Owen's1st Monkey Themed Birthday Party

We planned Owen's party for the day after his actual birthday, May 12. All week the weather did not look like it would be in our favor and my plans of our backyard being host to a beautiful spring party seemed lost. When we woke Saturday morning, it was pouring. The patio was soaked, the grass was wet...but, no need to worry. The boys all set to work setting up tents and planning out the garage for the food and a table or two. While it wasn't the beautiful sunny day I had hoped for, the party was perfect and a lot of work and love went into every last detail.

I absolutely loved the monkey theme as soon Brett and I settled on it. I didn't want to stick to sock monkeys, Julius or Curious George so we went with a little bit of everything and centered it on our blue and yellow colors. Things couldn't have turned out better.

I worked with an amazing seller on Etsy to create the PERFECT t shirt for Owen to wear on his big day (he wore it to the zoo also since I wanted to get more than one wear out of it). Missy from Tiger Chic Designs matched our colors perfectly, and designed the perfect party hat for the monkey to wear!

Other than that, we pretty much did everything ourselves. The favors included a few things from the Target dollar bin (Paul Frank key chains, notepads and pencils; monkey water squirters and masks), some things from Oriental Trading (beach balls with monkeys, monkey tattoos) and a package of animal crackers (not monkeys, but close). I got the treat bags from the clearance bin at Party City (they were Curious George and I got 12 for $1). Each bag was tied with blue curling ribbon and had a monkey that I made from construction paper templates and glued together with a thank you note from Owen on the back.

As for food, it could not have been more simple and perfect! We rented a hot dog steamer = AWESOME! Steamed hot dogs and buns and all the toppings for both a Chicago dog and a 'Shorty's with Everything" (Shorty's is a local hot dog shop in Washington, PA). My parents also brought a nacho cheese pump. I think the nachos were the biggest hit. In additional we had yummy pasta salad, a veggie tray and a great display of fruit skewers. On the tables were buckets full of blue and yellow candy (sixlets, gummy bananas, and blue raspberry rings) and well as blue and yellow chocolate covered pretzels that Brett and I hand dipped.

What I was most proud of was the cake and the cupcakes. I wanted cupcake toppers but didn't want the expense of ordering them, so I set out to make them. They turned out to be slightly time consuming trying to figure out the best way to do it, but after I figured it all out, they were very easy. They looked adorable atop yellow cupcakes in blue and white striped papers.

The cake was in the shape of a monkey! I found the design on Parenting.com and it turned out to be so much easier than I thought. I made it Friday night and took so much time to make sure it was perfect. Everyone commented how cute it was and I was feeling pretty proud. When it came time to sing, I carried it to Owen's seat and as I fixed the tray on his highchair, I bumped the cake and it fell to the ground!!!! Cool, calm and collected, I pieced it back together and 30 seconds later Owen dove into it.

Because of the weather, we didn't have much in the way of decorations. I originally planned to hang tissue paper pom poms around the yard, but when the threat of rain appeared in the forecast, I decided it wasn't worth the time. Basically the colors from the table cloths, other things I have already mentioned served as the decorations. We also had a 5 foot inflatable monkey gracing us with his presence.

Honestly, the day could not have been better! Owen was blessed with a birthday party full of lots of friends and family that mean a lot to him and to Brett and I. That was my one simple goal. Our family truly is blessed and it really showed on this special day.

Happy Birthday to our baby boy!!!

What did people do before electricity???

We have a 6 week old baby. My parents are coming to visit this weekend and will be here for a little while and then my brother and his friend will crash our house for a week. Owen is being baptized on Sunday. So - we have a few things going on. What better way to spend my day yesterday than packing up our refrigerator and freezer into coolers of ice because our power went out?!?!?! For 22 hours! The storm Tuesday night was horrendous. The wind was 75 MPH, the thunder unbearable and the tornado sirens were going off. Then to top it all off - it all went dark.

Fortunately, my dear friend Natalie brought the ice over (because the stores near our house were either closed or out of ice) and soothed my crying baby while I took care of house needs. THANK YOU!!!!

Last night I got so desperate, I took owen toWhole Foods so I could get dinner and use their free WiFi. What did people do before they had electricity and the internet?!?!?!

I should get  the "Mother of the Year" Award for taking Owen out yesterday just so I could get a  Starbuck's fix (don't judge, we had no power). I dropped everything at about 10 and threw him in the Jeep with nothing but my wallet. By the time we got there, it was raining again. Hard. And the wind? Blowing. Sideways. Not going to stop me. We ran inside and I can't even describe the look on his face. He was soaking wet and in shock I think of the wind :-) Well, I splurged and got a venti (I should at least make the trip worth it, right?) and we braved it to the car again. Only this time, I was a better mother. I put napkins all over him so he wouldn't get as wet.

A Mouse in the House!

Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl. And they were fast asleep. At the strike of midnight, the boy woke up the girl by saying, "Wake up. Do you hear that sound?"

The girl grumbled, "It's just one of the dogs under the bed."

"Both of the dogs are right here."

The girls eyes opened and she listened...then the girl turned on the light and stared into the boys eyes. And together, they listened. What did they hear, you might ask? They heard a creature. In the walls of their house. Scratching. Running. Digging. Scratching. Running. Back and forth. From one side of the room to the other. Inside the wall.

"What should we do?" asked the boy.

"I don't know," said the girl.

So they listened some more. Scratching. Running. Scratching. Running.

After about 20 minutes of listening, the boy and girl and their two STILL SLEEPING dogs went to another room where they fell fast asleep.

The next day, the girl bought poison and traps. She thought of every place the creature might be. The traps were very hard to set. She hurt her fingers many, many times. She got peanut butter everywhere because the traps kept going off, making her scream.

Three days later, the traps are still empty and the mouse has not been heard from again.

A Very Funny Martha Moment

So this may not be the most politically correct thing ever said but it made me laugh out loud and I wanted to share.

This morning I had the TV on as cleaned for background noise. The Today show turned into Martha Stuart with Joan Rivers as her guest. I turned off the vacuum to answer the phone, ended the call and watched for a few moments. As Martha was showing Joan how to make a purse for Valentine's Day the following conversation took place:

Martha: Do you have a sewing machine?

Joan: Are you crazy?!?!?

Martha: You should get yourself one for when you get old (this in itself is funny to me because that women must be 90, but that is what $80,000 of plastic surgery will do for you) and have time. You know, I have a room in my house with ten sewing machines that all do different things.

Joan: You should send those to Angelina Jolie and she could put her kids to work.

I am sorry I just busted out laughing!

Happy Friday!

Mrs.Split-Her-Pants

A funny for this Monday morning....

I went to PetCo on Friday during my lunch. When I bent over to pick up the bag of dog food...rrrriiiiiiipppp. The rear seam on my jean capris split! I skillfully backed out of the pet store and into Old Navy right next door. Fortunately, they were having a sale on capris-$15! I carried three pair into the fitting room and exited wearing one of them. I explained to the lady why I had ripped the tag off of the capris and was planning on wearing them out of the store when she told me that "they don't like to do that". She proceeded to radio to the front for someone to ESCORT me to the check out. Really? I am going to steal your $15 pair of capris! The manager said it was OK for me to come to the front myself where I presented the tag for my purchase.

Brett found the name "Mrs. Split-Her-Pants" very funny...

Colder than a witches'...

This morning while Brett was still sleeping, I crawled into bed to wake him up/ regain feeling in my appendages because it is so cold in our house.

Me: My feet are cold.

Brett: Where are the slippers I bought you? DO NOT put your feet on me or I will….I don’t know what I will do.

Me: Tell me what you will do so I can decide if it is worth putting my feet on you.

Brett: I will burn your hair.

Me: OK, I won’t put my feet on you.

*30 seconds go by and I put my feet on him*

Brett: Get me the matches.