Kids Birthday Party Planning - My Daughter's 1st Birthday Party

It has been crazy busy lately, both with normal busy schedules and the addition of a couple organizing jobs (yay!), my daughter's recent birthday party, and her upcoming dance recital. (At least my eye is doing better...though I'm still in glasses and the sunlight is bright without my shades!) I think after June 2 I'll be able to breathe a bit easier, but in the meantime I'm cramming a lot into the already short hours of the day. As a result, I STILL haven't gotten to my toy storage posts (or plans), and have to put off yet another week or two. In the meantime, and since we just celebrated Faith's 6th birthday, I thought I'd share what I've done for her birthday parties thus far. Keep in mind that these photos are pre-iPhone and before I was focusing so hard on "blog quality" pics. Today I'll share her 1st birthday party, and as the week goes on I'll show you the rest up to her most current party that we had last week.

I don't have digital pics all the way back to Faith's 1st birthday, so I'm taking photos of her scrapbook. For that one we did a rubber ducky theme. I'm pretty girly and having a new little girl I'm surprised that I chose something so gender neutral, but I had a lot of fun with it and it turned out really cute. I created a party planning "board" on a sheet of craft foam that I had lying around. (I was going all out that first year, let me tell ya.) I attached a printed Word document with my plans for theme, date & time, games, food, etc. I also attached one of the napkins that I was using for the party to help with color inspiration.

Invitation (side 1)

Eye Troubles

I'm sitting here with my glasses on, which I hate to wear...partly because it's just not comfortable, and largely because I'm just not a glasses person and feel like a big GOON. I apparently have some sort of ulcer on my eye, typically caused by sleeping in your contacts (which I assure you, I do NOT do). Light is making my eye water something awful, and it's happening on the day that we're expecting six (recently graduated) kindergartners for my daughter's birthday party. Soooo...I'm skipping my Week of Bliss post today. I surely have things to share, but since I just spent a good chunk of the daycare kids' naptime at the doctor's office, I'm ready to just throw in the towel on this day. (It's definitely been one of THOSE days.)

So, I will recharge over the weekend and come back Monday a (hopefully) healthier, happier person. Have a great weekend!

Little Girl Growing Up {Mommy Regrets & Plans For Summer Fun}

Faith celebrated her Kindergarten graduation last night and turned 6 today! Where does the time go? I find myself having to push down more guilt the older she gets. I feel bad that while I was able to stay home with her by doing daycare, I wasn't able to give her a lot of one-on-one time (and was often too tired or busy in the evenings once the other kids left). I feel bad that I let myself get overworked and tired and lose my patience all too often. As she gets older and we all get more busy, I'm not consistent with daily book reading. We have yet to do a family vacation. I could go on and on, twisting myself into knots about all I have failed to do. As mothers we're good at that, aren't we?

Bottom line is that I can't change the past, I can only impact the future. Therefore I need to focus on everything I did RIGHT. I kept her home with me for almost her entire childhood and avoided having to send her to daycare (not that there's anything wrong with daycare...not trying to start a controversy here!). I am sure to set aside days and times just for the two of us, whether it be a "girl's day shopping", a trip to the children's museum, or a picnic at the park. I limit TV and electronic time, and I have a daughter who loves to play outside. Because I focus on nutrition and healthy foods, Faith enjoys treats but also knows that too much sugar is not good and she eats a variety of nutritious foods.

Saying those things out loud to myself doesn't erase any regret, and I think no matter who we are and what kind of mother we are, we all have regrets about where we failed our child(ren). But as moms we have to give ourselves some credit, pat ourselves on the back for doing the best we can at the toughest job in the world, and not dwell on what we should have done differently.

Instead, I'm thinking of following my friend Crystal's lead and creating a summer "bucket list". This can be done for any season or special time of the year. Think of the things you'd like to do with your kids, the experiences you would like them to have, and make a list. As you go through the days and weeks, make sure to plan those activities into the calendar, and I think that even if you accomplish a fraction of them, the end result will be so rewarding.

To get us started, I pinned several examples from Pinterest for inspiration. You can find them all on my "Summer Fun" board here:

LINK

I'm going to sift through the ideas and make a list of my own, and then I'll share it in the next couple weeks!

Voices From the Ville - May Post

Be sure to check out Voices From the Ville, where I am a contributing blogger! Here is my post for May that went live today! It seems I'm becoming their resident DIY girl, and I'm ok with that!!!

DIY Wall Art

I made this probably three years ago, and have thoughts of revamping it sometime soon...but it was such an easy project and I've really loved it, so I thought I'd share with you! I was trying to find ways to tie together the colors of all the open rooms upstairs, as well as add some pattern and texture to the living room. The kitchen/dining room is a slate blue, the living room is a warm yellow, and in between is a sitting room where the daycare toys are kept, and that room is a mossy green. My living room furniture is red microfiber suede.

I wanted an old window, and had the idea to put scrapbook paper behind each glass pane. Paper is cheaper than fabric, I could change it down the road, and there are so many paper designs that I could customize it with whatever colors and patterns I wanted. Finding a window (cheap) was my biggest problem. My mother-in-law saved the day, though! She happened to have a mirror that looked like a window, and the mirror had broken out of it. She never replaced it with anything, and said I could have it. (Score!)

The frame was already black, so I went over it with a cream paint in a crackle finish. I went to a local glass store to get a piece of glass that would fit across the back. I had decided to put vinyl letters to spell "Home" in the center space, and then selected scrapbook papers for the remaining squares. I laid out the paper on the floor to determine which layout looked best (this was harder than you might think, trying to evenly distribute the colors and similar patterns). Once I had that figured out, I taped the papers in place to the glass, then my hubby backed everything with cardboard and secured it.

And there I am in the photo!

I can't remember how much the glass cost me, but the rest of the supplies were around $10, so if you have an actual window you'd be ahead of the game. What a great way, though, to get customized wall art, and a fairly good sized one at that, for not very much money! As my tastes are somewhat changing, and as I'm having a craving for BIG color lately, this may get a makeover soon!

Shabby Chic Table Decorations

Last Friday was my last MOPS meeting, and it was our Tea & Testimony meeting...the final meeting of the MOPS year. This meeting is traditionally more "dressy", and this year I was on the committee to plan it.

I'm always excited to plan a party, so I got busy searching Pinterest for motivation. I found some great DIY table runner ideas, and these photos were my color inspiration:

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Fortunately aqua and coral are the "in" colors this season, so convincing the rest of our committee that these were great choices was as simple as showing them the photos! I shared a few of the table runner ideas, but we settled on the burlap and ribbon one (first photo and this one...):

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When I saw this photo for Easter napkin rings, I thought it would be so easy to make our napkin rings coordinate with the table runner by covering toilet paper tubes in burlap and wrapping with the ribbon (not the bunny, of course):

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Here was our finished table decor:

The runners were simply burlap rolls (rolls came in this width so we only had to cut length) with ribbon glued to them. (Burlap runner from www.save-on-crafts.com.)  I wanted so badly to find the pom pom trim in the inspiration photo but in stores I was only able to locate bright colors or white. I settled on the textured yarn-like turquoise ribbon in addition to a coral satin, a sheer and sparkly gold (for a little glitz!), white lace, and an aqua organza. The variation in widths, colors and textures is what makes this look. We had a fun little crafting party with a few of the committee members to put the decorations together!

To mimic the look on the napkin rings, I cut toilet paper tubes in half and covered again with burlap (this kind comes just a few inches wide and can be found at Wal Mart in the floral section or craft stores), and then four of the five ribbons. They overlapped in some places but I like the look of the lace peeking behind the aqua, and wanted to have some space where you see the burlap.

The tall coral flowers were purchased at Michael's, but my friend, Jess, of Blue Hydrangea Furniture, had the hydrangeas and the Mason jars that we used for the shorter vases. The taller vases were borrowed, and again we covered those in burlap and ribbon (I found the colored burlap in rolls at Michael's). Jess made the adorable place cards to identify each table group by painting small frames and making chevron paper inserts. 

Food table

To add some simple color and decoration to the food table, I made a pennant banner with coordinating scrapbook paper and clothespins. 

These cupcake stands I have used several times. I initially put them together for our wedding, but have used for our daughter's birthday parties and other events where I need cute cupcake stands. To make them, I simply got a 3-pack of chunky candlesticks from Wal Mart (these are Better Homes and Gardens brand and cost $10), then glued dollar store plates on top. (They don't travel well so I'm constantly re-gluing the plates on, so if you do this you may want to use a tacky putty instead or take glue along with you.) 

Cupcakes & cookies courtesy of Cupcake Cupcakes and Parker's Custom Cookies

Add a little blue glass table scatter, and you have just a tad more sparkle! I have these in my party decor stash and have also used these several times. 

It all came together so beautifully, and since our guest of honor (my friend, Crystal) is very fond of burlap (and happened to match the decor that day!), it all turned out perfectly!

Crystal E (my friend)

Giveaway Winner!!!

Congrats to Jess Talkington for winning our Thirty-One and Mary Kay 10,000 Page Views Drawing!!!