Category Archives: birthdays

Boys

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Last week Alex invited a few boys over for his birthday. The first part of the party involved me driving them to Legoland. It’s a 30 minute drive and I only managed to remember a few of the precious jewels they said.

From the mouths of 3rd grade boys, enjoy:

“Last week we got to speak to the astronauts on the space station. I wanted to ask – Uranus – Does it have a crack?”

farting sounds – lots of giggles

“Dude, remember when we were camping and the door just closed on itself? It was bloody Mary.”

farting sounds – lots of giggles

“Don’t you know anything guys, it was really her Uncle Henry. Bloody Mary was taking the week off.”

farting sounds – lots of giggles

“Guys…inside voices guys.”

farting sounds – still, more giggles

“My third grade teacher got married. She changed her name to Mrs. Fleming.”   “Why did she change her name?”   “Dude, she’s not a pop star, she has to change her name.”    “Lots of paperwork is involved when you want to change your name.”

“Remember when we were little”

That Sure Is

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Last night I went to the store to get some groceries. I chose the line with the 16 year old male cashier as opposed to the 60 year old woman. I figured less chatty, quicker, and will get the job done faster.

Among my items were 5 large containers of frosting. I am making a birthday cake for Alex and want to make sure I have enough frosting for it. My husband can attest to the fact that There’s nothing worse than running out of frosting 15 minutes before the party starts – not that I have ever been inadequately prepared for a party. Just saying, it could happen.

So as the teen grabs the frosting and scans it he says, “That sure is a lot of frosting.”

“Yes, it’s for my son’s birthday cake.”

That got me to thinking.

I wonder what he would have said if I had 5 boxes of tampons? “That sure is a lot of tampons.”

I was almost tempted to run back and grab the tampons just to find out.

Maybe I’ll wait until Alex’s 16th birthday.

I’ll send him to the store for the frosting and the tampons at the same time.

I bet that will make for a lasting birthday memory.

Financial Goals Updated

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As I mentioned in a previous post, Derek and I have made some financial goals for our family this year. One of the ways I was going to directly help was keeping an eye on the food budget.

January’s goal was to spend $125 less on groceries/eating out a month (compared to 2010 monthly average).

Before I give you the results, here are a few “happennings” concerning eating during the month:

Derek’s birthday dinner, cookie cake for $24.95 (yes, I could have made one, no it would not have been as good), ladies night out for me, kids eat free night at BBQ place, Ben & Jerry’s dessert trip, Double Dip trip for dessert, coffee and breakfast for a friend, several meatless nights, bought diapers and wipes (yes, that’s included in this budget for us), several impromptu visits to CVS for gatorade due to the flu, and we ate out on several occasions.

So…how did we do……..(drum roll here people, work with me)

January 2011 food groceries / eating out budget was $328.35 less than our 2010 monthly average! Yeah for us!

What was the key to our success you might ask? Well, let me tell you. I ignored looks from my husband when I knew he wanted to go out to eat. No, seriously, I think it was our meal planning and cooking some meals ahead of time. It’s always easy to go out to eat when nothing is prepared at home. But if there is a casserole already sitting in the fridge, we’re more likely to go home and eat it.

I used this little form to keep track of all the food purchases. The form actually has 2 months on it. I cut off the top section to keep in my wallet for January and will use the bottom section for February.

It helped me keep a constant watch on what we were spending.

Here’s a peek at our January form filled out.

Thank goodness my birthday is today, February 1st. Just in time for our food budget to be huge. We are going to eat like kings tonight. Who cares if we have beans and toast the rest of the month. OK, maybe not but it’s fun to dream.

Now onto our February goals.

1) February’s goal is to spend $175 less on groceries/eating out a month (compared to 2010 monthly average).

Yes, we were very successful in January, but anything can happen and I’d still like to consider $175 a big achievement in the end.

2) February house goal: anything we buy for the house (decorations or furniture) has to come from money we earned by selling items on craigslist or ebay.

We have several items in our house which I’ve wanted to get rid of and replace for a long time. Sometimes it’s hard to justify getting a new lamp when the one you have works just fine. This goal could be a total disaster but I think it’s worth a shot. Don’t worry, I bought a gallon of paint last weekend so we would at least have a project to work on while we figure out this whole craigslist game.

So that’s what’s new with us in the goals department.

How are you doing with your 2011 goals?

A Wintery 1st Birthday

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My adorable nephew Corey just celebrated his 1st birthday. While we weren’t able to be in Canada and celebrate with them, his mom Deanna sent along some photos. I knew I had to share them with you so you could see a 1st birthday through the eyes of a  new mommy. Enjoy!

This past December we celebrated our son’s first birthday! I was pretty darn excited to plan for this event; I think I started designing the invitations in October!

corey invite Seeing that our Champ wasn’t really into anything in particular, I had thought a winter themed party would be appropriate and fun. We had decided to only invite family members to keep it somewhat intimate and hopefully not too overwhelming for Corey.

The planning went pretty well. We had established the menu and cake in advance so no need to stress, right? Wrong! Stress is a funny little beast. Having never really decorated a cake before I would highly recommend not piping a cake the day of the party!! Lesson learned for next year.

cake and surrounding objectsThe finished product! This occasion was my first attempt at making a cake and ‘piping’ a cake…how hard could it be, really? Ace of Cakes makes it look easy….yah, well I’m no Duff Goldman and my first cake looked a bit rookie..practice makes perfect I guess. I made a banana cake in the shape of the #1 with cream cheese icing. It was pretty delicious actually ( I’m hoping the taste made up for the presentation).

birthday vinylWe were debating on putting up a ‘Happy Birthday’ sign and decided that this one would be perfect. Everyone would see it and it would be subtle at the same time.

buffet of foodThe Smörgåsbord. Seeing as we had decided on a winter themed party, we thought it would be fitting if we served up food that somewhat complimented our theme. Candies, chocolates and finger foods were high on our menu list.

crackers and dipI’d have to say the most fun (and maybe the most delicious) treat on our table was the pine-cone-shaped-roasted-almond-cream-cheese-bacon-dill-pickle dip. You may think that food combination is a bit crazy, but all I’d say to that is don’t knock it until you try it. I think this presentation made up for the cake.

rice krispie treat snowflakesA fun spin put on your run of the mill regular rice krispie square. The only downfall would be the base product is not like cookie dough so you can’t re-use the treat base once you’ve cut your shape out. I tried and the rice krispie pieces cracked and crumbled.

hot cocoa barOur winter themed party sported a hot chocolate and apple cider bar. I had read about this idea on a website and thought it was a fantastic one. I mean who doesn’t like chocolate and when you can add marshmallows, whipped cream and more chocolate to it, it’s like heaven in a mug!

corey looking at cakeUltimate cake test. After singing Happy Birthday, we divvied up the cake and gave Corey his first piece ever! He studied it for about 2 seconds and then devoured it … with both hands! He didn’t stop plowing the cake into his mouth until he was finished.

eating cake

One hand would not suffice.

corey stuffing face with cake

He likes it, he really likes it!

opening presentsPresent time. Corey really wasn’t into opening gifts this year so I did the honors.

party gangThe party gang!

Doug and CoreyI’m pooped Dad! Playing with presents and eating cake is tiring.

Thanks for sharing Deanna! Can’t wait to see what you have planned for Corey’s 2nd birthday!


Close Your Eyes Kiddos

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Last week I was walking through Toys R Us looking for the cheapest perfect birthday gift for Andrew’s classmate. Cherishing the alone time I was having, I decided to walk around and get some ideas for Caroline’s birthday. She will be two next month and loves Elmo. I’ve been thinking about doing an Elmo party for her so I went in search of all things Elmo.

I came to the party aisle and stopped dead in my tracks. Something was immediately disturbing to me. How can they make this? What cruel people think this is appropriate?

Elmo PinataYes, folks, an Elmo pinata.

Just think about it for a moment.

Elmo, the adorable, cuddly, lovable friend of your child’s getting his body bashed with a bat.

Imagine the terror that will strike in the minds of little kids when they witness this.

Shouldn’t this product come with a label? In the event that you use incredibly poor judgement and decide to have this at your child’s birthday party, you will be required to pay for 3 years of therapy.

I’m pretty sure we will pass on this and just opt for the Elmo napkins and plates.

The Gift of Words

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I’m sure you have all seen the subway art that has been floating around. I have wanted to attempt this for the past year but never did. I decided that my dream present for Christmas would be a Silhouette machine which would help me make the subway art. My wonderful husband took my ever so subtle hint of leaving the website up and mentioning there was a sale going on and surprised me with one for Christmas. I was thrilled but a little nervous at the same time. I have the habit of really wanting something but once I get it I wait and wait to open it. I thought about it, studied it, pondered it some more, and eventually was ready to try the machine last week.

I decided my first project would be a birthday present for my sister Kelly, who’s birthday is today. Not sure if subway art correlates with Kelly’s taste or not but I’m pretty sure I’ll never know since she lives 800 miles away.

I asked Kelly to email me her top places, foods, holidays she thinks about when she thinks of New Orleans. It’s our hometown so I knew she would have some special places she associates with it.

Here’s her list: Commander’s Palace, street car, beignets, Jazz Fest, City Park, Mardi Gras, & 5 Happiness. I took Kelly’s ideas and added to them.

I first started by painting an 11 x 14 canvas gray.

Next I chose some of the words I wanted to use. I typed them into the Silhouette program for sizing and then printed them out on vinyl. After a few more steps I carefully peeled away the paper and attached the vinyl words to the canvas. Here’s the I don’t think I’ll ever finish shot halfway point.

partially completed subway artThe work in the beginning was tedious but I eventually got the hang of it and moved at a quicker pace. Once I finished putting on all the words I modged podged it so it would have a protective covering.

Here’s the final product:

final subway art product

Kelly, this is going into the mail today for you. Hope you enjoy it. Happy Birthday!

I think this would be so much fun to do with other cities, places you’ve visited, holiday themes, etc. I would like to do one which lists every street my husband and I have ever lived on since we were kids.

If you could have a piece of subway art, what would be on yours?