Party Time!!

So the past few weeks have been just jam-packed with parties. I wanted to showcase some of the invites and pictures taken from those parties as I was lucky enough to host two of them and do the invites for all of them.

Rachel's (Family) Bridal Shower
We had a blast with lots of family and yummy food. I did the invites, decorations, favors, and food labels. Of course, as you can imagine when you host a big party, the list of 'to-do' items gets so long that when it all comes together something is inevitably forgotten. And that, my friends, were pictures. Luckily, Rachel took a few, I took a few before the party as well, and together, you can get the idea.


Decorations before the party started...

Party Favors were cds of Rachel's Summer Love Mix.
Food labels

Emily's Baby Shower
For this we had a small intimate party with close friends enjoying take-out cafe rio and the giving of gifts and gossip. Always a delight.


Krista's and her daughter, Norah's, Birthday Party
Unfortunately, I was not able to attend this fabulous party, but I was able to do the invites and food/party favor labels, and steal some pics from Krista's blog. Wish I had been there, it looked like so much fun.

The invite - front & back


Food and Party Favor Labels




To top it off, I have finally updated my Etsy shop, A is for Apple, and would welcome any visitors!!

The zoo

On Saturday we went to the zoo! Hogle zoo is always a fave and it brings me back to my childhood when my mom signed me up for a bird class there one summer. ;) Anyway, Bart was having his CTW (a work designated service project) and so Isla and I decided to join him up there and see all the animals. What a blast! Except that it was really really hot and like the busiest day of the summer. Their elephant was having a birthday party so there were tons more people around to get free stuff from all these booths they had set up. (one of which Bart was working at)

I was pretty hot and tired from pushing/carrying Isla around the entire zoo all morning, so I really only got a few pics and only one with the real camera. Classic. A side note - there are all these animatronic dinosaurs there right now and let's just say that their target audience is 7-10 year old boys and no one else. Isla was so nervous around them and made me hold her anytime we passed.

Isla and Gigi and the giraffe. I thought it was a special moment to capture. (I don't normally bring Gigi with us everywhere, but I figured it might be a long day and she might be in need of a little extra love if she got scared or tired...)



Her favorite thing of the entire day was watching the carousel. I let her run around it for like 20 minutes before I got bored and had to move on to something else.



We love the zoo!

Bye, bye baby mullet

Isla had her first haircut today! Although, I have to admit that the mullet isn't entirely gone yet. The stylist said it takes little girls a couple cuts before their hair is all one good length. We'd take anything at this point to try to even things out a little bit. Isla was such a good girl, she was so excited about the 'cars' and the 'bayoos'. (balloons)

Admittedly, she was much more excited at the beginning...


And by the end, not as much. But still, no tears and mostly smiles.


You can't really tell in the after shot that her hair is nice and even in the back and her bangs are nicely trimmed out of her eyes. Phew, that was much needed. What a sweetie.

Isla-bo-bisla

I just wanted to give a little update on my adorable little girl, soon to be big sister. We are just loving her at this stage right now. Yes, she is a toddler, and it can sometimes be the terrible almost two's, but for the most part she is a sweet love we have so much fun with everyday.

She's learning lots of new words, although the talking is coming a little slower than I'd like. (but as a late eater and a late walker, we're not terribly worried because of the progress she's made in just a few weeks.)

Here's us at the Thanksgiving Point farm a few weeks back.


Isla at the Ogden Treehouse pretending to be at school.


Isla was a sweetie on the plane to CA. We were lucky enough to have room for her to sit by herself and not on my lap, or else she would not have been a sweetie. ;)


She's really into 'violent' hugs and kisses lately. I love it, except for when she almost broke my nose the other day. She reaches out, grabs your head/neck, and gives you a smack kiss that almost looks like you're going to get bit except that it's the sweetest kiss ever!

I recently joined Instagram and have had fun taking cool pics of Isla with their stylish filters. It makes even the most random boring pictures look cool.




We just love our honey bun. She is too cute!

Bart's Bday

I'm playing catch-up here, but last Saturday was Bart's 31st birthday!! I felt so bad because Isla and I were flying in that day from CA and so we didn't get to see him until really late. But Bart was able to have a pretty eventful day up in Huntsville without us doing what he loves to do - hard work out in the sun. I know, that doesn't sound fun to most people but that is what I love about him. He loves to 'do work', hard man work, particularly outside in the sun where he can feel like he is getting something done and getting a tan at the same time. ;)


Since we weren't able to get out to see friends and family this year to help celebrate his b-day, I decided to ask his loved ones to send me a note explaining why they were so glad he was born. I got the idea from a friend's blog I follow and thought it would be perfect for this year because I knew the day would need something special since we wouldn't have all day to celebrate. It was so great to compile all these wonderful reasons and be able to give Bart something so special on his day. He really loved all the wonderful words people sent him and I was grateful for everyone's enthusiastic participation.

We just love our Bart!!

sweet ca

Last week, all the girls in the family went on a little trip to California to attend Rachel's bridal shower in Danville. It was a quick trip but so fun filled and crazy. I was EXHAUSTED by the time we got back home on Saturday. But that's getting ahead of myself.

Thursday afternoon we arrived and drove straight to Alamo Palace to have ourselves some lemon chicken yumminess. Always a treat.
Here's Isla on the plane out there - it was empty enough that she got her own seat.

After a quick nap and a shower, we headed over to the Blatter's for Rachel's shower. It was such a fun night! There were a million people there and the yummiest desserts.
Here's the invitation I designed for the party.



I stole the next few pics from Allie because I'm challenged and never take any pictures. (taken from facebook too makes them not great quality, but they were too cute not to post.)


(Isla stealing frosting from left over cupcakes at the end of the night. Don't worry, I'm standing right next to her just watching her do it for like 5 min. It was too funny to stop.)




The best part (for me) about this trip was that I got to see almost all my friends in the same day! Friday morning, Kathleen, who lives in New Zealand right now, just happened to be in town and was my driver for the day. It was so nice to be able to see her and catch up since I hadn't seen her (or any of my danville friends) for 2 years! Sarah also hung out with us for a little bit, which was great since she is pregnant and due the very next day! We were sad to miss seeing her new baby, but at the same time, we were just happy she was up for coming out and seeing us. Then all 4 of us (yes, we were carting Isla around all day) made our way over to Mary's house to see the invalid recouperating from a serious rib-removing surgery. She looked so good for just 3 days post-op and I was so happy she was at home and not still in the SF hospital or else I would have missed her. We had Brass Bear for lunch (delish) and afterwards took Isla to a babysitter as her night was over, but mine was just starting.

Kat and I said bye to Sarah and Mary and headed into the city to meet up with Allie and Krista. (Can you believe Krista was in town too?) We all met up and went to dinner at the most fun place in Presidio called the Presidio Social Club. Yummy food and the most fabulous conversation make for a really fun night.


And for our second dessert, we went to American Cupcake which had this fun photo booth to commemorate the evening. Hot girls.


What luck that literally everyone (minus Katie) was in town that weekend and I got to see them and even introduce Isla! It was such a fun trip and I was so happy to get some much needed girl time with my friends. Love them.

(on the plane ride home Isla sat with grandma while mommy slept. Grandma was my angel!)

Kid sister, kid sister...

Kid sister and me! That's what Isla will be singing in just 5 months. We are having another girl! Shocker, I know. We were pulling for a boy just so we could have one of each and say, 'whew!' but looks like the next baby will just have to be a boy as this one is most certainly not. I seriously love how funny the ultrasound pics are. I mean, they're so blunt. And so freakin' cute. And we're just so happy to have sisters. Isla desperately needs a sibling to play with because, let's be honest, mom is not that fun.



Yay for girls!! Now we just have to figure out what to name her. This is most definitely not as easy as last time.

I'm so lame

Okay, I was just looking at the really sad posting record I've had over the past 3 months and let me just apologize! I know, it's super lame of me to be only posting like 2 or 3 times a month. I swear, next month will be better!! May was mostly Italy, but as soon as we got home I was in full on 'mommy' mode. I had slacked off for a couple months with getting Isla to learn how to talk, but within the past 3 weeks she has learned so many words and has now even started to show signs of wanting to put words together which is a huge milestone.

On another topic, tomorrow I get to go to DANVILLE!! Rachel is having a bridal shower and Isla and I are going to attend! Yay! I'm really excited because on top of the festivities, I also get to see all my highschool friends on Friday which makes me so happy. The last time I saw all my friends from home was two years ago when I was pregnant with Isla. Now I get to see them again and I'm pregnant with my second child! So, basically I'm super pumped and I'll blog all the details later.

A final and more random note, I am officially watching Tron for the third time this week. I can't get enough of it and now that it's summer, there is officially nothing good on TV. So I'm turning up the volume and rocking out to Daft Punk and the hot actor that plays Sam Flynn.