Owl Themed 2nd Birthday Party

Addison's second birthday party was yesterday. Hard to believe she will be turning 2 in just a couple days. Where did my baby go? The party was a huge success. Addison had so much fun with all of her friends. We are so blessed to have such a great group of friends in Kodiak.

I decided this years theme would be owls. I found an owl design online that I liked and went from there. I bought party favor boxes and made everything else. I made a pinata, stuffed owls for party favors, a banner, cupcake toppers and the invitation. I found some really cute cupcake liners from Target in their Easter section and a red two candle. I decided to just make cupcakes, which was a hit with the kids. I made yellow cake cupcakes with chocolate frosting and chocolate cake cupcakes with lemon frosting and I topped them all with sugar crystals. They were yummy!

I made an owl pinata to match the party theme. It was very easy to make! I blew up a balloon and did paper mache over the whole balloon leaving just the tie out. I used glue, water and newspaper for the paper mache. I mixed half water half glue and dipped thin strips of the newspaper in the glue water and then placed them over the balloon evenly. Then I tapped paper in the shape of ears and and wings on the outside of the balloon and paper mached them. After the paper mache was dry I cut the tie of the balloon so the balloon sucked out of the pinata (make sure it is completely dry before cutting out the balloon or the whole thing will be ruined). This will leave a little hole on the top of your pinata which you can cover up with more paper mache. I then painted the owl to my liking. When it was all done and dry I cut a little flap in the back of the pinata and filled it with candy. It was a huge hit with the kids!

I was having a hard time deciding what to put in the party favor boxes. I didn't want to spend money on junk that would probably end up in the trash so I decided to make little owl stuffed animals. I had a bunch of felt so I cut the shapes I wanted and sewed them together. I think they turned out pretty cute! I also put some candy in the boxes with the owls.

I created the banner and cupcake toppers on the computer and printed them out myself. I used my trusty hot glue gun to glue the cupcake toppers together with toothpicks and ribbon to tie my banner together. All in all I think all the decorations turned out great.

I was worried our house would be too small for 20 plus people but it turned out great! It was raining so we had to stay inside but there seemed to be enough room for everyone. We had tons of food, from barbecue chicken sandwiches (done in the crock pot), smoked brisket, pasta salad, fruit and chips. Everyone seemed to have a great time and Addison had a blast! This will be a tough birthday to beat! Guess I better start planning for her 3rd birthday! 

It's been awhile...

I can't believe how much I've slacked off on my blog! What a crazy past month and a half. We survived Christmas! It was a blast! Our first Christmas just the four of us (I'm counting Angel, our dog) in our new home in Kodiak. We were all spoiled rotten this year. I got an iPad, diamond earrings and everything else I asked for! Joe got more guns which thrilled him (don't mess with our house) and Addison got a bazillion toys including her very own kitchen. She was overwhelmed with new toys! It was wonderful just being together. I am so very blessed.

New Year's Eve was quiet. We didn't even stay up till midnight. What old people we are becoming. With the New Year came lots and lots of snow! I'm talking record breaking amounts for Kodiak. We are starting to get cabin fever and our looking forward to warmer weather. Addison and I will be traveling to California and Arizona to visit family while Joe is in Florida for Engineer school. We are very excited for our vacation but wish daddy could come too.

Addison and I did some finger painting today. Trying to pass the time inside while the snow continues to fall. I will try and get better at posting on my blog and be less of a slacker.

Poor Baby Girl!

My poor baby girl has been so sick. She randomly woke up with a 102 fever from her nap last Thursday. It seemed to come out of no where. The next day she seemed so miserable. Daddy was gone for work and had taken our truck to work. My car does not have 4-wheel drive so I was without a means of transportation. There is a huge patch of ice behind my car so I was unable to get out of the driveway even if I wanted to attempt to take my car. Luckily my good friend lives two houses down and offered to drive Addison and I to urgent care Friday night. It turned out both of her little ears were infected. They gave her a shot of antibiotics to help her feel better faster. We filled her prescription and then my friend took me to get our truck from the base. That way I could have a car until Joe got home. We spent 3 days snuggling on the couch watching Christmas movies and cartoons. I enjoyed the snuggle time but wished my little one felt better. Sunday Addison began having extremely bad diarrhea and this morning she woke up with a rash all over her little body. I called the doctor and we took her in right away. It turns out she is allergic to the antibiotics they put her on. Poor thing can't catch a break! So now we must wait till her rash goes away to start a new round of different antibiotics. I sure hope she feels better soon. We are planning on seeing Santa this Saturday so I hope she is healthy by then. I hate when she doesn't feel good. It breaks my heart. 

The Holiday Season!

The holidays are upon us and it has been a busy couple of weeks. We had an amazing Thanksgiving with all of our new and wonderful Kodiak friends. We decorated for Christmas and I am happy to say I am done with my Christmas shopping and everything is already wrapped. Just call me a Christmas over achiever this year! There are just two small things to pick up and then I have to ship our presents off to our families in the lower 48. I feel very productive and am so excited for Christmas and it is not even December yet! I guess all the snow and cold weather we have been having brings out my Christmas spirit.

Glitter Stars for the Holidays

Since living in Alaska I have been able to experience seasons! I loved the fall and now we have jumped into winter full force. I haven't lived in the snow since I was a little girl so this is a fun experience for me. This will be our first white Thanksgiving and Christmas as a family. I have been feeling very festive lately wanting to make all sorts of fun decorations for our house. I decided to make some fun glitter starts to hang over the kitchen bar. We are having friends over for Thanksgiving next week and I wanted to have some fun and festive decorations in the house. I printed stars on card stock paper, scored them, cut them, folded them and covered them in glitter. I think they turned out pretty cute. I took the hot glue gun and glued them to a ribbon and then hung them. The only downfall to this project was the fact that I got glitter EVERYWHERE!!!

Fun with Felt

I'm always trying to find new ways to entertain my little one. I had bought some felt at Walmart a while back and decided to pull it out and cut some letters for Addison to play with. She was having fun looking at them on the floor and then I decided to see if they would stick to the back of the couch. Well guess what they did!!! They didn't stick really well but good enough for her to play putting them on and off of the couch. It entertained her for a while, which was my goal!

The Joys of Owning a Lab!

Today was still freezing cold out but the sun was shining so I decided we needed to go for a walk. Our black lab Angel has been so stir crazy the last few days from being cooped up in the house. I bundled Addison up in her stroller and out we went. We recently got Angel a new training collar and it is simply AMAZING! It may look mean but it works great. I could never walk her while pushing the stroller before but now she walks so nicely next to us. You would think she was the most well trained dog if you saw us out walking. The collar we purchased is prong training collar. I'd suggest getting it if you have a dog that is really strong puller.

Once we got to the park I threw the ball a million times for Angel. Then our friends showed up with their dog Cloe, and Angel and Cloe competed for the ball making Angel even more tired. She was so wore out I wasn't sure if she would make it home. This was my plan! I wanted her so tired that all she would do the rest of the day is lie around and sleep. Once we got home she fell fast asleep on the living room floor. It wasn't till about 1pm that she regained her strength by eating a piece of frozen chicken I had pulled out for our dinner. I went upstairs for less than five minutes only to find when I came downstairs there were two pieces of chicken in the bowl on the counter instead of three. Angel had guilt written all over her face along with little pieces of chicken on the kitchen floor. If Joe were home Angel may of gotten a beating but she was lucky I only scolded her and put her on the porch for a timeout. Oh the joy of owning a Lab!!