Essie's family Birthday Party!

We decided to do a low-key family gathering for Essie's real birthday. Both sets of grandparents and her cousin Haley came over to celebrate. We ordered pizza and Nana made an adorable Cookie Monster Cake. We forgot to buy candles for her cake so she blew out two pillar candles! She loved it and kept asking us for "more" so we did it three times! She opened gifts and her favorite hands down were some Disney Princess figurine sets. Meemaw made her a beautiful princess quilt for her new bedroom and her peepaw made her an amazing princess tower shelf for her new dolls. She loved opening gifts so much that she shreiked and screamed and said "OH MY" at each present!

24 MONTHS...TWO YEARS OLD!

Essie Claire HOW did this happen? I swear I was just planning your FIRST birthday...how can I be planning your second already? Here is what is up in your TWO year old world right now!

• You are full of personality! You make us laugh so hard every single day. You say the funnies things and I cannot get enough of you.
• You are all about Princesses right now. You play with princess dolls, watch princess movies, wear princess clothes, and sing princess songs! We recently bought you the Tangled soundtrack that you demand we listen to in the car. You sing at the top of your lungs and we love it!
• You also are full of two year old tantrums. If you get mad you lick (bite), throw things, and lay in the floor. You can go from sweet and lovable to full tantrum in no time flat!
• You are beginning to have an opinion on what you wear, what you eat, where you go, etc.
• You can count to 11 but always leave out #8.
• You can tell your age but sometimes you fib and say you are 4 or 5.
• You love to have your fingernails/toenails painted!
• You can say your whole name. Essie Claire HouSH.
• I love to hear you say "waffle".
• You love to eat "nunnies" from McDonalds. You eat them so fast I have to stick them into the vents of the car to cool them quickly.
• I have NO idea what you weigh or how tall you are. You have your 2 year old checkup on Monday so I will update then!
• You are the light of our lives and we cannot get enough of your wittiness! We love you soooo much!

last day as a ONE year old!

Well today was Essie's last day as a ONE year old! I cannot believe my baby is going to be TWO tomorrow! She insisted on wearing Minnie Mouse from head to toe but trying to get a picture was insanely difficult!

I had a a hair appointment today so Essie had a playdate at her friend Carly's house. She had a blast! They played so well together! 

We have a full day of birthday activities planned for tomorrow! Whoohoo!

Casualty & a Princess

So the first thing I decided I wanted to make for Essie's Sesame party was Oscar's DirtCake. I decided to make Oreo ball Oscars to put into each individual dirtcake cup as well.  Yesterday I decided to go ahead and make them to ge them out of the way. It would be something easy and quick...no biggie. I've made thousands of oreo balls/pops.  Hobby Lobby was out of green candy melts so I knew I was going to have to dye my white ones. I researched it online and decided it would be best to use my gel/paste dye.  I made the oreo balls, dipped oreo cookies into gray chocolate (made from mixing some white/black melts) to make Oscar's trash can hat, popped them into the freezer so I could make my green chocolate. I melted it and added a small amount of green and the whole thing clumped and hardened as if I had added water! I freaked. I had everything else made so I decided to call around to see if I could find the green melts anywhere. Thankfully the local cake store had some so Essie and I drove all the way across town to get them. I left the balls and "hats" in the freeze while I was gone. Since I knew they would expand as they warmed up I took them out of the freezer and let them warm up before dipping. I dipped them, attached the hats, and let them harden. I made royal icing to add Oscar's lil sweet face.  After they had hardened I piped on his eyes, mouth, and furry eyebrows. I let that dry and when I went to check on it found that each one had cracked/and popped. Oscar's face has slid off of many of them. Ugh. I spent over 4 hours on these guys so they will be used at her party! It's a good thing Oscar's not  a handsome fella anyway!

And just because I thought these were cute...

sleeping beauty (well Belle) and party prep!

I found this cute Belle shirt at KMart on 50% off. Essie looooooves it and I can tell she feels like a true princess in it.  After her nap she was so giggly and smiley. Then she got wild and started pulling the cushions off the couch so she could jump/roll around.

There are only 3 days til her birthday! We are having an informal family gathering at our house on her actual birthday night. We are going to order pizza and just hang out. I did decorate the house just a smidge. I couldn't resist. My friend Amy gave me leftover decorations from her lil one's party so I used them at our house. 

I've set our office up as party central for all the goodies for her big party! Her party is only 4 days away and we have a lot to get done and lots of cooking to do.

 I worked on one of her goodies for 4 hours today for it only to turn into a party-tastrophe. I will post pics of my disaster tomorrow...so sad.

Happy 4th of July!

After spending a long weekend in Batesville with my parents we decided to come home today and get a few things done for Essie's birthday and spend the 4th as our lil family. We enjoyed just a few pop-pops and Essie was determined on eating "pop pop" while she watched them! She liked them but the really loud ones scared her somewhat.  You can also see her new "boo-boo's". She fell and skinned her knees and toes up today. :(