It's in the details

Just thought I'd share some of the details of Aubriella's Cupcake party. Everything turned out great (except the weather ;-). I was so lucky that Silvia helped me look for all the special details...like the perfect square plates, pinata, silverware, goodie bags and SO MUCH more! She probably stopped at every party store in Santa Maria and San Diego! Thank you Silvia for all your help!

I had fun making a few crafts for the party. Tissue paper pom poms, high chair tutu (my mom helped me cut the 100's of tulle strips!), and Aubri's hair clip (that she wore for 10 minutes before we decided to put her hair in pig tails!), and even planted a few flowers in pots for centerpieces.

I lucked out that a few stores were featuring Valentine's Day cupcake themes. I was able to mix and match from everywhere!

This perfect flag I found at Kohls. And matching dollar store balloons! The easiest little walkway to let guests know to come through the back.

For a couple of weeks I was hanging the pom poms everywhere! Eventually they surrounded the posts and rails of our bed!

They were scattered on fishing line above the party, but ended up bunching in a few places because of the wind. I thought it still looked cool!

The banners are actually what started to whole party theme. My friend Sarah made Aubri her name banner for her room. I was going to attempt a Happy Birthday one to match and have a pink and brown cupcake theme. Then we happened to go to another friend's house and she had the pastel one already made, AND it had cupcakes on it.

What is a cupcake party without cupcakes! I baked 120 cupcakes, and Silvia frosted them all! About 7 years ago while I was in college, I compulsively bought this little cake stand and matching pastel plates with a cupcake theme. I've never used them, until now! They were PERFECT!

Some of the cupcakes had little sparkly crowns in them. They were made by Aubriella's godmother Joy, and were left over from one of my baby shower invitations! I taped them to toothpicks.

Of course the only time I had to stop and take some pictures of details was before the party started...sadly before everything was set up! I was so excited to be able to use my swap meet vintage pastel bowls for the salsa, and my favorite set of melamine nesting bowls for chips! They looked so cute (you just got to take my word on it!).

I asked my brother Jasen to take a picture from our upstairs window

Saw a tutu similar to this on Etsy... for $75! made it for $18!

I bought supplies to make Aubri a cupcake shirt, but ended up finding the perfect one at Babies R Us! I made her bow for free at Beverly Craft Stores 35th birthday party celebration! And her tutu and hat I found on clearance after Halloween mixed in with some costumes!

And finally, thanks to Silvia, the perfect pinata!

Family Day!

Have I mentioned that the recent weather has been amazing? (Except for Aubriella's party....grrrrr). ;-) We had to take advantage of it being this nice so we finally walked the Bob Jones trail. Jose and I may be the last ones on the Central Coast that hadn't walked it! Even Aubriella is familiar with it thanks to Nana and Papa!

We of course took off wearing flip flops, and started getting nervous that everyone else was in hiking gear or looked really prepared. I guess they just really wanted to get some excercise because flip flops served us well!



It was so pretty and Aubri loved the stop at the swings and seeing all the dogs! We will definitely be doing this more often!
My girl loves the swings!





Aubri brought along her balloon from an earlier shopping trip.





Exploring the open road

Wish I knew how to take better pictures! The sun made this one dark, but the moment I caught is priceless!

Whenever Aubri is on Jose's shoulders she spends the whole time bending over to see him!

Since we took the walk at a very lesuirely pace (and somehow passed our bridge exit!) we got to Avila later than we planned. Aubri had fun walking around, and of course going on the swings.

We could have walked back, but instead added to our adventure and took the trolley ride!

A short story

Once upon the time there was this really lucky mommy who had a beautiful baby girl and a handsome husband. The lucky mommy was convinced to get a pedicure by the handsome husband. Not one to argue with that, the lucky mommy indulged herself. Turns out the beautiful baby girl was lucky too. The Handsome husband/daddy took her to the park while the lucky mommy was enjoying her treat.

The silly Handsome Husband had so much fun with the beautiful baby girl. He told the lucky mommy "We must take her to the park much more!" to which the lucky mommy replied, "I don't think so. Not when we have two huge boxes containing lumber and parts for a gorgeous swingset for our own backyard sitting in the garage waiting to be assembled!" Turns out the only one not lucky is the handsome husband...because he has some work cut out for him!
The End

Long Legged Lady

January has been very unseasonably warm around here (that is until the day of Aubri's party....grrrrr). A few weeks back it was pushing 80 degrees and when Aubri put up a fight during a clothes change I decide to not fight back. Jose and I were cracking up that she was walking around in her diaper and shoes (lately if she finds a pair of her sparkly shoes she HAS to have them on!).

Things got even funnier when she took a break for a snack! We could not get over how long she looks! She's really been thinning out lately, and obviously getting taller!

Setting the tone

I'm a big advocate for invites setting the tone for a party/wedding/event. The invites hint at the theme, colors, and tone of the festivity to come.


With that said, you can imagine the pressure I felt after the holidays were over when I realized that I had 2 weeks to find invites and mail them for Aubriella's party! I didn't even have a concrete theme! I found invites I looooved but they were about $1.25 a piece and needing 45 of them didn't go over to well. Believe it or not I "settled" for some 44 cent ones from Walmart. At the time I didn't think they were the right style, but after the party came together I realized they were perfect.

Ok, hard part done, card picked...now we just need a picture. Wow! I forgot how hard it is to stage a picture of a very active girl. I've been singing since then my made up song "How do you take a picture of Aubriella?" (to the Sound of Music tune How do You Solve a Problem like Maria). It is like trying to catch a wave upon the sand, holding a moonbeam in your hand, catching a cloud and pinning it down...



Thought you might want to laugh with me some of the outtakes. I'm sure Aubriella will love these someday. Keep in mind these were taken over the course of a couple of days.

Clearly outside was too distracting. All she wanted to do was run around! We tried her chair outside and that didn't last.

So we moved inside.


I actually got this cute one inside, but her diaper was a little distracting. I tried to fix her skirt, but she took off....and hid inside her tent!

Not happy to come out of her tent!

Very not happy!


Ok lets call it a day!
Day 2

I had to chase her down after every shot! Looks like she is dancing, but just trying to run away I think.




Trying to get her to smile. I was singing to her and she's doing the "mark it with a B"

She's off again!

Not her fault in this one, camera setting too dark.

Can you see how messy her hair is getting from all the chasing and wrangling her back in the chair?



Believe it or not, this is the winner!

Not posed, taken as a joke over the stair banister, distracting tile and carpet... but that is 100% my little girl!