Happy Birthday, Nate!

We celebrated Nate's birthday a couple of days ago - he has to work on his actual birthday, so we just shifted it around to spoil him on his next day off.

I love birthdays so much, but Nate is not super duper into it, so I do what I do best, I make food - and we just celebrate around the table - simple but stylish.

We had crepes for breakfast - an all time family favorite.

We were lazy literally all morning - we got caught up to some of our TV shows.  We never just lay around because there is always something to be done, it was a fabulous break from adulating.

For lunch we cooked out on the grilled.  Nate loves cooking on the grill, and the kids and I have no problem devouring it all.

Hayleigh picked these cute little flowers, so said it would go perfect on the table, and I could not agree more...

The food was delicious...

We went back to being lazy, and then we had cake.

The most delicious cheesecake ever (I will be sharing the recipe soon.)

So happy birthday to my man crush.  I have loved celebrating you every single year for the last eleven years.  Another year to celebrate your incredible life - we love you for sweet guy you are.

Our life here is finally starting to thrive, and I am so happy to have you by my side.

I love you something fierce.

Happy birthday!
xXx

Ian is SEVEN

Seven years ago today...

  Five years ago today, on a glorious, yet fall weather kind of day - my sweet boy came into the world.  And man did he rock my world.

From the moment we locked eyes for the first time I knew that an adventure was awaiting, and I had this surge of intense love for a certain little boy.

We had his birthday party this past weekend - and were able to celebrate him with some friends and family.

Ian has added so much to our lives in the last seven years, and he will forever be first love - the boy who made me a mom.

He is such a joy to be around, and I am still in awe that I get the privilege to do life with him.

He is added so much beauty to my life, and he teaches me so much - and that on a daily basis.

We had a slow and super laid back day celebrating our boy.

Opening gifts....

We kept all of our gifts as well as our friends and family's gifts from South Africa separate from his birthday party.

We were once again awoken by a shrill yell - but this time "it's Ian's birthday, it's Ian's birthday" - so we went with it.

First up a warm beverage to get the sleepies out of our eyes.

 I love watching my kids open any gifts, and their excitement is so contagious.

I love how excited he was...

 I love his face on these pictures.  He was beyond excited that we added to his growing ninja sets.  This kid plays with Lego pretty much 24/7.

Also how cute are they together?

They are so luck to have each other.

Also let's take a moment to appreciate the wrapping paper Hayleigh created.

Breakfast...
A stack of chocolate chip pancakes - it what he requested.  I used this recipe, and just added some chocolate chips.

While I was cooking, he was building away in the kitchen entry way.  I loved looking over and seeing his sweet face.

Lots and lots of playing...
He pretty much played and build Lego, all day long.  We watched him - lol - he doesn't need any help anymore.

  Our cat loves Lego (she is a weird one) and just had to be involved in everything.  Ian and Millie share a special bond.

 Lunch date...
We had a fun little lunch date at our favorite Mexican Restaurant in town.  I am seriously addicted to this place.

Cake time...
It happened again, to be honest we are all caked out - so we opted for frozen yoghurt again.  We went for the first time on Hayleigh's birthday, and we liked it but decided it is a special occasion kind of place.

  A simple dinner...
He requested tacos.  It was delicious.

  It was such a fabulous day celebrating my favorite boy.

***
Our yearly birthday interview.

1. Favorite color? Every color of the rainbow

2. Favorite show? Lego Ninjago

3. Favorite animal? Pangalin

4. Favorite book? Dr Suess

5. Favorite breakfast? Chocolate chip pancakes

6. Favorite treat? Jellybeans

7. Favorite thing to play? Lego

8. Best friend? Samuel

I can't believe my sweet Ian is SEVEN!

He is not as into picture taking as his sister!

 

How I ever got so lucky to be your mom, I'll never know.  All I know is that no one can ever take away the fact that my life's most euphoric moment of becoming a mother happened because of you, and only you.  I will never forget the moment we locked eyes for the first time, and the rush of love and emotions I felt for you.  

I am sorry I'm hardest on you, you are the oldest, so I guess I expect more of you - but it is unfair - I am going to try my hardest to always remember that. 

Just so you know - I look at you and I think you are the kindest (I swear you have a heart made of gold), sweetest, gentlest, smartest, most forgiving, and coolest little human on planet earth.  Don't let anyone ever take that away from you.  You make me happy, always -  just for simply existing. 

 Happy seventh birthday Ian Keith.  I love you, forever and always.

It is such a honor and privilege to be called your mama!

  XxX

Ian's Seventh Birthday Party - A Minecraft Party

Ian's seventh birthday party, was actually so much fun.  I am honestly not the biggest fan of these parties, because they tend to stress me out to the max - but I so enjoyed this one.

This is Ian's second birthday party we have done (when he was two we had one when my parents were in town, and I  swore never to do it again because it was stressful,) insert let's take trips instead, or have a dinner party with family friends, or even splurge on gifts and just celebrate with the four of us.  All of these options have been fabulous in their own timing.

Just like his sister, he had big plans for his day, and begged since January to have a party (you know once Christmas is over, they are focused on birthdays, and once those come and go they zone in on Christmas - it is a cycle.)

Ian and I have more in common, and he has a lot of my temperaments, so a smaller get together with all the flare is more up his ally - that helps me because I am not super into crowds.

I was a little taken back when he declared the theme to be minecraft.  I will admit, I had no idea what the game was about - I think he was introduced by Nate's cousin's son - and that is just fine.  I spend lots of hours googling this game, as well as party ideas - and modified it to work for us.

I wanted it to be special, and pretty, with mindful details, but I so didn't want to break the bank.  Sweet success.

I will link all the details at the bottom of the post.  The food spread was pretty identical to Hayleigh's.

We were awoken super early Saturday morning, the excitement levels where high.

So we had a normal little morning routine, because let's face it - mama has to collect herself, and well this cup motivates me...

Then the prepping begins.  The lounging in jammies, chopping veggies, moving around furniture in the kitchen, unpacking dishes to use - it is all such a ritual to me.  This time around, it went a little smoother.

In fact it went so smooth that we were able to leave the house, to grab lunch at our favorite Mexican joint in town, and I had time to Facetime my mom to show her the set up.  I call that a win.

We had a simple little set-up with lots of delicious food, and we also left the lights up from Hayleigh's birthday since Ian wanted them as well.

Here is the set-up in pictures.

 I just love our kitchen and dining room set-up, it works pretty will for little parties.

 I just love that it was simple, and that I pretty much re-used a bunch of stuff, and made a thing things.  Homey is my thing.

   He wanted a chocolate cake, and also the minecraft cake.  I have to admit, at least this theme was way easy.

We had a fun crowd, we missed a few - but we made the best out of it.

He and Hayleigh are so different, he is more of the shy type - and so singing "happy birthday" doesn't seem to be his thing.  But he did great.

  The cake was delicious, and I kind of like this sight.

  He scored big time on the gifts this year - all Lego.

  His face on this one - I love it! He is super into the ninja Lego's and we got him a bunch for his birthday.  Well his one sweet friend, manage to pick one that we didn't get, and he just couldn't control his excitement.

  The kids spend the rest of the afternoon playing outside.  I love that they have made friends, all by themselves, and that these particular friends still know how to play.

These two girls - they are so sweet together.

Happy birthday Ian - we love you forever and always!

I can't believe he is going to be seven!

****

PARTY DETAILS:

• flower vases - I spray painted some of my  regular old mason jars* brown.
• leaves - I got leafs from the grocery store for $4.
• napkins - for amazon - similar one here .
• birthday candles - I had some leftover from previous birthdays.
• minecraft clip art - from etsy (I use this from scrapbooking as well)
• birthday flags - from etsy (I did a custom order)
• minecraft food tent cards - from etsy 
• cake - made by me* (I used this recipe - I tripled the recipe to make a stack of square cakes.)
• I use this fondant to decorate the cake, and Nate helped me eye ball it to cute out just right
• cake stand - I have had it for a while, and I think I got it at Home Goods.
• sweet tea dispenser - similar here
• dye free food coloring* for the red squares (I colored some fondant)
• green dye free sprinkles* (on the rice krispie treats)
• rice krispie treats - from the Smitten Kitchen cook book 
• chicken salad for the tea sandwiches - I use this recipe (I also used a rotisserie chicken to speed things along)
• onion dip - I use this recipe
• black bean hummus - from the Deliciously Ella cook book
• traditional hummus - I used this recipe
• ranch dip - from the Weelicious cook cook
• pinwheels - I just used hummus (from the recipes above), grated rainbow carrots and cucumber

* things I already had on hand, but linked to just to share.

Also since I am pretty much always in the kitchen I had almost all the ingredients on hand, which cut down the costs tremendously.