The Party People.

Apparently the majority of our little friends were born in the month of March. So far we've been to four parties in two weekends and it's been a wild and fun time. It's so fun to see how our friends put together parties for their kids. It ranges from a casual meet up to a jump palace to a mini rock show with dad and grandpa performing for the birthday girl. No matter how you put it, our little ones are lucky to have good friends to celebrate with. Above and below is what taking a photo of 18 kids kids looks like. Check out my little guy's face in the second photo, he's not into it anymore.

Let's not forget the new ones! How cute are these dads with their new boys??

We had a variety of cupcakes including minion cupcakes, a Superman cake, and a donut cake. No matter the form, it seems consistent that O eats it frosting side down and is over it once the frosting is gone and we are left to discard of the stump.

At the fourth party O discovered that this cool fire engine moves when his cheap-o parents agree to put quarters in! There was an excavator too and his was over the moon.

I love this sweet picture of the last birthday girl. She was so gracious in welcoming everyone to her party. This is what we've been up to and it's been a lot of fun. I'll share some of the fun gifts that I made for the kids next! Happy Wednesday!

A Rustic Wedding

I was so excited last week to wake up to this lovely email from a bride and groom that I worked with back in November. Kara and Brandon were so kind to share photos with me from their wedding and their photographer Angela Barutenek of Aster & Olive was just as nice for letting me share them with you! You can check out more of their wedding on Angela's site here.

The wedding was rustic and took place in Geneva on the Lake. The details look amazing and these two were a breeze to work with. They saw the fabric they like from my Boutique Bridal Bazaar display in 2013, they let me pick the lining, and these guys look amazing. And Kara is a beautiful bride. Oh, ad don't forget that awesome little pug! Thanks so much to the happy couple, wishing you lots or happiness!

The Reluctance.

I started this prototype kid's tie one year ago. It didn't work quite right so I set it aside and basically forgot about it. In the meantime, I did manage to crank out one, count 'em, kid's tie for a custom order during this past year. Yesterday I was bumbling around in the studio and came across this fun neon thing that I started. So I tinkered with it. It's still not perfect and honestly, it's a little long for O but he's wearing it with pride. "Papa pulls on it like this," he said when he put it on.

This sourpuss face is the most accurate of shots that I got. He agreed to take pictures but was pretty annoyed that it was "taking soooooo long." It was five minutes tops. 

But once it was over he took the wearing of his new tie (or tight, as he says) pretty seriously. He wore it to Home Depot and wanted to put it back on after his bath. And this morning he requested to wear it again when it was time to get dressed. So he'll be the most formal one at his sitter's house today I'm sure. Happy Tuesday, hope you're looking your best!

These Many Winter Days.

Yes, yes the winter has been cold, dark, and long but that doesn't mean you have to dread every day. Yesterday the sun was shining and the snow was glistening. We took a walk and O said "where did all this glitter come from?" It was so sweet and innocent and I cannot imagine crushing those thoughts and replacing them with ones that insist that winter sucks. That said, how do you pass the time? I'm not sure where I saw this idea but it turned out to be pretty fun.

Here's the scene...Spiderman is frozen in ice...and only bath time can save him! We raced upstairs to get

the tub running  and to answer the questions "how do we get him out and will it make the water too cold?"

Lucky for Spiderman the water was pretty warm and he was quickly released from his ice cage. Oliver thought it was pretty funny and it got him asking some impressive questions about ice. AND he was in the bath for a long time leading up to bedtime, which was great because at this point I was worn out. 

It was so much fun that I froze some of his sea creatures for next time. I was tempted to put in food coloring but thought better of having a bright blue kid. Have a fun day!

Snow Day Crafts

The day started off a little shaky. The mounds of snow determined to keep us indoors made me worry about what we'd do today. Through clenched teeth and spilled milk (literally everywhere), I scrubbed the stove top in protest of another day inside. It's winter, I thought to myself, get inspired. Deep breaths and a cup of coffee while O played trains and I had a simple idea. Let's make something kiddo. 

Our craft shelves are overflowing with things to do, I just have to actually do them. I have to come up with the ideas, this kid would happily just watch T.V. on a day like this but I didn't want to start that up.  We gathered up the X and O stamp, some nice craft paper, a glue stick, and scissors and made Valentine's Day cards together.

I helped with the cutting and the tape, and stopped my inner control freak from intervening beyond that. They look great and he was really proud of himself and listed off the names of friends and family that he'll be giving these to. Plus we easily spent a good hour on them.

 

"Don't worry, mama, the ink will wash away." It's tough sometimes to find an activity that we both want to do, I can only play train chase for so long before I'm bored…so  crafts are always a great alternative. Now I just need to stay motivated for the rest of winter. When't it over…April? Happy Friday!