The last few days

 

This weekend we had a birthday party and a wedding!!  Lex's cousin married his sweet girlfriend and we are excited to see the family grow!! 

 

 I also went to a wedding last weekend to see my sister's best friend get married and to help take photos.  {I forgot how awesome weddings are!}

 

Anyway.  The party we went to was Hello Kitty themed and it was too cute!! Kagen woke up the next morning and said she dreamed about Hello Kitty.  Ha!   The girls had fun eating yummy treats, jumping on the trampoline and making fun crafts. 

 

After the party we headed home to change clothes and then back out the door for the wedding. 

It was beautiful!  The setting there was just perfect.  It got cold quick though!  My poor girls, who had been getting over coughs, got worse.  I felt horrible for that!  We stayed home from church on Sunday so that they could rest and stay out of the weather.  So Sunday was a pretty lazy day for me and the girls.  Lex had a side job he needed to finish so it worked out.

 

 

My sweet niece was one of the flower girls.  She was so cute!!!!









The girls with Bill Bill and GiGi


Kalli helped Paw Paw run the sound.  {NaNa was there but she was getting Dad some food and we forgot to take her picture with the girls!  But it was cold and we needed to go!}



Yesterday we stayed home all day again. 
I told Kagen to brush her teeth and when I came around the corner I saw this.  That child is a mess!
For being home all day, the girls played really well together.  Normally they're fighting towards the end of the day, but today they loved each other.  ha! 













Kalli is SO girly.  I love it too! 






After dinner daddy was a horsey for the girls.  They LOVE their daddy and he loves them!

Hope you all have a great Tuesday!!

Halloween on a budget

Halloween.  A time to dress up as someone else and eat lots and lots of candy.  I love it.  What I don't love is spending money on expensive costumes that will be worn, once....  Don't get me wrong, there are some really cute and inexpensive costumes out there.  But, I'm still cheap.  Plus I like to be creative and find things we already have or that will be used again.  I'm a bit of a tightwad, except with food.  I don't mind spending money on that.  Especially chick-fil-a or TCBY, or maybe a package or two of Oreos.  Oh my.  {I'm working on these addictions} 
Ok.  Back to Halloween.  The only costume we have ever bought, wasn't even purchased by us.  My Mom bought Kagen her first Halloween costume.  She was a kitty.  A cute one too.  ;-)

2009

I do look forward to the day that the girls say, "Hey!  We want to be princesses."  Great.  I'll just grab one of their dress up dresses and we are good to go.  Those get tons of wear around here. 

Kagen really hasn't had an opinion yet on what she wanted to be each Halloween.  We really aren't THAT big on this holiday.  It's fun!  And we have fun.  But I would much rather go all out during Christmas.  That holiday is just the best time of the year to me. 

  {I should back track a little}  Kagen was born in October 2008.  So she was too little for any costume that year plus we stayed home.   She did have a cute little onesie though.   

Look at this sweet thing!! 

Halloween 2010
I saw a cute Minnie mouse costume online. Somewhere.  So the idea was born.

 I made her tulle skirt.  Bought iron on paper to make the mouse head on her shirt.  For the ears, I used cardboard covered with felt fabric and made a bow then put it on a headband.  She already had the leggings and shoes.


Halloween 2011

I didn't think I would take Kalli to the Fall Festival at our church, so I didn't worry about getting her a costume.  Then I changed my mind.  But luckily she had this onesie I made her.

{I saw one just like it at Canton and it was $15-20 I think.  Being cheap, I decided to make it myself} It was a little ghost with a bow.  I used the iron on material again for it.  She already had the black skirt and leggings.  Done.

Kagen was given a cheer leader outfit as a gift.  So, she was a cheerleader.    I was very tired this year as you can imagine and did not feel like being creative.  At all.


Halloween 2012
Kagen was and still is in to horses.  Her birthday party last year was a cowgirl theme.  So we kept the theme and the girls were cowgirls for Halloween. 

The pink skirt was a baby shower gift when I was pregnant with Kagen!  I got the brown one online, super cheap, for Kagen's party.  Both these skirts are still being used.  They love to play dress up in them.   The handkerchiefs came from Hobby Lobby.   For the life of me I can not remember where Kagen's hat came from.  Kalli's hat was from Baskins.  $5 I think!  Kagen already had the boots and we borrowed the ones Kalli is wearing. 
She wasn't walking at the time, so it was ok that the boots were about 2 sizes too big.  ha!  {She was a lazy baby}

Halloween 2013
  We have some friends that Lex grew up with and they have two boys.  Levi who is Kagen's age. {They're two weeks apart, I'm sure they will get married one day} and Brody who is 6. 

Here they are as babies.  Aren't they so stinking cute?!?!?

  Ever since Kagen was born me and Erin have talked about dressing the kids up as characters from Grease. {sidenote: that's one of the best movies. ever.}
Each year passed and it never happened.  This year we both decided it WOULD happen.  The girls would be Pink Ladies and the boys would be the Tbirds.  Well after looking online I just couldn't bring myself to spend $50 on jackets for the girls to wear, once.  So I looked in their closet and found some stuff that would work.  It's not exactly what I had in mind all those years, but it will work.  Just picture these cuties next to some adorable little dudes.  I can't wait to see them all together!!!!

They both already had everything.  I love when that happens!!  Black skinnies.  Kalli's converse were Kagen's, so was the cardi. Kagen just got her cardi for her bday along with the sunglasses.   I found some extra fabric and just cut it in strips.  I was going to buy some scarves but decided this would work.  I was also going to get some 50's style glasses....I may still do that.  I wasn't sure if they would keep them on, but they kept these sunglasses on.  They surprise me sometimes.


I hope I helped you think of ways to be creative and save some money!  Look in your kids' closets, your closets.  Borrow things from people!  There's plenty of ways to have a super cute costume without spending a ton of money. 

Circus Tent Party

Well, the day finally came and went.  We had Kagen's grand circus tent party last weekend.  I had so much fun with this party because it was something Kagen REALLY wanted.  She's told us several times that she wanted a circus party.  I think it came from The 3rd installment of Madagascar.  {one of her favorite movies} 
We are blessed to have some very talented people in our family.  One being Kagen's GiGi.  She has made every one of the girls' birthday cakes and they just get better and better!  GiGi showed Kagen a few pictures of some circus cakes to see which she would prefer.  Kagen chose the one with a big tent on it.  After that, it needed to be a Circus TENT party.  Off I went to pinterest. 
I had so much fun planning this party WITH Kagen.  I would get her opinion on things.  Made sure the liked the invites, which HAD to have a tent on them.  

We got up a little before 8 that morning and worked non stop until party time.  Phew!  It was worth it though!!  My Dad, Mom, Sister and brother-in-law came to help us.   We were SO thankful for that.  Kathy{GiGi} brought the cake over that morning and I could not believe how awesome it was!!  I know she worked so hard, and you could tell.  It was beautiful and Kagen absolutely loved it!!!  Thankfully, GiGi and Bill Bill took both the girls home with them so that we could finish getting things ready.   I couldn't wait for Kagen to see everything!!  My dad also has a DJ booth and he found some circus music.  Oh my!  That made the party perfect!!  Kagen was grinning from ear to ear when she heard that music.  We had lots of friends and family come celebrate Kagen's 5th birthday with us.  It was such a fun day and even more fun watching my girls have a good time!!


Y'all.  This cake was just phenomenal.   The pictures do not do it justice. 

 

All the signs were made on photoshop.  I just played around until I liked the colors/look of them.

 

We had four games and a bounce house for the kids.  Lex and Shane put together the boards for the balloon pop and clown nose game.  A friend suggested using pine cones to pop balloons.  That was a brilliant idea and much safer than darts. 

       

 

 

The pink crate was from Hobby Lobby and I spray painted it pink{it was from Kagen's 4th bday party}  I started to buy coke bottles for the ring toss, but my sister and brother in law had these neat looing bottles. For the rings, I used the girls' play bracelets.

 For the tin can toss I used scrap book paper and wrapped empty cans..  I had made burlap bean bags for Kagens last birthday party, so I just re used them. 

 

 

 

 

 

I made the girls' dresses using this tutorial I found on Pinterest.  I used iron-on paper to put the "K" on the dresses.  Kagen chose the fabric.   I thought she would want circus fabric, but she wanted it to match the tent.  ;-))

 

 

 

 

 

I got clown noses, favor boxes, and toys from Oriental Trading.   The red baskets are from the Dollar store and tin buckets from the party section at Target.

 

 

The Grandparents are such good sports!!

Kagen told me that she wanted rainbow colored popcorn.  I went to a local popcorn shop and found this Confetti popcorn.  The peanuts, animal crackers, and cotton candy came from Sam's.  A friend bought a cotton candy machine for us to use, and I totally forgot about it because it was so hectic!!!  I felt so bad!!

 

I found the popcorn boxes at the dollar store.  I used white cupcake liners to put peanuts in and the yellow cups for the animal crackers were from Pick Your Plum

Kagen was so excited when she saw the tent!!  Thankful for the awesome help we had this day!!!

 

 

I was determined to keep a small budget on this party, and I did.  I could have easily gone way over board, but I didn't want to spend unnecessary money.  The most important thing to me was that Kagen had fun and it was the party she was envisioning.   

 

 

 

FIVE on FRIDAY

 

 

 

Hey there!!  I'm linking up again with my Five on Friday!  We have had lots of fun the last few weeks and getting ready for Fall.  It will be busy but fun!!

 

 

 

{one}

Lex's Grandparents gave us a TV armoire a while back.  I had know idea where we would put it.  After staring at it in our garage I decided to paint it.  I used a DIY chalk paint and glaze.  It was a BIG project, bigger than I expected but, I love how it turned out.  I still need to add knobs, but I went ahead and put it in our room because I just couldn't wait.  When it's complete I will post how I did it all.  It took me about a week.....  If I didn't have these two munchkins around I'm sure it would not have taken that long.  ha! 

I love how it looks in our room.  {Lex and I have been married almost 10 years and have moved at least 5 times.} So we have never really spent time on our room and making it our own.  I'm determined to make this bedroom nice and cozy.  Curtains are next! 

 

 

 

{two}

 This past Saturday Lex had to work on a side job.  I was suppose to stay home with the girls but, Bill Bill and GiGi wanted to take them to the lake.  So off they went and I decided to go with Lex.  We spent the whole day together and it was so much fun.  Lex and I do not spend nearly enough time together, just me and him.  I love that we enjoy doing things as a family, but I forget how important it is to spend time with just him.  We are both going to make more of an effort to set aside more time with just the two of us. 

 

{three}

Along with spending time with my hubby, girl's nights are important to me.  They keep me sane! ha!  I love getting to get out and just sit and talk with the girls.  Last week was a rough week so it was so nice to get out of the house for a little bit and see some friends.   I love all my friends and we are all so different and some of us are at different stages of our life, but we always find time to hang out.  They were such a HUGE part of my life before kids.  I worked with them and spent time with them,  ALL. THE. TIME.  I love my babies and being with them all the time now, but I am so thankful for my girlfriends. 

 

photo credit: here

 

{four}
I was so back and forth trying to decide if we would send Kagen to preschool or just keep her home.  But, I decided to teach her.  I'm getting a little sad thinking I only have one more year and then she will be off to Kindergarten.  I want to spend as much time as possible with her until then.  I know some days I am PRAYING for a break, but I love that girl.  I have been a stay at home mom ever since she was 4 months old.  So it will be tough next year. 
We went and picked out school stuff and she is so excited.  She really is a quick learner and I am thankful for that.  Ha!  I am praying that God gives me the peace and wisdom AND the patience needed to do this.  I bought Kalli some fun toys to play with while Kagen and I work on school stuff.  She loves doing whatever big sister does so this will be fun!

A few of our goodies

{five}
FALL. IS. COMING!!!  Fall is my most favorite time of year.  I love the smells, the weather, the décor.  Everything.  I am tempted to start burning my Baked Apple Pie Scentsy.   Ha!  I have been looking at Pinterest getting ideas for decorating and recipes to try. 

                                                              This one looks so good!

photo credit: Kids Kubby

photo credit: http://www.girlvtheworld.com
 

I was rushing through this so I hope its not too boring or makes no sense! Ha!

Happy weekend!!!