Happy Birthday, GiGi!

Five Year Old Favorites

Last summer I found a list I had made of some of Anna Claire and Mallory's favorite things, and since I'm feeling a little nostalgic what with the girls turning five earlier this week, I thought I'd try to make this a tradition around birthday time. Here are their current favorites:

Anna Claire ~~
Book: Children's Storybook Bible
Song: Joy to the World
Game: Bucket o' Beads
Lovie: Ralphie, Moo Moo, Monkey, Cupcake Buddy
Disney Princess: Aurora and Merida
Movie/TV Show: Pinocchio/Transformers/America's Funniest Home Videos
Food: Broccoli and Carrots

Mallory ~~
Book: Tinkerbelle Song Book
Song: {she couldn't think of one}
Game: Candy Land
Lovie: Lovie Bear
Disney Princess: Belle
Movie/TV Show: Octonauts/America's Funniest Home Videos
Food: Chocolate and Crunchy Shrimp

Run, Jump, Tumble, and Play...

I can't believe Anna Claire and Mallory are five today!

We celebrated Saturday with friends and family at The Little Gym. We've always had Anna Claire and Mallory's parties at home, but they've been to a few parties and gyms and jump castle places, and asked a while ago if they could have their party here {best part: I didn't have to clean the house!).

I got the invitations from Tiger Lily Invitations like last year. I highly recommend Jessica. She is SO easy to work with and she's in GA, so it's a quick ship to SC. She didn't even have a gymnastics themed invitation in her shop, but I couldn't find anything I loved anywhere online, so I asked her if she would be willing to whip something up for me and she came up with these which the girls and I fell in love with {I'm pretty sure that's the worst run-on sentence in the history of ever, but I'm too tired to revise}. Bottom line: These were just what I was looking for!!

My mom baked the cakes as usual but I decorated them. I DO NOT recommend sugar sheets; I didn't find them easy to work with at all, but I suppose the little gymnasts turned out okaayyyy...

I used the applique I stitched on the girls' shirts as a pattern, and it was not easy! I am pretty proud of the words I piped on the cakes, though. This was my first attempt ever. I did ONE test run before icing the cakes...not too bad either...

 Anna Claire and Mallory were sooo excited and had the best time at their party!

This is everyone after all the running, jumping, and tumbling was over...tired!!...and ready for cake and ice cream. I do have tons of shots with all the little ones running around playing, but they are not the best pictures. Most are out of focus and without a working flash the lighting was terrible.

 

 

Some of the details...I was determined to give The Little Gym a personal touch as best I could.

Happy Birthday sweet girls!! Mommy and Daddy love you so much!!! We are so happy you had such a great birthday celebration!

And thanks to everyone who came out to help us celebrate Anna Claire and Mallory's FIFTH birthday! We love you all!!

Sunday Sewing: A Cute Croc and Sweet Strawberry Appliques

What a crazy/busy weekend we had!

Friday we had a huge storm that blew off the cap for the shingles on the peak of the roof. Thankfully, our neighbors noticed it Saturday morning and alerted us to it. Walter and Papa were able to fix it pretty easily ~ and inexpensively ~ thank goodness.

Saturday the girls and I shopped ALL DAY. We ran some errands around town then Granny met us and we went to the outlets for new spring clothes for me and the girls. Anna Claire and Mallory were pretty much done shopping as soon as we got to the outlets, especially once I finished shopping for them and wanted to hit Talbot's and Loft for myself. Anna Claire and I had a mini-mommy/daughter meltdown in the Talbot's dressing room that almost put an end to the day! The girls are usually really great "shoppers" but Saturday was not their day.

Sunday we went to cousin Finley's birthday party and the evening ended with a small fender bender when we {me, Walter, Grandmom, Anna Claire, and Mallory} got bumped from behind by a huge pick~up truck. A little scary at first, but we are all fine and there's only a small crack in the bumper. What a way to end the day!

Before the party, I actually got to spend some time at my embroidery machine getting a few things stitched out for the girls. Last Saturday I embroidered this cute bubble suit for my friend Melissa's little girl and that got me motivated to get to work on my pile of projects for the girls.

Oh, I miss the days of Anna Claire and Mallory's chunky little legs in bubble suits!

 



The girls have already worn all the pants my mom made them, but I still wanted to applique some coordinating t-shirts. I chose this cute croc to go with the green and white polka~dot pants...very quick stitching.

 nope, pants are not pressed.

 

I've had the pink gingham jumper since the Rosalina sale back in the fall, so I thought I finally needed to get to work on it. Since it's strawberry season and I just bought new strawberry hair bows at the festival, I chose this sweet strawberry applique, and the girls were able to wear the dresses to cousin Finley's birthday party Sunday afternoon.

 

I have a love/hate relationship with my embroidery machine, but she was on her best behavior Sunday, and I actually got both t-shirts and both jumpers appliqued in record time. I couldn't believe it. I still have a pile of fabric to turn in to cute sun dresses and another pile of shirts to applique. I am hoping to make some progress this week in the evenings...we'll see how that goes!

Party, Party, Party!





We have been super busy around here for the past two weeks or so getting ready for Halloween and attending birthday parties. I finally finished Anna Claire and Mallory's costumes Sunday morning. No pictures yet; they've only had them on for a couple minutes to make sure the fit was right. They actually got to wear their costumes to school today for the fall festival, but I didn't get to see them all dressed up ~ had to work. I am hoping someone took a few pics and will email me!!

 

Two weekends ago we went to Oliver's first birthday party. What a cutie!!

Anna Claire and Mallory had so much fun playing on Owen's swing set.

I finally finished the paisley jumpers I started earlier in the month {pants were temporarily put on hold so I could finish the costumes}. Very cute...I love how they turned out. 

 

 

 

Sunday, the girls went to a birthday party for one of their classmates, Landon. It was at Celebration Town which is always a hit.

 

Yep, that's Mallory front and center in the group shot:

Afterwards we headed out to Miler for the tail end of the Cuthbert Cup. Anna Claire and Mallory were anxious to get out on the course to run around.

And I couldn't keep Anna Claire off the dance floor...

I wish I could have gotten more pictures, but the girls got tired pretty quickly and went downhill fast. We hope y'all have a Happy Halloween! I'll be back soon with pictures of all out trick~or~treating fun!

We're Still Here

I am so terribly far behind sharing updates and pictures of Anna Claire and Mallory. Things haven't even been terribly busy; I just haven't found my blogging rhythm since school has started. School is going great for the girls; they love their teachers. Dance class starts Friday, and the girls can't wait. Other than that, things are rather uneventful around here.

A few weeks ago we celebrated Granny's birthday at Wasabi. Anna Claire and Mallory love that place ~ especially the koi pond and eating with chopsticks! I love the white sauce...and the rice...but especially the rice smothered in the white sauce!

Japanese Steak House White Sauce

1-1/4 cup	Hellmann's mayonnaise
1/4 cup	water
1 teaspoon	tomato paste
1 tablespoon	melted butter
1/2 teaspoon	garlic powder
1 teaspoon	sugar
1/4 teaspoon	paprika
dash	cayenne pepper

Using a fork or a whisk, blend all ingredients together thoroughly until well mixed and the sauce is smooth. Refrigerate overnight to allow flavors to blend. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Trust me...the sauce must sit overnight like the recipe states. Don't try to make it and eat it the same day. It won't taste anything like it's supposed to {speaking from experience}.

Weekend dinner plans anyone?

Happy Birthday, Great Grandmom

The day after the girls' birthday party, which was the girls' actual birthdate, we spent the day at the river celebrating Great-Grandmom's birthday!...

 ...and swimming in the river. I was a little nervous, but Anna Claire and Mallory are like little fishes ~ nothing to be {too} worried about!

 The day was beautiful and I hope we can get back down there soon!

Anna Claire and Mallory's Watermelon Picnic Party

We celebrated Anna Claire and Mallory's fourth birthday Saturday with a watermelon picnic party! We were blessed with beautiful {though warm} weather and lots of family and close friends were there to celebrate with us.

I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time playing in the back yard, but it sure did get hot quickly!

So, after singing "Happy Birthday" and having cake and {melted} ice cream, we moved inside to open presents.

It's always a goal of mine to do a better job of getting more pictures of family, but I don't think I did any better this year!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone for being so kind with your gift giving. The girls got books, puzzles, games, new beach chairs, cute outfits, and lots more! I'd say we're all set for a fun~filled summer!

 So, how does one pull together a watermelon picnic party? It all started with an applique'...

This watermelon wedge is one of the easiest applique' designs I've ever stitched, and Anna Claire and Mallory's seer-sucker jumpers, my first fully~lined jumper, was so easy to make. It's the Abigail jumper by Bonnie Blue, and I've already got plans to make two more {that would be four more!} for the girls for this summer! Oh, and we can't forget their new hair bows I made using my newly discovered hair~bow~making~method {so much easier}.

I was really lucky to find coordinating invitations, thank you notes, party favor tags, and banner from Tiger Lily Invitations on Etsy. Adorable!!!

We served a simple spread of crackers and cheese {which turned into fondue}, veggies and dip {which became a steamed veggie plate}, and a watermelon fruit basket carved by yours truly!



The cake{s}! My mom did it again making two two~layered pound cakes decorated like watermelons. So cute and so yummy {we are still eating leftover cake!}







 What's a picnic without lemonade?

I count myself lucky to have found these watermelon plates and napkins online; there's not a lot out there to choose from! And, do you see my ribbon topiary in the back ground? That's one of two I made for the girls. It looks a heck of a lot easier to make that it was {not sure I got enough bang for my buck there}.

Our party favors were little picnic baskets from A.C Moore. I cut out a piece of pink gingham check fabric with pinking sheers and tied on the tag with polka-dotted ribbon.

Inside was watermelon~ shaped and flavored candy

Like the tag says, to all of you who celebrated with us Saturday, thank you for making Anna Claire and Mallory's birthday so sweet! We love you all!!