happy {awesome} birthday

aside from the fact that i haven't blogged in nearly 3 weeks (perhaps my longest absence ever - yikes), we celebrated rowan's 4th with a clan of cute friends, ice cream cone cupcakes (best idea ever) and punch prizes (tied for first in the best idea category).
it might just be my favorite party ever because rowan loved it so very much. i started making decorations (sewing card stock circles in long strings) and hanging them the week before the party. each morning, rowan would come downstairs and squeal with delight to see a new string hanging on the wall. in fact, a week later, our house is still covered in wall circles. i'm not sure if i'll ever take them down because they make every morning feel happier...and i love happy mornings. :)

 hands down, these pedestals were my favorite project of late. they have been on my pinterest board for a while and my lack of decor items motivated me to give them a whirl. if only i can find a reason to use them everyday...i'm so crazy in love with the final result!

{the before}

$6 of goodwill glassware...see those .49 cent stickers? i call that gold, my friends. gold.

most tutorials say to use crazy awesome craft glue...but since i made these the day before the party (procrastinate much?) my hot glue gun worked just fine.

 joanns had a 6 for $1 sale on double sided cardstock last week...so every wall of my house is strung with dots...and it cost me $1. awesome!!
and a marble in each balloon made them perfectly inverted.

{punch prizes}

another pintest pin that's been burning up my boards. and after 2 rolls of packing tape and nearly all of my sanity, it was a huge hit. rowan still talks about it and foster dreams of making one for every birthday for the rest of our lives.

i might take a year or two to recover, and then pull out one of these again.

 

{games}

i went all hollie homemaker on games. i had a glue glun. popsicle sticks and clothes pins. i knew there had to be something i could make for free using those items.

oh and straws. good gracious we have a lot of straws.

pinterest and i found these:

coolest paper airplanes ever!!!

if you do nothing else, make these tomorrow...they are incredible!!!

 paint chip puzzles:

balloon paddles 

our house is SMALL.

for 3 kids, its perfect.

for 15 kids??? umm, it's a bit more like partially controlled wild chaos.

see little lady? right in the center of the wild crazies. crazy girl :)

made these but never got around to pulling them out...but emery is now in love with them.

puzzles and pictures. two of her most favorite things.

{cupcakes in ice cream cones}

i will totally be making these cupcake/ice cream cones again. and not just for a birthday party...oh no...i think these would work great for a monday. or sunday afternoon. or for no reason at all. needless to say there weren't any leftovers.

to stage right, a certain young birthday boy is screaming and refusing to be a part of said cupcake/ice cream cone photo. awesome.

in fact, i hardly have a single un-blurry photo of my guy on his special day.

save for this one...early morning on the day of the party

sweet and calm

pj's and cars 2 vehicle

i love it

{exploding rocket pinatas}

the grand finale was an item mr. rowan has been dreaming of since i mentioned this idea. anything with exploding candy seems like a great idea to him. these were quite time consuming (don't think i'll ever make them again) but he LOVED them. ok, fine. i'll probably make them again, but seriously...buying a pinata is so much easier :) 

my sweet friend nicole drove up from baltimore with ryan and brooklyn.

we love any chance to spend time together and let the girls play.

they are growing up so fast and this was the first they have been together since they both had their lip/nose repairs.

i tried hard to catch them together.

as you can see, neither of them sit still for very long :)

we noticed a budding friendship today...

even some sweet goodbye kisses...

and thankfully "the tigress" decided not to emerge :)

mr. foster was quite thrilled to have the girls together.

he kept giggling and saying "look mom!! it's like i have two sisters!"