LO's 9th Birthday Extravaganza: Part I

Happy 9th Birthday, LO!

We had such a wonderfully busy weekend celebrating a certain little girl's 9th birthday! She's been planning her party for several weeks now, and was responsible to oversee several of the details.

I'll include a bit of commentary with these images below, but just a heads up... this is mostly a montage of photos from her big party!

Here she is decorating the sea star cookies we made for one of the party favors.

Beautiful sweet girl! This is one of the pics I took of her in the seashell crown she designed for her party.

Her custom mermaid artwork!

The sea star cookie favors!

A lovely centerpiece project we worked on together. I loved the added homeschool lesson that came from this project!

Easily my FAVORITE centerpieces. Thanks, Pinterest!

Artwork also designed by LO. She and I worked together on the "9" covered with mermaid "scales."

My first attempt making homemade marshmallow fondant for a cake!

I was rather pleased with how the cake turned out. I learned a lot about what I did wrong, so that was super helpful! She designed the cake bunting herself.

Cupcakes with custom cupcake toppers using the birthday girl's artwork!

Chocolate seashells in "sand" (a.k.a. Golden Oreos).

Loved this punch recipe! Hawaiian Punch, pineapple juice, and Sprite!

LO decided to "bedazzle" the water bottles... ;)

Because every birthday party needs a Sundae Bar!

Yes, we bedazzled the forks and spoons...

One of her favorite decorations: the seahorse from Hobby Lobby!

My birthday princess!

Silly girl!

She wanted to light her own candle {very first time ever!}.

Yummy sundaes!

After the party at the house, it was time to head to the pool for more fun! Here's crazy Chase doing his thing!

LO with her sweet cousin!

More Chase!

And of course E had to get in on the action!

LO had a great time at her party and I think all of her friends had fun, too! It was such a wonderful day and was so much fun to focus on and celebrate my sweet girl. I just love her so much and I am so happy that I get to be her mom!

Stay tuned for Part II of her birthday extravaganza!

Remember Me?

Hello, interwebs! So sorry for yet another unintentional extended absence! Life can get busy with three littles during the summer months, amiright? Sheesh.

Looks like my last update was E's 3rd birthday that I wrote about back in May. I guess two months isn't that crazy long of a disappearance, is it?

Just have time for a few quick updates tonight. I'm in the home stretch of putting together LO's 9th birthday party for this weekend. Can you believe I said 9? Right. All sorts of crazy. But this party planning has been extra fun because LO is much more involved now than she's been in the past. Seems soon-to-be 9-year-olds are chock full of opinions. Who knew?

This party will be quite epic at the hands of my darling LO. Check out #mom2lobdaybash9 on Instagram and Twitter for pics of the planning, prep, and even the big day! I really hope she has a wonderful time celebrating with her family and friends. She's so precious and I just can't get enough of my LO! LOVE.

Another child of mine hit a big milestone today: CHASE LOST HIS VERY FIRST TOOTH! And it only took him 6 years, 8 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days! Haha! The kids were watching Kung Fu Panda 3 while I was cleaning up in the kitchen, and he came running over to me with the tooth in his hand, crazy excited that it finally fell out! I was so surprised. Hubs and I have always talked about the D.R.A.M.A. that IS Chase, especially about medical things (go figure!), and we just assumed it would be quite an ordeal for him. But NOPE! Not this kid! He surprised us once again. LOVE.

The littlest one of our bunch is just as crazy as ever. E is talking all. the. time. these days. His favorite question: "Why?" Oh, yes, it's everyone's favorite, The Why Stage. The good thing is he's just so darn cute that I can't help but laugh and scoop him up for tons of hugs and kisses. He's such a sweetie. LOVE.

Okay. Break's over. Time to get back to party prep! Or maybe just call it a night... ;)