Ava's First Easter

Valerie got Ava the cutest bunny hat and outfit to wear for Easter.

Excited for the Easter parties.

"Eh... What's up doc?"

I had some cute scrapbook paper on hand that I thought would be great for Easter, and since our house is currently under construction and not worthy of such decoration, I decided to help decorate my parents' house for their Easter party with a pennant banner and coordinating cupcake toppers and a "Happy Easter" banner.

We set up a candy buffet rather than fill baskets with candy as we've always done; my mom filled the baskets with other small gifts for each of us instead.

Ava's little cottontail says it all.

This was a nice Easter and all, and our parents did a lovely job making it festive and fun, but maybe by next year we'll finally be done remodeling and I'll host the Easter party and it will look something like this, and I will make these cool egg ornaments and hang them from branches to make an Easter Egg Tree like this, and I'll serve a champagne brunch like this and cake pops in these amazing tulip cupcake liners.

The Pre-Planning Party

Tiffany shared this tradition with me that her fiance's grandmother has insisted on for as long as anyone in the family can remember. Before any big family event, she invites all the ladies together to help plan the party. This way one person is not doing all the work, everyone else gets to contribute their ideas and get involved, and it also becomes an excuse to get your closest family members and friends together for a fun event in itself.

Since Tiffany has several close friends who all wanted to contribute to her shower, we decided to carry on this tradition and get together and collaborate prior to the big event.

Here are a few of the ideas I found on the blogosphere that I brought with me to share with the rest of the party-planning committee:

If I can scrounge up enough mason jars, I will definitely be making something similar to this.

LOVE the mini pies and the vintage cowboy books found here.

This is the coolest tablecloth! Not sure I'll be able to find something similar, but I'll keep a lookout. Mason jars also make great vases and can be varying sizes.

I'm loving all the different variations of the pennant banners out there, so this is for sure on my party prep to-do list.

I also offered to make the invitations and had the perfect one in mind for the new little cowboy on the way:

We sipped on mimosas and had a great spread of cheese, grapes, salami, fruit salad, kalamata olives, and pesto pasta salad to keep us well-fueled throughout the day.

I'm definitely going to make pre-planning parties my own new tradition.

Ava's First Date

My dad insisted that I "have to take her out of the house sooner or later" so he took us all out to lunch today for Ava's very first lunch date with Gramps.

Check out these hot suede ankle boots I ordered online while nursing at some random hour of the night. They kind of make my legs look good even though I still have about 10 extra pounds of pregnancy weight to lose.

A waiter spilled sauce from a scorching plate onto the car seat/stroller. Thankfully Ava was not in it or there would have been a fierce confrontation, but the restaurant manager still heard it from Alex, the ever-protective new father.