Caterpillars, a Beagle and a Party

Over Labor day. we had a surprise birthday party for my parents 60th. Technically speaking, my dad turned 60 last year-but between a wedding and a funeral last summer, a party just didn't happen for him. 

I did pretty much nothing for this party, except make cupcakes and take pretty poor quality photos.

Turns out when you are lightheaded and have blurry vision, your pictures may not come out completely in focus. Also no natural light in this building. oh well. 

My sister did the majority of the work, and made these awesome signs. (the party was a fifties diner theme)

All of the littles where trying really hard to suck something out of the straws, with no such luck. The original plan was to have a little something-something in the middle of the cupcake, but I had other things to do that day. Like have my closet collapse, and take my little flea-bag to the vet.
Speaking of the flea-bag:

Turns out she's allergic to fleas. Hence why the last two summers she loses half of her hair and is stuck in a cone of shame for weeks on end. She's on the mend now though, thanks for asking.
And as far as critters in the yard goes....

We had a boatload of monarch caterpillars in the garden last week. They ate through that milkweed and disappeared. Seriously, I cannot find a one anywhere. Maybe they ran away with the fleas. hashtag the bugs life movie.




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My Big Sisters Wedding.

My sister got married last week! What!!

It was a fabulous week, with an awesome party and too few pictures.

I debated with myself for a good long while whether to bring my real camera or not, and ended up without it which was probably a good thing, but I still regret it.

So, here are the incredibly high quality iphone pictures from the occasion!

 Me, a double chin and my littler, yet older sister in a photo stolen off of facebook. Thank you grooms grandma!

Some lady in the nail salon shortly before this photo proclaimed that we must be twins, which people say allll the time. I really don't get it, I don't feel we look anything alike. She's the spitting image of my mother, and I am definitely my fathers daughter.

Whatever, that lady was cuckoo pants anyway.
But don't my nails look pretty?! They chipped off two days later. rude.

Also at the nail salon, all of the non-english speaking workers kept staring and smiling at me. It was totally weird. Then they started talking to my lady, and she translated that they were discussing how beautiful my skin was.

Then that beautiful skin of mine turned bright red.

Such is the life.

Deedle-beanie gave each of us bridesmaids a little jewelry tray with our names on it, and an initial necklace. I've already worn said necklace only about every day since.

We stayed Friday night in the schmancy Dolphin Bay Resort. It was a really nice place, with a incredibly comfortable bed, amazingly nice employees, and hot lavender towels.
What the purpose of a hot lavender towel is, I am not sure. But it was nice to have anyway.

All of my beautiful nieces and nephews, minus the Krewser who was not interested in any more pictures.

The Mr. and Mrs.!

 For the wedding, I made each of the girls a a different hair clip/headband and all of the boys had bow-ties and suspenders.

My two oldest nephews, and a baby lizard.

Boys will be boys.

Photobooths are where its at guys.

I spent a lot of time in there, and thoroughly annoyed the attendant all night long.

I think I might buy one for the house. Good idea, right?

On a related note, my nephews asked me about five million times over the week when I was going to get married all ready. When I am eight-three was apparently not an acceptable answer to them.

I think it comes down to them just wanting to have another epic dance party.

Which is slightly ironic, as I have myself some awesome dance parties just about every day, and they refuse to participate. 

To see some of these awesome dance moves, you can go to the photographers little video here.

Beauty and The Beast Inspired Bridal Shower

So last Saturday, my sister Julie and I, hosted a bridal shower for my sister Adriaana-who is getting married next month. {ahh!}

Said sister, has been thoroughly obsessed with The Beauty and the Beast {Disney, cartoon version of course.} her entire life.

Naturally, this seemed like a good theme for the "all about her" party. There are bits and pieces of inspiration from the movie, such as roses, books and tea cups. I also made macarons, because they are French; as supposedly the movie takes place in France-even thou there is not a French accent in sight. 

Here is the invitation, (sorry about all the blurred out parts-privacy, ya know.)which was designed by my sister Julie, with a little creative help from me. {Meaning, I told her what I liked and didn't like. I am good at that.) We printed them out at Costco, which gave them beautiful photo quality, and I backed them with parchment style cardstock so that it wouldn't look just like a photo. 

To see how I made these French Macarons, click here.

 For favors, me and my mom made homemade strawberry jam, and covered the tops with floral fabric, twine, and a wooden spoon. The spoons can be found on Etsy, here. They were the perfect size for the jars (half-pint, from Walmart Mainstay brand) and were an amazing deal. ($3.49 for 50!)
To read more about these favors, and how to make strawberry jam; go here.

 My momma, all my sisters, and me. We are a super good looking group, huh?

All in All, The party was a super success. The decor was beautiful, the weather was perfect,  the food was great, and the company was fantastic. I got tons of compliments on the invitations, the party, and even the music was apparently super awesome. Just let me gloat for a minute, alright? I barely slept all last week, I deserve it ;)