we are still alive....

a few instagram pics to share....just getting back into the blogging world, bare with me :)

who does maya look like???

Look Whooooo's Two!

January 2012

I wasn't sure if I wanted to go all out and plan a 2 year old a big birthday bash since I know she still doesn't even fully understand what a birthday is, but I had the cutest idea come up and I couldn't resist. I wanted to do everything myself, including the birthday cake, and since I outdid myself last year with the whole rainbow cake, I figured I better do something even better this year! I have a friend named Zoe that made a beautiful wedding cake here that I was totally impressed with. I made a similar version of this cake following her tutorials to the T, as well as watched her friend's tutorials about icing your own cake. It was a lot of work, but I was so proud of the final masterpiece! I made a chocolate cake with a mint buttercream topping. It was really yummy, and I put caramel in between the layers, all three of them! 

Of course since Pinterest has come alive it has reignited all of my creative juices! I love love the owl theme, and went full force with it for this birthday. I made the cupcakes from a pin I found on Pinterest and also made these chow mein and marshmallow bird's nests with m&m's as the eggs. It was such a fun little theme!

We did a morning party so I mostly just had a rainbow fruit and Elmo veggie trays and then a few of the sweets, we also had little mini quiches from Costco that both the kids and adults loved. Jason and I made the birthday invite together, and then I created the treat bags using a template I found online. 

In the treat bags we had little ziplocks of 5 crayons, the little thank you card that we created was actually a picture you could color, and then the candy from the pinata. I scored at the $1 isle at Target and found the little owl gift bags. They were probably meant for Valentine's but it worked perfectly for our party.

And finally, the fingerprint tree. I have seen this idea all over Pinterest and loved the idea. Jason created a specialized drawing based off of a few we found online. We had all the kids do their fingerprints when they came or went and it turned out so cute! We will use it as art and hang it in her room one of these days!

Maya is such a sweet spirited, independent, fun little girl. She is learning new words everyday and even knows a few songs! She has definitely challenged our parenting skills a few times as she can throw a pretty good temper tantrum, but for the most part she is very well-behaved. We feel so blessed to have her. 

2011 Christmas Letter

Sausalito, California December 2011

A day long getaway to dreamy Sausalito was a perfect family day in my book. We headed north across the Golden Gate Bridge to the sweet little town of Sausalito, CA. It was a beautiful day with temps in the 60s, hardly even able to believe it is December already....we spend the afternoon visiting the shops and finishing our Christmas shopping. And on the way home we stopped at one of our favorite splurges...In 'N Out.