Amara's 2nd Birthday Party!

Tuesday evening, we celebrated Amara's birthday with some of her closest little friends. I really fought to keep it EXTREMELY small, and mostly family.... those that Amara has spent a lot of time with this year...that have invested SO much into her second year of life.

I opted for an outdoor celebration at Arrington Vineyards. It was perfect!! We were practically the only people there. The sun was setting, and we had an amazing view overlooking the vines. It couldn't have been more beautiful.

 For the first time, I was done setting up and able to relax before guests arrived. NEVER in the history of my party planning has that happened. I would like to think that it is because I have gotten better with planning and timing, but I don't think that is it considering I didn't even have time to shower or wash my hair for the party. Shhhh! However, swinging with my baby sweet toddler, staring at the gorgeous views and just taking it all in with her before the celebration started was a surreal moment for this mama. I needed a stress-free evening....we all did!

The little details......

 ^^ I just put three sheets of watercolor paper together with a crayola kids' art smock and crayola watercolor set. I had custom tags printed at Rock Paper Scissors. ^^

 ^^ I found a great DIY party hat template at Oh Happy Day (such an amazing blog!). I just used Kraft paper sheets, and then hot glued hand dyed/store bought poms on them! ^^

 ^^ These little guys were my favorite! I love a good party favor. I just bought the paint cans at a local craft store ( Michaels and Joanns both carry them), stuffed them with different color tissues to look like "paint", and stuffed them full of goodies! ^^

[ Mini paint set, mini slinky, Ring Pop, swirly straw, bouncy balls, stamps, temporary tattoos and mini bubble containers] I found all of it at craft stores and Target.

 ^^Adult picnic dinners: Sub sandwiches with chips and a pickle! Wooden fruit baskets here ^^

 ^^ Kids' picnic dinners: turkey sandwiches, goldfish/pretzel mix, grapes and a juice box. The boxes were a Martha Stewart find. ^^

 ^^ Found cotton candy at a local candy shop, wrapped it around a stripey straw and voilla! Definitely time consuming, but totally worth it! Who doesn't love cotton candy on a stick!?! ^^

^^ I decided to make an Instagram banner to showcase Amara's year of growth. ^^

Happy Birthday Daaaa....

Today is Gabe's ( "Daaa" as Amara refers to him) 31st birthday. I know I am a little late getting a post up, but I just wanted to take a moment to celebrate the love of my life ( and Amara's) on our liiiiitle blog here. I am just elated when I think back on what this year has looked like for my sweet husband. Now that we have Amara in our lives, everything seems fast paced, but the Lord has really worked in our lives, and made this year extra sweet! We celebrated today by just going to church as a family ( which doesn't happen so much when Gabe is on the road), having a nice little lunch, and then coming home and watching Football and being lazy! We got lots of hang out time as a family, and we just enjoyed the peace and quiet.  Pizza for dinner and a new PS3 game to play......perfect day huh?

Babe, you are the freaking BOMB at everything you do!! You are, above all, and AMAZING husband and an INCREDIBLE father. I just can't imagine our lives without you. You bring so much joy and happiness to my life. You make me feel like a queen. Amara and I definitely feel the void when you are on the road working so hard to support us. You go above and beyond to not just give us what we need, but most of the things we want. I am just so proud to be your wife, but I definitely wonder why the heck God let me do daily life with someone like you. It just doesn't make sense to me??? I really didn't think I would get the chance to settle down with someone so amazing, caring, loving, serving, FUNNY, talented, smart and most of all.....God-fearing. Today, we celebrate you, and all that you are.....which is sooo much to our little family!

I love you more!

Moments captured between my two loves today.....

Hugs...

Let's Celebrate!

I normally, do not post on the weekends, however, I am so excited to share photos from Amara's First Birthday Celebration! I find myself at a loss when trying to put into words just how much LOVE Amara was showered with. I actually felt like it was MY birthday because I got to open presents and when people come love on Amara, I got to partake because I held her most of the night .... ;) No, seriously though.....Gabe and I are extremely humbled by the way people love on us through our daughter! Our cup is overflowing!

  We were quite a drive for several families that attended, we had a mom who came sans kiddos and hubby ( youngest baby was sick with a cold), another family practically coming straight from the hospital, friends who did projects for me from their home to take some of the load off of my shoulders when it came to all the itty bitty details, one of our couple friends helped Gabe and me the entire day set up and hang decorations, then ran home to shower and bake brownies for our party only to come right back over, neighbors who offered up their entire swing set to all of the children who attended and we even had friends let us borrow equipment so that we could go the extra mile for our guests ( projector & camera equipment, props for our photo booth, etc.)....I could go on and on!!!

   I LOVE throwing parties soooooo much!!! I have dreamt of this day since I first held Amara in my arms. My husband was such a trooper too! He never complained and hardly ever questioned my ideas.....thank you baby! You were so instrumental in helping make this day so special for us to look back on! You totally cater to us ladies in the family, and I am so grateful!


All in all, it was a great night to celebrate with family and the people who have poured into Amara this year! I put Amara to bed last night while listening to all of our guests downstairs last night, and as I prayed over her, I was thanking God for every single person downstairs. As Gabe and I said our bedtime prayers last night, he asked that God just continue to bless and watch over the people that have done the same to our family! Thank you all so much...from the bottom of our humbled hearts!

The invitation....

We did an ombre peach watercolor envelope that was hand cut to a custom size to fit the chalkboard.

We printed a "birthday photo" I took of Amara out to use as the envelope liner.

I have to admit that I spared everyone, but my sister of the confetti. It just kept getting caught in the creases of the envelope and didn't really present itself like I had hoped when you open the invite. Since we had to send my sister her invite in a bubble mailer to Key West, FL, I decided to put ALLLLLLL the confetti that we had punched for every invite in her bubble mailer :) hehe! We were happy to find out that it spilled out all over her workspace.

   

My friend, Leah, hand wrote each individual invitation!! I thought they were so stunning, and they turned out to be more beautiful than I had imagined they would. 

All the little details....

Homemade Funfetti cake!

Fun gathering out in our yard at the end of the night to watch Amara's 1 year video.....

And some photo booth fun of course.....

 Here is a link to Amara's 1 year video if you want a good laugh and a few tears ;)!
Amara's 1 year video