L A T E L Y

Our June was jam-packed crazy cakes. I knew that until Lamps birthday in early July we’d be busy little bee’s running around like chickens with our heads cut off–so headless chicken bees–but June is over and the last couple of weeks have finally been (mostly) relaxing. Our Lamp girl turned 7 and I thought I’d show you our take on a Moana themed birthday as well as what else we’ve been up to lately.

Lamp wanted to have her party at Pump it Up and while I sorta hate to loose the intimate feel of a home birthday party, I also think about the fact that I’m not cleaning my house just to let a bunch of 7 year olds destroy it was like, Pump it up? FINE BY ME! I still like to do a cute table with a backdrop, favor bags, a cake topper and this time I just had to make these super sweet Kakamora cups I originally saw here. I spent an afternoon painting these little guys, but they were pretty easy. It was a Netflix and paint kind of afternoon. If you want to do a similar craft I highly recommend getting these cups from Party City. I ordered some coconut cups from Amazon (against my better judgment and the reviews) and yep–they were awful. Super flimsy and squishy.

This Little Miggy || Moana Birthday Party

As far as steps go, just do a layer at a time and let the paint dry in between each layer. Start with a tan face shape, then add dark brown circles for the eyes, lastly add a white mouth and then some white and red face paint markings and you’re done! They were definitely the hit of the birthday favors.

For the cake topper I decided to do Moana’s sail. Once you start you can’t stop! First it was just going to be a simple sail cutout with the swirl on it. Then I gathered some sticks and hot glued them to the sides. Finally I just went full bananas and started sutchering the damn thing together.

The table on the whole looked cute and the birthday girl–dressed in her new Moana outfit–had a great time and she loved her party. Once again it should be noted that the party decor was super easy to pull off with the help of my Silhouette Cameo. The lettering for the banner, the swirls for the cake topper and the favor bags–all made super easy because of the Silhouette. I absolutely love using them for my kids parties. Harry Potter, Safari, Gem party and now Moana. Thank you Silhouette! (Not sponsored.)

Her favorite gift was her scooter and it’s been really cute watching her roll around the house in something other than her wheelchair. 😉 She’s getting pretty good. Maybe she’ll start her own scooter gang soon.

*****

Our Fourth was simple and fun. I’m not one for big, huge crowded parades that take forever to drive to and forever to find parking for. But I do love a sweet neighborhood 4th of July parade with kids decorating bikes and people watching from their lawns and since our neighborhood is in its 6th decade of this tradition, they’ve got it down pretty well. It all culminates in a cul-de-sac block party with food, games and this year a Jimmy Hendrix style Star-Spangled banner guitar solo by one of the high school kids. We spent the evening shooting off fireworks with friends. You know, the kind of fireworks that we had to cross state lines for–wink, wink. And other than the firecracker that shot shrapnel at my forehead–a mere 2 inches away from my eye–and Lamp loosing another tooth, we were mostly unscathed.

Other things we’ve been up to include…

lazy mornings with nothing to do. We play this game called “the favorite game” where I snuggle a girl in my bed and we ask questions that start with “What’s your favorite ______” back and forth for about 10 minutes. This started as a ploy to get Zuzu to snuggle with me in the mornings, but it now has become a favorite quiet time with mom activity for all three girls.

We sent away for some mail order caterpillars that turn into butterflies. Well our first little butterfly came out with a broken wing and we quickly exclaimed “She’s got wing differences!” We’ve named her Lucky. It’s fun to see these little reminders that disability and other variances happen in nature all the time. All 5 butterflies have hatched (?) now and I think we’re going to let them go today.

Rainy-day afternoon fort making with screenings of Anne with an E (gets a thumbs up from me) and the kids new favorite movie, School of Rock. I love a good rainy day and the excuse to stay inside and be cozy.

I can’t believe school starts in less than a month. What? It feels like our summer is just beginning and we’ve still got some good times to check off the old bucket list. Camping with the cousins, a possible road trip at the end of summer… and some big exciting news I can’t wait to share (maybe some of you saw the sneak peek on my IG stories a couple weeks ago).

Hope you guys are having a great summer as well!

XO,

Miggy