Woodland Owl Party-time

When I was pregnant with the twins, Logan picked out a new showers curtain for the kids' bathroom that had woodland creatures and the cutest little owls.  I fell in love with the little hoots, and carried the theme into the nursery.

When planning their first birthday, I entertained the ideas of winter-wonderland, and a more Christmas themed party, but when I found a pdf. party pack on Etsy for Woodland Owls I was smitten. I also found these:

Then I saw this cute idea for invites on Pinterest.com, and since I get crazy ambitious over first birthday's, it seems fitting I would take on the challenge. 

In lieu of gifts, we asked guests to bring donations for the UIHC Children's Hospital NICU. 

It read like this: 

Since our children have been blessed with plenty of toys and activities, we thought we would do something a little bit different. In lieu of gifts for the boys, we would like to request that you bring a donation for the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital.  Though our stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was much more brief than most, it was impactful.  Furthermore, spending Christmas in the NICU can be difficult.  During our stay, past NICU families donated care packages, gift cards, parking passes, etc. to current NICU families, and I have to say, it meant a lot.   However, to tell you the truth, receiving these tokens of thoughtfulness reminded us that we were not alone. There were other families who knew what we were going through, who could relate to our time spent there, and that was comforting.  We would love, in honor of our healthy, thriving, beautiful twin boys, to do the same for someone else. Any monetary donations that we receive will be used to purchase some of the items listed below.  We, along with our boys, will deliver these items for Cooper and Parker’s Birthday. 

We are really digging this idea, and will do some form of it for years to come.  I still remember the somber, loneliness that the NICU can evoke, and knowing that others knew what we were dealing with made the time spent there feel less challenging.  We are happy to announce that we raised some fantastic funds and supplies that will help families in the NICU. Thank you so much to everyone who contributed! You have no idea how much this will help.

Back to the party! When trying to decide on a location, I had one main criteria. NOT IN MY HOUSE. I was stoked when I booked Sass Family Farm. It was the perfect spot.

Fingerprint Guestbook Tree

Owl decoration craft

Treats

T-shirt decorating

And now for some overload because, well, I can. Also, I need to remember these personalities.

 LOOK at these personalities!