happy 3rd birthday, nolan!!

Nolan turned 3 back in February, and we just had the BEST time celebrating him!!  Birthdays are SO special to me, I just love rejoicing in the blessing that our children are to us.

Nolan's birthday was on a Sunday, so I made him a birthday boy crown out of orange (his favorite color!) paper & we got him donut holes to share with his class at church.

One of Nolan's favorite things to do is art.  So on the evening of his birthday we did a family art project!  We went to Michael's and got 4 small square canvases, then everyone got to pick out 3 paint colors (because he turned 3, of course!) and we had to see what we could come up with using only our 3 colors.  Before we headed home to paint we stopped at BerryStar and got some frozen yogurt, & sang happy birthday to Nolan (very loudly).  Nolan picked Day of the Diesels to watch while we painted, and we just had the funnest time!  So fun, this is really the only picture I have of us painting (and I don't have any after pictures... Dathan just hung them on the wall so maybe soon!).

  

The next weekend we threw Nolan a little party.  I mean literally threw it together- like sent a text on Thursday night asking our friends if they were free Saturday morning for a party.  Total mommy fail.  What can I say?  It totally came up way faster than I realized haha!  My mom had the amazing idea to have his party at the park.  I don't know why that never crossed my mind (maybe because it was February?) but the weather was GORGEOUS and it was the BEST idea ever.  Nothing to clean up before or after, and no games/activities to plan for a bunch of preschool kids because the playground was enough.  We had cupcakes, bottles of water, & juice boxes- so simple!  And would you believe- we had SO many people show up!  Apparently, if you want a large turn out for your kid's party you just need to go ahead and plan it 2 days beforehand.  I DID make his cupcakes from scratch... he wanted red ones, so I made red velvet.  They were good, but I realized I am just not a fan of cream cheese frosting!

(In the top 2 pictures Nolan was trying to show me on his fingers that he was 3... hahahaha)

Then... if that wasn't enough celebrating... we had one more thing in mind.  We had decided that, starting this year, instead of getting the kids presents for their birthdays we were going to give them a gift of quality time- doing something they love with just momma & daddy.  The kids will get enough toys from their grandparents & friends, and we certainly don't need anymore in our house.  But the special, focused time with just mom & dad is priceless.  Since Nolan loves art, Dathan & I wanted to take him to paint a dream.  God is so cool- right around the time we were wanting to go, I receive an email from them saying that the first 30 customers on a particular day would get 50% off their ENTIRE purchase!  So we dropped Sean & Pax off with my parents and went.  What a blessing to do something we wanted to do already for HALF OFF!  

 

Of course Nolan picked a train to paint ;)

After we painted we took him out to lunch.  We ate at Panda Express, or "Polar Express" as he calls it... his choice.  Ahhh- he brings us so much joy! :)

happy birthday sean!

I was doing SO good about blogging every day and then WHAM... I've missed a week!  Whoops!  That's what happens when busy life gets in the way ;)

Last Sunday we celebrated Sean's 5th birthday (as well as our 7th anniversary, but we will do something probably after the baby comes for our anniversary).  I LOVE celebrating my children.  Their lives are such a gift not only to Dathan & I but to everyone they meet.  God has truly blessed us and the least I can do is celebrate them :)

Sean has always been our gift.  He is a special treasure to us.  He not only is our firstborn, but we found out we were pregnant with him on Christmas Eve, so he was our Christmas present.  My very first ultrasound just happened to be scheduled on my birthday, so he was my birthday present.  And then he was born on our anniversary.  What a neat way for God to introduce one of our greatest gifts to us!

He is so creative and smart!  He will sit and follow directions step by step for Legos or Transformers until he figures out how to do it... by himself... without any help.  He is so loving & compassionate.  I always tell him that God made him the oldest child because He knew that Sean would be the best at that job.  He brings SO much joy to everyone he meets!

We woke him up on the morning of his birthday with some special gifts... his soccer gear!  We signed him up for soccer so we got him the shin guards, cleats, & soccer ball he needed & wrapped it up for him.  He was SOOO excited.

We had donuts for breakfast and then went to church.  After church we came home & Sean asked for quesadillas for lunch, so that's what we had ;)  Then the boys had their rest time, because at 5:00 that night we had his party!  Knowing I would be very pregnant on his birthday & that it would be very hot, we made the decision months ago to do his party at his favorite pizza place (that has a whole arcade inside) and just invite a few of his friends.  It was the best decision ever.  Not only did we not have to worry about cleaning up before or after, the kids were entertained, and with coupons we spent LESS than we did for Nolan's "small" pizza party at my parents house!!!

The day after Sean's party last year he told me he wanted a Star Wars party for his 5th birthday.  He never changed his mind, and so that is what we had!

Sean had almost all of his uncles there.  His real Uncle Timmy "Uncle B" (his other real uncle lives in England).  And his two pretend uncles- Kellen & Swanny. He is so spoiled & blessed with so many people in his life that love him!

Dathan & Swanny went early to decorate the tables and make the balloon light sabers.  Sean asked Dathan the day before his party if he could buy the long balloons and make light sabers for everyone, so of course Dathan did ;)  The kids loved them, and even doubled them as hats.  Too funny!

Sean's request for his cupcakes was "chocolate with Oreos inside" so that is what I made.  They were yummy so it was a good choice for him!  I used this recipe for the cupcakes, and just added the cut up Oreos to it, and then used this recipe for the icing.  I also bought some Star Wars rings to decorate the cupcakes with.  Simple & fun.

Of course what is a party without presents?  The lighting was awful in the pizza place so I didn't get very many good pictures, but here are some of his fun gifts.  Our gift to him wasn't pictured, but we got him a comic book Bible, which he loves & asks to read every night.

Sean & some of his buddies.  These pictures crack me up because they are eating the chocolate cupcakes & it looks like they are missing teeth! Ha!  Like I said the lighting was bad, so I didn't get every kid that was there (what's funny is all the pictures of the girls turned out blurry) but here are some:

Sean, Nolan, & Ethan

Seth, Teagan, Nathan, & Noah

We had such a good time!

And the day after his birthday this year... well, he asked for a Transformers party for his 6th birthday.  Check back next year to see if the little planner changes his mind ;)

nolan's "choo choo" birthday party

We were so excited to throw Nolan a birthday party, especially because his birthday was on a Saturday so his party could be on his actual birthday!  So last Saturday we threw him a Thomas the Train "choo choo" party (that's what he calls trains).  Nolan LOVES trains.  Absolutely is obsessed with them.  So there wasn't really another option to do his party in.  The night before the party I made his cupcakes, and I made them from scratch.  They were So yummy!  I made these cupcakes but instead of using the icing in that recipe I used this icing recipe.  YUM.  The boys loved "helping" me bake.

I know this photo is hard to see because the sun was blaring in through the window behind the table, but here is the cupcake set up.  We had a Thomas Happy Birthday sign, Thomas rings to top the cupcakes, a newborn picture of Nolan, and a train track with a train "pulling" the #2 cupcake.

We had a fun little party with pizza, a few friends, and of course the cupcakes. Minor setback- when Dathan went to pick up the pizzas, he paid with his debit card and then the power went out at the pizza place.  They couldn't refund his money because the registers were down, and they couldn't make any pizzas either.  So they had to transfer his order to another branch of the same pizza place about 5 miles away and Dathan had to drive there to pick it up.  Poor guy.  What was supposed to only take about a half an hour took over an hour!  

It ended up that there were ONLY little boys at the party (yes, Sean has his Robin costume on).

Of course we had presents!  Nolan did SO good opening them and was so sweet & excited about each one.  He's such a great kid :)

Singing "Happy Birthday" with his very enthusiastic older brother ;)  What was funny was whenever we talked about Nolan's party all he could talk about were the cupcakes, but then after blowing out his candle he wanted nothing to do with the cupcake... he only wanted to play with his new toys!

SO happy to be playing with his new Thomas set!

We try to take a family picture on every birthday.  This one cracks me up!

We had a wonderful party for Nolan & are just so blessed that he is in our lives!  He has such a sweet heart and fun spirit!

so bad at this lately!

Ok well I have dusted the cobwebs & shooed away the crickets from my blog.  After being silent for TWO WEEKS I am back!  I have been SO busy.  It has been a great thing!  I am super swamped with photo editing (which is a great problem!) and so the times I would normally blog I have been spending editing pictures.  But right now, while both boys are napping I have chosen to blog :)  Do you feel special?

October 3rd was Dathan's birthday.  On the 2nd Alabama played Florida in college football.  So, we had a little bbqing football watching birthday party for Dathan with friends.  I was feeling adventurous so I decided to make cupcakes from scratch... for the first time!  Oh my life is forever changed and now I will never be able to bake cupcakes from the box again ;)

Sean was my big helper for the cupcakes.  A couple weeks before we had gone to our friend's daughter's 1st birthday party & she had made these cupcakes for it.  They were SO good, I'm not a big cupcake fan and I ate the whole thing.  She was kind enough to share the recipe with me & so I made some cookies & cream cupcakes.  Sean's favorite part of these cupcakes was lining the cups with the Oreos (the recipe calls for putting half an Oreo but I most definitely used a whole- double stuffed!- Oreo on the bottom of each!)

You fold in actual Oreo chunks into the batter.  Yummmmm!

Pulse (the student ministries at our church) was having their 3rd birthday party the next day & I was asked to make cupcakes for that.  I decided since I was already making cupcakes from scratch I might as well try another recipe for that.  I made PW's "Life by Chocolate" cupcakes and they were SO moist and good!  Sean loved putting the (dark chocolate) Hershey's kisses in the middle of the batter before I baked them.

I also made icing from scratch for the first time (told you I was feeling adventurous!) that I found through the PW called "That's the Best Frosting I've Ever Had" and I'll have to admit... it was!  I used the frosting on both (instead of the cream cheese frosting on the recipe for the Oreo cupcakes or the ganache on the recipe for the chocolate ones).  In true Erica fashion I could not leave the frosting white.  Since the party for Pulse was an 80's theme I used neon colors and they looked SO pretty on both!  The Cookies & Cream ones are on the left & the Life by Chocolate ones are on the right.

The party was a lot of fun!  We had a couple other families as well as a few of the young men leaders from Pulse over where there was game watching, outside playing, food eating, more game watching & cute kids posing.  AND Alabama WON! ROLL TIDE!  It was a great game!

The next day was the 80's party, which I will blog about soon because it was SO much fun!  And then the next day (October 4th) Dathan left for Alabama :(  He will be gone until the beginning of November sometime (about 5 weeks total).  He had a few jobs to finish up and all of our stuff is still there.  So he's finishing up those jobs and then in his free time going through our stuff.  We are going to try to sell a lot of it and bring back as little as possible.  We miss him & hate to be away from him so long but we just couldn't afford for the boys & I to fly out there with him.  My parents have been a HUGE help to me that I don't feel too much like a single mom!!

toy story party

**This is from Sean's birthday last August but I am linking it up with Kelly's kids birthday party ideas today!  You can see other parties we've done under my "birthday parties" tag on the right! :)  **

Last Saturday we had a toy story birthday party for sean, and it was a blast! The weather was perfect- warm (but not too hot), sunny, & bright blue skies with hardly any wind (which is pretty unheard of around here). Sean was decked out in his Buzz Lightyear t-shirt and ready to play with all his new friends.


My good friend, Amanda, was generous enough to let us "borrow" her house for the party. They have a huge great room & an even bigger backyard. We lined the counter up with lots of snack food- animal crackers, cheese balls, bbq chips, watermelon, peaches, grapes, & tortilla chips with rotel dip. I get tired of goody bags at parties with all sorts of cheap toys that get lost or broken & end up in the trash. So instead I filled the goody bags with toy story cheez-its, toy story fruit snacks, and a toy story card game. i think they were hits! We had capri sun & bottled water on ice outside to drink.


A wonderful family from my parents church let us borrow their (full sized!) bounce house for the party. It was a winner with all of the kids, for sure. Even Sean got in & bounced (which, when we set it up the night before, he didn't want anything to do with it). What a fun time & was perfect for this age- too young to play "party games" but too old to be entertained by balloons only ;)


The little boys had a blast in Amanda's awesome play room.


The big boys had a blast on Amanda's awesome couch.


At first my plan was to just ice the cupcakes and put some toy story sprinkles on them. But then I realized that was just not going to cut it for me, I always enjoy doing something fun & creative for the boys' birthday cakes/cupcakes. I found an idea for some alien cupcakes (which I will describe in a whole different post) that I tweaked to make my own and they turned out adorable (even if they melted a little in the trunk of the car. ha!)


Everyone gathered in to sing "happy birthday" and Sean did so well in the spotlight.


We had to send the kids outside to eat the cupcakes because of the overflowing amount of green icing, but they didn't seem to mind. Sean was surrounded by such a FUN and ADORABLE group of friends! We are so blessed!


We had a couple very unsuccessful attempts at taking our Annibirthary 2010 picture, but then we eventually got this one. It will do :)


And of course, what is a birthday party without presents? Sean got SO many, and even though he got a ton of toy story stuff there were no duplicates ;) When I asked him what his favorite thing about his party was, he said "the presents" and then when I asked which present was his favorite he said "all of them." Such a good kid! :) We got him his first Message Bible for Kids, a Veggie Tales DVD, the Buzz Lightyear Star Command DVD, a worship CD, and a toy story water bottle (I did not get any of the presents on the places I linked them to but wanted to give you a visual in case you were wondering what it was). Nothing too big, but all things he needed/wanted.


We are blessed with so many friends & family here in California. What a great start to the beginning of the next chapter of our lives! Stay tuned for the how-to post on those alien cupcakes ;)

nolan's 1st birthday: part 2

the actual party was so sweet, fun, & adorable. we really did have a blast!

i didn't get the best picture of the banner, but i made nolan this blue & green banner and hung it across the huge picture window in the living room. i don't know if you can really tell the size, but the window is very big. all i did was have my wonderful husband cut me some triangles out of cardboard. then i took scrapbook paper & double sided tape and covered them. i printed out nolan's name in a large sized font that i liked, then cut out the letters, traced them on plain cardstock, & stuck them on the triangles w/ the double sided tape. i used my low heat glue gun and attached ribbon on the back to connect them, waited for it to dry, then hung it up! it was so cute!

in true stephen's birthday party fashion, we had tons of balloons blown up & thrown all over the floor. nolan had a blast with them!

this is dathan with our friend's son gideon. this pictures cracks. me. up. ha!

some of our sweet friends laughing at someone ;) kristen w/ her daughter august, and katie

we borrowed my sister in law's little toddler rocking chair for nolan to sit in while he opened his presents. he loves sitting in that chair & was so cute!

sean was probably more excited about the gifts than nolan was. this was a package from my parents that came in the mail. sean's face is priceless, he just cannot wait to see what memaw & poppa sent him nolan

i have never seen a baby pay as close of attention to each and every gift like nolan did. it was such a sweet thing to watch. he helped open them & wanted to look at, touch, & play with each thing (even the clothes). what a cutie! the bottom right picture is the little gift that sean picked out for his brother, he was so proud.

we got nolan one of those cars that can be pushed like a stroller. it was such a hit! he LOVES it and all the kids were fighting over who got to sit in it next!

next we got to eat the adorable cupcakes from the last post. this is nolan trying to touch the fire. silly boy.

sean, of course, had to help blow out the candle

this boy ate his cupcake like a pro. he didn't waste a second, and ate practically the entire thing. he's a beast! ;)

there is just something about this picture that i love. the look on his face just makes my heart melt.

and here is our silly, sweet family! nolan & sean's faces crack me up!
so all in all nolan's 1st birthday party was a success. it was such a joy to celebrate his life & the blessing that he is to all of us! we are blessed with wonderful family & friends!