Rock 'n Roll, baby!

 

So, you may have seen me mention that my best friend and her hubby are expecting a baby. They have an adorable little girl now, Miss Madi, who is about as girly as they come! This time around, they are expecting a boy and, befitting his name, Halen (Dad is a HUGE Van Halen fan), we settled on a rock star themed baby shower.
I was pretty excited about this shower, because it was definitely something different than what I had done before. I felt pretty confident about it, then when it came time to start putting everything together, I hit a wall. Panic set in, because I just couldn't seem to come up with what I wanted; a cool, but classy shower that was different, yet not too edgy (didn't want to scare the old people...hehe).
After a nice stroll through Target and Michaels, I got it all figured out!
Of course, I used a lot of guitars throughout the shower. I got my inspiration online (sorry, totally forgot where!) for the guitar template, and used both the Guitar Hero guitar and my son's play guitar (from Target). I was able to trace them onto foam board and use them around (a couple welcomed guests on the front door, two more were over the food table and one was for guests to sign).
I also went with a lot of glitter. This wasn't intentional, but after glittering a couple things, I really liked the feel it gave to everything. I decided to run with it, and created my own glittered candles plus some of the guitars.
And, finally to achieve that classy feel I wanted, I filled a couple big vases with some black marbles and red and white carnations. Those sat on either end of my mantle and in the middle was a large picture frame with photos taken by Halen's dad, Brendan (who is an awesome photographer!). I really loved the way it all came together and I felt satisfied that it captured the mood I was going for.
For the activities, I went with a bib/onesie decoration project for the guests. I had stamps, stencils and fabric paint for them to come up with their own creations. I have to say that I was actually surprised at how well they turned out and how much fun everyone had in creating them. This is definitely a must at future showers! Besides that, I kept it pretty simple with a bingo game the guests played while mommy-to-be was unwrapping gifts.
All-in-all, I think it turned out to be a great shower and I had a ton of fun planning it!
I hope you enjoyed it, Liz, and I'm ready for the next one, whenever you are! ;o)

Avalee is two!

 

I can't believe that we're already at birthday number two for my baby girl, but here it is!
We (okay, me) decided on a mermaid theme this year, and I think it turned out really well. I had hoped Miss A would wear her mermaid costume from Halloween during her party, but she turned into quite the rebel and decided she didn't want to. Actually, she started just stripping it off during the party until we finally relented and got her something else to wear (to be fair to her, she did tell us several times she didn't want it on...). It would've have been SO cute, but oh well.
So, we had lots of fun decorating sugar cookies (starfish for the boys and mermaids for the girls), playing dress-up, doing sand art, and 'fishing (thanks for being our fishy, Mom!).' Of course, we also had some yummy food and cake too!
I decided to turn the living room into an under the sea scene; we hung blue streamer across the ceiling to look like waves, then added strips of green streamers to look like seaweed to the entryways. I also added mermaids here and there with some bubbles, to really give the feel that we we in the ocean. I was really happy with how all the decorations (thanks to Liz and her Cricut again!) turned out and that it pretty much all came together how I wanted.
And, Avalee's favorite part of the day, of course, was unwrapping presents. I wasn't sure how well she would get into it, since last year she wasn't so interested in opening her presents. But she started tearing them open right away! I think she truly loved everything she got, but the highlights were definitely the magnetic Tinkerbell dress up doll, mermaid Mrs Potato Head, a new baby that moves and makes sounds and her own stroller (she loves her bff Madi's strollers!).
After the party was over, and most of our guests had left, we realized we had forgotten to turn on the bubble machine...oops! So, we cranked it up and the kids (Z, Avalee and Madi) had a blast dancing, playing and trying to catch bubbles. It was the perfect end to the day!

Monster Party; It's in the details...

As I mentioned in my previous post, this year's party theme was chosen by Zavion himself, and was 'Monster Bash.' Also, as I mentioned earlier, I made pretty much everything myself. I had so much response from what I did from so many people, that I thought I would go though what I did here to show everyone a little of the 'magic' behind how I did some things...lol (and, hey, maybe someone just might be inspired by something I did...maybe)!
So, without further ado, here are some pictures of my boy's special day...

Some of the decorations...

I always try to make a sign for the guests as they come in the front door. This was one of my easiest, since I was able to use a piece of scrapbook paper the base of the sign. Add some letters (courtesy of my bff's Cricut) and some monster eyeballs, and my favorite a mini feather boa to look like monster fur (from Micheal's) & voila!


I wasn't super-thrilled with how this turned out. I think I took too much time cutting out those darn 5s & the Z from the foam board (turns out foam board is not so easy to cut through) and lost focus of the 'big picture.' I realized a few days later why it seemed so...blah...I was going to make some monsters to kind of go between the pic frames & totally forgot...oops!
So, what I did do: the frames are holding pics from each of Z's birthdays then #5 is on the wall behind. At the last minute, I realized I had some extra 'fur' (more of those mini boas from Micheal's) so added that to the bottom of my candles than taped an eye to each of them. Funny because I think I got more compliments on those than anything else!


A closer shot of the 5s & Z...I think they turned out pretty cute!
Oh, I grabbed these adorable monster buckets (and the matching picture frames) from the Target dollar sections...like I said, I love a bargain! ;o)


I decided I wanted a pennant style birthday banner this year, and love how it turned out! This was a pretty basic design:
I cut out the triangles (green textured scrapbook paper with the patterned scrapbook on top) by hand, but used the Cricut again to cut out the letters. The monsters were a bit more time consuming. The monsters I got from a birthday card (just scanned onto the computer) and tile printed. Then I taped the pieces together and had to fill in the colors with Sharpies (the time consuming part!).


Just a piece of 'fur' with some googly eyes thrown on. I would have liked to have had more fur, but at $10/yd (yikes!) and my really long table, it just wasn't very feasible.


The food...

My favorite thing from the party! I made these paper cones (using direction from over at Hostess With The Mostest) and filled them with green caramel corn (just added some green food coloring to the caramel as it was cooking). Then I put them in a candy corn filled shadow box (bought from Micheals) that I had covered with more 'fur.'


Another shot of the caramel corn cones. The kids loved being able to just grab these & walk around munching on caramel corn!


I thought I had a genius idea to make mini caramel apples, but it turned out there are several sources out there that had already done it (including Family Fun) I foll wed the advice from some of the commenters who suggested using caramel apple wrappers to make it stick better to the apple. That seemed to work pretty well...the only problem was keeping them cool enough for the caramel to not melt. I put mine in the freezer, but then the apples got a little soggy after they thawed. So, I'd say it's best to make these right before you're going to serve them.


And...the FUN!

Zavion requested apple bobbing as a party game...
Oh, and I bought these adorable (and perfectly sized!) tins in the Target dollar sections for $2.50/ea.


It was lots of fun!


Monster bingo! I bought this bingo pack at Target during last year's ('09) Halloween clearance).


The kids got to color & decorate their own monster masks. They had these adorable books of masks (all different themes too; Wild animals, pirates, etc) at Joanne's Fabric for only $1!


And, 'monster mash', which was basically musical chairs. We let the kids dance to some monster themed music (Monster Mash, Purple People Eater...) then stopped the music for the traditional musical chairs. The kids enjoyed really getting to bust some moves!


I was watching Oprah the day before Z's party, and who was on but Martha Stewart herself. Well, she was showing off her fancy shredding scissors & inspiration struck! I thought it would be a cute way to jazz up the plain loot bags for the kids. So, I used my plain (non-fancy) scissors to 'shred' the bags, than added monster faces (using scraps of paper from the other projects). I was very happy with how they turned out!


So, there you have it! That's how I made the monster party happen! Hope you enjoyed looking through my pics and ideas! :)

Zavion is FIVE!

 

It is SO hard for me to believe that my little man has turned five. Luckily, being on vacation on his actual birthday helped distract me from it a little, but I still find myself feeling wistful thinking of him as a little baby coming home from the hospital.
And, of course this milestone birthday required a big ol' birthday bash (well, that's pretty much how we do things around here anyway!), so as soon as we got back from our trip, I got to work on his party. Since, I'm a bit of a bargainer, I try to create as many of my own party things as possible. I also love the satisfaction I feel when I've created a party from scratch. And, I'm pretty confident in my craftiness that I usually accomplish what I set out to do. ;o) Luckily I had made most of the decorations before we left on vacation, so I just had a few things left to finish when we got back.
This year's party theme, as chosen by Mr. Zavion himself, was 'Monster Bash.' He's now old enough where he, not only, got to pick out a theme (before you go thinking I was brave letting him decide, you should know that he was given several to choose from...lol) but even made some suggestions about activities. He was very set on having apple bobbing, and I thought that sounded liker a perfect Fall birthday party activity. He also wanted to know if there would be dancing... Dancing? What, is he five or 15? Haha! But, I decided if my boy wanted to dance, there would be dancing! So, I kind of restructured the musical chairs, aka 'Monster Mash' game I had planned, so the kids could dance until the music stopped (instead of the traditional walking in a circle around the chairs) than sit down.
So, the day of the party came and Z was very excited. He made sure to wear his new monster shirt that Grandma bought him and planted himself in front of the window to wait for the guests.
Once everyone arrived, he truly was the king of the party! He loves any kind of social gathering anyway, but anything where the focus is all on his, is just heaven in his book!
After everyone had eaten, we started on the activities. Z turned out to be surprisingly good at apple bobbing and was very proud of himself at how well he did. Then we moved onto monster bingo, which the kids loved (especially since Colin decided they could use candy corn as markers, which meant big piles of candy just sitting there in front of them...). We played a few games of that, than let the kids get crafty by making their own monster masks.
After that, it was Z's favorite party activity of all; blowing out his birthday candles! In fact, he was so excited that he didn't even let us finish signing 'Happy Birthday' to him before he blew out his candles. Silly guy!
After all the kids finished their cupcakes and were sufficiently tinted green (gotta love those store-bought cupcakes!) it was on to presents!
This is probably Z's second favorite birthday party activity, not so much because of the gifts, but because he gets everyone's full attention on him for a lengthy period of time...hahaha! He got some pretty awesome gifts, including some cool Hot Wheels cars and tracks, the pair of overalls he had been begging for for a month, a Bop It and a microscope. He was very happy with everything and was very happy with the day in general. He went to sleep very quickly that night too, exhausted after a long day of birthday fun!

If you never did, you should. These things are fun and fun is good.

So, Dr. Seuss' birthday was last week, and we just had to celebrate one of our favorite authors! After some confusion on Z's part... “But, how can Dr. Seuss come to the party if he's dead.??”...the 'celebration' got underway.

Of course, one has to have green eggs and ham! All along, Z said he would eat it, but then he chickened out. What a stinker! He did try a bite of the green deviled eggs I made, but that was it (he really isn't a big egg eater anyway though) but would not, could not touch the green ham. I ended up making sandwiches with the ham, and he insisted on non-green ham. LOL!





The inside view of my green ham panini!


Pink Ink!
If you have a lot of ink, then you should get a Yink, I think.



*Note to self: Don't get so carried away that you end up giving your kid (who rarely gets sugar) an entire glass of pink lemonade...yikes (luckily I convinced him to use the rest of his drink to make some cool ice cubes...whew!)!!


And, my attempt at cute cupcakes. I actually think it turned out okay, although I was a little disappointed I could only make one (turns out, those little rolls of Life Savers are impossible to come by nowadays, and the bags of mixed only had three red!).




So, it was a little work, but so much fun! Reading is such a huge part of our lives, and I love how passionate both of my kids are about reading. Dr. Seuss books are really spectacular, and so much fun for any age. I encourage everyone out there to read, read read to your kids as much and as often as possible, because...

”The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”

So, I guess I'll have to come up with something different for next year... And, if you want to have some kind of a Seuss celebration (and, why wait for an excuse??), check out the official (and amazing!) Seuss site: http://www.seussville.com/main.php?section=home&isbn=&catalogID=&eventID=
There are activities galore, fun games to play, recipes and you can even bulk up on your knowledge of the man himself, Theodor Seuss Geisel.

So, I'm curious...what's your favorite Dr. Seuss book and why?

Superbowl

So, our Superbowl celebration turned out great, despite a bumpy start...
Actually, it started on Saturday evening, when Colin came home from watching a UFC fight (really don't understand the appeal of this. But to each his own, I guess...) at a buddy's house. He was complaining of not feeling well, but since he hadn't eaten all night, thought that might be the cause. Well, after a nice salad, he didn't feel any better...than actually started feeling worse. When I went to sleep, he was feeling nauseous and apparently spent the next few hours in and out of the bathroom. Poor guy! The next morning, he wasn't feeling any better...So, this left me to take care of the kiddos, finish cleaning and make all the food by myself. And, I'm still sick myself with, well, whatever the heck it is I have (that makes me cough so hard my face turns purple and I just about pass out), so I'm not going full-speed myself. UGH! And, of course, I decided I was going to make a whole yummy spread of food; artichoke-spinach dip (first time making this too), potato skins, bacon-wrapped Lil' Smokies (a favorite around here!), wings, caramel corn, cookies and PB pie. Yeah, just a little daunting without Colin's help; So I had to cut out the pie and cookies and used pre-made wings, but am proud to say everything got done (luckily, my mom came over early to help out!). And, it all turned out way yummy too! Yay!
And, of course there was a game to watch too...LOL. As you know, from my previous posts, we are a football family, so the Superbowl is a fun event for us. C and I weren't really rooting for either team, since we don't have an affiliation with either. I really like Peyton Manning (who doesn't?!), but also liked the 'Cinderella' story of the Saints. So, we cheered, let out some “ohhs” and grimaced when poor Peyton threw 'the' interception. But, overall, it was some great football and turned out to be a great game. And, I have to say when the Saints won, it was a great moment to see the team, fans and pretty much the entire city of New Orleans celebrate. :0)

Poor Colin is trying to hold it together here! ;0)


Spinach-artichoke dip...mmm!


Yummy potato skins!


Homemade caramel corn...so addictive!


Wings & Lil' Smokies


Halftime fun (yay for a playground acrross the street & grandma to take you over while missing the commercials!)





A's first time in the wagon...she loved it!



And, of course, cap the day off with strawberry margaritas!

The big O-N-E

So, my sweet Miss Avalee turned one year old on December 12th. As is customary around here, we did it up big with a party in her honor. ;0)
The theme was cupcakes, and I decided the theme lended itself to homemade decorations. So, I made (almost) everything myself; from the invitations to the cupcakes.
I had a blast with all the planning, and was super-happy with how everything turned out.
We had a nice group (even though the forecast called for freezing rain, and it was a little worrisome for awhile), and Avalee was thrilled that all the special people in her life were there.

The 'Happy Birthday' banner I slaved over for three days. LOL!


Part 1 of the garland; also time consuming, but the results made it worthwhile (sorry, not the best angle).



Part 2 of the garland; pictures of sweet Avalee over the last year.






The giant cupcake Aunt Liz (and Uncle Brendan too, I heard!) made.



Our cupcake making station. Turned out pretty cute, and the kids loved it!


I really dig this picture Colin took...so fun!




I had a time capsule (did the same thing for Z's 1st birthday) and asked everyone to bring something special to add; Avalee gets to open it on her 10th birthday.

Grandpa adding a rock he hand-cut.


Crissy adding a book of jokes.


We also created a little slide show of pictures of Avalee over the last year. See, that big TV came in handy. ;0)



The cupcakes; Avalee got the giant cupcake to dig into (yes, I used a mold)!


And, she had a few ;0) gifts to unwrap...





And, of course...let her eat cake. Unfortunately, she was a little more dainty than I would have preferred. Darn girl loves her food so much that she makes sure it goes into the mouth, and doesn't get wasted. LOL!

LOVE this picture! Clearly, she thinks we've all lost it... "Umm...you lit a cake on fire & now you're all singing in unison? Wha...?!


Realized it was ok to just dig in!


Love this one of the cupcake looming in front of her!


She decided to make it easier, and just bite the cake!


Obviously, I have a bazillion more photos, but I will spare you with the rest of them. ;0) The party was a big success and I can't wait to start planning #2!

So, a HUGE thanks to Grandma for helping make everything come together. She put up the decorations, helped me get the food ready, cleaned up...well, what didn't she do? You are awesome; thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! And, a big thanks to Aunt Liz for, once again, creating an adorable design for 'the' wall (LOL)! Did I tell you next year's theme is mermaids? You might want to start working on that one now... ;0)