Biker Chick

Abby came out of her room the other day wearing this get-up: a witch's dress from an old Halloween costume, a skull and crossbones bandana, and a pair of skinny jeans.  She said she was a biker chick...no idea where she got that from, but I'm not gonna cross her. :)

Abby 7th Birthday Party

We've had a crazy weekend!!  On Friday night we celebrated Abby's birthday with a sleepover.  Then on Saturday, we celebrated Wyatt's 3rd birthday.  There birthdays are only 5 days apart and our families live out of town, so it takes a lot of energy and planning to orchestrate the birthday bash weekend every year to ensure that our families can be here.  But it's always fun!! 

Abby really wanted to have a sleepover this year since she is growing up, so that's what we did.  We originally invited 4 little girls to stay over but only 2 ended up being able to make it.  One was out of town and didn't make it back in time as originally planned.  The other one had a wedding rehearsal that ended really late in the evening.  It was still a blast and maybe a blessing that the group was as small as it was. :)

The Theme: Sleepover!  I took my color scheme from the invitations and favor bags; pink and green with polka dots. 

The Decorations: I kept it pretty simple.  I made a few tissue paper pom poms and wrapped some tulle around the chandelier in the dining room.  I just stuck to a pink and green color palette.

The Food:  Abby wanted hot dogs so we grilled up some dogs.  I found a bucket at Walmart that was the exact color of the green I used to decorate, so I bought it to put bags of chips in. 

These are rice krispie "pops" that I dipped in pink candy melts and sprinkled with jumbo confetti sprinkles.  They were a huge hit with the girls!

A painted flower pot filled with jumbo blow pops.  Another hit, especially with Wyatt. ;)

I had to have some fruit to balance out all of the sugary treats!

I found this sparkling strawberry lemonade at Walmart.  I fit the girly theme well.

The Cake:  I always like to make my children's birthday cakes but it was seriously a lot of work this year since I had to make them so close together.  Abby's was pretty simple.

I made a two tier chocolate cake with a vanilla pudding filling.  I tinted the buttercream icing pink and green and piped some various swirls and ruffles on the cake and then sprinkled with the jumbo confetti.  Notice that this is not a professional cake.  I had originally planned on piping stars on the top but my hand cramped pretty bad so I just took whatever came out.  (I've heard that your hand doesn't cramp up when you do it the right way, so I obviously haven't figured it out yet.)

The Fun: Abby wanted to play in the sprinkler, so I had the girls bring their swimsuits.  

I just love the picture of Wyatt.  He played in the sprinkler with a hotdog in his hand and then ate the soggy dog.

Having fun!!

We got Abby a Wii and some games which provided hours of fun.  The played Just Dance 2 and WipeOut.

Opening up presents.  Her sweet friends got her some cute things! 

The Jellybean Challenge!!  I had each girl guess how many jellybeans were in the jar (there were 533) and the closest guesser won a prize.  Since I didn't figure parents would appreciate me sending someone home with a jarful of jellybeans, the winner won a Smencil. 

Those are the highlights from the sleepover.  I can't believe my baby is already 7 years old.  Time flies!

Happy Birthday, Abby Rose!!  We love you!!!



Abby's 1st Sleepover

Actually, it's Abby's 2nd sleepover, but her first time to host one.  We've had a blast having her sweet little friend "A" stay the night.  (Note: I decided not to crop Wyatt out from the picture because he tried his best to hang out with the girls every chance he got.  It just seemed fitting for him to be in the picture.)

After we picked A up, we ran by Papa Murphy's to get some pizza for dinner.  Have you ever tried their S'mores dessert pizza?  Delish!  Next we ran by the snow cone stand for some snow cones and headed home.

The girls played dress up for the longest time.  A was tickled that Wyatt was wearing a pair of the dress up high heels.  Believe me, that's par for the course around here.  (He has an older sister, so what else can you expect?)

The girls asked for some construction paper and tape.  This is what they came up with: giant paper hairbows!  Pretty creative.  Abby had soccer practice and they wanted to wear them, but I didn't think the bows would stand a chance in this Panhandle wind. 

After dinner and baths, we popped some popcorn and settled the girls in Abby's room to watch a movie.  They decided on Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale. 

After the movie, I made a big pallet on the floor for the girls to put their sleeping bags on.  Despite insisting that it was lights out, it was after 11:00pm before I finally heard silence.  :)

The girls and Wyatt were up bright and early!  I made cinnamon rolls, bacon, and orange juice for breakfast.

Wyatt is always thrilled to have his picture made.  He's a ham!

After breakfast, the girls (and Wyatt) spent the next couple of hours playing inside and outside, until it was time for....

manis....

and pedis!  They loved it.  A was here for Abby's spa birthday party last year, so she remembered all the fun things we did.  She was ready to whip out the face masks and makeup too!

After lunch, Abby and Wyatt said their goodbyes and we took A home.  It was a great sleepover and we hope to have A back over very soon.  Abby has been invited to another sleepover this Saturday from another friend from church.  Two sleepovers in one week! 

Show and Tell: Pillowcase Top

I've been itching to get back to sewing and decided to whip up a super simple pillowcase top for Abby.  I've had this fabric in my craft closet for a long while and couldn't decide what to do with it.  I wanted to make a pillowcase dress but Abby said she's too old for them and they're "lame".  Sheesh.  So we settled on the top.  (My baby is growing up :( ).

My pretty girl modeling her top.  Notice her model face and pose.

Gorgeous!!

I've got a pattern for a pair of ruffle pants that I really want to make for Abby.  I found a cute turquoise and brown polka dot jersey fabric, so maybe she'll wear them.  ;)  I'm trying to come up with something cute to make for Wyatt.  My sweet neighbor Sue said that she'll teach me how to quilt whenever I'm ready, so I might try and make a simple wall quilt for him.

Soccer

Abby decided to play soccer this year and had her first game this past Sunday.  She's a little apprehensive to get in the mix because she's afraid of getting kicked but she's starting to get the hang of it.  Her coach is great and her team is adorable out there on the field!

Abby's got her game face on!

She did really good as goalie. 

In the mix!

The other team's players were a lot bigger than ours but we still came out on top!

We have two practices this week and another game on Sunday.  It's gonna be a fun season!

Girls' Day!

Since yesterday was Friday and the very last weekday left of spring break (sniff, sniff), Abby and I decided that we needed a girls' day out.  After dropping Wyatt off at daycare, we headed to eat some breakfast at The Donut Stop.  Not the healthiest choice, but it was delicious and gave us the sugar boost we needed to start our day!

Next we headed to Barnes and Noble for a little browsing.  I love looking around in bookstores and usually find several books I want, but we were mainly just killing a little time before our next activity....

The Discovery Center!!  It is our local science museum/center geared toward children.  They have recently renovated and put in some new exhibits (plus our membership was about to expire) so we decided we needed to check it out.  (Just a brief note:  We went as a family a couple of weeks ago, so Wyatt got to check it out too!)  We watched two fun shows in the Space Theater which is something we can't usually do when Wyatt is with us. 

The new dinosaur exhibit is so neat!  The dinosaurs are robotic so they move and make sounds. 

The Triceratops babies.  Aren't they cute hatching out of their eggs?

Abby standing in front of a T-Rex.  It looks like he is hunting her!

After the dinosaurs, we headed over to the "geometry playground" for some fun.  Can you spot Abby hanging on the edge?

Ride 'em, Cowgirl!

Bed of nails.

After the Discovery Center, we headed to McDonald's for lunch (Abby's choice, not mine).  We had to wait forever for our food because there was apparently some hold up in the kitchen.  We got a little bit of a show when the man in front of us got pretty upset over having to wait for his fries!

After lunch, we went to Ulta so that I could give Abby a "makeover".  I put a little eyeshadow, blush, and lipgloss on her, and she was one happy girl!

Shopping was up next, of course!  We bought Abby some spring clothes from Kohl's. 

Part of our loot.

How cute are these shoes?  Abby has the tiniest foot (she's almost 7 and still wears a 10-11 in toddlers.  It makes her so mad!) so we are limited in the shoe selection. 

We found these gladiator sandals at Target.  I wanted her to get the sensible black pair that would go with everything, but in true Abby fashion, she chose the bright turquoise ones with a bejeweled angel fish embellishment. :)

We finished up our fun day by going grocery shopping at Market Street.  It was a lot of fun spending time with my sweet girl. 

We're already planning our next girls' day out...manis and pedis!!