Let me just throw it out there... I throw a killer two-year-old birthday party. I'll have to say, we took the "easygoing" route for Little Lady June's second birthday and man, was that a good idea. Instead of inviting a million people over and worrying about all the food and all the cleaning and all the people and all the entertaining, David and I chose to host a tiny little shindig at our house. We invited our immediate family and three families who have little kids both Lu and HDawg's ages. And, honestly, it was perfect! The weather was amazing for late February in Georgia, so we hosted the entire day outside. We did a few Minnie Mouse themed things but overall just picked food LLJ loves (Chick-fil-A nuggets, blueberries and oranges, lemonade, chips and fruit snacks), stocked the fridge with beers for the adults and just let the kids play. And I'm so glad we did it that way, everyone had a blast! I made the cupcakes by simply adding Oreos as a cupcake topper and freehanding the Minnie hairbows with red candy melts (I melted the candy, put into a plastic baggie, cut the tip and squeezed out bow shapes on wax paper). The rest of the party sources are below! Happy second birthday to the sweetest little girl in all the land! I love you, my little lady!

Minnie invitations (not pictured)

Minnie Mouse birthday hat

Mickey and Minnie ears

black, red and silver tassel garland

Mickey and Minnie crayon favors

Mickey coloring books- Dollar Store

Minnie Mouse shirt

red tutu

stuffed Minnie Mouse

ear printable for plates

This is my most favorite photo from our little girl's first birthday. It's blurry, but it sums up her little happy, busybody one-year-old self perfectly. Including the large bruise on her forehead. #whoops

Soooo, ten points to Michelle for the world's most irrelevant blog post. Let's write about a winter themed birthday party when it's spring and nobody wants to talk about cold weather! Right. Well, ye asked for #littleladyjune's first birthday photos, so ye shall receive. Just bookmark for next year, yeah?

Even though we did a pretty grand party with lots of friends and family for HDawg's first birthday (which was a cute turquoise and orange Chicka Chicka Boom Boom themed party), some lazy parenting stepped up this year and Lu got the grand second-child treatment with a small, low-key first birthday party. I still feel bad about Little Lady June's blue nursery and her strongly masculine infant wardrobe thanks to the fact that we thought she was a boy for almost six months (yeah... if you don't know that story, it's a good one) so I decided to give her the royal girl treatment for her first birthday. Pink. Gold. Sparkles. And with a February birthdate, we added in winter. Her very own winter ONEderland! Get it? ONE? Like "won" but... one. Because she's one. Yeah? Yeahhhh.

I had her invites designed on Etsy and then printed at our local printer. Love how these turned out. And yes, I ruined the adorable gold glitter typography to cover up her name for the blog. I also made an adorable matching gold glitter banner of her name for the party to match the invite. So cute.

The details were so fun. Like I said, gold and pink glitter, baby. I made the birthday hat by simply tracing an unfolded paper birthday hat from the party store onto glitter card stock and cutting/folding the card stock to make its own hat. Tie on the cheap hat's elastic string and boom, you've got a custom glitter party hat.

For the snowman, I simply tied together three white Chinese paper lanterns with fishing wire and added some Little Lady June inspired glitter accessories.

As for food, the entire fair was dairy-free, of course (for those of you who don't know, my 2.5 year old, HDawg, has a severe dairy allergy- much like a peanut allergy where even contact with dairy can and has sent him into anaphylactic shock so we don't keep any dairy in our home). I baked strawberry cupcakes, set up a chili bar and a hot chocolate bar, we had popcorn in little snowman cups, snowman parts (pretzel sticks, marshmallows and carrot sticks!) and a few other little snacks.

We made sensory snow globes with the little kids, which they loved. I had planned to mix up a batch of edible snow (corn starch and vegetable oil) for the kids to play in but never got around to it. 

I'm so proud of my little girl and all that she's become so far at one solid years old. We had so much fun celebrating her and I can't wait to see the amazing life she has ahead of her! Love you, Lu!

via

Well, friends. It happened. Over the weekend, I turned thirty years old. Thirty! Woot. I celebrated by having a night out with my girlfriends, spending some quality time with David and HDawg and... packing. Our big move is this Friday! 

In honor of my big birthday, I though it'd be fun to share with y'all thirty things you may not know about me. Some are fun, some are serious and some are just random. Here goes!

1. I am obsessed with the ridiculous reality TV show Big Brother. Seriously, I get way too excited when it's on like 45 nights a week during the summer. I don't think I'd ever actually participate in the show, but I am definitely a huge fan.

2. Most of the time, I can't stand my hair. I usually love the cut but either I can never style it right or it goes flat in 2.1 seconds after styling it. It drives me crazy!

3. I was an NCAA Division I college swimmer. And had a totally different body back then, too... I was jacked!

4. I am a list maker. To-do lists, grocery lists, long-term lists, I love 'em all.

5. I used to have my eyebrow pierced when I was in college. For real.

6. About 99% of the time, I wear a white tank top under everything I wear. Such a weird habit!

7. I type really, really fast. I won "Quickest Typist" at my high school, actually. Okay that last part is a lie, but it is kind of crazy at how quickly I can type! Vrooooom.

8. I'm always cold. I always have a sweater or jacket with me and keep a space heater in my office at work. 

9. I am so weird about using natural products and eating "whole" foods, but I legit love Taco Bell. Two Double Decker Taco Supremes and a pintos and cheese, please. And Fire sauce. So gross, right?!

10. I'm still pretty anal-retentive but I used to be incredibly OCD about certain things. I think marriage and being a momma has helped me to loosen up!

11. One of my biggest fears in life is raw chicken. We cook it a lot, but I literally obsess over the cleanliness in the kitchen if raw chicken is involved. David caught salmonella a few years ago and it pretty much scarred me for life seeing how sick he got. It terrifies me!

12. If I don't write it down, I won't remember it. I try to blame it on old age (ha) or pregnancy brain, but honestly, I've always been like that. Which is why I carry my planner around 24-7!

13. You guys know I'm an attorney, but I don't think I've ever shared that I practice commercial real estate law. I do a lot of loan and purchase/sale transactions as well as land use law, which is zonings and that kind of thing. So, yes, I'm that girl that oftentimes gets yelled at during local community council meetings as I try to get a piece of land rezoned for my client! Love it.

14. Considering I'm a blogger, I'm pretty awful at technology. If my iPhone breaks, I'm screwed. If I need some coding done on my blog, I have to call a professional. I'm as hopeless as your grandma!

15. While I sometimes wear them out to certain social events, my eyes hate contact lenses. My eyes stay bone dry the entire time I have them in, it's miserable! So you usually see me sporting my sick glasses. And by sick I mean extremely dorky : )

16. I'm kind of a germaphobe. Of course, it got kind of crazy when HDawg was a newborn and has calmed down since then. But I'm definitely that girl who uses hand sanitizer a couple of times after pumping gas and that kind of thing.

17. I don't exercise. It's terrible. After my swimming career ended in college, I was really into running for awhile. Then I just got kind of lazy! I was good about practicing yoga and walking when I was pregnant with H, but we've been so busy lately that I haven't focused on exercise at all. I also had a hard time keeping weight on while I was breastfeeding H, so exercise was not a priority and still is not. It's so bad! Once we get moved and settled, that's first on my agenda.

18. I usually only write with a freshly sharpened No. 2 wooden pencil. Like, the kind you have to sharpen with a pencil sharpener. Ain't nothing wrong with old-school, baby.

19. I've never broken a bone! Or even sprained anything, for that matter.

20. I refuse to learn how to drive a stick shift transmission. I just hate it. What's absolutely crazy is that David's car is a manual transmission! So I literally can't even drive his car because I refuse to learn. I could probably do it in a pinch, but it's definitely not something I'm comfortable with.

21. I'm the oldest of three girls.

22. Unlike a lot of girls, I love to camp! I grew up camping with my family, so it's just sort of one of those things I love to do. There's nothing better than s'mores by the fire or a campfire breakfast. Okay... maybe I just really like camping food?

23. I don't have a favorite food. I am the least picky eater in the world... I really love it all!

24. I actually really like Duck Dynasty. It's hilarious! David watches a ton of stupid guy shows (Fast N Loud? How It's Made? Dual Survivor? Gold Rush?... those are terrible) and this is one that I can actually stand. Slash I sometimes watch it by myself. Just saying.

25. One time in college, I gave my phone number to the Ying Yang Twins. True story. But that's another story for another day.

26. I love hanging around the house in David's old basketball shorts. You may look cute in your little yoga pants, but I am ridiculously comfortable in shorts that come down to my shins.

27. I don't wear a lot of jewelry.

28. I'm a beer and red wine girl. I cannot stand fruity cocktail drinks and very rarely drink liquor. Except for a fantastic extra, extra dirty gin martini. I drink those with the 60+ crowd at the bar.

29. I've never professionally dyed my hair. I dyed it out of a box a few times in college, but haven't touched my color in many years and have certainly never done it professionally. I need to get on that, right? I've always secretly wanted to go strawberry blonde....

30. I'm secretly in love with the fact that I'm surrounded by boys. Between David, HDawg, Tucker and our baby boy bean #2 who will join the motley crew in March, I'm the princess among these men!

So there you have it... thirty things you may not know about me. All in celebration of my thirtieth birthday! What fact surprised you the most?! What fact didn't surprise you (I am sure none of you are surprised I flirted it up with a rap superstar, let's be real)?!

About six months or so ago, when we started feeding HDawg solid foods, we quickly learned that he did not handle dairy well. In fact he broke out in hives (they start around his mouth and crawl up to his eyes with big red welts!) every time he ingested cow's milk dairy or even if his skin came into contact with anything dairy. Same with eggs (although egg yolks are okay, the egg whites affect him). Although he's too young to be officially tested, the poor kid is at least intolerant, if not allergic, to cow's milk dairy products. 

I know, that's the pits, right? Because it also affected him through my breast milk, I actually had a dairy-free diet for the first few months of his life. It was torture not to be able to eat pizza or chug a glass of cold chocolate milk at night (which I do quite often!). But I learned some tricks then that I'm now passing on to H. His main allergy is to raw dairy, like cheese, milk, yogurt, ice cream, etc. He doesn't seem to have much of a problem with dairy and eggs baked into products like bread, crackers, cake, etc.

So for his first birthday party, I decided to make him regular cupcakes with dairy-free icing. I combined a few different recipes and came up with my own. I think it turned out pretty well! When I mentioned that I had made dairy-free icing, a few of you emailed me and requested the recipe. So here ya go!

Ingredients

-1.75 cups powdered confectioners sugar

-half a stick softened vegan butter (I used Earth Balance brand, which honestly I didn't love... it tastes a bit like straight canola oil just FYI)

-0.25 cup almond milk (we drink the regular, not the unsweetened)

-half teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Combine sugar and butter in a mixing bowl with an electric hand-mixer. The consistency will be thick and creamy.

2. Add milk and vanilla to the sugar + butter mixture. Continue to mix until smooth.

And that's it! I refrigerated this mixture for about 24 hours before use and it held up well. Like any homemade icing (well, like all of my homemade icings), I think this version tastes a little sweet but it was really good. In the end, it only gets a B from me because I didn't like the vegan butter flavor, but it was certainly a sweet treat for my sweet HDawg. In fact, as I shared before, he loved the cake and icing so much that he rubbed it all over his belly! Get in mah belllyyyy.

 

Last week, I shared with y'all HDawg's Chicka Chicka Boom Boom themed first birthday party. It was such a relaxed, low-key, fun celebration for my little man and we enjoyed every minute.

I wanted to get H a custom fabric birthday hat but just couldn't find one that I liked (or was willing to pay $30+ for!) online. So, I decided to make my own. And y'all, this can be easily recreated for under $3!

What you need:

-paper party hat

-fabric scrap

-hot glue gun

-felt, pom poms, or cute trim

How to make it:

Simply start by deconstructing a paper party hat. I bought a set of eight from Party City for $2.

 

I adjusted the hat and lay it across the piece of fabric that I planned to use to cover the hat. Make sure that you aren't covering up the string so that it can still be used even once you cover the hat with fabric.

Next up, trim the fabric around the paper hat, leaving a couple of inches around the entire width.

Once you've got the fabric trimmed, fold the edges over the cardboard hat and hot glue. Hold each side down until the hot glue has dried before moving on to the next edge to be sure the fabric holds to the hat.

 

Once the glue dries, fold the cardboard hat back together into a cone the way it was originally constructed. You'll be able to tell that you've got it lined up correctly when the neck string hangs evenly. Run a line of hot glue along the seam and hold it down until dry.

Finally, the really fun part- decorate the hat to your liking! I decided to keep it simple with a felt "1" for the one-year-old birthday boy, but you could easily hot glue zig zag trim or pom poms to the hat. The possibilities are endless!

He certainly wouldn't wear the hat all day, but I think HDawg liked it enough to humor me for a few pictures.

His custom matching t-shirt was simply some fabric and felt that I cut out and ironed onto a t-shirt with hem tape. Easy, breasy.

Look, even David wanted in on the fabric birthday hat action!

All in all, the pack of hats (which I was able to use the other 7 for party guests!) cost me $2 and some change and I had all of the fabric and felt on hand already. So this cute little accessory rung in at a whopping $3, max. I love it!

Have you made any cheap DIY projects lately?!

Hi friends! I hope you guys had a great holiday weekend. We were on the go all day, every day but it was a lot of fun. On Saturday, David and I were so fortunate to have the opportunity to celebrate little HDawg's first birthday with a little shindig with our closest family and friends.

We held the event at my sister's house (Tori- the one getting married in November!). She has a beautiful home with an awesome covered porch and landscaped backyard. It was a beautiful setting!

Last week, I shared in this party planning post that we decided to base the party's theme from the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom children's book. It's one of HDawg's favorites- rhymes, bright colors and ABC's. The perfect kids party theme! And the best part? My sweet little H had a ball at the party, celebrating with everyone.

Hey friends! Words cannot express how excited I am to celebrate my little man and his first birthday this weekend! The past year has flown by in blur of amazing, priceless, love-filled moments. But I'll save the sappy stuff for tomorrow's post : ) Today is all about the party prepping!

David and I decided to theme the birthday party around one of H's favorite books- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. The kid cracks up every time we read it to him, so we thought it was only appropriate to surround him with something he loves. Plus he loves bright colors, so this theme is perfect!

I picked out the invitation on Etsy from this shop. She also created some other custom printables that I'll share with you after the party! She was great to work with and I love the product. How cute, right?!

Clearly, I took out all of the good stuff and added my lame black font to her pretty design, but you get the picture.

We're doing all kinds of fun alphabet-themed things for the kiddos but plan to keep the entire event light and fun for our family and close friends that we invited. I didn't want to put too much pressure on myself to DIY everything (ie. I cannot look up anything on Pinterest) but I do have a few small projects up my sleeve. I think it's a good balance and has left me stress-free and excited for the event.

Here are some sneak peeks at some of the party details!

I can't wait to share all of the details with y'all next week!

Have you planned any little kiddo birthday parties lately? What kind of themes did you use?!