Our little Family: July 2014

I don't know how this happened but I never made a blog post for Ava's 4th birthday party. I think I was upset because I felt like we didn't get too many decent pictures and never went back try and finish editing them.

Well, we can't have that! I went back today and looked through the pictures, grabbed as many "good" ones as I could find. We gotta keep these memories somewhere because things don't last all that long up in my head!

So here it is 5 months later!

Grandpa Dave drove up again for this birthday. He is so good about being present for special events like that. It's not really a fun drive all the way here to Pullman but he does it anyway! We like having him around. We also had Aunt Chelbe, Caden and Emma here for Ava's 4th birthday. This was the first time since I moved away 6 years ago that Chelbe has been able to come visit me in my home. It was hard to fly to Virginia because she got married and then was pregnant (plus we ended up moving 2 years early) then in Alaska airfare was SUPER expensive plus Chelbe was pregnant again, with Emma. So a lot of things in the way of her visiting so we were super excited to have her this weekend!! The kids LOVE each other and get along so well. It was a fun weekend.

Ava asked for a Princess party again this year and I was happy to oblige.

BUT I did realize that I over did it this year. We only invited one family over apart from our own, Chelbe's and Grandpa Dave. So I ended up wishing I would have invited more people for the amount of work we put into everything (Our house is just too darn small!). I am learning that less is more. It's better to have the friends to share the memories with than all the "stuff" I want to do and have at the parties to make it special. The party was still a success, just, a LOT of work. I had started planning way early and prepped a few crafts for the big day like: Fairy wands, crowns, Princess Necklaces and the cake topper. Never did get around to the invitations but that was ok.

I made Ava's cake this year. There was a lot of prep work, well mainly just making the crown.

I printed a template then molded gum paste and fondant to make the crown. Let it dry for about 24 hours then painted it gold with some edible color dust (first time using it). I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Bath time! I had to get a picture with all the cousins in the bath. They had so much fun spending time together.

We made some paper pom poms, you can kind of see them in the back behind Chelbe and Jason. Pretty easy to make and costs just a little over a dollar. I hung them up in Ava's room after the party. They're pretty cute in there.

I think the kids were warming up milk here for some yummy hot chocolate, a Caden favorite!

Caden is the handsomest boy but he is capable of some pretty funny looking faces

Hot chocolate sure is messy!

The boys hanging out and talking nerd.

We did build your pizzas as our dinner and "craft".

Served Princess punch, salad and lots of yummy fruit.

The finished product. Ended up having a lot of trouble with the fondant (because I was rushing!!).

The top layer was strawberry (with real strawberries) with white chocolate (literally white chocolate chips & Butter made into frosting/filling) frosting and honestly I can't even remember what the bottom layer was. I think most of us liked the top layer the best!

Ava had a bit of attitude for a bit at the beginning of the party but I believed she snapped out of pretty quickly and started to have some fun (and be nice again lol).