Happy 2nd Birthday Party, Cohen

This two year old is a happy awesome little guy today. 

His party was today celebrating with his 8 year old cousin who shares the same birthday. Next Thursday they will be 2 years old and 8 years old. 

Today was the big day for double the fun, double the guests, double the gifts, double everything with a monster truck party.  

Food, cakes, gifts, and swimming for the two of them. 

Happy Birthday Big Boy Cohen!

Gin

Birthday Treats

Being the wife, momma, and mawmaw of the brood I make sure birthdays are highlighted, acknowledged, celebrated, and special. I actually want to celebrate everyones birthday exactly the same way every month.  The birthday party for June and July birthday's were for Jennifer, Cohen and Brynlee's actual birth-day being a newborn. The day ended with a bang with fireworks for the 4th.

We first met for a birthday dinner. The waitresses sang the Happy  Birthday restaurant song and both honorees were given their own little Mexican desert. The baby slept and didn't participate much. 

Cohen liked the attention of them singing  to him and he thanked them for his own special birthday dessert. Jennifer was embarrassed with the attention, but didnt mind eating her own special birthday dessert from them. 

Towards the end I excused myself to the restroom and snapped a few pictures of the group as they were packing up. 

Then cake and gifts. 

The real party for Cohen's 2nd birthday is in a few weeks. But there is something in me that has to give a party anyway no matter how many more Bday parties they may have.  Jennifer's real bday was in June. But I am a month late with her

Also July is my dad's birthday month.  Wish he was here for his birthday party, he passed away over a year ago. But I will be thinking of him and acknowledging him in some way.

Happy Birthday!! 

Gin

Fun 4th

I had bought some cute patriotic decorations to have a little party.

Red, white and blue paper light lanterns were hung across the porch.  

A flag I keep hung inside the closet under  the stairs was brought out and put at the door steps. 

Patriotic fabric I had in my stash was wrapped over the porch rocker cushions. 

And a little BBQ, salad, beans, grilled corn on the cob, brownies and watermelon was a table decoration in itself. 

Only things missing were a few people and pictures of my decor.  

But I do have a few pictures to show. 

The little ones swinging on the swing.  

We pushed them high. It tickles your tummy, you know. 

Higher and higher. 

And we threw in the sleeping baby for just a second to get them all in their red white and blue.

May God Bless the USA everyday including July 4th. 

New Arrival

Baby grand #3 arrived 10 days ago, June 4. We're thankful for a healthy bouncing baby girl weighing in at 6 lbs 25 oz 20 1/2 inches at 12:44 am via emergency c-section. Her name is Brynlee Rae.

We made it to the hospital to keep big sister and wait in the waiting room. We looked at all the magazines, ate Zoo Cookies and water from the vending machines, and showed a few acrobatic skills. Big sister stayed up the entire time until we left at 2am decked out in her pjs.

She wasn't fussy at all and never showed any signs of sleepiness. 

We had one section of the waiting room to ourselves and had enough space to run around to pass the time. 

The magazine scene before they kinda got torn up. 

Baby and mom doing well and get to come home in a few days.

While I get to keep big sister all to myself for a few days. 

So since this post is about the new arrival , I must add one more picture of her. 

Gin

Merry Month of May

May has slipped by and a few happenings were left out of my documentation of life.

Birthday bash for Brandon:

An adult child in the family had a birthday. This made 34 birthdays in his lifetime. We celebrated well with a little oooing & ahhhhing over his life achievements with food, cake, and gifts. 

Happy Birthday.

(That makes mom seem old. But I am only as old as I feel. And I don't feel old at all.)

New house for Trent:

Another adult child in the family bought a new house. We helped him move in and set up housekeeping.  This is the model home. His is similar. 

Of course I babysat:

For my own remenescing, I have some little ones picture of our play date. 

I call them my AR (Accelerated Readers). FYI: AR is a school implemented reading program which my kids were in in their elementary days; and it's still a part of the classroom today. I'm starting these two out early. 

Enjoying snack time.

And primping in the mirror.

And the next two pictures. 

And taking care of stuff going on that one does just because it comes up and needs ones' attention. 

Gin 

Weekend Show

I attended the state level Our Little Miss an hour and a half away. Even tho you may not be into pageants, keep reading and get a glimpse inside a full scheduled pageant. 

The pageant was well organized and we were told when to do what, where to do it, what to wear, when to leave, when to return.  So yes, we weren't in control of most of our time. 

Some was at the hotel ball room. Most was at the Strand Theater, an old style theater in the downtown area that had been restored and made the whole experience really nice. 

The theater stage was set with bright lights and filled for two days and nights with beautiful young ladies from 0-19.

1st event was "upclose appraisal" for baby division by judges at the hotel ball room. Jennifer said Brooklyn was fussy, so that didnt go well.

2nd event was talent at the theater.  0-2 years old and 3-6 years old was not mandatory to do talent, but they encouraged it. They want to see every inch of character in each contestant. So this was an optional event for her age group. And mandatory event for all contestants 7 years old and above. So I came up with the idea for her to go on stage with a tiny picture book she has, and to "read" the book with a microphone.  It went really good. Jenfr walked her on stage, Brooklyn carrying one of her stuffed animals and her book. They handed Jenfr the microphone. The first 3 pages went real cute -- "fish" "dog" "cat" -- she said them nice and crisp and plain in the microphone . Then Brooklyn took the microphone from Jenfr and banged it on the floor 3 times.  (You know how a microphone sounds when you do that?)

Jenfr calmly took the microphone and turned to the emcee and she came to the rescue and graciously thanked her for her performance and ended her talent. The rest of the night between events going on and trips to the restroom people would stop Jenfr and comment on how cute her talent was and how her words were clear and crisp in the microphone. One lady said she wished she could have finished reading her book for them . One 10 year old boy who was seated in front of us with his family said he liked her talent especially when she banged the microphone on the floor and then he laughed. She definitely left an impression.

3rd event was the theme party "UnderThe Sea", at the theater. Attire had to be a theme-wear. So she wore her bubble guppies suit from the prelimanary pageant in BR. 

There was mingling on stage, then costume parade and two winners, 1 from 0-6 years old and one from 7-16 years old. 

There was movie time in the theater, showing The Little Mermaid on the big screen. Free drink and popcorn was a treat for everyone with a $5 admission for all. 

4th part was sportswear. Mandatory for all ages.  She wore the sailor suit. The sewing of it is posted a few posts down. 

5th part was beauty dress wear.  She smiled a few times, waved once, and kept her tongue out the rest of the time.
Told her mother "no" on stage in the lineup with her age group when Jenfr tried to move her hand out of her mouth.

We weren't allowed  to take pictures. But I took a few anyway, just like everyone else was doing. 

The final results::::
For photos she submitted she got 4 medals for different categories.

For talent she got overall optional talent in 0-6 years old combined division. The other little girls in that division either sang or did a little ballet dance routine. She got a trophy, a banner, and a crown for talent winner.

She got prettiest eyes in 0-2 years old and got a trophy.

And for the actual beauty dress pageant division she got Baby Personality Plus. Receiving a crown, a large trophy, and a banner.  

So no official queen title. Would have been nice to get queen. But queen has to go to nationals in Miami in July. And Jenfr couldn't go with new baby plus she didn't want to go to Miami.  If you got state queen and not participate in nationals in Miami, they take your title away and give it to the next runner up, and on down the line till one participates in the nationals. 

No queens crown but she came home with 3 trophies, 2 crowns, 2 banners, and 4 medals.  

The hotel had the hot courtesy continental breakfast. We had sandwich fixings in our room for lunch to have between the pageant schedule so Brooklyn could have naptime. And dinner was with the pageant one nite at the hotel.  

I think that about covers the details. 

It was an amazing and fun weekend. 

T-ball

We have a ball player already. 

Cohen caught on real quick what to do with the t-ball set. And he wouldn't let you help him at all. 

  

Great eye contact and a hit every time.

He was the batter every time. I was the catcher and fielder every time. A lot of work for me. 

He has a good arm there too. 

I'll be finding myself on the ball field in about 3 years. 

Yayy!!

Remember back here and here when I said I think this is a winner? Well, I was right. It had to win. It was so dog gone cute.

For favorite under the sea character we choose Bubble Guppies. This is the outfit when it was completed. You can read about how it was made and came together  here.

                                                   

For beauty dress we choose to make a blue/white baby doll. You can read about making  it here.

                                                   

This pageant was a local preliminary for LA Our Little Miss. First a theme wear of favorite under the sea character. Then the beauty dress part.

Bubble Guppies put a different spin on under the sea besides all the Ariel and Nemo stuff.  A lot of the older little girls would come up and say "ohhh look, bubble guppies." It was a hit with the other contestants and with the judges, too. Brooklyn got top winner in her age group for the theme wear competing with 12 others in the 12-23 month division. She sported a small crown during awards in this segment for her winning.

A few minor adjustments were made to the outfit before pageant day since I posted the Bubble Guppies project. The two gold ruffles on the top were really too big for such a small body. So I turned the ruffles half down and hand stitched them to make it more appropriate and it was just perfect.

The beauty dress was also a hit with the judges and with the pageant director. Not only did the dress give us a winner but our little contestant did nothing wrong.  First time ever she did so good.

 So the dress and her performance put her as Official Winner in her age division and she donned her crown, banner, and trophy. And she received award for best dress.

A few last minute adjustments were also made to this dress before pageant day. The mom thought the skirt was too full. It had 5 layers. She thought a few layers removed would be better. She was right. Two layers were removed and then I made shoulder straps instead of v-neck halter type straps. Then I shortened the ruffle around the top bodice. All the changes fell right into place and was just what was needed.

Yayyy!!! Brooklyn!!!

The 70's Today

Miss Heart of the USA is a local, state, and national level scholarship pageant that we participated in at the local level last weekend. It's primary focus is for food drives for communities for the participants to give back to their community. 

You can read about this great organization athttp://www.missheartoftheusa.com/

Of course with Brooklyn being only 1 and 1/2 years old, we made it a family affair recruiting sisters and aunts and uncles in collecting. Although We didnt collect the most foods to win that Category, we did collect our fair share. 

The theme this year is the 70's and outfit was to dress in 70's theme wear. I didn't make This outfit. I kinda went creatively blank on this one.  So it was ordered from a fb page pageant designer/

seamstress online at "Sweeter Than Candy Pageant Wear".

And here she is.  Can you say so cute?

Just adorable. Some one said a Jane Fonda look. What about those boots!

Made from sparkly stretchy fabric that is worn over the shoes. 

And she did great on stage too (with her preggo mommy). Her scores were all 10's and 9's in a group of 10 in her division. 

A little winner with 1st runner up, best fashion, and prettiest eyes. 

And of course we don't always win or always place.  But it's always an experience and always fun.