Birthday

Elizabeth’s 2nd birthday {minnie mouse picnic}

July 10, 2012 | posted by Jaima @ Ring Around the Rosies | 18 Comments

The party is over, but it was a big hit! I can still not believe this little princess is TWO!

One night around 1am I found myself making her a Minnie Mouse shirt to go with the $5 tutu I found at Target! She loved it!

I try to get a family picture every birthday! It’s neat to see how much we change year to year!

Now, for a thousand pictures! And details at the end!

She woke up to 100 balloons in her room! She was so surprised! This is definitely a tradition we will keep up! She wanted them all in her crib, and then she wanted in there too! These kept her occupied most of the day so I could get things done for her party!

her birthday was Friday, but her party wasn’t until Saturday, so we still celebrated the day of! She got a gluten free waffle with greek yogurt and sprinkles for breakfast! And after dinner, she got the cupcake she had begged for all day!

She got to open our present to her and the couple that came in the mail after dinner! {I found the easel for only $20 at a boutique going out of business! score!}

I had thought we were having a tea party all year. Up until about a month ago, I was set on having a tea party, but then she became obsessed with Minnie! And in hindsight I think a tea party will be better suited when she is a tiny bit older. Truth be told, I had just found the perfect tea party outfit… So all of this, was created and planned in the past month! I searched pinterest for Minnie ideas! You can see where I got a lot of these ideas from on my Minnie Board.

It started with the perfect invitations

and then of course the perfect accessories!

And then everything kind of came together pretty quickly.

have I mentioned how much I love my floating shelves? They truly are perfect for every season! I made a couple of tiles a few hours before the party because I still had nothing to put on them. I created the Happy Birthday sign real quick, added one of my Mom’s antique dishes and made a mat to frame one of her birthday pictures in! A friend of hers had given her the birthday Minnie a few weeks ago, so she was perfect!

These oreos were a pain to make, but they were adorable! I usually buy glutino’s gluten free sandwich cookies, but they don’t make thie mini ones.

A friend and I created the cupcake toppers out of fondant 2 weeks ago. I baked strawberry and vanilla and topped them with cream cheese frosting!

I got the frozen watermelon pop idea from Mama and Baby Love! They were a huge hit! Can you tell what our party colors were?

My aunt recently gave us this rocking chair (that I plan to repaint) and I found Minnie at Goodwill last week!

We had planned on having the picnic outside. I bought several vintage sheets to use as picnic blankets, but it was 108* and way too hot! So we set everything up inside instead. Compromise.

Had I not run out of time, I would have totally wrapped that canvas painting with wrapping paper like we do for Christmas.

I forgot to get a picture with the tomatoes up by the lettuce, but you get the idea! Andrew found me the perfect sandwich cutter on eBay! My mom did this for every party I ever had at school! She did bunnies for Easter, trees for Christmas, etc.

told you it was crazy! There were about 30 people in my tiny little house!

because it was so hot outside and so crowded inside, we decided against the games and just brought the sensory tables inside to play with. We used pasta instead of beans. You should have seen those kids swarm it!

then it was time for cake!

Elizabeth was so happy! She danced and sang right along while we were singing “happy birthday” to her! This was the best shot I got because she was dancing so much!

I must be the first to say that the cake was amazing! There were several failed attempts, but I finally got it just right, and it was delicious! I layered strawberry and vanilla with my secret buttercream frosting!

Elizabeth only ate 1-2 bites of her own cake, and instead went to mooch off of everyone else!

we were very happy Nanny was able to be there! She had just gotten out of the hospital the night before.

and then it was time to open presents!

except, I opened most of them, because she would stop every 2-3 and want to run around. This is another reason we went with the book idea. At one point she just crashed out and started looking at her books!

before all of the kids went home, we tried to get a pic of all of the kids. I think there are a few missing. Clearly, everyone picked up on the Minnie theme! 5 of the 7 girls were wearing Minnie Mouse!

after we cleaned up, I switched her door hanger. Replaced last year’s theme with this years.

Recap

Elizabeth loved it! I wish I had recorded it all, because I really didn’t take that many pictures. I really wanted to be “present” during the party. She was SOOO excited! I woke her up from her nap at 1:50, and as soon as people started arriving she started freaking out! She was so excited she didn’t know who to go to first! She is so loved, and loves every body! Everybody walked in with a Minnie bag, and half of them were wearing Minnie, and she was running around pointing to them all! It was so precious! She couldn’t contain her excitement! She is definitely not shy. Everything came out perfect. I do wish we could’ve played games and spread out outdoors, but everything was really good anyway!

Games

we were going to do:

ring around the Minnie. I had hoola hoops to try to ring around the Minnie on a stick (like the one you see made out of the paper plates)
pin the bow on Minnie. All of the bows were actual hair bows with alligator clips.
we also had bubble tubs set up

Food

birthday cake
cupcakes
oreo Minnies
ninja crispies (recipe coming soon)
pink lemonade cookies
frozen watermelon pops
sandwiches
pasta salad
carrots and cucumbers
chips

Accessories and Supplies

Minnie ear rings and bracelet – MonkeysnMunchkins on Etsy
Minnie pillowcase dress – PomPoms and Pigtails on Etsy
berry baskets – Shop Sweet Lulu
polka dot balloons – ebay (cheapest I found)
yellow, pink, and turquoise wire baskets – dollar tree
goodie bags consisted of: sunglasses (dollar bin at Target), GoGo Sqeeze, Minnie bubbles (walmart), Minnie ball paddle (dollar tree)
pink and yellow plates and napkins – walmart

Filed Under: Birthday, Cupcakes, Holidays, Mommy Moment, Our Family, This is Us

Elizabeth’s 1st Birthday

June 18, 2012 | posted by Jaima @ Ring Around the Rosies | Leave a Comment

It is absolutely unbelievable to me that Elizabeth will be 2 in just a couple of weeks. My heart actually hurts and flutters if I think about it too much. Two years already. I feel like I just brought her home from the hospital.

And then, I feel like I just had her 1st birthday party last week. Has it really already been another year? No way. Time is flying by WAY too fast, and as much as I soak up every second of every day with her, it still takes my breath away.

As we prepare for her 2nd birthday party, I thought I’d better finally show pictures from her 1st party. It seriously feels like it was just last week, so I’m sorry I’m just sharing them with you!

We had a polka dot cupcake theme! She was really still too little to care, but I sure thought it was cute. As a little word of caution, these were my preblogging days, so the pictures aren’t great.

Her birthday was on a Thursday so I of course had to make her cupcakes for her actual birthday! This was her first ever taste of cake! Needless to say, she loved it! My niece and nephew helped me make them!

After we got her cleaned up, we let her see the present from us! It was a dollhouse from my Mama’s that I refinished! To this day, she LOVES it! And I love that Mama had a little part of it!

I made her invites and all of the labels. Saved a ton of money doing it myself.

Here are some of the treats! Icecream cups (so much easier than scooping), chocolate cake pops, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with my top secret frosting!

the birthday girl emerging from her nap and getting dressed to see it all for the first time! I put a clothes line of pictures from her first year on the back wall, and made the pompoms from tissue paper.

I designed all of the labels and cupcake toppers in Microsoft Word and just printed them on cardstock (same for invitations).

She wasn’t so sure about her smash cake!

We served pizzas on the back deck that was also decorated, so that the kids could play in the yard. We had little pools and play stations set up for them to run around and play on out back. But apparently, I didn’t get any pictures of that!

LOVE my girl! Cannot believe she’s already 1 and almost 2.

Her outfit came from this Etsy shop whom I LOVE! We’ve ordered several things from her!

I love you, Elizabeth! It is sooo hard for Mommy to believe that you’re another year older already. You are definitely the most incredible gift God could have ever blessed us with. You are amazing and smart and sososo beautiful! You have your BB’s eyes, my stubbornness, and your Daddy’s persistence so we all know you will do BIG things. It has been pure joy, the past 2 years. I wouldn’t trade a second of the time with you for anything in the world. I hope that one day you know how much I love you, Bean. You are my sunshine for sure!

Filed Under: Baby, Birthday, Cupcakes, Elizabeth, Mommy Moment, This is Us

C.J.’s 20th Birthday

September 5, 2011 | posted by Jaima @ Ring Around the Rosies | 3 Comments

Yesterday C.J. would have been 20! Crazy to think that he would already be that old. Even crazier to think that he’s been gone for 20 months.

It was a great day though. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I had a few breakdowns on my own. Once on the way home from church as I was thinking of all the things I needed to do as I drove to pick up balloons. The second time, late last night after everyone had left. I was sweeping the floor and cleaning up after his party, and Andrew was playing the piano. The last song he played was, “Happy Birthday”… I lost it.

Some people probably think I’m a lunatic for having a birthday party for my dead brother. But I can’t help it. We did it last year, too. It was awkward to explain to the lady who blew up 20 yellow balloons for me that they were for my brother when she asked Elizabeth if we were going to have a happy birthday party for her uncle. I replied with, “yes” of course… but I also commented that it wasn’t necessarily a happy birthday since he’s been gone for the past two. I guess I shouldn’t have said anything at all, but I too often speak before I think.

My perspective is a lot different than most peoples, I guess. You see, I’d rather celebrate the 18 years and 3 months we had with him than mourn the whole day. I’d rather be surrounded by his closest friends that remind me so much of him and allow me to feel him even closer than to miss him for another second.

I say all of that to say that it was a great day. Several of his friends came and a lot of our family came. It was just your average summer cookout. Simple and plain, yet oh so special, just like C.J. And there were firecrackers. Lotsandlots of firecrackers. In true C.J. fashion, the boys spent the evening blowing stuff up (what is it with boys and fire?) and stuffing their faces. For a few minutes, among all the loud booms and seemingly loud boys, I actually quit missing him.

We ended the evening with icecream cake and hugs. There’s nothing that makes me feel him more than a tight hug from his friends. That may sound crazy (as I’m sure this whole post does), but something about his friends, that are close in size and age to him, hugging me makes me feel him.

Apparently, Elizabeth could feel him too. She hasn’t been around his friends very often, and regretfully never met C.J., but she was allover his friends last night. She doesn’t snuggle with me the way she snuggled with them. She climbed right into their laps several times.

It was a great day.

Happy 20th Birthday, Clifford James. I love you more than I ever told you. And I miss you more than you could ever know. I can hardly wait to see you again some sweet day.

Filed Under: Birthday, C.J., Faith, grief, Holidays, Our Family, This is Us

Mom’s 50th Surprise!!!

October 17, 2009 | posted by Jaima @ Ring Around the Rosies | Leave a Comment

Last Friday we left for TN around 1:30pm. I had told Mama we were coming home for Kayli’s (our niece) first birthday party only a few days earlier, though I had been planning on it since June. Her exact reply was, “so Kayli’s first birthday is more important than my 50th?”. (Now you know where I get my cattiness from).

Li’l did she know I was actually coming home to surprise HER! Kayli’s birthday party was actually today, and I really hate that we missed it, but I’m glad we still got to spend last Saturday with them, after getting to TN at 5:30am and sleeping for only 2 hours!

I had to tell her on Saturday though, that we had made reservations for dinner on Sunday at 3, because Dad said she was planning on cooking a big dinner for us on Sunday, and I didn’t want her to have to fuss with that. So, she cooked Saturday night instead!

Sunday morning, I told her we were going to visit my sister & her baby (whom I hadn’t met yet!!!), my aunt, and my Nanny. But I was really going to set up the “Party Barn” at my cousin Steve’s! Whew, I was really afraid she would be mad at me for not spending much time at home, but I knew she would understand in the end.

And, YES, she did! She was sooo surprised! I was terrified she wouldn’t be.

Yes, I made the banner! You can see it here!

She said she needed an oxygen tank by the time she was done blowing out all of the candles!

Happy Birthday, Mama!

“ I love you with a sugar, and a peck,

and a hug around the neck”!!!

Filed Under: Birthday, Holidays, My Mom

Birthday Bunting

September 15, 2009 | posted by Jaima @ Ring Around the Rosies | Leave a Comment

I’ve seen this made somewhere before, though for the life of me, I can’t seem to find it.

I thought this would be so special to bring out for happy birthdays. It is a lot bigger than I had initially wanted to hang on our mantel, but it will be great nonetheless.

I still have some embellishments to add, and obviously “thday”, but I just love it so far!!!