Mason and his Vampire Bats

I stayed up countless nights as October approached wondering how I was going to dress our kids for Halloween.  Our son is 5 and can clearly tell me what he does and does not want to dress up as.  The girls are 1 and have no idea what is going on, but as I'm dreaming of princess and pink, I can't wrap my brain around the idea that they wouldn't coordinate.  So Mason decided he was going to be a vampire and he actually stuck with it when we went to the Halloween store.  So the girls were to be bats.  Not a complete disappointment from Pink Tutus and Sparkly Princesses...that day will come soon enough.  Now to decide where I was going to take their Halloween picture for their card.  Well, that was a no brainer, expect I'd be trespassing and was kind of afraid of where I was going.  So again with the tossing and turning at night as to should I or shouldn't I.  Well, I decided yes and this is my end result.

How awesome did this picture turn out??!!  A creepy, old, abandoned house with a vampire and bats.  The PERFECT Halloween backdrop.  

Hope you all have a Bat-astic Halloween!

1st Day of School Decorations, but what about Day 3

First Day of Kindergarten!  I'm not sure how I really felt that day.  I was obviously sad that my baby was going to school, even though he's had 3 years of pre-school prior to this big event.  I was nervous for him.  How was he going to do on the bus?  Would he be O.K. once he got to school?  The normal mommy worries.  Mostly I think I was proud.  Here is my baby, 5 years old already.  He can write, wants to read, wants to learn.  I think we did a pretty darn good job so far.  So I wanted there to be a surprise when he woke up in the morning.  Now he loves to decorate for all the holidays and for everyones birthdays.  So this was perfect for him.  I decided this at 8:30 the night before school, so thank goodness thesweetestoccasion.com had these awesome free printables.  I ended up laminating mine with contact paper, so it can be used again next year.  I decorated with kitchen light and it just so happens we had the alphabet place mat and cup.  This went over so well that come when I took it all down on school day #3 I was informed that he was very upset there wasn't any decorations for that school day.  

He's ready...

Mason & Daddy

Mason & Mommy

There goes my baby.  He looks to little to be on that big bus.

I heart this picture.  First one off the bus at school.

He's back home!!!

It stopped raining and he had an AWESOME 1st day of Kindergarten!

Mirror Mirror in the Yard...

I've seen a gazillion different pins on Pinterest with mirrors and babies.  I thought I'd give it a try with our girls.  Our son had just gotten on the bus for Kindergarten and I rushed back home to get going on this project.  In my head this was going to be hours of fun.  It lasted about 15 minutes and 5 of those were me dragging the heavy mirror across the yard.  The girls wanted to eat the grass and climb up the slide instead.  Not to mention no one wanted to keep their adorable Wal~Mart headbands on.  I did manage to get a few good shots and thought I'd share.

It's Our very Own Splash Pad

While the weather is still HOT outside and my parents have closed their pool, it was time to get creative with how we'd enjoy being outside without melting.  Normally I'd turn on the sprinkler and let our son run around in it, but I wanted our girls to enjoy this too.  Luckily we had a clean never used tarp in our garage.  I lied it out, put the Hop-Scotch sprinkler on top of it and presto, a large area for everyone to jump, run and splash around in.  The water stayed on the tarp so it eventually became a slip 'n' slide for them too, plus I got to sit on the tarp and was able to stay cool.  I added a few plastic balls, and 2.5 hours later I called it quits for dinner.  
I couldn't find our small metal stakes to tie down the corners and again with our neighborhood wind, so I used our patio chairs.  

We All Scream for Ice Cream

I hosted our 1st Annual Ice Cream Social for our neighborhood right before school started.  It was a huge hit with all the kids as we celebrated the end of a great summer and the beginning of an awesome school year.  It was held at one of the small parks within our neighborhood.

Everyone brought their favorite ice cream to share and I provided all the toppings.  Of course, we can't have a party without some kind of weather issues.  Well, today we had about 50 mph winds.  My cones wouldn't stay on the plater, the spoons (in tall baby jars with colored ribbon) kept blowing over.  The bowls had to be kept under the table in an extra container.  At least the rain held off until we were done.

Pink Lemonade Party

For our triplet daughters 1st Birthday I chose a PINK Lemonade

theme.  Here are some of the decorating hi-lites.

I strung some twine across our hutch and clothes pinned

their outfits they came home in.  A personal touch and a

fun way to showcase how small they really were.

Here is our dessert table

For our goody bags I found plastic tumblers with lemons

on them off Ebay.  I filled them with cotton candy 

(I couldn't find pink lemonade flavor) Jelly Bellys.

Complete with a straw and a packet of Raspberry

(again couldn't find small packets of pink lemonade)

and original lemonade.  The kids loved them, and

it's something they can actually reuse again and again.

I've seen lots of high chair skirts made of tulle and ribbon.

They are super cute and super time consuming.  My vision

for the party was Country Pink Lemonade, so when I stumbled

upon this white eyelet lace, on clearance at Wal*Mart, I was

beyond excited.  The entire project cost me $10, again clearance.

This is also a no-sew project.  I used velcro to apply the lace.

This is our version of a Lemonade Stand.  We usually

encounter thunderstorms for our parties.  Well, this year

we had 25 mph winds.  So it wasn't exactly my vision,

but this totally served it's purpose, and was still 

very cute.

The girl's Lemonade Stand was a hit.  I decorated

it with cute jars filled with pearls, a pitcher of lemons

and a $1 plastic bird.

My brother made the stand and is the best artist out

there.  I showed him a picture of what I was thinking

and he put his own twist on it.  Beautiful!!!

The girl's Thank You cards picture.

We are in the middle of a drought, yet the 

one green thing in our yard is that weed.  I 

totally didn't notice until after the picture was

taken the  cards were made.  Good thing our

little ladies distract from it.