Father's Day 2013 - Who's Your Daddy?

Happy Belated Father's Day to all the Daddies in the world! And all the Mommies playing the part as well!

This year's Father's Day was one for the books. My two oldest children are at an age where they can really join in on the creative process and I must say we had a blast planning a special day for the #1 Daddy in our lives.  I didn't want to do anything that had already been done before so I had a serious brainstorming session with my children and we finally came up with and agreed on something.  What if we do a "Who's Your Daddy" themed celebration? We could describe who Daddy is and what he means to us in a festive, celebratory kind of way. The wheels started churning in this little brain of mine and the inner party planner in me was all in. 

So, we had the theme selected but my children weren't done just yet.  They also wanted to create a special song for Daddy that coincided with the same theme. In other words, they wanted to pen a Who's Your Daddy song from scratch! Bless their brave little souls! I honestly thought that would be too big of a task to undertake. Me, a songwriter? Now I may have a self-proclaimed creative mind but I've never wandered into the realm of song writing before. All I can say is thank God for fearless children!

After about a week of preparation, this is what the end result looked like:



We had a small Bar-b-que, played a few outdoor games and presented him with the "Who's Your Daddy?" music video at the end of the day. I must say that it was so much fun creating this song with my children! It was truly a collaboration between the three of us and a labor of love.

Hey, you never know, we could make this music business a regular thing. Here's the link to the video: Father's Day 2013 - Who's Your Daddy?

He absolutely loved it and we loved watching him enjoy it. 

Salud (cheers) to a Happy Father's Day and creating memories that count!

Signed,

Creative Girl

My Dad's 55th Birthday

This year my dad had the fortunate opportunity of turning 55 years old; may God continue to bless him with many more.  He's not one for much fanfare so, with the help of my mom, we put together a last minute celebration in his honor. The celebration would only include the immediate family so it really wasn't a big deal in terms of preparation and planning.  My mom was in charge of the food menu while I, of course, was assigned to decoration and set-up duty.  

Now, in case you haven't noticed yet, I'm a bit of a "theme freak"and planning and executing a detailed party requires time and a well thought out plan. In this case, however, I had about three days to come up with something.  All I can say is thank God for my "craft stash" and my Cricut machine because those three days really turned into one considering my hectic life raising my four beautiful children.

So, here it goes. When in doubt and out of time just pick a color scheme and stick to the age.

(Disclaimer: The age idea may not work so well for women but most men could care less if you display their age. However, using only a color scheme works just as well.) :-)

See there!!! Nothing a few pinwheels, a memory board and desserts couldn't fix.  A simple, yet appealing display.  Oh yeah, and I was just dying to use this super cute cupcake ferris wheel that I brought from Amazing Savings.

And of course, a banner displaying my dad's name so that it would be the first thing he saw as he walked through the door.  

I'm glad I could put a smile on your face if only for a moment, Dad. Happy Birthday!!

Signed, 

Creative Girl 

Call of Duty: Black Ops II - 13th Birthday Party!!!

It's that time of year again! My son just turned 13 and you know it only get's harder and harder to please a growing teenager.  So my options this year were very limited.  Making the transition from pre-teen to an actual teenager is, apparently, a big deal these days! Who would've thought it!  On that note, what could be cooler than a party based around your favorite video game?  Hence, the birth of a Black Ops II party was born.  My son's eyes became the size of golf balls upon this suggestion.

First up, is the invitation.  We all know how I feel about invitations, right? Of course you do!  You know that I know that its the first impression, the platform, the introduction of what's to come. That being said, here's what I came up with - along with cake and cupcake toppers:

Now, here's the plan. We invite a few of my son's closest friends over for some pizza, a Call of Duty Playstation Face-off, a Just-Dance 4 Wii Dance-off, some cake and candy, and top it off with a scary movie sleep over.  Sounds memorable, right?  Well my son absolutely loved the idea and boy did we create some memories!  Here are a few pictures of the set up:

Below are cylinders I filled with gum balls which represent my attempt at recreating Flash Bangs from the actual game.  For those not familiar with what Flash Bangs are (don't feel too bad, I didn't have a clue at first either), they are a type of grenade thrown at the enemy. So, when my son "approved" of them, my first thought was God Bless my sweet boy for humoring me and actually playing along with his Mommy.  However, upon guest arrival, my son's friends also thought they resembled flash bangs and "approved" of them too.  Score!!!!

Continuing on....

Did I ever mention how much I love designer duct tape? It's truly the best thing since sliced bread! The different colors and designs give you endless possibilities for decorating your party. Here, I used them to spice the water bottles  - a cute, cost effective option for coordinating your party and making it a little more festive.  It's also a good alternative to making those detailed labels that often time requires using your printer and expensive ink.  Love, love, love!

And who doesn't love a good cupcake? Truly a classic and timeless dessert option.

As promised, the after-party consisted of glow sticks and necklaces together with a good ol' scary movie.  That, of course, wouldn't be complete without a hot tub of homemade popcorn and a good ol' scare from the birthday boy's dad in the middle of the movie.  Boy were those boys scared out of their mind! Sure made a good laugh though!!!!

Here are a few pictures of the birthday boy with his family:

Finally, I close this post out with a video of the Harlem Shake that a few of the guest put together at the end of the party.  Enjoy!

Silly kids I tell ya!

Here She Is!

Making her debut today is Mommy's little Caterpillar!!!!

Here are a few more outtakes of my little one's photo shoot:

That is all.  :-) Just figured I'd finally put a face to the name!  Have a blessed day!

Pregnancy Photo Fun

The Last of the Mohicans, the final roll call, or as my grandmother would later call her - "el concolón" (the crust at the bottom of an empty pot of rice). That's what my 4th pregnancy was commonly referred to as.  For that reason, I wanted to do things with this pregnancy that I hadn't done with any of my previous pregnancies.  For example, the Gender Reveal Party from my previous post.

Normally, my husband and I would find out the gender of our baby during our doctor's visit and then let our family in on the news ourselves.  That was the standard ritual for all three of the previous pregnancies.  This time, however, we decided to make it a family affair and find out all at the same time.  It was incredibly hard not opening the envelope the moment the doctor gave it to us but holding off and finding out at the same time as everyone else was well worth the wait.

As you can see in the video below, no one was more happier than my daughter and the grandmother to be. This video cracks me up every time I see it. I would show you more of the video but, honestly, it's about 8 minutes more of just them two screaming and falling on the ground.  Mean while, please notice how my son runs off in disappointment. #pricelessmoments

For last year's Halloween fun, we decided to dress up as a Family of Nerds and that was soooo much fun! I whipped up some photo props for the day:

and here are more photos of that fun-filled day:

Then, as I stated in my previous post, Tiffany Blue, Fucsia, and Giraffe Print Baby Sprinkle, I had fairly large Baby Showers for all three of my previous pregnancies.  This time around, however, we decided to have a Baby Sprinkle on a much smaller scale and to be completely honest, I think we had the best time this last go round.  It was more intimate and without the pressure of hosting a big party, we were actually able to enjoy ourselves more.  I tell you, hindsight is always 20/20.  If I knew then what I know now (insert the rest here).  :-/

Finally, I wanted to capture our last pregnancy with some humor and with a progressive sequence shot so we decided on doing our own spin of the classic beer/baby belly pictures.  Here are some of the ones we took during the pregnancy...

For the Grand Finale, here is the final progressive pre and post-pregnancy shot together as one...

I am so happy we documented our last pregnancy this way. These pictures are truly timeless and will be awesome to look back on when my daughter becomes of age.  Not to mention, we also had a blast doing so!  My hope is that everyone can take the time to invest in capturing special moments like these in their own lives.

Cheers to making memories that'll last a lifetime!!!!!

Tiffany Blue, Fuchsia and Giraffe Print Baby Sprinkle

Hello again guys!  As I was saying in my previous post, last year was kind of hectic for me.  I was gratefully pregnant with my fourth child and despite what my brain wanted, my body was not having it and it just kept on insisting that I take things super easy.  So, in order to speed things up a bit, I dedicated my last post to recapping all the parties I did last year in one post. I had to if I ever wanted to try and get back on track for 2013 while keeping you guys up to date! Now for this year, I kicked it off with a Tiffany Blue, Fuchsia and Giraffe Print Baby Sprinkle!  If you read my last post, you would know that I was having a girl as we found out in our gender reveal party!

Now, I had baby showers for my other three children and God forbid I entertain the idea of not having one for my forth child. I mean how could I explain that to my last born child later on in life?  So, while some people may think it's a tacky thing to have sooo many baby showers, I consider it a celebration of life and wouldn't have had it any other way.  However, this time I went with a low key baby "sprinkle" as opposed to a full blown baby shower.  Lord knows I wouldn't have been able to pull it off without the help of my dear husband and best friend.  I had the vision and they put it all together. So, for that I thank them deeply!   Now, on to the party details. Here's the invite I came up with:

Loosely using Baby Favors and Gifts' diaper cake tutorial, I made this diaper cake and styled it myself! Not bad for a newbie if I do say so myself! :-) It's a great gift idea, easier than I thought it would be and I actually enjoyed making it.  Then again, I love making all things crafty!  Can't wait to make my next one!

I wanted the lovely diaper cake on the gift table with the guests' favors and thought it made a cute addition to the table:

As a parting gift the guest got to pick from two different colored pink nail polishes which went in a nice pink chevron bag. :-)

The whole color scheme theme was created around these adorable Tiffany & Company inspired Infant  Crib Shoes from Rock Kandy Kids (shown below) that my best friend put me on and I displayed them here next to the signs that read "Polish your nails Pink for Baby Emani."

Then, I created this paper onesie banner and draped it across the gift table to accent it:

Finally, here's the treats table with a paper plate backdrop and a baby giraffe to boot: :-)

The Sprinkle was a success and both Daddy and I were very pleased with the outcome! :-) I hope you enjoyed as much as we did!  Until next time my friends!