Happy Birthday, Moose!

Today we celebrate three years of Amelia Joy Smittle!

My Mia has proven herself to be one of the sweetest children on the planet. She's quick to give compliments, tender hearted, and such a little mother with her baby brother(who she called HER baby up until about 3 months ago.). She's feisty, sassy, and opinionated-all traits she got from her mother, I'm sure.



She's got the most precious smile, and bright eyes that sparkle with excitement. When she smiles her whole face smiles with her. She has some of the cutest expressions. She reminds me so much of Olivia as a toddler.

She's silly, and loves to make us laugh. Although she was PAINFULLY shy this time last year, she's started to come out of that a lot since the big girls went to school.

She's a really fast runner, and gets away with being sneaky with her brothers and sisters because she can make a quick getaway. She loves being the baby girl, but is quick to add she's also a big girl.



Mia also has several nicknames: Moose is the most common name I call her, but I also started calling her Mia Jane or Janie or Jane Jane when she was a baby, and that has also stuck. Other names she'll answer to are Moo, Moo Moo, and Mooskie.

She loves her momma through and through. She's probably the one child out of the six that would be pick me over Manly. That's not to say she doesn't also love to wrestle with her daddy and brothers too though.



She loves her big sister, Olivia. They have a very special bond because since birth she's been Olivia's buddy. Olivia has helped to care for Mia, and in turn, Mia loves her fiercely.



She still hums or moans or whatever you want to call it when she eats. It's weird, but we've gotten mostly used to it. We still have to quiet her down sometimes when she starts getting loud at the table.

We are so glad the Lord decided to bless our family with our Mia Jane. She's brought so much JOY to us these last three years. We can't wait to see what God has ahead for her.

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Sweet Sweet Mia!  

Her favorite things right now are Frozen, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, All things princess, and...FROZEN. Did I mention FROZEN!? Seriously, Mia, LET IT GO ALREADY! It was only fitting that we had a "Frozen party." I say that loosely because if you know me, you know I LOVE to throw huge parties. I just wasn't able to do that this year because of some health related issues, but that was all well and good by Mia. Big crowds of people giving her undivided attention aren't exactly her thing anyway! We had my parents meet us at her favorite place, Larry's, and we had pizza and cake and lots of Frozen themed gifts! It was perfect for her and she didn't even cry when we sang, which was a huge step forward from last year.

Eating her birthday breakfast. She asked for chocolate syrup and biscuits. YUM!

 

The cake I slaved over picked up at Kroger! It looked great until Mia tried to pick it up to look at it right before we ate. It was still perfect and SO much easier than making our own!

Birthday Girl! Isaiah said, "Mom! I don't really think she turned THREE!!! She still looks TWO!" 

SO happy to get her beads from KK, and her Elsa dress and crown from mom and dad.

Checking out the gift Addison gave her.

Nana and Pop got her the Anna dress and doll! I couldn't get her to lay down for a nap without promising she could wear the dress the rest of the afternoon after she woke up. She's SO excited!

Listening to us sing to her she just looked down at her cake and half smiled.

After cake blue smile with Nana.

This little MESS after eating his cake. He's still laying up in his bed trembling and talking after all this sugar!!!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIA JOY!!!!!!

The Little Red Caboose Turns ONE!

Ya'll, it has been too long. I keep logging in to post really great things on my blog then feeling overwhelmed by all that I've not posted yet to get anything done. BUT, this is news too important not to share! This past Saturday our sweet Eli turned ONE! I just can't believe that it's already been a year since he joined and completed our family! I have worked hard to cherish each and every moment of his sweet life, because I know that this is our last time to have a little one in our house(YES, a miracle could happen, but I have no plans of being the next mother of a miraculously birthed baby!).
Those of you who read my blog know that I love to throw big birthday parties, but since we've had Eli that's been one of the things that I've tried to scale down drastically. We've done things like special outings and sleepovers instead, so we're still celebrating, just not on such a grand scale. It's been nice to not stress, but honestly I've been missing being able to create parties! When it started getting close to Eli's birthday I told Manly I wanted him to have at least ONE big party, SO I started planning! I knew at once that I wanted it to be a train party. That's one we've never done before, and because Eli is our last(and has red hair) we've called him our little red caboose since he was born. I quickly settled in on a vintage feel, and went from there.

I had Manly make me these rail road crossing signs to go on both sides of our mailbox. He used poster board and black cardstock and just freehanded the design.

Using black duct tape we made a train track up our sidewalk. So cute!

 

These rail road crossing signs were also made by Manly. I simply added red balloons for the lights. SO cute! (HEY! There is a pic of my red rocking chair too!)

 

 

To help with my theme I purchased two copies of the Little Golden Book called The Little Red Caboose. I took the books apart and used the pages for décor. I LOVED the way this door hanging turned out.

 

Right inside the door I had this little bulletin board I borrowed from a friend. We also put out a little red lantern and peppermints for guests. 

 

For the party favor area I decided to go with calling them souvenirs as if they were items found at a train station. I used a friend's small vintage suitcase to hold the candy and cookies. I used mod podge to make the letters of his name, then took him to our local caboose park to take pictures of him in his little overalls. We gave out pictures to guests as a "souvenir" along with train suckers for the little conductors and packs of iced sugar cookies for all the guests. I simply used the brown cardstock I'd used for the invites to create signs for particular areas of the party.

I'll post all of these pics tomorrow when I give Eli a proper First Birthday post!

My first attempt at icing cookies went pretty well! 50 cookies! YOWZAH! I just used goodie bags from Hobby Lobby, then folded over the top and stapled craft paper to the top. I added a label that read: Smittle Family Railroad The Little Red Caboose A snack for the track. =)

Many thanks to some of my good friends who let me borrow all of their vintage suitcases. This area looked SO cute(even better than in pictures) and this was where people put their gifts. I wished afterwards I could keep the cases forever!

This is the area where all the kids usually eat, so we just set up a train for them to play with. I used brown packing paper for the center, and a cheap table cloth for underneath.

 

I used an old globe from my school room for décor. HEY! A pic of my "new" lamp too! Ha!

On the way into the kitchen.

The food table. I bought the baskets at the dollar store, attached them with some of Olivia's black. bracelet cord, then made a track on the table with black duct tape. Made the labels with the same paper as the invites.

 

Pretzel sticks

 

Oreos and thin mints.

 

Bananas.

 

Animal Crackers.

 

I made his smash cake from three mini loaf sized cakes and covered it with red fondant. Manly iced it with black and white butter cream icing. He forgot a place for the wheels, so we had to raise it with big oreos and add in little oreos for the wheels. Ha! It turned out fine. Not exactly what I had planned, but Eli sure liked it!

 

It's a caboose, if you're wondering! Hahaha!

This is the big cake we made for the rest of the guests. It was DELISH! I used a butter cake recipe, then iced it with red, white, and blue homemade buttercream icing. It had such a yummy flavor. Manly did most of the icing on this cake. I just helped smooth things over. It turned out really cute!

 

Used mason jars with brown shred in the bottoms for the utensils, and baskets for the plates and napkins.

 

Another cute added touch was this banner! Isn't is ADORABLE! I used the pages from the book for it. I just hot glued the rickrack to the top to hold it all together.

 

The hydration station was for drinks. I added a label to the cheap cups I bought, and added labels to all the drinks. Got the ice bucket at the dollar store. I wish I had those pretty glass drink containers. Maybe some day, but for now this did just fine.

Eli's cute bib made by a friend of mine was the perfect touch for his "smash cake outfit!"

KK got to help with the cake since she's Eli's buddy. She was so excited for him.

He knew just what to do with that cake! Ha!

Mia giving support with a pat on the back.

A little more work on the cake. Nice.

Eli and Manly both looking CUTE.

Momma and Eli.

 

  

Darling little baby boy!

My beautiful beautiful boy! I love that little red caboose of mine so so much!