Penelope's Birthday Round up!

I decided to do a quick round up of our favorite little girls birthdays! My first and only birthday post for Penelope is when she turned 1! We just celebrated her 5th birthday! I'm not sure how that's possible but it happened. In honor of her 5th birthday we're taking a quick run through of all her previous birthdays! You all know I love a good party, and even more putting together a good party. It may be a little stressful leading up to the actual day, you can ask my husband about that, but I love it. Every year we pick a theme, I hop on Pintrest for some DIY ideas and take it from there!

Alright let's get started. First up we've got Nella's 2nd birthday. We decided on an Elmo theme, she was obsessed with him at this time. We held it at our local church in the fireside room. It was perfect. Felt very homey and cozy. For food we did subs, with some fruit and veggie platters along with some snacks. Had a table for the kids with play doh & coloring pages to keep them busy. As far as decorations go I try to keep it simple. I say simple because I'm cheap and I'm most likely making everything you see. For this party we did a sweet balloon garland; which as awesome as it looked I never did that again because not only was it hard to transport but it ended up getting super tangled on the way to the church. I also made a cute happy birthday banner with Elmo on it, and updated her "chalkboard" sign. I made an Elmo cake and cupcakes with Dorothy on it (that's Elmo's pet fish). The Elmo cake looks fancy and hard but really I printed out a picture of him and traced his face onto the cake, then just filled it in with colored frosting! For the center pieces I painted tin cans and stuck toothpicks in them with different designs; mainly a P, a 2, and some pictures of Elmo. This was also the one and only year she got professional birthday pictures done. We won a free session so we did birthday pictures & Christmas pictures in one. They turned out amazing. This was also the one and only year I spent a ridiculous amount of money on an Elmo dress with her name on it. While it was very cute I would probably never do that again either. Live and learn.

The room. I mean look at that balloon garland. 

My birthday banner I made!

Center pieces. 

Her birthday sign, my favorite thing to look back on. 

Birthday pictures

Her cake, wish I could turn it but I spent all morning looking for these damn pictures so I'm not dealing with it. 

Kids table

Opening presents, this was her favorite gift by far. This doll was almost as big as her, she named her Gigi. We still have it.

Quick shout out to one of my besties who always snaps pictures of everything; because I'm always running around like a chicken with it's head cut off and always forget about pictures! Next up we've got the big 3! Can I just tell you how fun it is to look back at these parties. Everyone has such a fun time, and as much as I'm running around like a crazy lady before hand I absolutely would not change a thing. We always have such a good time with our friends and family! This year we did "Despicable Three". Again we had it at our church, but this year had it in the gym, which I wasn't pleased with at first but it ended up being great. We split the gym in half, set up the tables and food on one side and let the kids run around on the other side. We also had some coloring pages set out for the kids. As far as food we did subs again along with our usual fruit and veggies platters. We had lots of snacks for everyone too. When I say snacks we always do our favorite taco dip with tortilla chips, buffalo dip, pretzels, and popcorn. Those are our party staples. I try to stay away from cheese puffs and things that may leave your hands needing to be cleaned off because let's face it, this is a kids party they're probably not going to wipe they're hands every time. We did a minion cake & minion cupcakes. For center pieces I painted soda bottles to look like minions and attached balloons to them. I also made some cardboard cut outs of minions to hang up. We did some favors this year, again keeping it simple we went with a bottle of bubbles & made anti-gravity serum labels for them.

Food table (Got that banner on clearance at Target for 2 or 3 dollars and wrote Penelope's name on it)

Cake & drink table. And yes, that's right we've got a huge minion on the cake table because my dad just happens to have a huge minion in his media room. I mean who doesn't?

Close up of the cake and cupcakes. 

Gift table

Close up of her birthday sign on the gift table.

Fun sign I made!

Center pieces.

Our home made photo booth.

This was literally the only picture that got taken at our photo booth.

She didn't want to sign happy birthday without her brother. I can't get over how small he was here!

Next up we've got the big number 4! I think this was one of my favorite parties to date. She decided on a doughnut theme and we ran with it. We turned it into a PJ party and asked guests to wear their favorite PJ's! We did more of a brunch this year as far as food goes. We decided on doughnuts, bagels, fruit and some other fun treats. As far as decorations go, again simple. I made a doughnut banner to hang above the food table, got a birthday sign from Party City that went with the theme perfectly. I printed out fun signs to put on the food table and the cake table, along with some sweet pictures of our girl. For the tables where people were sitting I painted some glass bottles some pastel colors to go with everything else, and added some sprinkles too! We had some activities set out on some of the tables to keep the kids busy. One table had tic-tac toe with doughnut game pieces, another table had make your own doughnut seed necklaces. Which was just fruit loops & pipe cleaners. We also had coloring pages & play-doh set out on another table. I'm sure your sensing a theme here as far as activities go. So far from the parties I've thrown I've found that kids do enjoy coloring and really love to play with play-doh. When we put play-doh out I usually add some rollers, along with play knives, scissors and some cookie cutters. It keeps them busy for a good chunk of time. Favors this year were a small can of play-doh with a donut dough label on it!

Food table. 

"Life is sweet. Eat more doughnuts!"

Fun sign. "Don't hesitate to help yourself!"

Yummy doughnut cookies we made!

Birthday banner

Gift/Cake table. With her "chalkboard" sign on it & a fun banner that says FOUR!

Close up o the cake and cupcakes. Found those sweet plates at Party City.

"Donut be shy, take a treat!" Favors

Center pieces at the tic-tac toe table.

Our 4 year old!

Time for cake!

Time for presents!

Some rules I like to follow to save ourselves some pennies would be to let people help. Often times people will ask if there's anything they can bring, and I tell them. A lot of the times I delegate fruit, chips, or dips to others and we bring the main things like the main food items & the sweet treats. I will take all the help I can get! I usually get the table cloths at Wal-Mart for 97 cents! For plates I generally get a design that goes with our theme for the cake and then plain plates for the food. I make a lot of stuff myself which involves simply printing stuff off the computer. I make the invitations, her birthday sign, banners and fun table signs. We also always send out a no gift card with our invitations to most of our guests. I know, I know- I'm crazy, I'm a mean mom but guess what I'm not a fan of a million toys! Christmas is right around the corner and I can't tell people no to that so I choose to limit the toys my kids get at their birthdays. I let grandparents, immediate aunts & uncles gets gifts. Friends and other family get the "please no gifts" tags with their invites. I will usually add in if they absolutely have to get her something please consider donating to their college fund. Which I think is a great option. Some might consider it tacky but whatever. People don't feel guilty about not getting her something & then they only have to spend $10 if they want too. Whats the best party you've thrown?! Check back soon for a post about her 5th birthday!

Our Fall Traditions

One of the main reasons I love living in Upstate New York is because of fall. The weather finally starts to get cooler, the leaves start to change and we get to do some of my all time favorite activities. For us fall is a jam packed season full of birthdays and lots of family fun.

Our first tradition is apple picking. Who doesn't love a good apple?! I know I do! We always try to get a huge group to go together. This year we had our Uncle Matt, Aunt Erin, Magnolia, baby Zaza, Uncle Jon, Aunt Sam, Holly, our neighbors Jay and Hudson. This year we even had my sister and law and her son join us. What a group! We head over to our favorite place called Indian Ladder Farms, if you're local it's right in Altamont. We love it there. Not only can you get your apples there, but they also have the best cider doughnuts! They have a lovely store/gift shop and cafe inside. Along with animals to check out and a huge sand pit for the kids to play in. If Henry didn't have to take a nap we could honestly stay there all day. We all have so much fun. Bonus, if you don't like to pick apples then they have a bunch that are pre-picked for sale. This also happens to be where we take a our Christmas card photo. I am very cheap so if I can get a nice family picture for free, you can count me in. It can be a little tricky getting both kids to look at the camera at the same time but it's worth it. The apple orchard provides the perfect back drop for a beautiful family photo.

And as an extra bonus this year we had big cousin Logan to help us get the best apples from the very tops of the trees!

Next up on our list of fall traditions is the pumpkin patch. Another big favorite for our family. We normally head out to Pick a Pumpkin pumpkin patch but this year our plans got a little derailed. We wanted to go on a Saturday but the weather was supposed to be very cold with a lot of rain, even possible flurries. A few of the kids had just gotten over being sick so we really didn't want them out in that. Last minute because Daddy goes into work late on Thursdays we decided on a quick morning trip to Sunnyside Gardens out in Saratoga. It took us about 30 to 40 mins to drive there, it's actually not far from our church. We invited my sister to come along and we had a great morning. They had a huge selection of pumpkins to choose from along with a train we could all ride (for a small price of course). They had plenty of treats to choose from and a cool train display that the kids loved. I personally prefer Pick a Pumpkin. It takes a little but longer to get too but well worth it in my opinion. They have lots of free activities for the kids that include animals to look at, a corn kernel pit to play in, a corn maze and you get to go on a tractor to the pumpkin patch (for free).  While Sunnyside Gardens is very cute and the kids had a great time, it's just a little much when it comes to spending money. They had a lot of character cut outs for the kids too look at, but you had to pay for the train ride ($3 per person which includes both kids and adults), and you also had to pay for a tractor ride ($5 person again both kids & adults), we decided to skip that for the train ride instead. We did have a good time but I am definitely looking forward to a Pick a Pumpkin next year!

They did have a huge pumpkin that the kids could sit on which was pretty sweet!

Character cut outs, they had a lot to look at. Trolls, Peppa Pig, The Incredibles & a ton more!

They also had a little photo opt inside which was so cute! Side note, Penelope looks so grown in this picture and kind of makes me want to cry a little.

Once we finish at the pumpkin patch, we carve our pumpkins. It usually ends up being the next night but this time we had planned it and we got to carve them after dinner the same day we got them! I try to go for very simple designs because let's face it, right now at 2 & 5 who do you think is carving the pumpkins? Oh yes that's right, that would be mom. This year we went with a ghost for Henry and a cat for Nella. Pumpkin carving is a family affair for sure. We usually end up at my mom & dads all around the dining room table making magic! 

This picture pretty much sums up our night. Moms are happy it's over, Mimi is ready to run for the hills, baby is over tired, Adora is a moody teenager and then we've got Henry who's ready for more candy.

Unfortunately some how I didn't get a group shot of all of our pumpkins this year at my parents. But yes I am that mom who gets her kids dressed up in a holiday shirt and tries to get a decent picture of them with their pumpkins. They turned out pretty darn good this year!

Another one of our favorite fall activities is when we head over to our local church to attend their Harvest Festival. I'm pretty sure just about every church has some sort of fall celebration. And you guessed it, it's pretty much all free. We went to Faith Baptist right in Rexford (our first church we decided to go to together before we even got married). They have truck or treat, where everyone decorates the trunk of their car as something (people go all out for this and you will see some pretty sweet designs). They had a bounce house, a rock climbing wall, inside they had tons of games for the kids, a little photo op and food and drinks (for a small price. We're taking 25 cents for popcorn & 50 cents for a doughnut. Now those are prices I can get behind!) All in all it's a great time for such a small price, it's totally worth it in my book, and another chance for your kids to get another wear out of their costumes.

Next up we have Halloween. Our evening starts around 4:30. I feed the kids a quick, early dinner (usually just sandwiches and some fruit) and we head over to my moms. The cider trucks (it's just our local fire truck, they hand out cider and doughnuts FOR FREE!) always goes down her street at around 5 o'clock, so we try to get over there for that. We have our favorite friends, Magnolia and Holly with us for trick or treating. This year we had sweet Eloise tagging along. We grabbed some doughnuts and cider from the truck and went on our way to get some candy. We generally just go up and down my parents street and then head over to Scottie's parents for more treats from Grandma & Papa. Once we finish up hanging out there for a little while we head over to Scottie's Uncle Dave's and Aunt Karens. They love Halloween and always have yummy treats for the kids and adults. That's our last stop before we call it a night.

Everyone killed it this year with their costumes. Nella was a cat, Henry was a mouse, Magnolia was Jesse from Toy Story, and Miss Holly was Curella De Vil!

My sweet little niece, Maya, was an avocado and Miss Eloise was baby Groot. 

Trick or treating at Grandma and Papa's!

Another Halloween in the books. November is a blur. We have my birthday right in the beginning of the month, then we've got my mother-in-laws birthday on the 15th, Penelope's the next day, her party is squeezed in there, then Thanksgiving. Once Thanksgiving is over I'm in full holiday mode. We start decorating for Christmas & get our tree! What are some of the fall traditions your family likes to do?

Here's a sweet little throw back of our Nella Bean on her first Halloween!