Like many other little girls out there these days, my daughter requested a Frozen theme for her 7th birthday. Once we saw the movie in November, she was pretty set on this theme and never wavered. This worked in my favor because I was able to pic up a ton of winter and snowflake items on clearance after Christmas…score! I put them away for 6 months and they all came in quite handy for the party. Since Frozen party items (heck any items) are so hard to find, I had to get creative with the decorations and do a lot myself or just use things that reminded me of Frozen. I actually think it worked out even better this way!

Since the party was just going to be 8 little girls, I kept the food really simple. I found adorable printable food cards on Etsy and came up with a few food ideas I thought the girls would like. We had PB&J sandwiches (We Finish Each Other’s Sandwiches), Frozen Grapes (Anna’s Frozen Hearts), Pretzel Sticks (Sven’s antlers), Baby Carrots with ranch dip (Olaf’s noses), Blue jello squares (Kristoff’s Ice Blocks), and Blue tropical punch (Elsa’s melted snow). I also decided to forgo a cake or cupcakes and try my hand at Cake Push ups! These were a hit and SO easy! I was able to find the supplies online and used plastic Frozen rings as the toppers. Perfect!

I found some cute plates and napkins in the Target Dollar bins that reminded me of snowflakes and matched the colors of Anna and Elsa’s dresses. For decor I made some paper snowflakes and some glitter snowflake ornaments I had on hand from my Christmas mini sessions. I also printed out a banner and found a poster at Walmart for just $5 which now lives in my daughter’s room.

Finally for favors, we got each girl a blue sparkly crown from Joann’s for $1, made them rainbow loom bracelets, found plastic cups with Anna and Elsa on them, and got some blue rock candy that looked like ice.

I had the movie playing (when the songs came on the girls jumped up and sang), played Frozen bingo (so fun!, printable found on Etsy, and Pin The Nose on Olaf). All in all it was an awesome party. The girls had fun and my daughter said it was “the best party ever”. Chalk one up for mommy 🙂 And now no more birthday talk until next year. Yay!

Welcome to month 2 of the Blog Circle project. This month’s theme is Anticipation, and even though I had a month to prepare, I just kept trying to decide on what I wanted to do. I had a few ideas, but this one just stood out to me. My kids love ice cream (who doesn’t?) and I always love that excitement and anticipation that comes when they know they are getting ice cream, or any treat really. So a few days ago, I surprised the kids with a trip to a new ice cream shop that opened locally. Needless to say, they were so excited!! It turned out to be extra awesome because this particular ice cream joint does something a little out of the ordinary. No ice cream scooping here, no sir. They start with liquid cream, add flavors and mix-ins, then give it a deep freeze right there in front of you! It was so cool and made the whole anticipation thing that much better since it took a little longer to actually get your bowl of ice cream. I let the kids pick whatever they wanted and Audrey chose strawberry with M&Ms. Gavin shared my white chocolate with Butterfinger. Yes, mommy had a treat too.

While these pictures aren’t perfect, we had so much fun doing them and I really think there are some great looks of anticipation, especially on Audrey’s face as she watched her ice cream freeze. 🙂 Of course I also included pictures of them enjoying their ice cream and the sad empty bowl at the end.

Be sure to follow the circle and see how my friend Erin of Erin Farrell Photography chose to interpret the theme.

Enjoy!

I have joined a few of my favorite photographers from all over the country in a monthly blog circle and am excited to post my first entry!  This month’s blog subject was “Reflections”.  We can use as few or as many photographs as we want to tell this story.  Be sure to read all the way to the bottom, to continue on the blog circle and maybe even continue on and see all of the rest of the ladies and their incredible work and how they responded to the subject!

It’s no secret that I have been downright swamped lately, with work, life, everything!! It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I can’t keep half of it straight most of the time. Add to that my array of computer/website issues over the last couple months and it’s just been crazy. As a result, my entry today will be one lonely photo. But this does not mean that I didn’t have a list of ideas!! I tried, I really did, but I just wanted to be sure I had SOMETHING to post and not let these ladies down. I promise you will be impressed with what you see in the rest of the circle. And next month will be better.

I had lots of ideas for the theme this month. Of course I thought of taking it literally and doing a reflection in a mirror or window. I also considered puddles being that I live in the rainy Pacific Northwest with no shortage of puddles (of course it has been really nice lately!). Finally, I thought I would like to take kind of double meaning and try to make it happen and translate into a photograph. So I was all ready to go and my usual models (my kids) would not really cooperate. My daughter is sick and my son is 2 (enough said).

So here is my entry this month. My sweet daughter, sick on the couch and my “reflection” in her eyes.  She was seriously blessed with these eyes considering my husband and I both have brown/hazel eyes. I just love how they always catch the light and seem to sparkle. And you know that song by Martina McBride “In My Daughter’s Eyes”? It talks about seeing yourself and the world through the eyes of your daughter. Totally fitting and what I kept thinking about as I was working on this. Here are my favorite lyrics from the song:

In my daughter’s eyes, I can see the future.
A reflection of who I am, and what will be.
And though she’ll grow and someday leave, maybe raise a family
When I’m gone, I hope you’ll see,
How happy she made me.
For I’ll be there, in my daughter’s eyes.

And now I am crying! LOL

So I hope you enjoy this photo of me…in my daughter’s eyes. 🙂 (Look close, I am there I promise!

Now head over to the and check out the fabulous Erin Farrell Photography to see her take on Reflections.

What better way to kick off my first blog post on the new blog with an adorable photo of my own sweet kids!! This month’s I Heart Faces photo challenge is Happiness, and these 2 bring me SO much of it!! They really are best friends and have so much fun together. It warms my heart and I only hope that they are always this close.

This photo was submitted to the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com