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’
Last weekend we packed up the kids and headed south to Huntsville, Alabama to visit our sweet friends Jared and Melanie and their adorable daughter Caroline. We had not seen them in nearly a year so needless to say, a lot had changed in both of our families since then.
The weather was beautiful and we had a great time exploring all that Huntsville had to offer, including a stroll through Big Spring Park to feed the fish and ducks…
…a visit to the EarlyWorks Children’s History Museum…
…a bike ride through the neighborhood…
…and hanging out at the playground!
It was a long way to go for such a short trip, but definitely worth the drive! We had such a great time and can’t wait to see everybody again!
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!
