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28 April, 2015

Maggie's Maggi and Milo Birthday Party

When I was pregnant with Evie, my sister and Rosemary threw us a couple's baby shower with a Hungry Caterpillar theme.  And when Evie turned ONE we threw a Madeline themed birthday party. I wasn't even sure I wanted to have a party for Maggie's birthday, but my mother insisted and I'm glad she did. We kept the guest list very small, though you wouldn't guess it by the quality and quantity of the decorations.
We chose Evie's Madeline theme because the little dog's name was Genevieve, so I wanted to see if I could find a story with the name Maggie in it. I discovered Maggi and Milo while in the waiting room at the pediatrician's office. We read the story and fell in love. 

The book is about a girl who receives a yellow bucket and a frog hunting kit from her grandmother. She wears an orange tutu and blue polka dot rain boots. Maggi and her boarder collie, Milo, go on adventures looking for frogs. It's adorable.  
For the table decorations my mother used yellow buckets from the dollar store, frogs made on her Cricut, and pictures of Maggie.

My grandmother made potted plant arrangements in the yellow buckets to have that marshy-pond look.

I also HAD to buy new blue polka dot rain boots just for the occasion. 
The fireplace mantle decorations included a banner of Evie's monthly baby pictures on a layered set of paper cut out on the Cricut and strung on a ribbon.   

The MAGGIE letters are from Hobby Lobby with the same scrapbook paper from the banner cut and mod-podged on top.
For each of the girl's parties we've used the story book as a guest book.  Instead of signing a message, guests were instructed to make frogs out of their thumb prints. Everyone was so creative with their froggy families.
The author's website for Maggi and Milo has free coloring sheets, so we set up a coloring station for the kids.

With the party being late morning, we kept the food to some yummy breakfast snacks: bagels & cream cheese, fruit, veggie tray, cheese platter, and then some crunchy cracker snacks for the babies. Did I mention we had mimosas? Because, why not?
I baked some of the frog cookies on to sticks to put in this "pond" - this was my favorite decoration my mom pulled together.  (List of cookie recipes and tutorials here)
Hopefully I don't embarrass Eric in telling you that he has a talent for carving things into / out of water melons.  Of course we had to put him to work!
With enough of our guests having food allergies or intolerances, Eric's parents ordered a special cake (and a few cupcakes) from 2bWhole bakery. Their customer service was excellent and they were happy to make cupcakes for our friends with very complicated dietary restrictions.
Maggie had fun opening presents and smashing her cake!

Two other vendors to mention~

invitations and thank you notes: ClaudiaCurtiDesigns
Maggie's party dress: MadilynnsBoutique

I totally forgot to photograph the goody bags.  Each family received a yellow bucket, enough frog cookies for the family, and a paperback copy of Maggi and Milo (it happened to be the feature Scholastic Bookclub book at Evie's school fundraiser this spring - win win!)


Thanks for hopping by!

26 April, 2015

Spring Break Bucket List - Mission: Complete

 It's been two weeks since Spring Break. I think it took us that long to recover from the amount of fun we had in just 10 short days.  We checked everything off the bucket list and then some!


Friday & Saturday - Kites and Trikes

The girls enjoyed a few laps around the neighborhood on their new tandem tricycle that Maggie got for her birthday. (Thanks Grandma and G.Daddy for the awesome Craigslist find)

Eric took the girls down to Leeann and Dan's neighborhood to take Luke over to the park to play. They also tried to fly kites.  Little success, but it satisfied Evie.

We had fun over the weekend coloring eggs and celebrating Easter with family.


Monday - Ice Skating

Monday I took Evie to go ice skating. She was so excited and loved everything about the day.  She loved watching the kids skate. Evie even did fantastic getting her skates on and walking around the outside of the rink in her skates. However, the second her feet hit the ice, she panicked and that was the end of it.

Our ice skating Groupon included a drink, so we took a little break for lemonade and a little snack I'd packed.  But after a second try out on the ice, she was done.  
She said, "Ice skating is too tricky for me. I want to try wheel skating next time."  Hey, at least not all is lost.  Since we were done earlier than I thought and Maggie was napping at my mom's house, I decided to take her out to lunch. She chose to go to Taco Mac.  I texted Eric and had him surprise us at lunch. She loved having a lunch date with just Mom and Dad.

Tuesday - Aquarium

Tuesday my mom treated us and cousin Connor to a trip to the Georgia Aquarium. This was Evie's second or third trip. She really loved it this time. She knew what her favorites were to see. We also stayed for lunch and to watch the Dolphin Show.
Evie was very, very concerned that the penguins didn't live on ice.
We loved this little sea otter because she looked like Maggie - sucking on her little fingers and rubbing her face. So sweet.
Maggie couldn't get enough of the aquarium. She loved going through the tunnel and watching the big walls of fish.

Wednesday - Boat Day


It's still too chilly to get the water, but it was a perfectly sunny day so we hit the lake and cruised on the boat for a bit. We stopped for a picnic and to build sand castles with cousin Connor.
Evie got a turn to drive the boat with Grandpa.
And Maggie tried her first ice cream sandwich.

Thursday - Cousin Playdate

My parents were watching Connor over Spring Break and they needed some time to get the house ready for Maggie's birthday party that coming weekend.  
I think these kids had more fun in the Amazon box than they did doing anything else the whole week.
The free entertainment gave me the freedom to get the cookies done for Maggie's party.

Friday - Party Prep and Braves Game


Friday during the day I helped my mom get a few things done for the party as well as make sure the girls were rested.  We had dinner with Grandma and G. Daddy before they took the girls home and Eric and I went to the Braves home opener.
The game was delayed almost two hours because it was raining SO HARD. Everyone and everything was soaking wet, but it was worth staying.  The game was fun - lots of hits - and lots of rookie mistakes.

Have y'all heard of the Simba Cam?  So I thought my brother-in-law, Sam, was giving me a hard time. He was telling me that the stadium will play the opening song from Lion King and then everyone in the stadium who has a baby will stand up and hold their baby like Rafiki held up Simba at the start of the movie. I was laughing so hard at his "joke" that I had to go to the bathroom.  No sooner did I get up to use the restroom did I hear the music start. I turned down the stairs to catch Sam's eye.

I saw him HOLDING UP MY HUSBAND.

I have never laughed so hard in my life.  I so desperately wish I had a picture, but I was laughing so hard and trying not to wet myself.

Here's a quick video clip the Today Show shared on the Simba Cam trend


Saturday - Maggie's Birthday Party

Lots of fun celebrating her birthday and playing with new toys. Party post coming soon.

Sunday & Monday - Garden Planting

We did a much larger pot garden this year. I transplanted some of the arrangements my grandmother made for Maggie's party into the large decorative pots.  The rest of our garden, a mix of flowers and vegetables, are growing from seeds this year. We decided to go a much cheaper route of seeds since for us, it's more about the hobby, and less about the crop yield.   Evie was a great helper scooping the potting soil, putting in the seed starters, and/or burying the seeds. We're excited to watch out garden grow.

What did you do for Spring Break?  What's on your list for the summer?