Laura's lil pumpkin baby shower

To celebrate our friend Laura's new baby girl, we had to give her a shower.  With Halloween coming close by, I used inspiration from here, and we gave her a Lil' Pumpkin theme. 

Here's the spread.  Our menu included Squash soup, broccoli and cheese soup, bread soup bowls, pumpkin cinnamon rolls, a fruit tray and dip, a pumpkin cheese ball and crackers, and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

I copied the above blog and polka-dotted some cute little pumpkins.

I made the pumpkin cinnamon rolls, but I won't give out the recipe because I'd never suggest making them again.  I've found another recipe I'm going to try.  My love of all things pumpkin, coupled with cinnamon rolls demands I search until I find a good recipe.  But the cookies were delish!  Thanks Kristin!

Are these not the cutest little favors you've ever seen???  Jen made these from styrofoam cups.  Plus she made the caramels inside them which I've had to hide from my kids because I don't love them enough to share.  They were so beautiful.  Thanks, Jen! 

Cynthia, Scarlet and Jen (the favor maker).

Here's the little bread bowls. 

Up close and personal... 

I can't believe this is the only photo I got of Laura, our guest of honor.  This is her with her beautiful daughter Sarah... 

...and Samantha. 

These are two of my co-hostesses, Teresa and Lisa.  Thanks, ladies!  Lisa, your cheeseball was so wonderful! 

Nicole. 

Scarlet.  The fruit plate was perfect!  Loved the dip. 

Jen's sister Pat, visiting from Las Vegas.  Thanks for coming and helping, Pat!  Always good to see you. 

Kristin.  Great cookies! 

Thanks for giving us a reason to celebrate, Laura!  And thank you Scarlet, Teresa, Lisa, Jen, and Kristin for helping with the food and things.  Everything was so perfect. 

Web slinging fun!

For Brighton's 4th birthday, he requested a Spiderman party.  Actually, he wanted a dump truck party again, but that's already been done.  What would his guests think?  haha.  Spiderman was a close second, so we went with that.  I invited all the little boys in his Sunbeam class, which made 9, counting him.  After I did it, I really had to question my sanity, but it turned out fine.  They all showed up, but, truthfully, all 9 4-year-olds behaved better than Savannah's 9-12 year old guests did.  They were so funny to watch.  But I digress. 

I kept this party low key.  These were the treat bags.  The bags came from the dollar store; they are popcorn bags I pasted a picture of Spidey over.

Brighton wanted cupcakes, which was fine by me; all the easier to make!  The cake was dyed red and blue.  I tried to make webs on them, but they were far too time-consuming.  So we had toppers instead.  I was very proud of myself for figuring out how to put Brighton's face on them 

This was basically the extent of my decorations for it.  I felt lost.

And this... 

The birthday boy showing me how Spiderman makes his webs. 

For games, they colored pictures of Spiderman while they waited for everyone to arrive.  I have to tell you about Brighton's.  He pre-picked out a picture of Spiderman holding a girl, while he's swinging from his web.  Brighton said he liked that one because Spiderman is getting ready to baptize the girl.  Ok, he does have one hand up. 

We played web walk (a cake walk), but the boys couldn't get the circle things down and kept running into each other.  We were busting up, they were so funny.  Next was sandman, sandman, spiderman, like duck duck goose.  Brighton got up to run, no matter who got tagged.  It didn't seem to bother anyone.  Next was Mr. Freeze, where they had to freeze when the musis went off.  Those boys have some groovy moves!  Lastly we went downstairs for a relay.  I always get last-minute inspiration for these.  They had to start off on the rings, as they "swing into action".

next they had to crawl through the spider cave. 

Next was bouncing on the hippity hop... 

...over to the car, where they had to drive a windy road. 

and though I didn't get a picture of the rest, they then had to shoot a bad guy with silly string webbing, shoot a few baskets, then hop from building to building, which I drew on the floor.  Lastly, they had to capture a bad guy and put him in prison.  They liked this part and insisted on doing the relay over and over again. 

Brighton's thinking hard of a wish to make. 

A few days later Aunt Patti sent him his own Spidey backpack.  It was pulling teeth to get him to model it though!

This party was perfect in timing and activities.  Brighton had fun, and loved being the center of attention.  And I'm so glad to be past the three's I can hardly stand it!

It's great to be 8!

In preparation for Irelynd's upcoming baptism, we took her out to shoot a few pictures in her dress.  Her fabulous headband was made by my tres chic sister in law, Sallie.  Check out her clip blog: http://www.clipcouture.blogspot.com/.  We had professional pictures done by Fotogenix, but they're copyrighted, so I had to do my own.  Caution: photo overload ahead.  Irelynd is so photogenic, so it was hard for me to choose just a few.  These are a few of the best ones.

A note about the flowers in these pictures, she insisted on taking the flowers out of her bedroom with us, and I agreed to take a few pictures using them.  So, yes, I know they're not natural, and a little cheesy, but she looked so beautiful in these shots, I had to use them!

This one seemed like too much like a bridal shot.  I could only envision 15-20 years down the road with her in her next white dress. 

With Halloween approaching, I thought this one was cool.  I need to learn how to take true silhouette shots, though. 

Most of these poses were Irelynd's idea.  I just snapped and she posed away. 

We're so excited for you, Irelynd and are so proud of the decision you have made to be baptized.  We love you!