Backyard Movie Night Birthday Party

For Jackson’s 6th birthday, he requested a birthday party where he could celebrate with all is classmates. I immediately thought about a backyard movie night party. A great way to keep the celebration outside, where we have the space to host plenty of people, and also include something that Jackson loves, watching movies.

For food, I stuck to a concession stand theme. Box trays filled with hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, and candy, which was a HUGE hit with our guests. Since I knew it would be a chilly night, I also had hot cocoa and coffee available.

Since The Lorax was the movie we showed that night, I thought it would be fun to do some themed mini cupcakes, which my sister once again nailed.

How cute are these truffela trees (cotton candy) and brown barbaloots (teddy grahams) covered mini cupcakes?!?!

The kids enjoyed watching the movie in our inflatable pool filled with tons of pillows and blankets while the parents stayed cozy on our patio furniture, yard chairs and plenty of blankets.

I totally forgot to take pictures of the goodie bags before the kids started taking them, but I used the same popcorn bags we used , filled them with fun little treats and sealed them with a cute little sticker.

I’ve always been a big believer in thank you notes and I will continue to instill these values to my kids. Showing your gratitude and making sure a person knows that their thoughtful gesture does not go unnoticed is so important. Jackson has been practicing to read and write more in class this year so I thought these thank you cards would be great for him. It took a few days for him to get through over 20 thank you notes, but he did it and I couldn’t of been more proud as a parent.

A Toy Story 3rd Birthday Celebration

This is the first year Jackson really understands birthdays (ie: cake with candles, balloons and presents). He specifically asked for a Toy Story party with cake and balloons, so I had to deliver. And of course, I can never just do basic. So although the guest list was limited to our bubble (the grandparents and my sister) due to Covid, I couldn’t pass up on making it his best 3rd birthday party ever.

I created a digital invite based on the Toy Story 3 movie poster.

A big thanks to my sister/best auntie ever, for creating another amazing cake. 

And what current birthday isn’t complete without a Zoom Celebration?

This was the digital invite I created, sent to a handful of our family and friends.

A big thanks to everyone that sent their birthday wishes and love to Jackson and to those that joined us on Zoom. Jackson is one super loved kid and we are so blessed to have such amazing family and friends.

Serendipitous Encounters

Do you believe in serendipitous encounters? I sure do!

With the libraries still closed due to Covid-19, lately, I’ve been wanting to buy Jackson new books to add to his library collection. We use to go to the library on a regular, at least once a month, and we would get new books to read along with the book collection he already has. So since March, we’ve been reading the same 10 checked out library books along with the existing book collection he owns, which is A LOT, but if you are familiar with our reading routine (3-4 books, 2 times a day, everyday), you’d see how quickly we’d read through them all, multiple times around.

Late last night while visiting my parents in the San Fernando Valley, I stumbled upon a post a friend shared on Facebook:

“Hi California friends!
Our friend’s son is working on his his Eagle scouts project and selling his books to fund his goals. Please consider buying some books.”
(With a shared link to Books for Hands Facebook page.)

Buying books to help fund a project goal caught my eye at first, but when I learned more about Matthew’s Eagle project, I was just so amazed and proud of this boy that I have never even met before. 

“You can give hope to children with limb differences by buying books. Prosthetic limbs are very costly for families because children quickly outgrow their new limbs. For my Eagle Project, I will use my 3D printer to print hands for children. So that I can give these hands to families free of cost, I will be selling my childhood books, as well as some donated adult books and some magazines, so that your friends and family can enjoy these books just like I did.”

Books for Hands

Buy used books to help fund a great cause??? It was a win-win in my book and since I was currently in the area, I took advantage and ordered a bunch of great books last night, which got delivered to my parents doorstep the next day. Thanks so much Matthew! We are so excited to add these books to Jackson’s book collection.

Just to know such thoughtful little beings exist in our world, like Matthew, gives me such great hope for our future. Please visit this page for more info and see how you can help make a difference.

A Special Mother’s Day Tribute

A quote by Angela Schwindt:
“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”

Wishing all you mamas out there a very special and Happy Mother’s Day!

Custom design Simplewear Mommy and Me tank top and baby onesie gift set.

Especially to all of you celebrating your 1st Mother’s Day. Discovering motherhood is hard enough in normal times, throw in a pandemic and you basically have serious bragging rights for the rest of your life. 😂

Making the most of our current situation and created a fun (and super appropriate) Mother’s Day quarantine style card for all the special mamas in Jackson Danny’s (and my) life.

Front: Wishing you Happy Mother’s Day from 6 feet away!

Inside: Looking forward to the days when we can hug and kiss each other again. xo

And to the little being that made me a mother…
THANK YOU and I LOVE YOU.

His face. My heart. Every. Single. Time. ❤️

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles 2nd Birthday Party

Last week, our little man turned two, so we invited some family over to celebrate with a small backyard party.

Jackson is about all things transportation right now. So I thought it fitting to have a Planes, Trains and Automobiles themed birthday party.

I started with a digital invitation and let that set the look and feel of the party.

I thought it would be fun to incorporate one of those balloon arches as a backdrop, but with wanting to keep the budget real low this year, I decided to try my hand at creating one on my own. 120 hand pumped balloons later, here is how it turned out.

I’m used to creating my own banners and menu signs, but this was the first time I decided to do a DIY food station as well. One of Jackson’s favorite dishes is my spaghetti, so I decided to do a Pasta Station.

And of course no party, big or small, is complete without a dessert table spread.

Freshly baked homemade cookies and other sweet treats made up the dessert station.

A big thanks to my sister for, yet again, baking the delicious cupcakes!

The driveway was decorated with a little road and other sidewalk chalk creations so Jackson and the other little kids could drive around in his little car and motorcycle toys.

Happy 2nd Birthday Jackson Danny!

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