One of her new friends, Micah.
This is Wednesday, her actual birthday. She started the day off by choosing Fruity Pebbles for breakfast. She doesn't yet say her "f's" perfectly, they sound more like "p" so according to her these are "poopy pebbles." : )
I made one of her favorite meals for supper, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans, but she was so excited about her present and her birthday cake that she didn't eat much.
She doesn't usually get much candy, but I put a bag of ring pops in her gift bag. Can you tell she's just a little bit excited?
We just did little Dollar Tree gifts and picked up her actual present later in the week. It was a little table and chairs and also a swing, although I don't have pictures of those yet. She loves them though.
My mom had given me little individual cake pans a long time ago and I had never used them so I decided to make Halie her own little "happy birt-day cake" (as she calls it). This isn't the greatest picture, but Robert was trying to run the camera while I did the camcorder as well as us trying to keep her from touching the flames. We had to just take what we could get.
Then on Friday my Aunt Ruth and I had planned a surprise birthday party for Dee Dee's 40th. Martin was in on it, and we had my parents take them out to eat for her birthday dinner. As soon as they left we came in and started decorating and getting things set up. We brought 3 different desserts and just had an after dinner dessert party. Robert parked all the cars in the backyard.
They made it so that she would be the first one through the door and we turned on the lights and yelled "surprise!" She had NO clue about any of it and she SCREAMED and threw her arms over her face! She was so shocked she started crying.
Grandpa and Grandma DeLamarter
Aunt Ruth and Aunt Becky
Halie and her cousin Angelica
My cousin Roger and his wife Melisa and one of their 3 kids, Randy
Mom and Dad who also celebrated their 41st anniversary that week!
Gina, Bob, Robert, and Martin standing around chatting.
I was a good girl and didn't plan an all black, over-the-hill, old fart prank gift kind of party. I kept it bright and cheery and colorful..............but I just had to throw in one gag gift! : )
Whew! So that was Friday night. Saturday was Halie's party with the family and a couple of friends. We did a farm animal/barnyard theme because she loves animals so much. The party was at Meemaw and Papaw's house aka The Cantrell Ranch. I decorated the front porch so it would look cute walking in. My cousin Cyndi let me borrow her antique tractor. It looked so cute. I was so excited when I found the cow print balloons online. They were adorable and added so much to the theme.
Here is the buffet/food table. I found the red checkered tablecloth on clearance at Walmart for $1! Thanks to Gina, Mom, Dee Dee, and Cyndi for helping me out with making food!
The plates and napkins the theme was based on.
Chicken Feed - Chex mix and candy corn. Mom kept all the tin buckets from my wedding so I borrowed them back and used a few.
Deviled egg chicks (Dee Dee's clever idea) - raisins for eyes and little carrot triangles for beaks
Pig's Tail Pasta Salad - used curly/spiral pasta for it : )
The dessert table. The black checkered tablecloths are from my brother's wedding rehearsal dinner 13 years ago!
The cake I really really wanted to have was just too expensive to have made, so I decided to do cupcakes and I ordered adorable little barn cupcake picks. When I received the order they had sent me the wrong picks! They were farm animals, but not the ones I wanted. It was too late to fix it so I had to just use what I had and they are supposed to be giving me a refund. I had Publix arrange the grass and hay cupcakes in the shape of a big 2.
Thankfully the picks were still cute, they just weren't the ones I had ordered.
Pig Muck - chocolate pudding
Hay Stacks - crunchy noodles and peanuts with a butterscotch coating
Playing Pin the Tail on the Cow
Enjoying some frosting! Once again, she didn't eat the cupcake, just the frosting. : )
Another game I had the kids play was from an idea I found online. The original idea was too complicated for toddlers so I adapted it for the younger age group. I took about 20 or so pink balloons and drew pig faces on them. I used Gina's squirrel cage as the pig pen. I told the kids the pigs escaped from their pen and they needed to round them up and put them back in their pen. Then we scattered them all over the yard and the kids had a blast chasing them down and bringing them back to the cage.
Halie had SO much fun with this game and wanted to play it over and over again!
You can kind of see the pig face in this picture.
The next game we played was with ducks in a tub of water and the kids had to fish a duck out and give it to me and they got a treat bag full of goodies. I'm sure the water felt good after getting all hot and sweaty chasing down pigs.
Opening presents!
By using what we already had, borrowing things, finding things on clearance, and having great family willing to help me make food, I was able to give Halie a really cute and fun party on a relatively small budget. Thanks everyone!
Sunday - Dee Dee and I both wanted the girls to wear their Easter dresses one more time before summer was over and before they outgrew them.
Cute cousins!
She doesn't usually get much candy, but I put a bag of ring pops in her gift bag. Can you tell she's just a little bit excited?
We just did little Dollar Tree gifts and picked up her actual present later in the week. It was a little table and chairs and also a swing, although I don't have pictures of those yet. She loves them though.
My mom had given me little individual cake pans a long time ago and I had never used them so I decided to make Halie her own little "happy birt-day cake" (as she calls it). This isn't the greatest picture, but Robert was trying to run the camera while I did the camcorder as well as us trying to keep her from touching the flames. We had to just take what we could get.
She never did eat any of the cake, just the frosting and sprinkles. : )
Then on Friday my Aunt Ruth and I had planned a surprise birthday party for Dee Dee's 40th. Martin was in on it, and we had my parents take them out to eat for her birthday dinner. As soon as they left we came in and started decorating and getting things set up. We brought 3 different desserts and just had an after dinner dessert party. Robert parked all the cars in the backyard.
They made it so that she would be the first one through the door and we turned on the lights and yelled "surprise!" She had NO clue about any of it and she SCREAMED and threw her arms over her face! She was so shocked she started crying.
Grandpa and Grandma DeLamarter
Aunt Ruth and Aunt Becky
Halie and her cousin Angelica
My cousin Roger and his wife Melisa and one of their 3 kids, Randy
Mom and Dad who also celebrated their 41st anniversary that week!
Gina, Bob, Robert, and Martin standing around chatting.
I was a good girl and didn't plan an all black, over-the-hill, old fart prank gift kind of party. I kept it bright and cheery and colorful..............but I just had to throw in one gag gift! : )
Whew! So that was Friday night. Saturday was Halie's party with the family and a couple of friends. We did a farm animal/barnyard theme because she loves animals so much. The party was at Meemaw and Papaw's house aka The Cantrell Ranch. I decorated the front porch so it would look cute walking in. My cousin Cyndi let me borrow her antique tractor. It looked so cute. I was so excited when I found the cow print balloons online. They were adorable and added so much to the theme.
Here is the buffet/food table. I found the red checkered tablecloth on clearance at Walmart for $1! Thanks to Gina, Mom, Dee Dee, and Cyndi for helping me out with making food!
I tried to make the majority of the food farm themed. Not all of it was, but most of it. I made little name cards to go with the dishes that were themed and took pictures of a few of them.
The plates and napkins the theme was based on.
Chicken Feed - Chex mix and candy corn. Mom kept all the tin buckets from my wedding so I borrowed them back and used a few.
Deviled egg chicks (Dee Dee's clever idea) - raisins for eyes and little carrot triangles for beaks
Pig's Tail Pasta Salad - used curly/spiral pasta for it : )
The dessert table. The black checkered tablecloths are from my brother's wedding rehearsal dinner 13 years ago!
The cake I really really wanted to have was just too expensive to have made, so I decided to do cupcakes and I ordered adorable little barn cupcake picks. When I received the order they had sent me the wrong picks! They were farm animals, but not the ones I wanted. It was too late to fix it so I had to just use what I had and they are supposed to be giving me a refund. I had Publix arrange the grass and hay cupcakes in the shape of a big 2.
Thankfully the picks were still cute, they just weren't the ones I had ordered.
Pig Muck - chocolate pudding
Hay Stacks - crunchy noodles and peanuts with a butterscotch coating
Playing Pin the Tail on the Cow
Enjoying some frosting! Once again, she didn't eat the cupcake, just the frosting. : )
Another game I had the kids play was from an idea I found online. The original idea was too complicated for toddlers so I adapted it for the younger age group. I took about 20 or so pink balloons and drew pig faces on them. I used Gina's squirrel cage as the pig pen. I told the kids the pigs escaped from their pen and they needed to round them up and put them back in their pen. Then we scattered them all over the yard and the kids had a blast chasing them down and bringing them back to the cage.
Halie had SO much fun with this game and wanted to play it over and over again!
You can kind of see the pig face in this picture.
The next game we played was with ducks in a tub of water and the kids had to fish a duck out and give it to me and they got a treat bag full of goodies. I'm sure the water felt good after getting all hot and sweaty chasing down pigs.
Cyndi also let me borrow the wash tub and the ducks.
Opening presents!
By using what we already had, borrowing things, finding things on clearance, and having great family willing to help me make food, I was able to give Halie a really cute and fun party on a relatively small budget. Thanks everyone!Sunday - Dee Dee and I both wanted the girls to wear their Easter dresses one more time before summer was over and before they outgrew them.
Cute cousins!
