Preschool Programs 2015

Preschool Program Day, for me, is like Christmas, my birthday, all of my graduations, Easter and New Years all rolled in to one. 

Not to over-exaggerate, but I LOVE them. 

I love seeing all of the children and their energy, nerves, smiles, dance moves, collaboration, pride and silliness. 

I  love seeing a year's worth of growth, learning, development and teamwork (from the teachers and the classmates) come together for a half-hour of showmanship. 

I love hearing little voices sing and shout about the world, things they know and God's love for us. 

I love it all!!

This year was epic because for the first (and only) time I got to experience this as a parent TWO DAYS IN A ROW!

Both programs were adorable and I loved every single second of the programs and art shows.

Jay's was Thursday and Lizzy's was Friday. 

Some Highlights:

1. West kids in the back row now and forevermore. I hope they like it there. 

2. I wish it was okay for Jay to wear his hat like this all the time. Its perfection. 

3. Lizzy took a bow between every song. I loved it every time. 

4. Who knew Lizzy was the tallest out of all of the twos (now threes!)? That was surprising. 

5. Lizzy's bow game was strong. I actually thought we were going "simple" for the show, turns out she had the biggest bow of the bunch.

6. I just love watching all of the kids look around and find their own people. They are all so proud.

7. I messed up (forgot to press record) for part of Lizzy's performance and missed a good 3 or 4 songs including the sweetest Jesus Loves Me I've ever heard and Wheels on the Bus. Its a bummer I cant share those here, but I have then deep in my memory bank. 

8. Everyone told me how much they enjoy watching Jay at these programs, how funny he is and how they love his expressions. I humbly agree. 

9. His teacher also told me that he did about half of the show in different, various accents and she was sitting right next to him and had to keep from laughing the whole time. 

10. They are so proud of their performances. I don't think they get it from their Dad! ;)

The fours presented a "Barn Yard" program and I knew it would be awesome the day I got the note home telling me Jay was to wear a red shirt and denim shorts to be a Farmer. Yessss!

This was our carpool selfie pre-program. The excitement was palpable!

Scroll down for some videos of Jay's show.

Lizzy's Music and Movement show was the cutest!

Lizzy was not feeling well the morning of her show, thus she was not into taking pictures at all afterwards. I loved being there with her and Dede also came to cheer her on. She loved the show but the second it was over it was like a little virus took hold for the weekend. Way to be a trooper Lizzy! "The show must go on!"

And now for your viewing enjoyment (mainly for the fam in Tennessee)....I give you the programs! Enjoy!

This one made me sad! I've loved Jay's preschool and this Goodbye really got me!

Thanks for sharing my most favorite day(s) of the year!! I really could watch these kids every week--I just adore all that they learn and love seeing them have fun together. 

Hot Dog It's Dad's Birthday

We had a fun time celebrating Joseph with family last night!

I just wanted to do something that was totally Joseph and wanted to have all of his favorite things for him. 

Hot dogs and Oreos were abundant and we had the best time. (And full tummies!!)

I ordered digital files from Lauren Haddox Designs and printed everything at Staples--super simple. My favorite part was this big poster!

I ordered cookies again from Love Handels for our #1 Dad for the occasion.

Hot dogs, chips, dips, baked beans, chocolate cake with Oreo icing, and cookies rounded out the menu. 

We had a fun night celebrating and munching on Joseph's favorites. 

Printables here: Lauren Haddox on etsy

Cookies here: LoveHandels on instagram

Easter 2015

Easter with the West kids was fun, sweet, busy and a tad bonkers this year!

We came back from the beach Friday afternoon to beat the traffic and make it home for a few egg hunts on Saturday.

Sadly, we didn't beat the traffic but the kids were awesome on our 6 hour trip home.

This was us on I-65 for almost an hour. Ignore my dusty/polleny dash. Thanks. 

Saturday morning we were up and ready for egg hunting and had a blast at church.

Seriously, Jay and Lizzy "found" a ton of eggs. Two baskets plus two filled bags.

As we left Lizzy started coming down with a virus, so the rest of her day and Easter morning mostly looked like this-

We did due eggs for the first time this year and both kids were amazed. I was amazed that we pulled it off with no cracks, spills or screams!

The Easter bunny came and did his thing- baskets, hidden eggs in the yard, and he even his our dyed eggs in the fridge! Silly wabbit.

We made Resurrection Rolls and bacon eggs and fruit for breakfast.

Jay and I went to church. If course the service was wonderful!

We came home to pick up Dad and Lizzy then off to Dede and Papa's for lunch with Joseph's family.

The kids had fun and got more goodies!

We came home candied up and tuckered out.

Although everything didn't go as planned and Lizzy was a tad under the weather we had a wonderful weekend celebrating our risen Savior!

Peppa Pig Party for Lizzy

We celebrated our favorite gal with a party featuring her favorite puddle-jumping pig!

Peppa Pig!

It seems like I'm only capable of taking party-people candids or party-prepping pics. I don't think I've ever had a party where I successfully did both.

This year, it seems like I managed the party-prepping pics.

We had a blast and celebrated with family and few friends.

It was a perfect day weather-wise and these kids played hard!

Now, if you're in need of some Peppa inspiration--here's what we did!

Patience did these invitations for me and they were outstanding!!

I'm not sure that you can tell from the photos but the cloud and sun on the outer piece were three dimensional as well as Peppa's balloon and 3 on the inside. Check out those lined envelopes!! These turned out so perfect! Thanks for a great job Patience!

Visit her etsy shop here. She can make anything you can dream up!

We kept the food limited to sweets and candy, it is Lizzy's party after all and my girl loves some cake and candy!

"Goldie" fish

Muddy Puddles

These wonderful cookies!

I really think these were the hit of the party! They were as yummy to eat as they were to look at and Audrey with LoveHandels did an AMAZING job. You can follow her on Instagram, that's how we met. Expect to see more of her creations at future West celebrations!

Granny Pig's Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made these using my all-time-favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I substituted Ghiradelli Milk Chocolate Chips this time and they were delightful!

And of course cake, cupcakes and ice cream!

For the cake, I had lots of ideas.

Here's the deal. I don't have a "cake lady" I love to use here in Birmingham. I also didn't want a generic cake from a bakery with a "Peppa-theme-but-not-actual-Peppa". And since Peppa is WAY popular in the UK and lesser known here I was sort of stuck.

I took matters into my own hands and ordered a chocolate cake from Publix and had them just base ice it in pink. I ordered this Peppa and Candy Cat set, then decorated the top of the cake myself piping grass, adding the figures and these royal icing flowers I found online (I ordered both sizes). It ended up being super east and crazy-cheap. It just required a little planning.

I made cupcakes and decorated them to match the cake and used these cupcake wrappers I ordered from Etsy that matched my preppy pink gingham I'd envisioned and had them printed at Staples. Again, perfect look, super easy, crazy-cheap, just a little planning.

For the rest of the decor I ordered these Peppa Pig balloons from Amazon, this Peppa Pig birthday banner and these round Peppa Pig cupcake circles (I cut these out and attached them to goodie bags for pinata loot).

We had punch, a pinata and presents and all of the kids played and played.

There we have it! I rented the blue linens and made the table runners. (Spoiler alert: expect to see some hot pink gingham at future holidays and parties! I love them!)

Such a fun  pretty pink preppy Peppa Pig party for our favorite gal!!!