We're Under the Sea as Isabel turns Eleven

Isabel is turning 11 tomorrow so soon she won't be needing a babysitter. We were going to do her birthday table in either Magic or Harry Potter. I had racked my brain for ideas and had some but was having trouble finding the things I needed to make the table look awesome. Harry Potter I know nothing about and after that baby shower I had done I wasn't feeling very inspired to do this table. When Isabel said "Maybe we could do a beach theme." I was all over that since I have so many shells and things that I could use. I went with the Under the Sea theme to make it a bit more of a surprise.


Isabel as she walked into her kitchen after school. Surprise! She thought we were celebrating next week instead....which it turns out we should have. She was disappointed that her birthday wasn't going to last longer because she was celebrating with her dad on this day and her mom on her birthday, Thursday. If I had done the table the next week it would have been like celebrating three birthdays in one. Instead she only got to celebrate two days. Some kids are a little too hard to please. I think I'm about ready to give up trying.

These chair ties are the same blue and green organza fabric runners that I used for a wedding reception a few years ago. I just wrapped them together and tied. I have sure gotten plenty of use out of these things. The same things are hanging in front of the window blinds.
I had this cylinder vase at home already so I bought some goldfish to bring it to life. The kids got to keep these babies but not the vase.

I couldn't find any flora lights to light up the water so I tried the neon light-up necklaces. Didn't really work. I tried blue light bulbs in the a couple of the overhead lights but that didn't do much either.



Goldfish crackers and Goldfish pretzels.

S'mores Goldfish in a golden shell. I had no idea they even made these.

That blue sea-weed is rock candy. The sea urchins are really vanilla meringues that I bought at Trader Joe's. I think they are so pretty and they taste pretty awesome too. The kids didn't care so much for them though.



This is my attempt at making coral out of balloons. The little red lobster there sings Hot,Hot,Hot and dances when you press his hand. Another gift for Isabel.


Another gift for Isabel was this beta fish. They are the easiest pet there is to take care of, I think.


The place cards are little porcelain ones that my mom was throwing out awhile back. I glued some shells on them and wrote their names with marker. They could have been prettier if my printer was hooked up. My handwriting is a mess.

Isabel blowing out her candle on her cookie cake that I bought at the last minute. That's blue ice-cream in the dessert bowl from Meijer Grocery.

Chocolate Shells, Sea Urchin Meringues & Nemo Fruit Snacks.
The aquarium light I had purchased for Isabel's birthday before I even knew we'd be doing an under the sea table, so that worked out well.

And Rock Candy Sea Weed.

Stop by Between Naps on the Porch for more great tablescapes.

I was so excited to find out that Isabel's Under the Sea party was being featured by Shannon over at The Creative Party Place! I feel very honored that my party was chosen by Shannon because there are so many awesome parties there to choose from. If you have not been there before you have to stop by and take a look. Shannon is nice enough to have a place for us all to post any parties we have for others to see. You can get many ideas there if you are at a loss for what to do for your next party. Thanks Shannon for your awesome website and for picking Isabel's party to feature!

DIY Flowers for Under $8.00

My niece Jenny had a little baby boy the other day so I picked up a small bunch of flowers at Target while I was there because I knew my mother and I were planning on visiting them the next day. I didn't have a clue what I was going to do with them but I thought they were pretty and they were only $4.99. The next day before we left I wondered what I should put them in. I saw an empty cookie tin left over from Christmas that needed to go away so I grabbed an old bouquet oasis I had in the garage, soaked it in some water and anchored it with some sticky stuff at the top of the can. Then I cut the flowers and stuck them in the oasis and found some ribbon around here and stuck it on there along with a tag I had that was looking for a home. I thought it turned out pretty cool for no more than it cost and it looked way better than any of the expensive little bud vases they had in the hospital gift shop. (if I do say so myself)
They may not be great quality flowers but they served their purpose and should live at least a couple of days. What's great is the can was without water so it was really lightweight and transported easily.

This is my mom Great-Grandma Janet holding handsome baby Luke, who weiged 6lbs 120z.

I think He's a keeper!

This is Luke's big sister Adison with their daddy Don. Adi is going to be one of Angie's flower girls this September.

Bee is for Baby

Last Wednesday I went to bed at midnight and awoke to my niece Paula calling me at 1:00 am to tell me her water broke. Baby Colin was born at 8:26 am. We had been planning her baby shower for Saturday. So needless to say the shower turned into a welcome home party for Colin and his Daddy who got to come home on leave from Iraq and made it home in time to go pick up mama and baby at the hospital and arrive on time to the shower. I was kind of trying to do too much to make it perfect but I ran out of time. I didn't get my labels on the water bottles or my ribbons on some of my jars and I barely got the other room half way decorated for the gift opening part. I don't even have pictures of that room. I used baby blue in there. I wouldn't have gotten a lot of things done without the last minute help of Sunny, Angie, Nora & Gorgetta. Thanks girls! In the kitchen where we served the food buffet style I copied off of other showers I've seen on these blogs and went for the Bee is for Baby theme. I just love the black and yellow together so I had to do it. Baby Colin sort of threw my timing off but it all worked out for the best and we got to welcome Daddy home too.

This is Allan, home from Iraq for a couple of weeks, holding Colin with Colin's big sisters Emma and Kelsey looking on. Colin weighed 6lbs 4oz at birth.

Here's my drink bucket minus the waters that didn't get labeled. We threw them in after we took the picture.

Notice these two pictures are the same except the top one was auto-corrected by Walgreens.com. It however won't enlarge when you click on it. The bottom one will because it was downloaded directly to my computer.


I'm not responsible for this cute diaper cake. Paula's mom, Nora put it together and Paula decorated it. I thought they did a great job.


Lemonade (minus it's pretty ribbon) and Banana Trifle.

Angie made these cupcakes for me so we could use the cool cupcake holder I bought at Target. It has a different shape than most of them and it's white. Too bad I didn't get it's pretty ribbon tied onto it. That's some sort of Strawberry Trifle I made next to it and the chocolate cake (via Sam's Club) says "Welcome Home Colin & Allan!"
This picture with the bee on it was a last minute attempt to cover up a picture Paula had hanging there that just didn't go with the theme. I took one of them down and was about to take another thing off the wall but Paula's mom thought I was getting carried away, so I didn't.
Below is a banner I made out of paper that we had around the house. I cut it all by hand except the letters which are stickers. Luckily Paula had some ribbon there that I somehow used to put it together. It was like 3:00 am in the morning when I was doing that and I honestly don't remember how I got it together. Knowing me, it's probably taped.

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Here's the food buffet. We couldn't fit it all on the table so some was over on the counter top. Everybody thought that the fruit display was great and thought I put so much time into it. The hardest part was cutting up the fruit the night before and my daughter Sunny came and helped do most of that. She stayed until 3:30 am helping. Once the fruit is cut, putting it together is not hard at all. I went to bed at 4:00 and woke up at 6:00am to get back to work. Next time I plan a party I will be getting my ribbons and tags on things way ahead of time. Uh huh.

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The Wheels of Wonder! Isaac turns 9!

This is Ezra & Eva's brother Isaac. He turned 9 years old last week. He loves anything on wheels from scooters to Nascar to motorcycles to skateboards. I really didn't know what to come up with for his birthday table. I started out thinking skateboards but couldn't seem to come up with any unless I spent mega bucks. My sister just moved out of her apartment and was getting rid of a lot of her Nascar stuff so I lucked out there. My mom has these checkered plates and I had the silver chargers already.
The tablecloth is really black curtains that used to hang in my daughters bedroom. All of the other race stuff we pretty much had from our last race party we had in May.


This trophy is really a cookie jar that my sister had. I put it on top of a checkered basket turned upside down and set over a can of rolled oats. That's a sephora box on top of the basket to prop it up even higher. The steering wheel I picked up at Goodwill. It is used for a playstation or something..

This cool motorcycle (it just may be a Harley) I picked up at Hobby Lobby for half-price so it was pretty reasonable.

This Tommy Hawk skatebaord ramp I picked up at The Dollar General Store. It makes skating noises when you touch the top of it. Rather annoying skating noises.


The kids love these cosmic brownies. They are dumbfounded if they come home from school and there are no brownies. As you can see below I didn't work very hard on the snacks. I had ice cream in the freezer and forgot to get it out. All of this stuff I had to drag over to my niece's to set up so it can be a little daunting. In fact, I've taken to leaving the stuff in her garage. Her husband will be home for a week or so soon from Iraq when her baby is born so I had better start getting her garage cleaned up.



This is my great-niece Kelsey.


The hit of the party was the balloons I blew up with a pump and we made some balloon animals with them. I forgot to take pictures of them. when I get time I'm going to figure out how to make some of the other animals. I got pretty good at making the doggies. That's Emma (Kelsey's sister) in the black.

This is Isaac's older sister Isabel. She is turning 11 in another week or so. I haven't got a clue as to what I am going to decorate her table with. She is into magic so I'm leaning that way. She is very excited and can't wait to see what I come up with for her day. If any of you have any ideas for a magic table , please share them with me.. Thanks for looking! this party is listed at

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Colts Rule, Saints Reign

So this is how I spent my weekend. I built a horseshoe out of what was nothing but powdered snow (powder does not stick together) and then we went to my friend's house to watch the Colts get stomped by the Saints. .This horseshoe was built on nothing less than 6 hours of hard work and I have a limp to accompany the strain of the man power it took. Playing in the snow is not as easy as it looks. So, the Colts lost but I still love them. Congrats to the Saints on a well deserved win. We love our Colts but we are very happy for New Orleans and their claim to history. Drew Brees may be a Saint but we believe Peyton Manning is a saint too. Thanks to our Colts for a great season!

Cupcake Clutch.....Weddings & Pretty Things

I found this cupcake clutch over at the Weddings & Pretty Things Blog. I thought Angie, being the Cupcake Queen that she is might think this was fun. Maybe someday she might find it on my blog. If I can figure out where to buy one for her, I may. Until then it will be our little secret. I've been finding all kinds of fun blogs lately and Weddings & Pretty Things is one of them. If you get time, check it out.
Oh wait, I found out where to buy one of these Judith Leiber Strawberry Cupcake Clutches. They are at Nieman Marcus and they are only $4295.00 Uh-huh. Umm, don't hold your breath Ang.

Studio 512- Photography Blog of the Week

This will probably be my last photography blog feature for awhile. I've been busy thinking of ideas for kids' birthdays so I am becoming more interested in children's party blogs lately. I have two older kids' birthdays in Feburary and my niece's baby shower that I am trying to come up with ideas for. Not to mention the wedding decor I need to be working on. I think I will just forget Valentine's Day this year. But I really did enjoy rolling through the blog of Studio 512. Eddie Bojorquez is the talented & charming photographer and he is based out of San Diego. He's got a load of beautiful photos and a great style. Thanks Eddie for letting me feature you on my blog. If you change your mind about that videography proposal, let me know. :0)