ (which is what I did) or to a potluck or a birthday party!

Mmm D'Licious: S'mores Bars

Ingredients:

2 sleeves graham crackers

1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

3 Hershey's milk chocolate bars

1 C sugar

1 C brown sugar

1 C unsalted butter 

2 Eggs

2 tsp Vanilla

3 1/2 C flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat Oven to 375

Line baking sheet with parchment paper

In a large bowl cream sugars with softened butter.

Add eggs- mix.

Add vanilla- mix.

In another bowl mix dry ingredients.

Mix into wet ingredients gradually.

Add Chocolate chips.

Mix in 1 Cup of the mini marshmallows

Set aside or refrigerate.

"Cookie" batter. 

Break graham crackers into squares and fill the cookie sheet. They should be close and touching. *Note: I used Trader Joe's Graham Crackers and they do not break into perfect halves, and they are not as sweet as Honey Maid. Just use Honey Maid. :-)

Scoop dough balls onto each square using your cookie scoop.

Mmm.

Put them in the oven for 5 minutes.

Take them out and press a chocolate square onto each cookie. This also helps the dough spread a little more. 

Press the remaining 1/2 c marshmallows into any holes.  

Before they went back into the oven.

Place them back into the oven for 5-7 minutes or until the dough is golden brown and the marshmallows are toasted! 

After.

Take out and allow to cool on a wire cooling rack. 
It can be refrigerated if you need to it to set a little quicker.
 

Go ahead, have a piece. And then have
S'more!!!