Prince or Princess??

Gender Reveal parties are all the rage. 

I blame the Duggars. I had never heard of a gender party before they did one for their granddaughter.

Still, they are so much fun to do, and I love the idea of exchanging a massive group text for a celebration!

When my dear friend asked to to help with a Gender Reveal for a precious couple at our church. I jumped at the chance! 

We chose the theme "Prince or Princess?" and it turned out absolutely adorable!

I started with an entrance table that stated, "Wear Your Guess." I made little pink and blue crown pins for everyone to wear to declare which side they were on! I also included a list of Old Wives Tales and how they all measured up...

Guests wrote wishes and notes for the new baby, and offered name suggestions. That was a huge hit! We quickly ran out of these pink and blue cards, people were getting paper towels or of the bathroom to write names on!!

 

We kept table decorations simple, pink and blue table cloths with white pom poms and a few cut out shapes:

Most of the food was pink and blue also! Pink and blue pretzel hugs, rice krispie treats, m&m's, and these adorable little cupcakes! I made a few cupcake picks to tie in the theme.

I hate that no one got a picture of the actual reveal. They did a balloon drop with tons of pink and blue balloons, and one of them had a note in it. Everyone had to stomp the balloons to find it...

Favorite Things Party

Oh, my goodness! I am so excited to share this "Favorite Things Party" wit you all! It was a huge success!
I brought all of the decorations I had made, plus anything else I had in stock that would work well with the party. Then, several other ladies also brought things they had around the house that went with our pink and zebra theme! It turned out AMAZING!!
Also, a few ladies, including myself, all agreed to divvy up the guest tables. Each lady was in charge of decorating 1 or 2 tables, and it turned out incredible. It was like a huge display of everyone's favorite things!



As I mentioned in my last post about this party, one of the three favorite things that each woman brought was going to be donated to Bags of Love to give to a local women's home. Bags of Love is an outreach of our church, who collects a variety of items that fit into a gallon sized bag. These bags are distributed to a number of different people from different walks of life, such as the homeless, local prisons or jails, military, and so much more! I am so proud of my friends for coming up with this amazing idea to make some goody bags to show a little love and a little Jesus to a group of women who are in need!



It also was fun to win a few goodies at the party. But I was really touched to see that several women turned around and donated the prizes that they won!

Sanderson Wedding (October)

It's a wonderful feeling when you get to watch two people getting married when you know that the couple is absolutely made for each other! What could make it better? When the bride is your best friend...

Pam is my cousin, so she and I have been friends since we were little. 

We shared a love of Ego waffles and country music. We had a "club" (along with her sister, Andrea) when we were kids, and as we got older, we got closer. When we were young ladies, we saw each other in bad relationship and made a pact that we would never let each other marry a man who we truly did not think was right for her... Fortunately, we never had that problem. 

The first time Pam brought her boyfriend Sandy over to our house for dinner and a game night, I knew that was who she would marry. It's hard to describe why it was evident, but it was. And the night she called to tell me that he had proposed, I was over the moon! I was ready to plan her wedding right then, but she had to reel me in a little! 

She wanted a fall wedding without being to "fall" (no leaves). She also really wanted the wedding to have a rustic feel, so she found the perfect place to have it at a girl scout camp.

The view was breath-taking!

This adorable banner was made with their engagement pictures:

Instead of favors, she had a candy buffet... 

I need to feature these little burlap S's. I made them for her bridal shower, and she loved them so much, that she wanted to use them at the wedding... And I burned myself so many times making them, I still do not have any feeling in my left thumb....

And of course we had a wishing tree!!

My wish for this couple is simple: a long and happy life together, but to remember that God did not design marriage to make us happy, but to make us holy. 

I love you both!!

Favorite Things!!

Favorite Things parties, first made popular by Oprah, are now all the rage on Pinterest. Last December, I hosted one with my friend, Susan, and it was a huge success! It works well as a Christmas party because you leave with so many gift ideas... That party was so fun, that it inspired another Favorite Things Party, but this time, there's a twist. 

In case you are unfamiliar with how these parties work, you bring 3 of your "favorite thing", and they'll be swapped and you leave with three other things that other people brought...
However, this time, we will only be going home with two exchanged gifts. The third will be donated to make goodie bags (Bags of Love*, if you will) for the residents of a local women's home that services women of our county who are homeless or in need of a stable living environment and gives them a chance for a new beginning.

I am so excited about this party! It's going to be a fun girls' night with games, cupcakes, and plenty of gabbing with girlfriends! The decorating theme is pink and zebra print. Sure you may think this theme is terribly unorigional, but a lot of thought went into it. Pink represents our femininity, instilled by God, as he created us to be different from men. The zebra print represents the concept that with God's law, there is only a black and white, there is no grey area.

I have been working non-stop on this party, I am so excited that I have the opportunity to style it!

Since I don't have any pictures, yet, I thought I'd just share some of my "pinspiration " with you!!



When we had our first meeting, it was no time before someone belted out the classic song from "The Sound of Music"!!



But I digress, onto the PINK!!













It's not zebra, but this polka dot table cloth is adorable!!



I already made a wreath like this, but I added white ribbon so that it's not "Punch You In Your Face" pink...



I kind of want to throw in a few pieces like this, since I have a few small pieces of furniture that I'm going to paint anyway...




Sooo that's my to-do list! I'm very excited to let you know how the party goes next week!!

Handy Manny Party

Flashback to almost a year ago, I spent six months in preparation for my sweet baby boys first "big" birthday party! I was very excited since he actually had a little group of friends to invite!!
I composed a toddler-sized festival of everything I could think of that a toddler likes to do! We created several stations: face painting, coloring pages, play doh, bubbles, large cardboard boxes, and a water table!!

We also featured one of Handy Manny's favorite spots to be: Mr. Loparts's Candy Store!

All of the kids had so much fun, and went home exhausted!! It was a wonderful day for all!!

Party like a Rockstar

I have always been "that mom". I have always sat at home the night of my son's birthday party and dream of what spectacular creation I could come up with the next year to celebrate this precious boy God gave me! This of course comes with an endless cycles of theme-changing...
This year, after Christmas, I noted that it was time to start planning another party. I also felt that my son was ready to pick his own theme. (I usually do a good job of picking something that he loves, but I feel that the more children are involved in their party, the more excited they will be!) He had little hesitation - a Rockstar party it is!!
I'm currently working now, making hats, favor bags, banners, et cetra... You name it, I've probably made one!
Pics will be coming soon....