Jessi Rose

Diego Birthday Party -5

J is 5 now and loves Diego. I tried my best to transform the living room into a jungle with twisted crepe paper vines, poster board and balloon trees, and stuffed jungle animals all around. I try to decorate while he is not around so that when he enters the room he has a big surprise, I just love seeing him when he enters the party room. I also set out his Diego books and toys for the kids to enjoy.

We had rainforest kabobs with fruit, yogurt, and coconut.

He just loved his Transformers that he got from his dad.

I made a 9×11 sheet cake and decorated it with his Diego toys. I frosted the cake with chocolate frosting then added some green vines to it. I tried to make trees with Pirouette Wafers and marshmallow on top. I covered the marshmallows with green frosting. I put blue frosting in the middle for a river and placed candy rocks along the river bank.

We had a treasure hunt too. I placed the clues on his animals, each clue had animal facts about the next animal. The hunt finally ended in a hidden door that I cut from the bottom of one the fake tree trunks that I had made out of poster board. The kids all loved this!

Happy Birthday to my animal lover!

Be sure to check out my other kids party themes: Farm Birthday Party , Blues Clues Party, Bob the Builder Party and Backyardigans Party.

Halloween Bonfire

We decided to have a bonfire for Halloween this year. First we went to a nearby pick-your-own pumpkin patch to choose two big pumpkins. We rode in a wagon pulled by a tractor to the pumpkin patch. After choosing our two pumpkins we placed them in the wagon with T and pulled them to the car so we could take them home and carve them.

My husband and I decided to try more difficult designs this year. We each choose our design and dug in, the carving defiantly took longer than our usual triangle eyes and toothy smile jack-o-lanterns. In the end we were very pleased with our work.

We roasted hot dogs for dinner, and had soda for drinks.

We roasted smores for dessert and had homemade caramel apples and candy corn too.

The kids loved it and we all had a great time!

9 Months Pregnant

I am expecting my second baby boy in less than a month. We are so excited, and J can hardly wait to meet his new baby brother! He has been praying for a baby brother for a year now.

I like to use the blocks in my maternity photography session. I am very fond of my Canon DSLR digital camera, I use it for photography sessions as well as in everyday life.

Gingerbread House Tradition

My sister and I used to make gingerbread houses on Thanksgiving when we were younger, so I decided to start this tradition with my son.

We made gingerbread houses with his cousin on Thanksgiving Day! We used royal icing with a Mini Gingerbread House kit. Added all kinds of colorful Christmas candies and candy canes!

Backyardigans Party -4

J loves to watch The Backyardigans and play dress up. I had a mirror set up low for the kids with a basket full of fun hats for them to try on and see themselves. We played The Backyardigans theme song and the kids danced with their hats on. J also loves music right now. We decorated with our usually crepe paper and balloons around the room.

For the cake I made a 9×11 sheet cake covered in green frosting. I found a Pablo candle and then placed some of his Backyardigans toys on the top. I tried to make green trees from buttercream along the edges. I made the sand box with licorice and brown sugar. I formed a shovel and pail out of Starburst candies. I made the picnic table out of wafer cookies and stuck a mini umbrella in it.

Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 cup Crisco
4 cups powdered sugar (2 lbs)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon milk (if thick)

Directions:

Cream together the butter and Crisco with a mixer.
Slowly add in 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time.
Add the vanilla, if it seems too thick you can add a bit of milk.

J really wanted a piñata this year so I found this Pablo one. We only had a few cousins at the party so I didn’t need much candy/toys.

He got some dinos, trains, and a toy bow and arrow (his favorite) this year.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Boy, I love you so!

Be sure to check out my other kids party themes: Farm Birthday Party , Blues Clues Party and Bob the Builder Party.

First Vegetable Garden

I love gardening! We got to plant a cute little vegetable garden this year. It was such a great learning experience for J as well, he loved it too!

Planting

We planted in early May!

Lettuce Harvest

Our garden is doing great this Summer. Our lettuce is ready in June.

Tomato Harvest

It’s July and our tomatoes are gigantic!

Cantaloupe Harvest

August harvest is cantaloupe… J’s favorite!

Watermelon Harvest

Our watermelons took the longest… but here in September they are finally ready!

We loved having a garden this summer!

Independence Day Party

We decided to have an Independence Day party. We had family over for grilling and fireworks. J had so much fun celebrating the 4th of July with us. It was his first time experiencing firework. We were glad to finally have fireworks here, we used to do bigger fireworks when we lived in MT, so this was fun!

We grilled hot dogs and corn. We also had watermelon wedges.

We played badminton while it was still light out, then we tried it with smoke bombs after dark.

Sparklers and smoke bombs were a favorite for the kids.

Preschool Christmas Portraits

J is 3 years old this Christmas. We put up 2 tiny trees for him to help. He loves learning about Christmas and reading with Mommy!

Christmas Pajamas

Christmas Outfit

Black Suit

Christmas Sweater

I will use these photos in my Christmas cards that I send to friends and family this year. Be sure to check out my Baby Christmas Portraits post and Toddler Christmas Portraits.

Bob the Builder Party -3

J had a 3rd birthday party with his cousin whose turning 2. They are only 11 months apart so we decided to have a party together since their birthdays are just 3 weeks apart. We decided to have a Bob the Builder party since they both like it. We made a balloon bouquet for each of the boys and crepe paper round the room. I put out all his Bob the Builder toys and books for the kids to play with for the party.

We made pizza bagels for lunch and had chips, salad and soda with them. I found some small orange soccer cones to put on the table for decorations.

J loves playing dress up now. He got some cowboy dress ups and some pirate dress ups too.

I got some orange construction cones and made some construction looking signs from cardboard and yard sticks. Each boy had a sign that says how old they are and a sign that says their names. I also made a gift box for each boy with Bob the Builder on the front.

We set out their baby books for family to enjoy!

I made a 9×11 sheet cake with some Bob the Builder toys on top. I had a number 2 and 3 candle and a little construction sign that said, “Happy Birthday.” I made a road and dirt pile out of crushed cookies and I added whole chocolate graham cookies for the finished part of the road.

Be sure to check out my other kids party themes: Farm Birthday Party and Blues Clues Party.

Preschool Clown Shapes

He painted a different color each day and I cut them into shapes. He LOVES painting! I wrote the name of the shape on each one and then I placed the shapes on the wall with a clown juggling them.