hello titus: September 2014

Wednesday, September 17

Utah County Fair

We have been here in Utah for six years now and I have been wanting to go to the Utah State Fair every year. Finally, we made it happen! I'm so glad we went when Elliott was old enough to understand what was going on and enjoy it.

Hannah and Chandler were in town for a couple days between a trip to California and going to back to school for the semester. While they were in town, we all got together and hit up the fair. It's not a huge fair, considering it's the state fair, but it was decent sized. It was a really rainy day in Provo that day, but there was only one day we could all go and so we went ahead and drove up to SLC anyway. I'm so glad we did! It was crazy stormy in Provo, but the weather was beautiful in SLC. We needed sweaters, but we didn't have any rain and since the weather wasn't really nice, the fair was empty! It was great. We started by walking around and scoping the place out. We got a couple funnel cakes and some deep fried oreos. Then we went and found the animals. Elliott loved the animals. Pigs, cows, chickens, sheet, goats, you name it! All so fun and adorable. I love animals. After the animals we walked through some more booths before getting more snacks. We hung out and watched the end of a magician's act and then danced around to music while we waited for everyone to meet back up.

Sweetest little girls!

He's a big pig.

Auntie Channy and Elliott.

Meeting Pumpkin, the owl. She was so huge!

Then we ventured to find this adorable kids area. They had it set up so the kids walked through the process of growing plants and harvesting them and then getting them to the grocery store. It was so cute, and free! I loved it. And I think it was a lot of fun for the kids.

Elliott was a little excited. Look at their cute aprons and baskets! So fun.

First stop, get some grain from the mill.

Time to feed your grain to the cow!

Then milk the cow. They left the cow with a little milk chug.

Off to the apple orchard to pick an apple.

Then they picked out seeds and planted them in the dirt.

Then they picked whatever they had planted. Elliott planted a pepper and a potato.

Then they got a gas can and filled up their tractors and drove around.

Doing wheelies with dad. Cutie Kate.

Brushing the sheep.

Getting an egg from the chickens.

After they collected everything, they got paid for bringing it all in and got to pick out something in the "grocery store" to take home. This is a blurry Elliott paying for her fruit snacks.

Just before we left, we were doing a last walk through (after we decided to go get dinner outside the fair) and we saw this insane ride. It was called speed. It was over 120 feet tall and went 75 mph. Terrifying. But Kendal, Josh, Chandler and Jenn decided to go on it anyway. It has 4 seats on the end of each of it's two arms. So Kendal and Josh were on one end and Chandler and Jenn were on the other end of the 120 foot arm. The arm rotates 360 degrees around the middle. Basically, it's ridiculous. But they all loved it. And they were all shaking when they got off. Haha. Crazy kids.

After the fair, we headed to Sandy to go to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Yum, right? But, after an hour wait (it was almost 9pm) we all bailed on that plan and split up for quick dinners before heading home. Overall, it was a great night! We had a blast.

Saturday, September 13

Elliott's 2 Year Puppy Party

Last week we celebrated Elliott's second birthday party with some of our close friends and family. We didn't have her party until the week after her actual birthday because we wanted her aunt Jenn and cousins to be there and they got back from SC that week. I'm so glad we waited! It wouldn't have been the same without them.

This year, Elliott's party theme was puppies (thanks to Josh). We've decided to take turns on the themes for our kids parties (until they want to have a say in it, which will probably be soon). We are lucky enough to live in a fun college town full of awesome stuff, including the ability to rent puppies! There is a company called PuppiesForRent that rents puppies by the hour. It's genius, especially for college students (such a fun date idea!). They get puppies given to them from all over the place, and while they go through the process of finding a new adoption family for the puppy, they rent them out. We decided it would be the perfect idea for a party full of toddlers. The week of Elliott's party, the company had four puppies, so we rented all four, for an hour and a half. It was perfect.

The party included lots of other puppy themed things as well. I definitely didn't go as all out as I did with her first party, but you really can't when the party is at a park. It was perfect though. I love how it turned out.

For the food we did a BBQ. We made hot dogs and hamburgers which were super easy to prepare and make there at the park. We had chips, soda and then lots of snacky things that fell in the puppy theme. The day before the party, I prepped all the food and got everything ready, so I wouldn't have to worry about it on the actual day. I'm so glad I did. It made things a lot less stressful. Kendal also came over and helped, which was soooo helpful! Elliott and I woke up that morning and immediately got started on treats. We made about 4 dozen sugar cookies in the shapes of dog bones and dog paws. We dipped a couple dozen pretzel rods in chocolate (fetch sticks) and we made a big batch of muddy buddies (or puppy chow). When Kendal came, we baked the cakes and she helped us make a special frosting for the cookies that hardens and has a gloss to it. I wasn't planning on frosting the cookies, but I'm so glad Kendal convinced me to, because they turned out way cuter! I did a really simple cake this year. I just baked a white box cake and did two 8" pans. I laid the first one down and then cut the second in half and put each half on the sides as ears for the dog. Then I made brown and dark brown frosting and piped on a black face. It was really simple and easy, which I loved.

I tried so hard to get a picture of her helping us, but she was just too excited to sit still. :)

Adorable, right? Thanks Kendal!

For decorations, I kept things really simple for the park. I got gold balloons and drew little dog faces on them to hang up around the pavilion and then we put up a tablecloth with the food on it and had our little picture prop set up near by.

The picture prop turned out a million times more amazing than I imagined. We bought some ply wood at Home Depot for $10. Morgan and Josh used his saw the cut out the shape of the dog house and the hole for their faces. Then I painted the dog onto it. In total, it cost about $25 and I think it turned out adorable.

Josh had a last minute meeting come up for work the day of the party. It was pretty frustrating, but it worked out ok. Morgan was so gracious and came over before the party to help me transport everything to the park. Then Kendal and Matt met us at the park to help set up. The party started at 4pm. Josh got there about 4:45, which was okay, because the puppies didn't come until 4:30, so he really didn't miss too much. Thankfully!

Morgan had made a little pen for the puppies out of chicken wire so we could contain them when someone wasn't holding them. That turned out to be really helpful.

Just before the puppies arrived, Elliott was running down the sidewalk to see Jack when she tripped on a crack and fell. She hit the pavement pretty hard and busted her lip open. I felt so terrible. It bled quite a bit and we had to pull some skin off that was hanging there. Luckily it wasn't bad enough to need stitches and thank goodness she didn't damage her teeth. But she had quite the fat lip, and she was pretty upset for a while. Poor girl. What a sad start to her party. She had blood and chocolate all over her new outfit. Josh had to stop at the house to change after his meeting, so he was able to pick her up clean clothes and some tylenol, which helped a ton.

These were my original plans for the balloons, but the paper was too heavy! So they wouldn't float. I was so bummed.

So they have lame marker ears. Not as cute, but oh well!

The picture prop and the dog ears I made for everyone to take pictures with.

Balls for the dogs.

Adoption puppies. (Party favors)

The puppies were so adorable. There were four puppies, two boys and two girls. There was Neo (a border collie) and Oso (a little black fluffy one), then Anne (a hound/lab mix) and Nellie (a chihuahua/shitzu mix). They were seriously all so adorable! The kids didn't last quite as long (on the interest level) than I expected, but an hour and a half was still a good amount of time, since the adults loved playing with them too.

Waiting on the puppies.

Jane petting Anne.

Elliott holding Oso. He was seriously so tiny.

Cuties!

Anne looks so ferocious here! Haha. It cracks me up.

Playing with Neo.

After the puppies left, Josh started the food and we ate burgers and dogs. Yum! Then we had Elliott open her gifts. She was so spoiled by all her family and friends. Then we cut the cake and took pictures with the prop before everyone left. For party favors, each of the kids got to "adopt" a puppy. I think they had fun picking out their puppies and getting their adoption cards to go with them.