Easter
Easter was really relaxing this year! Jason and Chloe hosted and all I had to do was show up. The view was incredible and the day was super relaxing. The girls have had so many egg hunts this year, we will be swimming in candy forever!
Cakes
Claire’s First Birthday
Claire’s first birthday was so fun to plan 🙂 I decided on a pink lemonade theme. I made a cute little lemonade stand, mainly for my pictures 😉 We had some close friends and family join us… not too big haha but big enough to warrent a Taco Guy! It’s our favorite reason for planning a big party.
Claire seemed to have a good time. This was our first party, I think, that had kids besides my own! It was fun to see our friend’s little guy as well as my cousin’s son! I think the kid ratio will start to grow more now… I hope.
Jillian’s 5th Birthday
Five years! Wow! We are so blessed to have such an amazing little girl. Jillian is truly a special person. She is a very sensitive little girl who is amazingly affectionate and full of wonder and creativity. I love indulging her during her favorite time of the year, her birthday!  This year has been the hardest to throw a birthday party considering Claire is barely two weeks old. We tried to talk Jillian into just going to Disneyland or somewhere equally fun, but nope, she had to have a party 🙂
So we decided to have the family come over for dinner on her actual birthday and then invite the preschoolers over for a Saturday party. Well the Family dinner kept growing, haha. The family list kept growing… it was really more of a dinner party for most of my mom’s friends 🙂 It was a really nice night! I really enjoyed having a Baby Break, haha, I think the only times I had Claire was when I was feeding her. The hardest part of that party was the prep! Claire was a bit cranky while I was trying to make a cake! The girls were also having sharing/playing nice issues and there was quite a bit of screaming and crying.
The Saturday preschool party was great… not many RSVPs… but the kids that showed up were really nice kids! We had a total of 7 kids plus 3 siblings. They all had a blast playing the backyard. The theme this year was ice cream, though no ice cream was actually served at the party. I made these fantastic cupcakes inside ice cream cones, thank you Pinterest! Unfortunately  Pinterest didn’t tell me that I shouldn’t make the cake ahead of time! All of the cones became soggy and fell over! My mom, thankfully, is amazing and ran to the store and picked up a cake. The party was a success and Jillian was super happy 🙂
Here are pictures from Thursday and Saturday 🙂 Check out my polka dot cake!!
Ice Cream Party 🙂
They lined up for the piñata by themselves 🙂 SO CUTE!
Jillian’s 4th Birthday
Jillian’s much anticipated 4th birthday party was great! Being inspired by Pinterest, I created a rainbow themed party for Jillian. At the last minute Jillian also asked for a Hello Kitty cake, so to compromise I made the cake rainbow in colors 🙂
Her party was an all day event! Her preschool friends arrived around 1pm and left around 4. Then the family/friends of family started arriving around 5pm. We had the Taco guy come (actually is was a Taco Gal). The food was delicious and the party was fun. It was great having so many friends and family around to celebrate Jillian’s 4th!
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Jillian’s Third Birthday
Wow, does time fly or what?! Three years flew by so quickly, it’s crazy to look back at baby pictures and see how much she has changed!
We had a nice/relaxing birthday party for Jillian. Since she doesn’t know many kids it was more of an adult party… tequila shots included. We have the most amazing friends and family!! Jillian hit the jackpot when it came to presents. There was so much she got a little overwhelmed.
Cake Pops take 2
During the Christmas season I tried to make some snowman cake pops. They were a total fail! haha They were ugly and way too sweet (I used funfetti cake mix plus a whole can of frosting). This time around I followed Bakerella’s directions. The cakes, still super sweet, were much better than the first time. They taste like having a super moist and condensed cupcake.  Also decorating them went much better this time around. I was able to get the chocolate semi-smooth.
Here they are 🙂 
Olivia’s Birthday Party
Olivia just turned 1! We had two celebrations for her this year. We had a family dinner on her actual dinner, complete with Cookie Monster and Elmo cupcakes. She was eyeing Cookie Monster all day, so she had a blast eating her cupcake. (It was super cute because she would go for the cookie without using her hands.)
On Saturday we had some friends come over to celebrate. For this party I made a ladybug cake. The cake itself was  neopolitan inspired, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla cake. It was overly sweet but fun to make.
One of my 30 before Thirty goals was to create an awesome first birthday cake for Olivia. I think I’ve accomplished that 🙂
Olivia’s Baptism
We had a very nice baptism for Olivia this weekend. The church service was nice, not too long. Olivia and Jillian were both really well behaved. Olivia did not cry when the water was poured onto her head. The water was warm, so it was bath like.  Adrian and I got to the church early so that we could take advantage of the beautiful grounds without people everywhere. We got some cute pictures of Olivia in her gown.
Olivia's Godmother Sabrina
Ryan was chosen to read
Here are pictures of my cake 🙂 I love how it turned out. I’ve also inculuded a picture of my dirt cake. Mmmm it was yummy.
This was number 21 on my 30 Before Thirty list!