Meeska-Mooska Mickey Mouse!

Elic LOVES Mickey Mouse. So when he asked for a Mickey Clubhouse party for his 3rd birthday, I couldn't say no. I must say that things ended up coming together rather nicely. Here's the birthday boy with his Bubba.
I enjoyed making his banner. I actually made this one before I made Holden's.


I saw this cute idea of making cookies in the shape of Mickey's shorts. When I asked the kids at the party what they were all I heard was silence. O-well, at least they tasted good.
The cupcakes were like the mouse ear hats you wear at Disney World.

I don't know why I thought I could make his cake, the polka dots ended up much larger than I had pictured in my mind. My mom asked how I got the icing pink and I politely said "it's actually red"- guess I didn't use enough food coloring.Yes, I own a Mickey Mouse ice cube tray. I made ice cubes for a week! Every day I made a different color. I told Darren I can't wait to see what shape ice cubes they make for my birthday next week.
We started off the party with the parachute and a few songs.




Then we went to get our party hats and they were MISSING! We decided we needed some tools to help us solve our mystery. And who do you call when you need a tool? Oh, Toodles!

After looking around, we decided that the culprit could have gone out the front door or the back door. We needed to break into two groups and search for the party hats. What tool could we use to help us communicate with each other while we were apart? Well, Mouska-talkies of course.
One group searched the front yard and found a few hats while the second group searched the back yard and found a few more.
We were still a few hats short, so we thought the thief might have gone through the gate. What Mouska-tool could help us get through the gate? Mouska-keys!


Once through the gate, we saw that it was a large area we were needing to look in. We called toodles to see if there was a tool we could use to help us see objects that are far away. And of course Toodles had the perfect thing- Mouska-Lookers!


With everyones help we were able to find all the party hats so we headed inside to do the Hot Dog Dance!

Colby must get his moves from his Dad!
Elic was so funny- I've never seen him get shy before.
A group shot without the birthday boy.
And there was a mystery tool. Something was missing on the cake- the candles!
Elic really didn't like all the attention- so funny to me.
But he perked up for a few pictures with Mom and Dad.
The birthday boys wishing each other a happy day!
I think cupcakes are his favorite sweet to eat.
The "older" girls were such a big help with all activities.
No, that's not Taylor Lautner- that's Uncle Sammy.
After all the sugar eating, we opened gifts.

The scooter was a BIG hit.

We played one last game before the party was over.
The parting gifts were adorable t-shirts that my friend Stephanie designed. I had so much fun making these and think they turned out so cute!

The boys got the pirate Mickey shirt. . .and the girls got Minnie.

Look at these cuties!

I was pretty happy with our family photo.
After dinner out with some family we headed upstairs to give Elic his gifts from us.
Yes, that's Mac-n-cheese. Elic LOVES mac-n-cheese. I really think he'd eat it for every meal every day if we let him. We've had it for lunch the past two days because he just begs for it.
His real gift was this Buzz Lightyear tent.

Holden likes it just as much as Elic because he can crawl through it and circle around and start all over. Hours of fun! I was so glad to give Elic such a fun party. He is still talking about it so I think he really had a great time- we listen to our Mickey Clubhouse cd almost every day. I certainly think Elic is EAR-resistible (get it? Mickey Mouse- Ears- I crack myself up!)!

Since Darren shares Elic's birthday and mine is less than two weeks after theirs, we had a combined party with all our family. Here are two of my favorite gifts:
My mom and Papaw have this bird feeder at their house and I LOVE it! It makes me smile. Of course theirs had lots of birds swinging on it, and we hope to get a few as well.

Uncle Sammy had this commentary with him when we went on vacation to Florida and I fell in love with it. I crave Bible knowledge. I feel like I miss out on so much when I read verses because I don't know the historical background or what the original Greek or Hebrew text said. I've already learned so much from the short amount I've read this week and I find myself saying "Darren, did you know that this verse could mean this" after everything I read- just so insightful!

And now I can rest, until Monday when Preston starts kindergarten!

Happy Birthday Holden

It's hard for me to believe that Holden is one!! This past year really has flown by. We have been so blessed to have Little Bit added to our family. To celebrate his birthday we had a Splish, Splash rubber ducky blast.

I've always admired the banners I see on etsy so I decided to try and make one. I won't show you the one I was modeling this one after (since it didn't quite turn out like I had originally planned) but over all I was happy with the final product.


I found a duck ice cube tray and had to have it! I made ice for three days so that we could enjoy blue ducks in our drinks.

Isn't that just adorable?

It's a tradition at our house to get a candle as a party treat for first birthday's.

Look at that precious face!

What would a rubber duck party be with out blue punch and floating duckies?

Brotherly love.

For the Splish, Splash portion of the party we enjoyed the water table (a birthday gift from Gram and Pops) and a few water toys outside.





Aaron showed Holden a great way to enjoy the water table- sitting in it is much better than standing up around it. After a few family photos . . .




. . . we opened gifts. Holden was much more involved in this process than any of my other kids were at their 1st parties. He loved opening the gifts and then actually played with the toys and not just the boxes or paper that they came in.
I love the expression on his face as he explored the first toy.



Then it was time for cake. This was suppose to be a giant cupcake, but I kinda messed up and iced the whole thing so you can't even tell what it's suppose to be. O-well, I'll know better next time.
Holden was so cute while we were singing happy birthday to him. He grinned the whole time but got real shy and put his head down on the high chair.


Everyone helped blow out the candles.
I have always wanted my kids to dig into their cakes- but not one of them ever has. We even undressed Holden so he could get messy and he wouldn't touch the cake. Even after having some icing put in his mouth he still wouldn't try it.


Can you tell what part of the cupcake Elic likes?
Holden was much happier with the duck sugar cookies.

Aunt Kim brought this great parachute for us to play with. Look at the joy on Holden's face as balloons bounced all around him and the parachute flapped up and down.



We certainly wore him out. He took a 3+ hour nap after all our guests left. Here are a few fun facts about Holden:

- He drinks milk now and only wanted it from a sippy cup so we are formula and bottle free!
- He eats as much as the other two boys- we are definitely going to have to increase our grocery budget. I've already had to start buying the family size of certain items and we never have leftovers from meals. Some of his favorite foods include green beans, Mrs. Stephanie's broccoli, grapes, bananas, mac-n-cheese, and any flavor of yogurt.
- He is just starting to venture out and take a few steps on his own. He prefers to hold your fingers, but every day he seems to be trying more on his own.
- Holden would play in the dog's water all day if you let him. If he's ever quiet I know that he has made it into the laundry room and is splashing away in their bowl.
- He's still a great sleeper. I've kinda forced him down to one nap a day, because I needed all three to be on the same schedule so I can have a little time to myself in the afternoons. Bedtime is so easy with him, just sing a few songs and lay him down and he's good until around 7am.
- He loves to play with his brothers. Especially with the super hero figures. Anytime he's holding one he'll make a noise (which sounds a lot like static) but to him it's just like the noises his brothers make when they fight bad guys.
- Holden has a lovie animal blanket that he chews the tail of. I like to watch him feel all over the blanket until he finally gets the tail, and then he pops it into his mouth.
- I've never had a child mimic as much as Holden. Words, noises, motions with hands- he tries them all. The boys love to try and get him to copy them.
- He gives the best hugs and kisses. Once he starts giving those fun open mouthed kisses, he just can't stop.

We feel so fortunate that the Lord has lent us Holden. Our family wouldn't be complete without him. We can only imagine what the future holds for him. Happy 1st Birthday Little Bit! We love you.