A backyard birthday party ~

Our Sunshine Girl turned 6 back in April. 

We had the party the first weekend of May and I’m just now putting pictures on the blog.

The reason for that is that I didn’t take one picture!

Nope.  I forgot!  I always get so busy at parties and family functions that I forget to pull out the camera.

But my dad saved the day and sent some birthday party pictures to me.

Thanks Dad!

We usually keep birthday parties kind of simple.  However this year, we decided to give Sunshine Girl a “friend and family” party.

I asked her what she wanted and she said, “Mermaids.”

Since she had boys at the party too, we went with a mermaid and pirate theme. 

Actually, it was more like an under the sea theme.

And even though we had a bigger than normal birthday party this year, we still kept it simple. 

 

 

Just crepe paper, tissue paper, snacks, cupcakes, a treasure hunt,

and water balloons!

(The chickens were a huge hit too.  Particularly when Tundra decided to sit on my sister-in-law’s head.  That one’s still being talked about around here!)

Plus friends and family…

And Sunshine Girl loved it!

And I love that!

 

 

Mermaids, pirates, and cupcakes {oh my}

So what do mermaids, pirates, and cupcakes all have in common?

Sunshine Girl (pictured above), of course!

This weekend we are hosting an under the sea celebration in honor of Sunshine Girl’s 6th birthday!

You can imagine how all of the party preparation is cutting into my computer time a wee bit…

but…

I wanted to share some links with you.

Are you planning a child’s birthday party?  HERE are some great pins at Pinterest.  Not planning a mermaid party?  Then you can also do a search at Pinterest and find many great ideas!

Are you planning some get togethers with friends?  HERE are some pins that I pinned when I hosted Bunco back in April.  Two ideas that I used from this Pinterest board:  limes & daisies centerpieces and fruit salsa.  Both were the great hits at Bunco!

Are you planning a party on a budget (like we are)?  Then you must click HERE for some ideas on planning on a budget.  This blog is one of the first blogs that I ever read.  The author no longer blogs but I still find myself returning to her blog because it inspires me to live well on less.

Stay tuned for pictures featuring mermaids, pirates, and cupcakes {oh my} to appear some time next week!

 

 

 

My honey’s birthday and a honey bun cake

Wednesday was the birthday of my “honey” (aka David).  Since Wednesdays tend to be busy days we decided to celebrate his birthday on Tuesday night.

Storms were rolling into the area and it was getting quite dark outside so we decided to make a sign for Daddy’s birthday as we passed away a rainy evening.  David was out of town for work.  What we didn’t anticipate was that he would be two hours late getting home.  But that’s ok…it gave us plenty of time to work on this:

This is a honey bun cake and it is yummy!  (Recipe to follow.  And about  the candles…for some reason the birthday candles were missing so we just used what we could find.   There is no rhyme or reason in relation to the birthday honey’s age.)

Daddy and his little buddy

  Little Buddy singing his heart out

Happy Birthday to our honey!  We love you!

And as promised…a honey bun cake recipe.

Honey Bun Cake

1 box yellow cake mix

4 eggs

3/4 cup oil

1 cup sour cream

1 cup brown sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

Combine cake mix, eggs, oil, and sour cream.  Mix well.  Pour half of batter into a greased and floured 9 X 13 inch pan.  Mix sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over batter and swirl together.  Pour and spread remaining batter on top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30ish minutes until toothpick comes out clean.  Pour glaze over cake while still warm.

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 TBSP. milk

Easy and yummy!

Birthday {loves}

A morning with church family singing praises to God and hearing a sermon  & Sunday School lesson that were {just what I needed}

Sweet praises being sung by Sunshine Girl to help pass the time on the road {and a smudgy mirror…keeping it real}

 Wish you could hear her sweet voice {smile}

Open skies…this city-living, country-loving girl sure loves open skies

The love of my life who wrote beautiful words to me for my birthday that brought tears to my eyes.  This man makes me {swoon}.

I had to sneak this picture, by the way!  {smile}  He’s not mad. (as my daughter asked when she saw the picture.  Actually, he’s rarely ever mad.)  He was just thinking and probably wishing I wasn’t trying to snap a picture of him!

Country roads, take me home, to the place where I belong…

~ Family ~

A homemade cake made by my Mom with 40 candles…my Dad made sure it had 40…no less!

Still getting embarrassed when people sing “Happy Birthday” to me

Wish we could have gotten a picture of the haze left by the 40 candles and that you could feel the heat they made.  Of course, it was the big joke at the time! {wink}

Cards made by my kids.  Something I will keep forever.

Birthday surprises from a friend.  Thankful for God’s blessings of friends.

Awaking to a new day and realizing that 40 is not so bad.

It doesn’t even feel any different than 39.  {smile}

My Baby Boy ~

Today our Baby Boy turns three! 

What a blessing he is to our family.  David and I are so thankful that God blessed us with this loving, adventurous, enchanting little boy.

I think his middle name should have been spelled FUN!

Happy Birthday, Evan Scott! 

We love you!

 

A birthday celebration at the lake

Our Flower Girl was born on Memorial Day weekend.  Every year, we celebrate her birthday while at the lake on a mini-vacation.  This year, we celebrated her eighth birthday.  I can not believe that my baby girl is all ready eight! 

We returned home yesterday and you can imagine how many clothes need to be washed and how much unpacking that I need to do.  Also, the garden decided to leave me some work to do.  Right now my kitchen is holding some garden goodies that I need to take care of.  I’m not complaining…not at all…but this post will just be a picture post.  Here’s our weekend at the lake. ~

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Emma Grace!  We love you! 

A very special day ~

Today was a special day!  Today we celebrated the fifth birthday of Sunshine Girl. 

We did many of Sunshine’s favorite things today.  We…

spent time in the garden

and we had some company (who apparently had a little run in with some dirt).

At the request of Sunshine Girl, we had our birthday celebration dinner outside.  On her birthday menu:  hamburgers, fries, and strawberries with strawberry soda. 

The birthday girl came to dinner adorned in her princess dress after a brief run through the garden sprinkler.  (Birthday girls get to do many fun things.)

For her special 5th birthday, Sunshine Girl had asked for a princess cake and Mommy & big brother worked together to give her…

(Please remember, we are not professional birthday cake decorators.  {smile}  I made the cake and my oldest decorated the cake.)

I think she liked it!

Happy Birthday, Abby!