Karter's First Birthday Party

I had so much fun decorating and preparing for Karter's party! I can definitely say this is the most creative and crafty I've ever gotten and I had so much fun!! It was also a lot of work! Kyle kept asking me:

"why are you doing all this?"
"it would be easier if you just..."
"you're making this so much harder on yourself".

That is true but although it's work, I do it because I truly enjoy it and I love my kids and I want them to have an amazing party. For those of you that watch Tori and Dean HSH (if you don't watch you should!) there was a time when Tori (LOVE HER!!) was making adorable little marshmallow hay stacks and Dean gets onto her and asks her, "Why do you do all this? What does THIS mean to you?" and she just says, "LOVE!"

That's exactly how I feel! =)

We love you Karter Lynn and hope you had a wonderful first birthday party! =)

The drink and party favor table.

For our baby guests I put Gerber Puffs in glass baby food jars.
The adorable decorations I cut out were designed by TomKat Studios !

For the "big kids" I made these boxes out of 12x12 paper and had a sign that said, "Before you go and say goodbye, grab a box and fill it high!" So the kids just filled their boxes with yummy candy and snacks that we had out.

I decorated all the vases with ribbon and the cutouts.

The dessert table had ladybug cookies, jello, chocolate covered strawberries, licorice, jellybeans, cinnamon peppermints, apples and dip, cupcakes and the ladybug cake I made. The table turned out perfect except that I had planned on putting it outside where the backdrop wasn't that ugly wallpaper but it was so hot everything was melting so I had to bring it in which really stressed me out. I learned I need to be more flexible next time, ha!

These got a little smushed! Oh well! =)

I used food coloring to turn the chocolate chip cream cheese dip red so it would be more "ladybugish"! =) I put the decorative cutouts on lollipop sticks for cupcake toppers. As you can tell I got a lot of use out to the cutouts! =)

My smiley ladybug!!

She did not like that ladybug cake, haha!

In the end Kyle of course thanked me for all my hard work, he was never not appreciative he just doesn't understand. Few guys do...unless they're gay! =)

Ladybug Cake

My baby girl just turned ONE!! Can you believe it? I CANT!! =)

I started planning her party months ago (more on that later!) and knew I wanted a ladybug cake for her "smash cake". I researched online some and then asked my good friend, JoDee, if she could help me! I asked a couple bakery's how much they would charge but there's just something special about making the cake yourself! I LOVED making Keaton's CARS cake when he turned 2 so I really was up for the challenge of the ladybug!

JoDee came over 2 days before the party and we got started. Thank God for Baby Einstein...

Are those kids not the cutest? They were such GOOD babies! We worked on the cake for hours and they were little angels!!

It started with 2 small circle cakes...

and a yummy batch of homemade butter-cream icing! YUM!

Then we worked some black and red coloring into the fondant. That is some sticky stuff!!

Next we cut shaped the cake.

Then iced it with buttercream and made it smooth by patting it with a papertowel.

Laid black fondant on the head and trimmed it to fit.

Same with the red!!

Next came cutting the dots and other small details...

Adding eyes, a smile, and blushed cheeks!

Hard at work on the eyelashes!

One side of lashes done.

Our masterpiece and the birthday girl!!

The day of the party I stuck some antennas in that JoDee had formed so nicely and also colored some coconut green for grass!! It turned out just like I had imagined and although very time consuming it was really easy!! Thank you so much JoDee!!! You are so talented and I couldn't have done it without your help! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! =)

The only problem was Karter hated the cake, haha! Granted she was exhausted at her party so just cried and cried when we brought it to her but I figured after a nap she would come out ready to get dirty but NO! She still wanted nothing to do with the giant ladybug. Oh well it was great decoration and her brother Keaton enjoyed eating it! =)

Happy Birthday Karter Lynn!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!

This has started a fun little hobby for me! I can't wait to make my next cake! =) JoDee????

Some of Keaton's Firsts

Keaton had 2 firsts this month! His firsts day of Preschool and his first Astros game!!

School is going GREAT! He loves his teachers, has made lots of friends and just looks forward to it whenever he goes! I'm so proud of him! It's also been really nice for me to spend quality time with Karter or just have a little extra time to get chores done because I forgot how easy it is with just one kid around instead of two! =)

Keaton's new nap mat that he loves!!

Getting ready for his first day!!

So excited!!

Keaton and his BFF!

He was sound asleep when I came to pick him up!

The Astros game was a blast! We ate dinner first and then headed to the game where we got ice cream and just had a wonderful family time together!! =)