James Penn's Hot Dog Party

Hey ya'll!!! Long time no post ;)  A few weeks ago we threw James Penn a "Hot Dog" themed 2nd birthday party so just wanted to share its adorableness for you to steal some ideas from and for our families purpose of documenting some memories!  

A little background on the theme.  Like most two years olds James Penn LOVES Mickey Mouse. However, he calls it "hot dog" because of the hot dog dance at the end AND he also happens to love hot dogs the food.  So instead of doing a Mickey Mouse themed birthday party I thought we would do "Hot Dog" themed party with just touches of Mickey Mouse in there.  

Of course every party starts with an invite and usually I use the invite to build a theme for the rest of the event.  My go to is always Minted!  I love that all of our friends and families addresses are saved in my Minted account so not only can I order invites but I can have them pre-addressed as well.  All i have to do is stamp and send them once they arrive.  

Next I always enlist the help of my super talented girlfriend Nicola to help build upon my theme with original cake toppers and decor.  All I told her a Hot Dog themed party with touches of Mickey Mouse, sent her the invite I purchased and she came up with this!!  Seriously...she's amazing!! How adorable is this sign! 

And the cake toppers she created!!! So much attention to detail. I personally would much rather pay 20 bucks for a cake from target and make it match my theme paper toppers like this than pay 200 dollars for themed fondant cake.  

I especially loved this party theme because the food couldn't get any more simple!! A hot dog bar!!  We did build your own chicago dogs, southern dogs, BLT dogs or Classic dogs.  And for the kiddos also had pigs in a blanket and corn dogs on a stick.   

Put out some chips (sweet potato chips for the kids) and a broccoli salad and call it a day! 

Appetizers were super easy too. You can buy Mickey Mouse shaped cheese at Walmart. Cheese and crackers done.   (found the Mickey Mouse paper balls below at party city!)

Then I put the hubby to work cutting out Mickey Mouse shaped pineapples and skewering grapes. 

And for fun...life size Mickey Mouse's and a Mickey Mouse bounce house in the driveway....

Picture of the boy's faces as they were blowing up the bounce house :) 

We didn't get your typical adorable 2 year old blowing out his birthday candles picture. We got something WAY better in my opinion. REAL LIFE haha.   Big Brother Hunter in the back ground was having a hard time dealing with the fact that this was not HIS birthday so right before we started singing happy birthday he gave little brother a good whack.  That combined with the overwhelming atmosphere of 30 people singing to you, the birthday boy wasn't too happy :(  

Wasn't anything a little birthday cupcake couldn't fix!!! 

Happy 2nd Birthday James Penn!! We love you ALWAYS and FOREVER! 

Five on Friday

No small talk...getting right down to it!

1.  I received this ring from Pandora as a christmas gift from my mother in law and I'm LOVING it.  I've never owned anything from Pandora before nor have I ever wore a middle finger ring.  Look at me now getting all crazy.  Would make a pretty darn good valentines day gift! xo

2.  So we've subscribing to the Hello Fresh meal delivery.  We've liked it so far but THIS MEAL ya'll by far has been the best one we have ever had.  It was incredibly simple, you could buy the 7 ingredients it takes to make it from the grocery store for probably like $10 bucks and it literally cooked in 30 Mintues!  I put fish sticks in the oven for the boys and by the time their dinner was ready this was ready for us. I was shocked! Needless to say we've made it twice in the past two weeks! Go make it!

3.  I know we're all tired of buying winter clothes at this point but ya'll some of the sales are unreal.  I wore this poncho yesterday and a girl asked where i got so I looked it up... you can get it for $27 dollars right now!!  And they have size xs/s left! 

4.  Who's ready for the super bowl!! Here in Charlotte you can feel the excitement everywhere you go!  Yesterday while walking uptown to get lunch there was a guy on the street selling these lego Panther football players.  Aren't they adorable!!  Let's just say I have one VERY HAPPY 4 year old when i came home with these.  If your uptown in the next week look for the guy on trade and tyron he had some good Super Bowl goodies!

5.  We've starting weening James of his Paci this week.  Just during the day. He doesn't have it at "school" all day and we make him keep it in his bed when he wakes up.  So what has he taken to?? Sucking his thumb. YES!! Every time I look at him from the time I pick him up from daycare to the time he goes to bed he is full out sucking his thumb.  We can't have that ...I'd rather him have his paci til he's five then start the thumb sucking thing...right? Help!  Kid is a hot mess I'l leave you with these! Lol! #modeljames

Goodbye May, Hello June

Whelp, hello June! Not sure where May went, I clearly wasn't blogging.  Let's see...according to my instagram account in May we...

 took Hunter V to see the play "The Cat in the Hat"

and to the dentist... 

we got out on Big Daddy's boat for the first time of the season 

we celebrated a quiet Mothers Day at home with my boys

and our 5th anniversary at the Wells Fargo Golf Tournament

we began our basement renovation 

 I worked on sprucing up my summer work wardrobe 

I worked my bum off growing my Rodan + Fields business

 and we jump started SUMMER with A LOT of pool and lake time with friends!! 

Check back soon, I'm going to blog about the basement reno, I promise!!! xoxo