Vacation catch-up #2: Because “half-assed” is not in my vocabulary

The girls’ 3rd birthday is coming up this weekend, and I had really been struggling with what to do to celebrate.  Most of M and C’s classmates’ parties that we have attended over the past few months have involved an all inclusive party place but we just weren’t feeling it, partly because we still don’t know many of the other parents and families, and partly because I just couldn’t stomach the idea of a big party without our extended family there.  The concept didn’t feel right to me, and honestly made me quite sad.  I also couldn’t stomach “settling” for a ho-hum party without all the details that I so love to pull together.  So we decided on an early birthday shindig with the fam while on vacation.  The theme – Olivia the Pig, of course.  The Hubs came up with the awesome idea of a sandcastle building contest per the Olivia book, with competing teams based on each of the Hubs’ siblings and their families, followed by a birthday lunch back at the beach house.

The Hubs and I work so well together because he starts off with the big picture ideas and I take hold and run full force ahead with the details.  Lot of details.  Possibly more than the average person would even begin to entertain, especially since in this case we would have to get all the party stuff to Alabama with us on the plane, but my inability to half-ass anything ensures that my girls will always have memorable parties.  The upside of being a bit obsessive I guess.  I Pinterest-ed a boatload of Olivia-themed party decor and food ideas (yes, she is one popular partyin’ pig!) and literally starting pulling it all together about a week and a half before we left.  I work so much better with tight deadlines and a little bit of self-induced guilt/pressure.

The end result was a huge hit!  When you have 23 people vacationing together, aside from dinner each day, it really is rare for everyone to be together at once.  To see everyone heading out together that morning on the short walk down the street to the beach to help celebrate our little girls just warmed my heart.  And I again counted my blessings for being part of such a large, close family.

For the record, I adore this pic of C.  I can see the someday-teenager in her face when she smiles like this.  And the girl is getting my freckles too. LOVE.

Getting started… did I mention that our fam doesn’t mess around when it comes to competition?

Nice use of the surrounding sea plants to enhance their castle landscape.

Can you guess which team made the pig?

Goodness, how I missed these two ladies!

Because it’s just not a party without pig ears and noses!

The sandwiches at the back were a Pinterest recipe find and they were ah-mazing!  Everyone wanted the recipe.  These will definitely be my new go-to sandwich for get-togethers.

Red velvet cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, recipe courtesy of Joy the Baker.  (And plain pita chips dipped in leftover frosting is pretty darn good too!)

I seriously could have eaten every last one of these dipped marshmallows all by myself.

Last-minute tops made from this tutorial.

Hammin’ it up for the camera, as usual (pun intended).

Yes, everyone else wore the ears and noses too!