Henry Turns 4!

My sweet Henry turned 4 today.

He has been really excited about his birthday for a few weeks. I have been a little bit sad.

If you know Henry well, you know that he likes his sippy cup full of milk. He also frequently asks for me to hold him like a baby while he drinks his milk. He told us several months ago that when he turned 4 he wasn't going to drink from his sippy cup anymore. The night before his birthday I asked if I could hold him while he drank his milk. He of course let me, and I cried like a baby thinking about my baby not being a baby anymore.

He woke up super excited about his birthday. He also requested his milk in a big cup, and said he wasn't kidding. That boy!

He put on a birthday hat and had a cupcake for breakfast before church.

He was REALLY excited about church today. Turning 4 means moving up to the next class. He will now have a memory verse to memorize like big brother, and earn Bible Bucks. This is a big deal to this little guy. When we got out of the car he looked at me and said, "I can run with Cade now, because I'm 4!" I wasn't far behind him, and heard him announcing to all of the ushers and our Pastor on the way in that he was now 4!

All of our family came over for lunch and cupcakes. We had fun celebrating his big day with everyone.

He took charge opening gifts. Then it was time for cupcakes. I took this opportunity to snap some pics of the birthday boy with everyone.

 

Sweet boy!

Henry Turns 3!

I am back from a much needed mini vacay with husband. It was long overdue considering we haven't been anywhere alone for fun since before I new I was pregnant with Henry. Now it is time to play catch up and I am gong to start with Henry's Birthday. It was a week and a half ago.

My BABY is THREE!
He is very into Jake and the Neverland Pirates and has been asking for a "PINK JAKE COOKIE CAKE" for about a month. I opted for chocolate icing instead of pink, so he picked pink candles. We kept his birthday party very low key this year and just invited the family over for grilled burgers and chips. It was nice and relaxed. It was nice to just enjoy Henry on his special day and not have a ton of projects to finish up.

I mentioned in a post last week that I got his birthday gift done just in time for his birthday. It was not a hard project, but I needed a nice day so that I could spray paint. I finally got a nice day 3 days before his birthday, and only his nap time to turn a faded second hand Cozy Coupe into a Batmobile. I saw one of these on Pinterest many months ago and knew that the next time I saw one posted for sale I was going to scoop it up and paint one for Henry. I used 2 cans of Krylon Fusion Paint in a black, satin finish and then had a friend make the Batman decals out of vinyl. The decals ended up being WAY too big, so I just traced the logo on the back of the vinyl, painted the front with some yellow acrylic paint that I had on hand (it was midnight the night before H's b-day), and then cut them out. I may do something else later on, but this was the quick fix I needed for the time being.

He was pretty excited, and I must say he looks pretty cool in this thing.

Linking up to these Blog Parties Tatertots and Jello - A Bowl Full of Lemons - The Bliss Diaries - Positely Splendid - Delightful Order - It's Overflowing - The Shabby Nest 
-House of Hepworths 

Cade is 6 - The Party

My little man is officially 6. This year's party was at 2 in the afternoon so I didn't do a meal; I just loaded this kids up with plenty of sugar. CARS themed sugar.

We had stop light cookies. (gram crackers, icing, m & m's)

 Luigi's Tower of Tires (chocolate donuts stacked with a skewer)

Chocolate Dip Sticks (chocolate covered pretzels - 

I added sprinkles and Cade informed me that they didn't look like real dip sticks 

because of the sprinkles.)

Framed Invitation 

 I kept everything really simple. Lots of balloons, a yard of checkered vinyl purchased from Hobby Lobby, and signs made from a cardboard box and paint I had on hand. The signs and checkered table cloth were left over from this years Trunk or Treat.

Euro Pro Shark - a CSN Stores review

Last month CSN contacted me about doing another product review. I have a list of things bookmarked on their website, but after moving I detoured from my list. When we moved and covered the bottom floor of our house in tile, things like "find the easiest way to mop these floors" became important. Enter CSN.

I decided to give the Euro Pro Shark mop a try. OH MY WORD! It is so easy, and fast, and my floors are clean! Really clean.

I had a nice mop before (that I still like and use to clean a spill), but I really like the shark. I like that I don't have to use any cleaning solution and that the floor is almost immediately dry. Major pluses in my book. If you have tile floors, this mop comes highly recommended from me. I was a little concerned about having to plug and replug the mop in to get from one side of the house to the other, but it hasn't been that big of a deal.

I was a little surprised that the mop arrived in just the original shark box, not a brown cardboard box, but it was in one piece, and arrived very quickly. 

*I was provided with a shopping code to use to purchase this item from CSN in exchange for a review of the item, but the opinions are my own. I was not compensated to tell you that I liked the mop, I really do like the mop.

1st Birthday Party

The objective for this birthday party was to enjoy celebrating Henry's first year and to keep things simple. I wasn't sure that I could keep it simple, but I did, and his party was perfect.

Henry really likes balloons, so that was my inspiration.

 getting set up

The chalkboard in the kitchen.

He really enjoyed his cupcake!

Come join the nikki's nacs fan page on Facebook.

the Batman Surprise Birthday Party

SURPRISE!

Passing out NOISE makers

gathering the goodies

Time for a cupcake.

The Story
Cade has talked for months about having a surprise batman birthday party. The problem was that he had ALL of the details already planned out, including a pinata. I kept telling him that if he had everything all planned out nothing would be a surprise. He explained to me that it would be a surprise because he wouldn't know "which tomorrow" it would be.

I decided we would try to pull it off. Cade was involved with everything. I made sure that he knew his birthday was the day after Thanksgiving, and then had his party the Saturday before. It worked. We had A LOT of help, but he was totally surprised.

The Details (and how I kept the costs down)
-cupcake stand- a box wrapped in batman paper, a cake plate, then a clear glass with a white plate on top. Nothing was attached. I just prayed that nothing would topple over. (success)
-cupcakes- Made by me. This is inexpensive because you don't need forks or plates to eat them, and everyone likes cupcakes.
-batman cupcake toppers- made by me in excel, printed, punched and glued to toothpicks
-happy birthday chalkboard- an unfinished wooden plaque that was in the top of my closet sprayed with chalkboard paint
-paper chain- strips of construction paper that I had on hand
-striped fabric on food table- leftover from another project
-menu- created in word, printed and put in a frame that I already had (here is the inspiration for the menu)
-wire basket to hold plastic and paperware- unused file basket
-tin for plasticware - paint can that was spray painted yellow that was snagged from Cade's room. It usually holds colored pencils. I just washed it and lined it with a napkin. 
-noisemaker holder-empty soup can covered in wrapping paper
-pinata filler- candy and playdough bought the day after halloween for 50% off
-party bags - used to gather goodies from pinata. Found on clearance at Target (8 for 38 cent)
-food- I kept the menu simple to make thing easy on myself and to keep the cost down. Taco Soup, Chili, and PB&J sandwiches for any of the kids that didn't like the other stuff.
-party favors- because we were doing  a pinata that was going to be full of candy I chose to make "superhero" capes for each of the kids with their initial on it. I had planned to make them out of new king size black sheet, but found shiny fabric on sale at Walmart. (5 yards for $5, major score!) The letters were cut out of felt.

He had a blast, so it was worth all of the effort. The only sad part was that I didn't get any pictures of the birthday boy with his Daddy, Mommy, or brother. How did I do that?

linked to:
Our Joy His Glory - Happy Hostess
Just something I whipped up
Craft-O-Maniac Monday
Tatertots and Jello