Let the celebration begin!

Did I mention that this little guy turned one last week? I'm going through the typical parental shock of how quickly he's growing up.

 We decided to have a small family party, and I didn't really have a theme in mind, I just tried to think of things that Ollie might like and it ended up working out pretty well.  He loved all the doilies that we had hanging up for Valentine's Day.  He spent ages getting us to blow on them and watching them move and he tried and tried to blow them himself so I really wanted to have something hanging from the ceiling that you could blow on and move.  I ended up just hanging some star garlands from the party store, and I strung up some party hats too (they look like a mess in this photo because I couldn't get a good angle).

Ollie got right to work blowing on them and smiling so I guess they did their job.

We put rainbow colored pinwheels all over the yard (we stocked up on them at the dollar store) and he loved looking out the window and watching them twirl.

We put a few extras around the house too.

 I also printed out some black and white copies of pictures of Ollie making faces and added party hats to them and put them up on the strings that I still have hanging down the hall from Christmas cards and Valentine sayings.

Speaking of party hats, I went party hat crazy.  I added pom-poms to hats for guests

 I made a simple hat for Ollie

 And I made surprise party hat favors for the guests to take home (which I meant to decorate, but I never got around to it)

I filled them with things that would move in the wind: tiny kites, fringed party whistles, touchable bubbles, and I had to add a little chocolate too since this was really mostly a grown-up party.  Then I just wrapped them up in lots of layers of crepe paper.  I got the idea from these surprise Santa hats.

Ollie is so easy to please, so far we've left everything up because it makes him so happy.

Creed's Valentines

We wanted to give Creed's pre-school classmates something homemade.  I wanted it to be something simple that Creed could help me put together, and something that he would be excited to give to his classmates.

We started off picking up some little wedding favor boxes and some plastic dinosaurs that Creed thought his friends would like.

We took a picture of Creed pointing

 Then we photoshopped on (You are Dino-mite! Love, Creed).  I cute them out and Creed helped me tuck one in the bottom of each of the boxes.

Then he sorted all of the dinosaurs

 And he picked three to add to each box

 To make things easier, his teacher ask students not to address valentines so they can hand them out themselves (since they can't read) so we were done.

 We did tie up a few to deliver to other friends and we just added a little heart so we could label them.

We had so much fun sorting through all the valentines that Creed brought home.  Ah to be three again and have heart-shaped suckers and heart stickers make my day!  It's so fun to experience that again as a mom.

Frosty the Caterpillar

Creed and I have a tradition just for the two of us.  Every time we wake up and see piles of fresh snow outside our window, we are giddy.  We rush out to check the snow to see if the conditions are good for making snowmen.  If they are, we dance the morning away until Ollie settles down for a nap and then we hurry out to see what we can create before Ollie wakes up or we get too cold or hot chocolate beckons to us.

Today was just such a day.

 I thought we needed to put out a bunch of Creed and Ollie's boots to give him feet, but Creed is the artistic director and he rejected that idea firmly.

 Creed has a tradition of his own, he eats as much snow as he possibly can.  I abstain.

PS- Larry would like to send a special thank you to Lisa and Tyler for the snowman kit.  We didn't pilfer Larry's hat or scarf while he was at work this time!

Valentine's Day Gets Sweeter When You Have More Than One Valentine

Our Valentine's Day celebration started at exactly 12:01 when Larry asked me if I wanted to open my present.  Yes, yes I did. So while the little ones slept, we exchanged gifts and basked in a few moments of adult conversation.  He got me a necklace that I didn't even know he knew I wanted.

After Larry fell asleep, I got up and tucked valentines all over the house for him.  He always lays his work clothes out the night before so I slipped a valentine in his pocket and was thoroughly amused the next morning by how long he wore those pants before he found it.

We decided not to go out on Valentine's Day (we would celebrate later, when there weren't as much of a crowd so we wouldn't have to leave Ollie long since it was out first time leaving him with anyone else in months).  I think we might continue celebrating that way because it was sweet to spend the whole day celebrating as a family.

My dad always gave us a valentine (he still does to this day).  Larry is carrying on the tradition and we loved Creed's reaction.

This crazy Valentine plays music and lights up and is now Creed's most treasured belonging.

Ollie will be thrilled one day too, but not today.

I gave Creed a little book and then we had breakfast together before Larry left for work (he usually wakes up and is long gone before the rest of us).  Creed and I spent the rest of the morning putting together his Valentines.

After dinner that night, we all got in our pajamas and watched Enchanted.  Years ago, I'm not sure I would have thought wearing pajamas and watching a kid's movie would the perfect ending to one of the most charming Valentine's Days ever, but it truly was.  

The number one thing that's making me smile today?

This little guy marching around the yard on this unseasonably warm day showing off the fox on his bum.

 The number one thing that's making him happy? Sampling Sticks and leaves.

I really love this sweet little guy.  I can't believe he's almost one! Only one week until the big day!

Valentine Exchange 2011 - Part 2

This party did not go off flawlessly.  About an hour before it started, Ollie had a seizure. He started a new medication that had us really hopeful because it had been a week and a half since his last seizure, which is a really long time for him, so this seizure sort of dashed my spirits.  Then about 20 minutes into the party, Ollie had another seizure, and this one was a lot worse.  Larry and I waited it out with him in a private room and I shed a few tears, and even though there was nothing more to be done, and I knew he would just sleep because he was exhausted and he was in Larry's very capable hands, it was hard to go back to the merriment.

That's the reason I took almost no photos of this party.  Luckily, my friend Carlye was there and she's a photographer who happened to have a smaller camera with her so we can thank her for any good pictures.  For example this is my picture of her.

And this is her picture of me.  We took these pictures at the same time and place and on the same camera model.  Wow! Anyway, Thanks for filling in and giving me your pictures in my very dark house Carlye!

I like to exchange valentine's speed-date style, where we set a timer and you talk to each person for two mintues and when the timer goes off, you move on to the next person.  This gives everyone a chance to talk and tell each other about their valentine's personally.

I missed getting pictures of everyone and their valentines, but here are a few of the ones I did get.  Rachel made bubblegum necklaces using directions from One Charming Party (such a great idea!)

Mary Ann made cream cheese mints.

Annie made the most charming paper dolls.

Carlye made rice hot/cold packs.

Lisa screenprinted bags with the saying "All you need is love"in metallic ink.  You might have spotted mine in the last post.

My mom collected a recipe from each guest ahead of time and printed them in a little recipe book as a fun way to remember the night.  It included the sugar cookie recipe that I used that night so friends who asked for it already had a copy.

I planned to give cut flowers, but when I went to Costco that day they had no flowers.  No tulips. No Hydrangea. Not even roses.  Only a few leftover grocery-store-type mixed bunched with daisies dyed neon colors.  Weird, right?  I asked a manager and he said they put off their flower order until closer to Valentine's Day so things would be really fresh.  Luckily, I had noticed small potted groups of bulbs at another store so I picked those up instead and the friend who arrive early got to help me tie fabric around the bottom.

Eva gave out her last print for the Sycamore Street Press Letter Press Subscription Club.  I wanted to link to the print, but I can find a photo.  Sorry! But don't you love the way she decorated the envelope with washi tape?

I had metal bucket on hand for each friend to collect their valentines in so each guest went home with a bucket full of goodies including a few not pictured like homemade gelato or sorbet from Kersten (which did not last long enough at my house to be photographed).

If you're thinking about hosting a valentine exchange next year, I highly recommend it.  It was fun for all of us to have an excuse to be creative and it was nice to have a night with just my girlfriends- sometimes it's hard to make that a priority.

Valentines Exchange 2011

I like to think as Valentine's Day as a good opportunity to let the people around me know how much I love them.  I try to do nice things for Larry and the boys, but I also try to do something special for my friends.  For several years, I've been hosting valentine exchange with my friends and it's become one of my favorite days of the year.

This year, all the dishes and decorations that I normally use are in storage (not that I have that much, but at the moment I have zilch), but I decided not to let that stop me.  I picked up cheap paper doilies every time I saw them and then I decided to take advantage of our ten foot ceilings stung them up on bakers twine across our living room.

I love how they look at night and in the morning.

Then I took down the Christmas cards in the hall and used the thread already there to hang up more paper letters inspired by the ones we did for Kersten's house at Christmas.

The only other thing I did was draw hearts on the front door with chalk ink pens.

From Simply Radiant

As far as food goes, I went with cookies and milk and mom mom set everything up.  She even brought the table cloth and a banner that my sister-in-law Brenna made.

From Simply Radiant

And she brought cupcakes that I added some cute little hearts to.

 My friend rachel helped me make sugar cookies and chocolate cutout cookies the night before.  We stamped the cookies with different Valentine sayings like Be Mine, I love you, and I Heart You.  I put our some frosting and sprinkles and candy and let my friends decorate them and take extras home to their families

I forgot to take a picture of the drink all lined up, by I just bought milk, pink lemonade, and strawberry milk in individual bottles and tied small heart-shaped doilies around them.

I think it turned out cute and simple.

I'll try to get to posting about the valentines that everyone made this afternoon, but with two sugared up boys, you never know. . .