I am super excited to share Ava Greer's 5th Birthday on my blog, but I decided I wanted to go back in time first. This post will be on her 1st birthday and I will work my way up to her 5th. 
Of course, I can't remember all of the details, but reminiscing on her first birthday sure does bring back sweet memories. My dear friend Holly is a pro at party planning and executing the most fabulous parties ever!!!! She is one of the most talented people I have ever met and she has helped me with all the birthday parties I've done. Most of the things I do are her ideas. Holly and I went to college together, but reconnected while they were living in Birmingham and we both had newborn baby girls! We had lots of craft dates together and I had the privilege of helping her with some HollyDays work during the Christmas season in 2009. I seriously enjoyed it so much! We sure did laugh a lot while working! Holly quickly became one of my closest friends. She is a wonderful example of a Godly wife and mother...a proverbs 31 woman. She is selfless beyond words and where some wouldn't want to share their great ideas, she always put the most thought and creativity into helping me plan as she would her own baby girl. So, for Ava Greer's first birthday Holly really led me through it. We decided to do the same theme so we could share things and hopefully save on costs. An example of that selfless spirit I was telling you about...Ava Greer is 5 weeks older than Karidyn so her birthday was a month before Karidyn's. Holly didn't think twice about sharing things she made though or holding anything back because she wanted Karidyn's party to be better. I seriously love this girl! Can you tell?!? She is such a wonderful example of how God wants us to treat others. I want my friends to be able to say the same thing about me. 
So, let's get on with the party... It was a PINK PINK PINK Cupcake party. 

This was the birthday hat I made. I made two because I didn't like the first one and unfortunately she didn't like this one either! She was not going to have this thing on her head! I was still glad that I made it though. It was super easy. I just got a template from goggle images and after I monogrammed it I basically just glued it altogether. 

This was my second time to make a fondant cake (i did it for her 1/2 birthday to get some practice), but first time to make a smash cake. The smash cake was so yummy! I used a strawberry cake mix, but got the icing from the Publix bakery and it was divine! Yes, even though my sweet baby girl totally tore into this cake, I ate what I could! What can I say? I love sweets!!!! I really enjoyed making them both, but I get super anxious trying to cover a cake in fondant. I wish I had mad skills like Carrie Allen! If you haven't seen her cakes you need to! They are AMAZING! Carrie and I also went to college together. 

She sure enjoyed it!

Holly made the cupcake toppers, water bottle labels, favor stickers and stickers for the cups. 

This was another one of Holly's ideas and I LOVED it! Super easy and so cute. Slice a cupcake in half, drop the bottom in the jar, top with icing, place the top half in and add more icing! 

It was so long ago, I don't even remember all of the details. I do remember though that Holly made a tutu for the highchair! Fun little detail. I made Ava Greer's party dress as well as her tutu and cupcake onesie she wore while enjoying her smash cake. 

Time flies. Such a sweet little baby. 

I have to give a Thank You to my mom! That poor woman puts up with so much from me. She is always there and always dealing with my crazy...especially at party time. She is one of the most organized and well planned people I know, so you can imagine how crazy I make her with the hot mess of disorganization and procrastination that takes place with me!!!!! Thank you mom for always helping. 
I hope you enjoyed this post and flashback from Ava Greer's 1st Birthday. 
Hughes Happiness

I'm so excited to share this post with you all! One of my dearest friends just celebrated the 1st birthday of her precious daughter! So, I asked Mallory if I could share the party and she said yes! Before I do though I want to tell you a little about her.

Mal and I became friends her first year teaching. I had the privilege of being her mentor teacher and from there we became instant friends. I knew she was going to be the best mommy one day and man was I right! This girl was an amazing teacher that loved her students like nobody so the love she gives her own sweet baby is unimaginable! Not to mention she spoils my girls ROTTEN! She always has gifts for my girls when we visit eachother and it's always something super fun! Just to give you a picture of how much fun she is once when we were visiting she laid towels out all over the floor and let my girls pour water into pans just because they wanted to! We love Mal and her sweet husband and precious little Myla!


From Mallory...



I started planning the party when Myla was around 7 months, lol! Mainly just thoughts in my head. When I got my silhouette machine for Christmas I really began putting things together. I thought if I started early I would save a lot of money by making things myself and waiting for sales. Her nursery is light pink, and gray with a few elephant accents. I knew I wanted to use this "theme" for her first birthday bc it summed up her first year of life! Everything I saw (or family members) that was pink and gray or an elephant (and super cute!) was purchased for our spoiled little girl since she was born! Anywho... My first purchase was her gray, lace ruffle romper. I thought about making it myself but quickly decided the $14 was way cheaper than me trying to figure out how to make it, messing up, and making it again. From there I made (thanks to my dear friend showing me how!) her headband and birthday hat! I also made her footie shoes from looking at a picture off etsy. After staying with Lacey for a weekend I knew I wanted to do ice cream in mason jars with cute fabric for the lid (same fabric I used to make her ONE banner for her high chair and birthday hat). The ice cream idea led to a "sundae bar" and boy was it yummy! I was originally just going to serve cupcakes and ice cream but my Mom kept "encouraging me" to possibly have a little something else. So I got on pinterest, found sandwiches on a stick and went with it! I used an elephant cookie cutter for the cheese and bread. Super easy and fun! I also had a few kids coming so I made mini elephant pb&j sandwiches. :) Getting back to decorations... I used my silhouette to cut out a banner with a rectangular opening for her 12 month pics, blew up her invite pic for a big statement and made tutu skirts for the 3 round tables the food would be on. I also used the silhouette to make cheap dollar tree cups and the drink containers match the theme! Then adding a few ruffled streamers (best idea ever!) and balloons, we had a party! Looking back I would have hung the balloon and fabric steamers on the bottom of the opening so they would have been in the highchair pictures...ooh well! It was still great and I loved every minute! :) I'll cherish the invite made by HollyDays as well the memories!

Engineer print from office Max- Pinterest idea

Mal made the cake too.

Could she be any cuter??????

Mallory,

Everything looked absolutely precious! You are so talented and such a wonderful mommy...not because you threw a great 1st birthday, but because you do so many wonderful things for and with Myla! I look forward to continuing this parenthood journey together...with lots of laughter!!!!

Happy Birthday Myla! We love you!

Hughes Happiness

We seriously had so much fun at our Easter Egg Hunt! I made these invites using word. Nothing Fancy, but I have no idea how to design so clipart totally did the trick. We gave these to school friends. 

Of course my crazy self stayed up til 2:00 am Friday morning trying to get stuff ready for the hunt. I am so last minute! IT DRIVES ME CRAZY! I was actually up monogramming Ava Greer and Layla Westyn's shirts! I thought they were pretty cute though! So totally worth it! I also finished up all the buckets and food...chick and bunny cake bites, chick and bunny pretzels and chick cupcakes. This is a picture of the food table.

Since I had some free time Saturday I made this little banner. The weather ended up being beautiful so we opened the front door and were in and out all day. I sat in the dining room and watched the girls play right outside while I made it.

Cake bites. DYI in a previous post. When I figure out how to actually blog I will link that post to this one. I attempted bunny cake bites too. I used Mike and Ikes as the ears, but it didn't really work that well. They tasted good though. I laid them in these little grass patches I got at Hobby Lobby Years ago.

Cheese puffs in cone bags tied with green ribbons to look like carrots. The cone bags came from the party section at Hobby Lobby. $1.99 for 25. Thank you Cindy for grabbing them for me.

So I was trying to really get things done ahead of time and did these Thursday night...Not such a great idea! It looked like their mascara had run when I set them out for the egg Hunt on Saturday. I made mini cupcakes, iced them with yellow icing (Wal-Mart had neon yellow icing!), dipped them in yellow sprinkles, used orange and black Wilton tube icing to make the eyes, beak and feet with different icing tips. They were super cute Thursday night...Not so much Saturday!

This was pinterest inspired...Chick and rabbit pretzels. As I said in the last post the rabbits looked more like cats! MEOW! Ha! The kids still liked them though. Basically you just melt white chocolate or yellow candy melts and fill the pretzel with them. Then I used the same Wilton tube icing with tips to add features to make them look like a chick and cat/rabbit!

I bought these little yellow condiment cups in the party section at Hobby Lobby too. Just added google eyes and a construction paper beak to make little chicks. I filled them with Starburst jelly beans. Yum! I did the same thing with yellow cups, just added little feet too. 

I wrapped green forks in orange napkins and tied a green ribbon around them to make them look like carrots. I placed them in this basket with green plates behind them.

And lastly, the buckets! So, I posted before a DIY on the Easter Bunny Buckets! A friend of mine ended up seeing the post and making them! She sent me a phone picture and they were so much cuter than mine! I loved them and she put her own spin on them adding bow ties and bows, so I decided to do the same! She is going to send me some more pics and I am going to have to show you how cute they are! So, thank you Joanne for adding this cute little detail and allowing me to copy it!

I also wanted to do Chick buckets this year. I basically did it the same way as the Bunny buckets but used orange foam to make the beak and feet. I will have to post a pattern for you incase you'd like to do it for your next Easter event!

The teacher in me wanted to have a craft for the kiddos to do while the Daddy's were hiding (I really mean throwing!) eggs! Thank you Heath and Richard! We made these cute little chicks with small yellow plates. I cut out beaks and legs ahead off time. Ava Greer and some of her sweet little friends passed out the supplies and they all followed along with me as I made a model for them. After we finished I realized my silly self forgot the orange paper to have them trace and cut out their little hands to make the wings so I told them that was their homework. Hehe!!hidding

The girls shirts...

What a blessing it is in my life to make these sweet memories with my family and our friends. I'm thankful beyond words!

Hughes Happiness

Can't wait to share a shower with you that one of my dear friends is hosting this Saturday. I had the privilege of helping her with some of the details...here is a sneak peek.

Hughes Happiness

Can't wait to blog about these goodies! Due to rain we rescheduled our Egg Hunt so hopefully tomorrow night I can share all the goodies! This picture shows the chick cake bites, chick cupcakes, chick pretzels, a gift we did for teachers and cat pretzels...lol!!!!! Totally supposed to be rabbits! First attempt! Fail! Ha! They're still cute! Right!?!? Can't wait to share it all!

Hughes Happiness

As the celebration of Christ’s resurrection is upon us our pastor made me think about something I had never thought of…I always thought of Palm Sunday as a joyous time as the crowd recognized Jesus and honored him, but it was really quite the opposite for him. He knew what was about to take place. It wasn’t a joy he felt from being honored, but rather a pain from the betrayal that was about to take place. What breaks my heart about it all is I’m one of the ones that brought that pain on him.

The sermon this week was followed by one of my very favorite songs. A song that lifts me to my feet! A song that fills my heart with pain and excitement all at the same time and my eyes with tears! How can I continue sinning with a savior like this?

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless Babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save

Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again

And as He stands in victory
Sins curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From a life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell, no scheme of man
Could ever pluck me from His hand
Til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I stand

Hughes Happiness

Layla Westyn's dress was super easy to make. I knew I wanted to make a storybook/fairytale type dress and what better way to do that than with tulle and big flowers?!?! I bought the crocheted elastic top from Etsy for around $3. The sweet lady I bought it from tied  the ivory ribbon around it and threw in some ivory flowers as well. It was such a nice surprise when I opened the package. 

I bought gold and ivory glittered tulle from Hobby Lobby when it was 1/2 off. I bought 2 spools of each for a total of $10. I measured how long the strips needed to be from waist to chins and doubled that. I needed the strips to be 10 inches long so I cut them 20 inches long. I looped each strip through the bottom of the crocheted top. I did it fairly loose so it would be full.  Hopefully you can see it in the bottom right picture. When I say "I" what I should say is Mom. I got her started and she looped while I was sewing aprons for Ava Greer's Cake Decorating Party that was the same day. I couldn't have done any of this without her. 

I had seen this massive ivory bejeweled flower for $5 at Hobby Lobby and the small pink flower too. I think the pink flowers were around $3. I thought they would be a nice touch! I bought several of the pink flowers so I could use one in her hair and 2 for little barefoot sandals. My dear friend Mallory made a pair for her baby girl. Myla's were so cute I thought Layla Westyn needed some too! I bought pink elastic ribbon, made a figure 8 and sewed it where it crossed. Then I clipped on the little flowers. 

I owe a big Thank You to my mom for helping me with both of these parties. Right after Ava Greer's party we had 30 minutes to set up for Layla Westyn's party and mom went straight to work as fast as she could move. As I said in the original birthday post, I intended for this party to be simple and the guest to be family. The weekend before the parties I started feeling guilty about Ava Greer's friends being invited to her party and not Layla Westyn's friends. I wanted her to get to celebrate with her friends as well! So, we expanded the guest list and most of our closest friends brought their babies. It ended up being perfect and Layla Westyn was so happy! She really enjoyed it and we did too. Thank you to our precious friends and families for celebrating with us. Blessed. 

Thank you to Madeline for editing our pictures. You did a great job! 
I will do a post soon of just pictures from both parties. 
Thanks again for stopping by...
Hughes Happiness

This sweet baby girl just celebrated her 2nd birthday!

Of course I wanted to make it super special, but I needed to keep the cost down for two reasons...

1. We planned a trip to Disney to Celebrate!

2. Heath said because we were going to Disney we weren't having parties for the girls.

Well, when he told Ava Greer (The Oldest) she wasn't having a birthday party the tears started to flow and Daddy caved. Those of you that know me know that I couldn't have a party for Ava Greer and not Layla Westyn! So, the planning began and sweet Heath never, not once said another word. I knew I had to keep the cost down if I wanted him to keep his mouth closed though. I say that in the most loving manner imaginable. J I decided we would have a family birthday to keep it simple. I started brain storming what our little one loves and above all else the kiddo loves BOOKS!!!!!! She gathers as many books up as those itty bitty arms can hold. She makes her way to me, crawls into my lap and settles in for a story when my eyes are always drawn back to that trail of books that she dropped on her way. As I hold her in my lap, wrapped in my arms she will attentively listen as I read each one and when I finish she goes back to the path of those left behind and we read those too! She loves books! At, first I wanted to do a vintage theme, but I sort of did vintage for her first birthday…that post will be in the future! I knew I wanted to use pink and gold as the colors and I thought what better books than Little Golden Books. I technically did that a little backwards, but it worked nonetheless. I went straight to Pinterest to get my thoughts going and after I read how to glitter some things up…I went glitter crazy! What better place to go get all of my craft supplies than HOBBY LOBBY???(The employees at Hobby Lobby should probably know me by name as much as I go! Which can and will be an entire blog post in the future! ) What I bought…

• Mod Podge – around $4 I think
  
  
• largest container of glitter they had (believe it or not was waaaay too much) Go with the small! I did use my 40% off coupon though. It was around $5, but I still have ¾ left!
  
  

My first DIY glitter project for this storybook party was cake stands.

Luckily, I had some old candle holders at home and white Dollar Tree plates too and that was all I needed to make super cute and glittery cake plates.

Before I Heath glued the plates on the candle holders I took a sponge brush and applied the Mod Podge then sprinkled glitter on it until it was completely covered. I sprinkled over a box so I could reuse the sprinkles that didn’t stick. I was having so much fun I started looking around for other things that I could glam up! I decided a Mason Jar would be perfect to hold flowers and every southern girl has a mason jar or 20. J I took glitter halfway up a large jar to serve as a vase and halfway up a smaller jar to hold the utensils.

I wanted the cake to sit higher than everything else to serve as a focal point.

I must want that every year, because heath made a box for Ava Greer’s 2nd birthday and I’ve painted and used it every year since.

I grabbed that baby pink spray paint and sprayed away. It was missing something though…GLITTER!!!!!!  So, when I made my next visit to Hobby Lobby I grabbed some gold scrapbook paper that happen to be ½ off! I spent a whopping $2! I used my Silhouette to cut out her initials for the front of the cake box to give it a glittery personalized touch. Since I had plenty of glittered paper left I cut out letters for her banner too. I couldn’t believe those two sheets were exactly enough to make her initials and all of the letters for both banners. YEA!!!!! Then I realized I needed paper for the actual banner too…back to Hobby Lobby I went! I wish I could just get it together and make 1 trip to the store rather than 15!

I spent around $3 for the pink cardstock that I attached the letters to and I came across a #2that was going to be absolutely adorable with glitter! It was $2.47.

The completed decorations were around $27.

I used chair covers I made from Ava Greer’s 3rd birthday and pink tulle to tie around the chair backs that I had left over from a baby shower. The table cloths were just a few yards of white fabric that were also left over from AG’s 3rd birthday-That birthday post is soon to come as well.

 

The Only thing I had left to think about was food. I wanted cake, cake bites, macaroons, ice cream and milk.

• Mom made the cake-$1 cake mix
  
  
• I did the ruffled icing with Publix Scrumptious Buttercream icing. Around $10-I always use their icing when I decorate a cake! So good!!!!!!
  
  
• Mom attempted macaroons. It was a good attempt. We ended up using a strawberry cake mix $1in a mini Whoopie (sp?) pie pan. It worked. We squirted icing we were using for Ava Greer’s birthday in the middle of each one and mom rolled them in edible glitter.
  
  
• I made cake bites dipped in white almond bark and used pink candy melts to drizzle over the tops.$6
  
  
• For favors, I had little pink boxes I got from the Dollar Tree and Mom grabbed some pink and white marshmallows at the store to fill them with.$5
  
  
• Pink plates and napkins from the Dollar Tree-$2
  
  
• How much is Milk?!?! I buy it all the time and don’t even know! I’m so observant! Ha! Somewhere around $4. 
  
  

So! Food and Decorations came to a Grand Total of… $56 or so!

The only other costs were in Layla Westyn’s dress and accessories. Check out my next Blog Post for a DYI on the birthday girl’s attire, the party guests, and the engineer print photograph and frame!

Thanks for stopping by...

Hughes Happiness

Ingredients:

Salmon

Diced tomatoes- 1can

Mayo-1/2 cup

Salt and pepper

Brown rice-4 servings

Spinach-bag

Parmesan

Coat salmon in mayo and tomatoe mixture

Preheat skillet on Med. Low

Place salmon in skillet and pour remaining mixture on top. Cover. Cook 3-5 minutes on each side.

Cook rice according to package. Stop with 2 minutes remaing and add the bag of spinach. Cover and cook the last two minutes. Remove. Fluff and add Parmesan.

Place salmon on bed of rice and serve!

This is our version of a Publix Aprons recipe that we love.

Let me know if you try it!!!

Part 2

The Easter Egg Hunt has become an annual get together at our house to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even though it is indeed an Easter Egg Hunt, Jesus Christ is and should be the focus. Gail Gibbons wrote a wonderful non-fiction book called Easter.  She does a wonderful job sharing the story of Easter and how our traditions are a reflection of NEW LIFE. The Resurrection Eggs are another great tool to keep the focus on Christ. A friend gave us these, but I have also bought them at Hobby Lobby and used a 40% off coupon. I have to admit I tried to use these just before an Egg Hunt one year and they were so excited about hunting it was hard to get their attention. 

So every year we invite all of our dear friends and ask them to bring 15 stuffed plastic eggs (or around) that are gender neutral. While we enjoy the food, the Daddy's hide the eggs. Typically we buy pizza and everyone brings a sweet or salty Easter treat, but this first year I did all of the food. 
I actually kept it fairly simple and it was just perfect. 

After Pizza we had store bought mini Easter cupcakes, peeps, flower marshmallows that I made with toothpicks and chick cake bites. These cake bites were surprisingly easy to make...Here is a step by step so you can make your own. I'd love to see pictures or hear from you if you decide to try these fun and easy little treats out. 
What you need:

• Yellow or white cake mix- I like moist yellow
• Tub of frosting- I like cream cheese
• Yellow candy melts
• Wilton candy sticks
• Black and orange wilton tube icing
• One block of white chocolate almond bark
• A cake bite cardboard holder or Styrofoam to hold the cake bites while they dry. I used Styrofoam and covered it with fabric.

What to do:

• Bake a box cake mix accordingly in a glass pyrex dish
• When the timer dings and the cake is done take it out and add a tub of icing- whatever flavor makes you happy! 
• Mix the icing and cake mix completely-STIR IT UP!
• Then roll the mixture into balls and place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. (I usually get around 45 cake bites out of one cake mix)
• Melt a small amount of almond bark, dip the end of the wilton stick in the chocolate and then pierce the cake bite with that end of the stick. This will help secure the stick when you start to dip the cake bites in the yellow candy melts. 
• Place the cake bites in the freezer for around 10 minutes. 
• Melt the yellow candy melts according to the package. Hold each stick as you dip the cake bite into the yellow candy melts. 
• Place each cake bite in an upright position until dry. 
• Place a small decorating tip (I use the one that looks like a tiny circle on the end) on the end of the black icing and dot eyes on each cake bite. Use the same tip on the orange icing to draw a triangle for each nose. Then use a small star tip on the orange tube to create the little chick feet.

They are yummy and super cute too!
I also wrapped some up to share with friends at school and at another egg hunt. I just tied a HollyDays tag around each one. 

More Easter treats to come...