A Nemo Birthday

We had a big Nemo bash for Hannah in May.  Suddenly now, she's three!  I'll have a post all about our girl soon.  I didn't blog much about Hannah at two.  For all the difficulty that her first year of life brought to us in parenthood, she has blessed us with a fun and easy toddler stage for which we are forever grateful.  I could go on and on about how wonderful she is, but I'll stay on task about the party details and share about Hannah in another post.

So Hannah's party was about a month before the release of "Finding Dory".  She chose the Nemo theme a couple months before with no clue about the upcoming movie release.  I'll admit I was pretty excited to do a Nemo theme.  There are just so many scenes you can pull from for decorating ideas, and I loved how colorful it could be.  We'll have plenty of pink birthday parties in our future.  Plus I knew I would be able to more easily find party items with the new movie release.  We were still a few weeks early before the motherload of Dory things hit the shelves.  So we were able to get a little creative too which I love.

For the front door, I made this wreath from tulle ribbon.

Once inside, we did a big ocean mural across our living room windows.  I used my cricut again this year to make the characters.  I plan on putting them in an album with pictures from her party like I did last year.  She loves looking at her Pooh album to remember her 2 year party.  I completely lucked out on the water background.  It is bulletin board paper in an ocean scene.  I was walking around the aisles at hobby lobby looking for anything that would work.  I was thinking of using transparent blue gift wrap when I happened upon this.  It only took one roll, and I had my coupon.  Score!  Mom win.

We added some characters to the family room mantle too.

When asked what she wanted at her birthday, Hannah's one request was a Nemo balloon.  So I bought this overpriced one off amazon that lasted a day.  Nemo and Dory balloons weren't at the grocery yet in May.  Now they're all over the place.  Oh well, she still loved it.

For centerpieces in the kitchen and dining room, I found cheap, plastic fishbowls off Amazon.  I filled them with nerds and put Nemo bath toys inside.  The rock candy was supposed to look like aquarium coral.  The fish net was a big sheet I bought off Amazon as well, and I cut it up to use in different areas.

I made these jellyfish for over the kitchen table.  I didn't put the center wire in them so they wouldn't be as perfectly round.  I hung them with teeny, tiny clear command hooks.  I loved those things.  They were so easy and stayed put.

I also added the goggles with the address that helped lead Marlin and Dory back to Nemo.

For the food, we had croissant deli meat sandwiches made to look like crabs.

I got the idea to buy different colored napkins and arranged it look like clown fish stripes.

As a healthier option to the croissants, we had lettuce wraps.  Our spinach artichoke dip (seaweed dip) was still in the oven.

I made the cake from a football pan and freeformed cut all the fins.  They don't make fish pans...trust me I've looked.

I used sharpie pens to decorate this pot out on our patio.  It was kind of a chilly day, so no one ended up eating out here.  We still have it out on our deck, and the flowers are huge two months later!

This mini bouncy house was our gift to Hannah.  The cost to rent a big bouncy house was comparable to purchasing this one.  We knew we only would have a few little ones to jump and went for this instead.  We still blow it up and play in it about once a week.  It only takes about two minutes to inflate and comes in a nice storage bag.  We love it!

We found this Dory bowling set at the dollar store.  The girls loved playing it.

I love everything about this picture of her blowing out her candle with Grandma and some of her best buds.

We opened so many thoughtful and wonderful gifts.

I completely failed at getting pictures with all our family and friends, but this is a sweet one with Hannah's Nunu.

Most of the party favors were from the store 5Below.  Everything there is under $5 in case the name wasn't obvious.  ;)  We gave Hannah's guests a coloring book, sidewalk chalk, fruit snacks, and pez dispenser.

This was a picture at 5below when we were shopping for our favors. haha.

Oh this girl is so loved, and I hope that her Nemo party lived up to all she had dreamed.  She is as sweet as can be.  Happy 3rd Birthday, Hannah!

Babies on the Beach

Well I just posted about our kitchen backsplash update.  That was a recent project we finished, but now I'm going to jump waaaay back to last summer (yes, this is how far behind I am).  We went to the beach with our good friends, Jenny and Jakob, and their adorable daughter, Avery.  Avery was about 10 months on this trip, and Hannah had just turned 2.  Weston and I have taken several trips with Jenny and Jakob, but this marked the first trip with kids.

We met our friends down at the beach, but Weston and I rented a minivan so that we could all caravan around together while we were down there.  And y'all.  We loved that minivan.  Automatic sliding doors are the greatest invention ever.  But are we minivan people??  Surely not.  My old college roommates predicted I am.  Time will tell how well they know me. :)

Getting back on subject, we had a fantastic time at Santa Rosa Beach located on 30A between Seaside and Sandestin.  Not many places on 30A are beach front, and we love this little complex.  It was our second time staying there.  It was ground level with a flat grassy area for the kids to play right off the patio.

We spent our trip on beach and eating delicious dinners just the way we like to vacation.  After the kids went to sleep, we spent our evenings on the patio with a drink in hand talking about life with our friends while we listened to the waves crash in behind us.

We found a couple new fantastic restaurants.  There is one just over the bay bridge with delicious sushi with this waterfront beach area.  We snapped a few pictures after dinner.

Our favorite family selfie to date.

We had to put the girls in matching dresses one night.

The outtakes:

Honk

Have you ever run quickly to a baby's aid stuck on their back in the sand??  Warning, you may kick sand in their poor face.  This may or may not have happened.

There was a lot of jumping and squealing at the ocean.  This beach trip marked the transition into really having fun in the sand for Hannah.

Avery really liked the beach too for being as young as she was when we went.  She even napped twice on the beach!

Coordinating swimsuits thanks to Jenny's Mom.  Thanks Sharon!

We love this little place of paradise, and we're so thankful our friends agreed to join us.  It was definitely not like our trips before babies, but it was exhausting and fun.  I'll cherish this trip always.