Birthday Bash

every summer we get slammed with all four of our birthday's within six weeks.  up second was the hubby who also shares it with his grandma, so with the help of my mother-in-law and target (past + present) we put together a little afternoon celebration for them both...

 // major target style //

everything you see here, but the cake and the flowers - vintage nate berkus moroccan pillows and threshold marble cake stand, acrylic utensil holder for the  vase, and oh joy goblets in both colors

and a happy little gold tassel banner.  check out the second wave of her line in stores now!

Ski Rack

we recently turned this vintage ski into a literal ski rack and it turned out even better than we imagined...

 diy: you can find these vintage wood water skis for pretty cheap,

i scored this pair at the flea market for $10, and we removed the

metal fin and plastic boots attached.  the hooks are from home

depot and we filed off the tips of the screws so they matched the

depth of the ski.  then to make it easy and make sure it could hold

the weight of everything hung on it, we screwed it directly into the

wall using the holes already in it from the ski hardware we removed.

Words of the Week...

Superhero Campout

we had a birthday party for both the boys last weekend and since they wanted to "camp" and dress up a superhero campout was born.  here was the overall idea that included smores cupcakes, a lemonade bar [a big hit at this party], a boom box piñata, this scavenger hunt, and a neon meets nature vibe...

we have a backyard that's perfect for big parties, but the layout of our home, well not so much.  so i planned for the majority of everything to be outside, but it started pouring several hours before the party and continued through the first couple hours of it.  it was obviously disappointing, but we knew stressed out hosts can kill a party much quicker than bad weather can, so we set up what we could inside and made the most of it!

their current favorites "hulk smash" and captain america which are

perfectly fitting of their personalities right now.

and our recent additions to the family - ralph and tornado 2.0 fit right in

big thanks to my sister rachel who made these amazing smores cupcakes!

dark chocolate with actual toasted marshmallow on top - so so good!

we had this camper tent from christmas so it was a no brainer to use it.
so after the rain we brought it outside and set up their play kitchen and food
inside of it and cole requested arrow pillows at his party too after he watched
me make so many for the glamping event that was ironically the same day.

can you tell who has the sweet tooth?
thanks to my sister-in-law lisa for capturing this and these great shots below...

we taped the desert shower curtain to the side of our shed and it became

a perfect spot for pictures like this one of my brother doug with some of the cousins.

dean was kinda obsessed with the hulk shorts we cut out of his cousin's
leggings and he didn't want to take them off at the end of the night.

and the little ones also used it as a stage.

rain and all everyone had a great time, especially cole and dean!

sources: jetaire camper play tent / desert shower curtain / yo gabba gabba boom box piñata / white marquee arrow

galvanized 3-tiered server / smores cupcakes and lemonade inspiration images via pinterest / white mesa tunic

the boys football tees / captain america accessories / hulk hands + mask + shield

Scavenger Hunt

we had a birthday party for the boys over the weekend that included this scavenger hunt to go with our camping theme and to keep all the kids busy for a while...

 this guy took it very seriously and he made sure he

checked each thing off before he moved onto the next.

here's what we hid: reindeer moss, river rock, plastic butterfly, wood slice,

cut felt, white feather, fern clipping, and a stick the boys added tape to -

all from our yard or the craft store.  since the majority of the kids

couldn't read we just took a picture and printed them off.

then attached them to mini clipboards + tied on a little twig pencil 

we also made little bags to collect their treasures in which became their

goodie bag and also held their candy from the piñata they did later.

the great part is it can be reinvented again and again, party or not!