ellie’s 4th birthday ice cream party

months of scheming with it finally leading up to her fourth birthday party!

i am always stressed before a birthday party because i just take on too much! LOL it’s all me! i had gathered so much decor during our shelter in place and it got out of control! hahaha!

every day i did some sort of project or errand, leading up to her party on saturday. but can you believe i literally spent all day saturday s t i l l putting her party decor together??! cray. down to the very last minute. gah!

i loved her ice cream theme and had so much fun with it! i created the balloon garlands, chalk board sign, bought chalk ice cream cones, and a ton of supplies to decorate the tables with. of course, my talented sister did the florals for me. she does for every party i throw and i am utterly grateful that she is always willing! i always say, it’s not complete without flowers!!! as you will see in all the pictures below, i tried my best to capture all the details!

we had a family party first. for two hours, we had our immediate family inside, celebrating ellie. we did apps and served delicious food from cedar grill {a local restaurant}. while everyone was still eating, the good humor dave ice cream truck came by!

we weren’t sure if it was going to rain later in the day, so hc set up a tent – just in case. he also filled our baby bath tub with ice and drinks for our other guests coming by. we had invited olive and ellie’s school friends and our neighbors to swing by and grab an ice cream bar!

so that turned out a little crazy! our family partied inside and our friends partied outside and we were running back and forth to make sure everything was ok. LOL we wanted to keep our family separate and inside, while our friends socialized outside to keep contact to a minimum. it was hard to manage it all but truly, it was ok. although i felt that i was running around like crazy, it all turned out to be super fun. especially for the kids! they had a blast running around and playing!

once our friends left, we sang happy birthday to miss ellie and served the delicious fun cake! ellie was smitten and so cute in her reaction when we sang to her! so adorable!

thanks to everyone {family, friends, neighbors} who came by to say happy birthday to miss ellie. it turned out to be a beautiful day! ellie was super happy over everything and having all the people she loves here to celebrate her, made it all that much more special.

[the birthday girl]

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[she’s so sweet]

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[bar area]

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[the sweetest sisters]

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[dessert table]

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[gorgeous ice cream cake by strictly sugar]

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[sugar cookies by claire’s cookies]

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[favor bags]

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[ice cream tablescape]

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[i can’t get enough pictures of this cake]

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[gorgeous blooms by my sister kim]

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[party hats]

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[ice cream and macaron chalks]

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[party decor]

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[floral arrangements by my sister kim]

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[hand painted party favor bags]

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[i can never have too many angles of this]

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[the always silly dan and agata]

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[the girls with auntie missy]

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[chalk mouse]

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[love them]

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[kisses]

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[gorgeous balloons by paris312]

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[such a beautiful garland]

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[with gramma]

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[avery and lan]

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[my silly girls]

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[barbara and lynne]

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[drink tub]

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[ice cream truck party]

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[ellie and alex – he gave her a bouquet of flowers! how sweet!]

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[little finn and her sweet ice cream dress]

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[elly and dekker]

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[waiting patiently for the piñata to get hung]

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[first strike]

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[spencer did the first break!]

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[the sweetest friends]

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[ready for cake!]

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[she’s so sweet]

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[happy birthday to you!]

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[she gets the melting ice cream cone!]

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[DIY cookie kits for the girls! they had so much fun decorating the cookies on their own!]

xoxo

unicorn birthday

one day, a few months ago, i asked olive what kind of birthday party did she want. without hesitation, she said, “a unicorn party!”. ok. i really did think i would get away with not having a unicorn party. why? well, unicorns are the rage right now. the rage! everyone was having a unicorn party! or more so, who didn’t have one for their little?! like for reals! i thought i could get away with not having one. hahaha! not that i am against unicorns. no, i love them! i just don’t like doing something everyone else is doing. that’s all.

anyhoo, my wheels started turning and i wanted to start planning her party. every year, i always say…oh i am not going to do anything big {except their one year birthday’s…that is big, to me!}. i always say, ‘just balloons and cake’. that’s all you need. get a cake, some balloons, and call it a birthday party. yeahhhhhhhh. every year, that doesn’t happen no matter how much i try to talk myself into a simple party.

so the crafting and planning ensued and voila! i was ready to get this party started! let me tell you! going from halloween, to my brother’s wedding, to hosting thanksgiving, and then hosting a birthday party 3 days later left me like whoaaaaaaaaa! but nevertheless, we pulled it off and olive’s party was a success and so darn cuuuuuute!

olive was soooo looking forward to this big day! she was so darn cute about it! we celebrated her birthday the tuesday before, at school, and from there on, she couldn’t stop talking about her party and could not wait for the day to arrive!

at school, i let her wear the cutest party hat in celebration of her big day and she wouldn’t take it off for two days! it was so adorable, the day after we celebrated her day in class, olive awoke and sat up in bed. i saw her struggle to put her party hat on {that she left next to her on the bedside table}, slide off the bed, and walk out into the living room. about a minute later, she came back to bed to tell me that no one was here for her party. my heart pretty much melted! i told her that her party wasn’t for another few days! oh these sweet children of mine! i could eat them up, i love them so!

well her day finally arrived and her wonderful family came over to celebrate her. hc cooked an amazing portillo’s like meal {so delicious}, our family mingled, olive had a blast with her friends and cousins, and overall, it was a total success. the decor was too cute {if i do say so myself} and i love that olive had such a great time! this was the first birthday where she totally enjoyed everyone singing happy birthday to her! all the years prior, she used to freak out, become extremely shy, or get upset! my baby girl, you’re growing up!

well, i hope you enjoy the pics! i always have such a great time documenting everything. i hope, one day, olive and ellie will look back at this thread and know how much they are loved by their family.

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[olive’s birthday invite & flowers by my talented sister, kim]

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[clouds and paper tassels]

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[how cute is this doll?!]

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[my diy unicorn balloon…they filled it up with so much helium, it became oblong instead of round!]

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[i love this gorgeous doll by monami designs]

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[what party is complete without a unicorn balloon?!]

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[unicorn photo booth]

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[flower crowns for the photo booth]

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[favor bags]

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[dessert backdrop]

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[we loooooove this book!]

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[my sweet, sweet girl…she’s so precious]

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[macarons and unicorn cookies! yasssssss]

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[i can’t get over this amazing cake!]

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[flowers by my sister kim]

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[ellie, kim, and lan]

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[aunt wendy and terry]

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[grace and missy]

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[jane and missy]

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[having fun with agata]

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[i loooooove her so much!]

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[gosh, she looks just like hc!]

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[agata, dan, and olive]

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[i can’t tell you how much i love this capture!!!! olive was being a bit moody/difficult/shy and i was like, whaaaaaaa? i felt like this was a total mom moment where i was like, c’mon girl. get a grip! hahaha!]

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[hair we goooooo!]

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[make a wish!!]

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[she’s so excited to open up her presents!]

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[lan, thuy, and kim]

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[lan and avery]

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[my tribe]

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[pin the horn on the unicorn]

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[get it bennett!]

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[reagan being silly]

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[the kids trying to help reagan]

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[avery pinning the horn on the unicorn]

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[happy girl]

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[i can’t! i just can’t!]

happy birthday my sweet, loving girl. this day was so wonderful and we love you so much!

xoxo