Penelope had a birthday party

And I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I wanted to.

But that's ok, because it was fun. And I have these, which are fun too.

The table set up with the photo shoot area in the back.

We found tea cups, saucers, and tea pots at various thrift stores, along with doilies, lace things, and a pink-ish lacy curtain that was our photo shoot backdrop. I made the cupcakes look like flowers (which was crazy easy, thanks youtube!). They also had mason jars as glasses for lemonade.

All the tea was fruit tea (peach, blueberry, etc) and they actually drank it.

The food table: fruit, rice krispy treats, lemonade, cheese & crackers, candy dipped pretzels.

I briefly thought about making scones and mini cheese sandwiches and then had to reign myself in. She's 6, I'm pregnant. This was just fine. I liked the fancy punch bowl, provided by a friend. It was a nice touch.

Table + wall and ceiling decorations

The wall garland was super cute, I wish I had gotten a better shot of it. I do still have it, but I'm not about to drag it out of the kid's room just for a picture. The pom-poms hanging from the ceiling are still up in the house. We'll see how long it is before someone finally gets annoyed with them and takes them down. They're just tissue paper, and easy (but time consuming) to make. My dad & Bryan made half of them while mom and I prepped food the night before. Proof that my dad and husband are pretty freaking awesome.

The hat decorating station

So THIS is where I went overboard budget-wise. The girls each got a hat and a feather boa. They could add ribbons & flowers to their hats to make them super-fancy and tea-party ready. I had to ship the damn hats express to get them here on time because I suck at planning (well, I just got busy), so they were much pricier than I had originally planned. BUT they turned out insanely cute, see:

Birthday Girl in her fancy hat, boa, and party dress.

And then there's these:

My mom, who is awesome.

Penelope, blowing out her candles

I have more, mostly of Sissy and her friends or of her friends posing with the background, but since I don't have permission to post those I think I'll hold off. I'll print them for each girl though and we can include them in her Thank You cards.

I was pretty exhausted by the end of the party, and it was only a 2 hour gig.

Now to start planning Bubby's 5th. I think he wants a Robot theme. Hello Pinterest!

Pintrest

Hello, my name is Jessica, and I'm addicted to Pintrest

(This is where you say, "Hello Jessica").

Anyway, a fellow blogger named Julie wrote this post about the things she's done based on pintrest, and it's inspired me to write one about my own pintrest obsession. Be prepared, I've done a lot.

1. The Owl Hats. I've already blogged about these hats. I've made 5 so far, all for kids, and I love each new one more than the last. They're a little time consuming (especially the d**m ears) but so super cute.

2. The puzzle coasters (see blog post linked in #1) were also inspired by a friend's pintrest site (before I had a pintrest page). I just changed things up a little to make them puzzles instead of just homemade coasters.

3. The Hand Tree! (small version in linked post). I love this craft - although I wasn't ready to do it with the kids quite yet. I made a big one for our house - do you like?

Bryan & my arms/hands make the trunk and the kids' hands are the upper branches. Things I've learned from this craft - Griffin has big hands (almost as big as Poe's) and I have TINY wrists. Like freakishly small.

4. Headbands. I have actually tried 4 headband patterns found through pintrest. I don't have pictures of them all, but here are a few:
If you like this one, here's the link to the pin
For this one, I took this pin and this pin to create a "new" headband. I still want to learn how to do the crochet stitch of the rainbow headbands, I love the way it looks.

5. Wall Art - this actually didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped, but they look ok.

Perhaps I just need more of them. Here's the link to the pin where I got the idea. If I do it again, I'll change things up a little.

I have a LOT of things on my pintrest boards that I have yet to try. Hairstyles, more crochet crafts, recipes, decorating ideas... Pintrest is completely addicting - so be wary before you begin.

Happy crafting!