Carebears Comin' from Somewhere up in the Sky........

Hopefully you are now humming the Carebears theme song from the 80's. Not the new one, the original one!

We love some Carebears around here. Mainly thanks to a cheer bear that Emma stole from my parent's house about a year ago. Ever since, I pick them up when I see them in Goodwill or consignment stores. I also frequent ebay looking for low priced small Carebears to add to the collection. I actually found three brand new ones with tags for $3 at a nicer consignment store. Then my butthole dog ate two of them. And I almost choked him.

Moving on. We love Carebears. So, when I asked Emma what she wanted to do for her third birthday, she said Carebears!! Natch. So I got to planning. And talking. And discussing with my multi-talented MIL (decorator extraordinaire!)

The party came together pretty quickly after only about a week of prep! See below for details! And sorry in advance for the photo bombing. But maybe you want a Carebears party one day.............

The favor bags-I found a birthday website that had Carebears party favors so I got whistles, notepads, and blowers. The other stuff is from Michael's dollar spot or Party City. We only had 5 children, so it wasn't expensive!

The cute lunch plates and napkins from the same site. And that silverware was 0.97 a pack at Walmart! It matched perfectly!

The cute birthday bow wreath I found on Pinterest! So easy and cute!

The lunch table-minus the burgers and dogs!

Another Pinterest find-cut lemon slices, dye in food coloring overnight, freeze, and use as "ice cubes" in a drink.

The appetizer station! Mom's yummy black bean and corn salsa, veggie tray, and fruit kabobs! Rainbow, of course!

Rainbow crayon art-floating around on Twitter, blogs, and Pinterest. So easy and fun!

Cute door hangings that FeFe and GiGi made!

Excuse my mirror flash-a photog I am not. 

Oh here's a pretty little model posing by the bears.

Prezzies!!

Front room decor-we got 2 dozen primary colored balloons for pops throughout the house. The treat bags I showed you earlier were lining the front walk in rainbow colors with matching balloons tied on!

The precious and creative birthday banner my MIL made.

Some of the boys: Dad, Jason, Gerry, Hays

I love this picture of Sitchy with Emma. So cute!

Even though I'm not looking and Emma looks pained, this is sweet.

Scarlet and Margaret Anne

A shirt I found on Etsy for Emma. It was like $10 and is personalized!

Notice Emma is wearing her Carebears pillowcase dress-also found on Etsy for $15!!

Haha, her surprised face!

This is not a great picture of the cupcakes, but it's the only one I could find. See below.

I found this image on Google, printed it off, and took it to Edgar's-the best bakery in Birmingham! They were amazing and looked JUST LIKE the picture! I ordered the cupcake toppers online for like $8.

Cute birthday hats-also found with the party favors and plates/napkins.

Sweet friends sugar loading together.

Dark pic but still sweet of my birthday girl.

OH! And Sarah has something to tell y'all.............baaahahahaha!

Emma's Second Birthday

Beware: picture overload. The grandparents will love this one.

When I started thinking about Emma's second birthday party, I was about 6 months pregnant. Couple that with the fact that I was going to have an 8 week old baby, and I knew I didn't want to attempt to do anything at my house like birthday party number one.

So, I did what any normal person would do-I hired it out to Gymboree. If you 've never been to Gymboree Play and Music, it's like Little Gym. Kids basically go to play on equipment, but are led by an instructor and work on listening, directions, socialization, etc. The birthday parties are the same way. And, you don't have to do anything. Except show up with your food items. However, they do have a package for that too! Luckily, I have an awesome cake maker friend who did Emma's cupcakes.

Once I booked the party, I had to choose a theme. Obvi, we chose Elmo, because duh. It's Emma and she's two. (FYI-it was $180 for 12 kids 5 and under to go play. The only other things I did were to bring the cupcakes, ice cream, and juice, plus whatever paper items I wanted.) The party was 90 minutes long. 60 of the minutes were PLAYTIME and that was a lifesaver with 8 kids 5 and under! They were worn out afterwards. After the fun play time, we went to the back studio to sing, eat cupcakes, and open gifts.

I would HIGHLY recommend having your child's party at something like this. I endorse Gymboree-they are incredible. No, they didn't pay me to say anything, but if they want to offer me free classes, I'm on it! :)

So, let's see a few shots of the big girl-who, by the way, was balls to the wall the entire time. I've never seen my child so HYPER. Yikes.

 The studio set up. I brought the balloons, tablecloth, plates/napkins, and party hats. Because I like it. :)

 Emma and Harper playing on a puzzle before "being admitted" into the gym section.

 Poppy and HME

 Precious Scarlet!

Emma shooting hoops-they got some free play time.

Jumping on the trampoline. She and Scarlet were doing it together too!

Climbing across a bridge

And going through a tube



Our instructor (in blue) and I were bouncing Emma on a ball.

Bubbles, bubbles, everywhere!

Spinning around in an innertube!

Back in the studio-cupcake time!

 Sidenote: I cannot BELIEVE she wore this hat. Remember last year?

Yeah, I know this is a hotttt picture, but I got her this book because her favorite thing to say is, "My do it."

I love this-it's just real. Sissy in the background, Dad standing there, Emma opening gifts with her belly hanging out. That's what is really looks like at home.

Mommy and Meems

Emma's new real, working vacuum cleaner from Gigi. This is awesome,

 because she will follow me around working while I work! Ha!

And, because seriously? Look how freaking beautiful Scarlet is.

We had such a great time spending the weekend with lots of family and friends! Emma is such a blessed little girl! Thank you all for everything. And yes, I'm going to write thank you notes mom. :)

Pre-Party!

The day before Emma's birthday, I asked Jason to stop and get a small grocery store cake for us to have on her actual birthday.

He went to the store after work and got this cookie cake monstrosity. :)

Emma was blown away.

 I absolutely love this picture! Look at her sweet face!

Starting out with a fork.

And all manners are out the window-go for it with your hands, girl!

Haha! Looks like she is saying, "Now hold on just a minute!"

We had such a fun little family birthday cake eating time!

PS-we did have some PINK poop the next few days. I guess it's the HOT PINK lard icing. All I know is, I fuh-reaked out and thought Emma was bleeding internally, then mentally recalled what she had eaten the day before. Oh yeah, pink cake icing.................. :)