Yellow Party- Part 1, The invites

Every time we talked to Creed about his party, he mentioned that it was a yellow party.  Ummmm, ok, that was not the original plan, but we went with it (and I really shouldn't have been surprised since he is so devoted to yellow.  Everyone who has met him knows that yellow is his favorite color).

I threw some invitations together before we really had a plan for the party.  We just knew that we wanted to have our family over to have dinner and celebrate Creed's birthday.  Of course the invitations had to be yellow.  I used some yellow scrapbooking paper with a flocked damask pattern on it and some sunny yellow envelopes.  I put a black and white picture of Creed at the top and then decided that it needed something yellow.  That's when I remembered that we had this picture of Creed with a Playdough mustache that I could easily convert to black, white, and yellow.  The picture might seem weird to some, but I've had the birthday song that I learned in primary stuck in my head all month so I've been singing over and over, "one year older and wiser too, happy birthday to you!" and the picture seemed to fit the saying.

I cut a hole so Creed could peek through the front and another half circle at the bottom so you could pull the invitation out (and to think that I almost returned the Martha Stewart circle cutter that Larry got me for Christmas because it was cool, but I didn't know if I would use it.  It was awesome and I now think everyone NEEDS one).

As a last minute thought I added the mention that "Yellow clothing is required (because ornery old Creed can be kind of demanding). Prize for the person with the most yellow clothing."  I had no idea how seriously people would take the challenge and it was really what made this party great.  Just wait to see the pictures, you will agree.

Robot Party- Part 3

I tried to have realistic expectations for a party full of two-year-olds so we kept the party very short with only a few organized activities.  When the kids arrived we gave them their robot shirts and those who wanted to put them on. Sara was such a cute model I couldn't resist posting this photo

And I also couldn't resist one of little Miss Laura either (who is five and was a really good sport about going to a two-year-old's party since Creed ADORES her and was insistent that she be there)
The first thing we did was build a robot.  I blew up the robot from the invitation and cut out all the pieces and then the kids helped me put it together.  They loved showing me their heads and arms and pointing out where the robot parts should go.
After that we danced like robots to a soundtrack of robot songs that Larry put together.  There were some pretty awesome robot songs and it was so funny watching the kids.  We have no photos because I was dancing and Larry was videotaping.  Since then Creed keeps breaking out in his robot dance and it cracks us up each and every time.  

After we danced our little robot hearts out we headed to the backyard for Creed to get his big present and share it with his friends.  I was so glad that he loved his new slide.
To help avoid tears while the kids were taking turns we had all of our yard toys out and lots of sidewalk chalk. The kids looked so sweet as they concentrated on drawing.
And this is the sweetest robot that I have ever seen!
It was also great that all the parents stayed for the party so we had lots of help.

Then it was on to eating robot cake (thank goodness I saw this robot cake because Creed was sure that we needed a robot cake and I was not sure how to make one).

Creed took blowing out the candles very seriously.

And the rest of took eating the cake seriously.

And after opening a few presents, the party was over.  We had a hide and seek game planned where we would hide some toy robots in the yard and let the kids find them, but the kids were so happy just playing that we skipped it and kept things short and sweet.

Thanks to all of the friends who helped us celebrate Creed's special day!

Robot Party- Part 2

I tried to come up with a party favor that was practical but still fun.  Since we didn't invite many kids, I had time to make robot shirts for all the kids.  I used the freezer paper stencil method.  

If you haven't tried it before, here are some quick directions.  Draw a simple design or print one on the computer.  Tape freezer paper to a cutting mat (freezer paper is parchment paper with a waxy plastic backing that sticks to fabric when you iron it, but peels off easily.  You can usually find it by the aluminum foil at the grocery store).  Tape your design onto the freezer paper and then use an exacto to cut out the places that you want color.  Once it's all cut out, iron the freezer paper onto your fabric or t-shirt.  Here's how mine looked.

Put some paper underneath in case the paint bleeds through and then fill in your design with fabric paint (you can buy fabric paint at the craft store and it's pretty cheap).  A lot of people just like to dap on the paint using a sponge brush, but I like using a paint brush and stroking from the edges in.
You will probably need at least two coats to get the color even.  Let the paint dry between each coat or use a blow dryer to speed up the process.  It should look something like this.
Then just let the paint dry before you peel off the freezer paper.  If you use the metallic paint like the silver shirt, you might want to peel the paper off before it's totally dry because the metallic paint was thicker/rubbery so I think it might tear if you let it totally dry.

Here are my finished projects (in my dimly lit basement.  Sorry about the lighting)
I didn't come up with any of the designs myself, I just adapted them and added a heart to each one.

Robot Party- Part 1

Oh where to start?  I've been missing from the blog for a bit because we've had some exciting times and I've been to caught up in preparations.  First off, Creed turned two, and could we have some cake and ice cream and call it a day?  Oh no, not at our house!  We had to go all out.

When Larry started listing all the people he thought we should invite, the list was a little overwhelming, and I couldn't imagine how we would fit that many people in our tiny house, let alone how we would entertain adults and kids at the same time.  Instead we cut down the list and decided to go with two parties; one for little kids in the morning and one for our grown-up relatives in the evening.  Now, I realize that this is ridiculous, but Creed actually understands what a birthday party is, and he has been talking about his for weeks.  Ever since my Valentine's Day party, he has wanted to have a party of his own so we decided to go all out to make his day special.

To minimize chaos, we kept both parties small so I only had to make four invites for the little kid party.  Since Creed is obsessed with Wall-E and robots we decided to have a robot party.
I kept the invitations really simple and we delivered most of them by hand.  The robot is based on this digital paper I have, but I made a cleaner version.
I printed them on scrapbooking paper so I didn't have to design anything for the back.

The New President of the United States of America

At this point in his life, Creed is not going to remember the historical events taking place, but it's still important to me that he has record of his life at the time.  That's why I'm posting these now.  Better late than never, right?

This is Creed during Barack Obama's Inauguration.  He wasn't totally aware of the importance, but we did manage to get a picture.  He listened a bit.But sometimes you remember that you need to brush your teeth.
And then you just feel like dancing.
And you remember that you need your tupperware helmet.

Hitting the slopes (but not to ski)

We were in need of an outing so Saturday afternoon we headed to Park City to sled at Gorgoza Park.  Larry is from Orange County and has only been sledding twice and says they were both miserable experiences so I was hoping a sledding resort with lifts to tow you to the top of the hill and big cushy intertubes would be enough to convince Larry of the joys of sledding and it was!

Gorgoza Park has three lifts that tow you to three beginner lanes and four advanced lanes.  Each person has to stay in their own tube, but you are aloud to link as many tubes together as you want, which made things really fun.  The hills don't look too steep in these pictures, but some of the advanced lanes were and as the sun went down they got really slick and fast, which I think would make for a really fun date night since the park is all lit up until 8 pm.
They also have a mini-snowmobile course for ages 6 to 12 (which I think is crazy.  6 year-olds can drive snowmobiles?), two yurts (one to warm up and one to buy hot chocolate and snacks), and a playground for those under six (which is where Creed spent most of his time playing with giant blocks and riding the intertube merry-go-round).

Here we are at the bottom of the hill
And here's Creed enjoying time with Lisa.  He kept pointing to everyone sledding and saying, "Me! Me! Me!" The minimum age for sledding is three, but after talking to employees they said it was up to us so we let him try it out and he was terrified on the tow up the hill (we later learned that you can't ride on a tube together, but they will let parents hold on to their kid's tubes so they can ride up together, which would have been good to know).  He cried during the whole ride and when we got to the bottom he clapped and said, "I did it!"  Needless to say, I don't think we will be trying that again too soon.
And here we are afterward with Tyler and Lisa, all rosey cheeked.

Overall it was pricey, but if you're looking for a fun family outing, it might be worth it!

Oh no you didn't!

Remember this post about the quilt that I wanted to make?  Due to sickness, it was abandoned before Christmas, and I only started working on it again last week.  I thought the top would be finished with just a few more seams, and then I laid it out and noticed a problem.  Are you seeing what I'm seeing about a third of the way from the top?

Ahhhh!  What did I do?  It's totally messed up!  Upon further investigation, I think I made the top third of the quilt, took a break, turned the pattern over in the meantime, and came back and made the top section again, thinking it was the bottom.  Whoops!

The good news is that the pattern repeats so I can take off a couple of rows and it will meet up again or I could add a couple of rows (which is what I would opt to do, if I had more fabric, but unfortunately, I don't).

CURSES!

I hate to waste all of that work, but it looks like I have no choice!

He's becoming his own person

Creed is suddenly talking so much more.  My little parrot is teaching me the phrases that I must say a lot.  Two weeks ago he started putting one finger in the air and telling me, "A minute.  A minute."  I'm constantly saying that to him: I know you're hungry and your lunch will be ready in a minute, I'm on the phone with dad so I'll help you in just a minute, wait a minute before you get into the tub so I can get the water just right, etc.

The one that surprised me was when he started saying, "I mean it!"  What?  Since then I realize that if Creed ignores something that I say, I find myself saying things like, "It's time to go.  Go get your shoes . . . Creed, I mean it.  Go get your shoes."  Now if I don't do something he wants he tells me, " I mean it!"

And since he's saying so much more, we're finding out a lot more about what he wants.  Like yesterday when I put a shirt and jacket on him, but he refused to wear the pants I picked out.  Instead, he decided that he want to wear the chicken pants from the bottom of his chicken costume.  If that's what makes him happy, that's fine with me.  Besides, wouldn't that site at the grocery store make you smile?

And today, as we were digging through his toys, we found this bow-tie buried in there, and he had to wear it immediately.  And he did not want to take it off.  He wore it to the toy store, he wore it proudly through the library, he wore it to pick up dinner.
Where does he get his sense of style?  It's not like we dress like crazies. 

Oh wait, maybe we do.

Partying

I was in charge of decorating for a dinner at our church last night celebrate the Relief Society's birthday (the women's organization in our church).  There were two problems, one, it was held in a big gymnasium and two, I had pretty much no budget.

We had volunteers make round birthday cakes and we used them as the centerpieces on pretty cakeplates in the middle of each table
Then we made tiny Happy Birthday flags to stick in the rolls
And we made about a million tissue paper pom-poms and hung a group of them in a cluster above each table, and in a row above the serving tables.  I made them a couple of years ago for a baby shower and they are very easy to make but this job took a while since we needed A LOT.  Thanks to my friends who helped out!

A haircut makes the man

These pictures are about a month old, but it's never too late to post, right?  

Every time I take Creed to get his hair cut, I'm shocked by how old he looks afterward.  Why is it that when he has shaggy hair, he looks so much more like a baby?  It's not just me, Larry says that every time Creed gets a haircut, it makes Larry a little sad.

So here's Creed post haircut looking so grown up (I wish I would have taken a before photo so that you could see the difference).

PS- that spray bottle full of water has equaled hours of entertainment outside (and it had to be yellow, of course).