A super Super Mario Birthday Party!

This past weekend we celebrated Gehrig's 5th birthday with a party with his preschool friends!

Here is the invitation that we sent out. Since Gehrig was Mario for Halloween, I included a picture of him in his costume on the invitation that I made on my computer. Due to the large number of invitees, we decided to hold the party in our neighborhood community center. The decor was a little outdated, so the cloud balloons were the perfect decoration to draw the eye away from the drab curtains and couches.

As each guest walked in, they found this table with these reversable Mario/Luigi hats that my mother-in-law and I made using a tutorial I found on coolpartyblog.com. To complete the look, I made chocolate mustaches. At the end of the table was a mirror, so they could each admire their "new look" before devouring their delicious stache!Don't these look just like Mario and Luigi's mustaches????Of course, I tried to snap a picture of each of them. Here is the birthday boy! And here is a little montage of the little Marios and Luigi's proudly sporting their hats and chocolate mustaches!

The community center had a gaming room, so we had the Wii set up and the guests played, what else, Super Mario Brothers and other Mario Wii games!

We only played one game, but the Yoshi Egg Smash was a success. I also got the idea for this game from coolpartyblog.com. Each egg was filled with confetti. Two "special eggs" also contained gold stars.
The guests took turns throwing their egg at this Yoshi poster, smashing them opening to see if their egg held the gold star. If so, they were the winner!!! The two winners won a Wii remote filled with candy. Unfortunantly, I didnt get an pictures of the kids playing the game.

I really, really wanted to make Gehrig's cake, but never, ever having worked with fondant before, I was very intimidated. So, I cheated (a little). I ordered a two-tiered cake from Mary Newell of Sweet Cakes that was merely covered in blue fondant, and I did the rest. Here is what it looked like when I picked it up.

I made the fondant from scratch and colored it myself using this tutorial/recipe. I ordered the Mario character figures on-line. And here is how it turned out!

He looked like he loved his cake, so I was thrilled! As each guest left, Gehrig gave them a Yoshi favor bag and thanked them for coming to his party! I made the Yoshi favor bags using this tutorial from coolpartyblog.com. Yes, I used this site a lot!!!! Each bag had a favor tag that read, "Thank you for making my birthday so special."

I filled the Yoshi favor bags with these adorable personalized chocolates. I purchased the choclate wrappers from E-bay seller Linda Carlton of My Treasures Today. The wrappers had various Mario images on the front and a personalized message on the back that read "Happy 5th Birthday, Gehrig!" They were super easy to wrap around the Hershey Miiniatures. I also found these Mario Kart candy dispenser for the favor bags.

And how cool are these Mario band-aids for the favor bags?????

All in all, I would say that it was a pretty succesful party. The guests and the birthday boy had a great time. So hard to believe that my little man is 5 years old already!!!

Now onto planning his little brother's Doggie Birthday Party!

Grandma Joan and Grandpa Dub Visit!!!

We were so excited to have Grandma Joan and Grandpa Dub come for a visit. As usual, they came bearing gifts. Both Gehrig and Colin LOVED their Lego sets! They arrived on Valentine's Day, so we took them to one of our favorite restaurants here in Clovis, Shogun. Colin gave us a lesson on how to use chop sticks!
Chop! Chop!

I sure hope that Joan comes back. We put her to work baking, baby sitting, making reversable Mario/Luigi hats and painting. She helped me paint Gehrig's entire room cream and then we added the red stripes to one wall (so far). Eventually this will look like baseball stitching.

We did't get to see too much of Dub because he was visiting schoosl in the area, but when he came back, he of course brought more loot. I know that he and Grandma Joan had such a great time picking out all this T-ball "gear" for Gehrig. Colin loved his Legos truck and Astros jersey.

Inside his bat bag was a bat, some baseballs, two pair of baseball pants, two batting gloves, two Under Armor shirts, socks, a belt and cleats....I think I got it all! Let's just say that he is beyond ready for T-ball.

Colin of course had to pose with his little plastic bat (and no pants).

Doesn't he look like a real ball player?????

We were so sad to see them head home, but we are looking forward to their return in April for Opening Day and Colin's 2nd birthday party. And we are really hoping that Chris gets his leave approved so that we can meet up with them in Phoenix to watch Uncle Gabe's spring training next month!!!

Today Has Been Brought to you by the Number 5!!!!

Happy 5th birthday to my little boy, Gehrig. What a joy and blessing these past five years have been with you as my little boy. You will always have a special place in my heart! After all, you were the one who first made me a mamma; the one thing that I have always wanted to be ever since I was a little girl. I sincerely feel like that is my true calling from God! I love you to peanuts, Gehrig Bug!

For his birthday, mommy and daddy got Gehrig his own set of left-handed golf clubs. We gave them to him a day early to that he could go to the driving range with daddy!

Here is Gehrig before school on his birthday. He was so excited to show Grandma Joan around his new school and classroom. Unfortunantly, halfway through the school day, the school nurse called and told me that he need to be picked up because he had a croup-like cough and a fever. Poor kid had to come home early and didnt get to pass out his birthday cup cakes to his classmate. Maybe we can try again when he is healthy! After being picked up from school, putting on his jammies, taking some medicine and a "steam," Gehrig open some presents from family memebers.

He loved his Mario backpack and lunch box from Grandma Carole and Grandpa Jerry. He loved the books and kite too, but I didnt take a picture of that.

He also loved his new air hockey table from Grandma Joan and Grandpa Dub! Colin loves it too!

He had pizza for dinner on the "You are Special Today Plate."

One more package arrived later, and he just had to test it out...sorry so dark, but he loved the Three Strike Baseball gift you sent, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Goose!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!

from my two sweethearts!!!

My sweet Valentine, Gehrig! My sweet Valentine, Colin! I made their shirts using an tutorial from a hilarious blog that I have recently found called Crap I've Made! Such a fabulous site!
I made hand-dipped fortune cookies for Gehrig's teachers for Valentine's Day. I got the cute idea and the free download from No Fuss Fabulous.

YUM!

My sweet friend, Lisa, helped me change the gift card!

Of course I made some for my new friends that I have met here in Clovis, too! I am so blessed to have met so many wonderful ladies here!One quick picture before school. We were all so excited for his Valentine's Day party at school in the afternoon!

I brought cupcakes to his party. I have been wanting to try cupcake wrappers and toppers, and I figured a perfect time for a first try was for preschoolers...a less discerning audience! This pattern I downloaded from Skip to My Lou. She will send them to anyone who donates to the relief efforts in Haiti with her "Love for Haiti" program. Wonderful idea!!!!

I thought that they turned out so cute, "all dressed up!" At school, the kids decorated bags to hold the Valentines that they exchanged during their party. Gehrig and Shaylee showing off their bags!

Colin seriously thinks that he is apart of the preschool class. He just walks right in and sits right down and starts interacting with all of the kids. Funny boy!

Colin LOVED his cupcake!

Gehrig and his precious preschool class with thie teacher, Ms. Cato!

Bible Verse Friday

This week's Bible verse is Psalms 56:3!