American Girl 5th Birthday party

Happy Girls!

Last Friday Hadley and Harper celebrated their 5th birthday with a party at the American Girl store in Charlotte. They got to have lunch with their Bitty Babies and friends and several adults! The girls really like playing with their babies so this seemed to be a perfect fit for a party. The birthday girls were beyond excited about the party!

 Hadley, Harper, and Mckinley.
Don't they look excited to be taking a picture? Bless them...I took way too many pictures!

 Their friends and dolls ready to party!

Mary Morgan and Mckinley playing the telephone game.

 (These are Hadley and Harper's cousins)

This picture is a little out of focus and blurry but still a sweet picture of the sisters.

Harper was clearly excited about her party!

Hadley posing for the millionth picture that day!

Bitty was happy to be part of the celebrating! 

What party is not complete without cake!

Myles was a good sport to put up with all this girly girl activity.

 

Sweet girls and sweet friends

Jennifer, LouAnn (The girl's grandmother), and Hadley and Harper. 

I wanted a picture of the girls and me but Harper was not wanting to pose anymore and Hadley looks like she is over it too. Oh well. I will try again next time! 

Right before bed matching with their babies!

I am so thankful that I got to celebrate another birthday party with the twins. I am going back to visit for our actual birthday! I still can't believe that they are turning 5!

xoxo

Lilly Inspired Tea Party

On Saturday morning the women's ministry at my church hosted a tea party.  About a month ago they asked for people to sign up to host a table. I knew immediately that I wanted to be a hostess. I became very excited about planning out my table. Of course I wanted to do a pink and green Lilly Pulitzer theme. My inspiration came from an article I saw last year Southern Living. I looked it up and began planning.

 Me with my completed table!

When looking at the Southern Living pictures I knew I wanted to have the pink flamingo as my centerpiece. My friend Cynthia mentioned that she had a cabbage soup tureen that I could use to hold my flowers and flamingo. I think it help make my arrangement look even better! 

I had Lilly napkins that I received as a gift with purchase last year in the Chin Chin print that I knew I wanted to use. I asked my friends at Palm Village if I could borrow the Chin Chin table cloth to complete the look.I also had cups in the Chin Chin print that I used as water cups and I added pink and white paper straws for fun!

I added pink tulle bows on the chairs for a little extra touch. I also made pink tissue flowers to hang above the table.

A picture of the whole table.

Since the tablecloth was so busy with print I knew I needed to break it up so there wasn't too much print. I bought gold chargers at Micheal's to help with this. My sweet co-worker and friend Lori let me borrow her white dishes with a gold trim. The tea cups I used were from a bridesmaid's tea party I hosted a few years  ago for my cousin Lauren. Mom and I collected them from an antique shop. 

I had a blast planning and putting together my table for the tea party. The other tables at the tea party were nicely decorated too. All the women did an outstanding job putting together their tables.  I liked how they showed each of our personalities.

After we ate our tea party food we had listen to one of the women at my church speak. She shared how we need to be compassionate with people. She said we needed to love on people and let them know they would be okay because God says so in the bible. I enjoyed listening to her speak and thought she did a nice job.

The tea party was a fun event and I look forward to doing more things like this in the future with the women of my church!

xoxo

retirement is sweet

 

Last Thursday we celebrated my mom's retirement from teaching pre-school. She has been teaching pre-schoolers for 23 years!

I love planning a party so I knew I wanted to give mom a great party to honor all the years she worked. I decided on the theme "retirement is sweet" and I began planning. Mom's friends at work were very helpful in helping me put this party together! A special thanks to Sidney, Susan, Kathy, and Angela! 

 When I began thinking about the theme and who would be attending I decided to do a candy bar.  I am a big believer that every party needs a favor and who doesn't love candy!

 Mom loves blue and yellow so I knew I would use those colors.

sweet food
cupcakes, fruit, tea biscuits with honey and jam, lemonade, and sweet tea

 We used blue mason jars and daisies for decorations. We also put out old scrapbooks from past years for the guests to look at. I think this was a big hit. Mom's old students loved finding themselves in the books!

 One of mom's besties, Julia

 This is mom's former Foster Grandmother, Mrs. Forney. We love her so much! Apparently mom and Mrs. Forney used to put on beach music and dance around the classroom. So they decided to do it one last time!

 These are some of the sweet kids and families mom has taught through the years. We just adore these families. I was happy that they were able to make it to celebrate mom! She loved seeing the kids and catching up with their parents.

 Kathy and Angela.
These ladies have been mom's co-workers for many years.

 Cheesecake always makes a fabulous gift!
This family always made mom a cheesecake and she loved them. It was so sweet of them to remember that and make one for her one last time!

One of mom's current students dropped by to give her flowers. 

 Just a few guests...our family

Daddy and me

We had a good time visiting with former students, co-workers, family, and friends. Thank you for coming to celebrate my mom! Mom has taught so many kids throughout the years and she has loved every one of them. I know that she will miss those precious little ones in the fall but I am sure she will enjoy her "sweet" retirement!

xoxo

cupcakes and birthdays ~ Hadley and Harper turn 4

Hadley and Harper's 4th birthday party was at a local cupcake shop. Jennifer always does a great job planning the girl's birthday and sticking to a theme. I always enjoy helping her with the little details. The theme for this party was cupcakes and a little bit of a bakers theme.

The birthday girls with their mom. These girls love their mom so much and they look just like her! 

I love the Little Lilly shift dresses the girls are wearing. They are from last summer and they are called Pop. The perfect party dress. 

Each girl got a chef's hat and apron to wear for the party. 

Harper wearing the hat and apron.

Jennifer also arranged for a face painter to come and paint faces.

Each child got 2 cupcakes to decorate with pink icing. They also decorated pink bakery boxes to take their cupcakes home in.

I think the girls had a good time putting the icing on the cupcakes! 

The table after...

I think this is a sign of a good party!

Jennifer and I made the aprons for the girls to wear. Here is the step by step pictures.

 We do not sew so we made these aprons using hot glue! We cut the fabric in strips and then used the glue gun to glue them on the apron. I would put a little glue down then fold the fabric onto the glue.

 After we put down the three ruffles we topped it off with some wide ribbon.

We made 10 different aprons. I think they turned out pretty darn cute!

I am thankful that I was able to be part of the special day for the girls. Hadley and Harper loved having all their friends together for the party.

xoxo