Fairwell July...See You Next Year!

We spent a glorious afternoon in the sun and pool with our old neighbors Melissa & Amelia. It was so nice to catch up with them, they are really missed around the neighborhood!

 I may be in the minority, but I just heart buying school supplies! Trying to find the best deals, seeing all the Crayola markers, colored pencils, and crayons looking so perfect in their boxes, and thinking of all the possibilities there are to decorate binders. Who doesn't love a perfectly sharpened pencil or opening up a new box of markers/crayons??? I used to love covering my books with a brown grocery bag giving me a clean slate to doodle all over for the year. So I just had to send the girls off to school in style...paper crafting style ;-)

Even the spines have to look good!

 Another thing I love is planning birthday parties! This year I took a little inspiration from a party supply catalog, my girlfriend "Babbling Abby", and a cake idea I've been dying to try. As you will be able to tell from many of the pics below the theme was color...rainbows! Kimberly and I had a lot of fun making the rainbow jello cups.

B-day card for my niece Halle

Love the rainbow DMC floss effect!

 I have always wanted to make these! They were super simple and gave a great punch of color to our party.

 The three birthday girls {Lexus, Kimberly & Halle}each turned 11, 7, and 8 respectfully.

 The centerpiece of the party which continued our rainbow theme...the CAKE! This cake was a bit of a challenge for me. I had never made a cake this tall before and underestimated the amount of icing I would need. In the end it was totally worth it!

Even our party favors were rainbow!

 Lexus got braces last Tuesday! She is doing pretty well with them, only causing her minimal pain. It is amazing the difference they have made on her front teeth in less than a week. She got Highlands colors (blue & white).

Since we are well on our way to breaking the record of over 17 days with no rain in the 90's, we felt water centered activities would be perfect to entertain the kids. 

A boy + his daddy + trucks = HEAVEN!

B-day girls before opening presents ;-)

The girls will be running in the Junior Olympics again this year, can't wait to see what events they participate in!