Santa Claus

Each year it obviously gets better with the whole Santa thing. Im sure one year I'll notice a decline but for now the excitement and magic and joy of a Santa is so fun for Kennedy. We visited him last week and it was ADORABLE watching her really talk to him and tell him what she wanted and she even told him what Quinn wanted. He was a sweet old man and did great holding both my girls and they did great looking at the camera! If only I could Kennedy to show me her pretty smile instead of her psycho smile =) 

afterwards Santa gave them these little hats and on them was a $5 off to Build a Bear. Of COURSE we went to Build a Bear BEFORE we visited Santa. Sheesh. Anyways, Merry Christmas!

Christmas Home Tour 2011

I don't think I have participated in a home tour since I had Kennedy and did a nursery tour, so I thought, new house, new christmas ideas, why not! So here we GO! 

I would say this has been my most "handmade" holiday yet. Thanks to the phenomenon of Pinterest, I have done things I definitely would not have ever thought of or done before. 

my friend Leigh and I made this for a party. I liked it so much I used it in our family pictures and then hung in the breakfast room. Its book pages and burlap

deco mesh and burlap have become recent obsessions. They don't so much go together though, so I tried using them in completely different areas

I had NO festive napkin rings so I threw these little guys together one night catching up on DVR shows

 I have had this wreath forever and it was still sitting in the closet bc I had no where to put it. I spray painted it with silver glitter paint and voila!

 entryway table

my gazillion nutcrackers my mom gave to me over the years

I wanted the front porch to be all natural. I attempted to make a swag out of left over branches from the tree. I added some berries for color since the wreath had berries and burlap.

this is Kennedy and Quinns tree. Its on the wall in between their doors

This was my advent calendar growing up. I printed out an activity for each day. We have had fun doing them!

The girls/guest bathroom. 

saw this on Pinterest and thought it would defer Kennedy from the other trees if she had her own to mess with. She hasn't cared too much about it but sometimes I catch her decorating it =)

I have used these letters on my mantle every year but they were silver, and separated. I saw someone put them together and thought, I have those! I'll put mine together too! So some hot glue, red paint, and a little glazing later, here they are. You'll notice some spots that are messed up bc after I hung it fell and broke into more than just four pieces. I now need to repaint it. oops...

The Christmas Tree. Fully secured to the window to ensure no more falling =)

Fred wanted me to thank you for visiting. I have NO idea how he happened to be sitting there so picturesque!?!?!

a Build a Bear adventure

We have had a gift card to Build a Bear since January. The morning we headed out to see Santa, it didn't pan out. So we headed to the mall to find the Santa there and used Build a Bear to get Kennedy excited after the Santa we were currently waiting in line for, didn't work out. I had never done the whole Build a Bear thing but it was so cute and she loved picking out all the stuff and building her little teddy bear. 

Justin helping her pick out and outfit for her bear

Picking out which one to stuff

 Stuffing her bear

now putting in her heart

Daddy helped get her dressed. I love Justin with our girls. He is such a good girl daddy. 

 I mean how cute is THAT!?!?!

and we DID eventually see Santa that day =) post on that tomorrow!

holy blog hiatus batman

Merry Christmas everyone! Man oh Man, I LOVE the Holidays =) I am having so much fun doing festive things with Kennedy. She is really starting to get into all the little traditions. She is more aware of the whole Santa thing, she loves her advent calendar (and asks everyday what day we are on), she looks for our Elf every morning...its all so exciting! I know I haven't blogged since her birthday really and so Ill give you a quick recap of the past 6 weeks, and I mean QUICK ;)

We did fun fall stuff

at the Pumpkin Patch

Durham Bulls Fan Fest

I had the cutest Strawberry Shortcake and lil Strawberry EVER for Halloween. It was cold and rainy, but still fun

We went to Jacksonville for Thanksgiving. It was awesome. Ill try and blog on that soon, but no promises...you know me...

{yea, thats Kennedy in pictures these days. I have to bribe her to get her to smile}

Quinn Started eating real food and LOVES it 

Now, onto the Christmas fun!

Its really easy to keep up with our holiday activities since I decided to put a card in each day of the advent calendar. Now I can just go look at the cards and see what we've already done! So, we shall start at the beginning...getting a tree.

We headed to a tree farm bc I had this idea of it being a grand adventure and us cutting down an awesome tree and it being this whole "Experience." We were there for a while looking around and playing in the fields, so I guess there was a little adventure. However, the trees that you cut yourself were not good for living room christmas trees, covered in lights and ornaments. The ones they had at the farm already cut were way too expensive and we are cheap. So the amazing Manny family christmas tree experience ended at Lowe's with a  9ft 6 in frasier fur for only $40. Awesome! We tied that sucker to the car, grabbed some chick fil a, and headed home! We got home and it was way too tall for our ceilings. We measured the tree and thats when we realized that the tree, marked 7-8 feet, was in fact 9 and half feet tall. Our ceilings is only 9, so we cut that puppy down and finally got it in.

It fell a few days later.

 
Its back up now and beautiful =) and tied to the window for extra support. I don't have any pictures of it actually so when I do my Christmas home tour I'll post one.

Minnie Mouse Party Details

Like I stated in the birthday party post, I went the easy route. I chose not to design an invite and have Justin create it, order it, find matching envelopes, and mail a ton of invites. Which is what I have done in the past. Exhausting. Expensive. I went on Etsy, found a package of printables I liked. Paid $25 for the package, and then printed it off. The invite I actually just imbedded in an email and emailed it. Easy and free =) The printables were less stressful when all I had to do was the cutting and punching out, and not the making. Im pretty sure I spent less money doing it this way. Here is the shop I used: http://www.etsy.com/people/CupcakeExpress

Another easy thing. I did NOT make the cupcakes or cake. All I made were the kabobs and the pb and j's, and then cut those out with a Mickey Mouse cutter. I don't think a Minnie one exists so Mickey did the job!

I bought a piece of black poster board, like .49 I think. It made two big Minnie's and one little one. 

I also got Kennedy's dress off Etsy. For the party I wish it was just black and red and white, but at Disney I liked having the yellow in there. I know it doesn't even really matter, but I just like everything to match! when I pick a color scheme I like to adhere very closely =/

The day before the party I was at Target and saw this soap. I couldn't believe how fun it was and I HAD to have it in the bathroom for our party guests!

Favors. I actually had boxes left over from her party last year and just peeled off the stickers and put the new ones on. I did run out of boxes though and used the stickers to secure favor candy in baggies.

About a week before the party I saw this little gal on Pinterest. So easy and fun to make. Its three styrofoam balls, a can of black spray paint, and a dowel. I had a pot and a little bucket and used those to put it all in. I just stuck some cupcake toppers in there to add a little more to it. Oh, and whipped up a couple bows with some left over ribbon I had. And I adore that picture of K with Minnie. Such a sweet moment =)

So there are my party details. Not that you care, but in case you did =)

Kennedy's 3rd Birthday PARTY

A few months ago I started talking to Kennedy about her birthday party. It was hilarious how she thought it was the next day or something. I swear for MONTHS she had days where she told people it was her birthday. I kept telling her it was October 13th, and that it was still a couple months away, weeks, away, days away. Well, all those months ago I asked her what kind of party she wanted. She quickly replied, "I want a Minnie party!" Ok I said. What kind of Minnie, bc there is a red Minnie and a pink one. She thought and said, "Um...Red!" So I tucked that into my head and started casually going with that theme. I did continue to ask her every couple weeks if she was still sure and she always said yes. Go figure the morning of her party she said she wanted a Belle party. Are you kidding me!??! Girls. Indecisive and fickle! haha! She was ok with it and remembered that she said a Minnie party and was excited about it =) Thankfully! So here is her Minnie Birthday Bash! I LOVED it and so did she I think. She could have used a nap that day though. Trying to schedule a party for a toddler who may end up needing a nap is impossible. She perked up though and was in a good mood eventually and had a blast with her big friends and little friends. Big friends being her older friends, who are actually our friends...

So delish. I could have eaten all of them

I was nervous just having the party in our backyard with all ages of kids. I put out a bunch of her outside toys and a sign that said "Hey Everybody! Let's Mouskersize!" and the kids had a ball just playing out there.

My birthday girl =)

They make me feel so blessed

I copied some coloring sheets too from a coloring book I had. Im glad some of the gals wanted to color =)

Wardrobe change before opening presents. I guess she had to throw Belle in there somewhere!

Party details later. I went the easy route this time and it was WAY nice!