my kiddos are growing up

Part of the reason that I haven't been posting much lately is that my oldest kiddo started preschool(pre-K) a few weeks ago. I am a stay at home mom so none of my kids have been to daycare/preschool before. It has been pretty new and exciting for us(especially Lundyn. He is loving it!) I am happy about him starting preschool,but I am totally panicking about him starting kindergarten next year! Eek!!

Before I had kids I worked for around 13 years at a preschool/daycare.It is the only job I have ever had. I worked there up until the day before I had Lundyn and then stayed home with him and now his brother and sister. I loved the preschool I worked at.It was(and still is) the best one around. All the other teachers were like family to me. I taught the pre-K class and I just love that age! It is funny for me that Lundyn is now going to the very same school that I taught at for years. He is in my old class room. Most of the same teachers are still there and love having him there. It is cool,but strange for me being a parent now instead of a teacher there.

On his first day of school I brought gifts bags(decorated with ribbon and tags with Lundyn's picture on them) of Godiva chocolate to each room at his school(5 rooms). I have been so busy I haven't had a chance to take many pictures lately. The pic below is the chocolate before I put it in the gift bags.

 We also brought cupcakes and cookies to all of his new friends.


It is hard to tell in the pics above,but when we picked Lundyn up we gave him a bag full of toys,candy and school supplies to celebrate his first day of school. I was planning to make him a Schultüte, but since I leave everything to the last minute I just said the heck with it! Lundyn dosent care if the toys come in a cone or a gift bag! ha ha. So I decorated a gift bag I had and called it good. (As you can see he was so excited about the things I brought him he didn't look up at the camera. lol)
I also brought flower pens that I made for the teachers( I wish I had taken a picture of them. They are very realistic looking roses)
and I also made them pencils out of candy


via here

In the weeks since we have started we have brought the teachers real roses, giant chocolate chip cookies and probably more then that,but the main gift that I had been planning to bring them is a teachers survival gift basket. I have most of it ready,but it has been a pain to get put together since I am always so busy and there are a million things you have to put in it(cotton balls,candy,tooth picks,mints,candles etc.) Each thing having a "special" meaning. I will get it finished one of these days! :-)

A few days before Lundyn started school we went down to the beach for a little celebration and to take some pictures.

The kids had a great time playing with the "props" I brought

Kensington is obsessed with balls right now she loved the apples! :-)

I had gone to a bakery and bought some big cupcakes and cake balls to eat on the beach. Disaster!! It was really windy and the cupcakes were 90% frosting.I didn't give Kensi a cupcake and Sutton wanted nothing to do with his big bird cupcake(he doesn't really like sweet stuff)

Lundyn on the other hand,LOVED his cupcake. A little too much. Oy.

The kids had a great time running around on the beach

The next day I decided to do another "school photoshoot" at home for Lundyn(and of course the other kiddos wanted to join in the fun :-)

later that day my family came over to celebrate my birthday and brought me a yummy cake

                                                                            xoxo!

Strawberry shortcake party

 When Sutton turned 3 I had been planning on throwing him a Thomas the train/Lightening McQueen(Cars movie) party. A version of the Train,plane, automobile boy birthday parties I had seen around the Internet. However,when his birthday was coming up he was insisting on having a Strawberry shortcake party instead. Instead of fighting him I just decided to go with it and let him have fun. After all, it is his party not mine anyway. Luckily, Daddy didn't mind that his son wanted a Strawberry shortcake party and was actually all for it :-)

 Sutton didn't want anything to do with the "vintage" Strawberry shortcake(the one I grew up with) like I wanted. He only wanted the new version of Strawberry Shortcake. Luckily, she is adorable so I didn't mind :-) Anyway, the party was mostly just strawberry(the fruit) themed with little touches of Strawberry shortcake(the character)

The yellow fabric with strawberries that is on the table is actually a blanket that I made for Sutton. I had also used that same fabric to make a dress for Kensington when she was tiny.

The boys made the felt strawberry/flower garland. They had so much fun!

the strawberry shortcake paper was meant to be cicles for on the cupcakes,but my printer ran out of ink. Sutton wanted the paper on the table anway :-)

Sutton's birthday "cake" was strawberry cupcakes with pink strawberry flavored frosting and topped with chocolate covered strawberries.
The strawberry on Sutton's cupcake(with the candles) was left not covered in chocolate because he doesn't like chocolate. I know shocker! lol. He doesn't like sweet stuff much and wouldn't touch the cupcake either. Only ate the fresh strawberry.




I made a strawberry outfit and matching headband for Kensi right before the party started. I just hot glued felt pieces onto a vintage red smocked dress(she is wearing it in the pics below to show what it looked like before)



with my sister

We had yummy strawberry lemonade that we served in mason jars with lemon slices and striped straws. It was so good!

The strawberry shortcake we served was even better! Yum! It was so good!! I need to remember how I made it because my Dad's birthday is coming up and he put in a request for it right away. I now it was a strawberry flavored cake with fresh strawberries and homemade whipped cream sprinkled with cocoa powder.



my sweet little guy



xoxo!!