Henry turns 2!

Nobody likes a party more than me. I love picking out a theme and getting everything together. I'm a huge fan of DIY so I'm always looking for easy simple ideas that won't break the bank. This past August we celebrated our not so little man. I decided on a transportation theme. Think anything that moves; we're talking places, trains, cars, trucks & even motorcycles. He's a big fan of it all.

So where to start? I always decide the date first. Our family has a pig roast every year, the year Henry was born we missed it- the only one I've ever missed! I always have that in the back of my head when picking out the date. This year the pig roast fell right on his birthday, so we chose to have his party the Saturday before. I usually do it around 3 because my kid still needs a nap and the later the better. Next is the venue. Although I try to keep it small we end up with about 40 to 50 people, it never fails. With this amount of people we don't have the room to have it at our house. We decided to have it at our church, Sonrise.  We also decided to have it outside, they have a great pavilion and a play ground for all the kids to play on!

Next up are invitations. I turn to Pinterest for inspiration. When I look at Pinterest not only am I looking for cute clip-art, but I'm also looking for cute wording. Here's what we came up with:

Once the invitations are set I try to think of some easy decorations. I picked up a cute birthday banner at Target, it had dump trucks (probably on of his favorite things) on it with some construction cones. I made another banner that said "Henry is 2" using card stock in the shape of construction cones. I was really trying to not go crazy as far as decor is concerned. It's hard not to when you're looking at Pinterest; there's so much to look at! I also made two canvas paintings, one with an H on it; that I painted to look like a road and one that said "Speed Limit 2". For that I just printed out the words, used a little mod podge to glue them on and done!

The basic set up before all the food, I didn't take any close up pictures of the canvas but you can see one in here!

Close up of his construction cone banner.

Next I focused on food. I try to keep the party after naps which leaves us around 3, because of that I feel like I have to feed people. Not just snacks either but you know like a meal. Before when I would plan parties I was definitely a "I got everything myself" kind of girl. Now I share the wealth, you want to help me; cool bring a dip! With the help of family and friends we had quite a spread. We had taco dip, buffalo dip, pretzels, chips, fruit, a big tossed salad and pizza. I try really had to be mindful of our guests; we have quite a few family members who are vegetarian or vegan. I try to think of things that they can eat too. On the table I had some trucks set up so they were "dumping" the food into the bowls. For the cake I did a 13x9 pan with funfetti cake (our favorite) and made a big 2 on it. I made the 2 look like a road and put a couple of Henry's smaller trucks on them. For the cupcakes we did chocolate with chocolate frosting (Henry picked that out). I did simple cake toppers for the cupcakes. I also made some sugar cookies to have as another sweets option. Just simple square cookies that I turned into road signs, they turned out pretty cute!

 Dump trucks "dumping" the snacks into the bowls

 The cake and the cupcakes, found the plates online at Party City!

Shot of the cookies!

As far as favor bags, I'll be honest I'm not a huge fan of goody bags. They're usually filled with candy or useless crap I'll most likely end up throwing away. I try to think of what I would want my kid to bring home from a party. We decided on a hot wheels car and a cute little coloring pack n go kit. It came with a small coloring book, stickers, and crayons; even better just a dollar from the dollar store! For the bags I picked up a 12 pack of black bags from Target and cut out red, yellow and green circles. Glued them on so they looked like traffic lights!

Favor bags!

Some other fun details we added to the table were some photos of our boy. My sister and went out with Henry one night searching for big trucks and boy did we find some. The pictures were the perfect addition to the table. I also made some cute signs to add to the table. You'll see them in some of the pictures above. We made one that said, "Choo choo choose a treat", "Fuel Station", and "Yield for a snack". Everything came together really nicely. Having the playground there was great for the kids, I didn't have to have any other activities to keep them busy.

Our sweet boy is really two! He may give us a run for our money, he may still crawl into our bed at 2 in the morning, he may still have a binky, he may drive me insane sometimes but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Back to School!

It's 6 am on the first day of school. Nella is actually awake; I think she's excited. She normally wakes up any where from 7 to 7:30. How did we get here? We didn't do much this summer (we choose to pay off some debt this year) but man did it fly by. We went on a couple small adventures, we've had baby cousins (lots of baby cousins) being born, we've had fun birthday parties, we've had beach days, we took a small trip to Ohio (blog post to come on that!), a couple lemonade stands, we've had a lot of park days, baseball games, and a lot of hanging around the house and do nothing days.

Now here are, it's September already! So how do we get ready for going back to school? During the summer I don't really follow much of a routine. I let Nella stay up longer than I normally would, we eat treats (probably too many) and watch lots of movies. I really start to crack down about two weeks before school starts. Nella is transitioning out of naps so I want her in bed by 8. No naps means she's pretty tired at the end of the night. We start getting ready around 7:00, everyone gets their jammies on, she gets a small snack (once Henry is in bed), brushes her teeth, says her prayers and then it's off to bed. Of course she fights it; but I know she needs it. She's been doing really well with it. It's nothing crazy; just trying to stay consistent is key. I think it's safe to say we are ready for the school year ahead.

This year will be her last year in preschool. It has been pulling at my heart strings for sure. This is her third year at this preschool with Miss Stephanie. Man I could go on for days what a great teacher she is; Nella has grown so much over these three years. I can't wait to watch her this year. This year she will be going in the afternoon class; hence the transition to no naps.

This is my girl on her very first day of preschool!

Penelope will be FIVE in November; don't ask we how that happened because I just don't know. It goes by too fast. Nella is a November baby so she could go to kindergarten this year but we have chosen to keep her in preschool one more year. Do I think that she would make it in kindergarten; hell yes I do. This girl is one smart cookie but we were not focused on now when we made the decision. The thing that kept sticking out to me that later on she will be only 17 when she starts college. To me that seems so young. I can't help but think she can only benefit from going to kindergarten next year instead of this year.

If we needed to send her I think she would do fine, I really do. But guys kindergarten is not the same anymore. When I went to kindergarten it was a half day program; over the years it has become a full day program. Which is a dream for working parents and I'm not knocking that; but it's a lot. I don't think people fully realize how much it really is for a kid. At least for a kid who maybe didn't go to preschool or a pre-K program or doesn't go to daycare. When that kid enters kindergarten now they are expected to know their letters and their numbers already; they are starting the process of learning to read in kindergarten. Yes that's right- they are already learning to read! When I went to kindergarten we were taught our letters and numbers! I am a huge fan of learning through play. I think it's so important for kids to be able to discover and explore through play. That is the main reason we chose to keep her in preschool just one more year.

We also decided to stay another year because that's what we think is best for her. We think this will be the best transition for her. This was the first summer that I actually did not enforce naps. She had to find something quiet to do because her brother still naps (I am not ready for that yet). So last year she did the morning class and this year it will be the afternoon. We can do stuff in the morning and she will go to school after lunch. I think it will be the best way for her to transition into a full day of school. We are also upping her days from three days of school to four. I am really excited to watch her grow and I can't wait to see what she does this year. I know she's going to do great things. But I'm not going not going to lie, my momma heart is a little sad that my baby is getting so big.

Baby girl you are going to big things, I can't wait to watch it all! 

Henry Turns 1!

Fast forward to a year later our sweet boy is turning one! I will be honest I was not feeling a party this year. I can't exactly pin point why either. It could because I couldn't think of a real solid theme that I loved or it could of been because of every theme I thought of involved too much. For the first birthday we like to call it our big blow out. We invite everyone, which equals a lot of food & drinks too. I don't know why but I just wasn't feeling it, maybe it was because my baby was getting bigger. Nothing quite like a birthday to crush a momma's heart just a little.

No worries we did end up having a party. My genius husband came up with a camping theme; and that's when it hit me. We could do chili as the food; one meat and one veg for our vegetarian friends, have it outside using the outdoors as our decorations. He came up with the theme and I ran with it.

I really had such a blast coming up with all the decorations. We asked one of our dear friends if we could use their yard for the occasion; lucky for us she said yes! Once we had a location I set to work. I'm cheap so I try to make as much as I can. My husband brings home cardboard and I create.

There's our boy with some of the set up. All of those signs are made from cardboard. I headed to Pinterest for some inspiration and worked from there. I definitely wanted a welcome sign so I started there.

This was the food table set up. I asked everyone to bring their own chairs, we also had a fire pit that we got going. We did have to deal with some rain but it passed fairly quickly.  Again most of the bigger signs are just from cardboard. I cut them to size, painted the background with chalkboard paint and painted the edges with different shades of brown to resemble a wood grain. Using a white pencil or crayon I wrote my letters first then painted over them with white paint. The banners I used brown paper lunch bags; cut them into a pennant shape and just print off my letters I wanted. For the party favors we had a make your own trail mix station set up with all the fixings. We used peanuts, almonds, raisins, pretzels, & m&m's.

I may have gone a little over board and made our whole family matching shirts. Henry had his birthday shirt (found on Etsy and it says "Henry is one happy camper"), and I made shirts for the rest of us. We were the "staff" for Camp Henry. I grabbed some shirts from Micheal's, some fabric paint and some stencils. I just did arrows on the front and using letter stencils put "STAFF" on the back.

Made this sweet sign from a canvas I had at home, hoping to find a spot in his room for it at some point. Took some shades of brown mixed with some white and orange to get a wood grain feel for the background. I free handed the letters, wrote it in pencil first and went over it with paint. The arrows were stencils.

I did cupcakes with fish on them and a sweet little cake for our little guy. Used graham crackers to create a tent and some twigs to make a one! You can see in the background Henry's birthday sign. I like to make one every year to celebrate our kids mile stones. I usually put on their weight, height, how many teeth they have, what they can do, what they love, favorite toys, favorite books, favorite foods and probably a couple of other things that I can't think of right now. It's nice to have to look back on.

I had my sister take some pictures to help capture our big boy (and so we'd have a couple to put out on the tables). You can see in the top picture a nice picture of his shirt. Everything came together so well and it looked so nice! It was easy to find things to add to the decor, a lot of extras were just from pine trees (we used some branches and bark). I think it's safe to say our little man had a great first birthday party!

Henry William

Guys. It's 2018. My last post was in 2015! It's almost three exact years since I last wrote. My little bean is now close to FIVE years old! Can you freaking believe that. Oh and we had another kid....who just turned TWO! Yes that's right, not only am I a mother of two; but I am a mother of an almost five year old and a two year old.

Hence this post. I figured I'd take you back to when our sweet little man was born. We found out that I was pregnant on Christmas eve! We weren't really trying but we weren't preventing it either. I got a pregnancy test on a whim just to see and well you can guess what happened next. We saw the line, the positive sign and we were pretty excited! We told my parents the next day, and his parents too! We waited a little while to tell Nella. Honestly we didn't want anything to happen and to have to explain that.

This pregnancy was a little rough. I hate to complain because I really am so blessed. I am proud that my body is able to hold a baby and make it to full term. I know full well that not everyone can do that and I am truly grateful. As grateful as I am; that doesn't take away from the daily wear and tear that your body goes through during pregnancy. I was uncomfortable and trying to keep up with a two year old. Our due date was August 25th, of course we wanted to find out the gender. We had names picked out, solid one for a boy and a few for a girl. Of course we wanted to throw a little party to reveal what the baby was; low and behold they could not see a thing. Our little bundle of joy was in a tight ball, the nurses got all their measurements so we did not need to go back. I'm cheap so I was not about to go in for extra ultrasounds just to find out the sex. We had to wait and see what we had in there. We were bummed to say the least. I get the surprise of not finding out, but I don't know there's something about knowing what your baby is. You can pick out a name for them, you can bond with them even before they are with you earth side.

                                                Photo by Nicole Maddalone Photography

Anyways, long story short we did not find out so we had to wait. Daddy was pretty convinced it was a girl. We heard it all, if it's a boy they always show off- have their legs wide open. Well whatever this babe was they weren't giving it up. Lucky me we got to wait a whole extra week! In the words of my doctor "You just have a very comfy home in there." Not what I wanted to hear. Shout out to Nella to being a super awesome toddler; who really enjoyed watching a lot of movies on those hot summer days. Well September 1, 2016 finally comes, it's induction day. We call the hospital at 5pm to see if we can come in at 6; they're really busy so they ask us to come in at 7. We wait for Grandma and Papa to come hang with Nella, we say good bye and head to the hospital. We check in, get out room and wait for our doctor to come in. He gets there around 8, gives me a dose of cervidil and says he'll be back to check on me.

In the room I've got my mom, my little sister and my husband. Trying to think back, as the night progressed my pain was definitely increasing. By 10/10:15 I was over it. My husband suggested asking for some pain meds so we could nap and get ready for this baby's arrival, I agreed so we called the nurse in. She checked me and went to get another nurse. She checked me and told me that I wasn't getting pain meds I'd be getting an epidural (if I wanted one) because I was dilated to an 8 or 9 and was ready to go. Mind you my mom and sister had just stepped out to grab a book, and get some snacks so they could hang for a little. My husband called them immediately and told them to get back to the room as quickly as possible. I got my epidural and was ready to go (shout out to all the bad asses who don't get an epidural. Giving birth hurts & I love my epidural). I don't remember when the doctor came in or what time I started to push. I just know by 11:37 pm after two sets of three pushes our little BOY was here. Daddy got to announce it and everyone was over joyed! We seriously could not believe it was a boy. I remember changing his diaper later on, seeing his penis and thinking, "Holy crap! It really is a boy!"

                                      Henry William. 11:37 pm. 9 lbs 11 ozs. 21 inches long.

Big sister Penelope came to visit in the morning with Grandma and Papa. She was very excited and was so sweet with her new brother. We had so many visitors, got so many presents for our boy. We are so very blessed to be surrounded by such a loving family. I stayed over night that night and we went home in the morning a family of four.

Nella's Craft Corner!

It's finally finished and I couldn't be more proud. Of course there are no before pictures because I got too excited and started as soon as I could. Just picture this a sweet round little wooden table. With two little chairs. I actually used it when I was a kid, it got passed onto our cousins when we out grew it and landed back to my moms house for the grand kids. Imagine something similar to this:

I started thinking a couple of months ago how fun it would be to have a space just for Nella to be able to color. She could get into the chair herself, get her crayons herself and have at it. The idea developed from there. I had to have containers for the crayons and of course some where for her coloring books and papers.

So I turned to my faithful Pinterest. I searched for "craft corner" to see what other people had come up with, how they organized all the little stuff and kept it neat. What I liked best looked something like this:

 different ways to organize

 cute, small & contained

tin cans on towel rod with shower hook!

Now I do know that Nella is only 2 but it's something that will hopefully grow with her. Maybe even become a place for her to do homework. So this is what I came up with:

There it is in all it's glory. I absolutely loved how it turned out. It has everything I wanted. Sorry for the crappy pictures, it's just me and my cell phone over here! So let's take a peek shall we!

I started with the table and chairs. I wanted them to be fun, be bright, be inviting. I knew I wanted to paint them but like I said I wanted bright & fun. I wasn't sure how to achieve this with just paint, then it struck me, duh! Decoupage! Of course I googled that and found out you can really use anything and stick it on anything. I went with wrapping paper, I figured it would cover well and I wouldn't have to match anything up like you would with plain old paper because with wrapping paper you have a lot of surface area to work with. I tried to find something gender neutral just in case so I went with stripes. I read that you should have a base coat (of paint) before you start with the Mod Podge. I painted the whole thing white, primer first and just one coat of white paint. No clue what brand or how much because I found it in the basement. It did the job and I was satisfied. After waiting for that to dry I slapped on a coat of Mod Podge on the table. I tried putting a thin layer of Mod-Podge on the wrapping paper itself as well as the table because he guide I found said to do that. Well that didn't work for me, when I tried to smooth it out it ripped so I had to scrap the whole thing. So I tried again this time only putting a layer of Mod-Podge just on the table. Then I cut a huge piece of wrapping paper and pasted it on. You don't want it to be too big, but you do want it to hang off the edge, it's easier to trim later. While it's slightly wet take a piece of sand paper and go around the edges. That's how you get the excess off but still get a clean edge. I smoothed out the wrinkles as much as I could and layered more Mod-Podge on top of that. I did at least 4 coats, and I still need to do a clear coat but it's holding up well without it.

Next I moved onto the chairs. I thought having the top part and the seat of the chair covered in wrapping paper would be cute. I knew the top part would be hard because it's a curved edge. I tried cutting a piece and making slits down the whole thing so I could make it smooth. Long story short it just didn't work. At all. The Mod-[odge was drying to fast for me to get it to do what I wanted. It looked like a hot mess.

This is a view form the couch. I had to take a break for a couple of days because it was very frustrating. Even more frustrating once I realized it wasn't going to work it had already dried so I had to sit there and pick and sand and pick and sand it all off. Not my idea of a good time!

As you can see from the above pictures I had to paint it again. i tried to make it as smooth as possible so you couldn't tell the damage I had done. After just painting it white and leaving it alone I moved onto the seat of the chair. Again I cut out a piece of wrapping paper, although this time I trimmed it to fit exactly how I wanted it because I wasn't able to and didn't want sand it off this time. It would be impossible and ruin my paint job. So I trimmed it to the shape and size I wanted. Once that was done I traced that one for the other chair as well. Again I put a layer of Mod-Podge just on the chair and stuck the wrapping paper piece on. Smoothed all the wrinkles and bubbles out, then put a layer right on top.

This was it while the Mod-Podge was drying, it's beautiful. I love that it dries so clear!

Almost done! Nella couldn't wait though; she had to test it out and of course I let her. She waited very patiently while it dried.

As you can see the buckets are hung differently here than how they ended up. Once we got our fabric book shelf hung up everything was pretty crammed together so I had to move everything.