7th Birthday Scavenger Hunt

Recently, our daughter, Tess, turned 7! 

Still can't believe that our little girl is not so little anymore. Seems like yesterday I was holding her in my arms rocking her to sleep her first night home after being born. My how time is flying!

To celebrate 7 beautiful years, we wanted to do something a little bit different than what we've done in the past.  We decided that spending the day as a family would be best. 

Since my husband was out of town the week of Tess' birthday for a work trip, we rescheduled to a weekday when he got back.

I wanted to come up with a fun way to celebrate our girl's big day, so I thought that making a scavenger hunt would be fun. The hunt began at our house and took us across the river. It was a fun day for all (most importantly, the birthday girl)!

Clue #1

    Happy birthday to you!

    Happy birthday to you!

    Let's celebrate this day,

     By opening a gift or two!

Tess began her birthday by opening a few gifts- one of which was a floral dress she wore for her special day.

Clue #2
Let's all go somewhere,
Let's take a drive.
It will be a surprise!
And very soon we'll arrive...
(Where do you think we are going?)

The first destination was a park in our area that we've never been to. We ate lunch by the water with ducks and geese nearby (which was fun for the kids), and let the kids run around together. Even though it was a hot day, water and shade helped and we made some good memories!

 Fun kids' play area!

We made it to the top of the hill! Hooray!

Both girls brought their new purple sunglasses to wear, but for some reason decided to take them off when they were running around. Of course...  ;)  

This girl...she ran up and down these stairs and never tired out! We wouldn't be surprised if she tried out for the track team some day. She's got endurance! 

 

Clue #3

 Why don't you open another gift?

It's something you can wear,

And maybe something colorful too,

Perhaps you will want to share!

Hooray for colorful jeweled shoes! Tess was so excited to wear these with her new dress before heading to our next stop. We also got her a colorful pack of molding clay (but left it at home for her to open so it didn't melt in the car).

We took a little detour to the mall nearby to cool off from the heat...which led us to a pet shop where the kids got to see lots of puppies.

Our little boy was enthralled with these particular puppies in the window. So much in fact that he kept talking to them. :)

Deep conversations...

                                                            

After we were all cooled down, it was time for the next clue.

Clue #4

Do you like cheesecake?

Of course you do, why do I even ask. 
Let's head to your next destination
Where eating will be your task!

Any guesses on where we ate dinner?

The Cheesecake Factory! Yum, yum, yum!!!!

Always creating something with her food...  

Not only did we all enjoy a nice dinner, but we also ordered some delicious cheesecake. We asked our waitress if she could sing to Tessa.  She and a few other servers were glad to do so. 

We ordered the chocolate mousse and birthday celebration cheesecake. So, so good and most importantly, the birthday girl approved!

Time for a group hug!!!

This picture cracks me up! Love the love these 3 have for each other!


I say it every year and this year is no different...happy, happy birthday, sweet girl! We love you so much and are thankful for your kindness and thoughtfulness towards others. Keep loving big!

A Mario & Princess Peach Birthday Party

Two weeks ago, our Lydia turned 5! To celebrate with friends, we threw her a themed birthday party last weekend at her request- A Mario and Princess Peach Party! Our girl loves games and playing Mario with Daddy, so it seemed fitting that she would choose that as the theme for her party.

We had quite the corral of kids in attendance, so I tried to be careful with how I posted pictures of folks. Regardless, we wanted to make this a special celebration for her to share with friends and it was fun to watch her and her little friends enjoy themselves.
I didn't want to go overboard with the decor, but I did want to have fun with it. After all, this was the first birthday party we've done for her. In the past, we always just celebrated at home as a family. But this year, we wanted to invite her friends over to share this special day.

To keep costs down, we bought inexpensive paper plates in coordinating colors for the theme- red, pink, and yellow. 

The "ice power" food = marshmallows. The "fireballs" = Utz cheeseballs. Both were a huge hit with the kids. We also had "Princess Peach Punch" which was just lemonade and we ordered 5 large pizzas.

The centerpieces were made with faux flowers Lydia picked out at Wal-Mart along with felt Mario and Luigi mustaches we made on a wooden stick. Those were fun!
The Mario coins were purchased at Party City and each kid got to take one home. The tablecloth ended up being a good idea for all the spills and crumbs we had! ;)

Big sis, Tess, drew the characters from Mario. I was impressed with her drawings and she proudly displayed them in the dining room herself.

The yellow question box was made out of a basic cardboard box simply wrapped in yellow streamers (one packet of that stuff goes a long way for sure). The girls helped me add question marks to the box to complete the look.

 Princess Peach :)

Can you spot Princess Peach? At first, it was tough finding Princess Peach anything to decorate for the party. A week before the party date, my husband and Lydia were out at Wal-Mart and found (of all places) a Princess Peach magnet. She was pretty thrilled with that, so we were able to use it to decorate her cupcakes.

The mushroom cupcakes didn't turn out as I expected, but the kids didn't seem to mind at all! Phew! We added white chocolate chips to the top and pictures of Lydia to almost every one. :)

Each party bag had a little something extra along with the candy from the pinata inside.
The mushroom clothespins were fun to make! Lydia helped me glue each mushroom to the clothespin. It was such a fun little detail!
And the little white circles were created using left-over paper from our 3-ring hole punch.

I let the girls decorate the balloons to make them look like the ghosts in the Mario game. 

Ah the pinata! So fun to make and always such a big hit with the kids. Everyone who wanted a turn got one and the last kid to hit it knocked all the candy out! Awesome!!

I didn't take many pictures of the other game, which was "Find Yoshi's Eggs." I hid 30 plastic eggs in our backyard along with ONE golden "Yoshi" egg. Whomever found the golden egg got a little prize at the end (a Mario Pez with candy and a mini bubblegum dispenser key chain). Both of those gifts can be found at 5 Below near the check-out aisle, in case anyone wants to know. ;)

Big sis taking her turn with the pinata while little brother hangs with Ms. Sue :)

Before the party came to an end, Lydia opened her gifts from our guests. Kids love to crowd around each other during this time. I bet it's fun for them to see what she got!

As far as costs go, here is an idea of how we saved:
We re-used most of the streamers from big sis' birthday as well as other decor items, bought most of our supplies at Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart and kept the theme simple by using solid colors. Decor was about $50, which at first I thought was a bit too much. But then when I looked up the cost of having a birthday party somewhere else- it was $150 just to book a place (and that was on the cheaper end of things)! When you add food and decor on top of all that, some of the prices sky-rocketed to $275. For some, paying that high cost is fine because they don't have to worry about set-up and clean-up, but I'm glad we chose to celebrate at our house. Plus, we will be able to re-use some of the decor to decorate our home, like the flowers we purchased.

Overall, this was such a fun day! The weather was good with clear skies and sun. Even though it was cold outside, the kids were still able to play games and run around.

So happy we got to celebrate this special day for you, Lydi-bug! You are a joy to many!

Happy Birthday, Lydibug!! The Big 5!!!

Little Lady,

Happy 5th birthday to you! 

You are the girl with a bubbly personality who loves big. You inspire me to be a better person and mother because of this and because of the way you view life and relationships. 

You have this God-given gift to see people the way they want to be seen. You greet everyone with a smile and a "hello!" which makes people feel like they've known you for a while. It's a gift that I admire about you and I love to watch you use it to make others feel loved. 

You are a Daddy's girl at heart and enjoy spending precious time with him when you can. I love watching the two of you interact. It brings me great joy knowing you look up to him because he is a great man.

You dearly love your sister and brother. And although little brother shows little patience with you sometimes, you barely let it upset you.  You give him space when he needs it and forgive fiercely.

I really admire how you love big, Lydibug. I have this strong feeling that once you start kindergarten, you will have no trouble at all forming fast friendships with your peers and being the girl that some will look up to. And while I'm not wishing that time to go quickly, I do look forward to watching you grow, learn, love God and love people. 

Happy, happy birthday sweet one! You are an amazing gift!!

I love you!

Here's a throwback picture of you with some of the people you love the most. Too sweet not to share. 

Oh how time flies!

Happy Birthday, Little Big Man

Oh, Gavin! How can it be that you are now 2?! 
My how the time flies.

You have brought so much joy, energy, and love to our family. We all want to wish you a happy, happy birthday! Here's to an amazing year for you, my son- our train loving, dirt playing, rough and tumble boy! 

I hope you enjoy some of the many photos I took of our most recent family trip (more pictures to come!).

Notice the dirt on your pants. My how you love playing in the dirt- and when it's been mixed with water, what a fun combo that becomes for you! 

You spent a good 10 minutes picking apart the leaves off of this plant. ;) For some reason, you were so focused on taking off each little leaf one by one to expose the little branch. Wish I could know what you were thinking about as you did this.

Beep, beep!

And yes, you still LOVE your thumb! Can't go a day without it. 

My loves!!

On our most recent family trip to the mountains, you couldn't resist stopping on our walks to pick up rocks and rubble. What a boy!

We are so thankful you have been given to us. To be able to celebrate another birthday with you is a blessing. Almost every night, we pray for God to protect you and love you. We also pray that the older you get, the more you will come to know Him and know of His promises. He has given us much hope- a great hope that we need in this world. He loves you greatly, as do so many. Happy birthday, little big man!