Dalton's 2nd Birthday Party

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So, this post is a little late but back in June we celebrated Dalton's 2nd birthday. This year Dalton wanted a Mickey Mouse birthday party. I was able to make some really fun things for his party like pinwheels and Mickey Mouse party hats. For his friend goodies I made a "Dalton's Mix CD" full of Disney and Pixar movie music. I wanted to make it a classic Mickey Mouse party so I decided to stick with a black, red, and yellow color theme. Since I couldn't find any classic Mickey Mouse party supplies I decided to make my own. I ended up using black paper plates and bought a Mickey Mouse stamp that I used to stamp the white napkins and pinata candy bags.

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Unfortunately the week of Dalton's party the whole family got sick with the flu and we had to postpone the party to the following week. I had so many other things going on that week also that I wasn't able to make a grand Mickey Mouse cake and had to stick with cupcakes. I was very sad and it took a lot of convincing myself that it is not the end of the world if I don't have a grand birthday cake for my son. So, like I said, I ended up making what I like to call "Suprise Cupcakes". I made a chocolate cupcake that had an oreo at the bottom with a cream cheese whipped cream frosting. (Which, in the future I would avoid the whip cream frosting for an outside party and probably just stick with some buttercream that would hold up a lot better.) Sooo yummy! I made the Mickey faces a few days ahead of time and cut them out of fondant using a miniature cookie cutter I purchased online. I also custom made the cupcake stand to match the theme of the party! My friend, Mindy, made some Mickey Mouse suguar cookies that she decorated with buttercream icing and fondant. Sooooo yummy, too! And of course we had to get a Mickey Mouse pinata. We had a blast! Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us!!!

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Hannah and Connley all decked out in their party gear. I forgot to mention I also got pins from Disneyland for all the kids.
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Dalton's owie. :(
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I'm not really sure why Mickey Mouse is wearing a suit? Guess he dressed up for the party...
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Happy Birthday Dalton! Hope it was a good one!!

Happy Birthday Connley!

Connley turned 4 last week and we had a Toy Story party for him last Saturday. I made life easy and sent out an evite this year. This is the image I made for the evite.

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When I asked Connley what kind of party he wanted this year he told me he wanted a Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and Rex dinosaur party. So I decided we may as well just make it a Toy Story party.

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the Cake:

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This year I decided to try my hand at fondant and because of this I decided to make the cake a little more simple. I purchased little Toy Story action figures from ebay. I made a round 9 inch cake for the bottom and a round 6 inch cake for the top. I then used a layer of buttercream icing and then covered the cakes with fondant. (Both recipes are waay yummy!) I cut the white clouds out by hand and adhered them to the cake using a small drop of water on the back of each cloud. I then used the buttercream icing to pipe the edges. I ended up using the buttercream to stick the figures on the cake but had trouble with them staying on when transporting the cake. I think it would have been better if I had made royal icing to adhere the figures. I'm still learning!

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The best part about the cake this year is my birthday present that arrived the day I began making the cakes. Just in time!....

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Yay! My new Kitchen Aid!

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the Party:
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Seriously, how awesome is this pinata?! Yes, that's suppose to be Woody. Haha! When I picked him up at the pinata shop I was a bit surprised, but Connley loved it and that's all that matters, right?! ;)
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Happy Birthday, dear Connley!

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Present time!

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Dalton got Connley a Bumblebee Transformer for his birthday.
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Mom and Dad got him his much asked for Rex the dinosaur.
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Messy, messy little boy.

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Happy Birthday Connley! We love you!!!

Thanks to those who came to celebrate with us!

Bucket O Soldiers

love these pictures

of connley playing with his toy soldiers he got for christmas!

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Santa Claus

This year we got to see Santa Claus at Disneyland. Not only did we see Santa, but Mrs. Claus and Santa's reindeer too! In this shot Connley is asking Santa for a Toy Story Woody for Christmas. He was so excited to see Santa and ask him for Woody.

So, was Connley a good boy this year? What could be in that present with the big red bow?!

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I'd say he was a good boy!

Christmas Day

How did you spend your Christmas day?

Once the kids went down for their naps Jason and I spent our Christmas afternoon making this short film with some of the new toys we, I mean the kids, got for Christmas.

We hope you had a good one! Enjoy!

Awe, memories...

Exactly a year ago from today we had our Speirs Family Ugly Sweater Christmas Eve Dinner. I will miss not seeing my family for Christmas this year and their ugly sweaters. Christmas just isn't Christmas without ugly sweaters...oh, and family of course! So who do you think has the ugliest sweater? (You can't really see, but James is wearing a University of Utah sweater. haha!)

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Brave little Connley

More Disneyland?! You're probably wondering if there is anything else we do besides go to Disneyland. Hmmm...nope, not really. I'm a little behind on posting these pictures. Okay, a lot behind. We went to Disneyland back in October with my mom, sister, brother, sister-in-law, and a bunch of their buddies. This trip was especially fun because the fact that Connley is now tall enough to ride the big rides! Yay! And the best part is he is also brave enough. Maybe because I didn't really give him a choice to be afraid. I just took him on the rides and told him how cool and fun they were and he thought they were cool and fun. So now when I ask him what his favorite rides are at Disneyland he tells me, "the Hotel (the Tower of Terror), Speedrace Train (Thunder Mountain), Space Mountain..." and of course Buzz Lighteryear, Finding Nemo, and Pirates are still on the list. I love my little boy!!! So, here are some pics from Connley's first experiences on these rides...

The Tower of Terror



Here's a closer look of his face. Haha! LOVE it! And yes, he still wants to ride the ride.



Here's Space Mountain. Wait. Where is Connley?! Well, he's sitting in the chair next to me. Can't see him at all. Yes, he's in the seat in front of my terrified, screaming sister. I imagine his face was somewhat like the one above.

Up

The 2009 Foote family Halloween costumes are up! Well, literally. We did an 'Up' theme this year. We had our ward Trunk-or-Treat party this last Friday. Connley was Mr. Carl Fredrickson and Dalton was Russell the Junior Wilderness Explorer trying to earn his Assisting the Elderly merit badge. Of course there was also a floating house and lots of balloons involved. The boys played their parts so well. Connley loved being Mr. Fredrickson. So much in fact that today for church he wanted to be Carl again. I was able to convince him that the bow tie was enough and he didn't need the white hair or glasses. We had a blast! Now it's time to start planning for next year! :)

This is the best picture I was able to get of Carl and Russell together.



Carl Fredrickson



Russell the Junior Wilderness Explorer

(Notice Russell has a Wall-E sleeping bag on his backpack. :)

All of the kids at the party LOVED the house and balloons. Everyone wanted to take a turn holding it. Apparently I made it sturdy enough because it survived!

Russell kept going from table to table sitting next to different people. I told them he was just trying to earn his Assisting the Elderly badge. It was pretty funny.

What a grouchy old man...

Connley with his best buddy Tristan who was dressed up as the Tin Man.

After the party with their stash.

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Here's a couple of close up pictures of the house I made. It is made out of cereal boxes and just glued together and painted. Perfect resemblance, right? Well, it's the best I could do with only one day to complete it. (I was sick at the beginning of the week and ended up only having a few days to finish the costumes. It all worked out though.)

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And here's Connley this morning right before church sporting his Carl Fredrickson bow tie.

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Happy Halloween!!!

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