not sure what to say about this

Sometimes the kids are cooped up just a little too much with the long rainy months here in Oregon. On a day back in February, the silliness pretty much got the better of them. All dressed in black...and ready to rob a bank?! Nice.

With these two together, the days are never boring here at our house!

valentine's day 2012

I am going back in time a little trying somewhat to play catch up with a whole slew of pictures I have waiting to be blogged. We'll see how far I can get...

Valentine's Day 2012

The kids woke up to heart shaped toast with strawberry jam, scrambled eggs with Canadian bacon bits, and "pink" milk!

 

It's tradition for each of the kids to get a new book and a fun treat each year on Valentine's Day morning. I try to get a book with a Valentine's Day theme, but many times I'm at the mercy of the previous month's book order and there isn't always one. *wink*

 

 A quick sibling shot on our way out the door...

Austin made this cute little heart for his teacher. He was so proud of it and it was actually all his idea. He adores his preschool teacher!

 Mikayla with her gift to her teacher...a set of kitchen towels, a box of cookie mix, and a heart shaped spatula.

 

 As Room Coordinator for Mikayla's class, I had a fun time planning the party. I have been very thankful for lots of eager helpers this year to help ease the load! Each party is set up in four stations that the kids rotate through.

Station 1 - Craft: The kids made doggy or kitty bookmarks (of course using Stampin' Up! punches and Big Shot dies...what else?!)

 Station 2 - Snack: The kids enjoyed a yogurt parfait bar. We tried to keep the snacks healthy this year, so I thought this would work much better than cookies and candy, but yet still a little sweet.

 

Station 3 - Exchanging classroom valentines.

These are the class valentines we made for the boys...

These are the class valentines we made for the girls... 

Station 4 - Photo Booth: All the kids got to dress up in fun Valentine's gear and then get their pictures taken in front of a backdrop that I made.

 

 

Mrs. Derry's AM Kindergarten Class

 

Because I coordinated Mikayla's classroom party, I wasn't able to be at Austin's party. However, I was able to catch the tail end of it. When I got there, Ms. Michelle was reading the "Love Book" that the class put together using pictures the kids brought from home. In this picture, she is reading Austin's page, which said, "L-O-V-E spells love. I love Disneyland."

Austin's class valentines he brought for the group. The monkeys with the glittered bows were for the girls. These were so fun to make!

My sweet little boy!

  After work, Daddy brought home some special Valentine's surprises for the kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 For dinner, we had heart-shaped pizza...

And strawberry milkshakes for dessert...

 

What a blessing these two sweet kiddos are!

I L-O-V-E them!!

a pinkalicious 6th birthday!

Mikayla is SIX! Wow, time sure does go by in a blink of an eye! I still can't believe that we have celebrated two years of birthdays already in our "new" house. I still remember like it was yesterday that we held her Tinkerbell party (4 yrs) only 3 weeks after moving in. And her Princess party (5 yrs) last year was also a special memory with friends!

This year's theme we decided to celebrate PINKALICIOUS style! Mikayla loves the Pinkalicious books and I figured it was the perfect party theme for a six year old girl. I wanted to keep the party small, so I let her invite 8 of her friends. Five of them were from her Kindergarten class and the other three were friends she has had since she was little. It was so fun to welcome all of the girls to the party all dressed in PINK!

For some reason I couldn't get my motivation to work in creating the invitations until I was down to crunch time. I ended up getting them delivered just a little over a week before the party! I kept them pretty simple and "mailable", but I do love how they turned out.

 

I found the Pinkalicious girl image in a Google search and just copied it to a word document. After the invites were printed, I added some Stampin' Up! Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the crown and wand. It made a fun sparkling effect in person.

 

The girls entered through the front door and were greeted with pink streamers and pink balloons.

 

Some of the party activities included...

Reading the book "Pinkalicious", of course!

Balloon Bop!

{keep the balloon in the air as long as you can}

 

Pink, Pink, Cupcake!

{a pinkalicious version of duck, duck, goose}

 

Pin the Cherry on the Cupcake

{thanks to the Dollar Tree for the cupcake cut out!}

 

Brother got to play, too! It was so cute because I think Grammy spun him around so much that he really was dizzy. He wanted to pin the cherry on Mikayla! I just love this picture!

 

Photo Shoot!

 

Pinkalicious Bingo

Thanks to the internet, I found this FREE printable for Pinkalicious Bingo. It was perfect! All I had to do was print and cut out each game board and the calling cards, and punch out circles for markers. 

 

Decorate Cupcake Cut Outs

This was a time-filler and all I did was print out cupcakes onto heavier cardstock and the girls were able to decorate and cut out. Just something fun to do as the party came to a close.

 

 

Presents!

Food Time!

 

 

 

Of course there was PINK food...

 

And green food to help cure "pinkatitis"...

 

And, what's a Pinkalicious party without pink cupcakes?!

I wanted to decorate them just as they were in the book...complete with a cherry on top (which just so happens to be a red gumball).

Even the insides were pink!

My pretty pinkalicious girl!

 HAPPY SIXTH BIRTHDAY, MIKAYLA!!

Each of the girls got to take home a little pink goody bag.
 
Inside was a pink lollipop, pink bubbles, pink gum, pink chapstick, a wand, and cupcake stickers.

 

And, because the party was inspired by the book, each of the girls got their own personalized bookmark with a Pinkalicious quote.