Kimber's DOS Fiesta: Inspiration

 The countdown is on -  100 days until Kimber turns TWO!!

I can't believe how fast this year has flown by. Since Kimber's first birthday, we have put our house on the market, sold it in less than a week, packed up & moved to our new house, Nick had a near death experience, we finished out the harvest season - just to start the holiday season, and I was super busy at work during the last 2-3 months with year end. WHEW. I'm ready for a few low-key months!!

But of course, I'm not the type to be low-key {I'm too Type A, OCD for that}. So instead, I've started planning Kimber's second birthday party!! Since she is not really 'into' any certain cartoons, characters, movies or toys -  I decided the theme for the party. We will be having a FIESTA party to celebrate her DOS birthday!!

It's no secret that Nick & I love Mexican food and Kimber enjoys it just as much as us! We have Mexican night at least once a week at our house and if we go out to eat - it's usually for Mexican. Kimber loves taco meat at home and when we go out to eat, she dips the chips into the salsa and eats up the cheese quesadillas!

I've started a Pinterest board of items and have started ordering some items. Knowing that we live 45 minutes from the closest craft store and Nick will be in the fields while I'm planning the party - I wanted to get a jump start on some of the bigger items.

The invites:
I found these invitations on Etsy and it was game over. The color scheme and feel of the party was decided. I love that it's not the bright red/yellow/blue colors that I saw with most of the Fiesta themed items. I have started working with the owner of the shop and she's going to design all my paper products to match this invite.

 

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The birthday attire:
You can't have a DOS birthday party without a shirt that says how old your are in Spanish!
 

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I mean...how adorable is this outfit?!?

 

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The decorations:
When it comes to decorations, I like very simple ideas. No big frilly, glittery, over the top stuff.

I found a piñata {in the perfect color scheme!!!!} at Target last week, so I picked it up. I haven't decided if I'll put candy in it or just use it as a decoration at this point.

I'm envisioning a tablescape like this one with food signs, tissue paper banners, paper fans as backdrops. I love how simple and clean it is.

 

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I'm sure I'll be making lots of tissue paper banners in the next couple of months...

 

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The food:

 One of the reasons I love the fiesta theme is because the food menu is easy and inexpensive. I haven't finalize the menu, but I'm sure we'll be having some kind of walking taco or nacho bar with all the fixings!!

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Love the idea of individual appetizer cups for guests!

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The cake:

How adorable is this little piñata cake??

I think Aunt Paige would do amazing making this special little cake for Kimber!

 

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 The treats:
I probably won't go with a big cake this year, but little treats for everyone to enjoy. There are so many ideas for cupcakes and cookies in the shape of a sombrero!

 

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I'm hoping Kimber's party comes together like I have it envisioned in my head.

Guess it's time for me to start making lists and getting things crossed off it!



Valentine's Day 2015: Weekend Wrap-up

Our Valentine's weekend was jam packed and I'm so exhausted today! I wanted to play hooky from work and veg out on the couch all day, but I have a big meeting this afternoon that I can't miss. Plus, who can really veg out on a couch all day with an almost 2 year old?!?

 

This picture is horrible. It's blurry and you can barely tell what's going on, but I love it. I love that Kimber wants to give all the kids at daycare a hug & a kiss when she leaves every day. The older boys usually turn their head and let her kiss them on the cheeks. The older girls give her a big hug & kiss. She gives Baby Brayden a kiss on the head. Her & Paul {he's 2 months older} lean in and give smooches - it's cute now but maybe not in a couple of years!

 

And then there is Roma, her best friend. They could hug & kiss on each other all day long. And sometimes they do! The first thing Kimber does when we get to daycare is find Roma and give her a hug & kiss and it's the last thing she does when we leave. I love the bond that these two have. It make my mama heart so happy to see.

 

 

After we got home from work/daycare on Friday night, Papa came to pick up Kimber so she could stay the night at their house. While Nick took a shower & got ready, I made up a few of Kimber's valentine's to hand out to her cousins the next day.

 

 

We had a wild & crazy Friday night. We ran to Walmart to grab birthday gifts and went out to eat at Babe's. We left Babe's around 8:45pm,decided to grab beer and surprise Reece & Kelli at their house. We hadn't hung out for awhile, so it was fun to catch up with them! We left around midnight and I was so tired - I could barely keep my eyes open on the way home!

 

When we walked into Walmart, I saw this display of Kinky and had to take a picture to send to my college girlfriends. We have an inside joke about this stuff. Three years ago when we had a girls weekend and had been drinking wine all night, Sarah said her mom bought her wine spritzer for her birthday so we started drinking it at midnight...and we were all getting wasted. Turns out, Kinky is not a wine spritzer but VODKA! We were all feeling it the next day!!

 

Nick & I aren't huge Valentine's people. There's been a few years that one of us has gotten a gift for the other, but that's usually when we said we weren't doing Christmas gifts for each other and one gets a nice gift for the other. So we feel obligated to get a nice gift for Valentine's Day to make up for it! This year, I told him the trip to Jamaica is our gift to each other and we didn't even bother with cards for each other.

 

Even though we're not big valentine's people, I wanted to get something little for Kimber. I picked up some coloring books, crayons, stickers, candy, a dress and an apron for her gift.

 

On Saturday morning, we went to Gramma & Papa's to pick up Kimber, give her the gift and give Abey & Chloe their valentines.

 

The coloring books & crayons were a big hit.

We all sat on the floor and colored together for a few hours.

 

After we left Gramma & Papa's house we ran into town to get groceries {while Kimber took a nap in the car} and went out to eat for lunch. By the time we got home, we only had 45 minutes to wrap birthday gifts, shower & get all three of us ready before we had to head out the door for a birthday party.

 

I decided it was easier to throw on a hat than to try to fix my hair!

 

 

 Kimber wore her new Valentine's dress and picked out her mudders to wear with her dress!  While Daddy was getting ready, I took a couple pictures of Kimber with my fancy camera.

 

After running around the house trying to getting ready so fast, I was pretty excited that we were only 10 minutes late for the birthday party!

 

Kimber had the first celebrity siting of her life when she saw Elsa at the party. It was fun to watch all the little girls - they were so excited to see Elsa! Kimber didn't care about her, she sat down while she was reading a story for about one minute and then was back to running around the room playing with balloons. In Kimber's world, balloons are way more exciting than Elsa!

 

After the party, Kimber took a nap and I tried to get some cleaning done around the house. Saturday night, we meet a group of family & friends to make pizza and hang out with the kids. It's always fun to get the kiddos together and see them play together.

 

With such a crazy schedule on Saturday and all the sugar she consumed, Kimber didn't sleep well on Saturday night and ended up in our bed. We never put her in bed with us, but after being awake with her for over an hour Nick decided he would do anything to get her to sleep. She woke up about 5:30am, so we got her some milk and she fell back to sleep until 8:45 when we woke her up to get ready for church.

 

Sunday marked three years since my mom passed away. Some days, I can't believe it's already been three years and other days, it feels like it just happened yesterday. The death of my mom impacted me when she passed away, but now that I am a mom myself, I think it impacts me even more. I want to ask her questions about how I was as a baby/toddler. Ask her advice on mom type things. And I'd love to see her hold my sweet baby girl. It makes me sad that Kimber will never know her Gramma Connie. She would have loved her. Gotten on the floor and played with her and acted goofy with all the other kids.

 

This is the only 1 of 2 pictures I have of me when I was younger. And the only one I have of me & my mom. This may be the reason I over compensate with 100 pictures a day of Kimber now! I posted this picture to Facebook and some people comments that Kimber looks like me when I was little. That makes me so happy! I hear "she looks just like her Daddy" all the time, so it's nice to hear that she looks like me too!

 

 

After church and dinner with the family, we went home to put Kimber down for a nap. She was more interested in putting her new apron on and playing with her kitchen set though!

 

As much as I wanted to take a nap, I had signed up for a Pampered Chef Frozen meal making party for Sunday afternoon. It was a great time hanging out with the girls, drinking wine and making 12+ freezer meals!

 

The party took four hours and I didn't get home until 7:30. I was SO ready for bed at this point, but still had to finish up Kimber's valentine's for her daycare party on Monday. I worked on her valentine's while watching The Bachelor, coloring with Kimber and helping Nick with tax questions.

 

I decided to go with applesauce for her valentine's this year since the kids at her daycare range in age from 7ish months to 7+ years. Oh, and it was super easy. Thanks, Pinterest!

 

We finally fell into bed around 11:00pm and were out in no time. And luckily Kimber slept through the night!!! Let's hope that continues this week while Nick is on his snowmobile trip!

 

What's up Wednesday!

I don't normally do link-ups, but I saw this post over at The Larson Lingo and thought it would be a fun way to look back to see what was going on with my little family.

 

What We are Eating this week:

Whatever Nick decides we're having for supper.

I usually do our meal planning for the week and  grocery shopping on Sunday afternoon. Nick said we had enough food in our fridge & pantry and I didn't need to shop this week, so I only bought food for my breakfast & lunch {that I eat at work} and I told him that he could plan the meals this week.

 

So far we've had Orange Chicken {from the frozen section} and Taco Night. Easy meals and not as healthy as the meals I plan...but I'm not doing any work in the kitchen, so I'm fine with it!

 

I'm pretty sure come Friday night, we'll be enjoying a night out at the local Mexican restaurant.

 

 

What I'm Reading:

Too many books to name!!! And all at an 18 month reading level.

 

Kimber is really into books right now and some nights we read 10+ books!

 

 

What I'm Reminiscing about:

Valentine's Day 2014 - Kimber's first Valentine!

 

Somehow I managed to dress her in something red/pink/hearts everyday for 14 days. I look back and think what a crazy mom moment!! But she looked so adorable in all her outfits!

 

 

What I'm Looking Forward to:

Girls weekend with my college friends!!

 

The last weekend in February we're renting a cabin in Clear Lake for a girls weekend. We usually have to plan these weekends about 3-4 months ahead of time {since everyone is busy with their kids' sports} and I can't believe it's finally here!!

 

We'll be drinking a lot of wine, catching up, doing some shopping and did I mention drink wine?!?

 

 

What I'm loving:

My Hunter boots!!

 

Remember these beauties that Nick & Kimber bought me for Christmas?!?

 

 

 Unfortunately, they were too small. I searched the internet for a bigger size, but couldn't find them anywhere and finally admitted to myself last weekend that it didn't make sense to keep a pair of  boots that are too small in the box in my closet.

 

When I was returning them to the store, I tried on a pair of Hunter boots that I had been eyeing and they were perfect!! I might be even more excited about these boots since I will be able to wear them more often than heavy snow boots. I also might be deciding what other colors to buy!

 

 

What we've been up to:

Not much.

 

This winter seems to be never-ending and we've been hanging out at home all night. We get home from work, work out, cook, eat, clean up the kitchen, give Kimber a bath and hang out in the living room the rest of the night. Mostly playing legos, reading books or coloring with Kimber while watching whatever is on the TV.  I'm loving all the snuggle time, but I'm SO ready for nicer weather so we can be outside!!

 

 

 

What I'm Dreading:

Nick being gone for 5 days on a snowmobile trip.

 

I love that Nick has a hobby and great friends to go on snowmobile trips. But I'm not used to having to get myself & Kimber ready in the morning and I'm dreading it! Luckily, he'll only be gone 2 work day mornings, so I think I can handle it. And we might just stay in our jammies all day Saturday & Sunday when he's gone!

 

 

What I'm Working On:

Kimber's 2nd birthday party!! Dos Fiesta!

 

I am planning on having a Mexican themed birthday party. It'll be easy & cute - win/win. At this point, Kimber isn't really 'into' anything. She doesn't ask for a certain TV show or movie and she doesn't have a certain toy she wants to play with all the time. So I figured I can still pick her birthday party theme. I'm sure next year that will not be the case.

 

 

What I'm Excited About:

JAMAICA!!!

We leave 4 weeks from today and I am SO excited!!!

 

We went to Jamaica 8 years ago when we had only been dating a year. It was our first international trip together. Since then, we've been to Mexico and Dominican Republic several times. Punta Cana {in the DR} is my favorite place to go - we love the white sand beaches and beautiful blue water. Jamaica was our least favorite place we've visited, but we thought we'd give it another try to see if our outlook on the country changes.

 

Looking at these pictures from 8 years ago I noticed 3 things:

1. We look like babies!! So young & carefree!

2. Picture quality has come a long way in 8 years

3. I was in such better shape! I was working out 1-1.5 hours a day 5-6 days a week.

 

 

 

 

What I'm Watching:

The only show that I watch on a regular basis this season is the The Bachelor.

I don't normally watch this show, but since Chris is from Iowa and a farmer {and works for a company that is 5 miles down the road from us}, I've been watching it every week.

 

And what a crazy train it has been this season!

 

 

 

What I'm hoping for:

To be in semi-decent shape for our vacation.

 

I've been slacking in the working out department since the move. But Nick finally set up the treadmill in the basement for me and I've started the C25K program. I do cardio three times a week and a work out video/strength training two times a week. I know it's not much, but it's more than I was doing before and I hope it helps me to be more toned for our trip. But I'll still be wearing a one piece. No bikinis for me.

 

 

 

What I'm Wearing Today:

See  What I'm loving from above!

 

After I got dressed this morning, I realized I am wearing all the fads: Piko long sleeved shirt, herringbone vest, print leggings and Hunter boots. I would be wearing my plaid blanket scarf with this outfit, but I just wore them the last 2 days!

 

 

What else is new:

Decorating!!

 

We've lived in our house almost 6 months now. I can't believe it's only been 6 months...between harvest season, Nick's fall and the holidays...it seems like it's been so much longer than that! With all this going on, I haven't really been in the decorating mood. But a couple weeks ago, we were snowed in and I started unpacking boxes and I got the itch! Since then, I've had Nick hang a couple shelves in the house and I've been looking for the perfect décor! I even spent 2 wonderful hours alone wandering through Hobby Lobby on Saturday!!

 

The house was so boring! I've added items to the entertainment center, hung a large shelf on the wall behind the couch, ordered prints and family pictures,  bought area rugs and am working on finding curtains for the living room & kitchen. I can't wait for it to all come together!