Party, Party! Channah Edition

This May I gained a whole new appreciation of what the first week of March entailed for my in-laws as my husband and his brother grew up with birthdays 5 days apart. Throw Mother's Day in there and, sheesh, we had a really fun, but exhausting week of celebrations.

We held Channah's party the Saturday before her birthday. I briefly considered hosting a "Survivor" themed birthday party, which was perhaps the best summary I could think of for this first year of our precious girl's life. However, I decided that may not cast the kindest light on this special celebration, so I decided a colorful, unique fruit market theme would be fun.

I got a lot of ideas from one specific blog by a mom in Spain. Obviously all her signs were in Spanish, which got me thinking it would be fun to throw in a little of the Mexican heritage from Seth's side of the family, so the result was a "Fiesta de la Fruita." Bienvenidos! (Welcome!)



The birthday girl (in her fruit dress :) )

We served various fruity snacks, like fruit-ka-bobs...

 

 ...and a fruit pizza/parfait bar...

...as well as a variety of fresh fruits and banana chips


One of my favorite ideas was to create custom fruit stickers that said "Happy Birthday Channah" :)

My in-laws were in town, which gave me the opportunity to employ my father-in-law's fruit carving skills 

The birthday girl fully enjoyed her first opportunity to indulge in sugary treats. She particularly loved the sugar cookies I made for the mini fruit pizzas. Anytime we got the bag out later in the week she started flapping her arms around and hyperventilating. It was pretty funny. :)

I loved an idea I found to make a cake that looked like a cherry pie. Personally, I think it could have tasted better, but it looked cute anyway. :)

And the birthday girl enjoyed it (to the point she flatly refused to play her "sharing" game with her Daddy).

We had a great time celebrating both our Sweetie Pie and the fact that we made it through the first (colorful) year of her life. We love you, Baby Girl!

 

Milestone Catch-Up: Easter Fun (cont.)

Easter Sunday
We spent Easter Sunday afternoon with some wonderful friends from church. We made some springy sugar cookies to share.

The kids hunted for their Easter baskets before church.

Hand puppets were a big hit!

We had a great time in the yard on a surprisingly nice spring day!

Mom didn't think to bring play clothes. Oops!

Egg hunting fun!

 Even Channah got in on the action

 Sweet friends

 

Milestone Catch-Up: Easter Fun

Despite a freezing cold Easter season, we had several fun Easter-related outing this year. Here are some of the highlights:

 

 

Church Easter Egg Hunt

Our church hosted a community Easter Egg Hunt event this year for the first time. The kids had a fantastic time with all the various activities, despite the need for winter gear.

 

The kids all bundled up and ready for the party

The bubble station was a huge hit! (I can't believe I don't have a picture of Benj here. He seriously would have spent the whole day at the bubble station. Finally I asked the adult at the station pointedly, "Isn't there a time limit?" ;) )

 

The face painting station required some coersion, but the kids finally consented. 

 

 

 

 

We finally got to the egg hunt. They hunted for eggs labeled with letters that spelled out "Happy Easter." 

 

 

 

 

 

The good ol' egg on a spoon race. We told Leila she couldn't hold the egg ... so she just cupped the spoon with one hand and held it against her body. Creative! :)

 

 

One sack racer needed a little help from Mima.

 

 

Ressurrection Eggs

One of the highlights of our Easter season is always talking about the Easter story using symbols of the Passion week.

 

 

*More Sparkles*

Well, it's that time in sweet little Channah's life; that time when we set aside all parental compassion and celebrate (the survival of) the first year of our girls' lives by subjecting them to torture in the form of an ear piercing gun. It is tradition (see here and here) after all.

The unsuspecting victim, belly full of MacAllister's macaroni & cheese and applesauce, smiles sweetly for the camera.

She begins to grow suspicious as a stranger comes at her with a purple marker.

And why is Mama holding my head like that? This is all very strange.

 

Waaaah! What did you do that for, you mean lady?!

 

Oh, but you look so pretty, baby girl. :)

Back to her cheerful self.

 

Milestone Catch-Up: Talia Turns 6

We made it! We are officially on summer break!

 

To celebrate I have a series of posts planned to catch up on some of the major milestones of the past few months, beginning with Talia's 6th Birthday.

 

I love this shot from the morning of her actual birthday. She is enjoying her cinnamon roll with rainbow sprinkles to the fullest. :)

 

For her party this year, she had her first sleepover. We had a great time making & eating pizza, watching the newest Tinkerbell movie, eating cake, and of course, whispering and giggling until waaaaay too late at night. :)

 

Here are a few of the highlights:

The girls with their pizzas 

We attempted to construct a magical sleepover tent (which ended up falling down, bit by bit, over the course of the evening... oh well :) ) 

Talia requested a Tinkerbell & Periwinkle cake 

 

What's a sleepover without fancy manicures?

And fancy hairstyles

The girls all swapped princess pjs

Each of the girls received a pillowcase with a note written by Talia, but what she didn't know was that she was going to have one too, with notes from her friends

 

In bed, but "too excited to sleep" for another couple of hours. The last holdouts didn't fall asleep until midnight (and were up by 7:00)!

 

After the girls left the next morning our whole family took naps. What a fun (although exhausting) introduction to the magic of sleepovers. I'm sure it was the first of many!