when it came time to plan a little get together party for pailyn & her closest friends, i was thinking along the lines of tutus and ties. pailyn, however had been on a major monster-loving kick for months-watching monster’s inc. and roaring at us all to make us act scared or laugh. she reminds me of monster, inc.’s little ‘boo’ in so many ways…i explored the idea of a monster party. i didn’t want just a monster party though; we needed a girly monster bash! with the help of a pink, melon orange, and aqua color scheme and the fabulous heather of chickabug‘s willingness to customize a girly monster bash invite along with fun party printables–the girly monster bash birthday party was born!

and if you can’t tell, my little beast was in birthday party heaven!

it was quite the challenge playing party planner, chef (i use the term loosely-although the ‘monster melt sammies’ were freakin’ awesome if i do say so myself!), hostess, momma, and photographer–i certainly didn’t get to carry out all the plans i had for the big day, but man was it fun! i vowed not to go overboard so i could enjoy pailyn’s day & i succeeded on that front. so, as far as i’m concerned the monster bash was a roaring success.

because we kept pay’s first birthday simple, (she had king cake at nana’s) i had a “smash” cake made just for her for this party.

• she blew out both candles all by herself
• showed us she is unfazed by a little flame hitting her fingers
• didn’t cry a tear while we all sang along to bennett’s (who did cry the first 3 years of his life when happy birthday was sang to him) playing of the happy birthday song on his keyboard.
• dove right in using a candle as a utensil
• sang the happy birthday song to herself for over a week every time she was in her highchair in hopes of getting more cake

• oh, and she did not succeed in licking all the icing off her face, lol

some of pailyn’s fabulous little friends who made her day super special!

these monster mouths were super fun! pailyn didn’t cooperate, but amelia & aiden sure did! since the party-pailyn has walked around the house lots with her monster mouth, naturally.

some little detail shots

love, love, love my sweet (most of the time) two year old!

party credits:

• chickabug:   invite design, printables, custom water bottle labels- heather, you totally created exactly what i wanted & were beyond awesome to work with!
• my dear friend angela: creator of adorable monster marshmallow pops and party planner extraordinaire herself- thanks for all you help & for letting me shop your party supply store
• with love:    custom monster hat for portrait featured on the back of the invite- thanks kimberly!!
• zozobug baby:  custom “2″ birthday shirt- we just love julie and her fun designs!
• kati’s kupcakes:  custom cupcake toppers and smash cake topper- seriously, how cute were these! and i was amazed at how yummo they were too! thanks kati
• mini-eco:   great tutorial for the sewn paper garland. it was super easy! i used cardstock from my stash and whipped up a super long garland in about an hour one night. (now if only i could sew fabric!)
• the party favors contained these little stuffed monsters (although i purchased them on amazon, but i think i bought the last two dozen available, sorry!)
• i created the monster mouths on a stick using this cute clip art.
• thanks to my heather for that fun, roaring pic of my & my birthday girl.

and just in case you haven’t seen enough. here is the video

the 59 of us were sent an exclusive-to-the-contest dress, an adorable pair of straightees and a fabulous, fun flower accessory. we were free to with them what we wanted. i actually have sketches and notes of 3 fully edited shoots complete with unique (if there is such a thing anymore, lol) props and extras. one idea was to spread the three pieces across two little girls and a puppy, however, the more thought i put into it the more i just wanted to be me. i adore a good prop and a fabulous set up cannot be beat, but clean-simple-focus on the subject is where i’m happiest.

so that’s what i did.

i used my facebook fan page to announce a call for models once i learned i had been selected. i was blown away with all the adorable little girls i got to choose from. in the end only a few were the perfect fit i wanted for the outfit (i needed those straightees to fit cropped for the river) and lainey couldn’t have been more perfect! i so hoped she’d be a fan of moon pies so i could get the above shot. oh yeah…she certainly was!

oh, how these make me long for spring! for spring and a closet full of new matilda jane clothes in pailyn’s room! i’ve seen some of the other submissions & so many are wow quality! what an honor to be among those chosen. should i be lucky enough to go on to the top 10, please prepare because i’ll be asking begging for your votes!  regardless of what happens, this has been fun!

and here is a little more insight into our time at the river

well, she went from a precious little sleeper to an adorable little sitter. see…

man, i *love* my “job!”

also, bigger images!! let’s celebrate the newness and fabulousness of bigger images by uploading one, shall we? yes, yes i will!

taadaaaa!

be sure to subscribe to the rss feed and update your bookmarks for me  :) i’m going to attempt to do a better job of keeping this thing from getting dusty

baby r decided to make an early arrival late last month. he is pure sweetness and all boy. gah…how i *love* his hairline!

i've had this mohawk knit in my arsenal of props for quite some time just waiting for a baby boy cool enough to pull it off.

and he was!

for the most part, i go into each newborn session open minded & ready to let baby and the surroundings guide me along the way as to what images i'll be capturing. i do often have an idea or two i'd like to pull off if it works out…below is the image i wanted to capture when i saw baby boy's nursery pics on fb before he arrived. 

he was a perfect little poser and sleeper for me allowing me to get just what i envisioned! dad did a great job too ) 

what a perfect christmas blessing a new baby is! l & c, he is perfection and so enjoyed spending the day with your new family of three.

i just think my baby girl is stinkin’ cute in this next one. look at those prissy little fingers & that pointed toe!

time to head back for nap time before trick-or-treat.

special thanks to angela for amelia’s too-little sparkly shoes & especially the fabulous bows she whipped up for pailyn…they were perfect!

for costume information, hop on over to pailyn’s very own blog for a link to the etsy shop.

angela & i share an admiration for party planing/decorating blogs & when she let me know a few months ago that she'd made contact with the ubber talented kim of the tomkat studio blog about collaborating on a milk & cookies party for amelia i was quite excited & certainly on board to photograph the event.

needless to say, amelia's birthday party was just fabulous!

didn't angela do a beautiful job?! (and trust pailyn & me…it was as yummy as it was gorgeous!)

themed printables by the tomkat studio these will be available for purchase soon )

miss amelia…the adorable birthday girl

look how everyone is looking at me. everyone except my pailyn; she was not taking her eyes off that cake-typical )

these little girls loved drinking their milk through pretty straws!

and here are more from the day:

happy second birthday sweet mimi…we enjoyed celebrating with you!

so now, it's time to announce the winner of the complimentary matilda jane mini shoot! everyone was entered once for each piece purchased…there were 46 chances in the bowl-pailyn was kind enough to be the official drawer and pulled out the winner with much enthusiasm!

congratulations to stephanie!

i'm excited about seeing miss presley in one of her new matilda jane dresses or outfits! stephanie & presley are new to MJC but she wasted no time jumping right in ) let me just say odds were a bit in her favor swimming around in that glass bowl.

and because the video quality is so crummy, i feel the need to share something cute of my growing girl

she has been all about her new wardrobe & we've enjoyed the dry, cooler weather lots! i hope all my friends with adorable girlies enjoy their new mj pieces-be sure to post pictures on facebook so i can see them in it!

xoxo