Happy November

Wow....hello and goodbye October! It seems like the months are FLYING! I know some may beg to differ, but here in the Henry household it seemed to pass quickly. Which is great because it means we only have about 8 more months left in Hawaii. Such a bitter/sweet feeling...
I hope you had a great time Trick or Treating last night! Halloween is really one of my favorite holidays. I just love seeing the little ones dressed up as some of their favorite people! My daughter, Ilah, went as a Pirate Lass (that was the name of the costume, I'm going with tween pirate) and little Brayden went as Jake, from Jake and the Neverland Pirates (one of his favorite cartoons).  They had a blast collecting candy with some of their neighborhood friends.  We didn't stay out too long which made me a little sad because my daughter, who is 10, was ready to come back home and pass out candy...which means she's growing up :(  I convinced her to go to a few more houses because we really don't get many trick or treaters in our neighborhood (suprisingly, it's a little secluded for military housing).  Of course, when we did get home and only a few had come by, she wanted to go back out, but I had already settled in and we ended up ordering pizza.  Little man had a blast! He did great in his wagon daddy pulled him in.  He was so curious and amazed at what was going on around him! I was happy to see some people passing out toddler friendly treats, so B got his little Goldfish crackers and fruit snacks and was happy.  Overall, great night!

 

I am so excited November is here! I am so ready for Thanksgiving and all the yumminess it brings.  I've already purchased our turkey (pre-cooked thank you very much) and have my menu already planned out.   Well, I believe that's all for today.  I really am going to start making the blog more of a priority :) I am very thankful for the 1 follower I have right now ;)  but I'd love for you to follow me too and if you I have a blog, I'd love to follow you back! Well, I'm off to Target....50% off Halloween...heck yes!! 



Ilah's TEN!

I cannot believe that my Ilah is TEN!!  Seriously, where has the time gone?  Since she is now officially a ''tween'' we decided throwing a Spa Slumber Party would be the best way to celebrate! We decided on this theme a few months ago and I got busy pinning lots of fun ideas on Pinterest. I also spent a lot of time on Etsy, which is where I found these invitations!



 We originally planned to use the colors from the invites, but later decided to go with bright colors which match Ilah's personality perfectly!  Planning the food was pretty easy.  We went with turkey roll ups, veggies, my new addiction Veggie Straws,  and a couple of pinterest finds: mini fruit pizzas (I was so proud of these! Every one loved them!) and dipped marshmallows.

Her strawberry Rossette cake was made by Creative Crumbs and turned out so beautiful and taste just as great!! I sort of made Ilah get a strawberry cake which she isn't a huge fan of BUT I did make it up by getting her favorite Oreo cupcakes from Sweet Tooth Cakes & Cupcakes (by Jodi).

 I start planning the kid's parties really early so that I have longer to look for great deals on decor and other goodies. Let me tell you, this worked PERFECTLY for this party! I found everything we needed at places like Ross, Target, and TJ Maxx at the BEST prices! For example, each girl got some super cute toe separators I found atTarget on clearance for .56!! Can't beat that! I also found huge packs of nail polish and body wash at Ross for less than $5! 

*Each girl went home with toe separators, a wash cloth, nail file, and a flower headband- made by yours truly :)*

As the girls arrived, they decorated a pair of flip flops with ribbon scraps.  I scored BIG on these during Old Navy's $1 Flip Flop sale!

When all the girls arrived we began with facials and mini back and arm massages. I mixed up yogurt, strawberries, and oats for the facial and of course cut up some cucumbers for their eyes!  A great big HUGE thanks to my sweet friend K for lending her magic fingers to the party! I think the massages were the favorite!







 

*The birthday girl getting her massage*

After facials, we moved on the manis and pedis.  The girls were really great about helping eachother out!

I just realized I didn't get any pictures of the actual spa table!! Oh well.  I'm so happy with the way Ilah's Spa-ty turned out.  It was a lot of hard work to put together and probably could have been a tad bit more organized, but I know the girls and most importantly, Ilah had a blast, and that made it all worth it!   Happy birthday to my sweet Ilah bug!



Another great huge THANKS to K for providing massages, and to my hubby for being patient and a good sport with 8 tweens and B running around ;) 

LINK LOVE

Cake: Creative Crumbs

Cupcakes: Sweet Tooth Cakes & Cupcakes by Jodi

Flower Headbands: The Sassy Bug

Invites: Pixel Perfect Party

















4th of July 2012

The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays!! Ever since I can remember, the day would start off with the 4th on Broadway parade and street fair, then off to the grandparent's house.  It was one of the few times our entire family would get together, spend a ridiculous amount of money on fireworks, and stay out til 3am popping them...yes, we were 'those people' and dang proud of it! Unfortunatly, living in HI has made it very hard to continue with that tradition, so we've tried our best to start our own. :)  We headed out Schofield Barracks Army Base for their 4th of July Spectacular.  It's usually pretty uneventful, there were some games, some food, rides, and a few vendors, oh...there was a wedding lol!!  My favorite part is the sponsor tent...nothing like grabbing some free pens and keychains ;)   After a couple of hours, we headed back home for a little rest and to get out of the sun for a little bit.  For the fireworks show, we made our way down to Hickam Air Force Base.  There were so many people there! We managed to find PRIME seating somehow, right by the water and no one in front of us!! We set up our chairs, grabbed some dinner, and enjoyed the night's entertainment, David Cook (winner of American Idol season 7).  I don't really know a lot of his songs, but he did some covers and was actually really good live.   He wrapped up with "The Star Spangled Banner" and that began the fireworks display.  Man, they, by far, have the best fireworks display I've seen! It was pretty awesome! Rob and I realized that this was our 3rd and final 4th of July in Hawaii so that made us enjoy the moment even more.  They lasted about 15 minutes, which to me was fine! We packed up and off we went.  Wow...remember me mentioning "there were so many people there"??  Well, imagine all those people leaving at the same time! Talk about crazy traffic, we were in the parking lot trying to get out for an hour! Lucky for us, we packed enough goodies for the kids to stay fed and entertained and it really wasn't all that bad.  That pretty much sums up our 4th.  I cannot wait to be back on the Mainland next year! God willing, we'll be in Texas, at Grandma and Grandpa's house blowing stuff up til 3 am haha! Here are some pics from the festivities! God bless the USA!

This was a beautiful statue dedicated to the fallen Tropic Lightning Soldiers

on Schofield Barracks

The dogtags of some of the fallen

Me and Ilah being silly :)

Ilah waiting for fireworks...it really wasn't thaaat chilly lol!

B was excited to see the fireworks!

My littles enjoying the show

Beautiful!

Brayden's First Haircut

My sweet (now 1 yr old) son, Brayden, got his first haircut today!  I have been wanting to get it cut for some time but held off until after his first birthday. A friend warned me that if I cut it before then, he wouldn't look like my little baby anymore making the transition harder.... for ME.  Boy was she right! He looks like a little toddler now! I'm super picky when it comes to who cuts our (mine and Ilah's) hair, so no kiddie barbershop was touching my son's hair (plus, I've seen some pictures of other parents complaining about their work). I took him to see our stylist, Lee, from Regis Hair Salon. She's great and a perfectionist! Brayden did AWESOME!! Not once did he cry, throw a fit, or anything. He sat there as curious as could be :) Here are some pics of Brayden's First Haircut, with captions of course ;) Enjoy!
                                              
                                            

Before

Getting prepped

The First Snip

I almost forgot to save a lock of hair! My "always thinking of these things" husband reminded me

and one of the other stylist was kind enough to make a little

momento

 

Big sister, Ilah, was a big help as always!

Keeping her little bro entertained

This is so much fun!

Okay, I'm a little over it now

I think I'll check out the lights up there for a little bit

Whoa, what's that?

He's still not sure about that blow dryer

Getting styled

Ta-Da!! My new 'do!

 (Miss Lee went a little nuts with the

spikes and pomade and he ended up with a little bit

of an Adam Lambert look, which was okay... this one time)

My First Post!

So, I've been wanting to start blogging for a while now, I just didn't know where to start.  I wanted a cute layout and all that good stuff but I don't know how to do it, so if anyone wants to help me with that, you are awesome!  I wanted to start blogging not because my life is so fabulous and I want the world see how awesome I am, but because I'm a little over Facebook as far as letting people see all my photos or thoughts.  I know I do post quite a bit there because, well honestly, there is a severe lack of adult interaction in my neck of the woods.  Seriously, it's enough to drive a person to reveal waaayyy too much online ;)  So I've decided to use this blog to post pictures and other random things I think are share worthy. Of course I'll still have my fb account.  I mean, I'm not THAT crazy to just get rid of it. Plus, it's a GREAT way to promote my little side business The Sassy Bug.  Go ahead and click on the link and check it out.... I'll wait for you......

Okay, glad you made it back, cute stuff, huh?!? ;)Now, where was I... oh yeah, so yes, I'll keep my facebook. I love keeping up with my friends and family.  It makes living so far away a little better.  "So far away" happens to be Honolulu, Hawaii.  I know, I know, it's paradise. Perfect 80 degree weather everyday, beaches galore, mountains, and lava flows....paradise.  Well, that's all nice and quite lovely, but I've learned through living here, that paradise is where your friends and family are...everyone together now, awwwww!!!  But seriously, I took for granted being able to go visit family or hang out with friends.  It's something I hope to be better about when we move back to Mainland USA (fingers crossed for summer 2013!!)  I have met a handful of fabulous ladies, whom I consider great friends, who have made living here so much fun and without them, I'm sure I would have gone NUTS!!  The sad thing is that a few are them are leaving this summer and in the fall :(  More on that another time :( --yeah, it's worthy of 2 sad faces.

Well, not to end with sad faces, but I think that's good for now.  I'm not sure how often I'll post, if my Facebook status updates tell you anything, it will be quite often haha! Oh, and I wasn't kidding about needing a cute layout for this blog! If you know what you're doing, let me know!