A Bridal Bash

Well you didn't think Kenz could go off and get married without me and Leslie throwing her a cutely themed, over the top, completely to die for bridal shower, did you?

We quickly decided upon a "Mint to Be" theme and the party took off from there.

Leslie and I spent the last month planning out every tiny little detail to make sure it turned out as adorably as we had envisioned it. Leslie made sure everything was Pinterest worthy while I added in just the right amount of my signature cheesiness.

Here is our Refresh"mint"s table. We had fruit kabobs, apples, fruit dip, rosemary bread with herb butter, brownie bites, imitation asphalt pie, and pumpkin cookies.

Feast with your eyes.

Jeff so kindly got a TV all set up for us before I banished him from the house from 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM. But let me tell you. You sure can get a lot done without kids undoing everything you're trying to do. Big shout-out to Jeffery. Anyway. Back to the party. I made a video of Kenz and Joe answering questions newlywed game style. And then we had a cute part at the end of the video of Joe telling Kenz reasons he thinks they are "mint to be." It was fun because not a lot of Kenz's friends had met Joe yet, so it was a good way for them to get to know him a little bit better.

We gave everyone a season for their gift to be themed around. When everyone arrived, we had them write down a date idea for Kenz and Joe to do in the season they were given.

Oh, what's that? Gifts? Must mean the guests have arrived!

Have I mentioned yet that it was the absolute most perfect day of the entire year? Because it was. A perfect 70 degrees. No wind. One minor hornet issue, but one of our guests informed us that hornets don't like dryer sheets, so we added dryer sheets to our table centerpieces and I didn't really notice any hornets after that!

I loved our mint clad guests! Lots of people were sporting mint attire! They looked so cute with our decor!



She is the cutest. Really. Joe's a lucky guy. But he already knows that.

Here's Kenz watching the video while trying to convince us all that the tears welling up in her eyes were from allergies.

After the video, we played a couple games that Leslie had prepared. While I...wandered around looking like a drunk. I didn't think that limeade was spiked, but now I'm not so sure.

 We played a game where the girls had to guess the second half of a famous celebrity couple. 
And we also played a memory game. Leslie had put together a tray full of items that told Kenz and Joe's love story. We started by showing everyone the tray really quick, and then they had to write down everything they could remember seeing. Then we went through and told Kenz and Joe's story with all the items from the tray to see who got the most right. It turned out to be super cute!

Then it was time for the gifts. Which required some primping?

Ah. There's the Kenz we know and love.

I got Kenz oven mitts. Because what newlywed isn't dying for a brand new set of oven mitts? Oh! I forgot to tell her my joke about the oven mitts! When we were freshmen in college, Kenz caught one of our oven mitts on fire. And then she grabbed another oven mitt to try to grab the oven mitt that was on fire from the oven. And it was a big fiery mess. So I confidently gave her a set of oven mitts because I'm sure she'll need them. Especially if she still "burns through them" as quickly as she did freshman year. Har. Har. Har.

I just love Kenz and Leslie. And not just because we are all amazons. But that helps.

Most of our guests left, but some stayed a while to chat which was a lot of fun.

Then 4:00 rolled around and the munchkins made an appearance. They had just woken up from carseat naps, so you can understand their drowsy/irritable expressions.

It was such a fun shower! It went practically perfectly. Except for the one tiny detail that we forgot to give everyone their party favors that I frantically slaved over for the whole hour right before everyone arrived. Oh well. Eli will be happy to have the 75 Andes mints all to himself.

Congrats Kenz and Joe! Can't wait for your big day!

Carson's Colorful Night

Carson had a birthday last week!! I invited my parents and the Golden family over for a little get-together. My plan was to keep it low-key and small. I didn't want to bother with stressing myself out with a big extravagant party as I've done before, but I wanted to celebrate the occasion!

After the invitations were sent out, I got thinking. The more I thought, the more the adorable ideas came to me. Before I knew it, I had Carson posing for pictures on wrapping paper, party hats were being crafted upon and crayons were coming out my ears.

The cake with disgusting frosting. Always choose cream cheese frosting over vanilla. Always. Lesson learned. (Ignore my feet.)

I was reeeeeeeally proud of my food tag things. It's important to label your food at a party. Because sometimes guests are like, "What are those purple and green balls on the kitchen table? Can I eat those?" Then they see the "Grapes" sign and know the balls are edible. Don't want to leave your guests guessing...

Balloons. Everywhere. I regretted all these balloons shortly after I blew them up. So they were quickly banished to the basement. But I think it's fun for the kids to come downstairs to a ton of balloons on the morning of their birthday for an instant celebratory start to their special day.

Carson agreed.

The only time Eli was willing to pose for a picture was here. And he was not the one I needed posing. But I took advantage of the opportunity.

This is the best I got of the little birthday boy.

Warning: The pictures from here on out are basically in no particular order. Feeling a little lazy this evening.

Here's Carson getting ready for his big night.

The boys were adorable and happy and excited for the party. So I took thousands of pictures of them. Here are the ones that made the cut:

Party guests!

Eli trying to sneak some of that ...what does the food tag say?...Oh! Jello!

Brooke seemed to enjoy the array of new toys to play with.

We have this old coffee table that we store out in our garage. I love pulling it out as a kid table to keep those messy kids in the kitchen (or outside when it's warm enough) while the adults conveniently munch somewhere a little quieter.

Carson is in the stage where he always blows on his food. (Is that a stage? Both my kids have done it so I'm making assumptions here.) Anyway, the one time he refused to blow on his food was when there was a birthday candle attached to it. Shucky darn.

For some reason I thought my phone took better pictures than my camera. But that turned out to not be the case. Excuse the blurriness of my phone.

Presents!

Eating the birthday cake.

Happy Birthday Carson!