Violet's First Birthday Party

A couple of weekends ago we had Violet's first birthday party at our house. Over the last few months, I'd gone back and forth a lot about whether or not I wanted to have a party at all, I kind of wanted to just have a nice family dinner with presents and cake. But finally, I decided we would have a party here with family and close friends. After all, you only turn one once! Violet is a very social little girl, so I knew she'd have tons of fun playing with a bunch of kids and having a lot of people around. So Joe and I found some cute party supplies and did some DIYing and baking (does dipping pretzels in white chocolate count as baking? haha) and hosted our first party! I was nervous about having so many people in our relatively small house, but it worked out perfectly. We ended up having enough food, favors, and room for everyone. The only somewhat disappointment was that Vi wanted nothing to do with her smash cake. She had the tiniest taste then was completely over it, which surprised everyone because that girl can eat! I was expecting some awesomely messy cake smash photos, but that's okay, she had a ton of fun with everything else, so that's all that matters!

Elli's Fairy Special Birthday

My sweet niece Elli turned 5 over the weekend, and her fairy-themed party was just too adorable not too share. There was flowers and glitter everywhere, and everyone got their very own flower crown and set of fairy wings, a 5-year-old girl's fantasy! Elli is the sweetest, spunkiest little girl you'll ever meet, and Violet already loves her so much! We had so much fun celebrating, it makes me so excited to have birthday parties for Violet soon!

Bad Hikes, Pottery, Ikea and Birthdays

This passed week was a pretty busy one for us. But it was busy with fun things, like birthdays, trips to Ikea, painting pottery and hiking. Okay, the hiking wasn't that fun. I enjoy hiking a lot if it's leisurely and slow, but that's not the way my sister or husband do it, they prefer sprinting up the steeper side of the mountain, and they insisted I do that with them. I realized very quickly that I could not keep up with them and I definitely wouldn't make it to the top. I've been to the top of that mountain many times taking the easy, less steep trail, but this side wasn't happening. The two of them just kept "encouraging" me to keep going and telling me that I would feel so good once I reached the top, but I kept insisting I would either pass out or be sick. Well, I got sick. About three quarters of the way up I literally stopped in my tracks and puked. Three times. And then immediately looked at both of them and said, "I f*cking told you!" So we headed back down. It didn't take long to laugh about the whole thing, and I'm now sharing it on the internet, so it's all good now. We all agreed that next time we hiked together we'd take it much slower, thank goodness!

So after that interesting hike, we went and got lunch, and did something much more my speed; painted pottery at this little kiddie place at the mall. I actually had a lot of fun, even though we were the only people in there over nine, we each painted a mug! We haven't been back to pick them up yet, but it'll be interesting to see how they turned out. The next day the three of us did a turn-around to Ikea in Tempe to buy all sorts of super necessary things. Ikea is kind of like Target, you go in needing one thing and somehow leave with a cart full, oops! Good thing we were in my small car and wouldn't have room for anything big!

The next few days consisted of our friend Zack's twenty-first birthday, which we had at a Irish restaurant with a few friends. I realized I'm not big on Irish food, the guys all enjoyed the beer though! Then Monday was my dad's birthday. All of my sisters and their families went to his house to celebrate with him. We had all of his favorite food and his favorite carrot cake, and did "snorkels," Joe's idea! It was fun though, I always enjoy hanging out with my family, making food and goofing off together.

So that's what's been going on in my life lately, it's now Wednesday night and Joe just fixed our bathroom sink all by himself when I thought we should call a plumber, such a man, hehe ;)

So what's been going on in your life lately? I hope you're having a fab week!

All Time Low & Cake & Pink Drinks

The weekend of my twenty-first birthday was definitely one I will remember forever. Joe was so amazing and planned a whole weekend that he knew I'd love; tickets to a show in Flagstaff of one of my favorite bands, a cake decorating class, a scary movie, my first legal drink at midnight, and the cutest pink birthday setup and home-made cake on my birthday! He even gave me the instant camera I've had my eye on for a while! So wonderful!

Friday after Joe got off work, we hopped in the car and headed to Flag to see All Time Low, who I completely love! They were playing in a really small, intimate theatre, so it was so cool to be able to see them so up close! We even pushed our way to the very front of the crowd, something Joe was used to but I'd never done before. It was an awesome experience despite all the crowd surfers smacking me in the head! Also a kind of funny story from the show; as All Time Low finished up, Alex (the lead singer and guitarist) dropped the pick he'd been using on the ground and started tossing a bunch of picks he had on his mic stand into the crowd. We tried to catch one but failed. After the crowd started to disperse, Joe suggested we stick around to try to find a pick that might've fallen. We couldn't find any, but right in front of the stage, I saw a $50 bill just sitting there. I snatched it as fast as I could! Right then, a security guard cleaning up the stage noticed the money we found and showed us that he was holding the pick that Alex had been using the whole show and dropped. He came up to us and asked if we wanted to trade, and of course I said yes right away! So now I have a guitar pick that Alex Gaskarth played with for a whole show, so cool! 

The next morning we got up and met my sister to do a little cake decorating class. I've always wanted to learn to make beautiful cakes, it's such a cool art! The class honestly wasn't as fun or interesting as we thought, but we still had fun goofing around. After that we got lunch and later that night went to see Oculus. I love scary movies, feeling scared (without any real threat) is so much fun to me! The movie was pretty cool and interesting, although not really scary. Just jumped here and there. We stayed up until midnight so I could go get my first drink in a bar. I ordered a Cosmo. Nice and girly! I'm not huge on drinking and hate the taste of alcohol! But it was still a fun new experience. We even ran into a few friends down town that we hung out with until the bars closed. Then we figured we might as well go get McDonalds breakfast at 2am because ya know, why not! It was really great!

Sunday morning we spent the day at home, which was nice after being out all weekend. Joe made me a delicious strawberry cake all by himself! He set up streamers and balloons and made the cutest little set up for me! I loved how pink everything was! And gave me the most thoughtful gifts; a card full of the sweetest words, an adorable floral Grafity mug, and the Instax Mini 90 I've been wanting. I was all so much fun. We ended the day with dinner out with my family, which was great. 

So as I've said a hundred times, it was such a wonderful weekend. I loved it so much and Joe made it so special for me. I feel like the luckiest girl ever to have someone who takes the time to make sure my birthday weekend is beyond amazing, and he definitely did that!