gotcha day party awesomeness {attack of the lace doily}

i've been dreaming of emery's gotcha day all summer. i wanted a lovely evening with kids and sweet friends and family and emery...and ice cream. lots and lots of ice cream :)

what started as a simple idea, soon went slightly lace wild and i found myself knee deep in doilies, piles of estate sale milk glass, and the cutest little party. with a small budget, i was able to use a lot of what i already had on hand, coupled with fast delivery from an awesome etsy shop called Whachuneed (she sells doilies and SO much more), as well as my sweet sister in love who helped me pull it all off.

i spray painted old stuff, hung indoor photos outside, and strung more doilies than i'd like to admit. (i originally saw this doily banner on pinterest. it's much more time consuming than i had hoped, but i loved the way they looked). in the end, i nearly passed out from exhaustion (true story. i have no idea what balance is. i'm all or nothing. you don't want to meet me on a "nothing" day :)

and her special night? better than i could have ever planned. wonderful and relaxed and filled with delightful friends and family. i kept seeing emery bopping around., buzzing through the crowd, going from friend to friend...eating piles of doritos and countless sprinkles. she drank from nearly every stray glass of lemonade and i rarely caught a photo of her standing still. it was just the way it's supposed to be.

 FYI, chalk paint is one of our favorite things. but this was the first time i tried it in spray bottles. maybe i bought the wrong kind of bottles? but they were a sad disappointment. only one of three worked. but we ended up filling them with water and they were just as fun :)

a little before and after...
this was our backyard on the day we bought this house in april 2012 (a foreclosure property which had been vacant for over a year)...you can't see it in these pics, but the weed were literally 3 feet high.

this past weekend, my hubby installed a new fence (on the right side) and we worked hard to make it look like a real backyard. i also made a (free!!) tepee (from bamboo and old drop cloths) and hung tulle valences i found for $1 each at an estate sale. score!!

i was delighted to see that the kids LOVED the tepee and valences! i kept smiling all evening to see them running in and out :)

 i printed a book of all of my instagram photos recently from snapfish. it turned out SO well! the photo quality printed so much clearer than i was anticipating and with a 50% off coupon, i printed 1,000 photos for $70. not exactly in the budget, but i was so glad i finally did it :)
ps. that's my sweet sister in law in the top left, who my kids call "la-la". she is the sweetest, most wonderful, kind and creative person. she and my brother live less than a block away. it's amazing to be neighbors with them!!

 emery is obsessed with doing "cheers" when she is eating something fun :)

 oh how i adore her in her blue chinese garb!!

 this big brother spent most of the evening saving earth worms :) he has such a tender heart.

 and this little gem? that's emery's lovely gal-pal, isabelle. they are the same age, but emery came home in july and isabelle this past winter. to have a dear friend with similar language needs, medical past, and a hilarious, spunky personality...well, it's quite fun to see them together. they have so much in common...even their voices and tempter-tantrums are alike :) oh and they both clearly love homemade jolly rancher lollys and ride-on toys :)