Tuesday, September 16, 2014

What love looks like...

I keep seeing these Buzzfeed stories about what "Birth" looks like.   I have come to realize that Adoption and birth stories have some differences but they also have some things that are the same...

Like... Waiting for the birth of your little one..


The first time you hold her in your arms....

How tiny and precious they are...

How much they change!!
6 days old


5 weeks old
11 1/2 months old



How much you love seeing her enjoy the things you love!!













And How your heart grows and grows and grows with every passing day!! You can't explain how love expands, you just know it does!











So no matter how a family is formed.. through birth, foster parenting, adoption... They all add up to LOVE!




Sunday, June 22, 2014

Maddi's "Frozen" in Summer first Birthday Party!

 We celebrated Maddi's first Birthday yesterday!  I wanted to share some of the print ables since Disney's "Frozen" is so popular!!  I don't own any of the Printable images, I downloaded them of free clip art on the Internet.  I then added my own pictures and snowflake clip art, etc. If you choose to copy any of them and use them, please use only for personal use.
                                     This was the banner I hung by the front door.  I hole punched the top two corners and hung it with a ribbon.

Here is the dress I found at Costco that matched the pinks and light blues I used as colors in the party.
These were signs I had by the photo booth area.




We had a dessert and candy buffet., Rock Candy and Pink and blue Jelly beans along with chocolate dipped marshmallow, milk and white.  M& M's, Marshmallow cream dipped strawberries, and pretzel sticks with the marshmallow cream.  Heart shaped chocolate caramels, and cupcakes.


 This banner hung above Maddi and her booster chair along with balloons!
The Birthday girl, Hat and Bib from Party city.




We had a BBQ and pool party, these signs were attached to Styrofoam balls that sat in cups, they looked like snow cones


Next to pasta salad
With Baby carrots


Dip for the carrots

Pretzel Sticks and I made a marshmallow cream to dip them in. very popular on the dessert table.


Obviously a tossed salad!  My sister in law added fruit and nuts, so it looked very similar to the colors of the trolls.

Variety of fruit, watermelon, grapes, strawberries

I was going to make punch, but soda and water made more sense at the last minute, so attached to the cooler of drinks.

Blue jello jigglers

Marshmallows, dipped in dark chocolate and white chocolate

Strawberries, dipped in the marshmallow cream.

umm.. Baked Beans!

on the dessert table with the cupcakes

I had heart shaped, chocolate caramels, kisses, M&M's regular and peanut.


We ordered Photo booth props from Etsy, Thank you Kcustomables  https://www.etsy.com/listing/184875195/sale-frozen-photo-props-16-pieces?ref=sr_gallery_2&ga_search_query=Frozen+photo+props&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery
I hung a blue table cloth up on the wall, added a poster of Olaf from walmart and various sizes of snowflakes.
My husband has those photo's so I will add them later.

The Marshmallow cream was the hit of the party!!  I creamed 1/2 cup salted butter and then added 7 oz of marshmallow cream.  Creamed that in mixer till well combined.  Added about 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of powdered sugar and tsp. vanilla .  Thinned it out with a a splash of milk or two till it was dippable.  We dipped strawberries in it and also put it out next to the pretzels.  It would be great on Graham crackers, bananas, or even spread on the cupcakes!!
It was a really fun party!!