it was my dear dad’s birthday! it was a very low key day. we gathered together at my parent’s house for a little birthday feast and of course, it was portillo’s. my mom was feeling under the weather and typically she loves to cook up a big dinner but since that wasn’t the case that day…fast food it was. natch.
we divvied up our food and jumped right into our typical family banter. as i was setting up everyone’s order, olive {of course} saw the food and insisted on getting up on the chair to eat. she nibbled on a few fries and then got bored and wanted to get down. oh kids, they have a two second attention span!
[the boys playing outside]
[olive holding her uncle’s hand…something she never does with anyone!]
[yup, portillo’s]
[um, no, this is not what she ate…but she was sure loving it]
after dinner and cleaning up, it was time for dessert! birthday cake, of course! we brought out his present and dad took a few photos with his favorite grandkids. i lit the birthday candle and brought out his cake, as we all sang happy birthday!
olive was so confused. she didn’t really know what was going on. we tried to get her to blow out the birthday candle but didn’t get it, so mr. reagan did the honors. i loved that i captured him second by second blowing out the candle…it’s too cute!
[thuy’s creative gift wrapping]
[dad with his grandkids]
[happy birthday!]
[yaaaayyyy, happy birthday!]
[i love these pictures of reagan blowing out the candle!]
[cake and ice cream]
[olive going bonkers]
[these kids…]
after cake and ice cream, the kids played around and the adults relaxed and conversed. it was a very chill time and it was great to have celebrated my dear dad’s birthday! he’s seriously the best dad ever! i love him sooooo much and he means the world to me. i am so blessed to have a man that is so loving, kind, and caring as my dad {amongst many other things but words just can’t describe him or how i feel}.
so, the day had come…olive’s first birthday party! oh em gee. i was feeling a bit stressed, excited, anxious, and bittersweet. my little babes is about to be one and it makes my heart melt. the first year is so full of many wonderful milestones and memories. each day possesses something new and fun. she is growing up so fast already…i can’t even take it! she amazes us every day; she brings so much joy and laughter into our lives! okaaayyy, so enough mommy gushing…okay, just keeding! i’m always mommy gushing! ha!
anyhoo. preparing for olive’s party was fun, crazy, time consuming, and very obsessive inside my nutty creative mind. i was scheming up so many ideas! i really loved the aesthetic feel of gold and light pink. i’m not a pinky kind of gal, well, okay i am but i’m not into piiiiinkkkk. for example, pink overload…like as if pink was to puke all over olive’s clothes. so not my style. but i was loving the idea of pink, albeit, a light pink {with pops of bright pink} for olive’s first birthday party! how perty it all sounded to me…pink and gold!
so, the day of her party was finally here! i had decorated, crafted, arranged, and tucked in many sleepless nights to get everything done. the guests started to arrive and we were just pulling together the final details of the decor. woooo!
[do you remember this chalkboard?? when we lived in chicago, there was never a place where hc could do any type of wood work or really do any type of reconstruction project. i had always wanted to redo the chalkboard i had purchased and my wish was fulfilled the past month! hc finally deconstructed the chalkboard and framed it in the white border that i had originally wanted!]
[her decorated highchair! // number 1 gold balloon & highchair banner {and most of the banners} by littledovie]
[my favorite…macarons and they were flown in from france!]
[owl treats by the krispie bakery // made especially for o{wl}ive]
[personalized first birthday book by i see me // add extra pages and have your guests sign in by wishing the birthday girl something special!]
[cookie favors by rpconfections and the biggest balloon evah!]
[monthly birthday banner]
[photo booth!]
olive was still napping when our first guests arrived. within a half hour, the guest of honor had arose! i gleefully ran into her room to greet the little babes and get her ready for her big day! i got her dressed, hair styled, and all purty for her party. she was ready to go in her graphic black and white dress, gold glitter tights, and a gold glitter bow hair clip. natch. she looked so cute!
olive and i greeted all our guests, while hc got all the food ready! libations and snacks were out and about, while our guests mingled around and explored. after visiting with our guests for a bit, the food was ready to be served and everyone grabbed a bite to eat. it was great; our guests relaxed, mingled, and enjoyed themselves around the house while olive bounced around amongst different peeps.
hc and i had cleared out the basement and made it a play area for the kiddies and boy, they sure loved it! they had a blast running around and playing downstairs. it was a perfect area for them to go wild!
after lunch and a bit of resting, it was cake time! we changed olive into her second outfit of the day. a birthday crown, ruffled white onesie, and a pink fluffy tutu! we paraded her around for a bit and then plopped her into her chair.
we lit her glitter candle, presented the cake, and sang happy birthday to her! she was so unfazed. she stared at the cake and didn’t know what to do with it! ha! so, i helped her along by poking at the cake and putting a little frosting into her mouth. yes, that got her going. delicious, sweet frosting on the lips will inspire any babes to dive into a big yummy cake!
it was too sweet {literally}. we let the birthday girl sit there and maul her lovely little smash cake, while hc and i sliced up her beautiful gold birthday cake. we served the cake and ice cream on pretty little gold speckled confetti paper plates by merimeri.
after the cake smash fun, olive was given a quick bath and changed into her final outfit of the evening {such a fashionista…three outfit changes on her big day!}! hc dressed olive in the adorbs outfit kt and kar had given her a few months ago!
once the cake was served, all the guests hung out, socialized, and had some super fun with our photo booth! as you can see in all the pics down below!
[mom and thuy]
[lexi and dom]
[yesss, her third outfit change…such a fashionista!]
[auntie kim and olive]
[bennett and reagan]
[aj]
[lexi, cam, and chaz]
[cousins]
[new fuzzy pbk chair by auntie karen and katie]
[dana and scott]
slowly but surely, all the guests went on their merry way. we were so blessed to have been able to celebrate olive’s big day with our wonderful friends and family. it was a day filled with fun, love, and laughter. we seriously had a great time, i know olive did! the whole party was a success! wow…it had come and gone and nothing but fabulous memories now remain {well actually the glitter and a bit of confetti are still lingering around!}.
thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate olive’s first big day! we can’t wait to celebrate her real {for reals} birthday on thanksgiving day with more of her family, this week!!! woo hoo!
my sisters and i teamed up together and threw b his fifth birthday party!
wow, i can’t believe it’s been five years since this little guy was born into this world to brighten our lives! my how time flies! b is so sweet and playful and thoughtful. i love his curious questions and backward hugs. we couldn’t wait to celebrate his special day!
kim and thuy had been planning it for some time. they accumulated party paraphernalia throughout the month and slowly came up with some really cute party ideas. b wanted a construction party and, boy, did he get one!
the day before the party, kim, thuy, and i got together to prep and plan for the fete. we organized, fluffed, stickered, and unwrapped everything. there was so much to get done! we worked into the wee hours of the night to prep as much as we could.
the next day was game time. everyone worked really hard to put the party space together. hc set up all the tables, kim and thuy worked on the decor. terry picked up the food. slowly but surely, the party came together and it all looked so stinkin’ cute!
before the guests arrived…hc and i wanted to present little b with one of his birthday presents. hc worked really hard on it and we were really excited to give it to bennett! hc pulled it out to the backyard and we had b walk out to it. it was a success! he loved it! his own little wooden dump truck…so cool. hc is the greatest uncle evah!
[the boys in their matching shirts]
[the birthday day boy going out to see his surprise gift from uncle rich]
[his handmade dump truck from uncle rich!]
[birthday boy and uncle rich]
[centerpiece]
[the p’s and the hostess with the mostess]
[home depot aprons/favor ‘bags’]
[yellow and black poms]
[truck piñata]
[favor table]
[favors]
[the boys and the truck]
it was party time and the guests started to arrive. there were plenty of libations for everyone and little popcorn snacks to munch on. as the guests strolled in, if hc could, he would grab them for a house tour!
[auntie lynne and cousin patrick]
we had craft tables for the kids. where they could draw, color, and build structures with popsicle sticks. it was quite a hit with the creative little ones.
[the craft and arts table]
[grace being the best cousin ever and pushing b around in the truck!]
[jana, sonny, angel, tricia, thuy, and olive]
[me and my awesome brother dan]
[avery and lan]
the first game of the party…pin the flag on the construction bennett! the kids excitedly lined up, we blind folded them one at a time, and they gingerly walked towards the poster to pin their flag! it was so amusing to watch them, they tried so hard and i know some of them were peeking out from under that kerchief! ha!
[pin the flag on the construction bennett]
after some games {there were hula hoops, golfing, and crafting going on}, we went inside to prep the food for everyone. kim and terry ordered from uncle bub’s {pulled pork, coleslaw, and mac n cheese} and my mom whipped up some of her specialty dishes {a vegetable noodle dish and egg rolls}, we cooked up some hot dogs for the kiddies and we were set to go!
everyone slowly made their way in to grab some grub. we all sat down outside {a warm but humid day} and enjoyed our meals.
[manger!]
[auntie thuy and olive]
after eating, we decided to take down the piñata! the kids got so jubilant when we called it out. they lined up and one by one, were blind folded, spun around, and wildly aimed and swung at the piñata. oh these kiddies! no one was making a true dent on that poor truck. so, they all took turns again and finally the piñata busted down! the kids dove for the candy! it was so funny to watch, they filled their little home depot aprons up with their treasures.
[piñata time!]
[it took many tries but the piñata finally broke!]
i went inside to serve the birthday cake! i had fashioned it with a bunting, dump truck, and ‘dirt” {kim’s idea find!}, we lit his candle and presented him with the decadent concoction. we sang happy birthday and served the delicious cake…we also had lan’s amazing paintbrush rice krispy treats and lynne’s yummy m&m cookies, sooooo good!
[party napkins]
[rice krispy paint brushes by lan!!!]
[chocolate dump truck birthday cake!]
[love, love the cake!]
[jana and gary’s adorb kids]
[helen and baby olive]
[happy 5th birthday bennett!]
[singing happy birthday!]
[reagan and sam]
[sisters]
[the boys being silly!]
[gabrielle and helen]
[kevin and lisa]
[my two loves]
the party started to wind down and people were slowly trickling out. as the night enveloped us, bennett wanted some of his favorite songs to be played, one of them being gangnan style. i was inside cleaning up when i walked out back to the dance party! it was hilarious! grace and i became the back up dancers while bennett danced and lip-synced to the words. it was toooo cute and fun!
[bennett dancing to gangnam style with his back up dancers…lol]
[the party winding down in our living room…p.j’s were on! well, at least on olive]
after i quickly cleaned up the place {i’m quite the quick professional cleaner}, i bathed olive and got her ready for bed. the guests were gone and our family lingered behind. the cousins all gathered in the living room to relax with their favor loot and hang out together.
it was quite the successful evening. a fun, cool party, awesome decor, tasty food & drinks, amazing friends and family, and some really good, fun memories created! we throughly enjoyed hosting the party, it was a spectacular time!
we celebrated my dad’s birthday on a beautiful, sunny sunday {common theme of late…i just can’t get enough of the sunshine right now}.
we all met up at pf chang’s, in lombard, for a birthday lunch in honor of our papa. little o was having a good ol’ time in her carseat before she got a little fussy. i had to then pull her out so she can get all nosey and see what was going on around her!
we ordered apps and waited for my parents to show up {um, the guest of honor was late!}. they finally did arrive, along with my lovely o voung. i love my aunt. she’s such a sweet, sweet lady. i was so happy she was there to celebrate with us!
[selfie at the restaurant]
[wearing their favorite hockey team]
[my two loves]
[olive being all melancholy]
after lunch, we invited everyone back to our place for cake and ice-cream! yay! my parents walked my aunt through our new house as i prepped for serving desserts! i purchased two yummy, yummy cakes from whole foods. a decadent carrot cake and a sweet vanilla cake to serve. we topped off each piece with either chocolate or vanilla ice-cream. nom nom.
so i am the worst picture taker ever on this day. i didn’t get to snap a photo of everyone who joined us in my dad’s birthday celebration {ya don’t see kim, terry, my mom, aunt, or thuy} and worst so…i didn’t even snap a pic of my dad! whaaat?!
anyhoo, it was a great day to celebrate my dad’s 77th birthday. happy birthday to the best dad ever.
this one takes us back to 2011. this is such a fun, sweet picture of r+ b!
we were celebrating hc’s birthday over at his parent’s house {in crystal lake} and r+ b insisted on celebrating with us as well {with them being in clarendon hills}! hey, a few miles doesn’t stop a family from missing a joyous occasion together!
so, kim pulled out some party hats, bought cake, and we tech connected via facetime and sang happy birthday to hc! it was a success!
the boys were super happy {yay!} and so was hc…he was delighted to be celebrating his birthday cross towns! how special!!! and everyone got cake…score!
this was literally a sweet memory! happy friday y’all! cheers to a fabulous weekend!
we celebrated jodi’s birthday at a restaurant called hutch. it happened to be st. patrick’s day weekend, so it was in fact a madhouse of an evening {the streets and sidewalks were littered with drunken wannabe irish species}.
i scurried home from work, rushing to feed olive, and then get ready myself, with very little time to spare. we were already running behind and with it being a holiday weekend, there was a lot of traffic. we finally got to our destination {being very late!} and joined the already engaged group of peeps.
i was very excited to spend some time with this lovely group, it’s very rare that we get to see all of them at once. i love jodi and her friends, they are a great bunch of people.
we jubilantly conversed, imbibed a slew of alcohol, and mingled with one another. after a bit {and a few drinks}, we finally ordered our entrees. we had a lot of fun; sharing stories, laughing over silly things, and doting over our children! jodi, myself, sarah, and kim all have children that are one year or younger! so, it’s a lot of fun to compare notes and show each other tons of pictures!
i sat next to matt, jodi’s husband…i love the guy, a really great dude. i love how comical he is and what a sweetie he is to his family. jodi and matt are probably the most calm, docile, happy go lucky couple i know! i feel very blessed to have them in our lives!
[oh…the whoas of picture taking. jodi closes her eyes and i last minute avoid that darn flash]
[hutch…american classics]
[jodi, sarah, and kim]
[oh so good // burger and fries]
[jon, nikki, and jodi]
[hc, moi, and matt]
[snickers pie]
after consuming a lot of fries {thanks for sharing jod!} and my delicious burger, we ordered dessert {totally unnecessary but in order for the birthday celebration}. the snickers pie was to die for. decadent, rich, and sweet as can be! yum. yum.
we wrapped up with our tab and said our goodbyes to trek out in the snowy night {yes, a lot of snow, again}. it was a good time with everyone…a much needed evening out for hc and me {our first time leaving olive with the nanny for a date night! yay!}. we relished in being baby free for the evening but of course, we rushed home and couldn’t wait to see our sweet baby girl!
we trekked our way to jay and lori’s house a few weeks ago for a birthday party! it was aj and jake’s birthday! aj turned 7 and jake turned 3; they are getting so big…my how time flies! it doesn’t seem that long ago when i first met aj…he was barely two years old!
we drove and drove and drove to their house {close to a two hour commute!}. we finally got there and the party was in full swing, everyone was already there. the fun part about this party? it was a baby land. lori’s sisters, kari and christi both have little babies! kari’s baby is two days older than olive and christi’s baby is about a month older than both. here’s a crazy fact: gunner and olive are about the same age but he is almost seven pounds heavier than o!!! he was a brick house compared to little olive. wow, i know boys are bigger but wow!
[olive getting ready to party!]
[grandma and olive, the few minutes she let someone else hold her!]
we mingled with everyone and ogled all the babies but poor olive, she was not having it with other peeps holding her! maybe it was overwhelming for her but she was not happy being in other’s people’s arms. she let grandma and grandpa hold her when we got there, but after that? nope. she only wanted to be in momma’s arms. oh olive. you will learn, i cannot come to the rescue like that {um, like when momma goes back to work!}, although i wish i could.
[pizza and salad]
[aj and jake ready for their birthday cake!]
after a dinner of salad and pizza, we had cake and ice cream {it’s a birthday party, duh!}. now this was too funny, when it was time to sing happy birthday to the boys, poor jake had a freak out. little fellow was not in good spirits! as we were singing, he cried and then hid under his chair! so, that is why you only see aj blowing out the birthday candles!
[lol, jake freaked out so aj blew out all the candles!]
[opening up a lot of ninja turtle toys!]
[momma with a tired olive]
it was wonderful to see and hang out with everyone. it’s always great to chill out with family, to see beautiful babies, and celebrate special occasions together!
It was that time of year again! celebrating thuy’s birthday. always on a cold, january day. it typically snows, has snow on the ground or is really cold out {just like mine, being in december!}. this year, it was a little blizzard of snow.
the snow kept on falling throughout the day. a very pretty sight but not so pretty driving conditions. hc and i spent the morning looking at house(s) for sale {that’s a whole other story}, after that, we pit stopped at starbucks for some tasty treats.
[decaf americano and a chocolate croissant // perfect]
after house hunting and reenergizing at starbucks, we spent the afternoon at my parent’s house. as the day wore on, the snow kept falling and we decided to leave a bit early from the p’s to give us time to travel and do a bunch of errands at home before thuy’s soiree that evening.
oy…traffic was bad! we finally arrived home and we scurried around getting stuff done. i had to wrap thuy’s gift, do baby stuff, figure out what to wear {such a daunting event every time since i’ve had this beautiful baby, the game of what fits…what doesn’t fit – sad}, get ready, etc. ugh, time was flying by! hc was preoccupied with ‘house’ stuff, so this was causing us to run behind! yuck. i hate being late {although, it’s always the case personally! i’m not extremely late all the time but i never truly feel stressed about being on time…if i am, i am…if i’m not…c’est la vie, non? but that doesn’t mean i still don’t like it!} 😛
so, there we were, running late to our dinner commitments! we tried to nab a cab but that wasn’t going to happen! we jumped into our car and finally sped off to the restaurant, henri. hc dropped me off while he parked the car. i traipsed on in and joined the celebration going on inside for miss thuy!
[birthday lady]
they had ordered oysters as an app. so yummy good. you can down a half dozen if you didn’t force limit yourself or just be plain piggish in everyone else’s eyes!
[oyster apps]
[hello world!]
during desserts, thuy opened up her gifts!
[love your sweater sis!]
[packaging]
[birthday goodies]
[thuy and lan, such chic ladies]
[opening her gift from lan]
[first round of birthday wishes at henri]
after dinner and before desserts, the boys decided to go to the gage for drinks. that was their dessert! so, they left us and headed over to the gage as we were ordering some decadent desserts and cafe at henri.
[henri]
after henri, we headed to the gage to meet up with our husbands. having dinner doesn’t ever stop these gals from ordering more food! kim, thuy, and lan then ordered poutine and bone marrow as an extension to this evening’s noshing. i could only taste…it was all so delicious but my belly couldn’t consume any more morsels of these tasty treats…that is, until the dessert came! the server brought over another birthday treat for thuy! a glass filled with sweet, light, chocolate mousse. it was so good!!!
[hb squared. second round of birthday wishes // at the gage]
it was a fun, snowy evening celebrating thuy! i hope it was a good one! happy birthday to my lovely sister!
it was my birthday this past 17.12! my, what a difference a year makes. last year’s celebration was non-stop. this year’s celebration was non-stop with the babes! it was low key and cozy.
obviously, this post if very delayed but nevertheless an occasion. i had some other vip things to talk about that superceded this post. don’t get me wrong…i love my birthday! ever since i have been with hc, he’s always made it important and that means a lot to me. here’s a blast from the past…some photos from last year’s celebration:
we had dinner at an italian restaurant, la luce, set up by my darling friend andrea and hc. i was blessed to have some wonderful friends {matt, johann, danielle, dana, andrea, frank, & kip} and family {kim, thuy, dan, & terry} celebrate with me on that special occasion!
hc commissioned a cake from alliance bakery in the form of a lv gift box! how adorbs! i loved the cake…and it was sooo delish.
[birthday bash from 2012 – coat, vintage burberry]
***
here’s to my wonderful birthday celebration with our newest, adorable addition – baby olive!
[this is my current look at home nowadays]
i definitely wanted to break out my tiara but it was buried downstairs in the basement 🙁 {i mean, pj’s aren’t quite the tiara ensemble but i’ll rock one for any occasion!}. oh well, it can always make it’s appearance next year. a girl’s birthday always deserves a tiara!
we celebrated at home with just the three of us. hc made a delicious dinner [it’s called order out at mana…so delish] and i made my wish when i blew out my birthday cake candles! shhh…wishes are always kept secret so they can come true! hubby charming so thoughtfully gave me a gift from jcrew {a fav store o mine}! a buffalo check coat…loves! so outdoorsy chic!
[mana… a modge podge of goodness]
[happy beurffday!!!]
[make a wish]
[jcrew boxes are always filled with wonderful surprises]
little reagan is growing up!! i can’t believe he’s six, already! i’m such a proud auntie, he is such a smart little man! he’s always so entertaining & funny!
i headed to rainforest cafe right after work. there was a little bit of traffic but not so bad. hc was already there and i got there right after him. we had a drink and a snack at stir crazy before we met everyone at rainforest. we figured no one would be on time {hey, it’s a doan outing…we never seem to gather together on time ever :)}.
kim and famille arrived early, so we skedaddled on over to the restaurant. i got cute little hugs from the nephews. kids just love places like the rainforest…it’s so entertaining for them! we browsed around the retail shop for a bit and then we were called to be seated. we sat ourselves down and waited for the rest of the group to arrive. we ordered drinks and apps and perused the menu to figure out what we were going to feed our empty bellies.
[froggie fun]
[aren’t they adorbs?]
[food and fun]
slowly but surely, everyone found their way to the table and greeted reagan with lots of happy birthday wishes! the conversation flowed and the food came readily. it was a very enjoyable time with everyone! reagan was really looking forward to the volcano dessert! there were plenty of birthdays being celebrated there that night, so we saw many, many volcano desserts go by!
[goodies]
[reagan’s most favorite gift!]
after dinner, r opened up his presents! he got a lot of goodies from everyone…i think his most favorite gift of all was from aunt thuy! a very large power ranger!
[i love b’s face in the background]
well, reagan received double the volcano dessert! we sang happy birthday and dug in. it was super yummy, decadent, and delicious. after demolishing a lot of food, we were stuffed and ready to go home. it was a very happy birthday for r!
thanks kim and terry for hosting! happy birthday reagan…we love you lots!!!!
