My Birthday Weekend

Wow... it's Monday morning and I'm feeling the aftermath of a busy, emotionally charged last couple of days. I had 2 big events over the weekend, one was Prom on Saturday - in which I had 2 daughters attending. For one it was her last prom (sniff sniff!) and the other, it was her first (sniff, sniff!) And on Sunday, my 44th birthday (sniff, sniff!)

Part I of the Weekend:
For Prom, it was kind of neat because both girls were going to be in the same group. Their boyfriends  are really close friends so the 4 of them hang out quite often, which is nice. So in all, they had 2 other couples in their group. Hayley asked me if I would be interested in making the corsages & boutonnieres for their group and I gladly accepted the honor. I had made boutonnieres for her for other dances so that part I was fine with. I thought about the corsages and I really wanted to make something that was going to be more of a keepsake corsage since it was 3 of the 4 girls senior prom (instead of a dried up floral arrangement in a week). In looking for corsage inspiration, I came across one that Hayley agreed was really pretty. It was this corsage on the JL Designs site:

 We loved the simplicity of a single large flower and the pearl bracelet. So I took this picture to the florist and I was gently given a scolding about her annoyance with internet pictures making everything look so easy & it's just really not practical. She listed off several reasons why, I guess first and foremost these china mums are not really carried by florists in our area and they really are a fall flower. And second, they have very shallow receptacle (green stuff were petals come out of) so within hours the petals fall out. Particularly when girls are all huggy & moving all over for pictures, then they are upset that their corsage falls apart before dinner. This information only solidified my standing for explaining my idea for a keepsake corsage - which was to make a large fabric rose out of chiffon. Fortunately Hayley loved the idea, so I set out to buy the chiffon, the corsage bracelets, some small embellishments, some felt & got out my glue gun. I will be posting a tutorial on how to make these keepsake corsages very soon, if anyone is interested.



 I forgot to take a picture of the 4th flower, but it had gold embellishments since her dress had gold accents. I was really pleased how they turned out! And for the boutonnieres (Hayley's date had a red flower since his tux was white, the others had ivory) I bought a bouquet of small ivory roses (& a single full size red rose) and made the boutonnieres with the matching corsage embellishments. Taped up the stems with floral tape and Hobby Lobby even had some "official" corsage & boutonniere plastic containers for only 50 cents each.
the boutonniere flowers were real.
Here is a group picture of the girls with their corsages:

Claire, Hayley, Abby & Ali

My girls also asked me to do their hair. I was really surprised (and honored!) that they entrusted me to such a thing since I've never done their hair before. So of course we got on Pinterest to look for inspiration. It really ended up being fun and for me, it was a special thing that I could do for them. 

 So now that all the prep is done........ on to the good stuff.... pictures!

Abby & Hayley before the festivities began

Abby & her boyfriend Noel

Hayley & her boyfriend Dan

the girls of the group.... love this reflection picture!


Dan, Hayley, Noel & Abby

The Group! Chino & Claire, Dan & Hayley, Noel & Abby, Connor & Ali

Dan & Hayley's red carpet pose!

Abby & Noel's red carpet pose!






Abby, Hattie & Hayley
Hattie can't wait until it's her turn for prom. Fortunately I get a few years in between to prepare for that! The weather in this area has been so "iffy" lately with all the wind & rain and it did rain in the morning, but it ended up being a gorgeous day. So, my girls were off to Prom for the night.



And now for Part II for of the weekend: Cinco de Mayo (aka My Birthday!)
I originally woke up with plans to go to my husbands baseball game. It was a little over an hours drive and the girls and I were planning to go for the day. He leaves earlier than we do because he has to bring the equipment and of course they have BP. At the last minute I decided not to go, but to plan for a birthday gathering instead. I talked to my mom and she agreed to help with the food prep. I then sent out an invitation text to family & friends. I had been pinning Cinco de Mayo ideas all week so I had an idea of what I wanted to make. (I had this party on the back burner just in case it rained & the game was canceled, so although the game wasn't canceled, everyone had known there was a chance for a party.) My mom made her classic Tortilla Pie, a few different dips & chips, I made BBQ (there were a few attendees & kids that would need something other than spicy Mexican food) and a few other fun things:

Churro Cheesecake from The Recipe Critic


Homemade Restaurant-style Salsa from Brown Eyed Baker


Individual 7 Layer Dips from The Girl Who Ate Everything (except mine are only 5 layers lol)





and Margarita Cupcakes by Brown Eyed Baker


And last but not least... RumChata shots for the adults...or as I like to call it, YumChata! ;)


A fun thing I like about my birthday is that it makes my brother Jeff and I the same age for 2 months. I loved teasing him about it when we were younger, now I just gently remind him. :) I actually am OK with having birthdays, thankfully, I really have nothing to complain about as I welcome every year.

 
So that was my very busy weekend, and it's taken me all day just to get this post done. I did meet my sister-in-law for lunch but otherwise, I tried to take it easy today since I've been running like a mad woman the past 3 days!

Did you have a good weekend? What did you do to celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

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