Sadie's 4th birthday, a "purple painting party"

Sadie turned 4 on September 29th and we held her party on Saturday the 28th. She invited several of her girlfriends to a "purple painting party." She LOVES to paint and LOVES the color purple so she did not want a rainbow painting party. She was very specific that she wanted a purple one. We planned for months! I used pinterest for some inspiration and then also came up with a lot of ideas on my own. I knew I wanted a really cute invite that was unique and found a great girl to do them via a college friend. She handmade each invite and made it to look like a paint swatch-exactly what I had envisioned!

(I need to preface before this post that these are not the best photos-I had just gotten my 5d mk ii body back from Canon from cleaning the night before, but had not gotten my 24-70 lens back yet, so was shooting with my big 70-200, which is so not ideal for small spaces! Please forgive that these photos are not as good as normal!)

 

 Her website is jaymamalme.com if you need custom invites!!

We let Sadie paint a canvas the night before and put this out front:

For the day of, I wanted the kids to be able to make a canvas using different shades of purple. We set up the outside with their canvas and smocks that I had custom made for each child (these also doubled as favors along with their art)

 

 

After some painting everyone came inside for a very fast brunch followed by gifts. As you can see, I tried to incorporate purple paint and anything paint related into the setup. I had champagne for the grown ups and put it in a paint can instead of an ice bucket, and put silverware in quart size paint cans. For the little ones I found these uh-mazing milk bottle toppers that I could not pass up. The owner is so sweet and did a great job customizing them for me. You can find them at http://www.edibledetails.com!

 

 

 

I also LOVE having flowers, so got several gallon size paint cans from Home Depot and had one of my favorite wedding planners/floral artists do some arragements. She did a great job! You can find her at: http://www.twodandelions.com

 

 

 

After eating, the kids were ready for the pinata so we headed outside to do that. Instead of getting a traditional pinata, with the help of my husband and parents, we were able to make one out of a paint can. You can view the tutorial that I found here: http://onecreativemommy.com/pull-string-paint-can-pinata-tutorial/

 The kids had a lot of fun trying to get the candy out!

 

After the pinata, it was time to head inside for cake!! My amazingly talented friend, Robin Armstrong of Cake Crumbles made this awesome paint can cake!

 

 

 

That's it! It was a success, thanks to everyone who helped me pull off all the great details. Sadie is still talking about how much fun her "purple painting party" was!

What's in a ring?

I never dreamed I'd be one of those wives that got a different wedding ring. I felt like there was such romanticism with always having your original ring, no matter what. Well, this past December, for whatever reason, I started getting a horrid allergic reaction to my ring. I don't know why, although have yet to take it in to be re-rhodiumed so that could be the problem. Ironically, our entire marriage, I had been asking Adam to get me a ring just like his that I could have as a right hand ring, and he happened to surprise me with one for Christmas. His ring (and my matching one) was special ordered from Dublin, Ireland, and literally came in the DAY BEFORE our wedding! Yikes huh? I love it and how unique it is and really wanted one to match. Well, it has now become my wedding ring as of the last few months. Like I said, I never dreamed I'd be one of those wives, but I actually really like it. It is very special and I love that we have matching rings.

 My original ring

My current ring, that matches Adam's

Safari Day!

Today we went to the Cherokee Drive Through Safari. It is about 45 minutes south of here. We had the BEST time! Sadie especially loved it. They give you food and you can feed the animals as you drive through. 

Here are some photos from the day!

This is right as you are driving up to the entrance. So pretty and I feel like it is quintessential East Texas. :)

They have this tepee and lots of picnic tables-next time we will pack a picnic!

 

We began driving in and started seeing deer right away! They come RIGHT up to the car. As you can see, Sadie LOVED it!

 

This llama WOULD not leave us alone! 

This video below is HILARIOUS-the llama kept running alongside the car! I had to split it into two parts.

 

Here is Sadie with her bag of food for the animals. She was having so much fun giving her "customers" food.

 

One more video-you have to watch it-she is being really funny!

This guy kept popping inside my window and totally freaking me out!

Another llama that would NOT leave us alone!

 

 

The zebras kept trying to get inside the windows too! I tried so hard to get an evenly exposed shot of Sadie with the zebras but with the truck being dark and the outside being so bright it was difficult.

  

We thought this hilltop view was pretty

 

 Sadie was cracking up as we went down the bumpy hill!

 

Pretty shot as we headed toward the exit

 

Such a sweet daddy/daughter moment! 

Feeding the turkeys together before we left

 

What a fun Labor Day as a family!