Celebrating Friends

We were able to take part of two great celebrations this weekend. Above is my dear friend Susie and her new baby Luke. Luke was adopted and born between Christmas and New Years. Adoption is such a special picture of God's grace and plan for us. Susie and her husband, Jeff, are so grateful to have their second baby through adoption. We had a Baby "Sprinkle" for her to celebrate his arrival. 

Below is my sweet, genuine friend Jen and her family. We celebrated her birthday with her Saturday night. While we could not participate in the ski day (I am clearly not skiing this winter and Justin has a bum ankle), we did get to join for the dinner and ice cream part! A new tradition with this group of friends is to have everyone share one thing that they are thankful for regarding the birthday person! What a great tradition and way to fill each other's love tanks! 

Fire Station Birthday

Last weekend, Macklin was able to help celebrate the 5th birthday of his buddy Briggs! Briggs hosted at the Eagle Fire Station and the fireman were quite the hosts. The boys got to go in the fire trucks, get sprayed by the hoses, celebrate in the office, ring the bells, and watch the fireman slide down the pole. It was a little boys dream! 

Macy's Princess Party

Elsa, Anna, Cinderella, and Bella

You can tell by these faces that we had a great princess party for Macy's 3rd birthday! Another early celebration for my April 8th baby. We didn't want to miss out on the fun if we were in the hospital with Baby 3. 

The Set Up

We just went pink, purple and teal princess all around! Macy loved the set up, especially the little cups and forks. All of the sweets were for sure a special treat.  

The Greetings

Macy loved her new Cinderella outfit! We laid out all her princess dolls together before the girls came over. Macklin was in charge of "welcoming the princesses to the castle" while Macy picked out the doll they were dressed like and gave it to them for a little play time. She enjoyed this! 

Food & Play Time

We enjoyed some popcorn as a morning snack before setting off to play. The girls played so well together as I made our lunch. At one point I didn't hear Macy and her buddy Aliyah. I found them on Macy's bottom bunk, snuggled up and reading princess books...so precious! For lunch the girls picked our their favorite cookie-cutter shape and we had PBJs along with yogurt and strawberries. Tea (aka Kool-Aid) to drink and cupcakes for dessert finished off our tea party! 

Macklin was dressed to impress and helped me be a server for the tea party. 

Even Macklin enjoyed our tiny drinks after his duties were complete! 

Happy Birthday, Macy! 

So many cute ones that I had to post all of them! 

Daddy came home for lunch to see his Princess! 

Present Time

I just had to show off these cute pics of the girls and their gifts. Ella gave Macy a "Mermaid Blanket." Seriously, soooo cute! If you search for it on Pinterest, you can find lots of ideas. But I had never heard of such a cute thing and Macy loves it. She also got a collection of princess books and a Snow White doll! She was in heaven and asking when her next birthday will be! 

 Thank you to these lovely princesses that helped make Macy's birthday extra special! 

Macklin's 5th Birthday Party

We were able to celebrate Macklin's birthday on Saturday due to the upcoming baby! We just moved all of our April 3rd celebrations to Feb 28th...nothing like an early birthday right? Anyway, Macklin requested a Planes: Fire and Rescue movie party and playdate, so I ran with it! It was a great day with a fun group of little boys! 

The Set Up

All of the printables came from a great Etsy shop called XochitlMontana. Daniel helped with the printing and Justin's TAs (high school students that serve him as a teacher assistant for a period) cut it all out. Seemed so easy without those steps. I decided to go with a fun little die-cast toy for each boy instead of a bag fun of little goodies. They loved having a toy to play with during the movie, in addition to Macklin's collection. The printable set came with candy bar wrappers and popcorn boxes, so you know we used those too! 

The Cake 

I am normally a cupcake kinda momma - fast, easy, and predictable. But for this year, Macklin requested that we put the Planes smokejumpers ontop of a cake. It gave me a reason to try fondant, as I had been curious about how that process works. I bought the Wilton packages from the store and gave it a try. Four hours later and wee into the morning hours, this is what I came up with! I am happy with the result, but not sure that I need to attempt this again. I kinda feel like I could do it all with icing (the side flames I mean) and that would have taken a lot less time. :) I dyed the fondant myself and that was fairly easy. It was hard to estimate the amount needed at times though. I went with an easy top of graham cracker crumbs, fondant rocks, and a blue icing river. Add smokejumpers and the cake was complete! The top Planes logo was a long shot. Now I know that fondant cannot be dried out in the fridge and be expected to stay on sticks for a period of time. You can see the fail in the little pic below (in the background). No worries though. Macklin liked the cake and that is all that mattered! Serious kudos to the pro and amateur cake makers out there! 

 

 The Party 

The boys had a blast. So precious to listen to 8 little voices be excited about a movie together. Macklin loved being sung to and we even opened presents at the party (a debatable activity in my mind for a five year old). The boys enjoyed watching him open the gifts, but it did get a little hectic quick! 

The Guests 

Precious little crew we have here with their new Fire & Rescue toys!
Thanks so much for celebrating with Macklin! He felt very loved!