Western-Themed Rehearsal Dinner Party

I wish that I could take credit for this amazing party! My sister's new mother-in-law is the creative mind behind this awesome shindig and everyone had such a great time. The rehearsal dinner was held at Main Street Crossing in Tomball, TX and BBQ was catered by Rudy's BBQ (mmm, brisket...delicious!). Lots of friends and family were there to enjoy company, food and dancing to the music of Walt Wilkinson. The groom's sister, Hannah, plays guitar and is an amazing singer so we got to hear her as well.


The tables were decorated with wildflowers picked by the groom's mother, Kathy, cowboy boots, hats, bandanas and candle holders that were finished off with raffia.


The bride and groom wore special rib bibs handmade by the groom's aunt :o)




It was so great to spend time with friends and family and getting to know my sister's new family!


Here's my hubby with my brother, Michael. After everyone ate, we watched a slide-show with pictures of the bride and groom throughout the years and then a microphone was passed around the room to whoever wanted to say a toast or give a blessing to the couple. I HATE crying in front of people but I got really choked up when it was my turn! Can you blame me?! My little baby sis was getting married!


And here is the talented and gorgeous sister of the groom, Hannah! She's going off to college in the Fall and I know she's going to do great things.


Once Walt and his band started playing and the chairs and tables were moved, Ella was ready to hit the dance floor with her new boyfriend, Jeremy. Jeremy is the groom's older brother. Ella used to be completely in love with Ryan until she met Jeremy at Amy's graduation...she's been smitten ever since! We all love how Ella pronounces his name: "Germy". She got to dance with Germy again at the wedding reception!


Lil' Buddy enjoyed all the lights and excitement and especially seeing Walt and his band playing guitar. He loves guitars. He also danced quite a bit and then hung out with Uncle Mike at the bar.

Look at my little guy watching the band play!

Now, the couple is wed and happily together in Bryan, TX. I'm looking forward to visiting them next Friday with my mom. We have a task of helping my sister decorate her new home. We'll be bringing gifts for Amy because we simply can't help ourselves! I miss my sister sooo much but I'm so happy for the life that God has blessed her with! I love you, Amy!

Five Years Ago I Became a Mommy

It seems only natural for me to blog about my daughter's fifth birthday party on Mother's Day. I can't believe it was five years ago that I first became a mommy! I'm so blessed by my "little people" and I'm so proud to be their mother. Life would not be the same without them.

I wanted to do something a little different this year for Ella's party and give myself a chance to use some stored-up creativity that has be itchin' to get out - so, we went with a vintage Alice in Wonderland theme. Ella loves Alice in Wonderland so she was excited to have an Alice party. Graphic Design was my main profession before my days as a mommy so I thought it would be fun to design the invitations myself. Pictured above is the front of the invite. I cannot take credit for the illustration used on the invitation - it was done by an extraordinary papercut artist that I found on Etsy named, Elsita. Her art is amazing, so check it out by clicking on her name.



Inside of the invitation (I took out my # and address, just in case any weirdos decide to stop by).


And here's my little princess admiring her decorations before the party.


It doesn't look like much in the picture, but I spent hours putting this all together. I printed out vintage illustrations of Alice in Wonderland and hung them with red ribbon. My mom made most of the tissue paper flowers and for the garland I used red ribbon and clipped playing cards on with tiny wooden clothes pins.


For the table, I decided to have a montage of different tea pots and tea cups, sort of like the Mad Hatter's table. The Alice in Wonderland fabric is a Japanese import from Superbuzzy called Wonderland Flush. They had only two seperate yards left so I sewed table toppers out of both of the pieces. My favorite item on the table is the Paul Cardew Alice in Wonderland teapot that Court won for me on Ebay (you can view more Paul Cardew pieces at The Teapot Shoppe). In the bottom left corner of the table there is an Alice teacup that Mimi purchased for Ella during our trip to Disney.


The black box of Wonderland Tea on the table is also from our trip to Disney.


In order to save $$, I made the cupcakes myself with a box cake mix. However, doing so did not save me any time. I thought it would be nice to make my own cupcake toppers so I printed out little circles of the White Rabbit and used a paper punch to punch out the red cardstock and then glued the pieces to toothpicks. I love the way they turned out, but mostly I felt relieved when they were done :o)


Since the party was held between lunch and dinner, we served appetizers, fruit and small sandwhiches.


Here are the party favors. The small paper bags contained goodies for the boys, toddlers and babies. Although you can't tell in the picture, the playing cards that are hanging by the ribbons are actually Alice in Wonderland playing cards- click the link to see what they look like up close. Court purchased my set from Ebay.


All of the girls received jars containing Twizzlers candy. I designed the Eat Me labels, printed them on sticker paper and used the Martha Stuart Doily Lace Edge paper punch on the bottom of the labels. A little ribbon finished them off nicely.


Along with the jar of candy, each girl got to pick out a nail polish from the jar.


I found this red drink tub at Wal-Mart for only $6! After printing out the Drink Me sign and using the doily paper punch, it tied in nicely with our theme - and looked much better than just having the ice chest out (although, we had it out any way since there were so many drinks).


I really wish I had a close-up of the items in this picture. There are a couple special items on display: Ella's signed picture of her with Alice from Disney World and her special Disney's Alice in Wonderland teapot from Mimi.


What good is a party without games, right?! Ella just had to play Limbo at her party! She didn't exactly bend backwards to go under the bar, but she had fun anyway :o)


Good, ol'fashioned sack race! The kids really enjoyed this. Christian just hopped along with them. We also played the Spoon/Egg race game. Thanks to the Dollar Spot at Target, every kid got a cool prize from the games.


"Mommy, is it time to open presents yet? I can't wait any longer!!!"


Christian rolled around in the tissue paper while his sister opened her gifts. He made a mess, but it kept him entertained so I couldn't complain.


Christian was having so much fun that the other kids decided to join in!

"Happy Birthday dear Ella, Happy Birthday to you!"

Cupcakes - yum!

I love this picture - he's such a boy!

Lil' Luke was kind enough to vacuum the back porch for me. He loves to vacuum just as much as his Daddy does!


While Ella loved each and every present that she received, the one gift that all the kids couldn't wait to play with was the Barbie swimming pool (Allison was happy to take credit for the most coveted gift!). After Court put it together, Ella and her friends brought the pool outside and filled it with water. They all crowded around it for a lengthy amount of time. And, the very next day after the party Ella was ready to let her Barbie's take a swim again! My baby had a great time at her party!

Amy's Bridal Shower

Amy had her first bridal shower a couple weeks ago (that's her standing next to me on the left). My mom and I, along with my mom's friend Penny, threw the shower for her. Mom's friend, Susie, was gracious enough to let us host the shower in her home. Luckily for us, she also had a fine collection of dinnerware and vases that she let us use. We had a good turn-out of about 25 people. Our original plan was to have a garden party outside on her deck yet mother nature had other plans. The rain kept the party indoors, but everything still turned out beautiful. If I had to give the shower a theme I'd call it "vintage garden" (that's the look we were going for, anyway).




Our spread included cucumber sandwiches, chicken salad croissant sandwiches, fruit, cheese ball, broccoli salad and punch. Yum! Notice Ella in the background - so sweet! This was her first shower to attend.



My mom gave me a cupcake decorating book for Christmas so I was thrilled to be able to use it for the shower. The center of the "flowers" are vanilla wafers. Amy, mom and I decorated the cupcakes together. We're not professionals, but I think we did a pretty good job!


I wanted my gift to Amy to fit into our theme so I put together a basket of kitchen items in her favorite shade of blue. I included a Martha Stuart blue colander, white ceramic bird salt and pepper shakers, vintage style dish towels, a cook book stand, vintage blue and white pyrex mixing bowls (found on Etsy) and a vintage apron that I picked up at an antique shop in Tomball.


Okay, I know it's weird to blog about my gift but I loved what I gave her! These are the vintage pyrex bowls I found. Vintage pyrex is quickly becoming a new obsession of mine.


Ella had a very special job. It was her duty to bring her aunt her presents and I must say that she did an excellent job. We also played a couple fun games including "how well do you know the bride?" and "Mr. Right", a game where you pass the gift to the left and right according to when the words "left" and "right" are read aloud in the story. Game prizes were J.R. Watkins hand & cuticle salve and a ceramic plaque found at Target that read, "Do not treat me any differently than you would the Queen". Too cute, eh?

It's all about the china, isn't it ladies?!

Susie's sweet kitty loved lazing around by the fire. I had to include her picture because she looks so sweet!


My mom had her old wedding gown made into some special items for Amy's wedding - a ring pillow for the ring bearer (who happens to be my 2 year old son) and a garter. There's a place in Houston called Embellishments that specializes in sewing pillows (among other things) out of vintage fabrics.


From the left: me, Brenda (mom), Amy, the groom-to-be's sister and his mom, Kathy. Ella was happy to pose for this shot.

"O Gitow!"

Our Little Buddy, Christian, turned two this month. So sad! He's officially not a baby anymore...which explains why I refuse to cut his baby hair. We decided to celebrate by having a Guitar Hero party since Christian is OBSESSED with guitars (he calls them "gitows)"! He loves dancing while Court plays Guitar Hero and he even tries to play it himself. He's going to be disappointed when he eventually learns that his daddy doesn't play a real guitar :o) For now, it has sparked a huge interest in music and musical instruments in him so I've already decided that he'll most likely be a musician when he grows up!


I had to get creative with the decorations since you cannot purchase Guitar Hero partyware. Court printed out a bunch of guitar pictures and Guitar Hero logos and I purchased streamers and balloons to match.



Since I'm a Martha Stewart wannabe, I decided to make my own custom guitar cupcakes. Christian loved them! He was so excited to eat "gitow cake!".


In keeping with our theme, I asked everyone to wear band t-shirts. I am sporting my Van Halen World Tour t-shirt and my mom is wearing an authentic, vintage ZZ Top t-shirt - it's a very special shirt and was loaned to her by one of the band member's wife. No kidding!

Christian is wearing his favorite "gitow" shirt.

A Guitar Hero party would not be complete without a little jam session. Court and Grant played "lead guitar" and "bass" while Ella sang.


And here she is performing "Heartbreaker" by Pat Benatar. It's her favorite song to sing on Guitar Hero.


Next, it was time to open presents. Luke enjoyed helping - I could tell he had learned how to open gifts from Christmas and his first birthday! So cute!


Christian's birthday wish came true! His very own guitar! He rocked out with Daddy for the rest of the party and then happily went to sleep after his exciting evening.