5.04.2018

Texas Tech Alumni Legacy Program

Oh my goodness. You guys. 
About a month ago I learned about the 
and can I please tell you how P-P-Pumped I was to find out about it? 
Any kiddo with a parent, grandparent, or special Red Raider graduate  in their family that is enrolled with the Texas Tech Alumni Association at the Century Level ($100)can become a Legacy!  
We enrolled and not 2 weeks later the kiddos got the sweetest mail surprise! {I mean, come on, who doesn't love a good mail day?! This surprise will forever top the list!} 

 In the first package all Legacies receive a welcome letter and gift as well as their membership cards! 
 We received the most gorgeous red fleece blankets embroidered with the Double T and "Legacy Program". They are SO soft and the quality is impeccable! {I may or may not have cuddled up on the couch with one a time or 2! They feel like heaven!} 
With the annual membership legacies will receive birthday greetings, exclusive gifts and invitations to legacy events throughout their childhood to remind them they are an important part of the Texas Tech family! 



There is no greater gift to give a child than a passion for education and a community to feel apart of. I am thrilled to pass my love for Texas Tech to the next generation just like my mom passed her love for Tech on to me! 



The Century Level membership has a ton of great benefits, in addition to the Legacy Program, including access to the Frazier Alumni Pavillon on the Texas Tech campus on game day. 
Back in the day (long ago!) when I was a Tech Cheerleader I absolutely LOVED the Frazier Alumni Pavillon. It's a nice cool retreat from the blazing West Texas sun with great food and drinks! 
I cannot wait to take my kiddos there this Fall for homecoming! 

Also, we will also start receiving the Techsan magazine, get discounts at national retailers and the ability to network with over 30,000 fellow Red Raiders! 


So you guys click here to become apart of the LEGACY
Also, once you become a member don't forget to use the hashtag #TTAALegacy for a chance to become the Legacy of the Month! 
You guys may know a few little kiddos being featured soon! 

Wreck 'Em Tech! 
Lauren 

*Working in collaboration with the Texas Tech Alumni Association but all opinions are our own! Thank you, Tech!!! 






5.01.2018

Tea for Two Birthday Party


 Tea for Two: 

Our Caroline Carlisle turned 2 on November 5th and we celebrated 
our girl with a "Pink Tea Party" at her request! 
Y'all, our girl cracks us up beyond measure. She's a fancy little spitfire. 
She insisted on wearing a string of (faux) pearls, white gloves and church shoes everyday for about 6 months, mind you most of the time with JUST a diaper. 
The girl knows what she likes and what she doesn't and we are all just along for the ride! 

{Dress: Pink Peony Boutique Hat: Etsy Shop Timeless Kisses 
Photo by: Nicole Weirick Photography}

First off, we decided on the House of Hadley Kate for our birthday celebration venue! 
The House of Hadley Kate is located in downtown Frisco and is the cutest old house that has been renovated for children's birthday parties! 
They do ALL the set up, tear down and have employees help host the party which is incredibly helpful! 
We had toured the House of Hadley Kate before CC's first birthday and wanted to save this cute venue for a more "themed" party when she was a tad older so she could partake in all the cute activities they set up! 
{CC has since been asked to be a brand ambassador for their cute kids boutique HOHK Kids! You can shop online and follow their instagram! Seriously such cute stuff!}

Once we picked the theme and venue I went to pinterest to start gathering ideas for her decor.
The first thing I knew we had to have was a balloon swag! 
I emailed over a picture to the House of Hadley Kate and boy did they deliver! 
I love the mix of light pink, white and gold glitter balloons with the gorgeous greenery detail. 
I then ordered the "Tea for Two" gold balloons to nail the theme home. 
{Gold Foil Balloons:Etsy Shop Oh Shiny Paper Co }
{Large white confetti Balloons: Etsy Shop Super Sweet Party

Before I even picked a cake I knew I wanted CC to have a macaroon tower. 
Nothing pairs better with tea and pink macaroons! 
Since we didn't need 300 macaroons we added in roses to the display and I think it turned out so elegant and pretty! 
As for the food we went with tried-and-true Market Street Catering. The food is so delicious and extremely well priced. Our menu consisted of Tea Sandwiches (Cucumber with dilled cream cheese, Honey maple ham with swiss and raspberry preservatives, Pimento cheese, Smoked gouda spread with tomatoes and bacon, Artichoke chicken salad on olive bread, Turkey and American cheese and Peanut butter and jelly)  European Cheese Board, Stuffed Brie Platter, Charcuterie board, Fruit platter and a Veggie Platter. 
{Macaroon tower: Amazon, Macaroons: Market Street



My dear friend Jenn Lyons owns the best paper goods company around, Filled with Joy, and she custom made the sign, thank you tags and invite! 

The cake is always one of the most fun parts to pick out! I usually let the kids scroll through pinterest and pick out ideas they like! Then we take it and make it our own. 
Our friend and neighbor Mary Baird is the owner of Better Batter Cakes and she is always so incredible! 
CC wanted a "pink tea pot and cup" so Mrs. Mary made it happen! 

 For the tea party I thought each of our friends needed their own hand painted tea cup which also served as the party favor. They had so much fun sipping tea from their cups and of course I had little plastic tea cups with straws too. 
 The kiddos enjoyed a few types of decaf tea, lemonade and water. 
{Tea Cups: Holly Slay}







As for entertainment, we had fun dressing up in pearls, twirling around the dance floor and decorating hats and tea cups! 









Well there you have it! Our little "pink tea party" was so much fun and we are so thankful for our family and friends that came to celebrate our little Ceec!! 
My baby girl, you hold such a special place in my heart! You are wonderfully carefree, strong and yet the kindest soul I have ever known. You are thoughtful and soft but brave and independent. You are a social butterfly that doesn't know a stranger but a mama's girl through and through. Your heart is pure gold and I couldn't be more proud of who you are! I pray you know what unique talents and gifts you have. That you use them to your full potential. I pray you are courageous and kind. Loving and giving. 
Caroline Carlisle you are made for extraordinary things. I can never thank God enough for YOU!
I love you with my whole heart!!!! 

5.01.2017

Fair Themed Birthday Party

Welcome to Eli's State Fair! 



Our little buddy turned FOUR in April and we celebrated by throwing him a 
Texas State Fair Themed birthday party. 
Eli has been to opening morning at the fair every year of his life (read about that here! )
 so the theme choice was easy! 
The hard part was I could't find much on Pinterest so we had to get creative. 

First, I started with picking red, blue and touches of yellow for the color pallet. 
I wanted the feel to be vintage and of course I went with  my go to pattern of gingham. 
I already owned lots of burlap and wooden decor so I mixed those in as well. 

Sign in table:










I wasn't actually planning to do a sign in table until 2 nights before the party.
Last minute I thought of the idea of displaying photos of the birthday boy on a wooden pallet. 
Some of our neighborhood is still under construction so I cruised through that area and found a pallet with the least amount of ants and loaded that sucker into the back of my car. 
My kids thought I was insane and we had to drive at the pace of a turtle home because I couldn't close the trunk but this may be my favorite part of the party decor! 
I pulled out old pictures and printed some of the new ones. 
I stapled twine that we already had and then used clothes pins to attach the pics. 
It was super inexpensive but held so many precious memories! 
I ordered the gingham table cloths off amazon and rented the cute burlap skirts from a friend in my neighborhood, Caydi. 
I used frames from around the house to display Eli's four year bluebonnet pictures.
A few months back I met local artist Liana Yarckin at an event I was doing with my store, 
Patina + Peonies. 
She fell in love with our Bla Bla dolls and I fell in love with her art work featuring the 
Texas State Fair!!! 
We traded goods and I framed her art work to display for Eli's party! 
For flower arrangements I took coffee cans and wrapped them in "Admit One" red tickets and used old coke bottles, and mis-matched mason jars and milk jars we had around the house. 
I hot glued red gingham ribbon and blue prize ribbons to everything to bring the whole look together. 
Every year I have bought wooden letters from Hobby Lobby and mod podged scrap book paper to display Eli's name. It's inexpensive and a cute way to highlight the birthday boy! 
Lastly, I rummaged through the books we had upstairs and picked a Texas themed book with the least amount of ripped pages! (I think this one was technically a Valentine's Day book but it never actually said Valentine's day so I went with it! Ha!) 

Dessert Table: 




 


Next, I started working on the dessert table! 
I have always wanted to do pipe and draping for a backdrop but never wanted to fork over the money. 
So I thought outside the box and found the pipe on Amazon for $30 ( I think it's technically a photographers backdrop pipe?) and bought a burlap table cloth for $17 saving hundreds of dollars on a true draping! 
I didn't love the clips up top so I covered them with those little fans I found at Walmart for $0.88 per package. 
I made the bunting myself by purchasing the diamond burlap banner and cutting out the fabric and using liquid stick to attach the fabric. I will say next time I will just spend the $25 and order this off Etsy because it took entirely too long! 
I bought the crates from Target in the crafting section and the red cake stands
 from the dollar section at Target. 
For the cookie dessert stands, I hot glued blue ribbons to stands I got off the dollar aisle at target! 
I already had the wood stumps, hay bales and the crates for the cake pops.
 I just added some gingham ribbon. 
The banner and pie tags were made by Jen Lyons owner of Filled with Joy. 
The balloon towers might have been one of my favorite parts and after getting a few quotes (and some were entirely outrageous might I add!!!) we went with a sweet local couple from RENYNRYKE Creations.

Desserts:

 







When I started thinking fair themed desserts I knew we needed live cotton candy + mini pies
I saw on Pinterest a ferris wheel pie/ cupcake holder and 
knew I wanted that to be the center of the table. 
Since, I had a center piece in place I went with 2 smaller cakes and was able to choose 2 really cute toppers. Eli said one of his favorite things of the whole party was his pig cake! 
We then decided to do animal themed cake pops to match the petting zoo out front and had to get creative with the Texas State Fair themed cookies! 
We did Big Tex's hat + boots, the prize winning Pig, Blue Ribbons, the number 4 with a fletchers corn dog, the ferris wheel, and a cute plaque displaying Eli's name to make it extra personal! 
Cake: Better Batter Cakes (Mary lives in my neighborhood!)
Cookies, Pies, Cake pops: Sweets on a Stick
Cotton Candy: Fluff and Stuff 

Food:








 Next, I called our trusty friend, Chef David, and asked him to make turkey legs, roasted corn, corndogs, fruit, veggies, and pop corn. 
We already had the terra cotta pots from Eli's second birthday and I bought the fruit baskets off Amazon.  

Drink Table: 




For the cups I reused the Starbucks Frap bottles from Eli's second birthday (Mitch had to drink all that coffee so I'm glad we have gotten to use them some!) and added water bottle labels to them. 
Every year I have done a custom cup for both kiddos but this year I saw these cute Big Tex hat look alike on Oriental Trading Company and went with those!! 

Entertainment: 







 






This was the best part of the entire party! 
When we decided on the fair theme I knew I wanted cute games, Big Tex, 
a petting zoo and some sort of show. 
We called up our pal, Paul, and he sent over Big Tex but we ran into a small problem...
All the jugglers, clowns, performers were all attending the last ever Ringling Bros Circus show since they had all worked for the company in the past. 
Paul suggested Mikey the Monkey as a fun alternative and decided that would be fun! 
For the games we decided on the Match the Lucky Ducks, Ring Toss and Lasso the Horse. 
We drank down some cokes, used a bucket we already owned and a glow bracelet from the prize section for the ring toss! 
I ordered the Matching Ducks games off Amazon and Mitch built the horse from wood we already had. I added the bandana and luckily found the hoola hoop super last minute in our playroom closet. 
I ordered the cardboard barn and custom Fair Stand and those ended up being some of my favorite items of the party! 

Favor: 


I ordered all the little prizes off Amazon and Eli was ecstatic with all the little treasures! Ha! 

Overall, this ended up being super last minute and kinda thrown together but has to be my favorite party so far. The theme was so cute and Eli had the time of his life!!! 

*Photography: Arielle Humphries Photography*








































Eli, 
You will always hold such a special place in my heart as you were the one who made me a mama.
We learned so much alongside one another. 
You came into the world a fierce little determined thing and I know without a doubt that will always be one of your song suits. 
You were joy in the hardest time of my life and peace when I needed it the most. 
You are silly, hysterical, love jokes, and watching movies.
You are strength, kindness and have a heart of gold. 
You shower your mama in snuggles, kisses and words of affirmation. 
You and your sister truly are the lights of my life.
The word love doesn't seem to do justice to what I feel in my heart for you.
Baby boy, YOU are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden.
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on it's stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven. (Matt 5:14-16)
Eli, your light is contagious.
You have such a calling on your life and I know God will use you for great and mighty things. 
You are the ANSWER to prayer. 
You are UNIQUE and there will never be anyone on earth that can fulfill what God has placed you on earth to do.
Proud of you always, 
Mommy