Be My Valentine

Toby had to work most of the day on Valentines Day so I just took my little loves shopping to get daddy a present and to dinner for a little girl time. I love these girls so much! I love hearing them laugh and I love their kisses and their cuddles! Valentines Day means so much more to me then it used to. I used to look forward to getting spoiled by my man and although I still love that, now I really look forward to showing all the loves in my life how much I love them and spoiling them. When I was little I always looked forward to the valentines that I would get from my mom and dad. My mom would always make it a special day and would make these giant sugar cookies shaped like hearts. I also loved the little valentines that would mysteriously show up on our front door. My dad always made a special Valentine just for me with a cute card telling me he loved me. It meant so much to me and I always looked forward to it. Now I have my own little ones that I can pass down these fun traditions for. They are the loves of my life and I love having a day that I have another excuse to spoil them like crazy to let them know how much I love them! The day after Valentines Day Toby took me to Wine and Roses overnight. Erika watched the kids for us and I can't even explain how much fun it was! We had a really yummy dinner and then hung out in our hotel room just laughing and talking until the wee hours of the morning. We ended our stay by having breakfast back at the wine and roses restaurant. I love that guy so much and am so grateful for the times like these that I get to enjoy him all to myself without any distractions. He is my best friend and the one and only person that knows me inside and out. Love, love, love him!!

Leap Turn and Twirl

A couple of years ago I through Brooklyn a Mermaid birthday party that was crazy and over the top. So I thought it would be good to do one more for Nikell and Presly to even it out. My last party was featured on a party website, Kara's party ideas, and it won a contest which was exciting! I have vendors that help me put it on and they trade work with me which makes the cost not as much and it motivates me to go even bigger with all the party decorations and plans. Nikell has always been my little dancer. She loves to sing and dance all the time, she turns my music on from my cell phone, watches herself in the glass covering the fireplace and dances and dances and dances! She loves her ballet class and when I asked her what she wanted the theme to be for her birthday party she said without hesitation, ballerina. Nikell loves her balle teacher so I asked her if she wanted to come and teach the girls a ballet dance. The plans for this party took me about 4 months to plan and at times it was a little overwhelming but it turned out to be a beautiful party and the girls loved it. Presly had fun too and just loved all the attention she got from everyone. She looked cute as ever in her little birthday hat! The one thing that I was really stressing over is how to make a dance stage. We thought about renting one but it would have been like 700-800 dollars and we weren't about to spend that much on a stage. So after a lot of thought and different ideas I was driving home from picking up decorations and an idea popped in my head. Why not turn the trampoline upside down and make it the dance stage. It turned out perfectly and also solved the problem of how we were going to get the trampoline out of the way. Killed two birds with one stone;). A few of my other favorite things were the ballet bar with little tutu's for each girl hanging on it. The cute little garden posts that had ribbon hung on them lining the walk way to the backyard. All the little details just made this party so fun. Another idea that came to me at a very random time was one night right before I fell asleep I was trying to think of some fun ideas and naming the dessert table "The Ballet Bar" came in my head. I thought it was a unique and fun name for the dessert and drink table. So not only were all the decorations fun but the girls had a great time too. It was fun I think for the parents to get invited to the end of the party to watch the ballet recital and to have treats with us. This party was a ton of work but ended up being a hit. Nikell had a blast with all her friends and Presly enjoyed it all too. IT was fun having Grandma Goeckeritz, Great Grandma Cram and Great Aunt vicki there for it also!