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Ah, Honey Honey

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Hi! It’s me! Remember me? It’s been almost 7 months since I’ve updated my blog. I wasn’t sure if/when I would ever get back to it. But I miss documenting everything and sharing more than the snippets I share on Instagram. I’ve stated multiple times that I have a hard time finding motivation to blog. But I’m hoping that once I get back to it, I’ll start enjoying it again.

Anyway, I have missed sharing numerous things over the past 6+ months so I’ll probably attempt to do some quick “catch up” posts- starting with Primrose’s birthday party…that happened 3 months ago. So if you were hoping to hear more details about the party, I’ll try to quickly share how we threw it all together so that it’s not an overly wordy post.

I’m sure it’s a repeat story for a lot of you, but for anyone who hasn’t been around for the past year, I’ll just briefly share a little backstory. My best friend, Maggi, and I both had our baby girls on the same day, February 20th, 2018. Our due dates were 2 days apart and we had spent 9 months dreaming of our babies sharing a birthday. We were both about a week overdue when Maggi went into labor. She had her sweet daughter, Sylvia, at the beginning of the 20th. My labor began around 3:45 that day and Primrose was born around 9:00 that night (in the same hospital!) If you want to hear the full birth story, like how I labored in Maggi’s room until I was about 9cm, then you can read that HERE.

Anyway, on to the party! When our girls were tiny, I mentioned that it would be fun to do a joint first birthday party. Thankfully Maggi agreed to it! So we started tossing ideas around when the girls were only about 6 months old. She suggested a honey theme and I absolutely love how “sweet” the party turned out. I feel like there are so many different directions you can go with a honey theme.

Food

So let’s talk food! I’ll link recipes as I’m able. We kept it budget friendly and decided to skip the meal and only serve dessert. Taking inspiration from The Baked Bear (one of my favorite places for dessert in St. Louis,) we made homemade ice cream sandwiches. Maggi and I each made 2 types of cookies. We had Chocolate chip cookies, Chocolate chocolate chip cookies, gooey butter cake cookies, and funfetti cookies.

Then we just had a tub of chocolate ice cream and vanilla ice cream. Everyone was able to pick their cookies and ice cream to create their own ice cream sandwiches. We kept it really simple but it would also be fun to include options for toppings- like sprinkles, chocolate syrup, crushed oreos, whipped cream, etc. Just be sure to have bowls and spoons on hand because it can get messy!

We also had a donut hole “hive” with the sugar bees (we got them from Hobby Lobby but here is something similar from Amazon,) gingerbread honey bears, honeycomb marshmallow treats, and this surprisingly addictive honeycomb churro crunch.

Decorations

Now moving right along to the decorations. The honey bears were collected from friends and family in the months before the party. Maggi spray painted them gold and then we just used them as vases for some small sprigs of baby’s breath and eucalyptus leaves.

The balloon arch was quickly put together about 1.5 hours before the party started! I bought this balloon arch “tape” back in August for Liam’s birthday and it has been well worth the $7! I usually just pick up some packs of balloons from Walmart or Hobby Lobby. I blow up a bunch of balloons in a few different colors and then start pulling them through the holes on the strip. I use command hooks and string to hang it to the wall. Then I tie off the end of the roll and hide it within the balloon arch. I’m able to reuse it over and over this way.

It’s an easy and inexpensive decoration that is so fun! The arch stays looking nice for a while, so you can put it together the day before the party (I don’t recommend doing it an hour and a half before the party starts, like we did haha.) And to prevent light headedness, I recommend a balloon pump or finding a few friends to help you blow up balloons.

The lettering on the wall and on the highchairs was just created with printed stencils and gold glitter poster board.

The letter board is from Letterfolk. We really only decorated this one area and I think I explained everything. But if you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask!

Maggi’s mom made the most adorable bee hive smash cakes. A little helpful hint, if you add bees to your cake, remove the bees before giving the cake to your child. Both girls went straight for the bees haha. So they were promptly removed to prevent choking.

I was convinced that Primrose would hate the mess but she actually ended up loving it and going in for it, face first. It was the perfect messy cake smash that I was hoping for!

I’m so thankful for these two girls and adore the sweet memories that have been created. Such a sweet first birthday party for the sweetest “twin” bffs! If you have any more questions about the party, ask in the comments and I’ll try to respond ASAP! Thank you for reading and I hope to be back soon!!

Felt flower headbands: Fancy Free Finery

Tutu Dresses: Old Navy

Party Crowns: Little Blue Olive

Ruffle dresses: Vintage

Photos by me and my friend (and also Maggi’s sister,) Mayci Loving

May 22, 2019

birthday, Blog, Clementine, Fall, st. louis

Clementine is Two!

I’m not quite sure how it’s possible but last week (October 4th) we celebrated Clementine’s 2nd birthday. It’s hard to believe that she is already 2 years old! Those of you who have been around since her birth may remember the sweet baby girl with dark hair, chubby cheeks, and the most perfect eyebrows I have ever seen on a newborn. She’s grown up so much over the past couple of years and it has been such a joy to watch her grow!

I was so excited to do a fun little photoshoot with Clementine for her birthday. With 2 year olds, you just never know if they’re going to even cooperate. But I knew I had to at least try. I ran to the store and bought a bunch of balloons (70+!) and got to work, blowing them up to different sizes. I used some packing tape to stick them to the wall and to each other. If I was wanting to keep them up longer than a quick photoshoot, I would have used better tape. But they did manage to stay up until the next morning when Primrose started to destroy them haha.

As you can see, she had so much fun with the photoshoot! Clementine is a major girly girl and was so excited to put on the pink tutu dress and crown (from Little Blue Olive.) She’s very opinionated when it comes to her outfits. So when she’s happy about what she’s wearing, it makes all the difference. The balloon backdrop was also a huge hit with her.

She has an obsession with “Baby Shark” and “Daddy Finger” that may drive us to insanity. But she also loves to sing the ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with the sweetest little voice in the world. She loves to dance, make silly faces, and has the most contagious laugh in the world. Her favorite thing to do is pretty much anything Desmond is doing–which is not Desmond’s favorite thing for her to do haha. She’s perfectly sweet and equally sassy. And I’m so thankful to be her mom.

On Clementine’s birthday, we decided to go to one of her favorite places–the St. Louis Zoo! They had their fall/Halloween decorations out which made it a little more fun.

Like I already mentioned, Clementine is very opinionated with her outfit and she insisted on wearing her crown to the Zoo. Everyone kept telling her she looked like a little princess. It was so sweet!

We’re in the process of letting Evangeline’s bangs grow out. Obviously the hairspray didn’t hold them to the side very well but I loved this picture of her.

One of our favorite places in the Zoo is in the sea lion tunnel. It started to rain right as we walked in so we hid in there for a little while until the rain passed. It was Primrose’s first time to notice the sea lions. It was so fun to watch her expressions.

Watching them line up like this is one of the best parts about the zoo. It won’t be too much longer before Primrose will be lined up right next to them!

Liam was very set on getting a picture with Clementine in front of the flamingos. Obviously she didn’t have the same enthusiasm as him haha.

I have a memory card full of pictures like this. But I’ll spare you and only post one haha. Everyone always wants a turn as each character so we always spend a good chunk of time at these cutouts anytime the kids spot one.

We just learned about bears in Science so it was neat for the kids to get a close up look. It was also encouraging to hear them list some facts about bears that they had learned. It helps me to know that they’re at least retaining a few things 😉

Clementine was so excited to watch the “dino” swim by her over and over.

When you look over and see your 5 year old planking haha. It just made me think of that episode of The Office. Anyone know what I’m talking about??

I usually try to get a group shot at the beginning of our outings. But people kept walking in the background of our shots. So we waited until we were walking back to the van and everyone was crabby haha. But getting (mostly) everyone in the shot always makes me happy and we managed to get a few shots with no one looking too crabby.

We came home to an unexpected little package. This tray of cupcakes was sent to Clementine from our friends at cuddle+kind. I honestly could not get over how kind and thoughtful it was for them to not only remember her birthday, but to send a treat to her with a little birthday note. I know I often talk about my love for this company. But my love runs deeper than just for their dolls and their mission, the people who make up the company are just so special to us as well. They certainly made the day a little more special.