Franz Josef's 1st Birthday Party!

We were so excited to celebrate our son's 1st birthday party with all of our family! We were so excited that everyone was able to make it! We got free printables from a website on pinterest for the banner and the menu cards. The day before the party that we needed to do all the work our power went out due to a huge storm. Thankfully with a lot of help and generosity we were still able to pull off this fun and cute party! My sisters made the cupcakes at my sister's house and we had to get the printables printed at Staples. Thankfully the power came on at 4pm the day before the party...WHEW! We used the decor from Franz's bedroom to create this nautical atmosphere with a lot of fun food ideas. I found cute kids party hats for all of his cousins to wear at Target and I made his party hat with supplies from Hobby Lobby. What made the party so special though was that all of both mine and Andrew's family was able to join us for this celebration, even Franz's great grandparents and great uncle!!

Grandpa and Dad! 3 generations!

Love this shirt from Grandma and Grandpa Cole

chewing on his favorite gift, the hammer from the xylophone-LOL! Such a boy :) 

A New Playroom for My Little Ones...

We decided that it was time for our children to have a new playroom since their bedrooms are right next to each other and they have different nap times etc.. There was a room in the basement that just had a laundry folding table and a treadmill. So we thought this would be the best room to use as a playroom. And if you know anything about me whatever change has to made needs to be fun or it's not worth doing :) I had so much fun picking out the new paint colors and furniture. We found the white piece that has all of the toy boxes on it on Craigslist. It is Pottery Barn so it's very well made. It was Navy blue and I painted it white(that only took like 6 coats of paint-lol). I found the toy boxes, canopy and cushion at Ikea and got several new toys and books at Ikea and Toys R Us. Annette was so excited when she saw the room! She just kept saying, "Thank you Mommy! Thank you Daddy!".

This is the room before painting...

The after pictures :)

No More Surprises...

Well, I had planned on getting my husband a nice watch for Valentine's Day. I picked it out and showed my 2 year old, later that day her Daddy met up with us and was changing her in the mini van. She picked up the box with the watch in it and said, "Here's your watch Daddy!" So much for the surprise. She pays more attention than I realize. She is my sweet baby girl though and I love her to pieces :)

A Surprise Baby Shower!!!

It's a boy!!! On Saturday I threw a surprise baby shower for my sister! Of course I had lots of help from my grandmother, mother and other sisters. The baby's room is decorated with navy blue and white chevron with a hint of lime green, so we decided to use those colors for the shower. I found a great tutorial on how to make a train cake- http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/train-cake/5685f320-1e5c-4ebb-b2cd-1ab73633b016 I used the Classic White Cake recipe from America's Test Kitchen. That is always a very popular cake with the guests :) All of the food was lime green and blue. We had kiwi and blueberry skewers as well as a seven layer dip with guacamole on the top and turkey, cheese and spinach pinwheels wrapped in spinach tortillas :) The drink Du jour was homemade limeade with lime slices and blueberries. 

So all of the guests arrived between 11:30-12:15 and thankfully my husband, brothers and a friend saved the day by valet parking the guests cars so we could keep it all a surprise until she walked in the door :) My brother-in-law knew what time to "stop-by"...She was completely surprised when I opened the door and all of the guests were standing in our dinning room and said, "Surprise!" There was a wonderful turnout which included out-of-town guests as far as California! We had a lovely time visiting, playing games and watching my sister open an abundance of gifts. That baby will be the best dressed child around!!! Thanks to my grandmother, mother and sisters and guests for making this party a real success!