Creed's Easter Birthday Party - Part 3 - The Food

Of course, bunnies need carrots and I found these beautiful rainbow carrots to share with the bunnies at our party.

We kept the food pretty simple.

box lunches for all the kids with string cheese, strawberries, a juice box, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich cut into an egg shape. I made the boxes using this template from Martha Stewart.

Then I also made egg-shaped sugar cookies

And cupcakes that looked like they had grass on them with a chocolate egg in the middle.

We had mini water bottles on hand too.

The carrots were actually the most popular item. Larry ended up pulling out more carrots to serve because I think the kids like having a giant carrot all to themselves. Or maybe they were really into being bunnies, who knows?

Creed's Easter Birthday Party - Part 2 - The Decorations

One of the best parts of Creed choosing to have an Easter Birthday party is that we could just pull out the Easter decorations we already had to decorate for the party. Like this wreath.
And this little guy.
And then I just put plastic eggs in vases around the house.

We did have a few extra decorations just for Creed's party. I downloaded and put together these little chicks and bunnies from Mibo Studio.

I put up the yellow bunting that I made last year for Creed's birthday
and slipped the new pictures that Candice took in to the frames in my dining room with sheets of scrapbooking paper behind them.
Then I cut out plain white bunny silhouettes and stuck them all over the front lawn. This was so cheap and I loved how cute they looked.
We put the food table in the back yard (because toddlers are messy eaters, and then I had a lot less to clean up). and I made this happy birthday banner to hang above the table
So simple and cheap, but I love how festive everything turned out!

Creed's Easter Birthday Party - Part 1 - The Invitations

I REALLY wanted Creed to have a Where the Wild Things are Birthday Party, but he did not go for it. Then I hoped he would have a penguin party to visit the new penguin exhibit at the aquarium (that would have been so easy, they even do a treasure hunt for you), but in the end, he was sure that he wanted an Easter party. I'm actually glad that's the theme he stuck with because he won't always be excited to pretend to be an Easter bunny and the kids were so cute! Just wait till you see!

I put off doing the invitations while we were debating themes so I put these together in a rush (we're talking I had an hour to make them and deliver them). I made the front of the cars using this idea from Martha Stewart and fabric scraps that I had on hand.

Note to self: Iron the fabric next time. Oh well, I was in a hurry.
Then I just made the inside really simple

Progress Report

Remember my monthly To-Do list? This is my progress report so far.

1. Continue searching for the letters to spell out Abra Cadabra in Creed's room. I only need to find one more A and an R. I know that I could order them online, but I sort of love the thrill of the hunt that collecting something brings. Do you collect anything? Do you feel that way?
2. Write bunches of Thank you notes to all of our wonderful friends for all of the great things they did for us after Ollie's arrival - Well, I started, but I have a long way to go
3. Throw a birthday party for Creed - DONE!
4. Survive Larry going to a conference in Georgia for several days - DONE! Thanks to my parents for letting us crash there for a while.
5. Design Ollie's birth announcements
6. Track down and sample the Chow Truck (Haute Asian Cuisine on the go in a cart that moves around the city? I HAVE to try that!) - Attempted, but it switched locations so it wasn't where we thought it was. We will try again soon!
7. Attend the Holi festival in two weeks (I'm not sure that we can work out babysitting though so we'll see about this one) - We had everything set, even a babysitter (Thank you Aunt Nina) and then BOTH boys got sick the night before. I was so sad to miss it!
8. Start taking Ollie's monthly photos - DONE!
9. Visit Wheeler Farm to see if new baby animals have started arriving
10. Hold a Moonlight-flashlight Easter egg hunt for grown-ups - DONE!
11. Try the Sesame Chicken Salad Wrap at Les Madeleines - DONE! It was delicious.
12. Hit up a couple of letterboxes around the city when we need an adventure on a sunny day. We found one and hope to make it out again.
13. Make some Easter Egg cozies when I get the crafting urge.
14. Make good use of my new waffle iron for Belgian cookies. - Made them once.
15. Grow some Wheatgrass (not to juice, we're not THAT healthy around here, just to decorate, although I have no idea where to find the seeds to get started. Whole Foods?)
16. Visit the new Penguin exhibit at our local aquarium after it opens in two weeks (because you know how Creed adores penguins)
17. Take some new photobooth pictures. It's been way too long since our last photobooth session and I've been saving up my single dollar bills, but I'm not sure if this one will happen because both of the booths we used near us have been removed! We'll just have to try to go when we're visiting family in Provo. - Attempted but the first photobooth we tried was removed and the second was out of order. What a pain!
18. Sign Creed up for swim lessons - DONE! and we already finished the two week session. More about that later.
19. Try some new, easy dinner recipes. I am a horrible cook. Do you have any favorite recipes that you'd like to share because I don't think my family can continue to live on pancakes and frozen pizza?

I still have two weeks to accomplish the rest, but I'm feeling happy with where I am so far. On top of all of that I managed to get my hair cut (It's been way too long).

And I made a short appearance on a local show called Studio 5. This is the lovely Stephanie Bryson helping me set up for my segment. Now I have being on live TV to add to my list of 29 new things to try for the year.

Oliver Turns One Month Old

When Creed was a baby, I took a picture of him in the same chair with the same stuffed toy once a month so you could see how much he was growing. I decided to do the same thing with Oliver, but instead of a toy, I will be taking his picture with this big letter O. So here are his one month pictures.

If he looks disgruntled, it's because he is. He scratched his face while I was getting everything ready. Poor guy!

I can't believe he's already over a month old! It's going by so fast. These pictures are only a week old, but he already looks a lot older to me. His cheeks are filling out and his eyes have turned blue. It looks like that dark hair is going to fall out and he's going to be blonde afterall, but we'll just have to wait and see.

March Favorites

Kids' TV Show of the Month:

Team Umizoomi - It's Creed's new favorite and I get the theme song stuck in my head all the time.

Website of the Month:

www.kideos.com - Creed loves watching clips on Youtube, but now that he's so good at using a mouse, it makes me nervous even if I'm right next to him. Kideos is like Youtube except with only child appropriate clips so Creed can click to his heart's content and I can be across the room without worrying too much (but I still don't leave the room because you never know . . .)

Children's book of the Month:

The Curious Garden by Peter Brown. I'm craving spring so this book has been spinning through my mind. The illustrations are so charming.

Grown-up Book of the Month:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato-Peel Pie Society - It seems like everyone has been reading this, and I finally picked it up after Candice recommended it. It made me look forward to nursing in the middle of the night so I could read a little bit more.

Baby Item of the Month:

Pampers Swaddlers - Is it weird to be in love with a diaper? They were the only diapers that Iused with Creed because they fit so well, but I'm even more in love with them now that they have the wetness indicator (seriously, a stripe that changes color to let you know when it's wet? Such a help when Ollie was sick and we were trying to keep track of wet diapers)

Movie of the Month:

500 Days of Summer - I know it's been out for a while, but we just got around to watching it when I was in the hospital after having Ollie. It's so beautifully made. Larry and I both loved it, but I think it helped knowing upfront that it's a movie about a couple that breaks up.

Old Movie of the Month:

Easter Parade - a classic with Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. I always find myself wanting to watch it when Easter rolls around. (Do you want me to continue to include old movies/musicals in my favorites of the month? Does that even interest any of you?)

Totally Unnecessary Splurge of the Month:

These Tiffin boxes from Target (although mine are blue and green, but I couldn't find a link). Now if it would just stop snowing so we could start picnicking!

Song of the Month:

Excuses by The Morning Benders - I'm loving the old school sound of this song right now. (Although I must admit, I'm not really sure about the lyrics)

Creed Turned Three!

Creed turned three last week and we spent the day celebrating with him. I had low expectations for the day because Larry got back the night before from spending five days in Georgia and I had been in survival mode and skipped any party preparations.

When Creed woke up in the morning and we told him that it was his birthday, he let out the cutest squeal of delight, and then he asked, "But where are my balloons?" I told him that we could go get some and asked him how many he wanted. He said, "Five!" I told him they could be all different colors and asked him what colors we should get. I should have known he would reply, "Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow, and yellow!" (Last week he asked me if I could buy him all yellow clothes for Christmas).

We went out to breakfast, and I think he loved his smiley face pancakes.

Check out how much Ollie loved going out to breakfast.
While Larry took Creed to swim lessons, I picked up the requested birthday balloons and Creed was so happy with them.
We are having a birthday party with his friends this week, but we had our family over for cake and ice cream that night. About an hour before everyone came over, I decided that Creed NEEDED a birthday shirt so I was literally blow drying it when our guests arrived (I think I got the idea for a freezer paper transfer number shirt just like this here).

Months ago, Creed started asking for a 'struction cake so I did my best (cooking is not my forte)
Can you spot the black eye that he was still recovering from?
I was in such a rush I didn't even bother with putting bows on Creed's gifts, but he didn't mind.
He was excited about each and every gift and wanted to open each one and play with it before moving on to the next.
His big birthday gift was this crazy, huge dinosaurs. He has begged for this thing for the last two Christmases, but it's huge and loud and expensive so we didn't buy it. Last year, I found it on sale after Christmas and wanted to buy it for Creed, but Larry was doubtful that he would play with it for more than a few minutes, and I agreed that he would probably forget about it soon. We were both very wrong. This Christmas, every time we stepped in a store he begged to go to the toy section to see the dinosaur, and he would sit in the aisle staring at it for ages. When I saw it on clearance after Christmas, how could I resist? We gave in and then decided to finally buy it and save it for his birthday.
Larry left the dinosaur in the kitchen and we wrapped the remote so when he opened it and started pushing buttons, the dinosaur walked into the room and Creed could not contain himself. Creed loved controlling it until it started getting to close to him. He kept scooting closer to my dad until he ended up in his lap and was genuinely scared. Luckily his fright didn't last until the next morning and he's been carrying his remote all around the house since then.
We are so lucky to have this boy in our family, and I cannot wait to have his friends over later this week to celebrate with us. I think this party is going to be adorable because of the theme Creed chose. Stay posted!

Baby Gifts

We have received some really lovely baby gifts from our friends and family, and I plan to highlight a few of them here, both so we can remember them and so you can get some fun ideas.

The first one that I wanted to share was from Larry's brother, Scott, and his wife, Janelle. They brought us new Easter baskets filled with goodies. Ollie's had some pajamas rolled up along with a lovie and Creed's (which was yellow of course) had several cute chicken-shaped eggs filled with goodies like stickers, a car, and silly putty.

And the best part was they had their names embroidered on them. So cute and thoughtful!

Ollie Takes a Bath

Puj sent me a free baby bathtub to review a while back and we've been eagerly awaiting the day Ollie was ready to use it. The tub is actually really sleek and cool. It's incredibly lightweight so we can hang it flat to dry (which really comes in handy in a tiny house like ours) and it has magnets in it that make it pop back together in seconds.

Truthfully, I was sort of doubtful that it would work for us because every illustration that I've seen on the tub, it fits into an oval sink, and both of our bathroom sinks are rectangle, but it worked perfectly.

Creed was so excited to help give Ollie a bath so things were crowded, but fun. Creed got his own rubber duck out for Ollie to use in his first bath, but he was very clear that it was just a loan.
When Creed was a newborn, he howled through his first bath, probably partially due to the fact that we were new parents and afraid of burning him so the water was room temperature and he was probably cold. Ollie, on the other hand, seemed content and it was easy to handle him in this tub because he didn't slip around (and I had an awesome "helper").
If you want to check out the Puj tub, you can head to their website for baby bath tubs. Thanks to Puj for letting me be a product tester, we couldn't be happier with our Puj tub!