The week after July 4th we packed up the family and headed down to Dauphin Island, Alabama with some of Craig’s college friends and their families. We spent a week on the island and had a lot of fun catching up with everyone and enjoying the scenery. Here are a few of the highlights!
Scenic Dauphin Island
Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo—The Little Zoo That Could
Historic Fort Gaines—Site of the Battle of Mobile Bay
Estuarium—Dauphin Island Sea Lab
Beach Bummin’
While in South Carolina visiting family last weekend we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go strawberry picking. This was Bailey’s first time picking strawberries and I was really excited to get to do it with her!
After a little instruction from Nanny (my mom) on which berries were best and which ones to avoid, Bailey got right down to work.
She worked steadily, filling her bucket with lots of beautiful, ripe strawberries. I was truly amazed how, even at 3 1/2 years of age, the activity kept her interested.
Definitely a morning well spent with a couple of my favorite ladies!
Maybe next time we’re in South Carolina we’ll try out blueberry picking. Or better yet, maybe we’ll try peaches!
This past weekend we celebrated Bailey’s third birthday (check out her first and second birthday parties too)! I tried to keep things as simple as possible by sticking with a rainbow theme, where pretty much anything bright and colorful would go.
I whipped up these cheerful invitations to go along with the rainbow theme and then printed them on card stock left over from my sister’s bridal shower earlier this year. Waste not… want not, right?
The foyer, dining room and kitchen were all decorated with these fun, rainbow-colored streamers that I made (thanks to a little inspiration from my friend Holly). They were so super easy to make and I plan to reuse them at future celebrations.
Since the most important people at the party were going to be two and three year olds I tried to have a few different play zones scattered throughout the main living areas (you know… to try to keep the kiddos from destroying playing in Bailey’s room). I pulled out the rainbow-colored blocks and set them out in the living room.
In the dining room I covered the table with white craft paper, which the kids were free to color on. And color they did!
The food at the party consisted of pizza (requested by Bailey), rainbow-inspired fruit and veggie trays, and rainbow tie-dye cupcakes (recipe found here)!
The kids all seemed to be BIG fans of the spread, especially when it came to the cupcakes!
After eating the kids were invited to make a toddler-friendly tie-dyed t-shirt following this tutorial.
They all seemed to enjoy the activity, but it proved to be a little more time-consuming than their two and three year old attention spans could manage. So, we moved on to the presents. Naturally, many of the presents had to be tested (for quality assurance purposes) as soon as they were opened!
And as always, playing with the wrapping paper was just as much fun as playing with the presents!
Even sweet Owen enjoyed getting in on the wrapping-paper-playtime-fun!
As they left, the kids were given favor bags filled with candies that fit right in with the rainbow theme.
But as great as the favor bags were, by far the best part of the day was Bailey getting to spend some time with her two most favorite people… her BF (as in boyfriend) Colin and her BFF Maelen!
Happy birthday sweet girl! I love you to the end of the rainbow and back!
