First Communion

My sweet girl in church

This past weekend we celebrated my sweet little daughter's First Communion!  She was fortunate to be surrounded with family for her special day -- my mother-in-law (Grammy) and her sister (Cici) came up from Long Island, my dad (Grandpa) my step-mother (Gramby) and her mom (Mema) came up from Upstate NY, and my aunts, my cousin, and his girlfriend all came from here in NH - it was a wonderful group that represented all sides of our family!

The back of my girlie's dress AND the new kitchen wall color!  ;)

In preparation for the big day, we did what everyone does when they are getting ready for their child's First Communion -- we painted!!  (Right?  That's what people do, don't they?)  We worked on painting the downstairs bathroom which on a regular day is the girls' bathroom, or when we have guests, it's the guest bathroom -- we are in the process of turning a very dark green bathroom with a truly gross closet into a white and pink haven for girls!  Almost there -- just have to put up the shelves in the closet.  We also painted the kitchen - originally it was a light yellow color, but we painted it a reddish color -- kind of a Sante Fe-looking red. It's a paint from Lowe's, actually Sienna Red, I believe.  Red is my favorite color and I've painted the dining room in my last two houses red -- my dining room is part of my kitchen in this house...  I guess that means 3 red dining rooms now!  :)  Anyway, that's just what people do when they are having company come over, isn't it?  You make some food, clean the bathroom, paint the kitchen?  ;)  That's what we do at our house, anyway!  I love having company -- it always gives us a deadline for getting projects done!!

My eldest daughter with her dress & veil

After moving up to New Hampshire about 6 months ago, I've been finding my way around in our new town and the surrounding area -- learning where things are, finding new places to go to eat, to shop, etc.  I was having a hard time finding a place to go to get my daughter's First Communion dress, so I hit the internet and started searching.  I finally found a dress that my little girlie and I both liked on www.hayneedle.com, a site that had all sorts of things (like patio furniture...).  It looked beautiful online and it was a great price, but I made sure to order it early so that I could return it and keep looking if it was not quite what we expected.  But no worries -- it was a beautiful dress!  My eldest daughter even commented at church on Sunday that she liked her sister's dress better than the dress she had picked for herself when it was her First Communion day!  At the time (5 years ago), we finally found her dress at a store called Burlington -- they had an amazingly large selection of First Communion dresses but not a great selection of veils.  For that, I went to David's Bridal and bought a "blusher" which the bride actually would wear over her face, but it works perfectly for a little girl's communion veil.  I also bought a little ring/wreath type headpiece that had two ribbons trailing down the back -- I spent a small fortune on this at the time, but I have kept both pieces safely tucked away in a hatbox for 5 years so that my little one could wear it too!  My eldest wore both pieces together, and my little one decided she just wanted the wreath (I have no idea what that is really called...).  The nice part about that is they each had their own look and it didn't look like they were wearing the same thing!

After church we invited the family back to our house for a luncheon.  All of the New Yorkers' were over before church and Grammy & Gramby helped me pull together baked pasta with mozzarella, meatballs & sauce in the crockpot, Italian sausage with peppers & onions, and a tossed salad.  Everything was ready by the time we got back to the house - just had to heat up the pasta and the rolls!  While we were waiting, I put out cheese, crackers & grapes for people to munch on.  It was a nice, simple meal that I didn't have to prepare while everyone was there!  For dessert, I ordered a delicious ice cream cake from Ava Marie Handmade Chocolates & Ice Cream.  We found a Party City store nearby and went out the other night to pick up plates & napkins in a pretty pink (our girlie's signature color!) pattern with a cross on them.  Note to self for the future -- I had seen these online prior to driving to the store, and they were on sale on the website -- not so in the actual store!  If I had thought about it sooner, I could have placed an order and had the stuff shipped to me UPS Ground and saved myself some money!  Good to know for next time!

My husband and I went back and forth about finding just the right gift for our little one.  When her sister had her First Communion, I found a beautiful sterling silver beaded bracelet (she's wearing it in the picture above) from Things Remembered and I bought one for her -- I think I had the heart on it engraved with her name and the date of her First Communion.  I also bought the same bracelet for her cousin who is my Goddaughter -- they are 2 months apart in age, best friends, and celebrated their First Communions right around the same time, so it was perfect for both of them!  I would have loved to have gotten the same thing for my little one, but no such luck -- they didn't have that same bracelet.  From there we looked at gold crosses, but my little girlie has been asking for a locket for a couple of years and she absolutely loves the silver heart locket that my husband and girls gave me for Mother's Day (the first Mother's Day after my second daughter was born) and I wear just about every day.  That led my husband and I to the local jewelry store where we were able to order a silver heart locket (she's wearing it in her picture) - very similar to Mommy's! - and they sent it out to have a cross and her name engraved on the front and "Love, Mommy & Daddy" engraved on the back.  She just loved it when we gave it to her to wear on Sunday for her First Communion!

If you've spent any time reading this blog, you know that I LOVE to decorate -- the house in general, for holidays, special events, you name it!  This wasn't the 4th of July, so I kept it toned down a bit...  Aside from the paper goods, the only "decoration" that I bought was a bunch of pink tulips from the grocery store -- pink because it is my girlie's favorite color and tulips because they are such a sign of Spring!  After that, I just used my own favorite decorating tip -- I "shopped my house!"  I am always telling my friends to do this -- go through your house and see what you already own that you can use to decorate in a new way!  

I drew a cross on my little chalkboard, put out a little pink milk glass vase (pink - thinking of whose special day this was!), a white vase that reminded me of a First Communion, and a little angel that used to be my grandmother's.

I love this mirror that I use as a base for centerpieces on my dining room table!  In addition to the pink tulips, I added a picture from my little girl's baptism, as well as her baptismal candle, and a little angel bell that I have of my grandmother's (Gram loves angels!!)

This is actually something I made a couple of years ago, intending it to be an Easter decoration, but I like it so much that now I leave it in my front entry year round!  So easy to make -- 2 twigs tied together with a little bit of twine.

I am a detail person -- I tend to notice the little things and I like to focus on little touches when I am decorating my house whether it's for everyday living or if I am decorating for a special event or party like my daughter's First Communion.  I know not everyone will notice, but it always makes me happy to put a little extra effort in to show my family and friends that they are special to me.  Everyone seemed to have a lovely time (regardless of my decorating, I'm sure!) and I know my sweet girl had a special day that she will hopefully always remember!

Planning a Lalaloopsy Birthday Party

My sweet baby girl is turning 7 in a few weeks, and for months, every time we go to the grocery store she asks to look at "her cake."  About 6 months ago, she picked out a Lalaloopsy cake from the binder at the grocery store with pictures of all of the cake options.  So, Lalaloopsy theme party, here we come!  I took this week off to be home with the girls, and was mildly panic-stricken yesterday when I realized that her party is only 3 weeks away and I had yet to FIND, much less MAIL invitations...!  One productive evening on Google and Pinterest later, and I'm feeling like a plan is coming together! 

I searched on Google for "Lalaloopsy dresses for girls" and found a really cute pink and yellow-orange polka dot "pillowcase" dress from jazzygirlboutique on Etsy.  I had seen some really cute Lalaloopsy dresses with the licensed characters on them, but I loved this little dress -- it has a Lalaloopsy feel to it, but it's something that she can wear as a pretty (non-character) dress.  And, since it's a pillowcase dress, as she grows she can wear it with tights or leggings and eventually, even as a cute summer shirt.  I like keeping with a theme, but I also like to be practical -- no one-hit-wonders over here!

I am trying something new with the invitations this year -- a friend of mine from work did this for her son's first birthday party (a sock monkey theme - very cute!).  I found Lalaloopsy invitations on a website called "Cupcakes & Dragonflies."  They have all sorts of favors, invitations, thank you's -- tons of things for party planning -- and everything is done digitally.  I ordered the invitation that I wanted, told them what I would like it to say, and in 24 - 48 hours they will send me a proof and then a digital file that I can use to print my own invitations from my printer, or have them printed by my local photo lab.  All for $6!  Not bad -- I'll be printing them at home!

That's where I am for now -- lots of ideas for decorating -- I will certainly get balloons, because to me it's not a birthday party without balloons!  And as I usually do, I will get a couple of "character" items (tablecloth and napkins or plates) and then fill in the rest of the paper products with complimentary solid color -- less expensive that way, but still cute!  I will also gather up all of the Lalaloopsy toys that we have around here to use in decorating the table.  And I have some ideas for favor bags.

Lots of fun -- I love party planning!    

"Art-y" Party w/ Artist's Palette Cake

My eldest is turning 12 this year (sniff, sniff!) and for this year's party she decided to have an art-themed birthday party.  As you can probably tell by my recent posts, I've been all about Pinterest lately!  I wanted to find a creative cake for my daughter's birthday, so I went to Pinterest and found lots of ideas, but this was my favorite!  I bought this great artist palette for $4.99 at Hobby Lobby.  I baked cupcakes yesterday (even found paint-splattered cupcake wrappers!) and then this morning I took 1-1/2 tubs of vanilla frosting and in 7 bowls I added different food coloring and mixed up 7 different colors of frosting -- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple -- and pink for my littlest girl!  I arranged the cupcakes on the artist palette to look like paint and put a paintbrush in the middle to finish it off.  Then I placed the whole thing on this mirror that I have on my dining room table.  It was an inexpensive wall mirror and one day I decided to put it on the dining room table with all white candles on it for a centerpiece -- and I decided I like it better on the table than the wall!  Everything looks better on it!  Candles reflect on it, flowers in a glass vase look beautiful, and this cupcake palette looks like it's on the frame of a painting - perfect! 

And the extra cupcakes are in my new cupcake holder (I've been longing for one and my husband bought it for me for my birthday)!   

We found some really cute invitations on Walmart.com, and for $0.28 a piece, I customized them with a picture of my girl and I ordered 8 cards -- 1 for each girl and an extra for me!  I love getting photo cards -- they are personal, they are a great keepsake for my girls' scrapbooks / baby books, and you'd pay more for a regular package of invitations! 

"Bright Circles" card from Walmart.com

To keep the girls entertained, and of course, to go along with the art party theme, we came up with three craft ideas.  My daughter had the idea to use black craft paper and to have the girls dip the end of a toilet paper or paper towel roll into paint and use that to create different designs on the paper.  We also bought each girl a little wooden easel and little canvas (3" x 3") from Joann's so that they could each paint their own little masterpiece.  And for the third art project, we bought a wooden letter for each girl's first initial (about 6" tall) and had them paint them with acrylic paints. 

Tiny canvas & easel - "Sunset" by the birthday girl!

Pink & Orange Polka Dot "M" - by my 6-year-old!

My girl loves art and this year we cleaned out our basement and rearranged it to make an art studio for our girls.  She wanted to host her party down there, and I decided that since I have off-white carpet in the dining room, where the big table is, that the art studio was a better idea with all of the paint!!  My husband set up a long folding table next to the little round table in the art studio.  My daughter covered both tables with newspapers which made for super easy, super quick clean up after the party! 

The "Art Studio"

We're still working on the art studio -- at some point when we have time, we'd like to paint the concrete wall and the floor.  For now though, we are extremely happy with the huge berber remnant that our friend Michael gave us from a job he was doing -- it covers a huge area of the floor! 

One of my favorite elements of the art party?  My daughter's outfit!  Never one to shy away from a theme, I suggested that she take an old pair of jeans and paint them to wear to her party!  She had fun doing that on Friday night -- I think she did a pretty good job!

My daughter had a great time -- she had fun with her friends, and I think they had a fun time too.  I loved that she is old enough that this year we just set everything up and she took over -- my husband and I relaxed in the living room until they called us for cake and ice cream.  Even our 6-year-old was like one of the big girls today -- she hung out with the girls and her sister never came up to complain about her once!  (Amazing!) 

Muppet Cupcakes

My sweet girl is turning 11 tomorrow -- I can hardly stand it! She is a huge fan of The Muppets and asked for a Muppets cake for her birthday. I checked with our grocery store which has all sorts of character cakes -- no Muppets! I checked with the party store to see if they had anything -- still no luck! I thought about making a cake and trying to do something Muppet-related, but she's having 2 little parties tomorrow -- a brunch party at 11:00am with Grandpa & Gramby, and a bowling party with 3 of her girlfriends at 1:30pm.

I didn't want to make 2 different cakes, and I didn't want to serve the same cake twice! So cupcakes it was! I decided to do my interpretation of the 3 main Muppet characters -- Kermit, Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. I made chocolate cupcakes (her favorite) and let them cool. Then I used 2 containers of vanilla frosting and mixed 3 main colors -- light green for Kermit, pink for Miss Piggy, and an orange color for Fozzie -- he's kind of a brown/orange -- the color I made looked pretty close to the picture that I was using for reference. I had food coloring at home, so I bought the frosting and I bought 1 tube of black decorating frosting ($2?) and I used a thin decorating tip on the end (a 4-pack cost me $2 - $3 and I can wash and reuse them). I frosted the cupcakes with the main color -- 8 of each character. Then using a plastic sandwich bag as a pastry bag, I had some plain vanilla frosting that I squeezed out of a tiny hole in the corner. This is how I made the eyes -- oval for Kermit and Miss Piggy and round for Fozzie. I took another sandwich bag and put a little vanilla frosting with some blue food coloring to make Miss Piggy's eyes. Then I took the black tube of frosting and put in the details on all of their eyes -- eyeliner for Miss Piggy, the "-+-" kind of symbol on Kermits eyes, and then just big round pupils for Fozzie. I'm certainly no artist, but it worked in a pinch and I think these came out cute. And most importantly, my girl LOVES them! She told me that the Kermit, in particular were the best looking cupcakes she's ever seen (she's flattering me, I know, but it's super sweet)!

I bought some green napkins and plates and ordered some balloons in green, pink, and orange to help make her feel like she's having a Muppets party. Actually, even though I couldn't find any character party supplies, I think it's a great compromise and probably a "cool" 11-year-old version of a Muppets party! ;)

Mom's "Spa Night" - L'Bri Skin Care Party!

I have been absolutely on overload for the past week or so, between a million projects at work and a million projects at home! We have family coming to visit this week, my 5-year-old's "friend" birthday party tomorrow, a trip to Niagara Falls with family next week, and my 40th birthday party also next week. I've used this as a personal deadline to get a bunch of household projects done, which is my own choice, but has naturally added to my current stress level. One of my dear friends has recently started her own business as a L'Bri Pure n' Natural consultant, and I've been promising her since she started that I would host a party. Why not throw that into the mix right now, I thought! Well, all of the racing around to get ready was WELL worth it!

It turned out to be just 3 friends from work who joined me for what I advertised as a "Pamper Yourself" party. Myself and 2 of my friends are moms, and my other friend is a mom-to-be, expecting her first child in November. We had a GREAT time! It was just what we all needed to relax toward the end of a stressful week! I tried to help set the tone for a spa-like atmosphere by having soothing music playing. We set up in the dining room and for a centerpiece, again, I thought spa, so I placed a framed mirror on the center of the table (one that used to hang on the wall), and I went around the house and gathered up all of the ivory candles (but any color would work!) I could find. I placed those on the mirror and then lit them -- what an elegant, quick display! My friend Kristin, the L'Bri consultant, came over a little early and set up a table with all of her products. She had asked me if she could use my crockpot for the presentation, and she took a bunch of white washcloths, wet them, and put them in the crockpot to warm them up (again, going with the spa theme). The girls showed up and Kristin began her presentation, giving us mirrors to use to look at our skin, and bowls of water to help with wetting our hands and faces. She let each of us try an appropriate cleanser to clean the make-up off of our faces, and handed each of us a warm, wet washcloth to pat our faces with. SO soothing! Let me tell you, I think a few of us are planning to relocate the crockpot to the bathroom!!

Kristin let us test different products -- we tried a facial peel which exfoliated our skin, and some of us tried the Facial Masque which was fun because we sat around feeling like our faces might crack -- there were some laughs... But the results were amazing! We were all thrilled with the products and even more thrilled with how wonderful our skin felt (mine still feels great today!). But most of all, it was great fun to have a night just for the moms to relax and pamper ourselves. If you are near enough to contact Kristin to host your own show, I highly recommend it! And if not, I would definitely encourage you to put together your own spa night for yourself and your girlfriends! As moms, we are always taking care of the kids and the family -- it's a well-deserved (and sometimes overdue) treat to take care of ourselves!

5th Birthday Frenzy

Where have I been lately, you may be asking? Well, here... Just not here on my poor, neglected blog! The past few weeks have been a blur of the end of 4th grade for my eldest, the start of summer, my busiest time of the year at work (which has involved bringing home work to do after the kids are in bed), trying to get the yard in shape, getting ready for visits from family this summer (which we love!) -- you name it! I've been feeling so frazzled the past few weeks that the invitation to my youngest's family birthday party was an e-mail sent out 7 days before the party (which is happening this Sunday...)!! Mother of the year... I guess I should be glad that I remembered to send a note out at all! We are having a family party on the 10th and her first "friends" party on the 30th -- spreading it out a little. (Better than 2 parties in one day, which was my initial idea -- what was I thinking?) My littlest one has also been to two birthday parties for friends from preschool, with two more coming up in the next week and a half! It's an exciting time for her, and we are looking forward to reciprocating with a birthday pool party (her choice) with a Disney's Tangled theme. I'm still working out the details -- like getting to the party store to find Tangled invitations! But, we're plugging along on the yard work, we had to get a new pool liner so the pool is looking party perfect, and her party will be followed by a visit from Nana and the New Hampshire relatives to celebrate my own 40th (yikes...) -- so we'll kind of kill two birds with one stone (that's a terrible expression) with the party prep! I have a long, long to-do list -- wish me luck!

American Girl Doll Birthday Party

This year, for my eldest daughter’s 10th birthday, she chose to celebrate by having her two best friends come over for an “American Girl Doll Sleepover.” (She got the theme gene from me – I’m so proud!) Santa brought her first American Girl doll for Christmas – Elizabeth (Felicity’s best friend). My daughter and her two friends have been best buddies since they met in the 3’s class in preschool. They have a great friendship that they have maintained even though they do not all go to school together. And it’s wonderful that they get along so well – even in a group of 3, which is not always the easiest number!

This would have been a very low-key birthday party on my part, if I were the type of person that could HAVE a low-key birthday party. My girl decided on the theme, we decided on the date, and a couple of hours later she handed me two very sweet, hand-drawn invitations that she had made with an American Girl doll drawn on the front cover and all of the details inside. I simply addressed two envelopes, stuck the stamps on and voila - popped them in the mail! At some point I should really think back and right some posts about some of the birthday parties I had for my girl for her first three years. Talk about taking themes over the edge! I would make the most over-the-top invitations that were very time-consuming (but cute), and by age 4, I decided that no one cared about them as much as I did – and I took it down a notch! So, addressing and stamping was a breeze!

In keeping with the theme, she invited the girls to bring one of their American Girl dolls and a change of clothes for the doll. I went online to the American Girl website and I ordered two kits – “Doll Parties” and “Doll Purses.” These were super cute, but I would recommend that you first check your local Barnes & Noble – I paid for “expedited shipping” to get them here in time, and then found them the day before the party at Barnes & Noble! Each kit was $19.99 and they both come with cute books with info for throwing AG doll parties or making these cute little paper purses for your dolls. The purse kit was well worth the money – the girls and I sat for a good hour putting purses together, and they were quite cute! The party kit was cute, and comes with supplies for 4 different seasonal parties, but I think I could make doll-sized paper plates and streamers, etc. for less in the future.

Instead of making a large cake or ordering a cake, I baked cupcakes and had the idea of turning them upside down and frosting them so they looked like little doll-sized cakes. Very cute idea, but a little tricky to frost! I got through 7 and gave up – but that filled the platter I was using, so that was fine with me. I could have continued the “doll-sized food” for dinner to keep with the theme, and made sliders, but my girl is a Pizza Hut fanatic! We ordered Pizza Hut pizza and I set up a salad bar on the kitchen counter with lots of salad fixings for the girls to create their own salads.

With the party approaching, I realized last Thursday that we did not have a “goody bag” for the girls. In keeping with the theme, I thought about sewing little pillows for the girls’ dolls. I have a sewing machine, I can easily sew a straight line, and pillows are my specialty! Well, then I thought, ‘A pillow by itself is not that comfortable for the poor dolls! They should have a blanket, too!’ Uh huh. Fortunately, I mentioned this crazy line of thinking to my friend Karen, and she reined me in a little by suggesting that I buy fleece, so I could just cut the blankets out with pinking shears and skip the sewing. Great idea! While I was at the store buying fabric, I found some 18” doll clothes, and they had the cutest little bunny slippers – 3 pairs left – perfect! I snatched those right up! If I had thought of the goody idea a little earlier in the week, I would have saved myself a lot of last minute stress. But, I got everything done in time (finished the pillows while the girls were playing Barbie’s downstairs) and I left the little piles (blanket, pillow, slippers) in a row on my girl’s bed. That made a nice surprise for the girls when they went up to bed. (To chat and giggle – not to sleep!)

It was a nice little party and the girls all enjoyed themselves. My daughter’s actual birthday is this next weekend, so we will have Grandpa and Gramby over for dinner and cake. And not to start too early, she’s already planning a bowling party for next year! (She gets that planning gene from me too!)

Princess & The Frog Birthday Party

Today we celebrated my sweet baby's 4th birthday! (UGH...) It's SO painful to me that she is already 4 years old (well, officially in one week) -- honestly, it feels like just yesterday she was a little tiny baby -- time goes by too fast when you have kids! But enough of that! We had a beautiful day for a pool party -- Disney "Princess & the Frog" pool party to be exact! Last year she chose to have a Disney princess party (and I chose for it to be a pool party, because she has a summer birthday, and we have a pool!), and this year she wanted a "Tiana" birthday party.

When we were in NYC a couple of weeks ago she picked out a princess hat and dress, which she wore to the party today. What a cutie (if I do say so myself!)! The dress and the princess hat actually reminded me of the little princess outfit that Tiana's friend wears as a little girl listening to the story of the princess and the frog, in the beginning of the movie. My elder daughter said tonight that she thought her sister looked more like a "house elf" (Harry Potter fans, anyone?) than a princess, but I told her, "She felt like a princess and that's all that matters!" (Admittedly, the hat should stand up, but it flopped over occasionally -- cute, none the less!)

I had purchased green and purple star garlands and some green and purple curling ribbon and I made little tiaras for the girls to wear at the party. (This is a picture of Great Grandma and my 9-year-old, testing them out while I was making the tiaras Saturday night -- they make great models, don't they?) I picked the purple and green because they went with the colors of the movie, which takes place in New Orleans -- these are also traditional Mardi Gras colors -- through some gold in there and you could wear this for a Mardi Gras party! These are super easy to make and I made some a couple of years ago for my girls to wear for 4th of July, and they were still wearing them this year! The star garland was $.99 each at Factory Card Outlet and the curling ribbon was $1 at the Dollar Tree -- very inexpensive, but a cute, easy favor that most little girls would love!

I also had favor bags that I filled with a few fun things for the girls -- animal crackers (this was a 4-year-old's party -- I didn't want to have too much candy!), party-sized Playdoh -- I think I bought 1 container of 10 for $3.99, which took care of 5 goodie bags and I put 2 containers in each. A package of Princess and the Frog stickers (1 sheet in each bag), some plastic faux-gem rings for the girls to play dress up with, and my favorite -- a little plastic frog toy -- one of those little things on a spring that you push down and a couple of seconds later it pops up. Very cute -- lucked out at Factory Card Outlet and got those for $.25 each.

It ended up being a somewhat small party -- at least, not a lot of kids that were her age -- so, mostly our family and friends were entertained by catching up with each other chatting and, of course, swimming! If there had been more kids, I had planned to do a "duck pond" game, but with plastic frogs -- of course! I'm big on themes, and aside from the princess outfit and the tiaras and favors, I also had the Princess and the Frog cake and some Princess and the Frog paper products. One of my tricks to having a theme party and yet stretching my budget, is to shop wisely and be judicious with the theme items. The character plates, napkins, cups, etc. can really add up quickly and they are frequently sold in smaller sets (like 8) -- so you need to buy more! I was serving munchies and cake, so I wanted to be able to put out small plates and napkins for each part. I bought character plates and napkins for the cake and I bought lavender plates and napkins for the munchies. Sometimes I'll just get character plates and a complementary solid color napkin -- and always check the dollar stores, because sometimes you can find your plates or napkins there!

At first, I was disappointed that Factory Card Outlet (the closet party store to us) ran out of Princess and the Frog mylar balloons between Thurs night and today, but in the end, it saved me some money although I would have bought 2 or 3 at the most and rounded it out with (again) complementary solid color latex balloons. Instead, I just ordered the latex balloons. I spent $9.99 on a dozen -- on occasion in the past, I have purchased my own helium tank which you can get at the party stores or warehouse stores for around $19 - $24. This is a great deal IF you want/need a lot of balloons or, if you are having multiple parties around the same time. But, don't expect to buy the tank to use once this year and once next year -- it never holds the helium that long!

All in all it was a great day and aside from being overtired at the end of the day, I think my girl had a wonderful time with her family and friends!

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Happy 3rd birthday, to my sweet littlest girl, Kenzie! She is a lovely, funny, caring little soul that brightens our days -- of course, I am her mother, I may be biased, but I don't think so... :) We have been having almost a week-long celebration of her birth this year -- a party last Sunday (which I'll tell you about in further detail later), a very exciting big gift from Mommy & Daddy that she has been enjoying (as have we) all week, a fun day yesterday with a trip to the zoo (thanks, Kristin for inviting us!) and a trip to the movies ("Up" -- great movie, she sat contentedly and watched the whole thing!), another special day today, and then celebrating with Grandpa and Gramby on Sunday -- Gramby & Kenzie share the same birthday!

Three has become a "rite of passage" for our girls -- when our first daughter turned 3, we bought her a "big girl bed" and celebrated with a fun pajama party themed birthday party (you know me and a theme!). The kids that came to the party dressed in their pj's and I had our favorite bakery create a cake that looked like a bed -- throw pillow and everything -- too cute! (If my scanner was not broken, I would share a picture -- maybe some other time!) So, in keeping with this tradition, this week we said goodbye to the crib, and hello to a big girl bed for our little one. She has adjusted to it amazingly well! I've been home on vacation this week, and I've been able to get her used to napping in the bed and not the crib -- thrilled about that! We have a baby gate up in her doorway, so that she cannot get up and walk around the house at night -- that's a scary adjustment for parents -- your child who has been in a crib is now able to get out of bed and wander around on their own -- yikes! This at least still keeps her in a safe place -- not going down the stairs in the dark or anything like that! Of course, she still has gotten out of bed a couple of times after we've tucked her in -- the other night I checked on her before I went to bed, and found books, a music box, and a pair of her sunglasses in bed with her -- no idea what type of party she and her stuffed animals had planned! And then the next night, my husband went in to say goodnight after I had tucked her in, and he said he needed to find something else to put her in for pj's -- apparently she didn't want to wear what I put her in, and so she took her clothes off! Very independent, that one... But all in all, it's been a fun adventure for her and we are so proud of her for transitioning so well, so quickly!

So happy birthday to my Sweet Mackenzie -- you've only been with us for 3 years, but I truly can't imagine life without you -- I'm so blessed to have you in my life! Love always, Mommy

Birthday Party Frenzy!

We have been in a birthday frenzy at our house! In the past month, my girl has been to 3 birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese, Bounce-It-Out, and the Young Chef’s Academy. They were all a lot of fun, and we are now getting ready to go to Long Island for my nephew’s 5th birthday party, which will be held at Chuck E. Cheese. So this week is a flurry of getting ready for our trip, finishing up Christmas shopping (if you can imagine! – we still haven’t celebrated Christmas with half of our Long Island family), and birthday shopping.

We have also been getting ready for our girl’s 8th birthday that is coming up next week. Having had the opportunity to sample from a variety of different birthday party venues, my girl requested that we have her party at Bounce-It-Out. This is a great new place that opened up in our area this past November. In addition to her friend’s birthday party, we also went there the day after Christmas with our family that was visiting. The whole place is full of inflatable slides, bouncy houses, inflatable obstacle courses – you name it. We had a great time and we booked a date with them for her birthday party. They offer packages that include a party room, pizza & soda (I picked Hi-C), and of course play time for the kids. You can also print off invitations from their website, which is great, but I had this cute picture of my girl on one of the slides and I wanted to make a photo invitation. I started out on Kodak Gallery but this year I am trying to economize, and my cards originally looked like they would be $ .69 per card, and when I went to order they turned out to be $10.99 per set of 10 – and I needed 12! Before I gave up on the photo cards completely, I checked out Walmart.com – I got 12 adorable invitations, done in 1 hour, and picked up at the store by my husband for only $5.18!! That was a great buy – I’m going to have to remember that for my holiday cards this year!

We’ll have just a few days when we get home from our trip to finish birthday shopping for the birthday girl (I’ve picked a few things up here and there), and to put together the goody bags! Oh, and order a cake. Oh, and of course she also wants a cookie cake to bring in to school to share with class. And, I’ll have to find some time to WRAP her birthday presents. Anything else? Oh, right, I have to find some Webkinz figurines, because she wants a Webkinz cake and they don’t make those at the store, so she thoughtfully suggested that I buy Webkinz figurines to stick on top of the cake. Remember when she just wanted an inexpensive Webkinz-themed party at home this year? Apparently SHE doesn’t remember that!

Two weeks after my girl’s birthday is my husband’s – thankfully he’s nowhere near as particular about his birthday celebrations!! ;)

Making Holiday "Crackers"

Last night, I made my girls some holiday "crackers" to add a little something special to their New Year's Eve celebration. I have to say, they were super easy and they look adorable (if I do say so myself!) -- and best of all, they did not cost me a dime! My husband stopped at the grocery store last night to pick up a few things for our New Year's celebration, and I asked him to check out the party supply aisle for some little trinkets to add to the crackers -- plastic necklaces, plastic rings, whatever. He came home with nothing -- couldn't find anything! So I scrounged around the house and this is what I found:

- Hershey's kisses (bought for Christmas, never opened) -- I put 3 in each cracker.

- (2) plastic beaded necklaces left over from past 4th of July parties -- 1 necklace for each of my girls.

- (2) star-shaped plastic princess wands, pulled out of the "Rainy Day Box", and left over from birthday goodie bags -- again, 1 for each girl.

- Stickers -- again, from the Rainy Day Box -- I had a few different kinds for each of my girls.

- And finally, I took a little strip of paper for each girl and wrote a fortune on one side and "lucky numbers" on the opposite side -- the fortunes were things like, "You will do very well in school this year" and the lucky numbers were their ages and their birth dates.

I took a cardboard tube from a roll of wrapping paper and cut 2 smaller tubes, just long enough to fit all of the goodies (you can also use toilet paper or paper towel rolls). Then I took some tissue paper that I had left over from my gift wrapping supplies (last year I think I used wrapping paper - use whatever you have!). I rolled the stuffed tubes up in the tissue, and tied the ends with some curling ribbon. Finally, I marked an initial on the outside of each, so that I knew who to give them to -- the goodies are the same, but the fortunes are different. I think they came out great and I know my girls will love them!

How will you celebrate New Year's this year?

Getting Ready for New Year's Eve!

I'm still recuperating from the hustle and bustle of Christmas -- we had a wonderful time with my husband's family, who came out from Long Island, and I will post some pictures and share our holiday fun later. But for now, it's time to get ready for New Year's Eve, and I had so much fun making "crackers" for the kids, that I thought I'd share that post again for anyone else that wants to try their hand at it.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and I would love to hear all about it! I'll share my stories soon!

Fall Festival for Kids

On Sunday, our little family enjoyed a wonderful day at our town’s Fall Festival. We met up with Christine and her family and enjoyed the fall weather, the fun activities, and catching up with lots of other families that we know from preschool and elementary school. It was a relatively inexpensive day – no entrance fee, and tickets that were $ .50 apiece paid for each activity. Big surprise, I of course bought 30 tickets thinking, “I have 2 children, they’ll each do a lot of activities”… And of course that didn’t happen – my older daughter did a bunch of things, including riding a pony (7 tickets), but our youngest just enjoyed running around and having Daddy chase after her! So by the time we were leaving I was passing out tickets to other people.

It really was an enjoyable day and it made me think of how much fun and how easy something like this would be to put on for the kids. If you are looking for something to do to entertain the kids, get together with your friends or your moms group, and throw your own festival for the kids! You would need one person to volunteer her backyard, and each mom could come up with a craft or an activity. Here are a few ideas:

- Face painting – don’t worry if you don’t think your art skills are up to par – a simple flower, a snake, a ghost, or even whiskers on either side of the child’s nose and a dot of paint on their nose to make a cat!

- Stamping paper or fabric with stamps (rubber, potato, leaf or sponge) – at the town’s festival, we used rubber stamps in leaf prints and stamped designs onto white cloth the size of a bandana – this is a great time to pull out those old sheets that are stained or torn!

- Costume parade – if it’s a fall festival, have the kids dress in their Halloween costume and march around the neighborhood!

- Bird feeders – at the town’s festival, two older gentlemen helped the kids make bird feeders out of a coffee can, 2 plastic lids, a wire hanger, and a thin wooden dowel – this was very easy and the kids were able to decorate the cans with foam stickers. If you are interested in how to make this specific bird feeder, let me know and I will post the instructions. But, there are other simple ideas that you could also use, like the peanut butter / lard rolled pine cones with bird feed stuck into them, and hung with a string or ribbon.

- Sack races, relay races (egg on a spoon is popular!), ring toss – any of those are fun for kids.

- Make it a festive atmosphere playing your favorite children’s music in the background. Have fun treats like popcorn (serve it in brown lunch bags for a real “carnival feel”), cookies and cider or juice.

These are all simple ideas to get you started – use your imagination and brainstorm with fellow moms or even get the kids involved – this is a great “boredom chaser” for the kids that could be done any time of year. And you can be sure - my local friends - that we will be putting on our own carnival in the future! (Consider yourselves warned!) ;)

Help us brainstorm – what ideas do you have for fun festival activities?

Great Kid's Party Ideas

You know that I pride myself on being the Party-throwing Queen of America (ok, Upstate NY), but I have to say that I was very impressed with my cousin’s wife, Kristine, when we attended their little boy’s first birthday party this past weekend. She had a jungle-animal themed birthday party (she LOVES monkeys!) and she carried the theme (gotta love it) from the monkey invitations, to the hanging paper cut-outs of cartoon jungle animals, to the jungle animal sippy cups filled with goodies which she used in lieu of goody bags. Loved that! Age-appropriate for the birthday boy, went with the theme, and something useful for the kids and the parents! She filled the little kids cups with age-appropriate snacks and the bigger kids received candy and stickers / temporary tattoos.

She had lots of food and beverages for the adults, who entertained themselves by sitting and visiting with friends and relatives, and she had great entertainment for the kids. It was a super hot day and she had two kiddie pools out for the kids to splash in (one was actually from Fisher-Price and it was about 1-2 inches deep and was more like a round sprinkler mat – great for the littlest kids to get wet in (or my father’s dog, who was not at the party, but my father was mentioning how wonderful that would be for him!). She also had lots of colorful balls out for the bigger kids to play with, and she brought her son’s pack n’ play out and put those small plastic balls that they use in “ball crawls” for the littlest kiddos to sit in the pack ‘n play and play with – cute idea!

And another great idea for kid’s entertainment on a hot day – water balloons! She set up a water balloon game for the kids – who seemed to break them as soon as they picked them up, but they had a great time – including my oldest who was SOAKED to the bone by the time we left – I literally had to wring her shirt and skort out before I let her in the van! My littlest girlie had fun with bubbles and tried to play with the water balloons, but sadly, with all that fun stuff to do she longed to go and play in the neighbor’s yard because they had a big wooden playset and a Little Tykes playhouse. My cousin and his family had their home built last year, and they don’t have a fence up so my girlie would make a run for the neighbor’s yard and I would chase after her before she crossed into their property. My heart broke when she said, “I wanna pay house – PUHLEEZE!” (Ok so her grammar is not perfect, but her language skills are increasing rapidly – she lets you know what she wants!) It’s the “PUHLEEZE” (please) that always gets me – SO sweet, and yet always as though she’s asking for the most important thing in her life – which to her at this age, these probably are the most important things!

My favorite idea, that I was kicking myself that I didn’t do at my girl’s birthdays – Kristine had a Dr. Seuss book called “Happy Birthday to You” and she left that out with a cup full of markers and asked all of the guests to write a message in it to the birthday boy – LOVED that idea (and don’t think I won’t use it!)!

Name That Tune

We're back! We had a wonderful time at the family reunion in Long Island and it was a worthwhile trip, if for no other reason than that we discovered our older daughter's talent for KARAOKE! The reunion was held at my husband's cousin's home (BEAUTIFUL!). In addition to the playground for the kid's, the gorgeous heated pool with the waterfall running into it, and the dunking booth (both hubby & his brother tried that out, of course!), they also had a dj there Sat night from 6 - 11pm and he had a whole karaoke set-up available. My girl and her cousin who is the same age started out with "Life Is A Highway" which Rascall Flatts sings in "Cars." We could only hear my niece (who sounded fabulous, by the way!), and my girl was moving her lips but we couldn't hear her -- I thought she was being shy, but later I decided that it was a faulty mike. She sang 4 other songs during the evening including "Happy Birthday" (a month early to me...) and "Feliz Navidad" (this was the last one and the one that made my husband and I decide that was enough for one night!).

But by far, the best of the bunch was seeing her and her 5 year old cousin get up and sing "It's the End of the World" -- they thought it was REM's "It's the End of the World As We Know It" which is in the movie "Chicken Little." Actually, it turned out to be that song, "Don't they know, it's the end of the world, it ended when you said goodbye..." or something like that -- totally an easy-listening song that I am SURE my girl has never heard before. But, she could read the karaoke screen and she followed the tune and she belted it out and sounded GREAT! We were so proud!! I took some pictures -- the one time I did not bring my video camera!!! And my sister-in-law was standing next to me crying, because the two of them were SO adorable!

SO, my girl has informed me that she would like a karaoke machine, and wouldn't that be great fun at her Webkinz birthday party that she is planning (for January...)!

Elmo Birthday Party!

Sunday, we had an early birthday celebration for my sweet little (almost!) 2 year old girl! It’s funny, I wonder if my sister-in-law and brother-in-law have the same thoughts about their beach party for their son as I have for a pool party 2 years in a row for my littlest one… My older daughter’s birthday is in January, and my sister-in-law’s other 2 children (both girls) were born in December and March. I think we have probably all been tapped out on ideas for fun, indoor, winter-y birthday parties and decided to enjoy the warm weather birthdays outdoors! Although, I have toyed with the idea of a sledding birthday party sometimes for my girl…

But I digress! Between my husband’s work schedule and our vacation schedule, we decided to have my little one’s birthday party early this year, and we were blessed with a gorgeous, warm & sunny day for a birthday pool party. My theme (and of course I had one!) was “Elmo” and I found the cutest photo invitations that I ordered online from Sweet & Sassy Ink – they had lots of different characters to choose from! I also found at Ty’s Toy Box online the cutest shorts outfit and bikini bathing suit for my little girlie to wear (both with Elmo, of course) – and for my frugal friends, I will say in my defense, that my girlie needs clothes, so this wasn’t just extraneous spending for the sake of a theme (although, admittedly, that is not out of character for me...)! I also ordered a cake from our local grocery store – with Elmo on it, of course. It was very cute and delicious, and not nearly as expensive as last year’s Pooh’s Hunny Pot cake from the fancy bakery!

It was a lovely birthday party, with lots of family - from 8 year old cousins all the way up to her two great grandmothers! A whole bunch of people went into the pool to cool off, including my birthday girl, who enjoyed sitting on the pool steps with her Gramby and "holding court" for her cousins and her sister -- all of the older girls seemed downright enchanted by my little one and she just ate it up! And she was equally as charming (I'm gushing, aren't I? Sorry!) when she opened all of the wonderful gifts that everyone gave her. Honestly, she was the first 2 year old I've ever seen hold up clothing to her chest (like a mom -- probably got it from me!) to show it off, all while oohing and aahing over it!

It's so nice to have a simple, outdoor birthday party -- especially if the weather is on your side! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, the birthday girl had a great day, and there was not a lot of fuss & muss!

Oh, and my oldest, in the spirit of birthdays has already started planning hers -- it's in January... never too early, I guess -- she came up with a cute idea on her own. She would like to have a Webkinz-themed party, and wants to invite her friends to bring their favorite Webkinz to join in on the birthday party fun. I wonder if party-theming is a hereditary or learned behavior...

What are your favorite kid's party themes?

What a Theme!

Ok, completely off the subject of motherhood, but every once in a while moms should get to throw a party that does not involve cone-shaped hats and pinatas, don't you agree? I mentioned my impending "Pub Night" dinner club theme the other day and I had so much fun putting it together that I just had to share it! Part of the reason I am so pleased with it, is because I was feeling in a real rut with what to do for this dinner party. We have been getting together once a month for the better part of 8 years and it rotates between 4 couples, so it is at my house close to 3 times a year. We've done murder mystery parties, fondue night, Caribbean night, Hawaiian night, Italian night -- you name a country, and we've probably done a dinner around their food! We've also covered some of the holidays -- Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day and I'm pretty sure there was a Cinco De Mayo in there too. We usually do favors that we give out at these dinners, but after one garage sale where we were all selling the many kitsch-y plastic glasses that we had acquired as dinner party favors, we decided to keep it to things that we could easily use, but that would also not clutter our houses. With all of that in mind and the fact that frankly, having this dinner fall after Christmas and between my daughter's and my husband's birthdays, I was feeling less than inspired about coming up with a theme that we hadn't already done, that would also not break the bank (because, as you may have guessed, I can go a little over the top sometimes...).

My party ideas always spark from something small -- in this case, I thought about the favor -- as I've mentioned before, my husband and I love music and we love to burn cd's, so I thought that we could make a cd mix to give out as our favor. We have tons of blank cd's and tons of music, so that would be free, essentially, and hopefully something that our guests would enjoy. For some reason, that made me think of all of the British groups that we have on cd, which led to thinking about having a pub night. My husband started working on the music and I started working on decorations. From the internet I found and printed pictures of some of "the Royals" (the Queen, Prince William, Prince Harry, Prince Charles, Diana) along with other famous Brits -- Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, and of course, David Beckham! I went around my dining room and living room and I stuck these pictures into frames that I already had out with pictures of my girls and family. I searched on the internet for other ideas -- found a recipe for pickled eggs which I made for the novelty, but there were actually a couple of guests that were brave enough to try them! I also read online that most pubs have frosted windows so that patrons can't be seen from the outside. On our trip to the dollar store, I bought a white plastic tablecloth that we taped up on the front window of our dining room which made it look like a frosted window. I also took some of my daughter's "window paint" and I painted the name of the pub that we had come up with -- "The Bull and the Nag Inn" (nagging, get it? that was mostly my husband's idea, I suppose he's the bull).

Here's a great tip for working out a party theme with limited expense -- talk to your friends and family about what you are planning! Just from sharing my idea with my office mate, she came in with trays and beer steins and plastic pitchers for me to use for the evening! And my father let me borrow his dartboard and his new Union Jack flag (which I hung over the portrait of my daughters that hangs over my fireplace)! My best "find" for this dinner party, was truly a find -- I knew that when we bought our house from my grandmother, that she had left some china for us in a tub in the basement. When I went down to look for it (I thought it looked slightly more British than mine) -- I found 2 sets down there, one that I had never seen and it went perfectly with my theme! Not to mention it's a great set -- full service for 8, so I cleaned it all up and put it in my kitchen cupboard to use on a more regular basis.

The most fun part of the decorating for myself and for my girlie, was that we took dry-erase markers and wrote on the (non-porous!) tiles on the walls of our bathroom! It was a silly thing that I thought of to get a few laughs from our guests, but I got my girl to help me and she had a great time writing "Liv was here!" and drawing pictures on the tiles. Maybe that was stretching the theme a bit, but sometimes you just have to have fun, and I think it's great to let my girl do something a little "crazy!" Don't worry -- she's well aware that we don't normally write on the walls! And, with the non-porous tiles, the dry-erase markers wiped right off! Easier than the paint on the window -- it came off, but it took MANY wet paper towels!

It was a fun night for us, and I think our friends had a good time too. One of the most important things that I have learned as a parent is that while we love our children and want to spend as much time as possible with them (especially when you are a working mom, like I am!) it's also so important to get to have some time with grown-ups, too! This dinner group is actually a great idea for parents -- we rotate between our friends' homes and our own home, and when it's at our house we don't need to find a babysitter! Our girls were great last night -- with the way dinner was timed, we got them to bed right around dinner, so it wasn't a late night for them, and before dinner they were both a little in on the theme -- my older daughter was all dressed in green (for Ireland) and she put a tiara on, and we had our little one dressed in a little Scottish/English-looking outfit. Hey, everyone has to participate in the theme, right?