This Side of Sunny

Amelia is now 3!

On May 2nd 2010, Amelia Valerie Breedlove was born half a world away. She has two birth certificates, a passport and made the trek back home at 6 weeks.

This little whirlwind hasn't stopped moving since. She holds her own with her brothers but yet likes to wear her plastic high heels at the same time. She constantly keeps Jake and I on our toes. We wouldn't trade this three ring circus for anything.

Amelia wanted a pink birthday, complete with a Barbie Princess cake she picked out on Pinterest.

Close up of the Barbie cake:

I actually used the mold from her cake from her first birthday... remember this? Feels like yesterday.

There were lots of pretty presents.

Papa completed her special three figurine set with Sleeping Beauty of the Disney Precious Moments train. 

The first doll house given by Nana and Papa!

Cutting the cake with Daddy. What a perfect ending to a celebration to a little girl who has us all wrapped around her little finger, including her brothers.

A week or two after her birthday, she gave us a present: no more buying diapers! We have officially said goodbye to almost a decade of changing diapers!

 

Highlights from Carter's 6th birthday

There was life before Monster Jam trucks and life after Monster Jam trucks for this now 6 year old. 

The family invite:

The birthday pancake breakfast:

The Monster cake:

Presents:

Carter's first monster truck instructional video: (Carter: put it on youtube, mom)

 

We love this not so little guy. He's the one that starts the bathroom floor slip and slide. He loves to use the stairs for a monster truck launch pad. He recently learned to suck in air and burp. He got excited when he started to read his Hotwheels early readers. He likes to show people how he rides his bike without training wheels and is trying to convince me to let him ride his bike to school for Earth Day because it's good for the environment. And he has his first loose tooth- finally, he's been waiting a long time. I love that when I go check on him at night, he's got two monster trucks sleeping next to him.

Highlights from Coleman's 8th Birthday

Coleman turned 8 on January 14th. It was his first friend party that we celebrated at a place other than the house. I must admit, I liked the no prep, no clean up party but knew we entering a new era. My first born is growing up, becoming a big boy, one who says "Mooom" with an annoyed tone when he's embarrased or thinks he knows more than his parents. Fun times ahead.

The family party:

We gave him his new bike early in the day so he could test it out.

 

 

Brent is the International school in the Phillipines he went to for nursery and preschool. So funny he thinks of it like a college.

 

His birthday party at Wazee's World where they played two games of laser tag and some arcade games.

The kids had a blast comparing their scores. Coleman got second place, even beating out Daddy!

 

Happy Golden Birthday, Amelia!

Amelia turned 2 on May 2nd. One year ago she looked like this...

and she looks like this!

Amelia and Justis decorating the cake. More sprinkles were eaten than actually placed on the cake I think.

A lot happens in that second year of life... she learned words, learned how to say 'no!' very well I might add, likes to talk on the phone, pushes her brothers around (who let her), holds a pen with the proper grip and already has a preference for shoes! Who would have thought a two year old could care about shoes? The boys could have cared less!

Justis trying on Amelia's new high heels, which were a big hit.

Ahh, here's to the adventure of raising a girl.

How to... have a construction truck party

Foreman Carter wanted a construction truck themed party this year. So naturally, it starts with a trip to the Home Depot. He's wearing his birthday shirt that aptly says, "A little dirt won't hurt".

The construction workers or party guests were going to need somewhere to dig, so we enlarged the sandbox in our backyard. Bonus of actually having a backyard!

The Crew

Gear/Favors

• Construction vest, ordered here
• Hard hats, dollar section at Target
• Tool belts from Home Depot
• Carter's construction hat from Home Depot, "because Mom, that's what the planners wear"

The Tunes

While the crew was digging away, we had this playlist going:

• 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton
• Shiftwork by Kenny Chesney
• Working for a Living by Phil Vassar & Huey Lewis
• We Built This City by Starship
• Whistle While You Work (Kids song)
• Down to Earth by Peter Gabriel (from Walle Movie)

The Cake

One of the easier cakes I've made. Carter and I googled "construction truck cake" and looked at images. I pinned two of them for inspiration.

I started with two sheets of chocolate cake. I chose one to cut into different pieces to create the mountain. The white spots are just leftover flour from the pan. Then in the freezer they went.

I had chocolate icing and then colored white icing to a lighter tan. When I got the cake out the pan, some of it stuck. That's the beauty of a construction site cake, just filled the hole with "gravel".

My "gravel" makers...

pounding the Oreos to make the dirt.

Next, Carter picked out the pieces to make the mountain. And yes, I admit to letting them eat icing so I could finish icing the cake... who wants a cake with finger digs all over it?

I liked how the two colors of brown swirled together- totally unintended but turned out great.

My helpers put on the candy rocks, Oreo dirt, palm trees, toy trucks and these adorable cone candles.

Foreman Carter and his cake.

Wasn't one of my best tasting cakes, though. I think I prefer the golden cake.

Games

We were going to do two games, water balloon relay using the dumptrucks and a washing station for the trucks but ended up doing a water balloon toss. Next time we will need to fill a lot of balloons.

 

It was a great party for our special middle child, future foreman planner of construction sites.

 

 

Happy 5th Birthday Carter!

On Saturday, we celebrated our not-so-little construction worker's 5th birthday! It seemed like yesterday I was bringing my little sumo baby home.

Later I will post about the construction party. Carter made quite the foreman!

How to... have a Pokemon party

For his birthday, my soon-to-be-seven year old wanted a Pokemon birthday party. We tackled it like last year and started with cake ideas for inspiration.

The Cake

To get inspiration, I have usually googled it to look at images, but for the next party I will visit Pinterest. Coleman like this one in our search. Of course it contained the most Pokemon figures but at least the cake part was easy (haha, it never is for me!).

I purchased the Pokemon figures off of Ebay for $30. I was in a Nutella mood so I wanted to add a layer of it in between two cakes. I am not the best at frosting cakes so I looked online for tips.

I saw at Prudent Baby, that you could kind of "seal" the cake with a liquid version of the icing. It was easier than making a sugar glaze so I tried it.

I smoothed it down the cut sides but it didn't quite "dry" as I needed it to. The best tip I read off the blog was to put extra parchment paper down under the cake in sections so after you were done icing, you could pull those out and the underside of the cake plate would be clean. I was out of paper so I used foil which worked well.

Oh my, look at that Nutella layer!

The pre-icing didn't work, so I went with my usual method of freezing the cake. That worked and I managed to ice it.

We washed the figures with hot soapy water. My husband made the goal posts of popsicle sticks, super glue and yellow electrical tape. I used Wilton's Kelly Green color for the icing but only because that's what I had already. I would have liked to use a brighter green. What I realized later, is that although the cake was tall because it was going to have this delicious Nutella layer, it was small and not roomy for all the Pokemon figures.

Let the battle begin!

The Shirt

My husband played with some images on Photoshop and created a customized birthday shirt. If you want to do something like this, you can also use a free program like Gimp (for Macs).

Tips:

• Make sure image is a mirror image before printing
• Don't leave your iron on too long and break it
• Have an extra shirt to use or two- a small stain can be covered up by the graphic
• Buy a 10 pack of transfer sheets just in case

The Playlist

We purchased an album called Pokemon - 2.b.a. Master which with songs like the Pokemon theme song and Pokerap, how could we go wrong? I'm sure I'll be listening to it in the car as well.

The Games

We find it's good to have three games planned and allow for flexibility.

• Bubble Battle: We bought an inexpensive bubble blower machine and let the kids have fun (note to self: do not forget extra bubble solution at home). This will also be great for our other kids' parties, having it on as the guest arrive gives the kids something to do.
• Pokeball Dodgeball: We bought several inexpensive, red play balls, drew a black line and a circle around them. Then we lined them up on the rope line and played kids vs. adults and then kids vs. kids. It was Coleman's favorite game and the other kids loved it!

 

•  Pokemon Search & Find: We used some of those leftover Pokemon figures and hid them all over (think Easter eggs) and then when they found one, they traded it in for a candy ring pop.

The Party Favors

We purchased Pokemon treat boxes from Party City and filled them with:

• Pokemon cards
• Pokemon ring
• Pokemon bracelet

The kids were then able to fill their boxes with candy from the Pikachu pinata!

 

How to... create a Pokemon Card Invitation

I saw this Pokemon card birthday invite and thought it was a creative spin on the traditional invite.

Of course I wanted to create one for Coleman which meant I had to learn some Photoshop, which was not easy. Lucky for me, my hubby knows some stuff. I however, learned the hard way to frequently save your work, most of which I lost the first time around (yes, there were some silly tears involved). Creating one the second time around was easier than the first and did go much quicker.

Here's what we came up with:

We included the where and the when of the party information. Then we printed them off as photos, I did a little snipping around the corners.

I put Coleman to work addressing and stuffing envelopes.

I even printed a 5x7 so we could put it in frame as a keepsake.

Here's a "blank" template I've modified from the original source to be more user friendly:

You can right-click to save and use it in Word, Photoshop or any other image-manipulating program. Have fun creating your own Pokemon card.

Stay tuned... my next post will give you some ideas on creating a Pokemon birthday party of your own!

 

Happy Birthday Coleman!

Seven years ago, we celebrated the surprising early arrival of our firstborn son, Coleman. At only 6 pounds, he was so small he wore preemie clothes for the first week.

Today, as I shot this picture, I must admit I was getting teary eyed.

Happy Birthday to our Lego-fanatic, Wii-playing, football-loving son!

32

Yesterday I celebrated 32 years...

with some flowers...

and lots of well wishes.

Thank you for remembering my birthday everyone, I truly feel blessed!