Reagan Kate's Minnie Party!

 For Reagan's 3rd Birthday, it was only fitting that we had a Minnie Mouse bash.  Babygirl is all about Minnie and Mickey, and bows, and pink.  Everything pink, all the time.  So, we delivered the pinkest, Minnie-est, day we possibly could!  Our sweet little angel had such a happy day, she asked for a week after if she could "go back to her Minnie Party".  I melted. 

 These pictures are in no particular order, and there is a lot of them, and naptime is short, and I have laundry to fold, so in a random order they will stay! 

Family pictures :)  My favorite kind!

Also, one thing about Reagan I don't want to forget: how she says some words.
Marshmallow = Shmashmallow
Woodloch = wookwok
Cinderella = Cindawewwa
Imagine that face saying these words, and you might understand why she is a completely irresistible little munchkinface.

 See how Buddy is on my shoulder? She lays him there as her "pillow" and then lays her head down on it.  She will lay Buddy on anything and create a place for herself to lay down when she is sleepy.  Many time she has laid it down on a chair, and laid down and closed her eyes while standing up.  Cracks me right up!

 Mima and Papa love a picture with the kiddies!

We had an extra special guest at Reagan's party...Minnie Mouse herself came to surprise us!!

The following is Reagan's reaction...

 (Reilly's arm around her shoudler = me in a puddle)

 HER FACE! <3 p="">

 The girls chatting about Minnie Mouse actually being here!

 "I have Minnie ears just like yours!"

 Sweet cousins, ugh I love them!

 This is pure happiness right here.  Playing Ring Around the Rosie with Minnie Mouse!

Our good friend and her beautiful baby bump were almost as popular as Minnie! ;)

 I painted Minnie shirts for the girls, and a Mickey one for our boy. :)

 We were sad to see her go!  So we quickly moved onto cake :)

Oh her big smile, it just fills me right up.

 My girl was ready for a nap, and was way to busy licking the cream cheese off her bagel to worry about cupcake eating. But, you know, birthday girl, so she does what she wants. :)

 This family shot with Daddy kissing his boy is my favorite one. <3 br="">

 This was pre-party...my set up crew!! Thank you girls!

 My little sleepy babygirl and I. 

 A peek at the food!  This was a roasted red pepper spread...yum!  There's a red pepper bow up there too!

 These sugar cookies were way too fun to make. A few days of naps and my freezer helped with these!

 Pretty in Pink fruit salad!  Tip: don't even attempt to buy watermelon until summer. Luckily I had plenty of other fruit, and got reimbursed. Rotten watermelon, not a fun day-before-the-party surprise!

 I also had "Hot Diggity Dogs" which were breakfast sausage wrapped in crescents, and little "Mini" egg cups. 

 This picture just about does me in.  I don't know if it's how she is clutching her Buddy, or clutching her Sissy's neck...but this speaks volumes about their special bond.

 Here is Reagan with her "Reagan and Buddy: A Love Story" sign. :)

 Buddy is in most of the picture of Reagan that were taken in 2014.  He is her little sidekick!

 

Our goal at these birthday parties, is to make the birthday girl or boy smile as much as they make us smile.  I want her to feel the happiness and joy that she brings to other people.  I want her to know how special she is and feel surrounded by love just for her.  I hope we did this for you, Reagan baby.

You are loved, you are loved, you are loved!

Declan's First Party!

 (I just had the realization, that this post was left as a draft since December! AH, well, here is Declan's first birthday party!)


 Declan Brett had his very first birthday party last weekend (in November)!!  It was so so much fun for our precious little guy. It was such a perfect day. 

We had his party a little early (he turns one on December 2), because of the craziness of the season.  We wanted to dedicate a whole weekend just to him, not to crowd up Thanksgiving weekend or anything.  So this worked perfectly.  We had him a Winter ONEderland party! :)

 

 Declan is 24 pounds, 31 inches long, and has 7 teeth!  The basket is the favors, it says, "Declan loves to cuddle!  Please take home a snuggly and keep them warm this winter." (Remember this basket of snugglies...it will return later!)

Papa showed Declan around the room while the rest of us set up like crazy!  We had the party at the clubhouse in our community, and there was a wonderful amount of space to spread out and for the kiddos to run around. 

Funny story about the party room.  I reserved the room in like, September.  I wanted to make sure that we had the room for our date, so I was nice and early.  We show up that day, and the security officer says, "So there is a yoga class going on in there..but they know you are coming,'s and the room is yours! Go on in!"

....Hm. That's funny. Surely they must be ending soon.  Yes, that's it, they are finishing up.  We reserved the room for 2 hours prior to the party starting for set-up, and then 2 hours after for clean-up. So we went in and quietly started setting up what we could without making noise, waiting for them to finish.  And, being a yogi myself, I quickly realized they were not nearing the end of their practice. I also realized that my party was never going to get set up if I waited for them to finish.  I also knew that yogis were supposed to find peace and balance no matter their surroundings, so off we went.  My food table needed to be set up right in front of where they were, so I set up.  I was as quiet as I could be, with my balloons and table clothes and three children under 4 years old. And the instructor kept telling everyone to "block out all the distractions" and literally never acknowledged me directly until after they rolled up their mats.  By the time they finished the room was pretty much set up, they said Namaste, I politely told her sorry-not-sorry because I reserved the room months ago and she must have ignored that paper, and we were on our way!

 The Birthday Boy got his own sign for him to grow with!

 The brunch table. :)

A peek at some of our snowy  snacks...

 Cheesy Frosty, which one of the girls cousins was calling, "The Olaf Cake", and she kept eating even though she didn't like cream cheese because she thought it was Olaf. Haha!

 Snowman Snacks, aka Puppy Chow, which Reagan posted up next to pretty quickly. :)

 New York bagels - YUM.

 Snowballs! (aka powdered munchkins, aka The Currency of Toddlers)

 Winter fruit salad and granola. 

 I used a snowflake that I made a few years ago to display his monthly pictures.  My cutie patootie!

 While we were setting up, this little angel passed out on Papa's shoulder!  AHH the cuteness of him!  The birthday parties are always so exhausting for the guest of honor. :)

 Mima manned the kitchen during set up, as usual!  This lady is my idol in the kitchen (and out)!

 Balloons are a toddler's best friend!

 The big sisters of the boy were so excited!

 Mama and Dada, so excited to celebrate our boy.

And the, this was still happening out in the lobby. :)  It's tiring being the star of the day!

Mimi and her mini me.  I swear the blue eyed blondie is my baby! ;)

Our birthday boy woke up!  He was ready to party!

Give the girls a craft, and they suddenly get very quiet! I love creative concentration.  They made foam snowmen, and decorated snow flakes.

Mini cupcakes for my mini man, and one big one in the middle!

I made snowmen and snowflake sugar cookies, and then put them on this tray and most of the snowmen's heads snapped off.  Ha. But they still tasted delish!

This face melts my heart!

All of these cute kiddies just stood there like angels, not touching a single dessert until after we sang!  I was impressed, I have to say. (They must have awesome parents!)

Singing to our boy!

"Why are they holding fire near my face? What is this custom? Am I doing it right?"

"WAIT I GET TO HAVE SUGAR? I HAVE BEEN WAITING MY WHOLE LIFE FOR THIS!"

The cake shove. :)

All of my love.

This is me explaining that Declan did not understand what the cupcakes was, and kept "latching on" to the top of the cupcake as if it were a breast, and sucking on the icing.  It was probably the best thing I had ever seen. My little baby.

One of my all time favorite pictures..his first Ritz cracker!

Reagan, my other little infant baby, fell asleep in the stroller with the basket of stuffed animals in her lap.  This girl loves her sleep, like her mama.

Celebrating this little angel boy was just the funnest, and we are so grateful to everyone who loves him and our family, for coming to celebrate with us.  Our little prince is one, and what a special day it was.