Venily's 4th birthday!!!

My little girl turned 4 years old yesterday!!!!!  HOW?!  We had a great day despite it being yet another rainy birthday!

Venily woke up to lots of balloons everywhere!!!  We made and ate 4-shaped chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream and chocolate chips on top!  She also got cheetos which she has been begging me for at the store and I told her they were gross, lol!  I also curled her hair for the first time and she felt very grown up. :)  I really need a new curling iron though!!

We decorated cupcakes for her class.  She insisted she wanted "butterfly cupcakes".  I had no clue what she was talking about, lol!  I thought maybe she had them at her school or something before, but no.  I looked up an idea online and made these (Jason frosted them, lol!):

Right before I was about to make them she told me she changed her mind and that she wanted unicorn cupcakes instead, I told her that was too bad, haha!

We bought decaffeinated tea and had a tea party!  :)  She picked out Chammomile tea.  She said it tasted too much like water.  Kylee didn't like it either, but Haven drank hers straight down and wanted more!  :)

We dropped Venily off at school and when I picked her up she said she had a GREAT day!  Everyone loved the cupcakes and Alivin and the Chipmunks even sang "Happy Birthday" to her on the smart screen!  :)

We had to go straight from school to ballet, where she did yet another great job!  Her teacher even came up to me before class and told me that Venily is becoming such an amazing dancer and that she has shown tremendous improvement from the last session she took!

We went to the store where she got to pick out a cake or cupcakes since I only bought one cake mix and used it for her class (totally didn't think that through)!  Jason had to work, but Grandma came over and had cupcakes with us and played with Venily until it was time for bed.  When I put her to bed she said "Mommy, thank you so much for making this the best day ever!"

And she woke up this morning with a HUGE smile on her face and I said "Wow, you are very happy this morning!" and she said "I'm just so happy to be 4!"  :)

Oh, and Venily is almost completely back to normal from her allergic reaction.  She is still itching every once in a while and still wants Benadryl, but I think it's mostly in her head and the fact that she liked having so much attention! 

I am working on and will have her 4 year updates posted soon!

Girls' Birthday Party!!!! 2 and 4

We had the girls' birthday party last Sunday, October 3rd.  It was a BEAUTIFUL day!!!  Upper 60's- 70 and sunny.  Just perfect.  We went with an "Under the Sea" theme and I had a lot of fun with it.  I figure I don't have many years left to be truly corny without being embarrassing, so I am making these few years count, lol!  Venily and I made a bunch of sea creature decorations and we had some under the sea murals too.

We invited a lot of family as well as Venily's whole 4K class (of 18 kids).  4 children showed up from her class, 1 (our neighbor) was supposed to but fell asleep at her grandma's and woke up too late for the party, haha.  It was nice because we had the party at a park and all the parents came with their children (and some siblings) and all stayed.  We also rented a bouncy castle and I had a hard enough time keeping track of just my 2 children between the park, 2 pavilions, and bouncy castle and would have really struggled watching a bunch of children by myself!  The children that came to her party from her class were Lizzy, Eva, Nolin, and Vanessa.  (for Venily when she is older, haha).  One of her teachers, Ms. Jill came too (but she does every year, lol)!  The 3 girls are all best friends of hers that she talks about and plays with a lot.  And Nolin rides her bus.  She is ALWAYS talking about him as well, but is also always telling me that he says naughty words a lot and follows her around sometimes, lol.  And another of her best friends, Aubrey, who doesn't go to school with her and her sister Autumn, who is the same age as Haven came too.  As well as lots more friends and family (including all their cousins!) ...  Overall, we had 55 people come (that I counted off the top of my head)!! 23 of which were children.

I made the girls a mermaid photo op station, which was a lot of fun!  Jason made fun of me, but Venily and Haven were so excited about it!  I'd like to make a new one every year for as long as they'll let me, but we'll see! :)  We had different kinds of gold fish crackers and candies I made with fish molds.  I also made blue jello cups with gummy fish and sharks inside (which was a total PIA, lol!).  My mom made the girls' cakes.  Venily got a mermaid cake with a Barbie with a fruitroll up tail and Haven got an aquarium cake.  Overall, I think everything turned out really well and I know the girls had a lot of fun!!

The girls got way too much stuff too!!!  They have been playing with all of their new stuff ever since their party and are having a blast (like they really needed more toys....)!  All the projects and stuff REALLY came in handy when Venily got sick and couldn't get off the couch!!  (And I love all the clothes they got, lol, and the gift cards to Kohl's where I bought them even more clothes, lol!).

Overall, a really great party! :)

Girls' Birthday Party Planning!

So not sure where we are having it.  Leaning mostly towards our house!

The theme is going to be underwater!!  My mom makes the girls' cakes every year and Venily picked this mermaid cake so that's the theme we're going with!  (Haven has yet to pick a cake (she wanted them all, lol), but now I will have to steer her to one that fits the theme)

Tentative date scheduled for Sunday, October 2nd! (Haven's bday is Sept 26th and Venily's is Oct 13th).  It needs to be a Sunday b/c Jason has shows on Fridays and Saturdays and I had to pick a Sunday where there is not a "huge" football game on b/c that seems to be a problem every year.  *rolls eyes*

Birthday Party!!!

The girls had their birthday party on Sunday!  It was the most stressful party I have ever organized, but Jason didn't think it went badly at all, so maybe it was just me!  First of all, Haven started being fussy the night before her party and that has continued on to this day! :(  Her molars are really bothering her now.  She's been sleeping a lot and biting her fingers like crazy.  Also, the morning of her party she was really constipated and tried pooping 5 times, screaming each time.  I finally gave her some prunes and that helped a bit.  I was excited that Haven got a nap in before her party started, but unfortunately she was still super tired at her party and wanted to be held most of the time!  On top of all of that, it was freezing cold for an outside party!  I think the high was in the low 50's, which was made worse by the fact that it was gorgeous a few days before the party and now, a few days after it's back in the 70's!


My mom made the girls' cakes, just like they wanted them and they turned out really well!  We had a pinata and the kids played at the park, which they loved.  We only opened about half of the presents at the party, since people were all leaving b/c it was so cold and Haven wanted nothing to do with that b/c she was tired and cranky.  She only took a few bites of her cake too (which is understandable seeing as it was the third time she'd had cake in one week, lol!).


Both girls fell right to sleep on the ride home (at 5pm) and I finally woke Haven up at 7:30pm to eat dinner and change her diaper.  Venily, however, continued sleeping ALL THE WAY UNTIL THE MORNING, lol!  She woke up and opened the rest of her presents! :)  The girls got some really great stuff and have been having so much fun playing with everything!!!!  Lots of kitchen toys (which is one of their favorite things to play), lots of clothes (which I LOVE), drawing things, and other fun new toys!  I went through some of their other toys and packed some away!
Overall, I think it went well.  But I seriously don't think I'd do another park party again, even though I LOVED the fact that I didn't have to stress out about how clean my house was before the party!