Father's Day

This is the breakfast I prepared for Brendan.  I just found these cute Father's Day printables online.  The baked blueberry oatmeal was delicious!  Baked oatmeal, such a good idea.  You should try it.   The french toast was also very good.

 For dinner we went to Brendan's parent's house and had a delicious meal, but I provided the dessert.  Root beer floats are Brendan's favorite.

I had Hazel make a Father's Day card for Brendan and also Grandpa Rowland.  She also answered questions about each of them.

I made this little card and ordered these adorable berry baskets online. Hazel and Hattie gave this to Grandpa Rowland for Father's Day.

Lately.....

Here are some phone pics showing what we've been up to lately.  We love having Brendan at home with us in the evenings.  We have been having so much fun together.

Bike rides.  Hattie even falls asleep. 

It's rare for Hazel to take a nap.  One day I found her asleep on the living room floor wearing my sports bra.  I guess she was worn out from all her running. 

My princess painting. 

Hazel sporing the sock bun! 

I found all of my shoes out and called to Hazel to put them away.  Hazel was in her room with my nursing cover on and her response was, "I'm nursing my baby.  I can't do two things at once." 

Hazel insisted pushing the cart because she said she is the mom, Hattie is her kid, and I'm the grandma. 

Helping in the garden. 

For Memorial Day we went to a BBQ with some friends and then we went to Trafalga Lehi. Brendan and I both have the pass of all passes and children 3 and under are free, so that's nice.  Hazel was a little light for the rock climbing wall.  The bungee kept pulling her up, and she would get scared. 

Hazel enjoying the airplane ride at Trafalga. 

On Hazel's birthday we went to Seven Peaks.

Singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles.

Hazel's friend, Mason, gave her some chairs for her birthday with custom made stickers with Hazel and Hattie's name on them. They love them!  Hattie can even climb up on her own.  She usually tries to stand up on it, which is very dangerous.

Hattie stuffing her face with oatmeal.

Fresh zucchini from the garden.  I made zucchini ribbon pasta (no noodles just veggies).  It's delicious!  You can find the recipe here.

We went on a little family picnic to Nielsen's Grove Park.  I love going to that park.  It is so pretty.  Unfortunately it was very windy when we went.

Hattie loves to stand up on everything even when she is buckled in....the grocery cart, restaurant high chair, and now the swing.  I'm not sure if you can see it, but she is still trying to hold on to her bread at the same time.  Such a serious face.

We went to another BBQ at a friend's house, and they had a trampoline.  Hattie did really well, even with all of Hazel's jumping.

On Saturday we went to the Orem Summer Fest parade and carnival with some friends.  Parking was hard to find, so we parked really far away and walked forever.  Brendan just decided to join the parade.

Hazel and Mason on the boat ride.

Whitney's 25th Birthday

After Hazel's party I thought I was done throwing parties for a while, but not the case. Hazel's party was on June 2nd, then on June 3rd we decided to throw a party for Whit on June 5th.  Lots of partying going on at our place! I quickly created this movie ticket invitation in Photoshop, and I love how it turned out.  I even have a perforating blade, so you can tear off the bottom stub!

 Whitney requested a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  I love carrot cake, but I've never made it before.  I found this recipe online, and it was delicious! It was super moist too. Well everyone told me it was delicious.  I didn't actually get a piece, just a bite, because every slice was eaten. I wasn't sure how many people would come, so I also had ice cream and homemade fudge sauce available.  

Whit blowing out the candles.  We just reused a lot of party stuff from Hazel's party, which was nice. 

There was a great turnout.  We had about 30 people come, and we used Hazel's lemonade stand as a snack bar.  We had popcorn in cute little bags for everyone.  It was a lot of fun, and we will definitely be having a lot more movie nights to come this summer.  

Lemonade & Sunshine

For Hazel's 3rd birthday party, I decided to do a pink lemonade party.  The colors were pink, yellow, and gray.  It was a lot of fun to plan, but also a lot of work.  I think a lot of people pay to have things done for a party, but it's much cheaper to DIY, so that's what I did.  I just purchased some digital paper and made all of the paper products myself in photoshop.  I made the invitations, food tent labels, pennant banners, glass drink and water bottle labels, party favor sticker labels, party hats, and thank you cards. For decorations I made some crepe paper garland, and just picked fresh roses from our yard and put them in mason jars as centerpieces. 

For food I decided to do a Create Your Own Salad.  Fresh salads always sound great to me in the summer.  I love Zupas (a local soup, salad, and sandwich shop) so I picked similar salad toppings and homemade dressings, and gave suggestions of some good combinations.  Guests had the option of different fruits, nuts, cheeses, and chicken. We also had rolls and butter. The children had almond butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit kabobs, and cheese and crackers.  The desserts were lemon bars, pink lemonade cupcakes, and chocolate dipped rice krispies, all made from scratch.

For activities I had a table where the children could make macaroni art, and also a little bounce house.  My parents bought that bounce house like 7 years ago for my little sister's 5th birthday party.  I had my parents bring it out when they came for graduation in April. It has been a lot of fun to have, and great for play dates.  

Brendan and I made the lemonade stand together, and it didn't cost a thing.  The wood was some leftover wood from a guy at Campus Plaza.  I had some chalkboard contact paper and we just stuck it on.  I really love how it turned out!

After Hazel's party, we had to run to another little boy's party around the corner, and Brendan's mom was amazing and cleaned most everything up.  Thank you Naidra!!

 I made this cake on Hazel's actual birthday (May 29th) earlier in the week.  It was a pink lemonade cake with a lemonade cream cheese frosting. Delicious! Here is the recipe. I made the frosting a little different though.  I used the same amount of butter as cream cheese, and did the sugar to taste. I found the ruffle tutorial here. It was really easy. Since my frosting was a cream cheese frosting, it wasn't as stiff, so my ruffles look a little different, but I still liked how they turned out. I made it with 6" pans, which was the perfect size.

I got the napkins, plates, and cute galvanized steel utensil container from Target!

The striped paper straws, cupcake wrappers, and chevron party bags are from Orson Gygi in Salt Lake.  I love that store!

I got these cute matching lemon shirts from Target.  Perfect for the party! 

The family.

I of course had to wear the party colors too!  These pink shoes were actually my wedding shoes from Payless.  I've gotten a lot of use out of them. 

And I couldn't leave out another picture of this cutie!

So after such a great party, the day didn't end that well.  Hazel had a little accident and fell our of her swing and her mouth hit the ground hard and knocked out her front tooth.  Our beautiful little Hazel now looks like a hillbilly.  We are hoping to get a fake tooth put in, because 4 years or so without a front tooth is a long time.  Such a sad day!