Saturday, January 28, 2012

the girl is two

It seems like it was yesterday that our sweet girl was born. She came out just as sassy as she'd been when I was pregnant and hasn't let it stop her one bit since then.


We've experienced lots of smiles...

...lots and lots of scream filled moments.

The girl is still obsessed with her food. And Luke's food. And everyone else's food.

In fact, she's gone from being in the 20th percentile for her weight at her first birthday to being 28 lbs. and in the 80th percentile at her 2 year check. She's also half an inch shy of being 3 feet tall, which puts her in the 90th percentile for her height.


Each day she surpirses us with new and hilarious things that she does and says, and while on the topic of her speech, it has been improving by leaps and bounds the past few months. The girl who had to have her speech evaluated is now right on track with her speech development. Reagan is attempting new words every day and becoming more fluent with the words that she already uses.


I am more in love with this little ball of spitfire than I ever thought possible. Sometimes I take a moment to thank God for blessing us with such a wonderful, beautiful daughter.

Reagan: Momma and Daddy wish you the happiest of birthdays and we are so eternally grateful to have you in our lives. We love you baby girl!

reagan's birthday party

It's taken me a solid week to recover, but I'm here today sharing the full details of my Reagan's Secret Garden Birthday Party! The moment I saw the Secret Garden collection from Sandi Henderson, it was party at first sight.


I'll warn you now: there are an obscene amount of pictures in this post, but there were so many fun aspects and details, that I just couldn't leave anything out. Seriously. I hope you enjoy everything as much as I did!
I have to start with the second most gorgeous part of the entire party {with my daughter being the obvious first}:


Isn't this cake absolutely fantastic? The ever-amazing Breanna from Sugar Dreams Cakes & Things knocked this beauty out of the park. In keeping with the garden theme, I utilized an overturned galvanized bucket wrapped with burlap and lace trim as a pedestal to help the cake stand out even more.


The dessert table was filled with lots of yummy goodness! Some of my favorites were the Party Oreos that I made {Oreos dipped in candy melts and sprinkles}...


...these sweet mini lemon raspberry cupcakes courtesy of Sugar Dreams...


...the scrumptious red velvet cake pops from Sugar Dreams...


...and floral sugar cookies that I squeaked out last-minute.


My sweet girl was so excited for her party. I spent lots of

crying quality time the week prior to the party designing, cutting, sewing, altering, pinning, and swearing to make her party dress. It turned out about 87% like I had originally imagined, so I consider that a success for my first dress attempt!


I love how her birthday banner turned out and it was pretty simple to put together; that alone makes it a winner in my book! I cut the burlap flags by hand and used by ever-trusty Silhouette to cut the circles and letters out. Using pop up glue spots for the letters and hot glue for everything else, this went together really easily.



I kept the centerpieces of the tables fairly simple. Using tissue poms, glass vases that I already had on hand, and die cuts that coordinated with the theme, I had a great conversation piece that didn't break my bank.


Tissue poms and die-cut shapes also graced the chandeliers.


I have a confession: I did not use printables for this party. Gasp! The only thing I printed out for this shin-dig was the paper to make flags for the straws.


Not only did I use mason jars to hold the straws, but they were also used for the art table that was set up for the kids during the party. The mason jars were wrapped with burlap and tied with fabric from the Secret Garden collection.


The art station was a huge hit with the kidlets. I found tree and flower cardboard cutouts months ago on clearance at Michael's {yes, I did plan this party for a solid 6 months} and knew they would be a great fit. Using art supplies from the local dollar store, the kids went to town making their little masterpieces.


No one walked away empty-handed from the party. I took flower seeds and wrapped them with burlap and fabric and tied it off with colored raffia. Easy-peasy and something that can be used to remember my baby girl.


By the end of the party, the girl of honor was pooped and momma was too. I am so lucky to be able to celebrate my kidlets this way and honestly, I am just so lucky to have these sweet babies.


Monday, January 9, 2012

casas de gingerbread

And I'm pretty certain that's the spanish translation for gingerbread too.

As I've been dealing with one medical appointment/surgery/procedure after another, Andi and Andrew have been so sweet to take the kids on more than one ocassion. The kids are even more excited about it than I am; I think they secretly like them more than me.

Andi knows what a picture fanatic I am and has made sure to take pictures of them each time. I love that even though I wasn't with my kids, I still get to see what kinds of fun they were having without me.






Andrew already has the whole parent thing down: hold the kid by the shirt. Nice.









Thanks A Team for being awesome!