Taylor's 13th Birthday

What kind of party do you do for a 13 year old???? That was the big question last month. After much thought we came up with a Baking Party. Taylor LOVES to cook and bake. Her favorite blog is The Girl Who Ate Everything. She loves searching out new recipes and trying them out. So I asked my friend Natalie who makes all my fabulous cakes and cupcakes to come and teach a cake decorating class for the party. She made 8 little individual cakes for the girls and taught them how to properly frost a cake, how to pipe frosting with a bag and tip and taught them about using fondant. I made dollar store cake stands for each girl and they all got a little dish towel and spatula to use and take home. We stuck with the same color combo that we used for Lula's party to make decorating a little easier. It was a great success! Taylor loved it!

{Dollar Store Cake Stands}

candle stick + glass plate + apoxy glue = cake stand

 Even Lula frosted her own cake, she totally got into it! Which proves that this party can really be done for just about any age.

Poor Taylor had to blow out a tea light candle! That's what happens when you have 3 birthdays in one month!!!

She's been dying for a North Face jacket and thanks to Natalie and Nena she finally got one!

Rigtrup Easter

An hour after Lula's birthday party we got all cleaned up and setup to host the Rigtrup Easter party. The Rigtrup grandparents do the BEST Easter egg hunt ever and we couldn't miss out on that just because we had a birthday party to throw. I kept it simple and just made up sandwiches ahead of time and I had everyone bring a salad. We had tons of extra cupcakes for dessert! Easy peasy!!!

What makes the Easter egg hunt so fantastic is that each child is given a # based on their birth order as grandchildren. So Taylor is #2, Tanner is #5, Tate is #8 and Lula is #12. They all have about 20 eggs or so but they can only pick up the ones with their # written on it. It's brilliant! So the egg hunt takes forever which is so much more fun than a 30 second free for all. The other fun part is that there is always an egg for each child filled with change, an egg that say's see Papa for a prize (a fun little toy) and an egg that say's see Grandma (for a chocolate bunny). My kids just love this tradition.

Notice Tate's boot...I mean MY boots! LOL, I love that kid.

 This cracks me up because it's pretty much how you will always see Alan and his brother Scott at family functions. Deep in discussion about cars or bikes.