A Rainbow Party...the Celebration!

Maren turned 4 a couple of weeks ago, and we had a ball of a time celebrating with 9 of her best buddies.

Here's the guest of honor waiting for her friends to arrive...

Can you tell that she was a little excited?

My sweet family...I can't get enough of these 3!

The girls colored while they were waiting for dinner. It was so fun to see the various pictures all over the table.

Maren wanted each friend to help her open their gift to her. These two are sisters, and we call them 'cousins'. They gave her an art station...can you tell someone loves to draw?!

Maren invited our good friends, Ben and Jaime (or Pastor Ben and Miss Jaime as Maren calls them) to her party. They were gracious to come hang out with all the little kids, and were a huge help with keeping things under control!

Two of Maren's neighborhood friends working on their rainbow bracelets.

While some of the girls were making bracelets, others were getting rainbow pedicures. This was Maren's idea, and it was a huge hit!

Pretty ladies all lined up!

Showing off their bracelets!

It was such wonderful fun to have so many of Maren's friends all together in one place. Some family, some church friends, neighborhood friends, and one little girl from our childbirth class!

Make a wish!

Cookies and Cream ice-cream and rainbow cupcakes (per Maren's specific request!)

The girls got party hats and noise makers before we had cake.

Lest you think Mr. Long-Lashes missed out on the celebration, here he is enjoying his cupcake.

The little noise-maker-streamers (is there a name for those things?!) were a huge hit...I love Colette's face in this picture!

The party wrapped up with some backyard play time. I laugh out loud every time I look at this picture...all of the little girls just busily operating in the background, and a happy wave from Truett, stuck right in the middle of all the activity!

Maren's Gigi and Papa were a huge help with the party. They stayed after all the little guests had gone home to open a few more presents.

Maren was ecstatic all throughout her party...it made the effort and planning worth every minute! Tomorrow I'll share how we spent the rest of her special day!

Rainbow Party Details

 Long ago Maren determined that her 4th birthday should be celebrated with a rainbow themed party. I was happy to oblige. I have found that my collection of paper lanterns is quite versatile. In this instance, the lanterns were transformed into a rainbow.

Maren helped me sort through her box of crayons so we could arrange them in rainbow fashion for the centerpieces. I rolled out ikea art paper on the table and the girls were able to color while waiting for dinner. This served to be a brilliant idea, as containing 10 hungry, excited girls could have potentially started the party off on a crazy note. Instead, they all giggled and colored away. I found the colored cups and napkins at Ikea a while ago, and knew they'd be perfect for the party.

 I sewed little circle garlands for the light and just draped them around. Love how this turned out, and I'll definitely keep the garlands for future use.

Maren and I sorted out rainbow beads so each girl would have the right amount to make bracelets.

Rainbow pudding cups...just vanilla pudding with food coloring.

Rainbow fruit skewers...

I made cupcake toppers out of toothpicks and cardstock...

Simple cupcakes with rainbow sprinkles and flags...

...and look what the inside of the cupcakes looked like! These were a huge hit for the girls.

It was fun this year to have Maren's help in planning and preparing for the party. One of the neighbor girls came over to help us make the cupcakes. Thankfully, the actual party turned out to be fabulous. I'll share those pictures tomorrow!

Here's where I found some ideas (via my Party Pinterest page):

Pudding
Cupcakes
Crayon Centerpieces

The Lake

Many of my favorite memories as a child happened in northern Michigan at my parents' lake house. It's always a special treat to go back, especially since welcoming children into our family. There is something very special about watching my children play in the same places I did as a child. Last year we had to cancel our trip since we were slightly occupied with getting our little guy's heart in working order. This year, after much anticipation, we finally made it back to the lake as a family of 4! We were blessed with perfect weather and a truly amazing time of fun, relaxing, making memories with grandparents and cousins, and enjoying every possible moment on the lake. I love living in Colorado, but I sure do miss the beautiful lakes of Michigan!

The boy cousins and their grandpa. I love my dad...he is such a fun grandpa.

Truett and Maren loved floating around in this little boat.

My two little blessings enjoying some brother-sister time on the back of the boat.

Maren LOVES her cousins. She had so much fun playing with Paige and Will. (Annie and Truett do their best to get in on the activity too!) We took baths in the lake almost every night. Maren thought it was great to swim and get clean at the same time!

Maren learned to knee-board! It was a hit for the first part of the week, and then she decided that she was scared. Thankfully I caught a picture while she was still enjoying herself!

In our family we get up early to ski almost every morning. Maren came along one morning.

Girls.

Grams and Maren...can you tell who enjoyed some s'mores? I know my kids loved spending the week with their grams and grandpa, but I might have been the most glad for the time with my parents. My dad spent a couple of long weekends with us, and I got to spend 11 straight days with my mom. Such a gift.

Yup...he had a s'more too. Can you believe those eyes?!

Truett had a great time in the water. He would just float around and splash all day if we'd have let him.

Brett pitched in and chopped some wood one day. Even work is fun at the lake!

My only attempt at a picture of the 5 cousins...complete with sun in the eyes. Annie (1 1/2), Will (3 1/2), Paige (5), Maren (almost 4), Truett (1). These kids are good buddies.

Our little family.

Pretending to ride the Sea Doo.

Until next year...we love you, Higgins Lake!

Truett's Birthday Trip to the Zoo

We have a fabulous local zoo, and it's become a tradition now to celebrate our children's first birthdays with the animals. My parents were visiting from Michigan, and it was a special treat to share the day with them.

Maren was in giraffe heaven...willingly feeding them their lettuce snacks. Truett was not impressed. Sorry, buddy, for traumatizing you on your big day! Hopefully he'll learn to enjoy the experience someday.

Maren loved the giraffe's purple tongue. It is a delight to watch children enjoy the world around them.

After lunch Truett discovered his favorite part of the day...chewing on a giant straw. You can't win them all!

We spent lots of time at the feed-the-chickens-exhibit. Maren was so interested in the different birds, and was sure to share the food with as many different chickens as possible.

I could not think of 3 better people to have in my family...it is an absolute gift to walk through life with these guys!

Maren and Truett with Grams and Grandpa.

The peacock...such an exquisite bird! I am always amazed by the colors. Maren loved seeing Mr. Peacock up close. He was sitting in the playground area.

Stop growing up...seriously...STOP IT!

An added perk to visiting the zoo is having the chance to drive up the mountain to the Will Rogers Shrine. I'd never been, and it was quite the adventure. The drive is not for the faint of heart...or for people from Michigan. All those steep drop-offs and switch-backs. Whoa. The view, however, was worth the scary few minutes in the car.

I sure love you, Truett! Happy birthday buddy!

Truett's First Birthday Party

In early June our little man turned ONE! We had a splash party to celebrate. Maybe later I'll share more of the creative details. For now, here's the day in pictures! We were blessed with a hot Saturday afternoon...perfect weather for the kids to enjoy some water games.

I made Truett a banner using my handy-dandy Cricut. We've used the one I made for Maren for each of her parties, and I'm sure this one will make an appearance at future parties for Truett. I hung paper lanterns from the light using yarn. That was it for decorations...simple and fun. We ate outside under tents, which was perfect. The kids ate, got wet, ate some more, got their parents wet, ate some more. It was great fun.

When the kids arrived, they each received a little water gun and a water ball...the guns were a huge hit!

I love our happy boy...he's such a delight, and it was special to have a day to celebrate HIM!

My mom wasn't originally going to be in town for the party, but since she flew out early to help after my miscarriage, she was able to join us for the festivities. Truett is so lucky to have such great grandmas...Grams and Gigi!

We started the party with a round of Duck, Duck, Splash! The kids had a soaked sponge that they squeezed onto the 'gooses' head. This game was probably the favorite of the night!

Truett loved splashing in the buckets of water...this was during a relay race where the boys and girls took turns transferring water from one bucket to another using sponge balls. I'll definitely have to post about those some other time. The kids loved them! (And they were a perfect alternative to water balloons...I didn't want tiny balloon pieces all over the yard...especially not for the party of my one-year-old-who-puts-anything-and-everything-into-his-mouth!)

Since the party occurred one week post-miscarriage, I took a few short-cuts. Enter the grocery store cake. It was really tasty! And really cute. And the kids LOVED the surfing Micky and sun-bathing Minnie.

Maren was a great helper while Truett was opening his gifts. Actually, Maren and the other kids opened the gifts...

...this was how Truett felt by the time the 3rd or 4th gift was being opened. Notice the many little helpers surrounding, or suffocating, him.

To say Truett enjoyed his first taste of cake would be a major understatement. So many of my friends commented on how they'd never seen such exuberance from a one-year-old enjoying the first cake. He would've gladly eaten every last bite if I'd have let him.

We sure love you, happy boy!

Coming back...coffee punch made me write

Well friends, it's been a long time since I've written, and wouldn't you know that coffee punch is what finally dragged me out of my non-writing slump.

Before I share the recipe with you, let me catch you up on the past couple of months in our lives. Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to actually write something meaningful about all of these things. For now, I'll share a teeny tiny glimpse into where I've been. And then I'll share a recipe that you will want to make tonight.

In May I found out I was pregnant...we were shocked, but so thrilled. At my 8 week appointment we learned that our baby no longer had a heartbeat. This was devastating. My third miscarriage. It is a terrible thing to lose a baby. A lonely, heart-wrenching, horrible loss to experience. My mom flew out to be with me during the worst of it, and I was so glad to have her here. A week later my dad came, and we enjoyed a week of touristy fun around Colorado Springs. Sometime during that week our sweet boy turned 1. I cannot believe it has been a year since Truett joined our family. And almost a year since we walked through his heart surgery. Apart from a fading scar, you'd never guess that our happy, silly, active little boy was ever sick. God is so good. We celebrated with a splash party. It was a perfect day. Last week, our beautiful Colorado mountains caught on fire. On Tuesday the fire crept down into our city, and so many families lost their homes. We've had friends evacuated and friends lose everything. We had a family staying with us for a few days. It was so hard to wait and watch as over 300 homes burned to the ground. I cannot imagine what the next days and weeks will hold for the families who've lost so much. It's been a difficult week for our little city. I am so glad to serve a God who is very much in control, even when things around us seem to be falling apart.

Which brings me to today. Strangely, on Tuesday night as so many were fleeing their homes, I was hosting a baby shower for a dear friend. If I'm honest, it seems a little trivial to share a recipe for coffee punch in light of all that's happened in our lives recently. But, this is where I'm starting. I just don't have the energy to write much more on real life stuff. I hope you understand.

I adapted a few recipes I had, and this is what I came up with. It is delicious and was a huge hit...hence the sharing. It's worth it, trust me.

Coffee Punch

4 cups of strong (cannot emphasize the 'strong' part enough!) coffee...I used my French Press and let it steep for several extra minutes
10 teaspoons of Swiss Mocha
1/2 pint of original creamer
1/2 pint of flavored creamer (I used Coffeemate Italian Sweet Creme)
1 quart of whole milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla

1. While the coffee is still hot, mix it together with the Swiss Mocha
2. Combine coffee mixture with rest of ingredients, mix well, and freeze
3. Thaw to a slush and enjoy

*If you prefer a sweeter taste, you could add 1/2 cup of sugar in with the coffee and Swiss Mocha.
**I doubled this recipe for the shower.

It's good to finally be back. Hopefully you'll hear from me again soon...happy weekend to you!