MORE presents & a very Birthday-ish Day

For Lorien's class, I made YELLOW CAKE POPS with bright sprinkles. Lorien was SO thrilled that they were yellow. Yellow is her favorite color right now & she gets SO excited every time she sees it. I knew she'd love YELLOW cake pops.

After school we let her open her gifts from our friend Nancy (who always sends the most fabulous clothes) & my side of the family. She got some great outfits & PURPLE BOOTS from Nancy.

She got $10 from Mamoo, 2 Math Leapster games from Mimi & Baba, & a pedicure set from Auntie Cari & Uncle Justin. She had a GREAT birthday.

Lorien's Birthday Breakfast & Family Birthday Party

For Lorien's special birthday breakfast she wanted pancakes, scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, & of course the Potter signature DING DONG. She couldn't wait.

She was also very excited to show us her dollar that the Tooth Fairy brought her on her birthday since she lost her bottom tooth the day before. She felt extra special.

I can't believe our little bug is SEVEN YEARS OLD now. Happy Birthday sweetie.

Lorien's Family Party & Lunch

After Lorien's birthday party with her friends, we sat down & opened presents from the family since most of the Potter family was there anyway. First she opened her present from Trek & I: a set of all 6 Tinkerbell Fairies. She was SO excited. That is what she wanted more than anything else.

Opa & Oma got her all sorts of painting supplies. Lorien loves to paint & now she's SET for all of her painting needs.

Tylee bought Bladen the funniest Star Wars mask ever. He was karate chopping everybody in the room while Lorien was trying to open her presents. We were all laughing hysterically the entire time.

Grandma Kinsfather gave Lorien $10 to spend on anything she wanted & Uncle Tuhk got her the Mermaid Barbie she's been asking for for a while now.

Auntie Tarrish & Auntie Tylee got Lorien a purse/bag that she can color all by herself as well as an adorable Cinderella & Prince Barbie Set.

All of her brothers & sisters gave her a Paper Jamz Drum Set. She was happy with that & so was Mommy (since you can plug headphones into it so mommy doesn't have to hear the banging)

After presents we all went out to a great little Chinese place for lunch. I love going out to lunch as a whole family. It's always a blast.

Lorien's Spongebob Birthday Party

Happy 7th Birthday to my sweet little Lorien.

For her special day this year she chose Spongebob Squarepants as her birthday theme. I knew that I could make a fun Spongebob cake for her. It took me nearly 3 hours, but it turned out adorable. According to Lorien. . . . "Eh, it'll work." She is SO FUNNY. I love how frank she is about life. She never lies & tells you exactly what's on her mind. That's what makes Lorien unique & I love her for it. . . even if she thinks after 3 hours of hard work that it's just "Eh."

Lorien's favorite color right now is yellow, so the Spongebob theme made it EASY to incorporate the yellow. My friend Nancy sent all the table wear & goodie bags. She did a great job at picking out some really cute things.

In the doorway to the kitchen, I hung some pink balloons with pink streamers to represent "Jellyfish Fields"

the place that Spongebob & Patrick spend every afternoon together. Lorien thought that was VERY FUN.

And we couldn't forget YELLOW SPONGEBOB BALLOONS.

She was SO excited for her friends to arrive.

Lorien is such a beautiful little girl. I still can't believe she is 7 years old. I love her little toothless grin. My nickname for her is "Toothless" so this picture is so adorable to me.

So once the guests arrived, we started out by making little whale crafts. Spongebob lives in the ocean & he is friends with whales. The kids LOVED this.

Then I had each of the kids have a "Mr. Krab's race" to the back door & back. A lot of them had never done a crab walk before & LOVED it. They were bumping into the wall & into each other. I can never get enough of children's giggles. They make me SO happy.

Our big craft of the day was octopus mobiles. I love Oriental Trading. They have the neatest little craft projects for kids. I got 12 of these crafts for about $7.00. The kids spent a good half hour making their little hanging fish & then I helped them hang their fish off of the legs of the octopus. They turned out adorable.

The kids' favorite part was cake & ice cream of course. Every kid LOVES cake & ice cream.

Craiger didn't know what to make of all the excitement. Pete held him for most of the party & all he wanted was to get the ORANGE BALLS & throw them. ha ha ha.

We were lucky enough to have most of Trek's family come in for Lorien's special day. . . mostly because it was a 4 day weekend, but it was SO MUCH FUN. They helped me get everything ready for the party. It was extra exciting having them there.

Lorien got all sorts of fun presents. . . most of which were barbies of some sort. Barbie's are Lorien's favorite things in the world. She was on CLOUD 9.

Lorien has the cutest little friends. She has more boyfriends than girlfriends (which is going to make the teenage years a TON of fun I'm sure) & they all came to celebrate with her. We had a blast!

As we waited for the parents to arrive, we made Under The Sea sticker scenes. The kids loved these too. Lorien sent them off with their crafts, a Spongebob Bingo game, a goody bag FILLED with Spongebob goodies, & a BIG HUG.

It was the bestest Spongebob Birthday EVER.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day

from the Potter house.

I love Valentine's Day. Sure it falls exactly in the middle of 2 of my kids' birthdays, but it's a fun holiday & I always think of my hubby on Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day was the first day we both realized we wanted to start dating each other. Aaah. . . sigh. He gave me a Valentine card that day & the rest is history.

I packed special Valentine lunches for Trek & the girls. They were totally NOT HEALTHY, but they were themed in pink, red, & white & had LOTS of yummy heart things inside. They loved them. The kids especially loved the heart shaped MARSHMALLOWS COVERED in SUGAR with CHOCOLATE in the middle. If you're going to rot their teeth, at least let them enjoy it right? ha ha ha.

Then I decorated the house with pink & white streamers before everyone woke up. I got them each a sweet Valentine card & wrote cute little "I Love You" notes. And then they each got a box of chocolates.

I made a Valentine Breakfast. It was a simple breakfast, but the kids enjoyed it. Our favorite breakfast food is nutella toast. I cut the toast with a cookie cutter to make it a cute little heart & smothered it in yummy chocolatey Nutella. YUM.

I love ALL of my little Valentine's. . . but I must admit, my little 2 year old sure melts my heart. I could just eat him up. What a cutie.

During the day I managed to make a heart shaped red velvet cake. It wasn't hard at all. I just made 2 boxed mixes & put 1/3 of the batter in each heart shaped pan. Then I put the remaining 1/3 in a glass casserole pan. Once the cakes are baked & cooled, just put them together with cream cheese frosting & then spread cream cheese frosting around the entire thing. It's okay if you get crumbs in the frosting, you won't be able to see it. Then take your extra casserole cake & crumble it into lots of little pieces & sprinkle it over your frosting. It makes you heart RED & looks REALLY PRETTY. (It tastes really good too.)

And my Sweetheart's FAVORITE FOOD is PIZZA. So I made him a heart shaped pepperoni pizza for our special day.

And don't forget the chocolate covered Strawberries. . . MY FAVORITE Valentine treat.

Oh, I & had to show off my new Mickey Mouse plates & bowls. (They are my Valentine's gift to me. . . . because I have absolutely NO WILLPOWER when it comes to Mickey Mouse.)

Pizza for dinner & cake for dessert. SO HEALTHY right? ha ha ha.

It was a fun day. I love celebrating with my family. They make me happy! Now I'm off to get ready for the next birthday party. Aaaaaah!