First Day of Kindergarten & Preschool

My big girls are both in school now!!!  I swear they were both babies just weeks ago, so it's very confusing dropping them off for big girl school!  Sloan had a half day of kindergarten and is already begging to go back. She goes back tomorrow for a few hours and then starts full time on Monday.  I cannot believe my biggest girl will be in school five full days a week, but I am so thankful she loves school so much and is so excited to go!  Phayre Bear had her preschool meet and greet yesterday and loved it.  She begged us to leave and let her stay, just like I had predicted.  She happily pranced right into her class this morning, gave me the biggest hug, and then got right to playing.  I am so proud of my girls (but goodness do I miss them when they're away)!!

Not only have the girls both started school, but they've also started all of their activities this week too!  It's been such a busy week with lots of changes and transitions. I'm doing my best to get us on a new schedule and figure out which routines work for us, but I'll be totally honest and admit its been super overwhelming.  I'm not the best with change and all of these changes have made for an emotional week!  I know in a few weeks this will feel like our new normal though and I'm really looking forward to that.  Bless you Briar for going with the flow and tagging along on all of your sisters adventures!!

Sloan loves school and I love how eager she is to make new friends and learn!  Phayre is just happy to finally be in school like her big sister and can't stop talking about how many baby dolls and doll strollers her preschool has :).  I asked each of the girls a few questions before their first days and I loved their responses so much!

Sloan:
What grade are you going into? Kindergarten!!!
How old are you? Five!
What are you excited to do at school? Eat lunch in the cafeteria and go to recess with my friends.
What's something your teacher should know about you? I'm really good at art and writing letters.
What do you want to be when you grow up? A cheerleader and a kids lead at church, with a walkie talkie.  
What's your favorite color? Dark pink and neon pink.
What's your favorite food? S'mores.
What do you love mostest? Our baby. (Briar)
Will you miss mama? Yesssss, but I'm coming back home mama!!

Phayre:
What grade are you going into? pweeeeschool!
How old are you? sreeee (three)
What are you excited to do at school? Play with baby dolls!
What's something your teacher should know about you? I'm Phayre Bear.
What do you want to be when you grow up? A mommy, like you mama.
What's your favorite color? Purple!
What's your favorite food? Chicken!
What do you love mostest? Baby dolls!
Will you miss mama? Yes mama. (and hugged me :))


Go get em my sweet girls!  Mama loves you!!

ONE PRICKLY PAIR // A Twin Baby Shower

Last weekend I got to help host a shower for my dear friend Juliann and her twin girls due this November.  Juls actually has two daughters (5 and 3) so she's about to have her own little girl gang!  There were six of us that made this shower come to life and I was so happy with how everything came together.  We went with a "One Prickly Pair" theme, which might be the cutest twin shower theme of all time!

I was in charge of the dessert table and making Spanish rice, two things I love to make.  I called on two of my party shop go-to's, Modern Birch Co. and Pearl and Jane for decor and was so happy with how it turned out.  All of the banners are from Pearl and Jane and the custom wood cake toppers are from Modern Birch Co.  I used the same pallets and table from the kids recent Camp Brown birthday party, but added a fun colorful blanket (that I bought in Mexico probably ten years ago-love when old things that I've hung onto come in handy!).  I made another balloon garland (they're SO easy) using this balloon strip.

Isn't Juliann glowing!!! She looked so beautiful! 

Juliann's mother in law, Jodie, made the most uhmazing prickly pear jalapeño margaritas!!

Jojo's Prickly Pear Jalapeño Margs

two cups clear tequila

one cup lime juice

one cup  prickly pear mix

top off with  prickly pear San Pellegrino

sliced jalapeños to taste

Put everything in a pitcher and mix well.  Serve over ice with lime wedges!

Party Hat Cupcake Topper Tutorial

I still can't believe Phayre and Briar's shared camping birthday party has already come and gone!  Where does the time go?!

I made these cute little party hat cupcake toppers for the party and loved them so much I thought I'd share a quick tutorial.  I made them one night after my kiddos went to bed, they were pretty easy!

All you'll need is:

-4x6 photos of your childs face

-colored paper/construction paper

-pom poms

-wooden treat sticks (like little wooden dowels)

-scissors

-hot glue gun/glue sticks

I had the photos printed through Costco, I just used their online crop tool to crop the photos in on the kids faces.  You want their face to take up about half of the photo.  Once your photos are printed, cut out around their little faces.

I made myself a little triangle template out of construction paper and then traced that template onto paper.  Cut out all of the little triangles, making sure you have the same number of triangles as you do of faces.

I didn't want to wait for everything to dry so I didn't use liquid glue, but used a hot glue gun for everything!  I put a couple dabs of hot glue on the forehead of the picture and attached the party hat.  Then I used the hot glue gun to attach little pom poms (purchased at Michaels) onto the hats.  Finally I attached little wooden treat sticks (also purchased at Michael's in the baking area) to the back of each party hat!

It was super easy and they were such a hit at the party!

If you have any other questions or if anything was unclear, please let me know in a comment below!

M

Full party tour here!

CAMP BROWN // Phayre and Briar's Shared Camping Birthday Party

We had so much fun celebrating Phayre's third birthday and Briar's first birthday over the weekend!  We decided to do a shared party since their birthdays are only two weeks apart.  I had a hard time coming up with shared party themes and P changed her mind on the theme about 27 times, but finally landed on a camping theme!  We had the party at our local park and had such a blast!  There were TONS of kids, it was super humid, dirt and sand were everywhere, but everyone had a good time so I'm calling it a win!

I decided that the only part of decorating I enjoy at a kids party is the cake table so that's all I did!  Our friend Aaron gave us the pallets and we did a light layer of white spray paint to make them look white washed.  I threw down a white table cloth and made my first ever balloon garland (I was so nervous to make it and it was literally the easiest thing ever.  Just buy this balloon tape and it's so easy!).  I used gold balloon letters to spell out CAMP BROWN and then my all time party favorite Pearl and Jane made me a tree banner, an "Adventure Awaits" banner, and a "one" banner for Briar's highchair.  If you have ANY party decor needs, she's your girl!!!

I ordered two cakes and cupcakes from our local grocery store and it was only about $35 for all of it! I used cake toppers from Fancy Free Finery for Phayre and Briar's cakes and received so many compliments on them.  They really are so darling, I saved them to put in the kids baby books!  Modern Birch Co made me some "Camp Brown" cupcake toppers and I made the little party hat cupcake toppers (also so easy, tutorial here!).  Little white cake stands can be found here, this one is a bit cheaper though!  Briar went NUTS on his cake, smashed his face right into it and went to town!  It was hilarious and gave everyone a good laugh.  And actually now that I'm thinking about it, the girls went to town to eating cake too!  They all three had so much fun!

All three kids wore custom "CAMP BROWN" tee shirts from Cheerliy and they were such a hit at the party!  Briar wore a birthday hat from Little Blue Olive and Phayre wore a birthday crown from From Ever's Meadow.  Both girls wore bracelets from our fave Poppy Lane and Co (you can always save 15% with code HELLOBABYBROWN15)!  All of our party guests left with a little mason jar filled with s'mores goodies which was also super easy and the girls loved helping me make them (We just filled little mason jars with teddy grahams, chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows)!

As always, if you have any questions, leave them in a comment below and I will get back to you!

M

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