Pink And Brown Teddy Bears

Yesterday I hosted my best friend, April's baby shower. We had it in a banquet room at the Ramada Inn hotel. The theme for the baby shower was pink and brown teddy bears. I found the adorable bear banner on Etsy. I purchased two of these banners from Calladoo on Etsy.
Calladoo also made the super cute door sign to match.
For the tables, we put little bears inside pink pails and scattered teddy bear confetti around them.
We then attached plain pink and pink baby feet balloons to the pails. I purchased the pink pails at galvanizedpail.com, and the adorable bears and balloons from oriental trading company. I found the super cute teddy bear confetti on etsy and it was created by vintagehillcreations. The gorgeous cake was made by the talented Vanessa Mitchell who had also made Xiera's fairy mushroom birthday cake.
Vanessa outdid herself yet again because this cake was absolutely adorable and almost too cute to eat! I am loving that little pink bow on the bear's ear!

I put little bowls on the cake table filled with gummy bears and teddy grahams.

As all of our guests came in, we had them fill out these sweet little baby well wishes cards as a keepsake for April. I had purchased these cards on Etsy and they were created by erinsartwork. If anyone brought in any diapers or wipes, we had them fill out a ticket to put into the larger pink pail for the special door prize drawing. Once all of our guests had arrived, and finished eating all of the delicious food we had, it was time for games!! For the first game, we had baby word scramble. Whoever could unscramble the most words in three minutes correctly wins.
Of course we had a 5-way tie and we had to have them guess a number between 1 and 50 to see who could guess the number April chose without going over. For the second game we played the toilet paper square game. Whoever could guess the correct amount of squares that go around the largest circumference of April's pregnant belly wins. The answer was 11. We had a 2-way tie for that one, so we had to have another tie breaker, guess-the-number game. For the third game we played Baby Shower Bingo. Everyone got a blank bingo card and had to fill in what they thought April would open. As April opened her gifts, they would mark off what they wrote on their card. Whoever got five in a row yelled out "Bingo" and won. April had so many beautiful gifts!
She had a lot of help opening those gifts from big-sis-to-be, Emma.
My gift to April and baby Keira was a pink bear baby blanket I crocheted. I think it turned out adorable and April LOVES it.
Here is a close up of the blanket and the bear on it.
I had also made a matching baby bear hat that I had given to her earlier as a game gift (because mommy-to-be had to get a gift for each game played. ;)) The diaper cake I made turned out beautiful and I am so proud of myself especially since it was the first diaper cake I had ever made! I have to thank Pinterest because I found the tutorial on there and of course I have to thank the blogger who posted the tutorial, Susie Stamp A Lot.

Hosting my very first baby shower was a lot of fun and I am so happy to have done so for such a great friend. April is the sweetest and most amazing person and I am so happy for her.
Congrats April and I cannot wait to meet little Miss Keira Lynn; my new Crochet D Lane model, I hope! ;)

A "Fairy" Special Day

Xiera's 8th birthday was yesterday so we celebrated it in a "fairy" special way. The theme was woodland flower fairies and gnomes. I hung tulle from the fan to drape around the table and hung pink and purple streamers mixed with flower and leaf ribbons to hang in the center. I hung a fairy banner from the ceiling with Cicely Mary Barker's fairy prints. Xiera loves these fairies so much. The BEAUTIFUL fairy mushroom cake and cupcakes to match were made by my sister-in-law's friend Vanessa. I can go on and on about how wonderful this cake truly was. Every little detail was perfect down to the little marshmallow icing mushrooms and rocks sitting by the perfect little fairy door that resembled real wood. There were even imprints of grass around the base of the cake.
All of the cupcakes had Cicely Mary Barker fairy toppers on them to match the banner and Xiera's dress.
I found the adorable fairy cake topper keepsake on Etsy. It was made by fairiesbynurias.
For party favors, Xiera and I made little fairies to give to the girls and I purchased gnomes for the boys. I crocheted the mushroom centerpiece, and I purchased the pattern to create it HERE.
I created the fairy goody bags using plain brown goody bags purchased at the local dollar tree. I then stamped a Cicely Mary Barker fairy image onto each bag. I hot glued craft butterflies onto each bag's center and punched holes to thread ribbon through to tie into bows.

They were filled with fairy/gnome treasures that I purchased from the Oriental Trading Company. As our guests began to arrive, we had fairy and gnome coloring sheets set out with crayons for them to color. This was the ice breaker and kept them busy while we awaited for all of our guests to arrive. All of our guests arrived at the same time this year so we began preparing for the fairy / gnome scavenger hunt. I had printed out a list of items for all of our little guests to find and stapled them securely to each bag.
My wonderful husband made a wooden picnic table the night before which came in handy for the party activities. They decorated their scavenger hunt bags with decorative foam stickers at the table. After their bags were decorated, it was time to begin the scavenger hunt. For our younger guests who were unable to read, we either paired them with an older friend or adult to help. Xiera's fairy dress which had the Cecily Mary Barker fairies print was created by Karen of Layla and Stitch. After they gathered all of their scavenger hunt finds they then came back to the table to put all of their finds into pails to make their fairy or gnome's habitat home.
The kids enjoyed doing this and made some fabulous homes.
After everyone was finished, we headed in so that they could choose a fairy or gnome from the party table to put inside their new home they made. Soon after it was present time, and Xiera received so many wonderful presents. Xiera must have made a truly wonderful wish because she paused for a few seconds before blowing out her candles.
The cake was not only beautiful, but it was delicious too! After cake we had one more BIG surprise for our birthday girl. We gathered everyone outside to unveil.... A NEW BIG GIRL BIKE!! Star wheel bling and all!! Happy Birthday Xiera! I hope all of your fairy wishes came true! I can't believe you are 8 years old already!! *sniff* *sniff*

Xiera in Wonderland

On Sunday Xiera celebrated her 5th Birthday Party. We celebrated a bit early this year since her official birthday is on Wednesday.
The theme: Alice in Wonderland of course!
Her dress was made by Kristen and her mother Carol of bluebottledesigns.
The party was so much fun and the theme helped me think up the neatest games and crafts for the kiddos to do.
For craft time there were coffee filter flowers for the children to make from Wonderland's Garden.

Some fun with face painting.


A little Croquet


And pin the tail on the White Rabbit

The children enjoyed an outdoor Mad Hatter Tea Party in the beautful sunshine.

Xiera took a bite of her teacup shaped cookie and said, "I'm Shrinking!" LOL!

On the tea cups I put "Drink Me" labels and the tea cup shaped cookies read "Eat Me" in icing.

I stayed up in the wee hours of the night and early morning making Xiera's Tea Pot Cake. I was so pleased with how it turned out! I found this great website with a wonderful tutorial on how to make one HERE.

It was a HUGE hit. I wasn't sure if it would feed everyone who attended the party so I also made 2 batches of cupcakes, just in case. :)
Make a Wish Sweetheart!

Happy 5th Birthday Xiera! Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

With Love,
Lindsay