Dinosaurs & Monsters (and the cutest little boy)

Little boys are made from snakes and snails and puppy dog tails… and dinosaurs and monsters, right? Well, at least one little boy is, and that is Callen, our godson. Callen was born in November of 2011 and we have been completely in love with him ever since. A few weeks ago we found out that Callen will be a big brother in January 2014, yay! We could not be more excited for his new little brother or sister, and we already know Callen will be the coolest kid to have as an older bro.

Callen happens to be so cool because he has awesome parents, Amanda and Nate, who are some of our best friends, and our family, and former co-workers. Our relationship is a little complicated, I'll do my best to describe it… JD and Amanda are cousins and grew up together like siblings (that is pretty easy to understand, but the following is where it gets tricky), I met Amanda at work, we became friends and we also started traveling for work and were sent all over the country. On one of my trips, in Oklahoma, I met Nate and we worked together for about a month. On a different trip Amanda and Nate met each other. So, the three of us all knew one another but worked together at separate times and in different states. Eventually, while in Florida together, Amanda and I discovered that I had gone to high school with her cousin, JD, and we were two years apart but had never met. Long story short, JD and I ended up dating because of Amanda, Amanda and Nate ended up dating later that same year. JD and Nate proposed to us girls within months of each other and we all got married in 2011. Now we are family, and as an added bonus we are all great friends! I left out a ton of details, but that is basically how we all became connected and how JD and I were blessed with being Callen’s Auntie and Uncle.

In all of the excitement of baby number two on the way I went through pictures of Callen’s baby shower and first birthday party. He is a very popular little man with the Poplins!

For his baby shower we had a ‘dinosaur’ theme complete with dinosaur cupcakes and baby dino egg cake pops. There was a station to “decorate a onesie”, games, treats and dinosaur egg centerpieces that were waiting to hatch just like Callen.

The theme of Callen’s first birthday was ‘cute little monsters’, very fitting for a one year old boy. We made snacks to fit the theme, had a felt monster for the “pin the eyeballs on the monster” game, and of course gave him a monster cake to smash into.

Both the shower and party were DIY. They were a lot of fun to plan, craft, create, decorate and enjoy. I am so proud to be this sweet little guy’s Auntie and I can’t wait to do all of the same things for the baby on the way. Congrats to Amanda and Nate on their little growing bean! Will the next one be snakes and snails or sugar and spice!?

 

xoxo

          Rachele

Dinosaurs

 

 

Monsters

The FAM