an adorable tea party

One of my favorite girls in the world, my "niece" Katie, turned 8 this week. I cannot believe it!! I'm glad I got the honor of attending her very special tea party this weekend.

Here are the girls before the party with their dolls.

Being the very sweet and helpful girl she always is....Katie helps the little ones with their jewelry.


Isn't this party a dream come true.......fancy, fancy, fancy!!!

Sue was so creative in her party planning for her little girl. Look at these flowerpots....They are filled with ice cream and oreos (dirt) topped with an artificial rose!
The extremely cute invites and menus....

And the cupcakes. The "roses" are actually fruit roll-ups---I will be stealing some of these ideas when Kaya gets a little older.
Sue also had a wonderful craft table for the girls to go to when they first arrived. Here she is helping one of the guests make a fan for herself and a mini-fan for her doll.
They also decorated tea-cups with paint pens.
And all of the girls looked so fanciful and adorable all dressed up!




When I asked Kaya what her favorite part of the party was she said, "My favorite part was when Katie opened her gift from me and was so happy."

As a mom, that made my heart smile. Sometimes she can show me that she has the kindest soul.

My favorite part was getting hugs from the "little" girls when they got tired and cranky and really had no use for partying anymore!
Camden ran across the room to hug me. I'm not sure if Kaya was up to sharing her mommy though---as you can see---
They finally decided to settle down again and be best friends. Amazingly these two highly energetic girls let me hold them and rock them for almost an hour while Katie and the big girls unwrapped gifts and acted silly. We just sat in the background and watched.





It was a perfect party with perfect friends! Happy Birthday Katie Rose!!! Love, Aunt Korisa

visiting friends

There really is nothing better than visiting friends.  Especially friends that you are so comfortable with that you can do absolutely anything together and enjoy it.

There are some friends I call my "napping friends".  If I'm comfortable enough to nap in the same bed with a friend.....I trust them with anything and know they will never judge me.  Of course it would be nice to have the time to just nap with friends and relax these days......the woes of being a mom. 

I have one wonderful friend,  Rachel, that I love to visit.  She is definitely a "napping friend"---when I was on bedrest with Zan she just came over and crawled into bed with me.  There was nothing I needed more that to have her just hang out with me at that time.  We used to spend tons of time together here but of course she had to move away.  Because I value our friendship so much I try to visit her at least once a year.  We have progressed from teaching together,  partying together, to now being mommies together.

It is fun to go up North for a while.  I love seeing the scenery,  the historic buildings,  the differences in the towns and atmosphere.

It is especially fun to have such a relaxing room to sleep in.  Honestly,  the room I stay in there reminds me of being on vacation on an island.  Okay,  so maybe I shouldn't have aggravated Rachel about her Feng Shei decorating.  Because it is a very calming,  peaceful room.

Eating fresh crabs made for a yummy treat too.

But the best part of the visit was hugging this beautiful friend (and giving her 11 kisses from Zander) and meeting Baby Kyle for the first time.
Seeing this cute face was pretty awesome too.  She loved the princess blanket I made her (in the background of the next two pics).  I honestly have never seen a child so appreciative and excited about a gift.  It was so fun to give it to her!!!

It was also fun hanging out in the backyard.  All of the perennials blooming were so beautiful (not so beautiful for my allergy-stricken head, but oh well).

Each morning I loved torturing Savannah's parents by letting her put make-up on with me.  I'm so proud of her for being a beautiful girly-girl.  Aunt Korisa's job of making her love sparkly,  princess stuff has been accomplished.

Here is sweet Kyle.  Such a perfect baby boy.

And here I am enjoying my golden niece and golden nephew.  I miss them so much already....

I always treasure my time with Rachel,  Shawn,  Savannah, and Kyle.  Can't wait to see you guys again.  xoxoxo

camden and the toy war

We had so much fun at Camden's 2nd birthday party!!!  It doesn't seem like she could already be that old!

The kids loved the caterpillar cake (made by Ben).  I'm glad to see my child isn't the only one who always ends up with icing everywhere!
The birthday girl did a great job with that too......

I had a lot of fun picking out a gift that is sure to win a prize in the toy war with Ben.  Ben has loved getting my kids things like a huge tent,  a instrument set....He was nice enough to not get Kaya anything obnoxious for her birthday this year (I think because I was in so much pain before my surgery).  But now I feel great again,  I thought I'd stir things up again.

Oh I must say I've had lots of fun getting glittery clothes and makeup for Katie in the past.  He really loved the beads and jewelry set.....

But this might just be my favorite purchase in the war.

The Wonderpets inflatable sailboat that holds many balls.  I told Zander and Kaya when we went shopping to pick out something that we needed to get something big or loud.  Zander even reminded Kaya of that when she wanted something else for Camden.  He said,  "Kaya that isn't big or loud.  Remember what mom said.....we need to pick something else."

Although the ball pit technically doesn't make noise,  the kids inside made lots of noise.....so I'm very happy with the results.
Camden was very happy too.......and that is what matters most even if I don't win the toy war.
All 3 of the kids were so tired after playing so hard..........good times......

our new favorite pit stop

How nice it is to have the Nelsons so close now and we can use them as our pit stop when we visit Kentucky!  Much better than living several hours away.

Our time with them is always wonderful even if it is only for an hour or two.

Here is Sue and Katie......beautiful, aren't they?

Camden was the biggest surprise.  At almost two years old,  she has really started moving around fast and her vocabulary is really developing.  We spent much of our time laughing at her antics.
Zander and Kaya loved running around with Camden and giggling at her also.
While the rest of the kids run around,  sweet Katie writes about rainforests (she has been studying them at school).


It is amazing how similar Kaya and Camden are.  At only 9 months apart in age it is easy to get them mixed up when you just glance at them.  With their blonde hair,  mischievious antics, and identical giggles (they truly giggle exactly the same)......they are two peas in a pod.  I think we are going to get many laughs and many headaches from these two in the future.
This is one of my favorite pictures ever.  I guess Camden thinks I'm pretty silly too.