charlotte's 4th birthday party

Last weekend we celebrated Charlotte's 4th birthday. Friends of ours have a rule that kids aren't allowed to chew bubble gum until they turn 4, so we've been telling Charlotte that ever since she's been asking about bubble gum. She decided that for her 4th birthday she wanted it all to be about gum and candy, so when a cute little girl asked, here is what we came up with.

Charlotte checking out her slideshow before all of her guests arrived.

Here is a little sample of the spread we put out. Looking at these pictures makes me want to brush my teeth, but all of the kids seemed to love it!

Here are all of the craft bags waiting for all of Charlotte's cousins and friends.

Decorating aprons.

We read a fun book, called Bubble Gum Bubble Gum about a few animals that got stuck in a wad of gum on the road. Lots of fun!

Here are some of the kids decorating their cupcakes for later.

A shot of the dinner table

And time for presents...

Melissa found a bubble gum machine piñata and this is what ensued.

Eventually we just beat the thing open with our bare hands. Either way, lots of candy and toys hit the floor.

Right after that we gave Ollie and Charlotte a gift for both of them that some of our family helped us with. Their faces say it all.

Finally, 4 candles for the birthday girl.

Hard to believe our baby is already 4. Can't wait to see what this little girl does next!

A little blue truck birthday for Ollie

Ollie's birthday weekend has come and gone. After rescheduling from Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, we finally got to celebrate with family and friends. Hope you enjoy some of the pictures from his party.  A couple of decorations and a peek at the slide show that was rolling the whole time.

We made this replica of the truck from The Little Blue Truck book and used a photobooth app to take fun shots of everyone.

All of the food was themed of course...chicken feed, slop, farm fresh veggies, country lemonade, tire donuts, etc. Melissa did a great job putting it all together.

Here is a look at some of the desserts as well as a frame that we made out of an old pallet and some chicken wire.

More of the decorations...

This is me reading The Little Blue Truck to the whole crowd.

Melissa came up with some fun crafts for the kids and adults.

Oliver got some help from one of his best friends Sammi to open his presents.

Singing happy birthday to Ollie.

Blowing out 2 candles...

And feasting on the cake...

Ollie had a great day and we're so proud of our 2 year old. Man that sounds weird.

valentines day with c&o

This Valentine's Day was a fun one.  Charlotte was thrilled with everything (as you will see) and Oliver was not feeling that great the whole weekend (as you will see). With this being Charlottes first year in school, she got to attend her first Valentine's Day school party.  I think she was more excited about her party and her cards from her friends than she was about Christmas.  We did some easy crafts to prep for the big day! Earlier in the week I made extremely inexpensive and quick valentine shirts.  I am not too impressed by some of the sayings on the majority of the Valentines shirts especially for young ones.  I found both ideas for these shirts on pinterest, used freezer paper and paint I already had from past projects and picked up two shirts for three dollars a piece.  By making my own I could control the maturity of the shirts and together they only cost six bucks!

I couldn't stop with pinterest ideas for the shirts, so I kept it rolling for the cards also!  Charlotte was so excited to give out her cards to her friends and they were so easy to make!  We used an extra spindle from the front porch to serve for Charlotte's lolly pop handle.

Our family tradition is to go get ice cream and of course we had to keep the tradition rolling, even though we seemed to be in a snow globe that afternoon!  While we enjoyed our sweet treat for the day the kiddos also got a Valentine's Day surprise, electric toothbrushes!  The kids were beside themselves with excitement!

We hope everyone had a great Valentines filled with sweet treats and new toothbrushes!

merry christmas

We had a lovely Christmas this year with our sweet babes.  Here is some of our fun!