Cody is 2 - a birthday breakfast celebration

Our little man turns 2 today!  We started the big day with a birthday breakfast party.  It was a wonderful morning with family celebrating Cody over pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, and fruit cups.  There was also some spiderman themed tableware (per Cody's request). 

Silver dollar birthday pancake towers.  There are two candles on the stack in the middle.  This served as his birthday "cake". 

Big sis Lyla helps Cody blow out his two little candles.

Fruit cups.  These honeydew melons were delicious!

After breakfast Cody got to open some presents.  Cody finally got his dream lite!  He's been asking for one for ages because Lyla already has one.  He's going to love falling asleep in his crib tonight with stars on his ceiling!

Grandpa Glen got Cody an "Earth and moon in my room" astronomy explorer set.  It has an earth and a moon that you put on the wall and you can control the lights with a remote.  So cool!

Baaba gave Cody a play tent.  This is awesome!  I know Cody and Lyla will have many fun times playing under this canopy.

We have been so blessed to have Cody in our lives for the past two years.  It's funny how once you have a child, you can't imagine what life was like without them.  He's only been a part of our lives for the past two years, but it's like we've always known him.  We love him "big as the sky" and can't wait to see what the next year holds.

1st annual harvest festival

Halloween was a blast this year.  The Calvary Chapel Conference Center hosted it's 1st annual Harvest Festival which was open to the public.  It was a really fun place for families to come on Halloween night.  There was delicious food, entertainment, and games...all for free!  Lyla's favorite part was the kid's magic show.

The kids enjoying some lollipops (cody calls them opti-pops) and dancing on a haybale.

This is what the place looked liked during set-up.  I got to see a lot of this because I work at the Conference Center.  This is our sports field...such a great place to host an event like this.

One of my favorite parts of the evening was the roasted corn on the cob.  They dipped them in melted butter and then had a couple different options for seasonings.  One was some kind of cayenne spice mixed with salt and the other option was a garlic salt.  My mouth is watering just thinking about how good it was!

Our picture from the photo booth.  Travis was a cowboy, Cody was a dinosaur, I was the Queen of Hearts, and Lyla was Alice in Wonderland.  The best part?  We didn't spend a dime on any of it!  Travis threw his costume together with items from the closet, Cody's costume was lent to us by another family, and mine and Lyla's costumes were from her birthday party.  Yay for a frugal and fun Halloween 2012!

a mad hatter tea party for lyla

We had a whimsical "Lyla in Wonderland" theme for Lyla's 4th birthday.  Here's the invitation that I sent out to about 18 of Lyla's closest girlfriends (16 were able to come).  I ordered these invites from partystarking on etsy.

Travis as the mad hatter, lyla as alice, and me as the queen of hearts.  It was not a costume party, but we decided to dress up as the hosts.  Lyla's dress and my apron both came from lover dovers clothing on etsy.  They are super cute and really amazing quality.  We will totally reuse them for Halloween costumes.  Trav's hat was from village hat shop in san diego.

The table.  This was the central highlight of the mad hatter tea party.  Every little girl had a place setting with her own tea cup and top hat.  The center of the table featured various teapots, pocket watches, and a centerpiece of red roses. 

The show-stopper was definitely the string of colorful paper lanterns that I bought from the paper lantern store. 

The raspberry tablecloth and purple chairs were rented from raphaels in san diego.

Travis painted a welcome sign on posterboard to let everyone know that "We're all MAD here!"  It was accompanied by the white rabbit of course.

We had painted signs to help guests know which way to go.

A small table also greeted guests that resembled the table Alice finds when she tumbles down the rabbit hole.  Sugar cookies featuring sayings like, "eat me", "take one", and "try me" adorned the food table too. 

Cake pops were baked by my dear friend, Melissa.  I added the wilton cake pop flowers that I purchased from Jo-Anns.  I stuck them in a round floral foamcore that I wrapped with green yarn so that it would look like a hedge in the royal garden.

My wonderful mom was in charge of the food table.  We had a variety of tea sandwiches, pigs in a blanket, fruit skewers, and vegetable trays.

3 different flavors of IZZE sparkling sodas were available with "drink me" tags that I printed on cream colored paper.  We put them in this cool vintage ice chest that belonged to Trav's grandmother.

Lyla greeting grandma cheryl and aunt kandice and showing them the way to the party.

I try to keep party games pretty simple.  Especially for a 4-year-olds party.  I figured it would be fun to have a simple craft the kids could do.  We had a hat decorting table where the girls could decorate their top hats with feathers, buttons, and ric rac.

The girls chose which hat dressings they wanted and travis and I hot glued them on to the top hats for them.  I ordered the felt hats from rebel daisy designs on etsy.

The hats turned out super cute!

All 17 girls sitting around the table enjoying their tea.  I used this recipe to make a decaffeinated hibiscus cranberry tea for them.  It got mixed reviews.  Some of the girls loved it and some said it was not so great.  I love how kids will give you their honest opinion.

Lyla's custom ice cream cake creation was from our nearby coldstone creamers.  It was a red velvet cake with layers of cotton candy ice cream.  The icing was chocolate with rainbow sprinkles.  The message on the top said, "Lyla in Wonderland".  In hindsight, I would have ordered a larger cake so that the adults could have eaten it too.  Whoops!  Lesson learned.

My mom passing out cake to all the little girlies.

The grand finale included the flamingo pinata.  I searched everywhere for a pinata that would go with our theme and finally found the pink flamingo online at hobby lobby.

I love watching the little kids trying to hit the pinata.  Their approaches range from ultra timid to freakishly aggressive.  Some are super coordinated and some of their swings are mostly aimed at the crowd.  Yikes!  Pinatas are always a festive (and slightly dangerous) way to end a kids party.

The mad tea party was such a fun concept to let my creativity run wild with.  I only wish that I had more time and money to put into it!  The party planning started about 5 months ago.  It began with a lot of google image searching and browsing through etsy shops.  I had all these grand plans of turning our backyard into the queen of hearts royal court complete with croquet and oversized decks of cards.  But, I had to scale way back when the spending started getting out of control.  My party "budget" was a joke.  I still believe that the party was a hit.  All the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and I know Lyla had the time of her life.  She was just glowing all day.  My sweet little Lyla is now a big 4 year old.  I can't believe how this past 4 years has flown by.  Now that the whirlwind of party planning is over, my first thought is...what should we do for her 5th birthday? 

All photos done by Kata Christian of mukibaba.

sneak preview of lyla in wonderland

Lyla's 4th birthday party turned out beautifully!  She had a wonderful time at her mad hatter tea party with 16 of her closest gal pals.  I was delighted with how everything turned out.  I will share all the details with you as soon as pictures are ready, but in the meantime here's a sneak preview:

all photos by Kata Christian of Mukibaba

six years ago two crazy kids ran off to vegas together...

Today we celebrate six years of marital bliss.  Bliss is defined as an emotional state characterized by perfect happiness.  Perfect happiness?  I can say that only because our marriage has been blessed by God.  Through mostly good times and a lot of a few rough patches, we can say that Jesus has carried us through six years of marriage.  And I mean it when I say that He carried us through it.  We couldn't have done it without Him.  People always tell you how tough it is to be married and you never realize just exactly what they were trying to warn you about until you're really in it.  But all the hard work and effort is worth it without a doubt.  Anything worthwhile comes out of struggle and self-sacrifice.  God has blessed us time and time again through our union with the most obvious reward being our two beautiful children that keep us on our toes! 

This is what I woke up to this morning.  I heard some quiet stirring downstairs and I knew Travis was up to something.  Simple gerber daisies and a beautiful card with even more beautiful sentiments inside!

...and he made me my faves for breakfast!  Crispy bacon and plain buttered white toast.  He knows me well.

Well, I think we're pretty great together.

"a star is born" baby shower

Some family friends of ours are expecting a baby at the end of August.  We helped to throw Bob and Yuelan a baby shower yesterday.  The host, Joan, combined the mommy-to-be's love for movies and the father-to-be's love for astronomy into a "star is born" themed baby shower.  Everything turned out wonderfully...especially the food!  Joan arranged quite the spread. 

the cute invitation.



the delicious food table.  this was the hang-out spot.  all night long you could hear the guests commenting on how good everything tasted.  oh, and check out the awesome diaper cake my sister and my mom made using the star theme.

family photo

guests with the expectant mommy.

grandpa glen trying to keep cody busy.  this was no easy task!  at one point in the evening he threw a gift into the spa.  oops!

trisha, me, steven, and joan (the hosts).  steven and joan always know how to entertain and yesterday's shower was a great success!

our baptism

Travis and I gave our lives to Jesus 7 years ago.  This past Sunday we finally made a public declaration of our love for Jesus by getting baptized.  To make an awesome moment even more amazing, we were baptized by Trav's brother and we were baptized together!  Nick is the executive pastor at our church, so he got to "dunk" us in the water.  The ceremony started with Pastor Nick introducing us and asking why we want to get baptized.  That brings up a good point.  Why get baptized?

First of all, the bible encourages baptism.  In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus says "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples from all nations. Baptize them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to fulfill all that I have commanded you. I am with you always until the end of this world."

Secondly, it is a public declaration of the inward change that happened when we accepted Jesus as our saviour.  In 2nd Corinthians 5:17, it says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."  We are a new creation in Christ.  That change actually happened 7 years ago when we prayed the prayer of salvation and we announced it in front of friends and family by getting baptized in water.

Thirdly, Jesus was baptized.  In Mark 1:9-11 it says, "It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.  Then a voice came from heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."