More birthday photos!

Thought I would post a few more photos of the birthday boy. 


The first few are from his actual birthday. We celebrated with our little family at home. He opened a few presents and had cake! 

Getting some help with unwrapping from big sister.

Playing with the new birthday present. He really enjoys this thing!

I guess opening presents is hard work.

Playing with his presents. The truck was from big sister. She picked it out all by herself. :)

Everyone is enjoying the Zany Zoo!

Such a big boy!!

Birthday cake!!

He is seriously the cleanest cake eater ever!

Big sister enjoying some birthday cake!

<3

We decided to have a Sesame street theme party the following weekend. More on the party is here. 
 

Opening presents on his party day!

thinking about blowing out his birthday candle

Play time with Aunt Sara!

Ethan is checking out Reese's feet. Future best friends!

 What a great birthday! Little man really enjoyed himself. Even without a nap, he was a trooper! 
Sweet boy, I hope you go through life with your positive energy, happiness and determination. You make everyone around you happy. You are such a joy and I am so blessed to be your mommy.

Sunny days, chasing the clouds away...

For my little man's first birthday, I decided on a Sesame street theme. I'm so glad I did. I HAD SO MUCH FUN putting this together!!! The only problem was that I had so many more ideas that I just ran out of time to complete. But, I think it turned out great anyway! Most importantly, my sweet boy seemed to have a great time and truly, that is ALL that matters. :)  
First, for the party details... 

I had so much fun making the balloon wreath. We will be using this for every birthday party from now on. I made a street sign in Microsoft publisher and printed Ethan Street on it to welcome our guests.  I also had monster footprints (big bird, cookie monster and elmo prints) that I was going to put on our side walk, but the news was calling for rain, so I didn't put them out.  Also, our front door has small glass windows on the side. I wanted to make an Elmo face to peek through the glass at people as they entered, but this was one of the things that I ran out of time to complete.

The favor table. Front of bags had a character and the child's name. The back had the "Thank you" sign. The bags had a sesame street book, animal crackers, stickers (depending on the age of the child) and bubbles.

 This was our mantel. I made some circle, primary color garland and hung the "Fun to be 1" banner. I also made a letter E and covered it with wrapping paper.  My favorite part was the photo.

I took the photo on his actual birthday. I made the garland in Publisher and thought I would stick with the Sesame Street sign color scheme. I love how this turned out! 

Colors!

The kitchen... before I put all of the food out. :)

 

The punch! This turned out great. I got the recipe here.

 

I think I added the sherbert a little early because it was super foamy at first. However, the "foam" did last for a very long time. This is a GREAT idea!

Cupcakes and Little man's cake! These were so much fun to make. I found the idea for the cupcakes on pinterest. the suggestion for Big Bird's nose was to use candy corn. I tried this but it didn't look that great. So, I made the beak out of fondant. I think they turned out pretty cute. I definitely had too much fun making them. :)

I made the street sign out of Fondant, as well as the yellow border. However, I used icing to write his name.

The desserts. :) I made labels for all of the food/treats. C is for Cookie, F is for Fruit, etc.   I only had snack foods and cake/ice cream at the party and it worked out well. I tried to stick with Sesame street themed and colorful foods. I made veggie bars, fruit and fruit dip (which was really good!), veggies and dip, "monster mix" which was just trail mix (one with nuts, one without) and finally cheese and crackers. I had wanted to use an "E" and a number "1" cookie cutter for the cheese, but ran out of time.

Here are a few pictures of the birthday boy!

Blowing out his candle. :)

No, I didn't give him the whole cake. :)

Such a great day! I will post more pictures of the birthday boy in another post. :)

Busy, busy!

Greetings! Things here have been VERY busy the past few weeks! Lots of changes happening! We officially started preschool (home school, or as we like to call it, Mommy - Maddy school) last Monday.  We started with A is for Apple, Alligator. Maddy is doing really well. She really loves school time.  I thought I would share a few photos. 

Here she is in front of our school area. We have calendar time every day.  I found most of my resources from here. 

 More calendar time fun!

Working on writing practice. Love this clear pocket folder! So easy to wipe off and practice again!

Always fun to switch it up with writing practice!

 Ethan, enjoying some rocking chair time while we work with Maddy in "school."

Second day! 

Ethan likes to help too! 

 Working on little "a" for apple craft. Found this idea here

 Next day... A for alligator!

  

We also started gymnastics this week. She loves it! She was extremely proud of herself because she talked to her teacher! (During summer dance camp, she did not say a word to her teacher the entire week. She participated in everything but would only nod her head. So, she was extremely proud that she spoke to her teacher. She participated in everything as well.)  

There is always time for outdoor fun! Trying to soak up the last bit of warm weather while it is still here!

Love this picture of them.

Ethan, playing in the kitchen. :) 

The other huge thing that happened was my little man turned 1!!! Where has this year gone?! We celebrated with just our family on Sunday but will have a big party next Saturday. Pictures to follow!