:: Parties - gender reveal

Last week my sister and her family found out what their third child would be.

And it's a boy!!!

The ultrasound technician had texted me that morning and I started making the "gender reveal" cake.

We live about 45 minutes from each other, so we met in the middle and had dinner at a park.

It was a fun way to involve their children and they were so excited.

And so were the other people at the park!

(which might have to do with us sharing the cake with them)

We'll  definitely have to do this with our next one.

:: What I'm Loving - old town imports

So I'm slightly obsessed with parties.

And to put on a fancy party, some fancy serving ware is needed.

Am I right?

For the past 7-8 years I've been collecting this serving ware from Old Town Imports.

I absolutely LOVE this aluminum metal serveware.

{and they aren't even paying me to say this}

Until the end of today, they're having 50% off of all online orders!

This is awesome.

Use coupon code BLACKCUPID at checkout.

Hmmmm.

So what would I buy?

Oh, these are just a few.
Go shop here.

:: Party Ideas - pop up dinner parties

Source: ohhappyday.com via Amy on Pinterest

I found this on the blog Oh Happy Day and I think it's genius!
Pop up dinner parties!
Invite a few friends and have a table already set up.
Bring the food.
And you have an amazing dining experience.
I love this idea.
I'm thinking I want to do one at the beach.
Where would you do one?

Source: ohhappyday.com via Amy on Pinterest

:: Party Time - graduation party

Last week I had a surprise graduation party for the husband.
Was he surprised?
Not exactly sure.
I accidently left facebook on {uggghhhhh.  for one second! I swear!} which showed the invite,
he saw it, didn't see which day,
and I was able to convince him that it was a few days later - - so he better act surprised.
So, little did he know that my "clothing swap party" that I was "planning"
 was really his graduation party.

We had a lot of people show up and all had a ton of fun!

I mainly used what I had or borrowed a few things.

Here's the rundown.

-used this DIY chalkboard that I made a few years back, as part of the backdrop

- used his textbooks {that are now worth, literally, pennies! sniff sniff}

as part of the backdrop

- borrowed the white plates from a friend

- made these washi tape flags {washi tape was the only thing I bought - easy tutorial coming soon}

For the goodies, I just had cookies and milk.

{we had much more . . . I took these photos the day after, cause I ran out of time to do it before

the party . . . and look how many leftovers I still had!}

Yay for graduation parties!
That is definitely something to celebrate.

Have a great weekend!

I will be linking this to these linking parties here.

:: Party Time - frozen yogurt bar

Source: iloveswmag.com via Amy on Pinterest

Last month, my family was in Utah for my brother's wedding.
A few days before, we threw a wedding shower for my sister-in-law.
I had seen this pin above on pinterest for a frozen yogurt bar.
So, we decided to do it.

It was a hit!
We bought the frozen yogurt from the local grocery store
and then had:

- strawberries
- bananas
- blueberries
- brownie bites
- m&ms
- crushed kit kat bars
-crushed butterfinger
- crushed graham crackers
 . . . basically, the list could go on and on.

It was very easy to prepare.
And even those who were health conscious had some too!

{my sisters, sisters-in-law, mom and I}

:: Party Time - reese's first birthday party

Pin It

Reese turned one at the end of November.

{I'm finally posting this, after 2.5 months}

We decided to have a birthday party for her in the middle of December

after my husband's finals were finished.

When I saw this vintage, rainbow hot air balloon birthday party
 that Paige of Paige of Styles did for her daughter,
I knew I had to do it too.
And since I found a great deal I was able to buy her printable party package on etsy.

We bought this book and had people write inside what they thought she'd be when she grew up.

This woman was the hit of the party.

All the kids loved their balloons that she made.

It didn't take her long to dig into this cake.

Her first year did literally fly by.
Don't know what we'd do without her.
She's such a special little girl who makes me so happy.

party printable package - Paiges of Style

hot air balloon cookies - Sugar

cake recipe - found here

hot air book - amazon

:: Family Happenings - ava's birthday {party}

Sick of the birthday posts yet?  I might be.

And I still haven't even posted about Reese's party {shame on me}.

Well, this year I needed to simplify things a bit, so I decided to not do a big par-tay {like last year}.

I was definitely tempted, don't get me wrong.

And I had the PERFECT party planned for Ava.

Ideas were flowing into that crazy brain of mine, left and right.

But, this year is just not the year.

So we decided to do a smaller party with her friends and their family one Sunday after church.

All I did was . . .

make this awesome pink ombre cake,

make cupcakes,

buy 4 pink flowers,

pink balloons for the decor,

put up a cute picture of the birthday girl

 . . . and that's about it.

I made this yummy, pink ombre cake for the missy.

Really easy to do, just a little time consuming.

We then had everyone write birthday wishes on the balloons

and then the kids let them off.

Ava LOVES this birthday tradition.

:: parties - Swap Party

For awhile now, I've wanted to do a swap party.

We're in a recession and no one has money,

so why not just swap items with friends!

We all know that we have a ton of clothes, accessories, shoes, purses, etc.

hanging in the closet and collecting dust.

So that's just what I did.

About 15 of us gathered together and brought

all of our items we wanted to get rid of.

First person there was the first to pick and so on.

We did that for about 4 rounds and then ended

up doing a free-for-all.

It was a lot of fun!

So much better than thrift store shopping

cause it's free and the clothes don't have that thrift store

smell and the "I need to get to my car asap to use that hand sanitizer" feeling.

You know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, it was a success and we've decided to do it every 3 months.

Yay for new clothes and accessories

that are free!