Party Animals

It was between superheroes and animals. Since we'd thrown Henry a superhero birthday bash when he turned 5,  we (which really means I) decided on animals for William's fourth. I just couldn't get my creative juices flowing for another superhero party. But I remembered this from a post back in August and felt inspired.

{A gold leaf spray painted plastic animal found here. } 

Isn't it super cute? It was my only inspiration for the party and ironically, I didn't end up even doing this cute little DIY. I did ask Patrick for a drill a few days before the party, but in the name of keeping things low-key, I opted against it. Plus can you put a spray painted animal on a cupcake and deem it edible? I didn't know.

{A huge thank you to Sara for taking all of these party pictures. You are super talented and I'm so happy to have these lasting memories from the day!}

I ended up drawing inspiration from the invitations and settled on a bright color scheme of tangerine, lime green and aqua blue.









































At the last minute, we had the change the date of the party due to illness. William came down with strep throat on Friday and started an antibiotic that morning. We bumped the party to Sunday and even though the day wasn't as sunny or warm as Saturday would have been we were all blessed with good health.

Along with the color scheme, I also chose to keep this party low-key. For me keeping it low-key is about not getting swept up in all of the pre-party stress and fuss of over doing and over spending. I accepted gracious offers to help and delegated most of the food duties to generous family members who offered to bring dishes to pass.

Sandi brought home baked breadsticks {there were three kinds : poppy seed, parmesan and sesame seed and for those of you locals, they tasted just like the Monicals ones do}, Mary brought the ice-cream cake from Dairy Queen {the birthday boy's special request and she decorated it with cute animals and trees she brought from home}, my Mom brought the delicious salad and created the pretty veggie tray and Sara brought the darling frosted cupcakes and Costco's famous {in our household at least} artichoke jalapeno dip and chips. I'm thankful for my sweet and generous family!

It left me to do the things I really love the most - making a couple of treats and desserts, favor bags for the kiddies and simple decor. I got to focus on the reason we were celebrating - another year of life for our birthday boy and being surrounded by our family and friends who pour so much love into his life - and not just the celebration.

Happy 4th Birthday William!

Today

The pictures in this post will have nothing to do with this post because our computer has a virus and has been sent away for repairs. So I'm left with only pictures that are on my Flickr account. Possibly a good time to do some catching up? I think so.
But first, these thoughts from this week.

When Henry got to school this morning, they told us it was make up day for school pictures. I should have known this but it's been a hectic couple of weeks and I forgot. We missed the official picture day because we were on vacation in Florida {which by the way, I'd rather be there than at picture day any day}. So Henry's kindergarten year will be immortalized forever by his picture in a yellow long sleeved t-shirt with blue stripes and green swishy pants. Did I tell you he is dressing himself these days and I'm trying very hard to let go?

{Sweet friends over to play.}

I mentioned that our computer is out for repairs. I am hoping and praying that they are able to restore the hard drive and rescue our pictures. I have learned my lesson and promise to back up all of our picture files. Did you hear that Best Buy? I promise! I can't imagine how awful it would be to lose everything in a fire. The thought of losing every picture since 2005 makes me quite queasy.

{Caleb at the sprinkler park. This is in August, the morning after Henry's pool party. I already miss those hot summer mornings!}

William really loves animals. I know I've told you that, but I am telling you, I have spent the entire morning pretending to be a mommy leopard and my knees hurt from crawling on the floor! We also ventured to Toys R Us where he spent a bit of birthday money on a saber toothed tiger and a killer whale which he keeps referring to as his "sea creature". 

I'm so glad it's Friday! I can't wait to pick up my big boy from school and spend the weekend doing things like staying in our pjs until noon and making pancakes and playing basketball on the driveway. 

Happy November! I'm not feeling overly ready for the holidays; I'm still stuck in a rut longing for summer and trying to deny that winter is coming. But I did hear someone say their motto this year is "wrapped and done by December 1", and I sort of like that. I know myself too well to think I will do it, but right now, on November 4, it feels possible and I think I might try. I would love to enjoy the month of December doing crafts with the boys and being cozy drinking cocoa. Plus I think I have my gift wrap color scheme all worked out, so I need some gifts to wrap to try it out! I think this year will be a mix of brown kraft paper, solid red paper and red/white gingham paper with a mix of ribbons. Dare I say no black and white this year? I'm not sure if I can really do it.

Happy Weekending!