DIY invite

super proud of my creation for Lovie's birthday party invites:

i used the free version of picmonkey (love!).

i'm so ridiculously excited to put the whole shebang together. should be a ton of fun.

the only thing better: a father's day gift for gramps!

for my daddy, i picked up a frame yesterday with two 4x6 openings. light wood frame. the top opening will have a print of the blue and white top shown above. the bottom opening will have a print of the image below shown above. this example will be sort of what it'll look like with a light wood frame.

i found the quote on pinterest somewhere but changed some of the wording (hint: "sweet angel"). i created an image on picmonkey and added the words. super easy. and free.

as for Lovie's daddy, he'll be getting another one like last year's big hit.

a How To and a DIY all in one

As hard as it is to believe, for some time now, Lovie's been throwing around statements like, "What can I do to help?"

At first I was a bit floored.

I mean, a 4-year-old is asking me what she can do. To help. Me. Yet my nearing 40-year-old husband... oh, never mind.

Once I heard her ask me this a couple times, I started realizing that this kid CAN help. Sure it may not go as quickly as if I did it myself, but why not start teaching her when she's more than willing? So I told her that I would LOVE her help loading the clothes in the washer.

She. Was. Elated. 

I told her to stand in front of the washer (loads at top) and I would give her dirty clothes which she was then to get into the washing machine. The first time we did this, it went well. I dislodged her undies and socks from her pants or tights and she just tossed them in the machine; but then I was like, "why the hell can't she take out her undies and socks in the first place?" So the next time she came running to me, shouting "What can I do to help?", I told her we could do some laundry and this time, I gave her pants and tights with her undies and/or socks still in them and instructed her to take them out before putting them in the machine.

This, as I'm sure you can imagine, took so much longer. I mean, a two minute task turned into like a half hour task-- not even kidding. But apparently she's got the point because... BECAUSE she now takes out her undies and/or socks when she undresses! I haven't said one word about doing so, she just caught on from having to do it when she helps doing the laundry.

WHO KNEW?!?

Anyway, the other week she was talking about going into our attic (storage room- heh) and getting a box to make something with. We've done a rocket ship and a wagon in the past but she wanted something different. I'm not sure why, but I suggested a washing machine.

Talk about being elated. (Her, not me.)

The day finally came yesterday. I was finally feeling better (sinus infection/cold from hell) and she was begging to making a washing machine. So why not?

My inspiration came from Pinterest, of course. (I thought the basket in the pin was absolutely genius and after having made one myself, it absolutely is what makes this DIY project a big time success.)

It's not totally complete as I'd like to cover it as much as I can with tape (someone insisted on using some pink because, well, it's her favorite color, of course) or crafting paper, but my girl is happy and that makes me happy.


Yay for super cheap, DIY, fun kid stuff!!

teacher thank you gift

On Friday, one of the teachers at Lovie's school told me that her last day would be Wednesday (tomorrow). I looked at her and nearly cried. She looked at me and told me, "This is going to be so hard and I'm going to be such a mess on Wednesday."

: (

Miss Alice has been there since we started when Lovie was 9 weeks old. She's loved on Lovie from the get-go because she reminded her a lot of her baby boy, who happens to be a mere one week older than Lovie. But more than that, Miss Alice has been an amazing constant in Lovie's life at this school. She always has the biggest smile on her face, she always greets the kids with such warmth and love. And Lovie's always adored her.

I needed to let Miss Alice know how much we appreciate her and how much we're going to miss her so I searched Pinterest, of course, and found some cute stuff. Lots of cute stuff. And then I came up with this:

I stupidly neglected to get a gift bag to put the S'MORES in, so I had to reuse a shoe bag. Oh well.

 

I wanted Lovie to be involved with this as much as possible (she made the S'more suggestion too!) so I had her make a card, which is tucked inside the gift bag:

 

 

While the world definitely could use S'MORE teachers like Miss Alice, I decided to change the wording just a bit... as well as have Lovie recite the directions to make S'mores (thank you Angie for the brilliant idea!) and answer some questions about Miss Alice (much like I did for Father's Day):

 

 

My intention is to say thank you but wow is this kind of sad. I mean, do you see that last bit of detail from my interview with Lovie when she told me she'd "be's sad when Miss Alice leaving"? I hope we don't make her cry, but I also hope she understands what kind of impact she's had on Lovie the past 3.5 years.

While tomorrow is her last day, I had Lovie bring it to school to give it to her today. And that's when I learned another favorite teacher is leaving end of July!

No fun!

how to host a virtual baby shower

When I first realized the baby shower I wanted to host for my BFF (cousin) would be a virtual one, I started to freak a bit. How would we pull this off? I started researching ways to accomplish this--surely I wouldn't be the first to host such an event.

I didn't find too much out there, unfortunately. Seems like most stuff I found involved setting up a blog or Facebook page/event where everyone would log in to see pictures and posts regarding the baby shower. That's not what I envisioned though.

I wanted to host a baby shower. I didn't want the fact that the mom-to-be (MTB) was unable to attend in person to hinder the party. I wanted food, décor, talking, laughing, and belly rubs.

And that's just what happened, thanks to Skype (and our husbands for setting up the Skype stuff which I'm completely oblivious to) and the fact that my BFF's in-laws were throwing her a shower, too.

Having never met, my BFF's sister-in-law and I started communicating via email. At first we were going to try to coordinate both showers--from the invites down to everything. But that was just way too hard and I just didn't have the time, money, or energy for it. So we basically decided to go along the lines of Bees because MTB's baby bedding was bees.

I went a step beyond just Bees and went with Bees, Bugs, Gnomes, Mushrooms... basically a garden-y feel. And all approved by the MTB, of course.

First up were the invites for my portion of the shower in Chicago:

each handmade by me-- thanks to Washi Tape, Michael's, and Hobby Lobby of course. and this Pin that inspired it.

Then, I just expanded from the invites... The décor would be yellow and pink, primarily (like the invites), with spurts of cute bees, bugs, gnomes, mushrooms (all things MTB likes). And flowers because what are bees and bugs without flowers?

I'd seen the clothesline idea before on Pinterest and such so I knew I wanted to incorporate that. But I also needed a little more than just that, without going too crazy. So, also thanks to Pinterest, I discovered tissue pom flowers and streamer backgrounds.

Anyway, commence the pictures...

The room set up:

click to enlarge-- taken with my cell phone. the Skype camera is on top of the TV and their view would be of the food table and streamers, which is why I put the streamers there- they are actually covering three canvases of me, Taye & Lovie.

Clothesline in better detail, photos taken with a real camera:

All clothes are Carter's-- 12 months to 24 months. A couple Gerber bibs and a couple pair of Circo socks to balance it out.

 

Tissue pom flowers in better detail, photos taken with a real camera:

made all these myself thanks to this pin. I grouped them together onto a big box top and then pinned that into the wall.

Food table in better detail, photos taken with real camera:

I created the Menu right before the shower-- Washi tape and leftover paper from the invites to the rescue!

The fruit skewers:

I knew I'd serve fruit, but I didn't want just a bowl of fruit; I wanted to add height to the table and when I saw this basket at Goodwill, it just came to me. Styrofoam sits inside the basket, which is then jammed with the skewers I created, very easily.

Guest sign-in book:

Like the menu, I created the note for the book very last minute with a leftover invite. I wanted to have guests leave a note or wish inside a baby book of sorts... since we're all here in (or near) Chicago, I was elated to find a Chicago "baby" book to complete the plan.

How the virtual baby shower really gets pulled off--SKYPE!

Honestly, this could've only worked out better had they been in Chicago. It was a little different, yes, but it was still a baby shower and it was really a lot of fun!

 

The fabulous cake:

Oh Wow was I happy with the way this turned out. MTB is a big fan of cupcakes but because she wouldn't be at our portion of the shower in person, I figured I could save some money by getting a cake. And I was right and WOW was it yummy. I made the order over the phone two days before the shower and just prayed it would turn out- and it did, I think. I mean, I couldn't stop talking about how cute it was. And then when we cut into it? (While gifts were still being open in Pennsylvania-- a plus to doing a virtual shower if you ask me {being able to eat and stuff without disturbing the gift opening}) There was only six adults and we finished 3/4 of it, it was THAT tasty. Thank you Mariano's!

My pride and joy, the edible flower favors:

Ack, these turned out SO well. Yes, they're a little top heavy and they would probably look even better with shorter sticks, but whatever. They look and tasted awesome. They go along with the theme (what are bees and bugs without flowers, huh??). The colors match. I made them myself!! They weren't that hard or expensive. I adore them so! Thanks to this pin and this one and this one for the inspiration.

Overall this was a really fun experience for me. I actually enjoy having parties at my place... and seeing this all come together was just amazing. And again, the only way this could've been better was if the MTB (and Daddy to be) would've been there in person.

Now I get to box all this stuff up and ship it out to her before Sunday-- her first Mother's Day! And in a little over a month, maybe we can Skype again to see the new baby!

Yay!

flower cookies on a stick

My cousin's *virtual* baby shower is Saturday and I'm quite excited. I'm hosting the Chicago shower while my cousin will be at another shower at the same time, hosted by her in-laws in Pennsylvania. Last night our husbands got together via Skype to ensure that that whole thing (skype) will work- and it should. So yay! I'm excited. I hate that she won't be here in person, but at least we're of a technological age that we can make this happen at all.

I've been prepping for this shower for a while now and I just cannot wait to see it all come together. Last time I talked about it, I showed you the invites I made.

Super cute, right? RIGHT?

Well now I want to talk about the favors I made...

How cute are those?? And they're edible AND they weren't hard to make.

I wanted something to go along with the "theme" of the invites and shower (bugs, bees, garden-y) without spending a fortune. I can't even remember how I found them, but I did pin them here and here.

Supplies
 * Terracotta pots (Dollar Tree had them at 3 for $1!)
 * Weed looking stuff (Dollar Tree had a bag for $1)
 * Cookie Sticks (Party City had them 20 for a couple bucks) (if I could do it again, I'd get shorter sticks or a larger pot)
 * Refrigerated cookie dough
 * flour
 * colored sugar
 * Hershey kisses
 * egg carton egg holder thingies
 * glue stick
 * plastic zip lock bags
 * Washi tape

Direction for the pots
 * Cut the egg holders out individually to fit into the pots so the bottom (the part the egg normally sits in) is sticking up.
 * Poke hole in center big enough for cookie stick to sit in.
 * Glue the top of the egg holder and dip in weed looking stuff.

Direction for the cookies (20 cookies)
 * Followed these directions, except I used Hershey Kisses.

After the cookies cooled I wrapped each cookie (just the cookie part) in a Ziploc bag with the zip part cut off and taped with Washi tape. The cookies are in the freezer and before the shower, I'll stick them into the pre-made pots and weed, waiting for the flower.

I can't wait to see everyone's reactions! I think they're darling!

TILTW: 4.6-4.12.2013

Lovie’s dreams will be coming true on Mother’s Day when she gets to dress in the pinkest, princessiest (I know it’s not a word), gaudiest, ugliest pink frilly dance costume my eyes have ever seen. Like, my eyes burned when I saw the dress. Blech. But she couldn’t be more excited about getting to wear it... just not so sure she realizes she’ll be on a stage with an audience. (I tried talking with her about this just last night and she was all, “What’s a stage? What’s a recital?” I’m new to this whole Dance Mom thing so I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be making her practice and really, if I am, I haven’t a clue what. They read from Angelina Ballerina for a couple of minutes then do random dance stuff or something at ballet on Saturdays—all this while I’m peering in through a tiny window when other Dance Moms aren’t glued to it.)

 

My baby won’t stop growing. I’m not just now realizing this but… A) she’s pretty much completely potty trained to the point that she even goes by herself and is waking up dry, B) she’ll be moving into her big girl bed as soon as daddy puts it together and the thought of my girl in a real bed and not a crib with its side down almost makes me teary.

 

 

The invites for my BFF's baby shower went out end of last week and so far only one person isn't coming and that's because she'll be flying out to be with my cousin in person. I'm getting super excited about this shower, and thanks to Pinterest, have lots of decor and food ideas for the shower found on my partay ideas page, as well as my baby shower ideas page.

 

 

Last night I made the easiest, yummiest dinner: Schmarren.

 

 

 

It's like a thick pancake with fruit compote atop (so the juices can soak into the pancake-y part!). Probably doesn't look or sound yummy to most, but it's been a good 15 years since I've had it (Oma used to make it during lunch visits) and I was elated to find that it was so darn simple to make and just as good as I remembered.

 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

super cute, fun, easy DIY baby shower invites

 

My BFF (cousin) in the whole world is expecting a baby in mid-June. Her first. She's older, like me, (she's six months older at 41 nah nah!) and ridiculously excited for this baby. No, I mean like she-sent-me-a-handmade-card-with-a-photo-of-the-4-D-image-of-the-baby's-face-and-poem excited.

 

I knew as soon as I found out she was knocked up that I wanted to throw her a shower. Problem is that she's in Jersey City and I'm in Chicago and she's not coming back this way before baby is born. So I got together with her in-laws who are throwing her a shower in Pennsylvania and together, we're throwing showers on the same day. The one in Chicago will just be done without the Mama-to-Be in attendance... though she will be there via Skype (I hope this works out as I've never Skyped before).

 

 

I had my own ideas before putting these together... I was going with either cupcakes or ballerina because my girly girl cousin (so unlike me) loves cupcakes and dance. But then the in-laws were talking about doing a bee theme because my BFF bought some sort of bee bedding for the babee. ;) So I went with that. And am so glad. I mean, HOW CUTE ARE THESE?

 

This was SO easy to do and I think I even saved some money.

• I created the invite text with bugs on picmonkey.com- all for free and printed in only black on printer at work (free).
• I picked up soft pink, heavy card stock at Michaels for like $.69 a sheet. Each sheet is cut in half length wise then folded. So... 2 invites per sheet.
• I picked up the yellow paper from Hobby Lobby for like $.40 a sheet. Again, each sheet is cut in half both horizontally and vertically so I got 4 invite inserts to each sheet.
• I picked up 3D stickers with bugs and flowers from Hobby Lobby for like $3.50 a package (x 3 packages) and placed a couple on to each outside of the card.
• I picked up a pack of 25 envelopes from Hobby Lobby for like $4, I think.
• Washi tape (purchased online for $1 or so) is used to tape on the invite text paper on to the card stock.
• Glue stick (to adhere a little from what the Washi tape isn't holding).

the fortress and bedtime

We've been watching a lot of Tangled in our house lately. So much so that not only do lines get repeated while watching it, but we often reenact scenes. And what better time to reenact than at bedtime? Because every little thing comes up at bedtime:

I gotta go potty.
Read me another book.
Tell me a story.
I need a bandage.
The colors won't stop looking at me. (the light from her closet?)
I need some water.
Why won't this work?
Daddy needs batteries for the Wiggles. (the CD in the car skips so she thinks it's low on batteries!)
What does Mama start with?
What does Greasestina start with? (she can't say Christina)

And on and on and on.

I know you feel my pain. And I know that I need to buck up and say good night and get the hell out of her room but, well, I'm just so tired by then and I know what will happen if I try to leave so I give in. I know... I KNOW... the put-the-child-back-into-bed-with-no-eye-contact-and-no-emotion-every-single-time-they-get-out-of-bed-no-matter-how-many-times-that-is thing will work after just a couple of nights of doing it but I'm just too tired to do it. That's the truth.

So I give in to the million requests, including the ones where I'm the nasty mean Mother from Tangled and my darling Princess is, of course, Rapunzel.

And in order to really reenact it all we need a tower, right? So what better tower than her bed? MAYBE IT WILL GET HER TO STAY IN HER BED!!

So the other night, I got some cheap Walmart blankets and thought about it and thought it: How can I get these up onto her bed and get them to stay without looking like total shit? And then things started coming together...

I took one long crib bumper and shorter one and tied them together (they were in her closet) and rigged them from one side of her open crib to the other side- across the top of the crib sides. Then I laid blankets over top. But how would they stay up when Lovie inevitably moved and jumped around?

I got some clothes pins (big package for $1 at the Dollar Tree) and pinned the back of the blankets so they had some weight. Then I taped the clothes pins to the rails of her crib with washi tape. Bada boom, bada big a fort was made!

Lovie adores it. She calls it a Fortress- or her tower if we're playing Tangled.

The first night... it didn't work. She kept coming out of bed and I asked her if she wanted me to take the fort down. She said yes to try to call my bluff but this Mama can be a Mother and took it down. Man was she pissed. I kept telling her I'd put it back up the next night and it would stay up as long as she wanted or as long as she STAYED IN BED at bedtime.

Last night... it worked. She stayed in bed.

We still had a millions stall tactics, but at least we didn't have to strap her down* into her bed to get her to finally settle down and go to sleep.




*That's a joke, people; we don't ever strap her down into the bed.

everybody craaaazy shake!

Tomorrow. Her party is finally tomorrow! : )

I designed the invites myself. Not too shabby, eh? Well I don't think they are (I mean did you see I got a photo of Lovie inside of Bot's belly-screen?!??). I think they're damn cute, tyvm!

Because I blurred it all out, the party is going to be (for little kids) at a little kid gym place...The place Lovie's been going to since October for her "Gymnastics." She loves this place. Loves it. So it was really fitting to have the party here. And the price really couldn't be beat- especially considering we don't have to worry about doing any kind of set up, clean up, entertaining, etc. Nope. We just show up with a cake. Play. Pizza will be delivered at 3:30 (party starts at 3). We'll eat pizza and have cake- after singing Happy Birthday to my girl, of course. Then it's back to play play play!

My header at the top of the blog? That's from the last time we were at Gymnastics. They have a ball pit which Lovie adores. Ack, she's going to have SO much fun. She always does but once she realizes that everyone is there for HER... eek! :) I can't wait to see her reaction.

I'm a bit nervous because every single person RSVP'd that the were coming except for a small handful of people so we're going to be at the max the place allows! And then there's the chance that some additional child(ren) will show up as my husband's family kind of does their own thing.

I can't worry about any of that, though; we'll just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

My main focus is Lovie having a blast... and somehow, someway getting some pictures of it all to help us remember. We can only do what we can do and the H and I have already discussed that we would swap taking pictures and playing whenever we could.  So fingers crossed we get some decent photos (I'd love to have a group shot of *all* kids but not sure how/if that could work with 20 kids.)

Eek, this is gonna be so much fun!!

• After work today, I pick up the cake (just a generic one from Costco... I made Millie, Geo, and Bot characters to stick into the cake. Was hoping to keep the cake in the car overnight but our temps are supposed to be in the 50s today!).
• Bottled water and juice boxes are in the hallway at home.
• Little goody bags assembled and ready to go (with a Team Umizoomi sticker- that I made- on them)!
• Pizza to be delivered at 3:30.
• Paper plates, napkins, plastic forks, candles all in a bag ready to go, too.
• Team Umizoomi "2" shirt ready to be worn by the birthday girl.

This is gonna be soooo much fun.

And then on Sunday, we get to go to a 1 year old's pizza party! So it's definitely going to be a busy weekend. How about you?

Monchichi costume

Originally I picked up a Cow's costume for Lovie to wear today but after I got it home, ripped off the tags, and tried it on her, I discovered it barely fit. And that was two months ago. Considering the fact that her size 2T jeans are almost too short, I knew the Cow costume, size 24 months, was a bust.

I wasn't happy about this revelation as I'm as cheap as they come and I was not wanting to spend another $15-30 on another costume for her to wear one, maybe two days.

 

And that's when it hit me: I was gonna turn my baby doll into a baby doll herself. A Monchichi doll!

It was perfect- she has the hair, I could easily dress her in brown and get a bib... just gotta figure out the tail... Did some online searches and it was a deal:

Lovie would be a Monchichi

The day finally arrived to try it all out... it was gloomy out, the temps were OK, we hadn't visited the in-laws in a bit. Why not dress our monkey up (is that what a Monchichi is?!?) and take a test run?

SUCCESS!!

* hand write Monchhichi (the way it's spelled on the doll's bib) on a Dollar Tree bib- $1

* brown shirt- $3 from Once Upon a Child and will be worn again so I don't even count this in the total of the costume cost.

* brown sweatshirt- $10 from Old Navy but has been worn often and don't count it since will be worn again.

* brown leggings- part of a $13 outfit from Marshall's and don't count it since they've been worn and will be worn again.

* tail- a women's knee high sock from the Dollar Tree ($1) stuffed with paper towel and safety pinned (free from my mom) to her leggings

* brown boots- $20 from Meijer store but don't count as they have been worn and will be worn again

* face paint - $1 - from Dollar Tree (love you Dollar Tree) but she's going w/out the makeup today as she just rubs it off (wuzdat on my nose?!)