J's 2nd Bday Party

If you have met my daughter, you would know about her shoe obsession. I bought a pair of mint green flats this last week and she thought they were her own. She cried and threw a fit when I wore them yesterday, demanding they were hers in her limited vocabulary, "WAAAH! MINE!!"

So for her 2nd birthday we had a shoe themed party. And purple. For no particular reason. You all should be proud of me too, since this was relatively low key as far as one of my parties go.

We had a cupcake cake that was impossible to photograph well when I had other things to finish. I even used store bought frosting. See? Low key.

She now gets the whole blowing out candles thing. In fact, she tried to blow out all the candles at Anthropologie last week while saying, "Happy to you"

The only decorations were purple balloons, a large restraint on my part, with subs and grape soda. The first idea had the subs made out to look like shoes, but those details were edited out due to poor effort to effect ratio.

The best party advice I've ever heard was from Jordan Ferney at Oh Happy Day. She said every party needs something unexpected or a kind of surprise to be memorable. So J's party had a giant shoe chair she refused to pose on.

No, I didn't buy it, but borrowed it from an old high school friend who had it in her room when she was a teenager. You wouldn't guess such a bold furniture piece would have such staying power.

I didn't even make J's birthday outfit. Well I did iron on the 2, but I didn't applique it. Which is why it is in various states of peeling off in these pictures. There shows my restraint yet again. She was particularly spoiled by all her extended family.

Padre Dos included a candy necklace, promptly transporting J to her own version of nirvana.

Madre Dos got her an abundance of socks at this Mommy's request. Those things disappear like chameleons.

Uncle Keith and Aunt Marcie and cousins have brought about the word "Paint!" into a daily word at our house.

Aunt Julie and Uncle Matthew gave a set of books that came in a "purse" which have become regular favorites around here.

Big Sis bought her a stroller that gets used or fought over every day since.

I got her a little power wheels quad I found for $2 at Goodwill months ago. Husband managed to hack it to run on a lantern battery so it is awesome and cheap.

Her daddy wanted to get her something special so he took her out that morning on a special date to the toy store to pick out a new dolly. Melted my little heart and gave me a chance to prep for the party without my pint sized companion.

It is even cooler than I thought since it blinks and falls asleep after you hold the bottle to its mouth long enough. And it giggles or cries depending on where you squeeze it. 

She had to take the new baby to "work."

And what party is complete without a pinata? I even showed restraint by not making one. But not really since I was planning on it when Big Sis found the perfect shoe pinata for me as part of J's present.

The pinata ended up being more solid than we thought so the big kids got to try.

So we just let the kids go at it on the ground.

The remnants even made lovely fashion accessories

Now I can start planning her 3 year old party :) Maybe if I do it now, it won't sneak up on me in December.

J's 2nd Bday

2.

A 2 year old.

I'm not quite sure how this happened to us. Time is a funny thing. I think I assume I will feel different as I age or my child ages. I felt different at 16 then I did at 14. I felt different at 18 than at 21. Now it just seems like time keeps marching by faster and faster. Maybe that's what being old actually is, moving a little slower as time moves faster.

Anyways, I planned a party for J later in the week and didn't really plan anything for her legit birthday. So we grabbed her favorite friend Ella and headed to Bass Pro for some excellent (and FREE!) entertainment. I am thinking about adopting this 5 year old since she adores "babysitting" J when I sub and J cries like someone has died whenever I have to drag her away from Ella's presence. I have on good authority that Ella feels the same way since Ella's new birthday doll was nameless for all of 10 minutes before being christened J's full name.

We literally grabbed Ella. As in I opened the garage right as her mom was returning something to my doorstep and asked if we could pull Ella away for a couple hours of fun. You would think for someone who plans things habitually, I would think ahead a bit more. Ah well. We had a great impromptu adventure.

There was a carousel ridden for four separate cycles

Fish to stare at and ponds to attempt falling into.

Shooting games to try

Quads to sit on

Letters to Santa to color

And while Ella sat on the big man's lap, J avoided him completely. We also rode the elevator several times and followed many trails of footprints pressed into the concrete floors. We were also lucky enough to share a bday celebration with Grandma Maidename at Golden Corral that night. Grandma and Grandpa Great and the rest of the local Maiden names were able to come too.

The highlights were cotton candy and the chocolate fountain. (Seriously, when did Golden Corral step it up a notch? Their steak was good too)

It was big enough to share with the other bday girl

J was fully spoiled by her grandparents with a new shopping cart, complete with food

Pretty much a perfect day for the munchkin. I'm so happy I get to be her mama.

Sealife aquarium

We found a groupon for the aquarium in Tempe and bought it since J loves her fishies something fierce. I was a little skeptical on how cool it could be since 1) it was attached to a mall and 2) it is in AZ.

Friends, I must give it high marks, particularly to the lighting designers. They used many different colors and created several different room environments. There were so many different ways they used to display the fish and interactive things on the walls.

There were cylinder shapes.

Half sphere shapes

Angled panels

Alcoves

"Where'd it go?"

"There!"

Regular flat panels

A 360 degree tunnel that my lens wasn't built for photographing, but you could see underneath you and above you.

There was a circle shaped room that was really striking. The picture doesn't do it justice but imagine this all around you.

J's favorite (and mine too) were the tanks you could stand up inside.

Of course J is thrilled with anything that has fish.

Not a big fan of posing for pictures though

The price is a bit steep so the Groupon made it more palatable. It was just a few days before Christmas when we went and we were all of 5 families in the whole place so I just let J have free rein on where to go and how long to stay. It is probably around an hour of entertainment if you are not a big fish person, but J liked going back and forth through all the rooms multiple times so it was longer for us. You might not have that option if there is a crowd (very likely in the summer). There was a play place at the end with coloring tables and a Mcdonald's-like structure that extended our stay to 2,5 hrs. Overall, it was really well designed, J loved it, and we will probably go back next time a good deal pops up.

Benjamin 12/14/12

It was so fun to watch the first meeting of little brother.

"You pushed the baby out?"

Awesome Pillow

So my sister has a favorite quote from a show called How I Met Your Mother that helps her out when she's feeling a little depressed. It made us laugh so we quoted another favorite movie with "you should needlepoint that on a pillow" (five points if you can name that movie).

Well I actually don't know how to needlepoint so I just stenciled it. The picture is a quick one from Lil's Sis iphone so if you can't read it well, it says, "When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story."

It is perfect for crying your eyes out on.

30 Days to 30

I wanted to do something special for my husband's milestone birthday since we all know you might as well be dead after turning 30 :) I was also thinking how rarely he benefits from my over-the-top celebrations. I spend lots of time on baby showers for other people and J's parties, but he has never felt the full power of pinterest in his direction. He isn't a big group sort of person so a giant surprise party isn't his style. He is also fairly specific in his expensive tastes so a really fancy gift would be hard to pull off. Plus, the proximity to Christmas provides a hurdle for both. But he's pretty much the best husband ever ever ever, so I wanted to do something fun and original.

After some thought, here is what I came up with. Feel free to steal and adapt for anyone in your life. Ignore the poor pictures though, It had been 5 days already I just snapped some in a hurry.

So each little packet is filled with some of his favorite candies, no pattern between the 5 different ones for a little added surprise. I found the packet shape as a Silhouette shape, then found it was easier to do by hand. Think a toilet paper roll with a sewn bottom. Fill and sew the other end the opposite direction. Boom, quick and easy awesome. Scalloped edges with fancy scissors were added to about 5 when I decided he wouldn't care enough to warrant the extra time. I cut out the numbers with my vinyl cutter, but number stickers are probably more time efficient.

Back to what's inside. Besides just candy, there was a location, such as "under the table" or "in a cupboard" where he had to look for a surprise. It made each day a bit like a scavenger hunt, especially since he didn't know what he was looking for. To make the 30 day count down more cost efficient, it was often a favorite food we rarely get or a small service. I'd list them all if I thought they would work well for other people, but some are very Husband specific. For instance, I often give him silent guilt when he watches football on the Sabbath. So one was a guilt free Cardinals game, complete with snacks. This would not work for your BFF. Although I am happy to give you a copy of my list should you need inspiration. After coming up with 20 or so I had to call my sister for ideas. A few were actual gifts. My favorite being a screen cleaning tie. I found one in a magazine that had microfiber woven with the silk to clean fingerprints off of tablets and phones, but at $50 I decided we could do better. I took the little lens cloth they give you with new glasses and hand-stitched it to the inside lining. High awesomness factor with minimum time and cost should you need something for father's day.

A nice little birthday advent eh? But wait, there's more! I contacted a bunch of his friends and family and had them write birthday wishes, a memory, or what they loved about him. I typed and printed them up and gave one to him each day. Many were fantastic, with a surprising amount of poetry submissions.

We culminated the festivities on Jmas day with a small group of our favorite couples and had bacon wrapped filet mignon with twice baked potatoes.

Tips if you want to copy this idea:

1) Use locations in the packets instead of actual "gifts" so you can adapt as necessary. For instance, one night's gift was a movie night, but something else came up so I switched it with another day. If I had put "movie night" on a slip inside of the packet, I would have had to open it up to change it. Locations gave a little added fun and more flexibility for me.

2) Keep a master list of all locations. I would write this up first, then come up with the gifts. Sometimes "under the table" led to a piece of paper saying "look in the garage" the car wash was the gift.

3) Ask for notes from friends a month in advance. This time I didn't give a due date, just asked them to write it right away as they read the email. Otherwise, you won't get most of them until a day after your due date, and only after you have sent a reminder email (like every other time I've done something like this).

4) You don't have to have every single gift ready before you start. It's awesome if you can, but if you need more time to buy or work on a gift, schedule it later in the month.

5) Prepare the surprise at the same time every day. I didn't do this so Husband had to ask if he could open the packet several times because I would yell, "wait! Close your eyes and wait a minute!" on more than one occasion since I had forgotten to get it ready in advance.

That's it and I hope some of you got some inspiration for Valentine's Day or an Anniversary or something.

The Phoenix Zoo

I don't think I've been to the Phoenix Zoo since I was a teenager. I remember it being hot, with lots of walking, and animals you couldn't even get a good look at. With J's new love of animals combined with glorious weather, we decided to accept a general facebook invite from our friend Laura.

Dude, the zoo is $20 a person. Now I know why we never went as a family and only experienced it on field trips. Thankfully Laura has a season pass so we were able to head in for free. My, how the zoo has changed! They had this monkey house where the monkeys run free under the supervision of attendants with squirt bottles. J was delighted.

The giraffes were rather close to us as well, but J was more interested in trying to join other families to steal their snacks.

She liked the baboons though.

 I liked the baby zebra. J pointed and said, "Horse."

She also made me sit and watch sleeping lions for 20 minutes. Every time I tried to move or say something she would say, "Shhhh! Kitty sleeping!" in a whisper. I think she was fascinated with the tail twitches but until her vocabulary improves we will have no idea. I didn't bother snapping any pictures because you can't see most animals in pictures without a killer zoom. I blame nature's camouflage.

All in all, a really fun little trip!

Happy 2013

So I looked up last year's resolutions and can't decide if I'm disappointed or not for some of them. I mean, is it a cop out when circumstances change? I don't know so you can weigh in if you like.


2012

1) Reupholster the couch. Failed. I was already to do this one and scheduled it but then after three years of putting it off, I decided I didn't love the fabric I originally bought for it. So I'm not really bummed on this because it was a priority change, not a "didn't get around to it."

2) Finish the newberry award winners. Failed. I'm down to two: Daniel Boone and Waterless Mountain. Daniel Boone is out of print and is around $40 to buy a copy of so I'm stymied until someone makes a kindle version. Of course the library doesn't carry it. Then there is Waterless Mountain, again not carried by the library. So I don't feel TOO bad not making this one. I did make progress, although now I have a 2012 one to read. So if your grandma has a book collection, I will bake you some fabulous to borrow Daniel Boone.

3) Sell the furniture in my garage. DONE! Although now I have recently acquired my parents dining set and need to sell yet another table and chairs. My life seems to be two steps forward, one step back. Anyone in the market for a reasonably priced table and four chairs?

4) Plant some flowers, cyprus trees, and make the gazebo happen. DONE! Again, I changed my mind and chose an umbrella instead of a gazebo. That shouldn't count against me, especially when I did the others, right?

5) Run a marathon. DONE!

6) Paint the big canvas in my living room. DONE! Although now I put two more canvas up that need painting. Again, one step back.

7) Make a linoleum block print. FAIL. Just plain didn't do it. Acrylic was this year's medium.

8) Go on ten new hikes and at least one camping trip. Failed. I think. I didn't keep track. I'm pretty sure we went on about 10 hikes, but maybe 3 of them were new trails. We did two camping trips though, with a kid, so that should count for something.

9) Visit a new museum. DONE! I'm a little proud of blowing this one out of the water. We visited a bunch, plus two new aquariums.

10) Write in my real journal once a month. DONE! The monthly goal list made this happen because I was shooting for once a week so when I failed that, I still made the once a month. Wahoo!

60% of my goals means I still passed, right? I sure hated all of those teacher trainings on achievement, but all that practice making measurable goals has had some fringe benefits.

2013

1) Finish the cap around the fountain wall in the backyard. It is seriously an afternoon project that I haven't done for oh, 7 months.

2) Finish remodeling our masterbath. It's amazing how few days it takes for destruction to become the normal state of things and thus easily ignored. I ripped out the floor tile yesterday and the plain concrete hasn't even bothered me. Unfortunately, if it doesn't actively bother you, it can get pushed off.

3) Give birth to a healthy baby boy and survive the six months after. Maybe I should choose something different since this isn't really a goal, but considering the majority of my year will be in pursuit of this one task, I want to feel like I can check at least something off next year.

4) Have once Saturday a month without an activity scheduled. This one may not happen because of various commitments, but I still want to shoot for it. The overall goal is to have more unscheduled time. I've found it is harder to randomly help people out when I have something scheduled every day. Having to rush to be places takes a toll on my psyche. I swear I only have creative energy on a Saturday afternoon after the house is clean. Projects aren't just about time, but about energy. Art requires a mental energy I can't always muster after J has gone to bed.

5) Potty train J. I never knew a BM could be so exciting until J did it on the big potty. Yep, that is my life now. Although since the new babe is coming, I think August sounds like a great month to ditch diapers. Until then we will continue what I call Potty Exploration. But since I'm not in direct control of this whole process, I should probably leave it off the goal list.

6) Finish my paper crane installation. 586 and counting.

7) Do yoga twice a month. For such a convert to yoga, you would think I'd make more time for it.

8) Update the scrapbook to 2011 (at least). If I don't get it done now, it may never get done. Let's hope 2012 gets done too.

9) Make 30 freezer meals. I just got a new cookbook from a thoughtful friend so I can probably make this happen. Planning meals ahead is not my strong suit so this seems like a happy way to combine "cook more real dinners" and "prepare for the baby"

10) Go on a trip somewhere new. I'm thinking it is time to visit some little AZ towns. Bisbee? Jerome? I'm open to ideas. Of course I've never been to the Caribbean either...

So that's mine for the year. I love to read about others' goals but that may just be me. You all should tell me a couple of yours in the comments!