a few pics from Washington

My cute, not so little sister,

We're working on his cheese face...

She was being so goofy for this shoot! 

Bella's friend birthday party -Ice Cream Parlour!

Here is the invitation for this ice cream bash...

I had to throw this adorable one of Liam on here.  We took this at the same time as Bella's invite pics.  It's one of my all time favorites of him.

While waiting for everyone to arrive, the girls did a little ice cream cone craft.  Thank goodness for Heather who helped them out while I frantically ran around trying to get everything in place.  Like every year previous, the wind was not on my side....luckily it died down for the party.  We only lost 2 balloons I think?  You will notice below. 

The toppings...

Some cupcakes and candy dots...

Cupcakes baked in ice cream cones...they turned out allright, just not super pretty :)

Party favor bags

The whole scene, I was really happy with it, aside from how crappy the tablecloths look in pictures!  I am too picky because I really want good pictures...note to self: purchase fabric tablecloths from now on!

I absolutely LOVE the shimmer gumballs!  I ordered them from tomkatstudio.com They have tons of colors and you can mix them too! 

I guess I should mention we also did the party at my in law's house because we decided to do a swim party.  I have no pictures of the actual swimming, but it felt perfect with how hot it was! 

Pin the cherry on the ice cream...

And of course the pinata!

Always harder than expected.  Of course it was made out of clorox boxes instead of paper mache!  I totally need to make them from now on! 

Overall the party was a success.  The girls had a ton of fun, and Bella loved it.  We had a TON of candy left over but it's of course gone now! :)

Bella's 5th Birthday

For Bella's Florence side family birthday we combined it with my nephews.  I made these cute flower cupcakes using marshmallows and colored sugar.  Bella loved them.  And she loved all of her gifts.

This was from Birthday morning.  What we failed to get pictures of was the main event.  THE BIKE! ha! We are great parents.  What happened was the bike was ordered and actually didn't arrive until 2 weeks after her birthday and the day before we headed to Washington, so we took it with us on the trip.  My sister has some pictures, maybe I'll snag some! Other than that, she got a knock off American Girl doll and loves her.  She is really cute, and Bella loves dressing her up and doing her hair.

Dinosaurland

The pictures of this short trip to Dinosaurland sort of speak for themselves.  Liam was loving it, Bella was WAY less into it. lol.  She did like the dinosaur museum the next day (of which we have zero pictures) but she has no idea it isn't even as cool as the one at Thanksgiving Point, or so we have heard.  We will have to go to that one here soon! 

Catching up...Bella's Graduation

So I'm a bit behind. I figured I should just go for it and get all caught up. I'm starting with Bella's preschool graduation.  She loved school this last year, and she made huge strides in reading and writing.  She loved her teacher.  Also according to her at graduation, when she grows up she wants to be a mom.  I guess that's why her "person" is holding a frying pan and hot pad.  That would be a good thing for a mom to do....cook.  Too bad her's doesn't do much of it!  lol.  Anyway, We are so happy she has now advanced into kindergarten. It has been an adjustment but it's a good one, for me and her...and Liam actually. :) I will post her first day picture later!