ZeeZee is now THREE!

Well my sweet baby girl turned Three! can you believe it?! I swear it feels like she was just born. I can still remember the hospital like it was yesterday...

But, enough of that. Now, I'm gonna tell you about her party!

I REALLY REALLY wanted to do a princess and the pea party! I had so many fun ideas for it and tried and tried to convince Zeegan that that is the kinda party she wanted. LOL. However, she was dead set on a (get ready for it!) "Ballerina Fairy Princess" party. seriously girl?!  Can't she just pick one? It's easy to do a princess party (last year's theme!), it's easy to plan a fairy party, and it's easy to come up with ideas for a ballerina party. But try planning a party for all three! it's hard not to lean to far toward one of the three...

But we did it!

First the invite, not gonna lie, I'm pretty proud of how I designed this little baby:

See that silhouetted fairy in a tutu and a princess tiara? Made that up! Seriously, I scoured the internet for a ballerina fairy princess silhouette and could find none. So I sent my thoughts and ideas and favorite ballerina silhouette to my fabulous sister and she drew me the image. Which I then stuck in photoshop and turned pink, and viola! Fabulousity!!!

The party was decorated with fairy houses, hanging hydrangea balls, tulle, ribbons, butterflies, flowers, and big blocks that read "BELIEVE" (for fairies), "DREAM" (for ballerinas), and "WISH" (for princesses)... Almost all the table-top decor came from a wonderful neighbor of mine who traded a family photo-shoot for a bedroom full of decor. I think I got the better end of the deal for sure!

My wonderful mother-in-law flew in for the weekend to be there for ZZs party and she brought wings to give all the little girls, and swords for all the little boys. She helped my sew a tutu to go around the foot high table that Seth built for all the kids to sit at (didn't I marry me such a stud-muffin-manly-man?!). and then we made little flower and butterflies cushions for all the kids to sit on.

  

  

I didn't think to take a picture of the food until it was nearly gone. oops!

We served, Fairy Bread (bread with butter, peanut butter, or nutella on it and then sprinkled with sprinkles...), Chicken Salad Croissants, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Watermelon, Strawberries, Chips and salad. With Pink Lemonade as a drink. ALL the food got eaten, and I'm not kidding when say: we made ATON of food! so it must've been good!

 

We had LOTS of little friends show up! We invited all the kids from Zeegan's nursery at church and then a couple close friends from outside of church as well. 23 out of 25 of those invited came! I was shocked (because seriously, we usually only have about 50% of the kids we invite show up! good thing we didn't invite the class just older than ZZ too; we wouldn't have all fit! lol).
After their lunch, the kids played games and in the bouncy house...

Then we painted/ colored/ or stickerified Fairy Castles! (Really they were just birdhouses that were shaped like castle. I found at Michaels craft store for super cheap. yay!).

 

   

ZeeZee was having such a good time! She kept giving me hugs and kisses and saying "Thank-you for my birthday party!" it was pretty special. It's been more than a week since her party and she still keeps asking when she can have another.

We ended the party with cupcakes (they were super cute! sad i didn't get a picture of them...) and ice-cream, donuts and cookies. And each child got to take home a goody bag, their fairy houses, and their wings (or swords).

Happy Birthday my Princess Zeegan! We LOVE You!!!

Galveston!!!

Ahhh, our Galveston Trip: where to start?

I've heard so many people that dislike Galveston. I was excited to get out of town, but didn't have high hopes for loving Galveston because everyone I have talked to has told me how much they didn't like it there. But I gotta tell you: i was pleasantly surprised! We LOVED Galveston! Maybe it was the company? Maybe it was such a short trip we didn't have time to start disliking it (doubtful!)? Maybe it just really isn't as bad as people think it is?!

Our trip to Galveston was a quicky. We stopped off at the Houston LDS Temple on our way there. I've been to a lot of Temples, and I always think they are absolutely beautiful structures, but the Houston one is sooo unique and lovely that I was somehow surprised even after all the other Temples we've seen. We LOVED the flower gardens. They were lovely and teaming with flowers found all over Holland, so Seth was really loving it...

After the Temple, we stopped for dinner at this cute little Argentenian food place. Do I look excited? If you had smelled those things you would'e looked this excited too! They were incredible!!!!

Then it was on to Galveston. We went with friends Mandy and Brandon. Mandy's parents have a house on Galveston and it was soooo much fun there!

Our first morning we went to the sunflower cafe for breakfast. cute decor! yummy food! Happy people...

After breakfast we went on a Dolphin tour. Super cheap, and super fun! I was all pumped and ready to take some dolphin pictures, but didn't end up getting a whole lot (of dolphin pictures. i got lots of pictures of us people tho!); not because we didn't see a lot of dolphins, but because ZZ was scaring me as she was practically trying to jump off the boat to go visit the dolphins...

After the Dolphin tour we went on a ferry ride to another island, A PIRATE ISLAND! You can only imagine what I was imagining and how exciting the whole adventure was for me :).

Then we went back to the house.

Oh wait! I lied. FIRST, we stopped and got slushy-custards from Rita's! Blew. my. Mind! You have not tasted anything so delicious as that in your entire life; I guarantee it. SOOO GOOD! Seriously, It's worth going to Galveston just for that! (granted they have Rita's in Austin and Houston as well...).

Anyway, THEN we went back to the house. We did some kite flying, Golf-cart riding, paddle-boating, hammock sitting and fishing for the next couple hours. 

We went to The Spot for dinner. Which is apparently the spot for yummy food (pun intended, haha!). Then we went home and unfortunately ended up killing over ourselves as we were trying to put our kids to sleep :(. Next time, we'll be staying up late for GAMES! Woot! Woot! lol.

The next morning we ate a yummy breakfast, then went on a bit of a scenic drive. and then we went swimming! My kids felt like their life was complete!

 Then we had to go home :(.

Galveston was a blast! to all you haters out there: y'all don't know it, but you are soooo missing out on the hidden treasures of this once treasure island! it's fantastic!!!

Can't wait to go back again sometime! Thanks again for inviting us Brandon and Mandy!!!