A Perfect Princess Tea

Genna's party was fantastic yesterday! She was exhausted, but she had a great time! Here's how it went!

The Invitation

The Tea Pot Cake
I made this based on this cake and this cake that I found online. The handle and spout are made with wire ribbon and some skewers to hold them in place. It was remarkably easy since it was small. I always have so much left over cake and this time, I had just enough to give away the last couple of pieces to my wonderful friend, Jill, who took Isaac for the party. That turned out to be a huge blessing since doing the birthday party without Brian was harder than I thought. He's always my picture and video guy, and it is hard to run the show and get it on film too all by yourself. Luckily all my friends were super generous and helpful!

The Birthday Girl
Everyone dressed up like princesses and knights for the party. Genna and Hannah sported their princess gowns from Aunt Cindy and Uncle Frank (for Christmas gifts). They looked beautiful as did everyone else! We also had a talented nail artist, babysitter, and friend of ours, Hadlee, do all the girls' nails with beautiful flowers on them. The knights scoffed at this so we did face paint for them!

The Tea
We made some nice sun tea with some loose German fruit tea (decaf, of course) that I had. The boys didn't like it, but the girls all seemed to enjoy it. My girls love sun tea. It's one of our summer traditions.

The Pinata
This was handmade by an American that lives around here. She did such an excellent job! It is Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast. And I almost forgot to take a picture of it before it was demolished! I couldn't believe it! So we paused the beating of the pinata to snap this photo (her side is already dented). We didn't blindfold them because it would have been dangerous, frankly! LOL The little ones had some difficulty busting it open, so the big kids finished it off after we had two rounds of turns for the little ones.

The Food
We had sandwiches, fruit, veggies, and dips (artichoke dip, french onion dip, and caramel dip) for the kids. I had some left overs from my social function earlier in the day that I served the adults in addition to this spread.

The Entertainment
In addition to the nail and face painting, the pinata, and the tea party, we had a game that we learned at a German birthday party. You put a piece of candy under a bowl and blindfold a child. Give them a spatula and have them crawl around tapping thee floor to find the bowl and get the candy. You direct them with Hot and Cold which was a little difficult for this bunch. We ended up having them follow my voice for the most part.

Here's a slide show with more pictures!

Spring Planting

Well, last year we planted more stuff, but this year my resources (time, energy, motivation,

etc.) are somewhat limited with Hubby being away. So, we are only planting a few little sunflowers . They planted them last week at this festival for kids in cups. This weekend they were all ready to be planted in the ground. So, when Isaac's fever took a break this morning we went out to plant. It didn't take long (Genna thought it did though!) and Isaac was content to hang outside for a bit. So. I grabbed my camera and 70 something pictures later...

This is just to show Isaac's first tooth. Two more have broken through,

but just barely, and another one is almost through.

Isaac's Baptism

We had a small Mass along with his baptism which was so nice! Isaac was an angel, no crying at all! He made a face after the water was poured on him, but that was it. The girls started getting restless and kissing and hugging each other in the middle. Then they knocked each other over right in front of Fr. Ron. It was not ideal behavior, but overall they were not too bad. The pictures turned out fantastic, I think. We had a decent crowd too, especially since the details were still being worked out at the last minute. We had tried to arrange the baptism at a German Cathedral, but it didn't work out because of all the regulations they have here.

We had a reception at our house afterward. I made a Tres Leches Cake, Mexican tortilla roll ups, Reuben Dip, a cheese tray and a veggie tray too. Everything was gone at the end, except a little cake and a few veggies. The dip and cake were the most popular! Isaac napped at the beginning of the reception and then joined the festivities.

All you need is love!

Prague Picture Slide Show

Happy birthday to Hannah!

Hannah is three years old today! We had her party yesterday evening. It went well. She had a great time. She was looking forward to her cake the most, but she didn't even finish her piece because she eats too slow and all the kids took off to play. I will put up pictures and more details of her party tomorrow, hopefully. Here is a little tribute to Hannah!

Trick or Treat

We went to the library story time this morning all dressed up. They listened to stories, got treats, and decorated (and of course ate) a cookie. They had a lot of fun, and it was another excuse to dress up in their costumes.
After little to no naps (too excited I guess), we went trick or treating with some friends of ours. Hannah asked me after every house, "Can we go get some more candy?" Genna walked almost the whole way! She would have walked the whole way, but she was slowing the group down so I carried her for some of the long stretches even though she was saying, "Walk" over and over while I did it. She even said the traditional "Trick or treat" to a lucky few although it was very quiet.

Enjoy the slide show of our day!