her 'punzel party, part 2

so yes, our surprise guest was none other than rapunzel herself!

she came with a basket full of fun things.

like feather boas and capes for everyone to dress up in.

though this little brother didn't know what all the fuss was about.  especially when there were macaroons still left to be eaten.

i think she was just a teeny, tiny bit excited that 'punzel was really here.

and then it was dance party time!

followed by freeze dance party time with pascal.

lauren was frozen solid.  mostly because i think she was kinda freaked out by the pascal puppet.

she cracked a tiny smile at the end.  mostly because i think she was ready to bolt.

then came story time.

which included songs from the movie.

the girls were riveted.

i think we all were.

even the big brother was drawn in.

it was a lovely afternoon.

rapunzel even brought party favors for everyone.  except they went missing and she needed a little help finding them.

and poof! they reappeared with the help of a little magic.

they. loved. her.

and she still wasn't done because face painting came next.

adorbs.

the girls were enthralled that they actually met the "real Rapunzel!"

the little sister wasn't exactly thrilled to share her 'punzel with her big sister.  hee hee.

that's more like it, she thinks to herself.

 and a special present just for the birthday girl!

group pic!

then it was cake time.  i had the darnedest time trying to find a rapunzel cake and so settled for cupcakes instead.  her daddy thought that wouldn't do so he went and bought her a princess cake too.  even though it didn't have rapunzel on there.

so i threw on a mini banner and problem solved.  ;)

"happy biiiiirthday, dear laaaauren..."

blowing out her #4 candle, with a few helper blowers.

gotta love the hands-free direct approach.

mikey took this one of us with the birthday girl.  and allie.  ;)

happy fourth birthday, my baby girl!  it has been such a joy to be your mommy.  God gave us a truly wonderful gift when He gave us you.  you bring so much love and laughter to our family and we love you so, so much!

her 'punzel party

after celebrating each of her siblings' birthdays and patiently waiting for the ever-so-slow july to arrive, it was finally lauren's turn to party!

she was beside herself with eager anticipation.

i was beside myself with party preparations.  let it be known that pinterest is a bad, bad place.

etsy, too.

after a few weeks of gathering ideas, making plans, purchasing supplies, making lists, preparing items, hanging decorations, rehanging decorations, and a couple late nighters, came the night before the big day.

and if you know phil...

you know that he is all about the party favor bag.  unfortunately for me this time, he was too busy with work to be able to help pull it all together.  so the task fell entirely to me. 

thankfully though, as i was assembling them the night before the party, phil nodded his approval and said he would have liked one of these bags.  "if you were a 4-year-old girl?" i clarified for him.  "no, i mean i would totally want one of those bags.  you don't have to be a 4-year-old girl to appreciate a good party bag" he declared.

success!

and then the big day was here!  see those flags?  each one had to be printed, cut out, and strung together with ribbon.  they were all throughout the house, too.  300 of them.  i'm telling you, etsy is a bad, bad place.

the backyard all ready for the 'punzel party.

fit for a princess party luncheon.

hard to see in the other pictures, but in a fit of sheer madness, i had made a butterfly mobile to hang in the girls' room and thought it would be cute hanging above the table during the party too.

lauren's been all about rapunzel lately and loved seeing her all over the place. 

ok so if your original goal is to keep things simple, then avoid sites like etsy and pinterest AT ALL COSTS.  they do bad, bad things to aspirations of simplicity.  this is what i have learned.

if not, you may find yourself dangling off a stepladder at six in the morning hanging paper lanterns in your backyard tree and listening to peacocks screeching at you instead of being sound alseep in your warm cozy bed like any other sane and rational human being.  don't say i didn't warn you.

and in true michelle style, i had put 11:00 on the invitation but happily believed forever after that the starting time was really 11:30.  and was all set to work up to the last minute to get the food ready.  that is, until i happened to recheck the invite at 10:50.  pure awesomeness is all i have to say about that.  that and my eternal gratefulness to my dear friend heesun who happened to arrive first and i pounced on her and immediately put her to work.  she ended up arranging fruit and cheese platters way prettier than i ever would have and her calm yet cheerful disposition worked wonders on my own frazzled state.

so heesun, i thank you!

because for better or worse, party time was upon us!

we started off the festivities making pascal blowers.

hee hee, this was my favorite activity.  and happily, the girls enjoyed them too!

then we moved on to decorating crowns.

i love how girl parties usually end up involving arts 'n crafts in some form and how the girls seem to always enjoy doing stuff like this.

the big brother on the other hand...

k, then it was time for lunch!  which included jello boats!  (woulda been nice to get a shot of the whole table with all the food, but i seem to not be so good at hostessing and picture-taking simultaneously.  gotta work on that.)

and the sleeper hit was nutella on toast with strawberry.  or banana.  your choice.

i had grand plans of making a fancy pink punch, but had to nix that idea and went with pink lemonade instead.  but i did manage to get these cute little flower ice cubes made!

so... all that work?  totally worth it.

yep.

right after lunch, we moved on to castle painting.  the big brother decided to he wasn't too big yet to take part in this activity.

"dude, where are your shoes?"  "dude, where are your pants?!"

ah, little brothers.

the kids loved painting.  even if there didn't seem to be a cohesive vision for the project.

this little brother really, really loved the painting.  it was written (er, painted?) all over his face.  and feet.

they didn't forget to paint the inside of the castle, either!

the masterpiece.

and this is when phil started inhaling helium from the balloons to sound like a chipmunk.

silly daddy.


and just when everyone thought the party was winding down...

a special surprise guest rang the doorbell!

more party pics to come!

project 52, week 24

just this.

this picture is my heart's happy dance.

that is all.

thank you and good night.

project 52, week 23

and then my favorite little wrinkly-nosed squirt went and turned herself into a four-year-old!

and apparently, if you go to trader joe's on your fourth birthday and you tell the cashier that it's your fourth birthday, she will come over and wrap tj stickers around you four times!

lowenji's birthday post coming soon!

11

so we celebrated anniversary number 11 last month.  in the last few years, the month of july has ended up being a crazy busy month for us with phil finishing one program or another, moving, lauren's birthday, and our anniversary all thrown in there.

but even so, we've always tried to mark the date in one way or another, and God has always provided time for us to spend with each other and to look back over the years of all we have to be thankful for.

and i'm happy to report that this anniversary finds us in a very good place.  the Lord has blessed us beyond what we deserve and has been so faithful to us through the years.  for that, i am so so thankful.

this year's anniversary was way simpler than last year's, but still very enjoyable nonetheless.

we had a little time before dinner to take a few pictures of just the two of us.

the hubs.

yo.

we always end up cracking up while taking pictures of ourselves, but i'm glad we got a couple of semi-normal ones.  ;P

heh heh, was trying to make phil laugh but i liked his expression in this one, so here it is.

and then it was time to go eat fancy food while it was still hot.  that's always something to get really happy about.

we opted to sit outside and enjoy the view.  it was lovely.  until it got dark.  then it was freezing and we began to question a lot of the choices we've made thus far in our life together.  just kidding.  we mainly questioned why we chose to sit outside in the freezing dark.

but still an enjoyable evening all the same.  but mostly while it was still light out.

happy anniversary, honey and here's to many, many more!