Griffin's 3rd Birthday Party: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

My smallest boy is officially 3 (insert all the tears here)! It blows my mind how quickly time flies by since becoming a mommy. Although the thought of having a three year old as my baby seems unreal, I do love throwing each and every birthday party and this year was no exception! 

Griffin's adorable shirt was created by my super talented friend, Jessalyn.

When it came time to choose a birthday theme, Griffin was only interested in one option: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! The kid is obsessed! I quickly joined forces with my friend and Cupcakes and Confetti business partner, Sara, to plan the perfect party to celebrate my little man. 

As with every party I plan, I began with an Etsy search to find the perfect printable party pack. Amanda's Parties To Go is my favorite shop and always has the most perfect party printables! Her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Party pack was exactly what I was looking for. With the perfect Mickey Mouse Clubhouse character cutouts in hand, I set out to make my first DIY party decoration: 

I am thrilled with how his name turned out and I think it was the perfect project to begin my party planning. 

One focal point of a party is always the food table and it is one area that I love to plan. Themed foods with silly matching names gets me every time! Griffin's Mickey food table is definitely one of my favorites, what do you think? 

  

I had every intention of sticking with cupcakes for this party, however, when your nearly three year old specifically requests a Mickey cake you make a Mickey cake! Seeing as I am a cupcake making kind of girl, I am thrilled with how his cake turned out!

Through all of the party planning, the hardest part was keeping a pretty big secret from little man. This big secret turned out to be his favorite part of the party! Mickey is the part of the party that he is still talking about today. If you are a stranger in a store we visit he is most certainly going to tell you all about the time that Mickey came to his party! "Hey! Guess who came to my birthday party! Mickey!! He didn't have a car but he gave my a high five!" Haha!

A HUGE thank you to this girl right here for making all of Griffin's Mickey dreams come true by being the best Mickey ever!

Based on the fact that Griffin is still talking about his party to everyone he meets, I'd say it was a pretty successful party!

Now I'm off to begin planning big brother's 6th birthday party...

{Weekend Adventures} T-ball, Pool Fun and Bible School

After leaving work on Friday, I went to lunch with my 3rd grade friends. Being teacher, we don't get to eat lunch out very often so we are always excited when we can!

After lunch, I headed to daycare to surprise the boys by picking them up early. We headed home to spend a couple hours playing before I headed out to my Initial Outfitters party for the evening. 

Saturday morning was filled with the usual cleaning and t-ball game. Elijah was thrilled to receive his first trophy! He even insisted on bringing it to church the following day! 

After nearly roasting to death at the game, we raced straight to mom's house for a quick swim. We are loving that mom now has a pool for us to enjoy! The boys had a blast. We spent the rest of the afternoon napping! 

Around 4, we headed to see Brian's new store in Winston Salem. I'm sad that he is much farther away from home but I'm proud of his accomplishments with his company and know that this is just one step closer to him reaching his goal. After getting a tour of the new store, we headed to dinner. Next stop was Sams Club! We were on a mission to grab the last inflatable water slide! This is going to be a gift from multiple family members for Elijah's birthday. I think I may be as excited as he is! 

Sunday morning we headed to church as usual. We were also able to get an adorable picture of the boys and their Poppy.

After a yummy lunch at Furstys (I love the salad bar!) we headed home. The boys napped while I headed to the grocery store. Surprisingly, I enjoy my weekly solo trip to the store. Before kids I would have never said that but now I enjoy the time to myself even if it is at a grocery store! Haha!

Next on the agenda was Bible School. Elijah has attended for a couple years now and Griffin was excited that he was able to attend this year but I was rather hesitant seeing as his typical bedtime is 7:00pm and Bible School isn't over until 8:30pm. Yikes! Thankfully his first night went surprisingly well.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer where everyday is MY WEEKEND!! Wahoo!

{Weekend Adventures} Graduation and Family Fun

Whew! This weekend has left me exhausted but super excited about the fact that it is my last week of school before summer break!

Friday night was Elijah's Pre-K graduation. I was flooded with mixed emotions throughout the ceremony. I was filled with pride as I watched my little man perform the songs he had practiced so hard on, however, I was sad and in disbelief that I am the mom of a child heading to kindergarten! What?? How did this happen?

Saturday morning we woke up at 6:30am...my children didn't get the memo that is was Saturday. This is a message I intend to explain to them over summer break! We spent the morning cuddling on the couch, eating breakfast, blowing bubbles with our amazing Thomas the Train whistle bubbles and watching Elijah's t-ball game. 

After Elijah's game, we came home and let Griffin squeeze in a quick nap. Seeing as the weather was beautiful, we headed to the Keely Park Sprayground to meet my friends Christina and Dan and their sweet girl, Amelia. If you haven't been before you should definitely check it out. It's entirely FREE and super fun!

After an afternoon at the the Sprayground we were definitely hungry! Thankfully, Brian's mom invited us over for dinner. We headed straight to her house for a quick and delicious dinner. We didn't say as long as we usually do because we were on a mission to get the boys to bed on time seeing as we had a surprise in store for the following day.

Sunday morning we work up bright and early to head to Tweetsie Railroad to spend a day out with Thomas. For my two train obsessed boys, this was HUGE! They were so excited to meet Thomas and ride along an actual railroad track. We also enjoyed all of the other activities that Tweetsie has to offer. The boys especially loved the Sky Lift and Mouse Train.

We had the best weekend we have had in a while! Weekends like this make me even more excited that I am able to spend the entire summer with my family!

{Weekend Adventures} 7 Year Wedding Anniversary Trip

Brian surprised me with a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee for our anniversary! He arranged for his mom and dad to watch the boys for the weekend. This was a huge deal seeing as I've never been away from them for longer than one night. The fact that the boys are obsessed with spending time with their Nanny and Poppy made it so much easier to be away from them. 

During the four hour trip to Tennessee Brian and I discussed our plans for the weekend. He decided zip lining was the first activity on our "must do" list. I was extremely hesitant at first but so thankful I went along with the plan! Climb Works has created an amazing experience and is one Brian and I will forever remember. The course is made up of nine different zip lines, each one leading to the next. The view of the Great Smokey Mountains  is stunning! I began the experience slightly nervous and ended the experience planning our next sunset adventure! 

Next on the agenda was to tour Gatlinburg. We loved walking around town hand in hand and taking in the scenery. As if zip lining wasn't enough, we road the Sky Lift to take in another amazing view. We also used the magic of FaceTime to let Elijah and Griffin join in our adventure! 

Saturday morning we woke up to the most amazing view from our bed! I could seriously get used to this! 

After getting ready, we headed to Paula Deen's restaurant. Y'all, I can't even tell you how good the food was. It was seriously delicious! Seeing as I've been on a pretty strict diet the last couple months, I was in heaven! Haha! I love sweet tea but don't usually drink it due to the calories. Seeing as I was at Paula Deen's restaurant, I decided to splurge on it and I'm so glad I did! 

Following our yummy lunch, we decided to head to the Tanger Outlets to do some shopping and walk off some of the massive amount of food we had just eaten. These Outlets were the best I've ever been to. We walked around for hours and only went to half of the stores. I was super excited that I was able to score some great deals on new clothes that were greatly needed! 

After doing some damage to our bank account we decided to head over to Wonder Works where we laid on a bed of nails, felt hurricane force winds, found out our life expectancy, watched a magic show and much more! 

We ended the night with dinner and a game of putt-putt with beautiful mountains in the distance. 

Sunday morning Brian insisted that we head back to Paula Deen's to try out her breakfast menu. I have to say, it was even more delicius than our previous lunch. I opted out of the sweet tea this go round seeing as I was still recovering from the sugar spike the day before. 

After breakfast, we began our journey back home. We enjoyed every second of our trip and the uninterrupted time we were able to spend together will forever be treasured. I'm so looking forward to the next hundred years with this man and out little family!