Corinne's "Little Town" Party, Part 2

Corinne's cake featured all her favorite characters, and Gaston...

Nana tried her hardest to keep those candles burning, but the wind had other plans...

This photo is Belle strong: Big Belle and Little Belle, who is licking the icing off of an even smaller Belle...

Our sweet Caroline was nursing a gymnastics injury, but she didn't let it keep her from being the life of the party...

Cille's first gymnastics meet ever coincided with Corinne's birthday party, and since the invitations had already been mailed there was really nothing we could do about it but ask Mawmaw to take her.  Luckily she made it back in time to meet Belle...

Belle brought a special surprise for Corinne...

It was coronation day!

Oh, look, another Belle!

Corinne's like, "Meet my sister.  She is Belle, too..."

I love that Cille is 7 but still loves to get lost in the magic of make-believe.  Never change, Cille...

 Corinne even got a coronation certificate...it was all very official...

I love this one...

Corinne sincerely had the BEST time with Belle...

And speaking of princesses, we had two more at our party...

I could just eat her up...

My sweet big Belle...

We forgot to take a photo of Corinne's entry table setup and almost forgot to take a photo of her birthday banner, but we realized before we tore it completely down.  Just imagine there are balloons on both sides of the banner...

The weekend of Corinne's party was a whirlwind with a gymnastics meet in Lafayette, two flag football games, a baby shower, a friend's skating party, and leading children's worship at church the morning of the party, so it was really kind of a miracle that we pulled it off as well as we did.  As always, the most important thing was that Corinne felt special and enjoyed her party, a goal which I am pretty positive we nailed.  We love you, Coco, and hope that 3 is your best year yet!

Halloween, Part 2

Gaston did manage to make it into the group photo.  I did also; I was Babette, the feather duster/maid.  I created my costume by safety pinning feather boas to the bottom of my 1998 winter formal dress from college.  Yay for stretch fabrics and being a hoarder...

This photo features our entire group of dressed up guests.  The big boys like to try to be scary, and Briley was an 80's chick...

The 6 of us in costume...

The 8 of us in costume...this is probably our best shot of Gaston's getup...

We also had some very special cousins come celebrate their first Halloween with us...

Their costumes weren't baaaaad either...haha...

They were the cuddliest little lambs ever...

So another Halloween is in the books!  We are accepting suggestions for next year's theme!

Halloween, Part 1

Things have gotten a lot more elaborate since our first family dress up back in 2009.  Now everyone dresses up, from grandparents to friends, and that means we need a theme with LOTS of characters.  Since Corinne had been planning her Beauty and the Beast birthday party since right after her last birthday party, we decided that theme would kill two birds with one stone when we reused the costumes for her party.  And that's how Corinne became our Belle...

She was SOOO excited about her costume...

She kept telling her mirror, "Show me the beast!"  That may be the best dollar I ever spent at Dollar Tree...

Stella graciously agreed to be the old beggar woman who offered a single rose in exchange for shelter from the bitter storm...

And, of course, her "ugliness" melted away to reveal...

...a beautiful enchantress...

I wish I had a close-up because Madeline knocked it out of the park with Stella's eye makeup...

The creativity award goes to our very own Madame Garderobe, sometimes known as Elizabeth...

She even brought her own peasant girls from the nearby village...

Watts was offered the roles of the Beast and Gaston, but he turned them both down in order to play his favorite character, the footstool dog...

I made his costume from a maroon pillow sham from Walmart that I sewed embellishments onto.  He even had tassels at each end just like the footstool/dog in the movie...

At first our Beast had to take photos without his mask because Belle was a little bit "scary" of him, which is how Corinne says afraid...

Eventually he was able to put it on.  His costume also came with a fancy lace cravat, but I was too busy to help him get dressed so he forgot to put it on...

And the piece de resistance, our very own Chip, AKA Cille.  Her costume was a literal nightmare to pull off, darn the internet and DIY projects.  Damon and I completed it mere hours before it was time for her to wear it, but she LOVED being the center of attention on her trip around the neighborhood and was told by several adults that she had the "costume of the night," which MADE. HER. DAY...

Mawmaw's Mrs. Potts costume was pretty epic also...

Belle loved them both...

Pawpaw was Gaston, and had an epic mullet wig complete with ponytail, but Belle HATES Gaston and refused to take a picture with him.  Luckily Mr. Ray was able to convince her that it was just Pawpaw in time for her to allow him to trick or treat with her.  What a diva...

Group photos in the next post!