Butterfly birthday invitation

I'm so pleased to share this butterfly birthday invitation using vibrant grape tones paired with pink, clementine and butter colors. 

Girly, but not over-the-top girly, wouldn't you agree?
Personal information has been modified for privacy.

Batteries not included

The following instructions on how to swaddle, put a hat on and hold a baby came with one of the toys Wavey received for her birthday:

Some days, I wish my kids came with multi-language instructions and could be easily transported on my wrist.

Birthday party recap

Confession without regret: I didn't take a lot of photos at Wavey's party this past weekend.  Sometimes I struggle with trying too hard to capture everything with my camera and then finding myself not enjoying the actual moment. 

This weekend, I enjoyed the party with friends and family without my camera (for the most part) but did capture a few funny moments, like how the kids were way more interested in the galvanized metal tub that kept water, juice boxes and themselves cool in the summer heat:

I'm really hoping these two end up marrying each other, but it's doubtful based on the look on Griff's face:

Wavey found it a super-treat to be offered cheesy chips, to which she went all-out until I caught her licking the inside of the bowl:

I did manage to assemble some favor bags to go with the pink/brown theme:

After several hours of hopping around in a bounce house, paired with sweltering temps, the kids got kind of "mehh" with each other after a bit:

In fact, Wavey confessed to us in the evening that she hit Abby while in the bounce house, but was on the fence if it was a punishable offense since Abby didn't rat her out or cry (apparently, there are levels of measurable hand-to-hand combat among five-year-olds).  Regardless, we were swift in our dismay for such behavior, and Wavey was prompted to write an apology:

Despite that minor mishap, it was a great day and now we're swimming in new toys.  Let the summer fun begin.

"Pom-poms." Say it with me.

Little known fact: I served a very brief stint as a cheerleader in college.  I'll blame it on my love for pom-poms.

I've been swimming in pink and brown tissue paper this week assembling decorative pom-poms to hang from an outdoor tent at Wavey's birthday party this weekend.  Martha has a decent DIY tissue paper pom-pom tutorial, but my own final product lacks the super-clean lines that only Martha and her employed minions can acheive. 

Photos of the party will be shared next week.  Rah! Rah! Rah!

Deliciously adorable

I have a deep appreciation for attention-to-detail and figured that I had seen it all...until I came across painted marshmallows by The Decorated Cookie via Lizard & Ladybug:

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I can't say that I would dare even try this because I have the attention span of a mosquito when it comes to these kind of things, but it does have a cute factor about it.

Beware what you wish for

Me to husband: "I'd really like a docking station to play music from my iPod."

Husband: "Do you have a preference?"

Me: "No preference, if you would just pick one up next time you're out, that would be great.  I just want something we can use when friends are over."

And then he comes home with this, seriously raving about how great the online reviews are on its sound quality:

Wow.  He really latched on to my line of "no preference" and got me good.

Forever our stuffies

We have a few favorite stuffies in our house, these being two which rank toward the top of the list:

One day, before they get worn too hard with love, I want to get a custom toy portrait created by the talented Jennifer Maher:

So cute, huh?  Now, to decide on which stuffy will make the cut.

I stand corrected

We attended Wavey's recital on Saturday evening and I have one thing to say today:  My name is Lelan...and I'm a dance mom.

Remember last week when I was saying how I didn't care for dance class?  I'm totally eating those words now because the end result at the recital was amazing, professional and the caliber of the entire studio was eye-opening.

Obviously, I was completely smitten by my own child's performance.  Her apathy all these months turned to enthusiasm on stage and she was hooked. 

And now I am, too.

I scream, you scream

I can assure you that I don't need an occasion to consume ice cream, but a recent client had the right idea by hosting an ice cream social to celebrate the start of summer.  Need another scoop of ice creamy goodness?  Check out this party inspiration.

I also had the pleasure of creating this first birthday barnyard invitation.  I found the "neighs only" to be pretty funny.

Personal information has been modified for privacy.


I'm sensing a food theme here, complete with eggs, bacon and dairy ice cream.
 

Happy birthday, Wavey

Mama loves you, Bunny-Bun-Bun.

Tiny dancer and Mama don't play that

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of dance class.  On days where I had lost track of the schedule, I'd resort to emailing one of the teachers with the subject line "Disengaged mother needs help" to ask for reminders on dates and times.

Hey, at least I'm honest.

But, my disengagement was recently called out by, of all people, my dental hygenist while I was having my annual cleaning.

Turns out her teenage daughter attends the same studio (it's a nice studio, really) and while we were discussing the upcoming recital, I mentioned the scheduling and how it's tough with Wavey's age with the rehearsal times running late in the day and in the middle of the week, and juggling two small kids, etc.

That's when she gave me the business about how my kids are only little once and activities are good for them, and "so what if you're inconvenienced?..."  Mind you, I was given the business while sharp instruments were inside my mouth so it's not like I had a reasonable advantage to argue back.

I won't disagree that I was a bit whiny about the hassle, but I don't agree that it's my motherly obligation to love and drool over all activities my kids are in, such as a dance class that Wavey is completely apathetic about anyway.  My kids will always participate in activities they want and the harriedness will not stop us from continuing to support that, but again: I don't have to love it.

Mother of the year.



PS: No cavities!

Six years of marital bling

Yesterday was my sixth wedding anniversary, and this is probably my favorite candid photo from our big day.

We had received the wedding Pez dispensers as a gag gift from a friend, but it so accurately captured our silliness that we used it as our cake topper (in this photo, my husband is pointing out that his ears closely match that of the Pez groom). 

In the six years we've been married, we've never really celebrated our anniversary because Wavey's birthday and Father's Day are both so close that we've always been wrapped up in doing other things for those ocassions.  This year, we decided to go to brunch - just us! - and then I got to pick out this little number:

Not bad for holding out six years before getting an anniversary gift!  Though, I should mention that the hold-out was entirely self-imposed.  I'd been the one who ruled "no gifts" all these years because we had babies on the way, renovations to make, tuition bills, or just life's more-practical-than-jewelry expenses. 

But, this ring was worth breaking the rules.

One-stop shopping

Near my home is a local pharmacy which displays a sandwich board outside their driveway.  The hodge-podge list of featured sales items cracks me up each time I drive by because it's almost as if the list could possibly be someone's dream shopping excursion. 

Recently, the items have been featured in this order:

* 12 pack of soda

* Shaving razors

* "Real soft TP"

* New Hampshire t-shirts, 4/$10

Now, that's my kind of Friday night.

1985 parenting

My dad found this little worksheet I completed when I was eight years old about being a parent. I could have done a little better in the spelling department back then, but apparently this was "checked for content only" and I passed with a loopy Orphan Annie-esque smiley face.

Unfortunately, I am not living up to the answers I proposed in the first three questions, but I was pretty spot-on in terms of predicting bedtimes.  Plus, the most important rule in our family today is indeed to be polite.

The purple ditto machine qualities really took me back on this!  Remember the distinct smell of those print-outs?  Classic elementary school.

DIY tile transfer, or "how to make your oven stinky"

I came across a DIY tile transfer project via One Pretty Thing that I wanted to try, but I lacked the motivation for getting into the car to drive to the home improvement store to buy a single tile for 50-cents.  Instead, I had some slate kicking around that I figured would be neat to try a black-on-gray transfer.  The results: a rough start, but a better than expected final product. Here's how it all rolled out:

I followed the directions from the online tutorial which called for ModPodge on the front of the medium and then again on the laser print-out.  You then sandwich the two items together, bake it in the oven and then delicately rub off the paper with water until the image appears.

I wont lie: my oven stunk after baking the slate.  This is probably because I used outdoor-grade MP instead of regular, so lesson learned.  I also mistakenly trimmed the image when I should have let it cover the entire slate.

Disliking the initial results, I flipped to the reverse side of the slate, started over and covered the entire area with the paper. 

The results were a million times better and I liked the oxidized/grainy look.  This probably and shouldn't be the case if you used a light colored tile for your transfer, but I'm digging this vintage appeal.

Now onto de-stinking my oven.