Birthday Party for Two Princesses

Last week I manage to tackle putting together a PRINCESS party for both of my girls.  We decided to do a joint birthday party this year because even though their birthdays are in two different months they both LOVE princesses and they both would want a princess party anyway! Plus it will save me from being overwhelmed with trying to throw Scarlett's party in December amidst the holiday chaos! :)

Thank goodness it wasn't raining because we had about 27 kiddos come to the party as well as their parents- and we did lots of activities outside.

I set up a table outside for a craft activity when the kiddos arrived.. Scarlett wanted to make hers before everyone got there. She is decorating her royal princess crown.

Boys and Girls got to chose a hat or crown and then decorate them outside with stickers and glitter.

 

I was able to convince my sisters of a FABULOUS gift for the girls birthday:

 

Dressing up as Scarlett and Lily's FAVORITE princesses!

My sisters were very kind  to do this for them! :) Thank you girls!

On the left is the beautiful Cinderella and on the right is the fabulous Ariel (little mermaid)!

Scarlett and Lily were in LOVE!! Scarlett later told me this was her favorite part of the whole party!

Awww.....

 

My husband drove the tractor princess carriage and gave all the royalty rides around the backyard.  

What FUN!

 

Then it was princess PINATA time!! Whoo hoo!  Everyone got a few turns to break open the pinata and they were LOVING it I tell ya! :) It was so cute to watch some of the littler ones hitting the pinata.  Then- out came the candy! Yum! Yum!

 

CANDY!

  

Princess Cinderella read a story called Polite as a Princess to all the lords and ladies... 

and then...

 

Time to sing Happy Birthday to my two princesses (here they are blowing out the candles!)

 

I made strawberry cupcakes and regular white cupcakes with sprinkles as well.

 

More tractor rides with Daddy!

 

Ariel helped with the game "pass Cinderella's glass slipper". We played UNDER the SEA music and when it stopped whomever had the glass slipper got a little bean bag fish from Ariel for a prize!  (Note: They were sitting on a parachute... afterwards we played parachute with all the kids- that is always a favorite!)

s 

When our ROYAL guests were leaving Scarlett and Lily handed them a thank you bag with little gifts fitting of their age.  There were glow in the dark swords, bubbles, bouncy balls, princess crayons, rings, necklaces, princess chapstick, etc. in the designated bags.  

 

Gosh I love my two princesses! :)  I hope they had as much fun as it seemed they did- lots of smiles, giggles, and excitement all day long.  Hugs and Kisses to my Scarlett and Lily!  xoxoxo

My Dante is gone...

Dante, our silver/gray miniature schnauzer passed away last night.  He was not very old at all and this all came on very suddenly.  He was only about to turn 6 years old.   My buddy Dante has never even been sick before, this all came on so quickly and we just weren't expecting it.  About 2 weeks ago, he just stopped eating one day and after 24 hours of him throwing up, we took him to our vet.  They did blood tests and checked him out.  The vet said she believed he may have pancreatitis, which supposedly is very common in schnauzers and yorkshire terriers.  We have 2 schnauzers and our parents have 2 as well- I had never heard of this!!  Anyway, they sent us home with medication and we were supposed to try and get him to eat.  Dante literally did not eat for 2 full weeks- he was in the vet office for a few nights and got IVs which was great but he wouldn't eat for them either, and then they sent him home hoping he would eat soon. He seemed a little perkier this past weekend and would even bark out the fence in the back and wander around in the backyard with Chaucer, our other schnauzer.  We even got him to nibble on a little chicken at one point, but not much.  I don't think my husband and I realized that it was as serious as it was. We were planning to take him back to the vet but after yesterday it was too late.  Last night, I noticed little Lily was sitting in Dante's kennel petting him (and he NEVER sits still for long if Lily wants to pet him).  She was so excited that he was being still.... I went over and got her out and he was just not moving. It was so scary... and sad... he was glassy eyed and breathing very shallow.  My husband took him to an emergency pet clinic and after a couple hours of trying to get him stabilized, he was not going to make it.  I never thought I would be so upset... I wished I could have been there too.  I wish I could have held him and told him I loved him one more time.  I just can't believe he is gone.  Dante was the best little guy ever! He was so smart and listened to commands amazingly well- he could roll over, sit, shake, speak... he was so very smart. He had the most soulful eyes... and my husband and I just loved his big fuzzy ears and his natural tail that was never clipped.... Today, Scarlett asked about him and her daddy told her what happened. She told me she felt sad and hoped she would see him in heaven someday. She thought it was funny that Dante might have wings and she said he probably loves flying around chasing squirrels- I thought that was pretty funny and cute!  I printed a picture out of him and her together and she has been carrying it around all day.  But she seems to be okay with whole situation... I am glad that she is because I still am not feeling okay at all.  :(  Hopefully, just getting it out there in this quick blog will make it better... but with it being such a rainy, gloomy day- I am feeling just like the weather, very gloomy.

Thursday Preschool Playdate Letter W , Oceans & Fish!

 

We learned about the letter W this week--- water, walrus, whale....

And all about Oceans and Fish!

 

As you can see we had Scarlett's pet goldfish in the middle of the table- we talked about taking care of fish as a pet and they all got to feed the goldfish a tiny bit of food.

 

We worked on our counting.  They each had two paper goldfish bowls and used goldfish crackers. I wrote a number on the dry erase board and they had to recognize the number and put that amount of "fish" in the goldfish bowl.  Some needed more help than others but they all did a really great job and seemed to enjoy it!

 

We played one of my favorite SENSORY games.  Blindfolded they put their hands in a grab bag and feel around for something.  They had to describe it without looking and then finally got to take off the blindfold- they always get sooo excited!

 

They pulled out lots of different ocean life- starfish, sea shells, sand dollars, etc.

 

Then we got on our "pretend" scuba gear and swam out to the backyard.  Then they  hunted for sea shells in the OCEAN (aka. plastic pool).

We sang a cute song about 5 little fish- each of them got to hold a paper fish and sing along.

We read 2 really cute books from the library called:

The Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen (they just laughed at this!!)

and Rainbow Fish discovers the deep sea by Marcus Pfister

Pre-K Curriculum for my 3.5 yr old

I thought I would use this to jot down what we will be doing in our homeschool Preschool this year!
Of course we will still be doing our Thursday Preschool Playdates with the other Mommies (which Scarlett just LOVES) but Tuesday and Wednesdays we will also be doing preschool activities!!  There may be a few changes/additions once I attend the Catholic Homeschooling Convention in Grapevine this Friday.  I am really excited to attend this homeschooling convention and this year  with my HUSBAND!!   I was impressed last year and just want to make sure he and I are on the same track with our kids.  Looks like some great speakers this year and I have more of a plan for looking at their books too!

Here is my tentative Pre-K Curriculum list for this 2010-2011 year:
(I put links for many things if you are interested in checking them out!!)

Progressive Phonics
A Child's Garden of Verses
Reading aloud classics- starting with The Jungle Book (july '10)
Later in the year- Teaching to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Bible Stories & Children's story books of the Saints
(planning to use Faith & Life for grade school)

Kumon Books- Pre-K & K 

Kinderbach Music
"Handle on the Arts" Fine Arts Program
Maestro Classics "Stories in Music"

Little Pim Spanish DVD and Music CD for Pre-K
(note: after I bought this I found it at the library!!)

Gross Motor- lots of running and playing outside of course! :) We will also be signing up at our City Rec Center for Gymnastics and probably ballet/tap again as well!  I can't wait till Lily is old enough to join her sister... only about 6 more months ( it is just too cute!!)

*Lily will be playing along with her sister in Pre-K this year (she is almost 2 years.) Anything she is interested in doing with Scarlett I will just try to simplify for her of course!! :)


My Goal: After this year I would like to start a Kindergarten curriculum with Scarlett... she will be 4 1/2 next August and would be waiting another year to start school if we were attending somewhere.  However from what I have seen so far and watching her very close this year, I am assuming she will be MORE than ready to start at the end of next summer!

I am looking forward to learning with my little girls this year- it has been a lot of fun so far and my feelings have only gotten stronger about educating at home for the moment.  There have been LOTS of HUGE things this year society wise AND close to home that make me believe I need to do this for my girls so much! I know it is a HUGE commitment for me but I will do anything and everything possible to bring up girls who will know, love, and serve God and everyone they meet! :)
 

April Showers Bring May Flowers... and a BABY BOY TOO!

In April, I  threw a baby shower for my little sister-- she just had her baby in May (Jacob Michael) and I still haven't posted until today- aghhh!!
I threw her baby shower on a Saturday afternoon toward the end of April. I really wanted an outdoor baby shower in the backyard, BUT the weather in Dallas decided to follow my theme and it "SHOWERED" all morning!! Therefore,we had the baby shower in my house- it turned out really nice even if it was a bit crowded!! I just want to thank my sister in law for helping me with everything- she was so wonderful and fun to work with and also my BEST friend (who is also my Fairy Blog Mother) for her help taking the pictures. Thank you!!

 

Invitation for the event: 

April Showers bring May Flowers and a little baby boy, 

Let's shower Claire with lots of love for this bundle of joy!

 

Gorgeous chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with Umbrella Toppers and little "raindrop" flowers.  I worked with Charynn to create my own unique cupcake toppers - I found her from Two Sugar Babies on Etsy - check her out! She can do the most amazing stuff with fondant- Thank you Charynn!

I also worked with Tabitha from Proud Grits on Etsy- she was so sweet and we actually talked about lots of ideas for my baby shower- she really knows her stuff! I ended up having her make me some cute umbrella confetti and she threw in some little paper flower confetti as well- it was absolutely adorable on the tables!

 

Sign in table for Claire's Shower- we used her baby book to sign in and had a M&M counting game at the sign in table too!  Claire dressed perfectly to match her yellow and blue baby shower colors- she is so cute!

 

One of the guests counting the M&M's in the baby bottle!

Another game we played was measure the Momma! Each person had to take a piece of string and cut it at whatever they thought the circumference of Claire's baby belly might be.  It was pretty funny- some cut very small lengths of string and others cute humongous pieces!! LOL 

The winners received a cute little candle and notepad for a prize.

 

My other little sister, Claire, and my mom helping open a gift.  If you look behind them on the fireplace you will see a "bunting" type banner that says Baby Shower in cute lettering- with little baby boy onesies hanging on the rope with clips.

 

Here is an up close of some of the umbrellas we put around the house.  We cut raindrops and hung them with clear string to the yellow and blue umbrellas.

 

More cute umbrellas, balloons, and raindrops!

 

We served some light snacks since the party was around 3 in the afternoon.  We had fruit and veggies to nibble on as well as some quiche and some mini pizza rollups. Yummy!

At the end of the shower, we gave small umbrellas as thank you gifts to the guests...we used raindrop paper and wrote "from our shower to yours" on the paper attached to the umbrella- since it was raining those umbrellas really got used!! LOL

Claire's shower was really a success! She literally got a room FULL of gifts.  It completely filled my living room area- it was amazing! Definitely thankful for all our family and friends that were able to attend!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

SOME OTHER THANK YOUS! Check out all these great sites!

When I was planning this party, I went to some experts to get advice on what kinds of things would be neat to do for the baby shower.  I talked with Brittany from One Charming Party because she has the most awesome, beautiful ideas!! I wasn't expecting this but she actually hooked me up with a free inspiration board from her friend Becca from Birthday Girl Blog and oh my gosh it was the coolest April Showers Inspiration Board!!  I love these two girls ideas- they are absolutely fabulous and can come up with some really unique ideas if you need something for birthdays, showers, weddings, etc.  Check them both out and give them lots of love from me!!  Here is the PRECIOUS inspiration board that Becca sent me- so many cute ideas- for anyone that might be interested in doing a "rainshowers theme!".

 

Another sweet lady that sent me some awesome ideas was Shelley from How Does She? Have ya'll ever seen this blog?  It is so cool- those girls are amazing and their blog is so much fun to read! Check it out!!

My final shout out is to Amy from STEM parties- she also sent me loads of adorable ideas and places to check out online!!  

All of these ladies are busy, busy, busy and yet they each took time to write me back and I will be forever appreciative of that!  I hope good things are coming  to each and every one of the ladies that helped me with this shower. HUGS TO YOU ALL!!