Riding Along

in my au-to-mo-bile!! Enjoying the good weather :)

hey, this is kind of fun!

where's my honk-honk horn??

 found it!

Busy Sugar Bee!!

Busy this week on cards and building up my Sugar Bee Designs blog design section, so I will update soon! Meanwhile, go check out my new Sugar Bee post :)

Avery's Minnie Parties

Happy Valentines Day everyone! Here are the photos of my big girl celebrating her THIRD birthday--for two weeks in a row! We partied in true polka-dot style with a Minnie Mouse theme. All pinks and reds and hearts and bows, it was so cute! I hand-made the invitations using my Cricut machine, which makes cutting and craft ever so much easier.

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Here's the birthday girl after seeing all her guests had arrived!

the food&decor...

The first party was just for family, and it was smaller and more laid back. The birthday girl had a great time!

Happy to see grandaddy

sweet kisses from her Nana

 

and pretty thrilled to open presents, I can assure you :) 

she got a whole new spring wardrobe!!

The following weekend we had another party for our friends, including lots of little munchkin friends. I must say they were all pretty stinkin' adorable! We accommodated these smaller pals with heart-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and strawberry iced heart-shaped cookies :)

party pics

absolutely refusing to look at the camera for a family pic,

or checking out the cupcakes...you decide.

cousins :)

MANY fun and awesome presents----and then she was out! 
party over, everyone exhausted,

Minnie/Avery goes to sleep on mommy

Thanks again to everyone that came, we love you guys!!!

Let Me Count the Ways...

I got an email earlier today- from one of the parenting sites I subscribe to- with a list of all the ways your child shows that they love you. It kind of made me think...because our lil'bub can't say, "I love you," yet, or do some of the other traditional things that kids her age do to show love. That's hard to swallow sometimes, but it makes me think of the little things she does do to show me her love. And I love them :) And it made me appreciate the fact that even though she doesn't express it as typically, she is most definitely a VERY loving child.

Probably every person that meets us can see that lil'bub has a bit of a (ok, rather intense) mommy attachment...but sometimes that just has to do with the fact that she doesn't have as much independence, yet, as other children her age. But her being clingy on me is not really what I was referring to before.

It's the way she grabs my hand sometimes, just out of the blue, and holds on while she goes back to her activity. It's the way she beams when I praise her. Like she just won the best kid in the world contest! (A shoo-in, I would say). It's the way she lights up into a frenzy when she sees I'm there to pick her up from school. And it's the way she looks deep into my eyes, and smiles at my smile.

And of course, the way she pulls me over for secret telling...

ok, just wanted to share. bday pics coming soon!

The Snow that never was

You've got to hand it to our Houston weathermen. They are super duper special experts at getting this town riled up over future, yet non-existent, weather forecasts. Although I've heard that a few people in the south saw a tiny bit of sleet, we have yet to see anything close to a flurry, much less the the 1-3 inches of snow they were promising. I'm SOOOO glad we closed down the whole city for this though. It's not like I had any important appointments or errands or things to do before Avery's (friend) birthday party tomorrow! I'd much rather sit in the house with a stir-crazy munchkin and think about everything I was going to do.

But let me spare you my continued sarcasm for photos instead...I'm going to wait to post the ones from last weekend's party and put them all together with the ones we take tomorrow. I can't wait to share all the fun stuff we made for the party! When I said we were party animals last weekend, I didn't even mention that we actually attended two additional parties that had nothing to do with lil'bub's birthday... so I definitely wasn't kidding around...we haven't partied like that since...ever!

Our friends Scott & Alla celebrated Scott's 30th with an awesome Mad Men themed party on Saturday night, which I was thrilled to make the invitation for this past December. I just posted it on my Sugarbee site :).We got Bub the hub a skinny tie and I got a really cute dress off Etsy. I think they turned out pretty well.

Everyone at the party looked very chic, including my friends Allison and Sara.

And the boys definitely looked the part! (candy cigarettes of course :)

Here is our sophisticated host, Alla. 
Her pen necklace really completed the ensemble!

On Sunday morning, Allison gave a lovely baby shower brunch for our friends Sara and Dave. It was a gorgeous and delicious spread. I've never seen lil'bub eat so much! She loved her some frittata, and muffins, and fruit parfait, AND coffee cake. Soooo yummy.

Here is the happy, expecting couple

They got a lot of good stuff. We gave them a basket of goodies to help their little girl get to sleep- very important! Dave sure did like this adorable outfit...he's gonna be a good dad :)

It was nice to get all the little munchkins together...

ok, I've got to go get crafty again...were you able to guess what kind of themed birthday parties lil'bub is having??Does this give you a hint??