Woodland Baby Shower

Erica and I decided to throw a baby shower for Sara, our old roomie!  Deciding on a theme was step number one and after pouring over Pinterest and Etsy, we landed on the cutest little shower theme ever--a Woodland Baby Shower theme!  So we were off on the planning stages.  Erica is like me with themes, but even better, so this was a fun duo to plan a shower together.

Acorn cookies:

Chicken Salad Rolls

Pinecone cheese ball:

Make your own Mimosa bar:

Apples and Dip:

Homemade Cupcakes:

The most adorable baby shower favors ever:

Smores Trail Mix:

Gift Table:

Woodland Water:

Oh Baby sign:

All in all, it was a super cute theme and even better than the theme was getting to reconnect with these ladies, became friends in 2001 and 14 years later we are still going strong!

Halloween, Oysters and the Newsies

It seems only fitting now that we are almost a full month past Halloween to catch up on it!  In all honesty, I changed my google password and could not remember it, so every time my pictures went to back up, they just didn't back up.  But problem solved, I just reset that sucker and we are back in business.   So that is the short of the delay on blogs, because really, what fun are blogs without the pictures??

So back to the topic(s) at hand, first up Halloween!  Kristi so generously had us over for dinner and games and some trick-or-treating with little miss Snow White!  

Selfie Stick for the win!

Katniss and Snow White

Rosie the Riveter and Snow White

Babydoll Lila and Katniss CJ

 Next up, months ago, Anna, CJ and I got tickets to see the Newsies at Altria.  The date finally came around and off to the theater we went!  The play was good for what it was, but definitely not one of my favorites!

Then on a beautiful Friday, CJ and I took the day off work and traveled with Kristi and Bethany to Urbanna for the legendary Urbanna Oyster Festival, despite the fact that 2/3rds of us did not like Oysters!

It was a beautiful day weather-wise and it was packed!  I definitely enjoyed walking around and seeing the town and taking in everything that was happening, such as:

Surfing Oysters

Oyster Shells....

 We made sure to grab a few cute photos and even managed to run into these crazy kids....

AUNT GLORIA AND UNCLE JERRY!

Also CJ found her most favorite glass of wine ever!

We obviously found all the possible cardboard cut-outs to get our picture in!

And even managed to find a person dressed as an oyster!

All in all, a successful and fun last few weeks!  Stay tuned for more photo unloads and no doubt there will be some nephew appearances in there!

Corbin's 5th Birthday

It's official, my once little nephew has turned a whole hand's worth old.  How is that even possible?  I have no idea, but it happened and it happened almost a month ago now!  In turn fashion, I got the honor of doing most of the planning for his birthday party, which started with designing the invite:

Corbin wanted a Miles from Tomorrowland party.  Well interestingly enough, they don't sell that stuff ANYWHERE and in fact, it is hard to even find space stuff at the local party stores, Party City, get with it!  So I did the best I could while scouring the internet for other ideas and borrowing imagines and ideas from various sites (thanks in part to Disney's free party ideas and printables).  We were able to make a cute, though somewhat understated party.  I actually would not be able to be there for the actual party since it was on Columbus Day and I had to work, but I hear it was a hit.  At any rate, I captured a few pictures (sorry the lighting was not great) before I headed out of town...

Happy Birthday Banner!

Party Favor in the form of "Moon" rock candy

Thanks for coming to my Blastastic Birthday!

Colorful plates and cups!

Pin the tail on Merc!

Space Glo sticks!

This was the card I got for him that doubled as a centerpiece!

So Corbin's one request was a pinata, who knows why, but we searched all over for a Miles or space themed one and you just can't find them.  So the day before the party, Tiffany headed to party city and located a Buzz Lightyear one, she handed it off to me and I added a cute Miles print-out, some blue streamers and viola, Buzz no more!  I think Corbin loved it!

 Word art that we hung up on the doors.

I failed to get a picture of the planets such that I hung on some yarn from the windows, to add to the space them.  Overall, it was a fun party and I think the little guy liked it!  Stay tuned for some nephew pictures, hopefully tomorrow!

Welcome to the family, Kaitlyn!

In a little under 2 weeks, Kaitlyn will officially become part of the family when she marries my cousin, Keith.  Though in reality, she has been a part of the family for years now, attending Williams Family Christmas Breakfast for as long as I can think back to!  But in order to officially welcome her to the family, Bons and I hosted a little brunch shower for her upcoming wedding.  When asked what theme, she simply said she trusted me and I could do whatever I wanted--YES!  

So I started with this rustic, feminine shower invitation I found on Shutterfly and went from there...

Simply white and green floral arrangement tied everything together!  

"Love is sweet, Please take a treat"

The favor was a s'more kit, so people could go home and share a s'more with their significant other (or each them both themselves--no judgement):

I found a "W" at Michael's that was HOT PINK, but was marked way down, so I brought it home and gave it a couple of coats of spray paint and viola, it fits right in.  I used my Virginia cutting board and the invite to tie in the rest of the centerpiece.

I printed hearts on kraft paper and cut them out and taped them to thread to create a cute and easy banner.

Since I am not super big on shower games, I always pick easy ones.  This one was the purse game where people used their purse to mark off things that had different points value.  The person with the most points at the end wins!  I found a cute Mason Jar picture and just added the list to it.  I was able to print them two to a page and simple cut them out, tied some raffia at the top and attached a pen for easy use:

I also encouraged people to write their favorite date night idea on a Popsicle stick so Keith and Kaitlyn can have some fun ideas to start their marriage together.

A longer version of the hearts banner:

As luck would have it, the Target one spot had a fun cute things including this chalkboad banner, so I bought it and added Mr. & Mrs. to it, easy peasy!

Now for the food.  Since it was a brunch, we obviously had mimosas, but also wanted a mix of sweet and savory:

Donut Hole Kabobs

Love is sweet cake

Caprese Bites

Pimento Cheese with Ritz Crackers

Fruit Cups

Mini Quiches and Chicken and Waffle Sliders

Feta and Onion Tarts

Pigs in a Blanket

I wish I had gotten more pictures of the people there, but alas, I at least captured a few of the lovely bride:

Can't wait to celebrate your marriage in less than two weeks! :)