SoCal friends: The Queen Bee Market is this friday & saturday in Carlsbad!! It’s going to be the best one yet: over 70 amazing vendors, make & takes, a photo booth and they are even giving away Cricut machines & an iPad mini!

Check out more information here. I will be there with tons of holiday banners, mini banner stands, flags, party hats & tags :)  There may also be a free giveaway of a song off of our upcoming Christmas album…   (more on that to come!!)

I will have a booth at the Queen Bee Market again this, but it is even better this time around: there are two markets! The first will be in Aliso Viejo so all you OC lades can come shop! Yay! It is on Saturday, October 27th. The second will be in Carlsbad on November 16th & 17th. More details below:

Hope to see you there!

**Because of this coming up, turn around time will be longer for custom items purchased for our etsy shop. Starting tomorrow, all made-to-order items will have a turn around time of one month plus shipping time**

Every season, my husband and I throw a party to celebrate what we love about that time of year. We started our tradition 4 years ago and you can see past parties here, here and here.

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When the time came for this year’s summer party, we had just moved two weeks prior. I still had not found my tablecloths (in a box somewhere in the garage), had no idea where our good camera was, and had not touched my boxes of vases and decor. We wanted to still have the party, just in a more low-key way with minimal pressure on myself to make it creative and cute :)

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It turned out being super fun and relaxing. We decided to make it a housewarming party as well and had friends over for a BBQ at our new place. I didn’t take many pictures, but grabbed a couple with my phone.

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We had a hamburger bar, with caramelized onions, an amazing avocado and goat cheese spread my husband makes, heirloom tomatoes, along with the normal fixings. I made my family’s famous cheesy potatoes (my favorite side dish) and our friends brought some amazing side dishes and salads- all with a summery theme. We made frozen margaritas, mango sun tea and a refreshing watermelon cucumber cooler. I didn’t want to water the watermelon drink down, so I had the idea to freeze cubes of watermelon to put in. It worked great!

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For dessert, our friends brought mini fruit tarts, frozen chocolate coffee cheesecake bars and I made vanilla and pina colada sorbe (using this recipe). It was all delicious!

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This is a tradition my husband and I hope to continue for decades. It is such a highlight of every season for us. We already cannot wait for our fall party!

Linking up with Jeannett for InstaFriday again!

Memorial Day was great! Packing during the day, then pool, picnic and park with good friends. Isaiah and his two best buddies played pirates for a good hour:

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Hudson loved playing in the pool. Post pool curls in the sun (complete with berry and watermelon stains):

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Since it is our last week living in Old Escondido, we are trying to take advantage of it. On Tuesday, we hit up the farmers market with our neighbors and then got some  pizza and gelato. Definitely one of my favorite things to do in Escondido.

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Tonight, we will be headed back downtown for Cruisin Grand. The boys will love the cars!

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My first neon flag order. I bet there will be lots more throughout the summer. Neon is not my favorite, but it is growing on me. Especially paired with neutrals.

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Mazel Tov! (another custom order):

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My hubby & one of my best friends gave me flowers in the same day. Score! Giving me a bit of beauty in the midst of crazy moving mess.

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A little bit of summer for a photh shoot banner:

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What my life will consist of for the next week:

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Ugh.

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Have a good weekend everyone! If you are in San Diego or Orange County, be sure to check out The Queen Bee Market today and tomorrow! I do not have a booth there this time (due to the move), but am hoping to sneak out and shop a bit tonight.

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Photographer: Carlie of Gabriel Ryan Photographers

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Cake & Desserts: Sweet and Saucy Shop

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It has been a busy week! Here are the big moments and little moments too- captured on my phone. I love linking up with Jeannett for Instafriday!

Last weekend, I helped plan and design a shower for my friend Bre of Joyful Weddings & Events (the new owner of my wedding planning company). I cannot wait to share all of the professional photos soon- it turned out amazing! It was a berry theme, completely with shortcake, 24 pounds of strawberries and adorable pink seersucker.

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It is definitely getting into wedding season again. I have a few friends getting married this Spring and Summer, so between bridal showers, bachelorette parties and weddings, the next few months are going to be fun and busy! My sweet friend from high school, Clarissa, is getting married in a couple of weeks and her bachelorette party was last weekend. Me & the bride to be:

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We were told to wear something animal print. I have not worn anything animal print since high school, so I had to go to my source for trendy clothes: my mom. Of course hot grandma had some options for me :)

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While I was at the bridal shower on Sunday, my husband got adventurous and took the boys up to see the snow on Palomar Mountain with friends. Isaiah had a blast sledding for hours. Hudson was not so sure about his first encounter with snow:

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I just cannot get enough stripes these days:

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I do not really like fast food, but I am a fan of Chick-Fil-A. Not only is their honey roasted BBQ sauce super tasty, but they plan fun family events. This week, they had a Mother-Son date Knight :)  It was so cute! They decorated the restaurant, took our orders while we sat at fun tables and brought the food to us. I went with two of my close friends and all together we have 8 boys- all dressed up in knight attire. It was so cute!

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Hudson discovered that the highchair had wheels and he ended up pushing it around the restaurant, making laps around tables, for 20 minutes. He was so stoked :)

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Isaiah’s preschool had a little petting zoo yesterday. Now, I am not normally much of an animal person, but one look at these 4 week-old baby goats and I was dying inside. I had to grab my camera and I considered stealing one.

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Some gold glittery “love sweet love” goodness going to a friend who is getting married next weekend:

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We were playing on the back porch yesterday when someone came to the door. When I got back outside, I found Isaiah like this:

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He looked at me and said, “I’m really impressed with myself”. Ha! Never a dull moment with this kid- he keeps us entertained daily. In fact, within 30 minutes of that humble statement, I also heard him say, “I’m the man!” and “I’m the bravest ever” to himself while playing.

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Don’t forget to enter our giveaway!

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Have a happy weekend everyone! I am super excited: we have our church women’s retreat and then it is off to Central & Northern CA for my husband’s mini tour and a little vaca time!

Over the past year, a ton of my friends have had babies. Not only does this mean I have been able to snuggle lots of sweet little babes, but it also has meant lots of baby showers!!!

This baby shower was for my friend Carissa of JL Designs. Her little dude, Decker, joined us in the fall and is so stinkin cute!   His nursery has space invaders and robots, so that was the perfect decor scheme for her baby shower.

It was planned and designed by the lovely Leila of Be Inspired PR and it was amazing! Here are some photos by Carlie of Gabriel Ryan Photographers:

Amazing desserts by Sweet & Saucy Shop. My absolute favorite!

I got to make some food and these fun robot party hats:

After we played a group game, the loosing team had to wear them for the rest of the party :)

My party hats are not listed in the etsy shop yet, but I do have a large selection of them available. I have about 10 of these robot party hats- if you are interested in ordering them, please contact me. I also have some super cute girly ones with ruffles. Here is a glimpse:

Please contact me if you are interested. We can also make them custom.

Here is the rest of the incredible vendor list for the baby shower:

Host, Planning, & Design: Leila from Be Inspired PR
Florals & Design: JL Designs
Photography: Carlie from Gabriel Ryan
Backdrop Design: Jesi Haack Design
Stationery: Cherish Paperie
Desserts: Sweet & Saucy Shop
Linens: La Tavola
Champagne: Nicholas Feuillatte
Party Hats: Joyful Joyful
Totes: Wedding Chicks Shop
Rentals: Signature Party Rentals

My son loves maps. When we go to Disneyland or SeaWorld, he has to get a map right away and he looks at it the entire day. When we go to the mall, we have to stop at every map and find where we are. On vacations, he likes to be a backseat driver, map unfolded to be bigger than he is.

He really loves treasure maps. For a while this summer, he was asking me to draw him a treasure map every day and he would “follow” the map around our house, discovering treasures along the way.

When it came time to think of a theme for his 4th birthday party (which was last October), it was a no-brainer. The tricky part was that treasure maps are usually associated with pirates. Isaiah was not a fan of pirates (until recently- now he loves them. Of course!). So I had to weed through sheets of stickers, cutting out any with treasure or maps and leaving out mean pirate faces.

We had the party at a local park with his best buddies. My goal was to make a cute party on the cheap that would be super fun for the kiddos.

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I topped cupcakes with sprinkles and little “4″ toppers and made little trails out of sprinkles on others, leading to a big X. They all sat upon an old trunk I borrowed from a friend.

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I covered the picnic tables with old maps, taped on the bottom so that they did not fly away.

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I made a happy birthday banner out of an old Thomas Guide of Southern CA. (I realized that my kids will never know what that is! Ohh the memories of my dad flipping through the thomas guide anytime we were going anywhere!) I used maps from places we have lived, which was really special for me.

We hung inflatable globes (purchased from Oriental Trading Co) from the patio cover

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The kids decorated binoculars- two toilet paper rolls spray painted white and hot glued together. They got to choose a color of string for the strap and they definitely thought they were pretty cool :)

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They then used those binoculars to go on a treasure hunt around the park. I made a simple hand-drawn map of the area of the park we were exploring and added a few landmarks to help them along the way.

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It ended up being really funny because my husband and a friend started telling folklore about the park and the stops on the map. All made up on the fly. Including the story of the enchanted snake and the magical bridge. The kids were eating it up :)

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We made a stop at a cool/crazy mosaic maze thing that is out in the middle of nowhere at the park. Such a strange thing to decide to build in a community park, but it worked well for our treasure hunt!

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At the end, we found a treasure box with little muslin bags containing treasure for each explorer. As soon as they saw the treasure chest, the kids took off sprinting and cheering. It was so cute! Each bag contained an inflatable globe and gold chocolate coins.

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All guests took home my favorite sugar cookies, made in the shape of California and an X.

Every season, my husband and I throw a party, celebrating what we love about that time of year. You can see past parties here and here.

We had our winter party last weekend and it was SO much fun! Winter is always one of my favorites because we have a soup potluck- every guest brings a different type of soup and we get to sample them all. Yum!!

Since Valentine’s day is just around the corner, I dreamt up a white and red party with lots of hearts. It took a lot of convincing to get my husband on board with that vision, but after assuring him it wouldn’t be pink and cheesy, he gave in :)

This year, I have started having a guestbook-of sorts, where I have our friends write down their favorite things of the season. For this party, I had a large heart on the wall and had guests write their favorite things about winter on small hearts that we taped on. Being in San Diego, most comments revolved around it being 75 degrees. So much for fires, hot chocolate and sweaters!

Found a $1.50 package of red heart doilies at the grocery store and turn them into a wreath and garland.

We set up tables on the porch, which I covered with white sheets (much cheaper than renting linens for a small party at home!). On the long tables, I hung a simple white paper & bakers twine garland from a wooden stand that a friend made me.

I cut placemats using my cricut and found these heart napkins at Target- aren’t they perfect? Each place setting had a paper soup bowl and mason jars for sangria with heart paper straws. I purchased the plain white bowls on etsy and then stamped them and added a bit of bakers twine.

We also had one round table, on which I had one of the mini banner stands that we sell- making sure everyone knew that “we heart winter”.

I covered our dining table with striped wrapping paper (that I found for $0.50 after Christmas!) and put on another stand with a mini banner, saying “we heart soup”.

Even though it was in the 70′s that day, we had a great time celebrating winter with soup, sangria, good music and games.

You can recreate all of this decor easily for Valentine’s Day too!

A big thank you to my friend Nikki for coming early to take these photos. I am so appreciative!

Sources:

Photos: Nikki Crockett Photography

Straws & Bowls: etsy shop InTheClear

I linked up this blog with Mique’s Pity Party

A couple of weeks ago, I shared my son Isaiah’s third birthday party, which was inspired by the PBS show, SuperWhy. At every birthday party, I try to have a craft and a game or activity. At this party, the kids decorated their superhero masks during craft time. I thought we would not be able to do our activity, but the rain let up just in time for us to take the troops down to the backyard.

On the show SuperWhy, they always have a “super big problem”- some question they need to find the answer to. Throughout the show, they find hidden superletters which, when put together at the end, give them their “super story answer”. We happened to have a super big problem at the party- we didn’t know the best way to celebrate Isaiah’s birthday (cheesy, I know- but the kids loved it!). I had hidden letters all over the backyard and let the kids loose. They were told to each find one.

On the back of the letters, there was a number. Once all of the lettes had been found, we helped line everyone up with the letters in numerical order. We then had our super story answer: “sing & eat cake!”.

And sing and eat cake they did.