wow, has it been that long?

I guess time does fly when you're having fun!! A little update on my life lately, my youngest Emily just turned 1 year old this past month, can you believe it!?! She's starting to walk and is getting tooth # 4, so she's growing by leaps and bounds (so exciting for her and bittersweet for her momma).

And her big sister is keeping us busy too. Now that potty training boot camp is finally over I feel like I can breath again!

In honor of Emily's birthday, I thought I'd post some photos of her birthday celebration! Some of the ideas are borrowed (I'll try to credit the originals where I can) and some are my own. The whole idea for the circus theme came from two blog posts I saw a while ago by little.lovely and designmom. Two super amazing blogs for kids parties in particular and kids stuff in general!!! Seriously, if you're a mom, check them out!

The invitation is pretty much stolen straight from the party on designmom. But, I think I did it justice.

I made the circus tent pull pinata from scratch-that was an adventure, but I think it turned out well. Funny, all that work and it's destroyed in 2 seconds flat!

And, what circus party is complete without popcorn, balloon animals and a ringmaster? My niece Alexis dressed up and was our Mistress of Ceremonies.

We had a circus parade after the birthday song and cake time (for which the birthday girl cried). The kids had noise makers, clown noses and silly glasses to parade around in to get all the sugar highs out of their system (great trick for transitioning to an after-party mellower mood- if you can tolerate 15 minutes of pure chaos). All in all, lots of fun was had!

One last note! I'm not usually one for self-promotion, but I have finally gotten around to officially opening my Etsy shop, so stop by and take a look at some of the stuff I've been making!