Halloween in Neverland!

But, Peter, how do we get to Never Land?

Fly, of course!

I had so much fun putting together our costumes this year. They were very low key but still had a few personal touches. We were Wendy, Mr Smee, Tinker Bell and Peter Pan.

My costume was super simple. I found this basic blue dress on Zulily for like $15. I just added some navy ribbon around my waist and in my hair and that's that!

I was going to make Matt Captain Hook but decided to give him a comfortable costume this year that he can enjoy himself in. I usually make him wear something super uncomfortable (lol sorry Matt) but I think I made it up to him this year. So instead I went with Mr Smee. I got the chambray shorts and striped t-shirt from OldNavy.com and red beanie from Ebay.

I started making Presley's Tinker Bell costume but I just didn't like it. I then went to a consignment sale and came across this costume. It's an authentic Disney costume but it was still $25, which is way more than I usually spend on one thing. Especially at consignment. BUT THEN I accidentally pressed a button and the wings lit up! SOLD! It reminds me of Disney's Electrical Parade (RIP) and Pres just loved it. The wings also glow in the dark sooo basically I just wish it was in my size.

Last is my cute little Peter Pan. 

This was my Bud last year. Just 2 days away from me giving birth.

But this year I was so happy to have him in my arms and not in my huge belly.

For his costume I made him a little hat out of green felt and a red feather (found this tutorial online. Google it). I got the green t-shirt at Hobby Lobby and just cut it up a little bit to look like Peter Pan. I tied a brown grosgrain ribbon around his wait and attached a little felt sword I sewed for him to it. I got his leggings in the baby girl department on OldNavy.com. I lucked out and found his brown moccasins at a consignment sale.

Although it was rainy this year we still got some good trick or treating in between showers and Pres had a great time. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays so I always look forward to coming up with costumes for my little fam. 

All you need is faith and trust...and a little bit of pixie dust!

Can't wait until next year!

Bud's Flood- Leo is ONE!

It's been a minute since I've blogged! But I had to shake the dust off of my computer for this one because my baby boy just turned 1! He's basically a grown man now so my job is done, right? LOL. He is a handful. He has SO MUCH ENERGY but is just the sweetest, smiliest little Bud and I love every inch of him. We're so proud to be his parents. God has richly blessed us.

So when he was about 6 months I started my birthday brainstorming (as I do). Plus Presley's birthday is in January so I just kinda start doing it all together way earlier than what's socially acceptable. I went through a lot of ideas but the one I kept coming back to is Noah's ark! I knew I could incorporate a lot of cute details from the story into the party plus I loved the idea of planning an event around a Bible story. 

The first thing I did was start with a poem and go from there. During this process I found my party title, "Bud's Flood." His name is Leo but just about everyone calls him Bud (my fault) so I thought this title was too perfect. So naturally I got pretty obnoxious with that. So back to the poem. I love writing. I mean I HATED writing papers and things in school but I really enjoy writing for pleasure. One thing I especially love doing is writing poems about funny situations. I incorporated that hobby into Leo's invitation that I sent out to friends and family via Facebook. I also wrote a poem for PURResley's kitty cat party a few years ago and hope to make it a tradition for my kids. Although it may be something just I get excited about but hey that's fine too!

I also included this pic that I enjoyed way too much:

God told Noah and his fam to build a great big boat.

"Here are my plans and supplies too to make it stay afloat!"

The people said, "That's crazy!" and laughed at them all day long.

But it didn't take much time to find that they had been all wrong.

With 2 of every animal Noah's family board to stay.

The days began to pass them by; they didn't hesitate to pray.

Darkening hues of grays and blacks start to fill the weary skies.

Now the rains are coming down; the floods begin to rise.

But Noah remains faithful until he sees God's sign.

Then swirls of colors paint the skies; the sun begins to shine!

In honor of God's covenant He made by this great flood.

We will throw a special party to celebrate our Bud!

We're thankful for this year and that God's promises ring true.

And how amazed are we to see how much this boy grew!

365 days and nights have passed of filling our hearts with sunlight,

so come celebrate our Leo with us and share in our great delight!

And because the homemade beard was a huge fail but these pics also brought my an immense amount of joy:

There unfortunately weren't a ton of ideas with this theme online but I did a lot of research and pulled things I liked from here and there and came up with something that worked for me. I really wanted guests to feel immersed in the story as they walked in. I like to start the themeing outside and move it in through the house in a logical order. Okay as I type this I'm realizing how ridiculous it is that I've put this much emotion and preparation into a baby's birthday party but they JUST MAKE ME SO EXCITED! I think that the things that make a themed party so special are the little, thought out details that I get so excited about thinking through and putting together. And when they all come together it's as if the rains stops and the flood begins to recede and the rainbow beams brightly out of the clouds. 

I'm just going to walk through the party with pictures so you can experience it the same way as our guests did. I used the lyrics from the Rise and Shine/Arky Arky song to pave the way. Part of me really was hoping that it would rain because THE FLOODS ARE COMING! But it was actually a stunningly beautiful day so that was great too.

I wanted the door frame to resemble an ancient ark, only I didn't measure correctly and it didn't quite touch the bottom which REALLY bothered me but it is what it is. I also used scrapbook paper to put in the windows to resemble the floods rising inside.

And I was also v excited about my 2 little turtles filing in.

So side note, this is a cute, well-known Bible story but like this really happened. Can you imagine?? The WHOLE EARTH WAS FLOODED! I got curious and started researching and it is estimated that Noah and his fam had approximately 7,000 animals to take care of on a BOAT that they HAND MADE! And they couldn't go to Lowes in their pickup truck, pickup a few 2x4s, mallets and nails. NO! They had to make their supplies! SO it took like 55-75 YEARS just to build this ark. Also take into consideration that Noah was SIX HUNDRED YEARS OLD when the floods came. Now I found all of this info on the internet and I'm just assuming it's Biblical/factual but WOW. Now just imagine if I had 80 years to plan this party!

Anyways, so at this point everyone is getting the point that THE FLOODS ARE COMING! So the animals are loading two by twosies. Then they walk into the entry and the rains are comin down! I used Leo's sound machine on the thunderstorm setting to make this more of an immersive experience. I made the gray tissue balls then used transparent paper to cut out raindrops and clear thread to attach them. I got the rain walls in the doorways at Hobby Lobby (duh the best).

Then it was time. The dove returned with the olive branch. The flood was over and God's promise was fulfilled. Enter...the rainbow room.

My mom actually smocked me this dress Pres is wearing when I was her age and I love that she kept it because it was so perfect for the party!

Okay. So the balloon arch. It was so easy and definitely recommend. I bought the kit on Amazon for $20 and a pack of 100 rainbow balloons (only used 50) but like DEFINITELY USE THE PUMP! Actually the pump it came with was crap but if you have another pump, use it. I really built it up with my husband that YEAH WE'RE GOING TO BUILD A BALLOON RAINBOW TOGETHER the night before the party. He insisted on blowing them up himself and legit almost passed out. Granted he was going so fast and not taking a break but I was terrified. Like I didn't know what to do. So DON'T BE LIKE MATT! JUST USE A PUMP! So it didn't take too long and besides the near-death experience I think it was worth it! The clips that came with the kit made it super easy to assemble and I love how it turned out. Just think about the possibilities! I can't wait to use it again. 

Here's a better pic of it in a naked room:

As I do, I struggled for months when it came to deciding party food. Should I go all colorful/rainbow food? Food that looks like food for the animals? ANIMAL-SHAPED FOOD? The internet was v unhelpful. I just couldn't decide! 3 days before the party I finally decided on an array of food themes and came up with this. A Trader Joe's feast (we just got a TJs in Memphis like 2 min from my house and it is just about as magical as Hobby Lobby. Like I'm already obsessed). Also, the party was at 3:30 so this was supposed to be light snackage.

These prosciutto-wrapped asparagus were SUPER easy and were supposed to resemble olive branches. I cut the meat in half before I wrapped so it would go further. They were a big hit and completely gone at the end. Actually

Animal crackers (I've shamelessly eaten an entire bucket of these completely alone).

Rainbow KaBUDs. These were fun to make. I take that back. If you know how to cut up round, robust, oddly shaped and sometimes hairy fruits, these would have been fun to make. LOL at me on the struggle bus just trying to cut up a kiwi. Also, cantaloupe. How.

I found these Vegi Sticks at Traders Joes because I thought they looked like straw and thought "no one will eat these they look disqusting" but people loved them!! Presley was chowin down by the handful. So good to know, right?

Lastly is this cake I spent SO MANY HOURS preparing. The ark alone took me 6 straight hours. I haven't made a cake in so long and haven't been super active with my cake business in general since Leo was born, so I was really nervous. I actually forgot how to make my buttercream that I used to crank out by the pound and had to look it up in my recipe book. Oops. But anyways, I wasn't super happy with the outcome. Maybe it's the colors. I'm not sure. I couldn't put my finger on what went wrong but I think everyone else enjoyed it. It is supposed to be the ark landed on top of Mount Ararat with the floods receding below. Also, fun fact. When I was in high school I was obsessed with Mt Ararat and would research it in my spare time because I thought it was SO COOL that we can know the location(ish) of where the ark landed. They found evidence of gopher wood here and other things but I'm a bit rusty on my facts here. I'm nerding out again. Also, I love space. WHAT IS IT? It's so big. So vast. I have so many questions! Ahem. So turning Mt Ararat into a cake kinda thrilled my soul a little bit...or alot. Okay alot. 

And here's the cake with the last part of the song to finish out the story.

The other little table was for plates/forks/napkins, Leo's smash cake and I always like to have a themed book for everyone to sign and I put them in my kids' keepsake boxes for them to have forever. I made the little chalkboard out of a wood slice (Hobby Lobby) and chalk paint for Presley's Pooh party earlier this year.

I did love his smash cake. The different colored cake layers made me feel v happy.

Bud agreed.

So the kitchen was boring. I just put a blue table cloth on our kitchen table with a Noah's ark toy and totes forgot to take a pic. 

Here are some pics of the living room. I made the ark out of poster board from Michaels. I found the animals in the wood aisle at Hobby Lobby and my dad cut them to make them fit in the window. And I couldn't resist adding a pic of Floody Buddy in his Noah suit. I cut out 12 pieces of paper to make the rainbow above and included his monthly pictures. I used blue tissue paper to make the "water" and the Happy Birthday banner was recycled from Presley's Pooh Party as well.

I totally forgot about the high chair banner (tragic) until kinda last minute so I only used supplies I had in my craft room. I tied on misc ribbons and used a fusible interfacing to attach the "1" to the banner.

For the drink bar I made this rainbow banner out of different tones of rainbow colors. I just had Coke, water ("Rain Drops") and a blue punch ("Flood Waters"). The punch was 2 packages of frozen pineapple juice concentrate, about 3/4 container of blue Hawaiian punch and a 2 liter of lemon lime soda. It was surprisingly tasty!

I recycled this "1" from Presley's first birthday and replaced her pictures with some of my favorites of Mister Bud throughout the year.

We had so much fun celebrating a whole year with our sweet boy! Leo, you're a rainbow in our lives. Sweet boy.

I can't wait to do it again next time. I'm sure I'll start planning in like 6 months so I don't have much time! Oh gosh I'm getting behind. 

PrELSA is 4 coming soon! Thanks for sticking out this flood with me!

POOHresley is THREE

I've said it before but I'll say it again, I CAN'T BELIEVE MY BABY IS THREE! Geez where does the time go. It's been a little over a year now since her Winnie the Pooh obsession began so I thought it'd be the perfect theme for her birthday this year. Plus there's so much material so I thought it'd be really fun to plan/craft for.

Come join us in the Hundred Acre Wood to celebrate POOHresley’s third birthday! We will have some smackerels to eat plus a few good friends and a stick or two. It will be as sweet as a pot of hunny. We hope you can join us!

I wrote most of this blog post in October before baby Leo got here because I'm crazy. OR am I actually smart?? Eh? A good portion of my pre-baby to-do list included all of the things I wanted to make for Presley's birthday party. I knew I wouldn't be up to going all-out with a 3 year old and 2 month old so I wanted to get the majority of the crafting done while I had the time/energy. I love little details and wanted to spend the time I could making this party just POOHfect for my POOHresley.

I did my typical buy one thing at a time at Hobby Lobby method because it works for me. Here's how that works: I sat down one night and researched and planned the whole party like 6 months in advance. I wrote a list of everything I wanted to make and everything I needed to do so. I put it on my phone and every time I went to Hobby Lobby I bought one thing for the party with my 40% off coupon. OR if something I needed was already on sale I'd just buy it then. HL is 2 minutes from me and I go like 3 times a week and I realize that this is a weird thing to do so this method isn't realistic for most people. BUT for me it works and in the end the whole party (sans the food) ends up being 40-50% off! It really does add up and I usually end up saving $50-100 doing it this way. I'm a psycho planner so doing it this way just comes unusually natural for me. 

Here are the things I made:

Hunny pots

"Happy Birthday" banner

"Pres" banner for mantle wreath
Paper leaves for the big paper tree
Tree made from brown wrapping paper (2 rolls)

Bees+bee hives to hang from the ceiling

Misc paper signs 'TTFN", "For the rumbly in your tumbly", etc

Cardboard signs for the door "Mr Sanderz" and "Rnig Also"

Little honey jars w/ bee fabric + Pooh quote (party favors)

Rabbit's garden wood signs

"Pooh and Presley corner" wood sign

Wood slice chalkboard with Pooh quote

Pin the tail on Eeyore
Wood slice food labels

Things I bought/already had/borrowed:

Little woodland creatures

Acorns 

Burlap table runners

Little straw hat for Rabbit's garden

Little watering can for Rabbit's garden

Little wooden food signs

Big balloon + Pooh
Lots of Command hooks and stickers to attach things to the wall/ceiling
Fresh flowers (got mine at Kroger)

Food:

Beehive cake + cupcakes

Rotini pasta salad (Tigger tails) [from Tazikis]

Vegi tray with ranch (Vegetables from Rabbit's Garden) [Costco]

Applesauce pouches (Kanga's pouch) [GoGo Squeeze from Costco]
Hot ham sandwiches (Hunny Ham Sandwiches)
Pigs in a blanket (Pig(let)s in a Blanket) [frozen from Costco]

Pink punch (Piglet's Pink Lemonade)
Sweet Tea (Tigger Tea) [Milo's sweet tea]
Honey for party favor honey jars

I think that a great themed party is all in the little details. I like for it to be an immersive experience from the second you walk in. I decorated the front door like Pooh's house, complete with Rabbit's garden.

I downloaded  a few songs to have playing in the main room that you could hear when you opened the door. The playlist included the Winnie the Pooh theme song, A Few Good Friends (from Piglet's Big Movie), Little Black Rain Cloud, Rumbly in my Tumbly, etc). Along with this TRULY MASSIVE BALLOON HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SUCH A THING??? I bought it at Hobby Lobby thinking it was going to be a little bigger than a regular balloon. I sent Matt with it when he went to go pickup the balloons the day of the party. Then he came home with THIS and I couldn't stop LOLing. They charged him $10 to blow it up because it was so huge. So the entry hall was the only place it'd fit and not be in the way. And it legit took up the whole room. This pleased me.

"For the Rumbly in your Tumbly"

And the main room! And duh the best one because it had all of the food.

For the beehives I just got a 3-pack of yellow paper lanterns at Hobby Lobby and made some little bees and glued them on. I made the bees out of tiny wooden pots from Joanne (lol that they make these), paint, little black pom poms, iridescent translucent white paper for the wings, and skinny black beads for the stinger. I hung them to the ceiling with Command hooks that don't hurt the paint.

For the tree I legit had no idea what I was doing and really can't really tell you exactly what I did because I don't really know. It's made of 1.5 rolls of brown wrapping paper from Hobby Lobby. I just crumpled it up and attached to the wall with Command strips. I got 10ish sheets of green paper in different tones and cut leaves out. After I got the tree up I hot glued them on. I got the little squirrel at Michaels.

I got the big wood slice above from Hobby Lobby painted it with chalkboard paint and wrote a cute Pooh quote:

"Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart"

I also liked using some of the 80 Pooh books we had in my decor. I used the little wood slices to write the names of food on in a big bag for $4 at Hobby Lobby as well.

This table had plates, napkins, forks, Presley's special cupcake, party favors and the guest book (a Pooh book that I had everyone sign).

I made these little jars and filled them with honey for party favors.

I had some simple decor on the kitchen table:

And here's the living room! I got this cute window at a garage sale across the street a year ago for ONE DOLLAR! I hung a cheap grapevine wreath from it with a little banner I made with Presley's nickname on it. The shutters always live on my mantle so I just used little clothespins to hang my favorite Pres pics up. I made the "Happy Birthday" banner with cute paper I cut out and glued to twine.

But my favorite part is my floating Pooh. It's just clear thread that I sewed through the top of Pooh's head and hung with a Command hook. I also sewed his hands together then I just tied a balloon to him. Matt and I got Presley this Pooh in the Magic Kingdom when we went to Disney World a few years ago. This was a good year before the Pooh obsession began. Nailed it.

We served drinks at our bar (as you do at a bar). We had water, cucumber water, a pink punch (Piglet's Pink Punch), sweet tea (Tigger Tea), Coke and Diet Coke. I got the cute red fan things at Hobby Lobby. It was like $6 for 6 of them (and of course I used my coupon so they were super cheap).

We also had pin the tail on Eeyore but totes forgot to play. 

But I can't forget my very favorite part, my very own little Christopher Robin. I got the shirt/pants on Kohls.com then got white fabric paint and painted the shirt to look like Christopher. I got the red mocassins on Ebay for $5 and just cut the fringe off.

Here are a few more pics!

LOL at our family pic.

That's about it! Thanks so much for reading.

TTFN! TaTa for Now!!