Preschool Graduation

Sooo, I have another preschool graduate!  Mr. M graduated and is headed to kindergarten next year!  He led the processional into the ceremony and he couldn't have been cuter!!!

He really is an amazing child (not just because he is ours)...he started reading at 3 1/2 years old and hasn't slowed down!  He can read chapter books, write and spell as well as add and subtract!  He also has an amazing personality and has great social skills...everyone loves M:)  I don't want him to grow up, but at the same time, I am so excited to see all of the great things that he will do in his lifetime!  We are so proud of you M!!!

San Antonio

We have wanted to visit San Antonio since we moved to Texas.  My husband went years ago on a business trip, but he was alone.  We wanted to meet up with the Houston family so the stars aligned for us all to be together for Memorial Day weekend!

We decided to stay in the Lake Canyon area and found a cute little house with a nice deck with a ping pong table and where the deer came up to the fence for us to feed them.  The boys were in heaven!  We enjoyed exploring the area...

On Sunday, we met up with Daniel, Mandy, Elliot, Michael and Liz in San Antonio for a day of exploration!  We started off at the Alamo to learn more about Texas history and the intense pride for this great state!

We walked on the river walk and took a boat cruise and also visited Mi Tiera (a great Mexican restaurant/bakery) where the kids got some yummy USA cookies in honor of Memorial Day!

More family pictures...

Sunday was a long day so we took it easy on Monday morning and then went to the children's museum in San Antonio (The "Do"seum).  We couldn't decide between the water park or Sea World or the museum, but this was the best choice!  It was the BEST children's museum that I have been to...it had several floors of exhibits and an outside part.  B and M enjoyed becoming spies while W and K loved the little town that had an HEB grocery store, bank, food truck, trolley, an airplane, AND a skid steer with a digging area made up of rubber tires.  Here are my little construction workers hard at work!

It was such a great trip...fabulous food, family and FUN!!!

Birthday Trips

Since we have so many children, we have accumulated a LOT of things!  So, we have started a new tradition of giving the gift of a trip to celebrate (along with a fun party).  My birthday was this month so the kids were excited to find out where we were going...and it was a major event for us!  We got to take the kids to their first Major League Baseball game!!!  They lasted for seven innings while eating cotton candy, funnel cake, popcorn and ice cream (in the plastic helmets of course).

It truly was a wonderful day...beautiful weather, sitting in the shade and just enjoying a wonderful American tradition!

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star...A birthday party for my "shining" star!

I absolutely ADORE planning my children's birthday parties and I always start out by brainstorming a theme.  This was my FIRST theme for a daughter so I wanted to make sure that it was fun and very girly!  I went back and forth between several ideas, but I kept coming back to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and I found this precious outfit on Etsy that completely convinced me that this was perfect!

K was NOT a happy camper for pictures, but Erin Gordon managed to get one precious picture for my birthday "announcements."  Since we live so far from extended family, I like to do announcements instead of invitations.  The Etsy shop "Sprinkled Design" worked with me to make it more of an announcement instead of an invitation and it was absolutely perfect!  Here is the link to the invitation.

Next, I worked on decorations for the big day.  I love to create a chalkboard using the Etsy shop SimplyDovie...she had the perfect template for my theme and she is fabulous.  I also found this adorable printable from ProjectPiper on Etsy.  And what is a party without perfect party favors?  I ordered pink chocolate star lollipops from MayflowerMarket and personalized tags from ADTRCustomDesigns.  I set it up on our desk in the dining room...I think it turned out great!

I also made the birthday banner with pink paper and gold glitter letters from Michael's.  I also take monthly pictures of my kids and I made a ribbon banner with her pictures.  It was so lovely to see the progression of her growth for her first year.

And flowers were hydrangeas like I had at our wedding with some glitter stars added to keep with the theme...

And the food had to be star-shaped as well!  I made my grandmother's homemade angel biscuits in the shapes of stars and I bought star-shaped crackers with cheese cubes.  We also had star-shaped cookies.  I was also really lucky to have my brother-in-law and his girlfriend Liz come for the big day- she was a HUGE help in decorating for the party and creating these beautiful mimosas with gold glitter to accent the party!

After enjoying the yummy food, we got to open presents or K's brothers "helped" her open her gifts.  One really special moment was B giving K a special card...he is such a sweet, big brother.

W "helped" or really opened gifts for sissy...he was so excited for new toys!  

(My grandmother made her this pillowcase dress- so cute!)

And after gifts, we had to have cake!  I found the most precious highchair decoration from TwoPinkElphadees to match my theme.  How cute is K???

The cake idea was found on Pinterest (of course!) and my cake lady (Cakes by Alie) created the perfect cake!

The big moment came for K to eat her cake and needless to say, she LOVED it!  She was sucking on the icing and holding it very close to her...I think she was worried that her brothers would try to take it away from her (this may happen too often in our house).

 Our sweet family...K is so loved by her three big brothers!

Uncle Michael and Liz- thanks for making the trip!

 K and all of her gifts- what a lucky girl!

What a difference one year makes...

 We had a great time celebrating our little girl!  Thank you to everyone who remembered her!  We can't believe a year has passed...K is such a blessing to us and life is so sweet with our four little babes!