Vintage Train Birthday Party

Landon turned two on June 30! We had his birthday party a few weeks before the actual date so we could celebrate in Wichita before moving to Arkansas. Since we sold our house and closed at the end of May, and thus were living in an extended living apartment, we decided to have the party at a park in town. It worked out great! I found out one of the parks in town had a vintage train that was refurbished and used to take a 15 minute ride around the property. So we decided a train theme would be perfect!

Since we were in the midst of moving, we did super simple decorations and food. I bought a cake ($14!) and food trays from Sam's Club and made a couple fruit and vegetable trays myself. I love having Sam's make cakes for parties. I think they are so good and moist and honestly taste as good as a fancy bakery cake. I usually have them do just a basic round cake with "fancy" frosting style and just put a cake topper on top. I did the same thing for this baby shower!

I had Joe dig my old vintage suitcases out of our storage unit to sit the cake on. I loved how it turned out! I had the old glass cake stand from an estate sale. For the top of the cake I got a $1 wooden "2" from Hobby Lobby and glued some denim-printed paper to the front. My mom dug up an antique train pencil sharpener to sit with it.

I got three wooden trains from Hobby Lobby to sit with the food. The "silver" food platters are from the Dollar Tree!

 

In another old suitcase I served the plates and bowls (from Hobby Lobby and Dollar Tree respectively), silverware wrapped with a napkin and a piece of colored twine and tickets for the train ride. We also handed out red bandanas for all the guests to wear! 

 

And no party is complete without balloons ;-). I made a banner from a chipboard pennant kit from Hobby Lobby - I just glued letters to the front. 

 Our families and friends gave Landon so many cute gifts!

I always get emotional when I hear people singing Happy Birthday to my baby :)

I don't think he liked the cake one bit. Hah!

The very last thing we did was get everyone on the train for a ride! It was a big hit! We had such a fun time celebrating our little man being TWO!

Jill's Baby Shower

Last weekend I was so excited to host a baby shower for my good friend Jill. We did our engineering degrees together at OU and she is such a sweet friend of mine! She has had a really inspirational story of getting pregnant and her baby boy is such a miracle. I was happy to celebrate them both!!

I decided to do a Peter Rabbit theme but ended up not incorporating as much rabbit things as I would have liked (simply because we are living out of suitcases right now!). But I thought it turned out cute anyway!

I made a pennant from a kit I found at Hobby Lobby. We glued "rabbit tails" (cottonballs) to the bottom. 

I got glass vases from the Dollar Tree and added fresh flowers and baby carrots to the bottom for centerpieces.

I thought it would be more fun to have homemade pies than cake! It was a hit!

We thought of such a cute, simple game to play. We had the moms from both sides send us little stories from when Jill and her husband were kids. We edited them so they were non-descriptive and printed them out into little strips. I had Danielle, Jill's sister, read them and the guests voted who they thought each story was about. Some of them were so funny!!

"Voting paddles" I made with cardboard and large popsicle sticks. One side said Jill and the other side was for her husband.

Instead of a guest book I just got note cards, twine and mini clothespins from Hobby Lobby and had guests write notes of love and advice on them.

I love this picture of Jill! She got so many great gifts!

 

I had so much fun celebrating with you Jill!

One Night Chef

At the very end of November I hosted our annual (and last!!) residency class Christmas and we did something very different and neat this year!! We have a local chef (engineer by day!) who does private parties to collect donations to send to his home of Nepal. He has a special school he supports there. He charges $25/plate to cook and serve a 3-course meal and then any tips above that are sent to support his efforts in Nepal. I love this idea! You can tell he has such a passion for his work and I was so inspired by him!

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited that I didn't have to worry about preparing the meal for everyone myself. Hah! The whole idea was my friend Trish's and I'm so glad she encouraged us to go this route as a class to celebrate Christmas and support this charity!

Surya came to my house with a huge load of groceries to start cooking about four hours before the party started. He also brought reinforcements! These two sweet girls helped him cook and serve :)

I was so amazed at all the action going on in my kitchen!!

We all sat down to eat and Surya did a nice little introduction to each of the courses and also at the end he talked about his charity work.

Our first course was a sweet potato soup served in a pumpkin. I am sure that I've never had the wherewithal to serve anything from the inside of a pumpkin. It was one of the best soups I've ever had in my entire life and I am not just saying that!! I didn't even get a picture of it on my plate. Yes. That good!

Then he served us shrimp fettuccine. I loved how he really decorated the plates! It was so full of flavor!! I think if I won the lottery I would just hire Surya to move in with us. Hah!!

For dessert we had (I wish I could remember the actual name) but it was an ethnic banana kind of like a plantain with ice cream and a cinnamon stick. I was just amazed!

Here is our whole group! I care so much for everyone at the table! We have become such a great family during this journey of residency!!! Such a fun night! :)

Paris Baby Shower

My friend Kelly Jo is expecting a baby later this month! I hosted a baby shower for her a few weeks ago and I had so much fun planning a way to celebrate her new little girl! I thought a Paris theme would be cute (and we kind of combined it into our book club and read The Paris Wife).

Here is the table set up! I ordered a cake from Sam's Club and I am serious when I tell you they have the best cakes!! I found this Eiffel Tower sculpture at Hobby Lobby and just sat it down right on the top. I got some baby's breath and carnations for the table and added a few framed "Paris things" like a little vintage print and a picture of Mona Lisa I converted to black and white. I made a pink glitter "M" for her little girl's name :)

For dinner I sat up a grilled cheese bar and asked all the girls to bring their favorite kind of cheese. I cut up French baguette bread and buttered my griddle and let people assemble their sandwiches themselves. We are talking super easy!! We had so much fun with it!!

Kelly Jo got so many cute gifts. She is just one of those people who is so full of energy and has so much charisma and I love her! I bet her little gal will be just like her :))

Congratulations KJ! I absolutely can't wait to meet sweet M!!!! :)